Art 2 Final Exam

1

In my opinion my most successful project was the practice collage because it was the one I enjoyed and appreciated the most.(I didn't finish the right side). "My collage's theme was based on the 50's-70's. I wanted to incorporate black and white elements because TVs were still black and white up until 1967 and then I included tie-dye because of the 70's. Newspaper was a common thing back in this time period and so were VW bugs. The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe were all popular stars and were partially what this time period was known for. To stick the newspaper to the paper I put gel underneath the newspaper then gel and a little water over top of it. After that I rubbed the newspaper and press it down then I took it off and a thin layer would stay in most spots. The bare spots looked cool but I stuck the newspaper down this way mainly because lack of time. In all the bare spots I added water color which gave it a really cool torn and old look. After the background was finished I pasted one of The Beatles album cover over top and replaced two of the members with Elvis and Marilyn buy pasting them over top. Then I went around the edges of the picture and added some more newspaper and water color to blend it into the background. To the left of that page is another part of the collage which I haven't finished. My plan for the right side is to add some newspaper and water color to the left of the newspaper. Then I will have the VW bug come out of the bottom left corner on top of the newspaper and water color shooting into the tie-dye. I really like how the left side turned out so I think the right will look great!" (By the way this is from this projects post because it explains the process perfectly but I did add some words and sentences to it so it answered the exam question. I just didn't want you to think I got lazy and copied everything). 

 2

My least successful project has to be painting we did in the style of a famous artist. I don't think I recreated my artist's, Paul Gauguin's, style very well because it lacked detail. My painting was very plain and simple, although, it did have bright colors that really exploded in the sky. But I needed it to be busier and have finer detail. I could have added texture in the grass and popped in a few bushes at least. My mountains needed more depth and detail and I think some trees would have looked nice. Acrylic paint might be my least favorite medium to use which is probably why I didn't experiment more with this painting. If we had used oil paints I would have definitely been more interested in capturing the style and taking more chances. Overall the painting is just too plain to resemble one of Paul Gauguin's paintings.

3

Looking back through my sketch book I'd have to say I've grown a lot as an artist. Two of my pieces that I think shows my growth well are my Paul Gauguin painting and my final collage. The painting didn't require much creativity because we had a style that we had to follow which included color, space, texture, and the distribution of the visual weight the objects. To match Paul's style I had to use bright colors, expressionistic brushstrokes, broad areas of color, geometric shapes, and a primitive theme. I made the sky pop with vivid colors and expressionistic brushstrokes. The mountains and grass were wide areas of the same color and had a geometric shape. Untouched scenery can give off a primitive feel. The collage on the other hand required a lot of creativity because you had to think of the theme of the piece and how to bring to life each material you used. I really loved my idea for the collage which was a representation of good and evil through a fairytale theme. One side of the collage was bright and lively and the other side was dark creepy. For the grass I cut up pieces of grass I found in newspaper and pasted according by color and shape. The sky is just painted a pretty blue and has a few clouds made of cotton balls. I was going to put a little cottage on the left and add a lot more trees but I ran out of time so I have one tree on the good side made of construction paper and some rubber foliage material for leaves. The tree is complimented by some 3D paper flower stickers. On the right side of the collage is my dark forest with trees made from wire covered in black tissue paper. On the ground is painted patterned paper which gave texture and more black tissue paper acting as fog. My favorite part is the mountains because the magazine mountain pieces add a realistic element to the painted toothpick mountains. The difference in the amount of creativity I used between these two projects is huge. The collage made me look at things I would never consider using for art and transform them into a piece of work.

4

The lollipop mini lesson really helped me learn how to shade and blend colors with colored pencil. I have never thought of colored pencil as something you can use to make a detailed drawing, but if you have a nice brand of colored pencil you can create a good piece. The main color of the wrapper was white and then I shaded and added depth with a blue-teal color. Blending the colors was a lot easier than I expected. I feel I was given enough instruction and practice with colored pencil to create a successful drawing. My final lollipop turned out very nicely and I am very pleased with it. My jolly rancher on the other hand did not live up to my expectation. I personally do not like oil pastel because it is very hard to shade and blend colors. The jolly rancher was blue and I used purple to shade and add some depth but I dont think it blended very well. Adding the wrapper was one of the hardest parts because I couldn't figure out how to transition the wrapper into the jolly rancher. Also the yellow was difficult to work with because it was on black paper. I feel I needed more instruction and practice to create a better piece. Maybe if we had learned techniques or had colored the jolly rancher step-by-step I would have been more comftorable with this medium. 

5

Surprisingly water color was my favorite medium to work with. I liked how the colors blended to give it a little bit of an abstract effect almost. The negative thing about water color is that you have to be very careful because the water can mix if there is a lot on the paper and the colors can turn brown. My apples turned out way better than I expected. I think if I learned some techniques and had a little more experience with this medium I would be pretty good at it, but for now I don't know much about it other than I like it a lot.