We have
been working on our animal paintings for a long period, and we have now
finished our final painting. The first step of this process was to do exercises
and look at the shape, shadows and proportions of our chosen animal’s face. We did
this by looking at negative space, making scribble drawings, putting the face
into geometric shapes of all sorts and blind contour drawings. These exercises
were very useful to me during the process, because after having made the final
draft I took some time comparing it with these exercises. When doing so I spotted
mistakes both in the dark and light spots and the shape of my animal. I saw
that I had to improve on the shape of my animal face when comparing it to the
geometric shapes, looking at the size of the shapes (the triangle in the cheeks
and the rectangle on the nose and forehead) and the angle of the shapes.
We also did
exercises with paint, so we became more familiar with some of the options we
had when it came to the painting techniques we could use. This was also a very
useful exercise, because I learned how to make it look like fur by using dry
brush- technique. I really liked the technique I used for background on my
final piece, because it gave a very cool effect.
Since I
finished the drafts quickly I was allowed to practice only painting the eye of
the tiger, close up. I was really happy with all the details in the eye and I think
it looked realistic since I added a lot of white reflecting in the eye. I was also
happy with the fur! I didn’t use the same dry-brush technique as I did in the
final painting, but I managed to make up my own technique for it to look
realistic. I got a lot of compliments for my eye-painting and Mrs. Jardin even
used it on the Facebook page for our class! :D
Feedback
I got
feedback during the process both from my teacher, Mrs. Jardin, students from 10th
and 9th grade, and my parents. The official time for constructive
feedback was when I had drawn a sketch for the final painting. Mrs. Jardin,
Cara and me agreed that the angle of the face was wrong, and that the tiger’s
face was more titled in reality. We also noticed that cheeks were too big on my
sketch and that the eyes should be both bigger and longer up on the face. After
having viewed my sketch with Mrs. Jardin and Cara, I looked at the exercises
with negative space and geometric shapes as guidance when making the final and
improved sketch.
During the
weeks we painted with chalk, watercolors and paint, I got feedback from my
fellow class mates continuously. The mostly had positive feedback, but Tom came
with some points, such as that I should change the color, paint out the stripes
earlier in the process and that I should repaint the background because it was
too “noisy”. I thought about this while proceeding with my work, though I did
not always agree.
I showed my
parents some pictures along the way and they gave me short feedback. This was
also mostly positive feedback. My mom said that she really liked the shine in
the eyes on the chalk drawing, but that she thought the right cheek looked a
little bit too big compared to the head. My dad thought the cheek was way too
big, but as I tried to copy the shape and size on the photo, so I didn’t change
it too much.
Decisions
During the
process I made a lot of choices concerning how I made the background and the
baby tiger. After having played with several possibilities on the exercises and
drafts, I decided to make my tiger in realistic colors and the background in
blue since that is a contrast color. At the end of the process I regret this,
because looking at the other’s unrealistic paintings I think that would have made
a more interesting painting. I tried mixing brown, red and white with the
gold/beige color, and this seems to have worked fairly good when I am comparing
it to the picture I looked at. I used a lot of time with all the colors on the
nose of the tiger, and I am very happy with my results here! I think the “dabbing”-method
I used here along with the many different tones of brown, beige, white and pink
made the hair on the nose look realistic and as close to the truth as possible.
The only problem with the beige color I used was that a lot of other students
also liked this for their animal. Towards the end we ran out of this color so I
had to try and make a similar color on my own or water out the beige color from
the container to use the last bits of it.
For the
background I used one of the techniques form the paint exercises. I think this made
the painting interesting, because the background got very rough and that is a
contrast to the smooth baby tiger face with furry, blurry, round edges. I used
black on the background with the blue to set a sharper edge to it and to pick
up the black stripes and eyes in the face of the tiger. For the background I also
added some watered out black paint, splattered over diagonally. I got some
feedback on it that it was too much since the background was already noisy, but
after having added the stripes I noticed that it went across the invisible “line”
the position of the tiger formed; from the downer right to the upper left
corner. I think this was interesting so I am happy I added the black in the
background.
At the
first few drafts I made almost all of the body of the tiger, but before the
final draft I changed this so only the baby tiger’s face was visible in my
painting. I think this made the tiger appear cuter, and I could also add some
of the details in the eyes and on the nose when having it up-close. This was
also something Mrs. Jardin said was smart from the beginning of the process.
I decided not
to have so many details in the fur on the body of the tiger, but focus on the
face. I did this out of two reasons; to save time, and so that people looking
at the painting would focus their attention on only the face. All I did for the
fur on the body was to add some stripes that looked like an attempt of fur for
it not to look so flat and life less beige, where as in the face I used a lot
of time dry-brushing with white and beige for it to look like realistic fur. If
I had time I would perhaps had liked to change the fur on the body, but if I had
to chose one thing to do half ways in the painting, I am happy I under prioritized.
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