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As my last art piece at Barrington High School, I felt a lot of pressure to create the best piece possible, as this is the culmination of all my training in art throughout the past four years at BHS, as well as what I learned in middle school extended art. Thus, I was nervous start this project because I did not want my last project to be a total bust. However,  I think it turned out well.  I worked with oil paint, a handmade canvas, and I chose to focus on variety in texture because the color palette I used was more on the neutral side.  Also, with this piece I was able to accomplish both tasks given to me, using architecture while also creating something related to Marquette University, the school I will be attending next year.  In this piece, I struggled formulating an initial idea, because I had so many different images that I wanted to work with.  However, my piece was successful in that by using my own photographs, I could control the composition, which is something that in the past I often lost points for by using the photographs of others, as well as using a simple figure plotted right in the middle.  Thus, I have grown as an artist in this respect. In total, I am very happy with the final outcome of this piece because I was able to bring together a variety of elements such as color, texture, structure, and composition, using oil, a medium which I started working with this year and was able to fine tune, a skill I am proud of as oil paint is not always the easiest to work with, but it produces very professional quality work.  If I could have done anything differently, I would have liked to have more time to work on this piece, because I only had five days to work on it, so every decision I was making felt rushed.  But this was beneficial to me because it helped me to learn how to make artistic decisions quickly and instinctively.  As a whole, this piece appeases me and I am looking forward to bringing it with me and displaying it in my college dorm room!

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Friday, May 20, 2016

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Personally Taken Photographs

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Final Exam Project: Marquette University Architecture

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Final Exam Project: Marquette University Architecture

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Friday, May 20, 2016

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*** Note: All images were drawn (for the grand majority) without looking at my hand.

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*** Note: All images were drawn (for the grand majority) without looking at my hand.

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Drawing Structures from Real Life Practice Drawings

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Drawing Structures from Real Life Practice Drawings

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Friday, May 6, 2016 and Monday, May 9, 2016

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In this piece, the elements of the grid that I worked with were:
Subject: Interior/Exterior Space
Media: Acrylic Paint
Technique: Manipulation and Variety of Texture
Composition: Contrast
Overall, I am very happy with this piece because while I have been working with figures a lot this year, I have not done too much in abstracting the composition or creating a story like I did with this piece.  I am very happy because this definitely shows a strong growth in creativity.  Also, I used photos of myself for this piece, rather than ones from the internet (the photos are not included because they were less than flattering).  These are two elements which I was asked to improve upon, and I was able to accomplish that with this piece.  I struggled the most with deciding what I wanted to do once I had the figures drawn.  I was initially planning on using colored pencil, but then chose to paint it because I had the idea to work with the interior space of the figures as something solid, and contrasting, and then to work with something abstract and marbled in the exterior space surrounding the figures.  If I could change one thing I would have done this on a canvas rather than paper because paint tends to warp paper as it dries, but aside from this, I am very happy with how this piece turned out because it is very different from any other piece I made this semester.  In the future, I hope to improve upon the creative element of my pieces because I feel that as my skill in art improved, I lost some of my creativity, so now I am going to try to keep incorporating that in every piece I make.

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Monday, May 2, 2016

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In this piece, the elements of the grid I worked with were:
Subject: The Self (Physical)
Media: Oil
Technique: Smooth, Blended Strokes to Create Softness, Creating Strong Contrast between Lights and Darks
Composition: Asymmetrical Balance (Hand and Leg coming forward in the foreground, whereas the shoulders and body get smaller and recede into the background)

The most successful of these three, in my opinion was the subject; I really think I was successful in working with a contorted figure with difficult proportions.  Furthermore, I am really satisfied with the technique because I think the final product looks very good with the shading and highlights.  One thing that surprised me was the hand.  I thought it would be very difficult to draw and paint realistically and naturally, so much so that I almost did not include it.  To my amazement, it ended up being the easiest and the most fun to paint and draw.  I have always had difficulty with this body part, and for this reason, I thought it made the subject the strongest part of my piece.  After critique, I continued to blend and add contrast, as many people suggested.  However, I had a lot of people suggest to incorporate color into the piece, but I did not feel that this would work well with the mood I was trying to create. Overall, I thought this was a successful piece, and I am very happy with the elements in it.

