stefanie vd merwe
Subjective Objects
Subjective Objects
Subjective Objects
Subjective Objects
Subjective Objects
Subjective Objects
Subjective Objects
Subjective Objects
Subjective Objects
Landscape Painting
Watercolor starter activity
The first painting activity that we did for this new unit was to create a watercolor painting of a photo that we took on one of our field trips. For my painting, I chose an image from our first field trip around the school areas.
LESSON 1
LESSON 2
LESSON 3
What worked well?
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Whilst creating my painting, I created the leaf texture by dabbing continuously, as well with the use of different shades of green. I believe that this technique worked very well in the end, as it brought depth to the painting, and made it look realistic as well.
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In order to create the green tree part of my painting, I began with lighter colors of green, and as that would dry I would continue to add more layers, each one darker or deeper than the previous one. This worked out really well as it once again added depth, as well, brought in multiple colors rather than a solid green color.
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Even better if?
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I think that the blue sky could have been improved by being more careful with avoiding those lines that usually come with watercolor. Currently, there is too many layers, thus it is obvious to see that the water color made lines, rather than a solid blue color.
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Whilst creating my painting, I struggled with creating the white clouds stand out against the light blue background. Thus, I don't think that the clouds are quite apparent and rather look like empty areas in the background, and could have been better.
Final landscape piece:
Mind map of ideas for final piece:
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Statement of intent :
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I intend to portray two main concepts within my painting; the emotions I felt in the environment and the way that I portrayed the view in its true form. I chose to do an image from the field trip to the beach, which was the one that I enjoyed the most. Hence, the emotions that I intend to portray are happiness, joy, excitement, etc. I will portray these feeling with the use of colors such as red, orange and yellow. As well, whilst I was at the beach, there were many small and fascinating aspects, however, what I enjoyed the most was the bigger picture; how all aspects were viewed together at first look. Rather than the small details, I looked at how the environment looked all together. Hence, I intend to make my painting rather simple, and by painting aspects with minimal detail, rather, using more solid colors, as that is how I saw it when I viewed the scenery. Both these concepts contribute to the overall intention of representing my experience of the environment, both physically and mentally.
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To produce the concepts and ideas of my final artwork, I was inspired by other artists and their artwork. I found that the artists that inspired me enjoyed having an abstract style and feel to their work, by using unique and random techniques that still seemed to work very well. For example, some artists enjoyed using digital images on top of the art, which I really liked, and is also something that I intend to adapt in my own art piece.
One artist's artwork that stood out to me was Adam Hayward's artwork, as seen below. This artwork was truly inspiring, as it seemed to portray exactly what I wanted to portray in my artwork. Although, this only inspired me to take my artwork further in my own unique way. Much like Hayward's art piece, I will be using a mix of digital images, and physical art. As well, I want to portray the same feelings of happiness and excitement that I felt came across on his painting.
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Overall, I will know if I was successful in achieving my statement of intent by.. :
When a person views my artwork, they are able to take away feelings and emotions of happiness and positivity from the colors used and the overall composition of my piece.
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Keeping a simple and minimal feel to the artwork, refraining from extreme detail, by portraying the scenery in its "simplest form".
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Process of final painting :
Wednesday 7th Feburary 2018
Todays lesson was my first lesson to begin my final landscape painting. This means that I was getting everything set up, as well, beginning with the base of my actual painting. Firstly, I had to "create" my canvas for my watercolor artwork, by stretching a blank piece of paper on a wooden board with the use of gum strips. Since this took time to dry outside, most of my lesson was taken up by this. Still once it dried, I was able to use very diluted water colors to "sketch" out the dimensions of my painting, in reference to the image I chose. This way, I could see where I would need to paint later on, without it being entirely permanent, in that I could easily go over it later since it was so light.
Monday 12th February 2018
In todays lesson, I developed and continued working on my final painting, by adding more layers of water color paint, especially on the mountainous areas and ocean area (from image). I noticed that as I added more layers of different colors and shades onto the mountains, the more depth it gave to these areas, making them stand out more; this could be related back to my statement of intent, as by adding more depth to the mountains, I am making them more evident and eye catching, which is what I personally noticed when I viewed this scenery.
For todays lesson, I continued to develop and add layers to my painting. This time although, I decided to add the unique aspect to my painting; the sun-set like background behind the mountain area. I used colors like red, orange, and yellow, as I felt they best represented feelings of happiness and joy, which is why I decided to add this to my painting, to represent my intention of portraying the emotions I felt within the environment.
Wednesday 14th February 2018
Monday 19th February 2018
Continuing on from last lesson, I focused today on the ocean area of my painting, by adding more colors and layers of paint to it. Whilst painting the ocean, I did not refer too much to the image, for I wanted to uphold the intention of my artwork by painting it how I viewed it when I was there, by focusing more on color, rather than the details of, for example, each wave, or how the clouds reflected on it; simply that it was a nice shade of blue. Once I was satisfied with this, I decided to add my other unique aspect, which was a bright and bold sun, placed simply behind my mountains. The main reason for this was to portray my artwork as "abstract", to give my artwork some life and excitement; all feelings felt when I was in the environment.
