Bird and Cat Sculptures

I think that the most successful aspect of my sculpture was the bird and the bird's nest specifically. The branch that the bird and the nest were sitting on came out well, and the texture worked well with the texture of the nest, and the texture is what made them look realistic. If I were going to make another clay sculpture, I would put more glaze on the sculpture. The glaze on my cat is blotchy and you can see the red clay through it. I would also be more careful with the structure of the peices, because the cat's arm broke off, and the cat came of the base during firing.

Family Portrait Reflection

To make my family portrait I wanted to make something that when you look at it the first time just seems like a normal family picture. However if you look closer and you think about it you can see the subtle differences. I wanted it to be a reflection of my real family, which has its little differences. On the outside, we are a good example of the "perfect" family, mom, dad, one boy, one girl and a house in the suburbs. I tried to represent how my family differs from the norm and also show that we are truly happy together most of the time. The fun, bright colors that border the Polaroid-like picture in the middle represent the fun that we have together, which holds us together. I think the biggest strength of my family portrait is the drawings that I did of me and my family. I think I did a good job of drawing us accurately.

Sculpture Reflection

The sculpture that I made was a dolphin, which was meant to symbolize my mother. Her favorite animals are dolphins, and they generally represent intelligence and kindness, which is how I think of my mother. To make the dolphin, I started with making a frame from mesh, and then putting the rest of the peices on around the frame. I tried to use shiny or slick metal objects to make the dolphin look more realistic.

Principles of Design Book Reflections

The story that I told in this book was a story of an old couple, and when the husband goes to find wood for the fire, it starts to snow, and he gets lost in the woods. While he is missing, his wife remembers their life together and worries that he won't come back. The last picture is of him standing outside their house, and her looking out the window at him. I used three different xeroxes copied multiple times. I made some of them smaller or bigger in order to tell the story. One of the principles of design that I used to tell my story was emphasis, which I used in the picture of the husband, alone, surrounded by white. This showed that he was alone, and nothing was around him to help him get home. 

Self Portrait Reflection

The two aspects of my personality that I was trying to show in this picture were the shy more reserved side of myself that only people who really know me see, and the more outgoing , giggly side of me tha I how to everyone. I showed the shy side by using pale and brown colors, and the exciting side using bright, interesting colors. The difficulties I had when doing this painting were trying to make it as realistic as possible while still trying to make it look silly on one side and sad on the other. Another challenge that I faced was trying to blend the lighter paint with darker paint to make the shadows look real and believable. One of the successes that I had were the blending of different colors to make my hair look like actual hair. I used lighter browns for the highlights and darker ones for the shadows. If i were going to do this painting again, i would spend more time on it, and be more careful with the details and the shading. I would also probably choose different colors for the more serious side, because I dont think that they portrayed what I was trying to say correctly.