PMA & MECA 11/24/15

AP & ADP headed to the PMA Biennial and MECA for a print workshop on 11/24/15

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My most difficult challenge was comparing my work to other students’ work. During this project, I kept viewing my piece as “not enough” because my style is abstract. I’ve been having trouble pushing myself out of that safe zone. I handled it by ignoring it. I feel it was easier to accomplish at home when I wasn’t right next to someone who I had been comparing my piece with. It made it easier to think that I was on the right path.

I made my house my own by creating colored smoke coming out of the chimney to represent my creative thinking and drew in an abstract style. Instead of having my house be a plain yellow/blue/white house, I chose to incorporate other colors into the smoke and the house itself. I feel like this choice made it have a bit more depth and interest to the house.

I’m not happy with how my drawing came out. I’d probably choose a different photo if I were to do it differently. I may have also chosen a different aspect of personality to the drawing. Furthermore, I would have strived to draw in a more realistic style.

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The most difficult challenge I faced when I was creating this piece was when I was shading and creating the grass, I had a hard time telling whether or not the grass worked well with the rest of the piece and if I should add more blue or shadow. In the end I thought it turned out nicely, but being color blind I’ve know in the past that it could look completely different to a different set of eyes.
What I did to make the piece my home was I really focused on making the interior look warm and I also added grass to the roof of my house because I’ve always dreamed of having that. I also really wanted to paint from a perspective that showed my room windows so I could show my favorite location in my house as well. In my painting I also really wanted to show both of my windows with a dreamlike world out side of them because I often look out them to think and form ideas while I do art or write. I’m happy with the way I presented the themes I wanted to show like the way I made the painting look dream like with cool colors and how I made the windows look warm and imaginative.
I’m very happy and proud of my piece and although I would work on and change things, for no art is truly complete until it's published, I still feel accomplished. If I were to work on it more I would change the background with the woods and I would try to make the color scheme more cool. I’d also work more on the windows and add more diction to the shadows. I feel this piece challenge me because I’m not very experienced with oil pastels and found it challenging sometimes to get the color or texture I wanted. I would love to go back and attempt this same piece but with a different medium like acrylic paint.

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The most difficult challenge when creating this project was the imaginary element. The initial plan was to make the sky the only colored aspect of the drawing, but after completing the house, I saw that this would take the emphasis away from the structure, which was supposed to be the main focus. I liked the way it looked before changing anything, so that became my finished piece.

I didn’t do much to make my house look like my home. I wanted to convey that my home is beautiful and old, so the black and white made it look almost like an old photograph, but the reason my house is my home is because my family is there, and I didn’t really know how to show that.

I’m happy with the way it turned out, even if the imagination part is missing a little bit. Next time, I will push myself more, and come up with a comprehensive plan for exactly what I will do before actually starting. This project definitely challenged me with it’s medium and premise. Adding an element from the imagination that wasn’t in the original picture is very difficult for me, and I will continue to work on that.

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 Some of the most difficult challenges in this project were making the cords and background. When making the cords it was hard for me to make them look like cords because it was hard to get detail when using the pastel. The background was also difficult because I needed it to be stylized but also match the house so that it created a united piece. The colors that I used were also hard to choose because I wanted to make the house black and white while making it still stand out with the colored background. I added the cords coming out of the windows because I like to play video games and use computers so that's why I incorporated them. To further express this love I made the background look pix-elated like an old video game, which made some unique negative space in the background.I am happy with the drawing, but I think if I did it again I would choose a picture that has more of an emphasis on the house, because the background to the right felt a little empty to me. Also I would add some darker values into the grass to show that the hills on the right were really hills. I think that designing a stylized background with a more realistic house was the most challenging part for me because I needed to make sure that they both coexisted in the same space.

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I think the most difficult part was actually using the pastel. I have never used pastel before, so I was completely confused with how to actually use it. I played with mixing color and texture on the piece, hoping that it would yield to an interesting composition.

I used a range of color to make this my home. In retrospect, it was far less creative than I could have been, but I wanted to try pushing coloration. My home is a place that holds a sense of comfort and family.

I am happy with my drawing. Next time I may try harder to add a creative element. I feel like this project challenged me, pushing me out of my media comfort-zone. In the future, I may use more oil pastel, or add it into my mixed media design.

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The most difficult challenge I faced during the process of creating this piece was the medium. I have never really been a big fan of pastels, and rarely use them, so there was a bit of a learning curve for me to fully understand the medium. To handle this problem, I spent a lot of time practicing with the oil pastels on smaller papers, seeing what colors blend with what other colors, how to layer with the pastels, and figuring out other attributes of the pastel. I think because of this my piece is much stronger than it could have been, although pastels still are not my favorite medium.

To make the house look more like my home, I put a large amount of emphasis on the outside of the house, as my mom and I spend much of our time outdoors. To do this, I heightened the colors in the grass, sky, and shrubs around the house to make them pop out from the house itself. I also changed the accent colors of my house to various shades of purples to make the house look a little more vibrant, so it would not get completely lost in the greenery.

I am fairly happy with this drawing because I honestly did not think that I could use oil pastels whatsoever, and so the fact that I could and was somewhat successful astounds me. If I were to do something different the next time, I think I would focus more on the shadows and light sources in the piece, because I don’t think I captured all of them in my piece. This piece really did challenge me as far as the medium goes, and if I were to redo the assignment I may have given chalk pastels a try instead of oil.