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April 9, 2016

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The process of learning how to create realistic looking skin tones with depth was very beneficial because prior to this, I would have assumed the colors straight from the tube such as "Portrait Pink" and "Flesh" were all I needed to paint a realistic looking person.  I learned that mixing colors is a process of adding colors until the combinations are just right. Some colors I used were: Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Yellow Ochre, Cobalt, Ultramarine Blue Green Hue, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Red Light, Indian Red, Magenta, Raw Umber, Black, and Titanium White.  To give my skin tones depth, I would chose one red, yellow, and blue shade, then add white until it looked as fair or tan as I wanted it to look.  I used a couple different colors for each skin color to give it more depth, and this was definitely the case. For the boy, I created a fair, cool skin tone with lots of blue and red.  As for the girl, I created more of an olive tan skin tone, with more yellow and blue to give it that slightly olive green undertone.  This gave me some experience working with different kinds of skin tones.  As for the subject, I knew I wanted to do something involving the relationship between a man and a woman, and I love the slightly provocative essence of nude art, so I found a picture that I really liked.  I was drawn to it because it suggests a moment of intense love and passion.  I also liked it because it reminded me of my boyfriend, Casey, and myself.  The people in my photographic reference resemble us very much, and I was really happy in painting this piece with that personal reference in the back of my mind.  This made it a very fun yet also calm piece to create, and I definitely got so much out of this.  I learned how to create realistic looking skin tones, how to mix oil paints (which is not always easy), and I got further practice with figure drawing, which is a skill even the highest most talented artists could always benefit from more practice.  Overall, I am very satisfied with this piece. In my opinion, it is definitely my favorite and the best work I have created, incorporating difficult skills such as figure and skin tone mixing.

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February 29, 2016

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In all honesty, I was surprised with how this piece turned out. I chose a color palette I had never worked with before. I used purple, magenta, cobalt, white, and naples yellow. One thing about this piece that frustrated me was how I had two main shapes, the pregnant woman and the background, and I was lacking a third element. To counterbalance this, I deliberately added yellow diagonally through the piece to provide a third element, to guide the eye through the piece, and to contrast the purple. Another deliberate choice of mine was to vary the texture vertically in the background, and horizontally in the foreground (in the shape of the pregnant woman). An intuitive choice I made was to have very detailed, coarse texture at the bottom, and longer, smooth texture at the top, with variation in the middle. While I was working through this piece, I was very frustrated with creating a balanced abstraction. However, my conscious choice to add yellow really changed how I liked the piece. In the end, I am really happy with how it turned out. No picture can really do justice to the intricate textures and colors throughout the piece.

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February 1, 2016
Canvas, Oil Paint, Palette Knife

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I lost my squares but they were:
1.) A square of many colors, textures, and lines
2.) An unknown shape which I believed to resemble a pregnant woman

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Sharpie Pen

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September 12, 2015

Acrylic on Canvas Board

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October 1, 2015

Newspaper, Gesso, Oil Pastel on Sulfite Paper

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Oil Paint on Canvas

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Watercolor

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Through this semester, my most significant growth was in the use of different mediums. I worked with acrylic, oil, watercolor, oil pastel, sharpie pen, and pencil. I easily became more confident in working with these mediums because I was not afraid to experiment with new techniques and styles. I definitely became aware of my application of color and how to work efficiently while paying attention to detail.

The biggest struggle I had was working with proportions. I love working with figures and faces, but I have a lot of difficulty making proportions accurate and even. By looking at the progression of my oil painting, "Melancholy," it is evident by the end I learned how to correctly draw the figure. I strongly believe that this piece was the most significant in my growth as an artist this semester because I became more comfortable working with oil and I learned how to draw figures much better.

From here, I would like my art to get better and more impressive. I would really like to work more with oil paint because most of my favorite pieces were created using oil. I think I am very strong at blending oil paint and I love the effect that it produces. Next semester is my last semester of high school and I would really like to make many more projects because it may be my last semester of art ever. I hope that I can take art classes in college, but if not, I still plan to always keep art an important part of my life because I love it so much and it is my best way of relaxing and tuning out the world around me. I am a very loud, wild person, and art is the only time you will find me enjoying sitting still in silence. Henceforth, I will always keep it a part of my life. Next semester, I will try to create my best, most meaningful work. I thoroughly love all the pieces I made this semester, and I hope things go upward from here.

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Samantha Gorman

Mrs. Alexandra Stevenson

Advanced Honors Drawing and Painting V, Period 4

August 20, 2015 – December 17, 2015.

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December 18, 2015

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15 Minutes, Colleen

***Cut Short due to Lockdown

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15 Minutes, Lily

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30 Minutes, Calena, Cory, Maggie

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Pencil

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15nSeM77xqSmfh1Yt_JRllM3iI8wFGAB1JSI220gFAD4/edit?usp=sharing

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December 9, 2015

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October 30, 2015