MIDTERM!!!

1. Three-image gouache montage. (Uh... I'm still mastering the art of getting the jpeg version to look like the real, live painted piece... please excuse the annoyingly bright palette and high contrast for now, thanks.) I'm finally getting quasi-comfortable with gouache these days. I used the reduction technique to start off with, and then went in with some medium and darker tones of different hues to create dimension in the three objects. The background (which is not so neon in the actual painted piece...) is sort of an abstract sky, which I thought might thematically be appropriate with the hot air balloon and the umbrella. This took me about 8 hours in all.

2. The giant watercolor! I was initially scared to do this assignment, but I ended up loving it. I really like how the water and the paint sorta take over with this medium...most people seem to want more control when it comes to painting, but I freely let it go. I used the kleenex/dobbing technique for the clouds and a mix of round, bright, and bamboo/watercolor brushes throughout. This took me around 6-7 hours total.


3. The gouache barn. This was one of my first experiences with gouache, and I instantly enjoyed the fact that it is just as flexible a medium as watercolor (i.e. I didn't have to control EVERYthing...) but with more opacity. Meaning, I wouldn't necessarily have to paint as many layers as the watercolors required. This project took around 2-4 hours.


4. Memory portrait. I enjoyed the process of this piece. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed stylizing portraits of people until Rusty made us draw a relative (from memory!) in various styles. I also enjoyed working with watercolor; I think the softness of the watercolor in this piece helps express the personality of my grandfather- the strong, silent type with a big heart. I did a lot of waiting for each layer of skin tones to dry- it might not look like it, but I ended up painting about 5 different layers of watercolor. All things included, this project probably took me 6-8 hours.

5. DMV cartoon. I also enjoyed the process for this project. Doing the brainstorming and sketching was great, and I learned that making a cartoon isn't actually as scary and/or difficult as I had anticipated. I'm going to utilize the photoshop-coloring technique more in the future. I like the contrast of the expressive, hand-drawn lines with the clean, computerized color. In the end, this project took me around 5 or 6 hours.