Still Life (10)

When making this piece I tried to stick with the theme of breakfast foods. I think with every oil painting I've done, the backgrounds keep looking better and better. With out using any lines in the background at all, you can still tell that the items are sitting on a table and not floating around. I just used darker and lighter values in certain areas. I really like how the muffin turned out as well as the coffee and mug. If you look at the piece in person, you can see all the texture in the muffin and the shine in the coffee. For most of my oil paintings I have made up my own placement, but used photo references of the object from online. I think they always turn out nicely.

Still Life (9)

This is the first time I've used pencil for my still life concentration and I really like how it turned out and the composition of it. I used a grid to make sure I got the shape and position of the shoes right. I used light values, middle values and dark values. You can clearly tell where the light and dark values are. For better detail I used a pencil eraser and a blending tool. I was surprised at how well I did drawing the texture at the front of the shoe but I think it turned out really realistic. With how well this turned out, I think I may use pencil again for another one of my projects.

Still Life (8)

I really like how this turned out because of the colors I used. I used photo references for the shapes of the fruit, but I thought of the placement myself. I used oil paint because I like how well the colors blend and the texture that it shows. I liked how the yellow wall and the table turned out because of the colors and paint strokes I used. I like the wall the best and that's something I will want to do again in my next oil painting. Still life may be boring sometimes but I think this piece with all the colors I've used looks fun and bright.

Still Life (7)

Regardless of the background, I really like how my strawberries turned out. I think I did a good job with the shine on the strawberries and the different colors in the leaves. When I look at the strawberries alone, they look edible and real. I wish I could have drawn more but I think that would put me really behind. I don't really know what I was trying to do with the background so I apologize for that. I may go back and try and fix it once I find time. I think that maybe I've been using prisma colors too much recently and it's time to take a break. I never really got attached to this project like I thought I would.

Still Life (6)

Although this project put me a couple days behind on schedule it turned out better than I expected. All the time I put into it was worth it. I worked small and started out with simple sketches of the shape of the different fruits. My favorite drawn fruit would have to be the cut open strawberry because I think it looks extremely realistic. Originally I wanted to have a black background, but I think the blue helped make everything stand out and look a lot better. I'm starting to really love prisma even though it's really time consuming. I think the final product is worth all the time because in the end I'm really proud of my piece. I will probably continue drawing more fruit in prisma colors because in the future I am thinking about entering them all in a contest and seeing if anyone would like to buy them and possibly hang in their kitchen. I'm going to stay small in my next fruit projects considering how time consuming prisma color is. I'm thinking about focusing on the detail of three different fruits (3 projects). The reason why is because when I frame them, they are all supposed to be next to each other.

Still Life (5)

Having almost two whole weeks of snow days gave me little class time for the last two projects. It's been pretty stressful but I've been trying my best to stay on top of due dates. I think with the little class time provided I've come out with pieces that I'm satisfied with. I really like how the fruit turned out because it looks so real. I was debating whether I should have used acrylic paint or not but I'm glad I chose oil. Oil paint let me show the texture in the kiwi on the left, exposing the rough texture. (you can see it better in person). If I used acrylic I think the fruit would have turned out flat and awkward looking. Texture is definitely a huge contribution that makes the piece. In the future I think I  am going to focus more on fruit that includes lots detail and texture. Most likely in my next project.

Still Life (4)

I'm really satisfied with the way this turned out. I'm really impressed at how well everything turned out, especially the desk and basket. You can really tell that the desk is wooden and that's what I was going for. I wasn't too sure for a while as I started coloring, but once I added more value and color to the basket and pears I started to like it a lot more. I really love all the colors I put into the pears because it helps it look a lot more three-dimensional. The blue and brown really help it stand out as well as the light yellow I used to make them look shiny. I originally had a full desk drawn, but I cut it to change the composition which made it look a lot better. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of prisma colors now. My favorite thing about this project are the bright colors that I used. The blue desk and red wallpaper helped still life not look so boring.

