2-15-17
What skills did you develop in art techniques or concepts? How did you improve?
I have recently been working on improving my watercolor skills. I started a watercolor eye in November but it got damaged so I started a new project a few weeks ago. I really liked my watercolor eye and learned to correct a few of my mistakes. One being I used too much water so I've learned to try and control the amount of water I use. This is slowly becoming better but will show more if I decide to do another piece in watercolor.
How is the project meaningful, challenging, and engaging to you?
Most of the challenge from this piece has come from trying to understand and correctly manipulate the media. Watercolor can be okay one second and completely destroyed the next. This project is helping me learn how to correctly control watercolor, by using less water and finding the right ratio of water and paint to get the correct shade. I am really like how my project is going right now.
What would you change or do differently if you were to do this project again?
I would have tried harder to keep background areas light. With not doing this it's kinda of made my bee and flowers funny colors, making it hard to get the colors I want because everything has a faint green tint from the background.
Specifically mention another artistic behavior you felt you exhibited in your work on this project. What did you specifically do that shows you demonstrated it?
For the most part this project is another "Improving Art Skills". This watercolor was mainly just another attempt at mastering watercolor. I am happy with my progress but there is always room to grow. I already have explained where this project has taken me and I'm glad that I finally have a product that I;m proud of after months of experimenting with different medias.
3-22-17
I recently finished my watercolor of my bumble bee. I found that I worked with it well and really enjoyed the media. It was extremely difficult at first when I attempted the to create the watercolor eye. I learned that I was using to much water and needed to use it more sparingly and create a thicker paint. Too much water on the paper would bleed through different parts making an uneven nasty line. But taking a second go on this project with the help of some research and practice of different techniques I completed my bumble bee. If I were to do this project again I would I would have kept the green background lighter, especially in the area of the bee and the bottom right corner. I used green wash that was too dark so it make my yellow and purples funny colors. Not enough to notice but it bothered me especially with the flowers. This was hard in the beginning and hard in the end. I feel that this project also helped display "solve and persist"
My next project is a pastel drawing of Colin and Lady (his cat). I've worked in charcoal before but not colored pastels. It's an interesting material. I'm not sure if I like it yet but it's not a hard media to work with. I think I'll like the overall project more once it's closer to being finished. I chose to do this project because I knew it would be something new to try and veer away from painting. I feel that media is very whimsical and kinda does what it wants. Very different from painting, both acrylic and watercolor.
