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.

Out of all the projects we have done this year in Art 2 my most successful project would be the mix media project. The theme of this project was variety and repetition. The process I went through to complete this project was first I brainstormed 10 ideas and picked my top 2 choices. After that I elaborated on those two choices and drew 5 quick sketches for each idea. After I elaborated on the sketches and picked the top sketch for each idea. After I did a final sketch and finally narrowed it down. The next step I took was using a gel medium to glue down tissue paper and create a background for the collage I was later going to make. Next I cut out images all relating to dogs so my theme of my project would be distributed throughout my whole project. After I neatly laid down the picture covering the whole background, I then used the gel medium to lay down a layer of white tissue paper. This will calm down the bright colors of the collage so the stencil will be visible. Next I created a stencil of a dog and slowly cut it out using an xacto knife. After I gathered four different colors of spray paint so I would have variety, but yet they would all still relate, and spray painted the stencil onto the background. Then my project was complete. The choices I made regarding material were, by using the colorful tissue paper for the first layer it gave the whole project a foundation to build up on. Also by using the white tissue paper to calm the colors of the collage it help made the main part of the project stand out and emphasized the importance of that part of the project. Also the size and variety that I choose for the spray painting help enhanced the project. By having four total different colors instead of two or three it emphasized the variety in the piece and helped Incorporated the theme more. 

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 where I felt that I overcame the most obstacles would be the book carving project. the obstacles that I came across while working with this project include, making clean cuts and cutting smooth lines, making it so I wouldn't rip or bend any of the carvings or pages, and also tracing over my drawling so it matched the exact carvings that just did and making it all align up. I was able to overcome the obstacle of matching up my drawling to my carving by taping together the cut up drawling so that it wouldn't fall apart anymore. After I did that it made the rest of the carving a lot less difficult. I was also able to overcome the challenge of making sure I cut straight lines by cutting slow and making sure my knife had a sharp blade at all times. The rest of my obstacles I over came with patients and time. However, with all the risks that I took in this project it did help me become a better artist. by challenging myself it made me become a better artist by pushing myself to my limits to see what I was capable of, and by doing that I was able to find out what my limits are and how I can overcome even the most challenging and frustrating obstacles. This made me realize what kind of artist I really am and what I’m capable of.  

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 that show my growth the most would be my portrait and my sticky situation. The portrait shows my growth in application of materials because I used a media that I have never used before, so I challenged myself in that matter, and I applied the material in the artwork so that it works together and that every piece of media that was used was put down in its place for a purpose; and not just randomly. With this project I also grew in my techniques and skills. I grew in this area because I was able to demonstrate shading of the face and features of the face by using different colors of buttons and different shades of different colors. I was able to grow a lot in this area because I used a challenging media so I was able to extend my abilities and really put my skills of shading to the test, and I was able to do this successfully with time and patience. Another area that I grew in was in my artistic vision.  I grew a lot in this area because I was really able to explore how I view things and I was able to see what my style of art was and how I was different from artist. This piece made me realize that in my piece I emphasize shading a lot and show how it’s important to the piece. I also like to incorporate something personal into my pieces so that I am able to make a personal connection to it. Another area that I grew in was the use or principles and elements. I showed my growth in this by displaying the element of shading and how I was able to successfully incorporate it through using different colors of buttons. Another area I grew in was creativity. Not many people usually think of using buttons to create a portrait, also I used my creativity and in the end made the portrait more personal and added the name of the person it was of, in buttons. Intuition was another area I grew in because when my teacher gave us this project I immediately understood what I had to do and how I was going to do it. Through the process I was never confused on how to pursue my project; everything was clear from the beginning unlike my projects before. The last area I grew in was subject matter; I grew in this because I was able to successfully display a face and all the features of the face. I was also able to show each feature in the correct layout of the face. 

The other art work I grew a lot in was my sticky situation. I grew in the area of application of material. I grew in this area because I was able to successfully apply the theme of the project (sticky situation) and I was also able to successfully apply the paint in the piece to make the artwork realistic and make it less cartoon. Techniques and skills was another area I grew in. I grew in the area tremendously because I was able to successfully create a 3-D look with all the shading, and I was also able to pinpoint where the light source was coming from and incorporate that in my painting by showing where the glare would be on the melting popsicles. I was able to grow in artistic vision because through a lot of practice with paint this artwork shows that in my paintings I mix colors on the canvas to give it more color depth and also to incorporate more color in the artwork. I also grew in the use of principles and elements, because before I had a hard time showing the light source and realistic shadows. However, in this artwork I successfully incorporate that, I was also successful in incorporating the illusion of the popsicles melting. I also grew in creativity because in order to incorporate my theme of popsicles throughout my whole artwork I made my canvas out of popsicles. I through outside of the box and even made my canvas part of my artwork as whole. The last area that I grew in would be intuition and subject matter. after practice in class I was able to finally understand the paints and how to incorporate certain elements in my artwork, I was not longer confused and knew exactly what I was doing and how to do it. For subject matter I was able to successfully paint realistic object and able to create the correct colors to make the artwork successful. 

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.

By giving the students a choice in subject matter and materials I believe this was very effective to our learning experience in this course. I believe it was effected because it gave us a choice to pick what we wanted to do and be creative about it, so that could make our artwork look like our personal work and so we were able to explore what kind of artist we were. I also liked how it also limited our choices so we stayed in a certain criteria so it was easier for the student to pick a topic without having a wide range to choice from. Some examples of this include when we did the sticky situation project and when we did what’s the point. For the what’s the point project we were limited to a topic but, we could go above and beyond when it came to the subject you were to do. We either could think of it in a literal or figural way and it still would have been correct. I also liked how for the what’s the point the teacher gave us a wide variety of medium we could have chosen from so we were able to explore a different medium that we as students have never used before. We had the choice to push ourselves or to go the easy path. Another project where this was demonstrated in was the sticky situation. The only limitations were had been to stick to the theme, sticky situation, and to use one found material. This made it so we had a narrowed down topic to choose from so it would be less challenging to figure out what to do it on. However, this project was also wide open to creativity and you were basically able to do whatever you wanted to incorporate that found material. I believe this was of teaching is a lot more effective because it lets the students discover the kind of artist they are by letting them explore their creative side.