Here are some pieces of advice that I will most likely follow:

• She suggested buying slow dry to make acrylic paints dry less quickly which I think is a really good idea.
• She said that adding medium is like adding water but better for holding the paint to the canvas, so I think I should invest because I like my paint to be really watery but it sometimes can mess with the paint already on the canvas.
• She mentioned that one can paint the canvas one base color that is common in the entire image before actually starting painting. I really wish I had done this for the Maya Nude, it would have been so easy to paint the whole thing pink to start off with!
• She also told us how she interned for free with an artist and how that experience was very influential for her. This is something I will definitely look into.

After giving the talk to our class she joined me in my workspace to look at the Maya nude and critique my progress. She said that I should fill up the huge white space that I had thus far neglected, and we agreed it was bad to leave so much white space on the canvas. I immediately colored in the space and I think psychologically it does make a difference that it isn’t just blank anymore.

I appreciated these nuggets of wisdom and will hopefully be able to explore them more in depth soon.

The first in-depth project we worked on was an abstract study of an object and complementary colors. I chose a knife, blue and orange. The most fun I had during this project was creating the chromatic grays, I had never created color in that way before.

The next series we worked on was a study of fruit still lives. I was much more interested in this than the abstract nature of the prior project. There were quite a few moments where I felt like I had no idea what I was doing in terms of blending the paint and using brushstroke which was a little scary, but I pushed through any feelings of insecurity. I liked working from still life as I could try to match the colors I was seeing in the fruit to the colors of the paint. I felt myself grow so much during the series of three paintings, in both technical skill but more importantly in confidence. At the time of creating those paintings I was very proud of the final product, looking back now I am more critical. If I think I could do better now I should definitely try again at some point and see how it goes.

The next piece I worked on was a huge leap of faith into a completely different subject. I created a photoshop composition inspired by the works of Magritte and I painted based on many different source images. It was an interesting transition from complete realism to fantasy, but I think it set me up very well for my final project.

Prior to my final project, I wanted to work from real life again to try to experiment more with technique, which I did through my carousel painting. Painting can be both frustrating and miraculous, while I was working on this painting it seemed like it would never come together, but slowly and surely over time, the colors began to create depth in the image.

My final project was a huge breakthrough for me, mostly because I really enjoyed working on it. I loved creating the skin tones, depth, and shadows, it felt like carving more than painting. I have worked on many images involving the body being pierced by ribbons so it was natural to me to paint this image. I am also glad I added clouds, it brought the whole painting together. It reminds me of some of the photoshop work I did earlier in 2017.

Inspired by how much fun I had painting my face and body I did a study as well as another fanciful painting independent of my class.

I am so thankful that Jeffrey was my painting instructor. He was always very encouraging and pushed me in a positive way that was crucial to give me the confidence I needed to continue painting. 

I didn’t go into this project with concepts, just visions. I ended up in the studio for around 4 hours on Friday working through my ideas in more depth which was satisfying. In this time I got used to using the basic tools in a more intuitive way. Hearing the thoughts of my peers and Prof. Ruby today in the critique helped me actually think about the deeper meaning that was inherent to the images I chose. Some of the conclusions I liked the most:

• No eyes= the fact there is no seeing in the first image, while the eye in the second image focuses seeing
• The mirror, the soul could be trapped in the mirror
• The self is evaporating, ethereal, while the table is grounded and strong.
• Inside vs outside spaces

While these were other people’s interpretations, I agreed with them. The biggest conclusion I can draw for myself has to do with gender, how other people see my gender in a way that I do not, so my seeing is often of no importance. How other people see me has nothing to do with how I see myself. How other people see me invokes the lips and speaking, while the mirror, with me taking a selfie, is the small part of me that is trying everyday to capture how I see myself.

Here are the images I used=

Here are my final 3 images=

Masks!

The tool that was most important to me during this process was masks. I watched this very helpful video- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/masking-layers.html

How to do masks!

1. Click on the mask button on the layer you want to work with. For example I wanted to take the background away in the picture of me standing so we could see the could underneath.
2. Yay you made a mask! You can see it on the layer. To work with it make sure you have selected the mask itself, not the image.
3. Make sure your color palette is black and white. Black creates the background, while erasing/white adds back the frontmost picture. For example if I accidently covered up too much of my body with sky, I could erase the sky with white to reveal more of my body again.
4. I found that making selections and using the paint bucket tool was a lot faster than just using the tablet, however I did use the tablet and pen function to do much of the piece.
5. You can select the part of your photo that you want to make into the background with one of the selection tools and use the paint bucket to fill it.

I hope this was helpful!!