Acrylic Black and White

This painting is a portrait of my older sister. The painting is separated between two canvases vertically. I am most proud of the lips on this piece because I accomplished my goal of drawing the most attention to them. I really enjoyed painting this piece in black and white. Even through to simple colors I was able to achieve many shades of gray to create value. I decided to add a black back drop behind her face to increase the contrast between her face and the background, eliminating any background that may distract from her face. I struggled with the proportions between the two canvases. I originally painted each canvas separately and when I put them together, I realized that the top half of the piece was larger than the bottom canvas. To fix this is simply slightly widened the mouth and the right side of her face. Thankfully acrylic paint is very forgiving. Overall I am very happy with this piece and learned that I really enjoy painting portraits.

Wedding Photo Transfer

This project is a mother's day/birthday present for my mom. The theme of this project is her second wedding to my step-father. I also added one picture with my younger brother in the top left corner so he wouldn't feel left out since he had not been born when the wedding occurred. I first did a photo transfer on each of the canvases of each picture. Then on all but the one canvas that is not from the wedding, I painted over the cloths. I placed extra emphasis on my mom's wedding dress by adding depth to each picture from adding different colors. Let me explain. The primary color in each dress is blue. The top middle picture with green darks to and white depth. The top right picture uses a deep purple for the darks and white for the highlights. The bottom right picture uses red for the darks and white for the highlights. The the bottom left picture uses blue as the darks and then pink for the highlights. I am still going to add more painting on the top left photo.

Acrylic Reflection

The assignment on this piece was to create a reflection. My family and I recently got a golden doodle puppy so I wanted make a piece centered around my puppy. Starting this piece, I first had to photoshop the picture. I reflected and distorted the image of my puppy so the reflection on the hardwood floor was more significant. I started from the background to the foreground. Painting the reflection, I watered down the acrylic paint and painted the reflection. I was very happy with the way this piece turned out. If I were to do it again though, I would more they eye further up and left.

Oil Landscape

This picture is an oil painting; the picture on the left is the actual picture taken and the picture on the right is the painting. While I was in Kansas, I went on a run around my grandpa's farm and came across rows of hay bales. The picture was taken in between two rows of these hay bales and is focused on several twigs sprouting from the ground. This painting was my first time using oil paints so the entire experience was new to me. It took a while to adjust to the transition from my normal acrylic paints because oil paints take forever to dry. I was constantly having to fix smudges. To begin with the painting, I took red acrylic paint, watered it down, and painted a thin wash over the background. Throughout the painting you are able to see areas where I left the red wash visible to bring attention to areas. The front left hay bale is the area where I left the most red to show through. I was happiest with the right row of hay bales because I was able to add all of the colors I wanted while still being able to add highlights with in the darks and lights. Also, while comparing the original picture and painting, I like how I added a stronger highlight on the front right hay bale. If I were to do this project again, I would lighten the sky to be more white than blue; because of the bright light blue sky, the entire painting has a cartoon effect that I did not want. My original plan was to paint the twigs in the foreground with great detail and many bright colors. Though when I added any green, blue, purple, or dark brown, the twigs were brought back into the middle ground. I ended up with simply painting the twigs with little detail and mainly white and yellow ochre. One of the things that I learned while using oil paints that differs from acrylic is to never use black until the very end of the painting; the black easily smudges and is very difficult to cover without blending. Though I enjoyed my experience with oil paints, I still prefer acrylic because of how quick the acrylics are able to dry and because I personally am able to capture greater detail with acrylic paints. The benefits of oil paint are definitely the texture and the vivid colors oil paints provide.