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.