Art 2 Final Portfolio

Most Successful Project

     My most successful project was the non-traditional portrait.  My theme in the portrait was the Sunday comics.  I used the majority of the time spent on this project was cutting out different colors and faces, and sorting them out.  It took three Sunday comics to achieve the final product of my project.  After cutting out all the pieces, I traced a posterized image of my face on a piece of cardboard.  Then I glued each piece of comic onto their correct location. I think my technique with putting the white pieces of comics in the lighter areas, the skin color of all the comic characters as the medium areas, and the dark areas of the comics as my hair really emphasized the different values while keeping a "comical" feel.  Although an afterthought, putting all the speech bubbles in the background enhanced my overall portrait.  I feel this was my most successful project because it turned out as I thought I would, actually even better than I thought.



Project I Overcame the Most Obstacles
     The project that I overcame the most obstacles with was the book project.  I reached a lot of different obstacles during the process of this project.  The main obstacle I experienced throughout the project was that my layers were too thick, making it more difficult to cut and especially paint.  Painting was also an obstacle.  I had originally tried watercolor, but it turned out blotchy and not appealing.  So then I took acrylic and painted over it, and it turned out much nicer.  The risks during this project were cutting layers too deep.  I think since it was my first experience with book carving, I should've started smaller, and I didn't realize that until my last couple layers when it got cramped and hard to see.  These challenges and risks that I faced made me a better artist.  It helped me realize to start small, and then go big once I actually know how to do it.  Also, if something doesn't turn out nice, like my painting with this project, I shouldn't give up, but instead find a different way to do it.  This project had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but I worked through them and my overall project turned out nice.

 Two Pieces That Show My Growth As An Artist
     The Sticky Situation Paintings and the Mixed Media projects were the two pieces that show my growth as an artist.  In the Sticky Situation project, I painted on five separate canvas', city scenes with different over sized foods in them.  I feel I grew a lot with color, technique and overall skill.  I used acrylic to paint, which I had previous experience with.  I feel that my ability to paint with acrylic was broadened, since a lot more colors and color combinations.  My ability to add value onto different objects grew throughout the project.  I pushed my creativity level with this particular project.  I usually do more realistic projects, but I feel I went out of the box, especially doing a "series". I definitely was able to broaden my use of using perspective in art.  I had to add perspective to the buildings and the food.  I feel I grew a lot during this project.
 

The other project I grew a lot in was the Mixed Media project. Being new to the "mixed media" concept, I didn't know what to do.  I originally started out with water color in the background and a flower made out of magazines, but it seemed empty.  So to fix that problem, I sketched a hand and a bird, and glued them to my project.  I grew in mixed media techniques by taking chances and doing things not previously planned, but enhancing the project, which I feel is what the point of mixed media is.  I grew in the process of this project because I experimented with different colors, and different media's.  By adding the sketched pictures, it balanced the picture and drew your attention to the flower.  I grew a lot with the Sticky Situation and Mixed Media projects by learning more about adding different colors and different techniques on how to make a picture look complete.

 How Effective Was The New Way 
     I felt that this new way of teaching and learning was beneficial and effective to becoming an artist.  I had chances to make projects how I wanted to make them, taking risks I wouldn't normally take, and overcoming problems I wouldn't normally encounter.  All of these helped me grow as an artist by realizing my own mistakes and new and better ways to complete a project.  I feel having this "freedom" helped in the majority of the projects.  In the Non-Traditional Portrait project, I was able to experiment with a new material, which I might've not been allowed to try if the teaching and learning was different.  It was beneficial to be able to test my own limits, instead of teacher setting them for me, like in the book carving project, I was able to realize on my own that I should've done smaller layers.  Also, with this new learning experience, I was able to add my own choices that the teacher might've not thought to do.  For instance, with the mixed media project, I felt the project was missing something so I decided to add sketches, which benefited the overall product.  I think the new way of teaching and learning benefits and helps shape future artists.