Final Project

Final Project:

1. The project I chose to complete was a project I came up with myself, which was recreating some of my old family photos. I wanted to do this project because, all of my family and siblings typically return home this time of year and I was looking for an artistic way to express those nostalgic feelings.

2. To make this piece, I looked through many old family photo albums and picked out some of my favorite photos to recreate. Then, I gathered my family members and studied each photo, staging and recreated each one as closely as I could to the original.

3. One problem I overcame during this project was the difficulty of getting my family members available (and willing to participate) at the same time, which I overcame by explaining my plans in detail to them and convincing them to participate, as well as finding ways to work around their schedules.

4. What I think is most successful about this piece are the concepts and overall re-staging of the photos and how nearly accurate some of them were. One thing I wish I could change would be that the lighting and some of the settings were not exactly the same in the recreations as in the originals.

Final Exam

Final Exam

Part One:

1. Critiquing: 

1. Step One: Analyze the artwork in terms of literal content and artistic elements.
2. Step Two: Describe how the work is organized as a complete composition.
3. Step Three: Interpret the work in terms of emotional content or allegorical symbols.
4. Step Four: Judgment; is the piece successful?

2. Before:

3. Critique:

This piece is a still-life portrait I created to represent my sister. I used several different colors of both warm and cool colored acrylic paint to add value and create a contrast between my sister's widely varying interests. By using different brush techniques, I was able to create details such as the yarn fur on the crocheted owl and the faded, worn covers of some of the older records. I organized the work by placing all of the items at the center of the canvas, making them the focal point of the piece, and arranging them in a way to place emphasis on each individual item. I chose to keep the background a plain, neutral blue to give a calming effect and to not draw attention away from the main concepts of the piece. Each part of this piece represents something about my sister's personality, hobbies, and interests. For example, the records and mixtape represent her love of music and her interest in creating it, as well as her personality, which is shown through the wide variety of genres she listens to. In addition, I included a ball of yarn, a crochet hook, and a crocheted owl that she made to show her passion for crocheting and her love of animals, particularly owls, which are one of her favorites. And finally, I also included a piece of her art, which she uses to express many of these interests and talents, as well as her own individual personality. These things all have significant meaning to me because added all together, they make up my sister and each one of these individual elements represents an important piece of her identity. I think this piece is successful because I feel it clearly and accurately conveys the contrasting yet harmonious message I was striving to convey of my sister. In addition, I believe it is successful because the techniques and processes I used each helped to create the texture and physical appearance I was going for overall.

Pick Three Questions:

9. Throughout the semester, I very much enjoyed completing the Illustration Friday projects and felt that they very much helped me improve my artistic skills. For example, my Illustration Friday for the word "Wood" helped me improve my sculpture skills by allowing me to practice structuring pieces and using the hot glue gun. This and many of the other Illustration Friday projects allowed me to practice and improve certain skills outside of my main pieces and in addition gave me a space to express new ideas.

10. One project I feel I learned a lot from was the first portrait project. This was one of my favorite projects because I learned a lot about different brush techniques, mixing shades and tints of different colors, and creating fine details. I feel this project helped me improve my painting skills greatly and overall improved my artistic capabilities. I now feel more confident with using paints and painting or drawing small details.

18. My favorite medium to work with that I used this year was watercolor. Although I didn't like watercolor at first, I grew to like it the more I used it and appreciated what I could do with it. I like watercolor because it offers a wide range of colors and ways to mix, blend, and texture them. In addition, it is smooth and relaxing to paint with, and creates a relaxed feeling in the piece. One medium I never used but wish I had explored was weaving with yarn or with thread, because I saw some others working with it and it looked very challenging and interesting.