Everyday Object Post #2

How did you respond to challenges that occurred as you worked?

The challenges that occurred in my work were finding out how to make the strings! I mean, making a straight line with oil paint over and over again was a little tricky. Mrs. Rossi really helped me out with figuring out how to make a straight line that had a realistic vanishing point. I felt silly for freaking out as much as I did before she helped me, I was like, “where do I start??” and she helped me discover a good vanishing point for the frets and the strings. 

When did you step back and analyze you work during this project? 

I stepped back and analyzed my work during this project every day. When I tried to make all the straight lines on the ukulele’s front and the strings I had to back up a lot. Up close, I ran into problems because I wasn’t looking at it from far away. The struggles with being too close to my painting was that I couldn’t really see what needed to be seen from 10 feet away, like straight lines that made the ukulele jump off the canvas.

Did you pick a material or technique that was new or different over something that was familiar?

So I am always painting with acrylic, I have only done two paintings ever with oil, one in 2007 and the other last year. I think that this material pushed me as an artist to learn new things. I really enjoyed using oil paints, I feel very accomplished with this painting and I really like how it turned out. Overall, I might convert to oils because acrylics are great for layering over another layer but oil allows you to softly blend and create cool things on your canvas that you couldn’t with acrylic.