Exam Questions:
1. Which project was our most successful? Describe the theme and or topic and the process you went through to complete the project.
-I feel that my most successful project was the close-up drawing of the jingle bells. I was most satisfied with this project particularly because I learned new techniques with using prisma colored pencils, and I also enjoyed drawing something that I've never thought of before. I wanted to make the jingle bells look very realistic in terms of the shape, color, and orientation. Therefore I mainly focused on the shadings and highlights of the drawing, as well as the different contrasting colors. The use of prisma colored pencils was probably the best idea for this project because it made it look more attractive with the dark,black background I chose. One important thing I learned while using prisma colors was how to properly blend the colors from one shade to the next. For example, in all the colors of the bell, I first started with the dark shade of the color at the bottom and sides, and gradually blended that into the next lighter shade, eventually reaching the highlights in the center of the bells. This technique was the most helpful in making it look realistic with the shape, so that the bells didn't just look flat. Along with the techniques, I was also glad that the shape/sketch of the bells itself were realistic looking. I was at first worried if I could make bells, a 3-D object, look real enough so that people can tell what they actually are; however, using my own reference, which was a picture I'd taken of my bells at home, helped me to recognize the actual shape and position of the bells. I figured that if I keep the bells in random positions facing different directions then it will give more variety to the piece, instead of setting them up in a systematic look, which could even make it look very boring. So I tried to play around with the sizes, directions, colors, techniques, and shape of each bell, which I feel was done successfully.
2. Discuss one project where you felt you were the least successful. What would you do differently?
- I personally I was the least successful in the clay food project. I feel that since I was so much focused on the project above, I wasn't able to do my best for the clay project. Things I needed to improve on were the technique for molding the cup, painting the muffins/cup correctly, and the overall shape of both pieces. The hardest thing for me was actually making the cup. I particularly had difficulty in making the sides rounded and smooth since my fingerprints would keep pushing on the sides making the sides look uneven. Even the saucer for that matter was not at all what I hoped for. I wanted it to look more like a plate, however I was confused on how to make the plate have a curved end to it like how they normally are, and not just a flat piece of clay. With the muffins I had difficulty mostly with painting it. I definitely feel that I used the wrong color for the muffins, because it didn't give the overall "bread" color that I was aiming for in the beginning. I used the burnt sienna paint which obviously was too dark. So instead of making the whole muffin brown, I added in light shades of brown, which I did by mixing white with it, and I also then added some yellow to show how the inside of the bread would look compared to the outside. With the blueberries, I was happy that at least the shape of the blueberries came out nice, and that the top part of it where it's a little open came out quite realistic looking. However, again I think I was not able to paint it the right way. I think I made the mistake of adding too much purple and not enough blue, which also affect the highlighted portion on the side of the blueberry. I was hoping that the highlight would be more white than just a light shaded purple, but at the time I think was aiming to paint the blueberry from the darkest shade to the lightest, and therefore forgot to leave some space for just the highlight. For the painting the cup, I needed to improve on painting the shade of the cup onto the saucer and also within the handle. I thought by adding more black would give it the "shade" look, however I don't feel it was nicely transitioned from the royal blue to the dark black. I could've definitely used a lighter color, like a navy blue, to paint the shade. For the saucer I could have used a better color than red because many times when I was painting the blue would come onto the saucer, and when I would paint red over it, it took forever to paint over the darker color. So overall, I feel I could've definitely improved on molding the cup, and also painting both pieces with the correct shadings and highlights.
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 areas.
- The first piece I think I definitely grew as an artist was the value project, where I drew my rings. This project was also one of my favorites because it was the first time I actually drew something with nothing but complete value. Applying the materials of just a pencil and paper was I think what made this project show my growth from someone who would just draw random designs with a pencil to someone who drew an actual drawing of objects in full value. I enjoyed the fact that I drew something that was not something that everybody would think of. The concept of this project was to draw something in value that had repetition of a certain object. When I first started to think about different ideas, they were very similar to what others were thinking, so I finally chose to do something very close to me which were my rings. I have 3 rings, so I positioned them to be from largest to smallest with the 2nd ring to be resting on the first biggest ring. Then once I started to draw I had major difficulties in particularly drawing my birthstone ring, which has very fine details on the inside and outside of the amethyst stone. So the technique I used to draw each ring was nothing but using my reference. However for the value, I used techniques like shading, highlights, darkening the corners, shadows, leaving the rim of the drawer to be highlighted. I think other than shading for the rings itself, I was even more satisfied with the shadows; because that's what made the rings looked stacked on top of each other. Blending my pencil, using the hard, soft, light, and dark ranged pencils, I drew each ring with the same process. Which was first sketching the ring with the hard pencil, then drawing the outlines of the rings to be much darker, and finally gradually going from the darkest shade to the lightest, eventually reaching the main highlight.
