Art 2 Final Portfolio

1.      Which project was your most successful? Describe the theme and or topic and the process you went through to complete the project. Were the choices you made regarding material, size, technique, etc beneficial to enhancing this project. Please explain.

   My most successful art project was my fish story. The theme of this project was “Questionable,” and the reason why I picked a fish to fulfill the theme was because every time you tell the story it gets bigger and bigger, and that is questionable! The choices I made regarding the material had to do with the idea of catching a fish and each time the story was told the size of the fish increases. During the creation of the project I was considering putting titles on the books like, “The One That Got Away” or something fishy like that. The Size of the books created a challenge because I wanted the books to crescendo then to diminuendo so that the basic size of the fish could match the size of the books. I used a lot of different materials in this project that I had never used before like books and plaster. In art one half of the classes did a hand plastering project but my class did not, so I had never plastered a hand before. Soon after starting this project I realized that I had never done anything like this, so three of my classmates had to help me out when it came to plastering my hand, especially when my hand got stuck! The main reason why I feel that this project was the most successful was because I enjoyed painting the fish and plastering the hands, and it turned out the best compared to my other projects this year.  

2.    Discuss one project where you felt you overcame the most obstacles. What were those obstacles and how to work through them? Explain how taking risks or challenging yourself made you a better artist.

   The project that I felt I overcame the most obstacles this semester would have to also be my fish because of all the challenges I faced in the creation process. One on the largest obstacle I faced with the fish was how to draw the fish onto the book and still have the whole body proportionate. Mr. Sands helped me out a lot with this part; to start out with I drew the fish on sheet of paper. Next I flipped the paper over and drew the fish again through the other side. After that I flipped the paper back to the original side to ‘trace’ it onto the book.  Sorry if that process was confusing but I didn’t know how else to describe it! Anyway, once the fish was traced onto the book I could then begin to paint. If I had not ‘traced’ my drawling of the fish onto the book it most likely would have been a disproportionate fish, and I would have messed up pretty bad on that project. By working through this obstacle I successfully accomplished this art project.  

3.    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, use of the principles and elements, creativity, intuition and subject matter. 

   The two pieces of work that show my growth as an artist would have to be the “What’s the Point” and “Sticky situation”. What’s the Point we were supposed to use only black and white so I used a black pen and white paper. When I was getting ideas I first started with the idea of a snapping turtle with a pointy mouth tip but soon I decided a quill would work better for me. When I started out drawling it there was hardly any small detail and I was scared to add too much, but Mr. Sands and Mrs. Rossi helped me figure out how and where to add more ink in order for the quill to more jump off the page. I used techniques that I had never used before like cross hatching, dotting and shading by making straight lines instead of just filling in the white spots.

   For the Sticky situation project, I had no idea what I was going to do at first.  After school I did some searches for sticky situations and my dad found satanic leaf geckos. Once I got to school my table and I decided to just call them leaf lizards cause satanic leaf geckos is kind of a mouth full. I have never painted a reptile in art class, so it was a whole new experience for me.  In art one, I almost made a lizard my subject matter for a project but switched to an owl at the last minute. Soon realizing how difficult it was to paint a gecko, I faced a lot of changes creating a realist lizard. Another way I grew as an artist was by creating a consistent color scheme, because after every lizard I would paint I would run out of the original brown color. That was a huge problem at first but in the end I had to just roll with it because there was no way for me to create the exact brown I just made. Mainly because I would get distracted and not pay attention to what colors and how much of a color I was using to make the brown!

4.    This semester we introduced a new way of teaching and learning. Students had choices in subject matter and materials. Explain your thoughts on how effective this was (or if it was not) to your learning experience in this course. Provide examples through your art projects so we can see evidence of your learning.

   I had a lot of fun this semester and have been able to use so many different types of materials. At home doing art I would have never been able to get my hands on so many different things. Most of the projects I have done this year like the portrait project for example; I used pens, iPads, water color, Photoshop, a photocopier and color pencils… I got a little out of hand I admit but I learned so much! Having enjoyed this semester, I wish I could have had some more teaching of how to use the material and different skills that I could use in the future. I learned a lot of little things like how to use Photoshop but it was more of the basics. I really hope for art three that we as a class can learn more skills like how to paint or how to mix water colors and give texture to clay sculptures. This year of art was an amazing learning experience. I really enjoyed the feel good Fridays at the end of each project. The whole class received constructive feedback on our work from each other…and I had the chance to practice baking pumpkin scones :)