Reflection

I was born in Colorado, which aside from some subtle accent differences, really doesn't change much about my art. I do owe much of my interest in art to my little brother. In art and coding, there's a lot about him that inspires me, and I've tried to use that to do things my own way. I've been practicing pencil drawing most, which I love, as well as some less common methods of art, like calligraphy and scratchboard. 

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Prior to this course, I really didn't see myself as an art person. A lot of students say that, but every time I'd tried drawing I became frustrated, and gave up - but between my Calculus class and Design and Draw, I've gotten so much more comfortable with the learning process. Making bad art is still making art, and improvement is the goal! I became more excited for the course as time went on, and I'm going to continue working on the skills outside the course too. The discussions helped immensely in showing the level of uncertainty about things that most students felt, and making that uncertainty more comfortable.

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The project that pushed me the most was the scratchboard project, because it shows mistakes, but is also very forgiving! It really helped me learn to have more compassion and love for the mistakes that happen, and just adapt to them rather than get upset. It was new, completely different, and it was also fun which helped propel me through it. It was one of my favorite projects in the end.

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My favorite project was the watercolor, because I'd never done it before. It was really fun from the beginning even if it definitely looked like it was my first time doing it, and I'm hoping to try more kinds of watercolor art and practice more. I had a lot of fun doing color wheel activities, so I would most like to look at how color in watercolor works. It was really fun, even though some colors are a little bit difficult to work with! I would love to develop these skills more on my own.

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With COVID-19 as it is, I did my class entirely from home, and I actually really enjoyed it! It gave me a lot more flexibility, so I could work for as long at a time on something as I wanted. Having the materials for everything was a slight challenge, just because I wasn't at school with all of the access possible, but it was fun working around it and being more creative with materials like on the scratchboard project. Having quiet spaces to work was also difficult, but I ended up figuring it out fairly quickly. Overall, I really thought doing this class online was an experience that I would recommend anyone in high school do!