Wow, this was probably my absolute favorite class (besides drawing). This class was great for a multitude of reasons. The first was that the projects we're very fun. Challenging, but I genuinely looked forward to the class each day. Every project was very unique and it allowed us to express our own artistic style while still learning as you go. We dealt with multiple different kinds of paint; watercolor, acrylic, and oil. All of which had their own challenges and all of which I am better at because I took this class. This leads into another reason that this class was so fantastic. I LEARNED SO MUCH. Ms. Rossi is such a great teacher. Every class I have taken with her, I have enjoyed. When working on the paintings, she did not rush us; which is a huge help when you're doing something you've never done before. We did not get through as many projects as I would have liked, but I would always prefer to spend more time on less projects, because I want to make things that I'm proud of. To say the least, I'm very happy with my artwork and decision to take this class. Ms. Rossi really does know a lot about art and this kind of goes without saying, but she is a great artist and person.
The only downside to this class was that it is ending. I think painting should be a year long class for a couple of reasons. The first one is that there are no artistic classes that last more than a semester. I think this would attract more students. Another reason is that there were, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of projects that we did not get to complete. Having another semester would be able to double the amount of practice, therefore students would leave the class more skillful. To end, I will really really really miss this class with all of my heart. If I could take it again next semester, I would.
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This is a mini project that we completed at the end of the year; our grand finale. Originally, the class came up with the idea to paint along with Bob Ross, a painter famous for his soothing voice and "easy" follow along painting videos. I think I speak for everyone when I say that it was NOT easy in the slightest. In fact, Bob moves at 5 times the speed as the normal student. We had to pause the video about every 60 seconds in order for us to keep up. Along with this, none of the techniques he used we're familiar with us; so we were struggling to paint anything halfway decent. Some of us were better than others, but I really do think it was a fun project. Even if it was very frustrating.
The above is my practice fur that we did in class. I had never painted fur before, so it was a little frustrating at first. Eventually I got more of a feel for it. Obviously the more practice I did, the more realistic the fur looked.
Disclaimer: The canvas paper that we used for the practice does not lay flat. It was extremely hard to take a picture at all, since it rolls naturally. I had to have someone hold the canvas paper flat while I took the pictures. That why the pictures look very rough. 1) This was by far my favorite project that we did. Looking at all of them, I had the most fun with this. I love animals to begin with, so I was already partial to this specific project. It is definitely not the best of the class, but I am extremely happy with how it turned out.
2) Since I chose to do my painting in an acrylic wash, there was a LOT of thin layering involved. It was a new technique I used that works very well when dealing with fur. I enjoy trying new things, so I was excited to jump in. There is not as much blending; which is what I tend to be better at. I believe that the most important aesthetic quality of my piece is the amount of colors in the fur. It is not very evident from far away, but up close you can see all the different colors and shades I used to create the fur. In my opinion in comes together very nicely. 3) My creative process through this project was very unique, to say the least. I had a general Idea of what I was doing, but a lot of the time I was just putting lines of color randomly until the space was filled. It was fairly freeform, which is why I enjoyed this project the most in particular. When you are making any piece of art, there is some kind of improvement of skill or learning that goes on. This painting was no exception. 4) Unfortunately, beginning this project was very hard. To start out, I ended up misplacing all of my cat's features. The proportions were completely off, as you can see in the beginning pictures. Luckily, I was able to correct the issues. So to say the least, my project and skills have improved tremendously. 5) Similar to all of my other projects, I worked extremely hard on this piece. The craftsmanship on my portrait is done to the absolute best of my ability, which is why I think I've learned so much from doing them. This painting was the one that turned out the best and I could not have asked for a better project to end the semester with.
Another practice project we did was a still life with various fruits and vegetables. This project marks the second time I have worked with oil, and I can really see a difference between this and my first project. One difference was that I used a set of brushes instead of a palette knife. As always, I started out very frustrated with my sketches and how it looked in the beginning. As time went on I grew to really enjoy working on it. Oil paint is so easily blended and it makes things easier if you are not working with a lot of product; which I was. I would still like to go back after everything dries, to add more shading and color.
A small portion of the week in this class was dedicated to practicing oil. One of those exercises is the one pictured above. We had the challenge of painting a kind of fruit or vegetable only using oil paint and a palette knife. As my first time working with oil, this proved to be very difficult. I had originally started with a picture if a gord, however I was having a hard time with over-blending; a common problem with painting with oil. I eventually threw it away and started anew with my basis being blueberries. This was a lot more fun. I started to get the hang of it and I actually had a lot of fun making it. You can see a lot of the palette knife strokes, but I tend to like exaggerated texture.
1) My craftsmanship on this piece is fantastic, in perspective of myself. Thus far, this is the most precision I've ever been able to put in an artwork. I spent a lot of time with the river, making sure that everything is in line (no pun intended) with each other. Half of that was spent working on it was trying to make the curvature of the individual streams as sharp as I could.
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