Florescence
I’ve come a long way from the beginning of the year - and after working on one of my biggest projects so far, I want to take time to reflect on my growth, mistakes, and what I’ve learned over the course of VAM 10.
While I’ve made progress, I realize I am still in the middle of my artist journey. My art style is not something I can easily describe, since it’s still really developing - I’m in an awkward middle where I can’t decide how realistic or stylized I wish to be. If you compare my art in September to now, there is definitely an improvement. Even though it’s not as substantial as I envisioned it to be, I accept that growth is never 100% linear and the fact that my perfect visions of how I will grow as an artist won’t realistically ring true. Looking back, there are so many things I want to change, but this year has really taught me that there is no point dwelling on past mistakes when you can turn that into positive improvement for the future - especially when you have to complete things sooner than you can make them “good enough”.
Over the course of 6 weeks, we were given the time to work on our Independent Projects we assigned ourselves. My project is called Florescence - named after the blossom of a flower and themed around the symbolism and characteristics of 3 different flowers. For each kind of flower, I completed 1 acrylic painting depicting the species in its environment and a digital drawing interpreting it as though it were a character- 6 artworks in total. This concept was meant to be based around something I liked while also providing a fair challenge. The amount of work I had caused me to rush some of my artworks, though, and I feel that not all of my works had reached their full potential. If I were to change the concept or redo this one, I would dive deeper into the symbolic aspect of the flowers, play around more with colours & stylization, or choose a concept that forced me to try out a more difficult challenge while also lessening my workload. My favourite piece would most likely be the last two artworks of my project, depicting the crocus flower. They showcase the most improvement and build upon the skill demonstrated in my first four pieces.
Though I may have criticisms of my work, I am proud of what I managed to accomplish and am willing to be more forgiving of the fact that despite everything, I am still learning.
While I’ve made progress, I realize I am still in the middle of my artist journey. My art style is not something I can easily describe, since it’s still really developing - I’m in an awkward middle where I can’t decide how realistic or stylized I wish to be. If you compare my art in September to now, there is definitely an improvement. Even though it’s not as substantial as I envisioned it to be, I accept that growth is never 100% linear and the fact that my perfect visions of how I will grow as an artist won’t realistically ring true. Looking back, there are so many things I want to change, but this year has really taught me that there is no point dwelling on past mistakes when you can turn that into positive improvement for the future - especially when you have to complete things sooner than you can make them “good enough”.
Over the course of 6 weeks, we were given the time to work on our Independent Projects we assigned ourselves. My project is called Florescence - named after the blossom of a flower and themed around the symbolism and characteristics of 3 different flowers. For each kind of flower, I completed 1 acrylic painting depicting the species in its environment and a digital drawing interpreting it as though it were a character- 6 artworks in total. This concept was meant to be based around something I liked while also providing a fair challenge. The amount of work I had caused me to rush some of my artworks, though, and I feel that not all of my works had reached their full potential. If I were to change the concept or redo this one, I would dive deeper into the symbolic aspect of the flowers, play around more with colours & stylization, or choose a concept that forced me to try out a more difficult challenge while also lessening my workload. My favourite piece would most likely be the last two artworks of my project, depicting the crocus flower. They showcase the most improvement and build upon the skill demonstrated in my first four pieces.
Though I may have criticisms of my work, I am proud of what I managed to accomplish and am willing to be more forgiving of the fact that despite everything, I am still learning.