When it came to my Independent Project, I had great ambitions- as I do in regards to any of my artwork. Because of this, oftentimes I overestimate my abilities and give myself higher expectations than I realize I can handle. So of course I gave myself six whole artworks to finish over the course of the seven weeks. And sure, on paper, a traditional or digital artwork a week with an extra for catch-up seems… actually quite reasonable? That is, until you’ve reached the end of the first week and are only really halfway done with your first painting. And that by the time you "finish", you are actually incredibly dissatisfied with it. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. Florescence is the name of my Independent Project for this year, named after the blossom of a flower. It consists of 3 acrylic paintings and 3 digital drawings, each pair depicting a certain flower in different ways. My very first painting depicted the orchid- a tropic flower. In my mind it was growing in a tree by the beach. I built a photo reference out of two to get the image I wanted. I began with some semblance of an underpainting, in monochrome orange. I began overlaying some colours on top… And started to build off of the bright orange. However, it slowly seemed more like I was just adding nonsense colours rather than actually building upon the forms or providing depth. I continued on from there, but I didn’t take any other pictures throughout. One part where I struggled was definitely the water. I had envisioned a beautiful seascape as my backdrop while the flowers were bold and in focus- instead, I ended up with this. While I do not at all consider this to be yet finished or within my standards, I had to move on if I wanted to stay caught up. If I find the time, I will improve and possibly even redo it. The next week, I began my digital version. My job here was to design a character based around the flower’s traits. Orchids represent grace, beauty, and luxury. I tried to incorporate the speckles, pistil, and petals in different ways while still giving off an air of elegance. How well I delivered is debatable, but I think I got some aspects across. I began with some doodles, and moved on to a rough sketch. Soon after, though, I found myself changing it rather drastically due to the funky proportions. I moved on, redid things, and moved on again... And arrived at the final result. While I am more happy with this piece than the last one, there are still a few things I would change. Orchids are a very huge, diverse family of flowers that look very different- because of this, I decided to only focus on one type, but now I wish I had tried to incorporate the multiple flowers into the design so it would be less plain and more complex. For my next set of work, I would focus on the forget-me-not. This time, I chose a forest-like setting and began with a yellow underpainting. Things were going mostly smoothly until I caught the flu the week I was meant to work on it- putting me a week behind where I should've been. At the time of posting this, I should have been finished my fourth piece- but instead, I have yet to complete my third. While my current status is not ideal, I hope to get back on track as soon as possible. And despite my struggles, I have been enjoying this Independent Project and do look forward to its completion.
Creation is messy, but that's all the more reason it's so beautiful. See you at the end of the road!
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Yesterday, on Thursday, December 16, 2021, the Croxford Celebration of Learning took place. The Croxford Academies performed and presented their best work. I, of course, as a member of the Visual Arts & Media Academy, attended and volunteered at the Art Show. For me personally, the Art Show went well. Not super amazing or outstanding, but good. It was great seeing people come by and appreciate our art and enjoy our movies; it felt nice to see that the works that we spent so much time on had an appeal. It was saddening that we couldn't attend CAPA's Christmas play or CMA's concert, but watching them from the outside really showed how amazing they were doing. When my time came to be posted in front of the movie theatre, it was admittedly a bit weird trying to go up to people and convince them to watch our movies. I'm not great at approaching people, especially if I don't know them. And often, the adults coming around would have small children with them that would get scared by the movies. Nonetheless, those who did come around enjoyed them. I think for all of us as a whole, the Art Show was good. It might have been a little overshadowed by CAPA's and CMA's performances, but that's not much of a surprise since parents and family would want to see their children perform, and the movies were on a loop. Our artwork was on display, and many people came by to check it all out. Overall, I think it was a positive experience for nearly everyone (maybe save for the kids who were traumatized by our movies, but that's how we know we succeeded, right?) The artwork I put on display was my painting, what I can probably consider to be my best work this semester. However, I'm not satisfied with it. I'm still fairly new to painting, and it turned out well for something I'm not that good at, but I wish I had done the process in a more easy order and worked in the details in a better way. I also wish I had chosen better colours. But positive encouragement from everyone tells me that it looks great, and I'm glad that it's good enough for that. I know that I want to continue to improve, and that one day I can reach my own standards. |
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AuthorAyesha Rana ArchivesCategories |