My favorite and most successful project this semester was the landscape painting. I think that it turned out really well in the end because I was able to successfully add all of the values and shadows that would have shown up in real life. I enjoyed this project the most because I liked being able to paint what I wanted, how I wanted. There weren't any requirements or rules to follow which made it a lot easier to complete the project as well. Even though the objects in this painting are the sort of thing that would usually go in the background of a picture, I feel like I added enough detail and color for them to stand alone on the canvas. I was a little scared when I first started painting to put any paint on the canvas, but once I got used to doing it I started to enjoy it. It was fun to get the chance to try different things with the paint and see what they looked like in the end. I also liked getting to layer the colors on top of each other. I used to think that when you covered up one color you wouldn't be able to see the one underneath it, but now I know that it lets the colors blend together, without actually having to blend them. Overall this was my favorite project because I got the chance to paint things exactly the way I wanted them.
I think that I developed the most from this project because I learned how to use texture. I used to think that texture was just the way something felt, I never knew that you could actually draw in texture. Ever since I learned how to do this I have been able to improve my artwork because I have been able to make things come to life. I also learned that you should use contrast to make things stand out more. If you have something on a dark background, then it should be light. If you have something on a light background, then it should be dark. Both of these techniques allow you to see the difference between two object in a piece of art. If they look the same then they will blend together and you won't know what you are looking at.
While doing this project I used skills and techniques from almost every other unit in order to complete it. I used texture while molding the clay so that everything would seem more life-like. I used value while painting it in order to make the tile more interesting. I even used shadows, although the tile was already 3-D, in order to make things pop out. I think that I have grown a lot as an artist from learning to use these techniques. I can tell that the more recent projects that I have completed are much better than what I was making in the beginning of the semester. Learning how to add values, contrast, texture, and shadows has allowed be to grow as an artist. I feel like I can make things more realistic and captivating for other people simply by using these concepts.
I feel like this project was the least important in learning the concepts taught in this course. Although it was a good way to start our perspectives unit, I feel like anamorphosis wasn't really related to the type of perspectives that we learned (one point and two point). We practiced some of the earlier concepts while doing this, like value and shading, but overall I feel like we could have spent more time doing something else instead of working on this. Especially since we have practiced value and shading for every other project this semester. I thought that it was fun, but I didn't really see the point behind doing it since we never used anamorphosis later on in the semester. I think that it would have been a more useful project if we had then used anamorphosis for something else later on. Maybe we could have spent less time working on it as well. We spent three days doing the project even though we weren't learning a concept that we would need later on.
