Required Question
I feel like the hardest project for me was the pet portrait mainly because I've never actually had experience with painting before taking this class so every piece we did and every technique we practiced was new to me. So to take all those techniques and turning them it into portrait of an animal is really challenging but I feel like I managed really well and made it work. When I first started the painting I though it was going to be pretty easy since when we practiced painting fur I didn't find it to be that hard and I already had in mind the different colors I wanted to incorporate into the fur. Once I started, I realized it wasn't as simple as I imagined it to be and I couldn't get the right shade of brown I wanted and one time I actually did but once I used it up I wasn't able to make it again. I had trouble creating highlights to the fur where the light would hit and I had trouble transitioning from the area of dark fur to where there was fur that was almost white. In the end I'm glad I chose to do my sister's dog than the bird I had originally wanted to do because I was able to challenge myself more and learn.
Question 3
I feel the painting least successful of the summer would be the Hunderwasser project one. I personally didn't really like the final product I feel like at the end the pink, white, and purple dots where too much and they ended up getting lost within the blue back ground. By the end of this project I was so tired of it because of all the dots and layers that it just frustrated me and I didn't go over another coat of pain for the little bushes in the gray area and I feel like that could of done a bit more of a difference to the final outcome. If I could change something I would change the swirls in the buses from red to a dark pink to to keep repeating the pink because that's the only place I added red.I would also try to change the colors of the dots of the background or change the blue to another color or to a lighter shade because I feel like everything just gets lost within itself. In the end,
Question 4
Throughout this class I feel like I've improved by by being able to create more depth throughout my paintings and learning how to create values by not only using black and white. I haven't gotten to exactly where I want to be with my painting and creating depth but I do feel like its improved from the first project to one of the final ones. While in the paintings above two different mediums are being used which are watercolor and oil, I can tell that there is a difference and improvement. In the first picture I only stood by using black to create shadows throughout meanwhile in one of my most recent project I gradually stopped using just black for shadows but tried using some dark purples and reds. As for depth, in the the older picture for the pieces of fruit that were further away I didn't really darken them or try and make them look smaller as in my most recent I made the house in the back small.
Question 5
Two mini lessons that I believe were beneficial were the palette knife practice painting and the watercolor practice. The water color was beneficial because it helped me when I did my final project and I learned to use a white crayon to places where there were light so I wouldn't accidently add paint there. This mini lesson also help me practice with layering paint and not using too much water or else it would smear. The palette knife helped me the most because it started making me more comfortable with just using the palette knife which benefited me in future projects. I feel like I could of had more practice with the palette knife and blending and making clean transitions when just working with it.
Question 7
After being able to use different mediums throughout the course of this class, I'd have to say my favorite medium is oil paint. I found it to be pretty easy to work with. At first I didn't like it much and found it to be hard since the paint didn't dry up fast so when making a mistake I would have to wait until it was dry before adding more paint over it so it wouldn't become muddy. I like how it didn't dry up too fast so when I would come in the next day I could continue blending. With using oil paint I was able to become comfortable with working with the palette knife which became beneficial when painting the larger portions because it made the process go by faster.