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What are your most significant areas of artistic growth?

My most significant area of growth is my shading. When taking art last year, one of my least favorite parts of drawing was shading. I wasn't very good at it and was scared to go dark. This year though, I put dedication and effort into improving my skills, which made me love to shade. It's my favorite part of drawing. This is why I loved the still life chair/cloth project. I spent hours upon hours trying to perfect my shading skills try to portray the image as best as possible.

What artistic struggles did you learn from?

The thing I struggle with the most is my composition. I picture one thing in my mind and it is hard for me to transfer it down on paper. Getting the sizing right is what I struggle with most. I either make one thing too big or too small which causes the entire piece look off and not proportionate. I always have empty white space (which I know can be a good thing) that causes the piece to look unfinished. When I am done thinking and creating a quick sketch for my projects I aways end up with something off that needs to be fixed. An example of a piece that I struggled with was the text project. It was hard for me to figure out which direction and where I wanted to place the different paths.

As you pursue art for pleasure or maybe even as a future career, what subjects or new approaches would you like to try?

In the future I would like to try and experiment with ceramics because it is interesting and it takes a new technique. I would also like to try graphic design to expand my abilities as an artist. I also would like to try different mediums such as oil paint, water color, etc.

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Figure Piece (watercolor, pencil) Societal Bearrings

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Figure Piece (watercolor, pencil) Societal Bearrings

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While thinking of ideas for this project I knew that I wanted to show or represent different paths. I wanted it to symbolize that in life there are a lot of paths and whatever goes on in your life, and whatever people say to get to you, it is important to stay focused and to choose the best path in life. The words in Chinese that are surrounding the paths all represent different things. There are words such as art and creation to show what you can do and what is possible. Around other paths are pain and death, all though morbid, it is to show that staying upon the right paths can impact your life in great ways instead of letting in the judgement to cause pain. Along other paths are sun and happiness to show that there are good things out in the world and that it isn't all dark and scary, but that there is light, and goodness. Although, not all people can read the Chinese, I decided to choose it to show that there are obstacles, and that the things that are most confusing and hardest to understand, is the most important and rewarding. While creating the piece, I knew that I wanted the paths to be bold and dark. I shaped them out of charcoal to make it dark and eye catching. I chose water color as the background because I really wanted it to stay light to enhance the depth of the paths. I chose purples and blues to sort of create a kind of space look. I wanted it to make that viewer think about how your life is so small compared to the world and frankly the universe. I chose a light and almost transparent white paint for the letters to show that the words, the good and the bad ones, are so small compared to everything else that's going on in peoples lives.  My ideas changed and progressed overtime through various stages. I started off writing the Chinese words for fun because I liked the way it looked. The only problem was that I wasn't sure how it was going to tie it in with the paths, but then I started to think about which words to use and why. This then fit perfectly in with the over all theme of my piece: There is so much going on in the world that effects you good and bad, but it is important to face those challenges by making the correct decision because it all effects which path you choose to go down in life. If I could go back and change something about my project, I would spend a little more time on the detail of the words and find a good, suitable brush that is more capable for making the small details that each word withholds.

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In this picture I combines my two favorite sketches to make my project. (Top two)

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Text project (Watercolor, acrylic , charcoal) Pathway

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Text project (Watercolor, acrylic , charcoal) Pathway

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My Still life/Chair Artwork progress (Colored Pencil) Our Weakest Link

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My Still life/Chair Artwork progress (Colored Pencil) Our Weakest Link

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Observational Quick Sketches and Practice Drawings (Pen and Charcoal)

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Observational Quick Sketches and Practice Drawings (Pen and Charcoal)

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I then added bottom lashes and shading around each of the bricks.

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Then, I added top lashes trying to make them seem as natural as possible.

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I started by shaping out the eye, and creating a base for the lid.