My most successful project was the color project where I took pictures and edited the photos in photo shop with monochromatic, tetradic, and complementary colors. I developed my craft with this assignment by taking multiple photos until I found the angle and colors I wanted, and by experimenting with photo shop. For this project, the understanding of how to use cameras and photo shop were essential to succeed with this project. For this piece, I wanted to express happiness and joy about nature. I expressed this by taking pictures of flowers with beautiful colors.
The most challenging project was the sculpture project because it was sometimes frustrating working with plaster. My final work resembled the idea of my brainstorming, but the end result came out very different as I explored with new techniques. I originally had my idea about a flower with a vine coiling down in a cylinder shape. By the end, I still had the flower but there was no vine coiling in a cylinder shape, but the base narrowed in at a diagonal slope. I made these changes to further express my idea of hope. Instead of the base being the same width as the rest, I thought a narrower base would show how even when you don't have much, you still have hope. A problem that emerged with this project was making my sculpture smooth. At first, I realized I would not be able to have a smooth sculpture while chipping away plaster. By the end, I was able to solve this problem by using many different types of sanding paper.
One formal strength I gained this year was working with balance. I was able to learn how to make my composition work as a hole, and not be hectic in many places. One technical strength I learned was how to use the basics of photo shop. During the photography unit using photo shop, I found a love for cameras and photography. One conceptual strength I gained was never giving up in art. Sometimes art can be frustrating, but if you keep working with the material, colors, texture, etc, the end result can always be beautiful.