-The second piece I've shown growth in was the acrylic painting. For this project I painted a sunset scene with basic acrylic paints such as oranges, reds, purples, pinks, yellows, whites, and blacks. Before this project, I had never painted on a canvas with acrylic paint, before it was on a piece of construction paper in Art 1. So I also got the experience of something new, which makes me feel that for something that I'd never done before, I did a good job handling it. The techniques associated with acrylic paint was using primary colors: red, blue, yellow; and then for tints and shades-white and black. I learned how to blend different colors to make the "sunset-type" oranges, reds, and yellows. The part that I see my most improvement was definitely the choice of colors. I like how I used the same orange, and some black, for the water as well, this way making the water look like it's reflecting the sky. If I was not aware of how to make a painting look realistic, then I would have probably chosen the wrong colors for the water, like the color blue; which would be the wrong match for this painting. I also improved on making it look proportional. I think I did a good job in making the mountain in the background look smaller and farther in the distance compared to the lighthouse which was up close. However the biggest things I learned as an artist for this project were the basic rules with using acrylic paint. Such as not washing liquid paint down the drain, wiping your brushes before washing them, letting the paint to dry on the pallet so you can peel it off, using different size brushes for different uses, and also doing the burnt sienna wash before you actually start the painting. This helped in deciding which areas were going to be more dark and which areas were going to be light.
4. Choose 2 mini lessons that you felt were the most beneficial in your learning for that particular project.
-1 lesson which was important for me was definitely one of the first things we learned and that was how to do proper value. I learned how to use the different ranged pencils, and where to use them in a drawing. For example, you always start off with the darkest value at the bottom or in the corners of your drawing, and then softly transition that shade to lighter shades with the technique of blending and smoothing it out with a blending pencil not your finger. I also learned in this lesson that you should always start light when you are doing your sketch; which was something I didn't follow before and that would cause problems for me because I had to keep erasing dark lines. So sketching the objects with a light outline without any major details helps in giving the overall shape of what you're trying to draw. Then once your finalized with the sketch, you go back and focus on darkening the outlines and properly shading up till you reach the highlight. In terms of highlights and shadows, I learned that they need to correspond with each other. For example, if your light source is on the right side of the object, then the shadow will cast on the left side. We learned this during the lesson where we drew spheres, cones, and cubes in our sketchbook.
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-Another important lesson for me was how to use prisma colors; which we practiced with drawing the Dum-Dums. I eventually used this technique in a project that I've mentioned before which was the up close of the bells. I had previously never used prisma colors, and I didn't know that they were more helpful and more attractive to use compared to Crayola colored pencils. The main thing I learned with prisma colors was how to smoothly blend the colors, because unlike Crayola pencils, you don't need to press so hard to make the color show. When I finished my bells project, a lot of my friends would ask me if I had used oil pastel! This shows how nicely it blends and therefore gives a much realistic look to your piece. I also feel that with prisma colors, you have a lot more variety in each kind of color. Like for the greens or purples or reds, you'll find a diverse range of colors in each category. This helped when I would use different colors for the bells project, giving a contrast of the darkest and lightest shades of any specific color.
5. What medium was your favorite to work with? Explain.
- I think my favorite medium to work with was actually the acrylic paint. I myself do paintings at home with acrylic paint, and I'm looking forward to using oil paints in the future. But I personally love using paint because I think it's amazing how you can make so many colors with just 3 primary colors, and white and black for tints and shades. I enjoyed doing this project on a canvas because it obviously makes it much easier for the brushes to nicely smooth out the colors without it getting too dry too soon. And I also liked using realistic yet random colors for the sky, like the purples and pinks; and then adding in that bright yellow right behind the mountain to give it a glowing effect from the sun shining right behind it. I mainly started to like acrylic paint post this project, which inspired me to do some paintings at home during my free time. Also with paint you are exposed to many different kinds of brushes, rules, techniques, colors, etc. This makes me feel that with using different materials in various ways, each painting can turn out completely different, and I like to see how different rules/techniques can really change a boring painting to a realistic one. Another thing with paint is that you are free to make and choose whatever color; with other mediums you're given limited options for what color you can use. For example, if I want my light green to be just slightly lighter, then I can just add in more white. If I want a slightly darker shade, I just add in a little black. Unlike with colored pencils, you're given a box filled with colors and maybe just few ranges for a green or a purple, etc. So I mainly enjoy acrylic paint because of it's techniques and choices you have associated with the various colors.
