Landscape
For this project, I painted a landscape with oil paints on a canvas. This picture was taken by my friend who went on vacation to Alaska. I began with the sky and the water and then did the mountains. I had to keep switching what I was working on each day because I had to wait for the paint to dry in certain places, which was a little frustrating. The hardest part about working with oil paints is waiting for the paint to dry and being patient. It was also hard to do the trees because I didn't have a small enough brush to make the branches thinner. I really liked how the mountains turned out and I tried to incorporate gray to add depth to them. I also like how the bushes look at the bottom. I used dark green and brown to make the darker parts of the bush and then used green and white to add the highlights and front leaves. Overall, I enjoyed working with oil paints and had fun with this project.
Oil painting practice
Self portrait
This self-portrait was done on a canvas with acrylic paint. We were required to paint ourselves and incorporate either expression, an interesting color scheme, different positioning, motion, or emotion. I decided to go with a blue color scheme while also incorporating some warm colors in order to create a complimentary scheme. I did this by painting my skin, features, and hair blue first and then going back in and adding warm colors. The hardest part about this process was painting my right eye. It has a big shadow over it so it was hard to make it duller than the left. My favorite part about this piece is the background and the hair. The spirals and the waviness of the hair create a playful and expressive portrayal of myself that really pulls the portrait together. I like acrylic paint, however sometimes it's frustrating because if you make a mistake you can't fix it since the paint dries so fast-- you'd have to just completely redo it. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and am super proud of the outcome.
colored facial features practice
reflection project
Concept: Students will create a drawing that utilizes reflections showing representational imagery about themselves or something they feel strongly about.
For this project, we were required to use colored pencils to create a drawing that utilizes reflection and represents our identity. I gathered a few objects in my room and placed them together on my nightstand. I feel this represents who I am because it shows that I listen to music, wear jewelry, believe in God, and enjoy fall candles and succulents. I also lit the candle to add a warm glow to the drawing. My favorite part about my final piece is the AirPods and the candle lid. I love how realistic they turned out and how nice the texture is. I also love that when you look at this piece, there's a warm and calming feeling that is being conveyed because of my use of soft oranges and pinks. The most difficult aspect of this drawing was capturing the texture of the wood. In my reference picture, the wood is fake and smooth, so it was hard to draw that without it looking really rough and textured. The candle glass was also difficult because I messed up on the highlights and the opacity-- once I drew it I couldn't really go back and fix it. Overall, I grew my skills using highlights and shadows with prismacolors in order to create reflection and depth. I also practiced layering colors and applying the right amount of pressure so that the colors would be bold and vibrant. Although I get bored easily when working on backgrounds or large surface areas, I enjoy working with colored pencils.