Visual Journal #1- Inspired by: Star Wars

I. Developed My Art Making Skills

  a. Did you learn new techniques or process as part of the work for this journal page?
      With this art journal, I have to admit that I did learn a lot with making the galaxy background. I have always had an interest with the beautiful look of space but I could never figure out how to actually do it. Of course, I looked up a tutorial on how to make it but at first with watercolor paint. The end result of that is, I realized with the paper I had it didn't help with the colors mixing together well. Instead, I tried out soft pastels and it worked out easier. I started with the light colors and continued to layer on the darker portions.

  b. Did you gain skill with familiar materials?
      Yes, I did gain skill with working with familiar material, which in this case is the soft pastels. At the beginning, I was only used to using one color and just creating an ombre for a background but with this art page I used a wide range of colors that I didn't think would go well together at first however as a result it came out to this gorgeous looking galaxy.

Ear Studies

Finally, here is my last facial study. Honestly, I felt like the ears were intriguing to do because there was a lot to it. I like the first one a lot whereas the second one I knew I could have added a bit more value to it. However, I am curious to why we learned to draw the ear this way because with portraits the ears aren't that always that visual. Overall, though I liked this study and in the future I need to make sure I focus on emphasizing on the "y" and the value behind the ear.

Lips Studies

Well I finally finished my lips studies! To confess, I redid the entire thing so it can be on the same paper as my nose studies and it looks better in a way. I found it surprising that I thought this was difficult because it was just lips, but there was so much to it. I think what made it so hard was there was a lot of different expressions you can do with lips and the tutorial does not give you a step by step on how to do it like that. However, it looks good from a far.

Nose Studies

I finally finished the hardest facial feature! Well in my opinion, I thought it was the hardest so far, even though I've done only eyes. Out of the three different noses I made, I would have to say that the first one is forever going to be my best one. I think the reason why the first one is the best is because it had a step by step video I can simply follow. The reason why I think the eyes were easier, surprisingly, was because the tutorial gave me a general shape I can use for all eyes and manipulate it.  On the other hand, the nose tutorial simply gave me a general shape in one direction. It does give me an idea on how to look at a nose but I still find it difficult because I relied on those steps to guide me.

Color Wheel- Final Product

1. The first thing that makes this color wheel successful is it isn't just an ordinary color wheel in which the focus point is in the middle, it is more towards a corner. I think this makes it more appealing because it gives a new fresh look and a new perspective. Next, it would have to be the colors because I think each individual section of color turned out pretty. Lastly, I guess I would have to say that certain parts of this was well done in terms of emphasis. For example, I liked how I used a shade for the background then a tint for the design because the shade really made the design pop out by the contrast.

2.  If I was completely honest with myself and if I had more time, I would restart this entire thing because I strongly hate how this turned out. However, throughout this process some revisions I had to take care of was the precise detail and the amount of shading I wanted to do. Originally in the sketch I had so much details, but as I started painting I realized how hard it was with the paint brushes I had so I simple improvised and painted over the details. Furthermore, I typically don't use paint, I'm more of charcoal person, so you can imagine how difficult it was to manipulate the color to create that shading look. In the beginning I felt like I sort of succeeded but it simply took too much time so I gave up and just stuck with making big contrasts between the tints and the shades.

Eye Studies

Honestly, I like how these turned out but at the same time I don't. Comparing the eyes to the eyes I have been doing in the past, I can definitely say that I improved a lot, from cartoonish to realistic, but now that my skills have improved in art overall I have higher standards for myself. To begin with, I like using the pencils because it was a lot easier to layer on value over value whereas the charcoal was very dark to start with, which is surprising because I typically like using charcoal when it comes to creating value. The charcoal made quite an emphasis on the the eyes, but it looks a bit unrealistic. I really like how the last one turned out if you were to view it from a far. The second one I did would have turned out nicely if it weren't for the iris being so big. Overall, I would rate this a 6/10 but I can improve. My only fear is that once I do BOTH eyes all together I'll have more of a difficult time. Furthermore, I just realized that I only stuck with the left eye, I never attempted the right eye... Hopefully, it isn't as hard.

Color Wheel Project- In Process

When I took this picture, I was only this far. However, where I am today, I finished the red-violet portion. If I was to be honest with myself, I do not like how this is turning out because I can't get all the details as precise as I want. I blame the paint brushes because they're not as small as I want them to be. In addition, I am trying to work from the background to the front but it is difficult because if I paint over the sketch I can't see the sketch anymore therefore I have to redraw it again.  Furthermore, painting is my least favorite media because I can't manipulate it as easy as I can with colored pencils and charcoal so I'm constantly making that comparison and it leaves me unsatisfied with my work. On the other hand, I like the colors I make because they're very pretty but that's about it.