Wednesday 21st February 2018
Being my final lesson to work on my artwork, I focused on finishing and finalizing all aspects of my artwork. This mainly involved painting the clouds on the painting. I was excited for this part, as instead of using water color paints, I was going to be switching over to white acrylic paint to paint the clouds. It was intriguing for me to create a painting that utilized two different types of paints on one canvas. Although, this was made to further portray feelings of abstractness; in a way, one could say that I was exploring the art as I was exploring the environment. Once this was finished, I stood back and took a long look at my artwork. I was satisfied with the outcome and was ready to stop working on it.
Summative final reflection:
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The aim of this project was to recognize landscape art as a much greater genre and type of art. In that, landscapes can be depicted in any way possible; whether this be a painting of a small rusty screw, or a drawing of a vast ocean. Hence, it was up to us to create a landscape piece of our choice, with any image of our choice, and to experiment with different ways of portraying landscapes, and what meaning a landscape artwork can hold. With so much freedom, it seemed overwhelming at first, however, after planning and mapping out ideas, I was able to generate an idea which I believed held a lot of meaning, as well, representation of artistic skills.
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My statement of intent stated everything which I intend to portray in my final piece, and how I will do this artistically. To sum up, I had two specifications that I would refer to, in order to be successful in portraying my statement of intent. I generally believe that I succeeded my two specifications, and rather well. The first specification stated; "When a person views my artwork, they are able to take away feelings and emotions of happiness and positivity from the colors used and the overall composition of my piece". With the use of colors red, orange, yellow, and blue, I felt my artwork was able to portray feelings of positivity, and happiness. As well, with the use of water colors to do so, the colors came off much lighter and gentler, hence, were not as bright and harsh, and thus further succeeded this statement as well. My second specification states; [I will succeed my statement of intent by] "Keeping a simple and minimal feel to the artwork, refraining from extreme detail, by portraying the scenery in its "simplest form". The aim of this statement was to represent the landscape in its true form; how I saw it when I was within the environment taking the photo. With this specification, I feel that at times it may seem to represent a lack of care, by attempting to take the "easy route". However, I believe that with my artwork I was able to represent objects and areas with simple shapes and colors, and still portraying an overall well composed look to my artwork, as well as upholding my aim of depicting the landscape in its simplest form.
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To advance my statement of intent within my artwork, I wanted to incorporate some artistic appeal to my artwork that was able to hold meaning, as well, represent visually artistic skills. I was inspired by a specific artist, that truly influenced the outcome of my artwork, and had a big impact on how I portrayed my statement of intent. The artist that I was inspired by is Adam Hayward, and one of his artworks depicting a mountainous area with abstract colors and digital images. I enjoyed how he decided to use unusual and unnatural colors that gave the artwork emotion; just as I intended to with my artwork. As well, the abstract use of digital images that Hayward used in his painting, inspired me to take that emotional meaning further, by including a bright and out of place sun. The intention of this was to give the artist an overall abstract, yet positive feel. Generally, I believe that being inspired by this artist truly motivated me to incorporate more abstract and unique ideas into my artwork that was out of my comfort zone, although, still proved successful in the end.
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Throughout the process of my artwork, I was constantly developing and experiencing multiple skills required for me to effectively enhance my artwork. In terms of the ATL skills, I feel that one skill that was clearly evident throughout the process was communication skills. This is in terms of communicating my statement of intent; more specifically, the emotions I felt when I was in the landscape, and as well, my perception of the landscape as a whole. Another skill that I clearly experienced when creating my artwork was thinking skills, both in my planning of my artwork as well in the process. In order to have a clear idea of where I was heading with my artwork, I utilized a mind map to plan and organize my ideas. This represented thinking skills as I was able to express my thought process and what was going on in my mind when I was sorting out my ideas. Along with this, the documentation of each lesson and what was achieved represented thinking skills, as it is evident what process I went through to develop my artwork further and what I experienced that may have enhanced or even manipulated the outcome of my artwork.
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Overall, I believe that my artwork for this project represented great success, as I was able to succeed my statement of intent to produce a well composed piece that holds unique meaning, as well as develop communication and thinking skills, that allowed me to benefit from this project as well. Although I represented evidence of success, I could improve on displaying the meaning of my painting with more care and precision. This is because I believe that due to time constraints, I did not develop my artwork with much care and hence, my artwork may have come off as rushed. For example, in my artwork one can easily see the brush marks, and a bit too much at times. Although small, it does make a difference on the overall composition of my artwork. Still, I am satisfied with the outcome of my artwork, and even have some improvements that I can keep in mind for next time.
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Here is my final artwork:
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