1. Which project was our most successful? Describe the theme and or topic and the process you went through to complete the project.
-I feel that my most successful project was the close-up drawing of the jingle bells. I was most satisfied with this project particularly because I learned new techniques with using prisma colored pencils, and I also enjoyed drawing something that I've never thought of before. I wanted to make the jingle bells look very realistic in terms of the shape, color, and orientation. Therefore I mainly focused on the shadings and highlights of the drawing, as well as the different contrasting colors. The use of prisma colored pencils was probably the best idea for this project because it made it look more attractive with the dark,black background I chose. One important thing I learned while using prisma colors was how to properly blend the colors from one shade to the next. For example, in all the colors of the bell, I first started with the dark shade of the color at the bottom and sides, and gradually blended that into the next lighter shade, eventually reaching the highlights in the center of the bells. This technique was the most helpful in making it look realistic with the shape, so that the bells didn't just look flat. Along with the techniques, I was also glad that the shape/sketch of the bells itself were realistic looking. I was at first worried if I could make bells, a 3-D object, look real enough so that people can tell what they actually are; however, using my own reference, which was a picture I'd taken of my bells at home, helped me to recognize the actual shape and position of the bells. I figured that if I keep the bells in random positions facing different directions then it will give more variety to the piece, instead of setting them up in a systematic look, which could even make it look very boring. So I tried to play around with the sizes, directions, colors, techniques, and shape of each bell, which I feel was done successfully.2. Discuss one project where you felt you were the least successful. What would you do differently?
- I personally I was the least successful in the clay food project. I feel that since I was so much focused on the project above, I wasn't able to do my best for the clay project. Things I needed to improve on were the technique for molding the cup, painting the muffins/cup correctly, and the overall shape of both pieces. The hardest thing for me was actually making the cup. I particularly had difficulty in making the sides rounded and smooth since my fingerprints would keep pushing on the sides making the sides look uneven. Even the saucer for that matter was not at all what I hoped for. I wanted it to look more like a plate, however I was confused on how to make the plate have a curved end to it like how they normally are, and not just a flat piece of clay. With the muffins I had difficulty mostly with painting it. I definitely feel that I used the wrong color for the muffins, because it didn't give the overall "bread" color that I was aiming for in the beginning. I used the burnt sienna paint which obviously was too dark. So instead of making the whole muffin brown, I added in light shades of brown, which I did by mixing white with it, and I also then added some yellow to show how the inside of the bread would look compared to the outside. With the blueberries, I was happy that at least the shape of the blueberries came out nice, and that the top part of it where it's a little open came out quite realistic looking. However, again I think I was not able to paint it the right way. I think I made the mistake of adding too much purple and not enough blue, which also affect the highlighted portion on the side of the blueberry. I was hoping that the highlight would be more white than just a light shaded purple, but at the time I think was aiming to paint the blueberry from the darkest shade to the lightest, and therefore forgot to leave some space for just the highlight. For the painting the cup, I needed to improve on painting the shade of the cup onto the saucer and also within the handle. I thought by adding more black would give it the "shade" look, however I don't feel it was nicely transitioned from the royal blue to the dark black. I could've definitely used a lighter color, like a navy blue, to paint the shade. For the saucer I could have used a better color than red because many times when I was painting the blue would come onto the saucer, and when I would paint red over it, it took forever to paint over the darker color. So overall, I feel I could've definitely improved on molding the cup, and also painting both pieces with the correct shadings and highlights.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 areas.
- The first piece I think I definitely grew as an artist was the value project, where I drew my rings. This project was also one of my favorites because it was the first time I actually drew something with nothing but complete value. Applying the materials of just a pencil and paper was I think what made this project show my growth from someone who would just draw random designs with a pencil to someone who drew an actual drawing of objects in full value. I enjoyed the fact that I drew something that was not something that everybody would think of. The concept of this project was to draw something in value that had repetition of a certain object. When I first started to think about different ideas, they were very similar to what others were thinking, so I finally chose to do something very close to me which were my rings. I have 3 rings, so I positioned them to be from largest to smallest with the 2nd ring to be resting on the first biggest ring. Then once I started to draw I had major difficulties in particularly drawing my birthstone ring, which has very fine details on the inside and outside of the amethyst stone. So the technique I used to draw each ring was nothing but using my reference. However for the value, I used techniques like shading, highlights, darkening the corners, shadows, leaving the rim of the drawer to be highlighted. I think other than shading for the rings itself, I was even more satisfied with the shadows; because that's what made the rings looked stacked on top of each other. Blending my pencil, using the hard, soft, light, and dark ranged pencils, I drew each ring with the same process. Which was first sketching the ring with the hard pencil, then drawing the outlines of the rings to be much darker, and finally gradually going from the darkest shade to the lightest, eventually reaching the main highlight. 
