From the start of the semester to now I defiantly have seen my strengths and weaknesses and can tell that my weaknesses have grown stronger. Before walking into this class I was not aware of oil paint, and only knew of water color and acrylic paint. My water color work has most defiantly grown with the fact that I can manipulate the colors and find the right pigments to use and the right areas to add darker colors. My work is much more clear and is much more realistic then my previous works, but I still have a lot to work on with this medium. Unfortunately you can still see my brush strokes and the salt I used to dilute the green pigment in the salt was still noticeable even after I scrapped it off. I defiantly think that water color is not my worst medium but not the best so I rate as my 2nd favorite. keep in mind I only work with it on one project. My over all least favorite medium was acrylic because of many reasons. Our main acrylic project was a little funny as it was just tons of odd shapes and very unnatural colors. Really I don't like the medium that much because of how fast it drys and because its so hard to blend. From the beginning of the semester I have defiantly grown as my blending and understanding of the medium became more clear but working with it is still frustrating. Oil paint was defiantly my favorite medium for many reasons. First it blends beautifully and keeps colors from having to much power to the eye. You can apply it in different ways and make things seem much more realistic. As the semester went on and I learned about oils I grew a tremendous amount. I was able to identify the perfect amount of blending and manipulate the brush in to looking like something so natural and real such as fur. I defiantly think my portfolio shows my growth as a painter as my hand and eye have become closer as one then from the beginning. As my weakness is in glass painting you would think not but as you look at my practices to the end of my finals you can see a difference in my technique.
My style as an artist is much more textured. I like the more unrealistic 3D look. To me painting is supposed to look like someone spent time by hand working, don't get me wrong I think the realistic paintings are all master pieces but I find much more beauty in something that look painted from a far. I don't see someone successful with how much they make but on how proud and fulfilled they are when done with the piece and that they find it to be absolutely perfect to them and don't search for others approval. Being an artist is rewarding in was that you can express who you are and what you feel without judgement it always one to be able to clear their minds and take them away from the stress of real life. You appreciate more in everything from nature to the architectures and understand that it may not be you style of art but to someone else it is and you want to be able to understand what they see. One very important skill I learned is acceptance in yourself because sometimes you envision something and your so determined to make your piece look like it but as you work you realize its not going as planned and instead of giving up I learned to find beauty in what I have. I also learned how to hold out hope because when I am starting a piece it usually looks like something a 2nd grader did in 5 mins with their fingers but instead of jumping right into how bad it looks I tell myself to think about what I think it will look like at the end.
I felt least successful with my final project. I found a beautiful picture of the ocean in my town in France and was so exited. But I finished my other painting late and only had time to do it in acrylic instead of oil which was my original idea but I would not have enough to for it to dry. There was so much blending that need to go into this piece but with acrylic that a hard task to do. Adding unseen colors is also much harder because I could not blend them into the base colors as well so areas like the grass and trees look odd. The sea had so a beautiful blue but with acrylic we did not have the right colors so I couldn't get the perfect blue, and it blended in the picture into a beautiful orange but I could do that because it dried before I could do any real blending. The yellow was so translucent I couldn't get any real pigment on the canvas, so there was no nice sun base for the highlights to come off of. I would have taken the time and started it earlier so I could do it in oil.
Oil paint was defiantly my favorite medium. Yes, yes it did ruin 90% of my clothes, but I worked best with it. Being able to so easily blend make my pieces so much more fluid and calm. With it not drying fast I was able to go back to what I was working on the day before without any problems and exaggerating the colors was much easier. With so many different application and brush strokes applying it was so much smoother and even. Making 2D clouds was very easy because I was able to dab the color on and give it depth while still being able to keep it smooth unlike acrylic which I would have had to glob on. Being able to pick how fast it dried was also a big advantage. If one day I started my sky and need more time to work on it I could because it was still wet and when I wanted to finish my sky I just add liquin.
My Final reflection
Painting honors two has been something I have a love hate relationship with. Being able to let my mind be free and creative relaxed and reenergized my brain. But I am a person who can't focus on something for too long without going stir crazy. I was able to become patient and use the suspension of seeing the final a way to relax. On the other hand it helped my loads in the career I want to do. I want to become a surgeon so learning to keep my hand steady and be precise really gave me a boost. I also gave mean an eye for my surroundings no matter how small. It was a fun class that I think is good for anyone for time to release your self to teaching people need life skills.