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The course of this self project was a wild, bumpy ride that I wasn't expecting when I first started. I loved my sketch, hated how the paint looked, and ended up being okay with the outcome overall. My skin was probably the hardest part, what getting the right color and the wrinkles in my nose and all, it was rather hard. But eventually I got the right colors and was able to do a not-too-bad paint job. The burger was pretty fun, though I wish the yellow acrylic paint wasn't so transparent and caused me to do so many layers I'm positive the cheese parts are raised compared to the rest of the paint. I like how the burger looks over all but if I could change one thing, I'd make the burger itself lighter, since the dark brown I used makes it look incredibly burnt.
The background was pretty fun to do, since there were so many little grass lines that got darker with the shadows of the trees and I got to do more woodgrain, which I enjoy quite a bit. Looking back, I wish I had done the background before doing my face and hair, since I had to be super careful around the edges and overall think it makes the background look like an afterthought. My favorite part of the piece by far is my hair. I really love how it turned out. I like the highlights and darks and how it looks wavy like my hair actually is rather than straight like I was worried it would look. I also think I got my hairstyle pretty right, though I don't think that realistically my hair has ever looked quite this good. In the end, this piece came out good. Better than I expected, really. I like most of it, though would change a couple things, and overall am happy with the project as a whole. I am proud to say that in the end I really fell in love with this piece. It took a lot of layers and a lot of love (and I'm pretty sure my hand wanted to strangle me in my sleep after coloring all those little berries with prismas) but in the end I'm very happy with my final result. It's bright and shows depth just like how I was hoping I'd be able to achieve. I definitely think a lot of it has to do with my comfort with all three of the mediums used, as they're my three favorite traditional mediums, and I'm glad I was able to do a mix of all three to make this project.
Granted, it could use more shadows and highlights here and there, but as of the moment, I couldn't be happier. The woodgrain ended up looking good, the blender looks like a blender for the most part, and all the more time-consuming, hard elements are complete to my satisfaction. I tend to go very fast and a bit messy when I paint, or really do art in general, so I wish I had taken a bit more time to be a bit more precise with some of the elements and details. Things like strawberry seeds and pencil strokes in the bigger areas of prisma or brush strokes on the blender could use some more TLC. In almost no way is this piece absolutely, completely, one hundred percent done, and I really doubt it ever will be, but I like each of the individual elements of the painting, which happens rather rarely.
For the reflection project, I decided to not just go the literal route and find a reflective object to draw, but also one that reflected me and what I enjoy. I like to sit out on my back deck or in my backyard and paint with watercolors sometimes, and decided to draw the reflection of the trees in the paint water with my watercolors and brushes scattered around it. Overall, I like the composition of the piece and many of the elements that went into it, though if given the chance I would absolutely scrap this and do it all over again, since one big, main element of the piece I really don't like.
The one big thing I don't like is the 'painting' I drew in the piece. I didn't think it through before I drew it and really, really hate how rushed and incorrect it looks. The tree branches don't look like tree branches, and definitely don't look like they were painted with watercolor, and to me it throws off the entire piece. If I hadn't done that part or took more time to think it through, I think I would like this piece a whole lot more. Don't get me wrong, I like how most of this turned out, like the wood grain and paintbrushes are some of my favorite parts, but that painting throws the whole thing out of whack for me. This project as a whole was very fun, the first Prismacolor piece I enjoyed (This being my 3rd time using them) and made me actually like using these pencils. I also like how it has a little bit of me in it since it's something I enjoy when I get the time to paint outside. This was my first time ever using oil paints and I was a bit scared at first. I'm not much of a painter, since I prefer graphite/charcoal/pen usually though I enjoy watercolor and gouache. I was afraid I wouldn't like oils like I don't like acrylic paint. Sadly my fears were right. I really don't like paint. Plus, I get it all over me.
Overall, these were kind of fun. It was interesting to try out the palette knife for the banana and see the textures it could make though. I managed to put more colors than I expected into my apple, but it didn't help much. I still think it's rubbish compared to my classmates, though I'm not supposed to compare. I do like the leaf though. The leaf is probably my favorite part of the entirety of my experience with oil paints so far. |