Portrait Assignment

I chose this painting because I think the simplicity of it is very aesthetically pleasing. I like how the painting is composed. The way she is dead center and staring right at you, with nothing else distracting you from her. Which I think is supposed to be a reflection of her personality, a powerful and elegant women who has achieved great success and becoming very influential in fashion. Its painted in oil on canvas

Portrait Assignment – experiments and decisions I used drawing to help sketch and develop

some ideas for my final portrait. I did simple sketches to plan out my ideas and annotated to show the reason for why I chose to compose them like that.

I took in the different aspects from my source paintings, like the vast area of space around the subject and just the head and shoulders being in the frame. I then added my own aspects like changing the light, the angle of my head and my positioning in the frame.

Unfortunately I didn’t really experiment with materials and processes the only way I did that was having a few practice runs of painting myself in acrylic, watercolor and oil. I did this to see which paint type I was best with. I chose acrylic to paint my final outcome because I found that it was the paint I was most experienced in and therefore would make my final outcome the best I could.

Portrait Assignment – Final Outcome

I had a few hiccups on my final piece, so much so I had to scrap 2 before my final piece came through. I was struggling with getting the right skin tone and then being able to blend the different shades of the skin together. I overcame this by researching how to make skin tones and then through practice a few times I got better at it.

Overall I learnt about watercolor and acrylic a lot more, because I had never done portraiture before it was a learning curve trying to get the right skin tones and the proportions of a face.

The Kew Gardens sculpture assignment and the Tate graphic design assignment were important learning experiences for me because in the Tate graphic project I hadn't had much experience with using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, so it gave me an opportunity to work with those programs and allow me to learn new skills. In the Kew Gardens assignment I had the opportunity to gain further knowledge and experience in the workshop to create a 3D sculpture. As I had already used the workshop a lot for my other subject it allowed me to develop my skills and also learn some new skills.

This year I would like to develop my skills on using the computing software as my skills are quite limited on them at the moment. Developing these skills would help me create a vast range of skills to show in my portfolio. I need to develop my annotation skills this year as I feel they're quite basic at the moment and would be useful to develop these skills. I’d like to keep developing my basic skills like painting as I feel I have a lot of work to do to be able to paint well.

Reflecting on last year

My ideas about progression have developed quite a lot of the year because I have been able to look at all the different skills that we have been able to learn and use during the year and I can see which that I need to develop to help me progress onto university.

My current progression aim is to be able to show a vast range of different skills to a good standard to put in my portfolio for university in a couple of years. To do this I will need to achieve to achieve a distinction in Art and Design, and to be able to do that I will need to practice and develop all aspects of art and design, especially time management.

I will do this in year 2 by keeping on top of all my work and creating a list of the most important things that I need to improve.

Plans for the future