Still Life (3)

I really liked the set up I made, the original picture of this looks awesome. A silly name for this piece would be "House Wife". This set up was a good opportunity for me to practice seeing the values in folds and wrinkles in fabric. Painting the folds and wrinkles was a struggle and I definitely think I need more practice with that. Other than that, I like everything else about the painting. I think I did a good job with the shine in the shoe and bottle, giving them shape. I also like the colors I used in the flowers because they all stand out nicely. I can definitely see this piece looking good, maybe even better in different mediums, such as prisma color.
This project wasn't easy. Painting folds and wrinkles with oils was harder than I thought, but for the first time ever doing that it could be worse. The next opportunity I get working with wrinkles and folds I will experiment with different mediums. I find myself getting better with prisma colors so I may try that. Before I start a whole new project in oils that have folds and wrinkles in it I am going to get tips and practice first. Hopefully I can come back to this later and improve it.

Still Life (2)

I started off drawing a pepper not knowing what else to do with the extra space. I thought drawing a bright blue plate would help bring more color to the piece. Although I had a little trouble with the plate, I can't tell if it looks flat, but hopefully the shine and shadows help distract from that if it does. I really like how the wood turned out though, I've never done any pattern like that with colored pencil and it turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Once I get further into the semester I'm going to try and work bigger, put more objects into one picture and look at them in different angles. I need to find some time to think of other still life ideas that aren't food and adventure though my house or anywhere else and take pictures of any objects that interest me. Overall, I definitely think I'm advancing in my detailed pieces.

Still Life (1)

I orginially started off using this canvas as a practice. As I got more into it I decided to continue on with it and make it into a final project. It took me a while to think of a concentration that I was most comfortable with and I found myself most comfortable with still life. I like taking my own photographs and making them into art and seeing how well I can re create the picture; maybe even changing it up a bit. I like how my piece turned out. I think I did a good job putting shadows in the right place and making the objects three dimensional. I definitely think adding a pineapple in the background was a good idea so that the bowl of fruit wasn't the only thing to look at. I can't wait to get a better feel with still life and hopefully explore new mediums.

Choice

I've wanted to do this project for a while now. I thought it would be really cool to collage magazine paper onto the face of a person (me). What I did to the face was I mixed glue and water and painted the ripped pieces onto the canvas; pretty simple. I also wanted to practice painting skin colors. I see all these body painting portraits and I'm really interested in doing that myself. From this project I know that I need more practice. I tried my best though and I think the chest still looks pretty realistic. I'll definitely practice more so the chest doesn't look so flat. What I'm most proud about is that hair. Knowing how fast acrylic paint dries, I think I made the hair look really realistic by adding different shades of brown and not making it just a solid color. I really liked how this turned out, it definitely looks better in person though.

Choice

The only thing I don't like about this project is the background. I thought I could make wood, but I had trouble doing that with oil paint. I probably should have done light colors as the background and not paint the wooden floor. I do like how the ice cream turned out as well as the cone and hand. The cone turned out better than I thought it would be. I think I did a good job with the texture and colors. The hand was hard to make because making skin tones isn't easy. I kept going back and adding more shadows. I chose this picture because I think the color of the ice cream is fun and it is also my favorite flavor. I added as much texture and value as I could to make it look eatable. 

Pet Portrait

I told myself that I would practice prisma color again before this semester ends. I didn't think I was good with colored pencils when I first used them on my reflection project. After this project though I was really satisfied with how it turned out. I hate how tedious it is, but in the end it was worth all the time I put into it. My favorite part to draw were the eyes because my cat has REALLY pretty eyes and I think they were the most important to focus on. I wanted them to be the focal point. I'm not too happy with how the fur turned out at the bottom though. It doesn't look like the picture like I wanted it to, but I guess it looks okay. I got a little frustrated. Other than that, I think it looks really realistic and I'm surprised at how well I did. Giving prisma colors a second chance was a good idea.