-The second piece I've shown growth in was the acrylic painting. For this project I painted a sunset scene with basic acrylic paints such as oranges, reds, purples, pinks, yellows, whites, and blacks. Before this project, I had never painted on a canvas with acrylic paint, before it was on a piece of construction paper in Art 1. So I also got the experience of something new, which makes me feel that for something that I'd never done before, I did a good job handling it. The techniques associated with acrylic paint was using primary colors: red, blue, yellow; and then for tints and shades-white and black. I learned how to blend different colors to make the "sunset-type" oranges, reds, and yellows. The part that I see my most improvement was definitely the choice of colors. I like how I used the same orange, and some black, for the water as well, this way making the water look like it's reflecting the sky. If I was not aware of how to make a painting look realistic, then I would have probably chosen the wrong colors for the water, like the color blue; which would be the wrong match for this painting. I also improved on making it look proportional. I think I did a good job in making the mountain in the background look smaller and farther in the distance compared to the lighthouse which was up close. However the biggest things I learned as an artist for this project were the basic rules with using acrylic paint. Such as not washing liquid paint down the drain, wiping your brushes before washing them, letting the paint to dry on the pallet so you can peel it off, using different size brushes for different uses, and also doing the burnt sienna wash before you actually start the painting. This helped in deciding which areas were going to be more dark and which areas were going to be light.4. Choose 2 mini lessons that you felt were the most beneficial in your learning for that particular project.
-1 lesson which was important for me was definitely one of the first things we learned and that was how to do proper value. I learned how to use the different ranged pencils, and where to use them in a drawing. For example, you always start off with the darkest value at the bottom or in the corners of your drawing, and then softly transition that shade to lighter shades with the technique of blending and smoothing it out with a blending pencil not your finger. I also learned in this lesson that you should always start light when you are doing your sketch; which was something I didn't follow before and that would cause problems for me because I had to keep erasing dark lines. So sketching the objects with a light outline without any major details helps in giving the overall shape of what you're trying to draw. Then once your finalized with the sketch, you go back and focus on darkening the outlines and properly shading up till you reach the highlight. In terms of highlights and shadows, I learned that they need to correspond with each other. For example, if your light source is on the right side of the object, then the shadow will cast on the left side. We learned this during the lesson where we drew spheres, cones, and cubes in our sketchbook..jpg)
-Another important lesson for me was how to use prisma colors; which we practiced with drawing the Dum-Dums. I eventually used this technique in a project that I've mentioned before which was the up close of the bells. I had previously never used prisma colors, and I didn't know that they were more helpful and more attractive to use compared to Crayola colored pencils. The main thing I learned with prisma colors was how to smoothly blend the colors, because unlike Crayola pencils, you don't need to press so hard to make the color show. When I finished my bells project, a lot of my friends would ask me if I had used oil pastel! This shows how nicely it blends and therefore gives a much realistic look to your piece. I also feel that with prisma colors, you have a lot more variety in each kind of color. Like for the greens or purples or reds, you'll find a diverse range of colors in each category. This helped when I would use different colors for the bells project, giving a contrast of the darkest and lightest shades of any specific color.5. What medium was your favorite to work with? Explain.
- I think my favorite medium to work with was actually the acrylic paint. I myself do paintings at home with acrylic paint, and I'm looking forward to using oil paints in the future. But I personally love using paint because I think it's amazing how you can make so many colors with just 3 primary colors, and white and black for tints and shades. I enjoyed doing this project on a canvas because it obviously makes it much easier for the brushes to nicely smooth out the colors without it getting too dry too soon. And I also liked using realistic yet random colors for the sky, like the purples and pinks; and then adding in that bright yellow right behind the mountain to give it a glowing effect from the sun shining right behind it. I mainly started to like acrylic paint post this project, which inspired me to do some paintings at home during my free time. Also with paint you are exposed to many different kinds of brushes, rules, techniques, colors, etc. This makes me feel that with using different materials in various ways, each painting can turn out completely different, and I like to see how different rules/techniques can really change a boring painting to a realistic one. Another thing with paint is that you are free to make and choose whatever color; with other mediums you're given limited options for what color you can use. For example, if I want my light green to be just slightly lighter, then I can just add in more white. If I want a slightly darker shade, I just add in a little black. Unlike with colored pencils, you're given a box filled with colors and maybe just few ranges for a green or a purple, etc. So I mainly enjoy acrylic paint because of it's techniques and choices you have associated with the various colors.
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