1) How do you describe your artistic style/perspective? How do you define success as an artist? What do you find most rewarding about being an artist? What are some of the most important skills you draw upon to create your work? What are some of the most significant things you've learned through art-making? DON'T FORGET TO ADD PHOTOS
I would describe my artistic style and perspective as a very realistic view of the world. This is because I have taught myself as I became more experienced in drawing that in order to make a piece look as lifelike as possible, I have to ignore my perfectionist instincts that make me want to perfect the imperfections and accept the things that appear imperfect or strange. The first example of this technique of trying to capture every detail, no matter how small and hard to notice it is, is the colored pencil strawberry drawing to the left. This drawing shows my effort to capture every detail and every tiny change in color shade. This is because as I created this piece I made sure to start by drawing the white highlights and as I added color to the rest of the strawberry, I used a variety of reds, pinks, oranges and purples to capture every shade and make the strawberry as realistic as possible. The second drawing to the left, the A.C. Moore bears, also shows my effort to include every imperfection and strange appearance from the photo in my drawing. This is demonstrated in part by the reflections of the bears in the whiteboard because the reflections seem really weird and unrealistic when you start to draw them but when I followed the reflections from the photo and the drawing was complete, the reflections that had seemed strange make the drawing that much more realistic in appearance. As an artist, I would define success as putting your full soul and effort into making your vision in your mind a reality in your pieces. Success is a relative term because while I might have people admire a piece, I myself can still see the things that it may be missing from my original idea that others cannot see. I consider any other artist successful if they were able to express their own vision of the world around them through their artwork and the creation of that artwork made them feel good about themselves. What I find most rewarding about being an artist is the feeling that the time and effort I put into a piece was worth the effort when the piece comes out as I had imagined it would. Some important skills that I draw upon to create my work includes my ability to take notice of every little detail in a photo, my control over pressure I apply with my hand to the tool I am using for the piece, and my patience when it comes to taking a long time to achieve the vision I have for my pieces. One significant thing that I have learned through art-making is that sometimes flaws and imperfections are what makes things in life so much more beautiful. 2) Look at your body of work over the semester and choose 2 pieces that show your growth as an artist. Discuss each piece and how you grew in the following areas: application of materials, techniques and skills, artistic vision,accept use of the principles and elements, creativity, intuition and subject matter. DON'T FORGET TO ADD PHOTOS Two pieces that shows my growth as an artist from the body of my work over the semester is the pen and ink iguana and the strawberry shortcake clay food sculpture shown in the images to the left. The pen and ink iguana drawing shows how I grew as an artist primarily because I tend to want my pieces to be as realistic as possible so creating this piece using patterns that made it somewhat abstract was very difficult for me and out of my comfort zone. I had to use a different kind of creativity in order to create patterns that were abstract but still followed the general form of the iguana's body and shows the texture and shadows present. The second piece that shows my growth as an artist is the clay strawberry shortcake. This piece primarily shows my growth because I haven't done many clay pieces in my life and when I was younger I had a really hard time sculpting the clay to look realistic from all sides and making the clay smooth. However, when I created this piece, I was finally able to come out with a final product that was smooth and realistic from all angles. This project allowed me to experiment with the clay to create realistic textures and dimensions. My technique greatly improved because I was able to put the time in to sit and experiment with the best methods to create the vision I had in my mind from the start. 3) Reflect on what your portfolio (all work you created through semester) may not reveal about the semester. Do you think the work in your portfolio is an accurate reflection of your development in the class? How and why? DON'T FORGET TO ADD PHOTOS What my portfolio may not reveal about the semester is the difficulty I have had completing all my pieces with the semester time constraints. This is because, as a perfectionist, I tend to work extremely slowly when creating my projects. This can be demonstrated by the incomplete candy prisma colored pencil drawing in the column to the left. For the most part, I still think that my portfolio is an accurate reflection of my development in the class because despite feeling rushed at some points, I still put my full effort into every portion of my art, so despite the candy drawing being incomplete, the jolly rancher and the highlights for the other candies demonstrates the realistic piece that I am creating slowly and accurately. Even though much of the piece is not done, what I have still shows my devotion to my artwork and my growth as an artist. 6) What medium was your favorite to work with? Explain why and how you were able to master the techniques associated with this medium. DON'T FORGET TO ADD PHOTOS As demonstrated by the many prisma colored drawings I have done, my favorite medium to work with is prisma colored pencils. The strawberry drawing, the A.C. Moore bears drawing, and the candy drawing all demonstrate my work in prisma colored pencils this year. Through the creation of these three pieces, I have been able to master man techniques associated with the medium. One technique that I have been able to master is highlights in drawings. I have become accustomed to drawing in all the white highlights into my prisma colored drawings before I add any other color. This allows me to not miss any necessary highlights and lighter colors. Another skill that practicing colored pencil drawings has allowed me to develop is a keen eye for blending pencils to create the colors that I need to draw what is in my reference photo. Through all my practice, I have spent much of my time experimenting with different colored pencils to create different shades and values. |