Reference PhotoIn progressFInal This is my sixth concentration piece, a watercolor of a Plane tree in Geneva, Switzerland. These trees are all scattered around Geneva, but I took this picture right outside of Parc de Bastions. These trees are a hybrid of different types of sycamore trees that have umbrella branches that provide shade. When my family first landed in Geneva I was so fascinated with these trees -who wouldn't be- and at one point we asked out Swiss-German waiter in Bern, Switzerland the Swiss-German name for it. This city is an important banking town, so there were not a lot of touristy things to do.
When I started this piece I decided I was going to make the background more saturated and the foreground muted. After I sketched out the tree and the building I painted the sky with a more navy blue. The building was interesting because its a yellow-brown-green color and I do not have the skill to do that so I just decided on orange. I then added a muted green color on the top of building directly behind the Plane tree. When I started on the tree I focused on the harsh darks to ease into it; yes, I am more comfortable with going extremely dark first - it's backwards. I mixed brown and black to get the grey color you see in the tree. I would add more shading to some parts of the tree and more highlights to others depending on the reference picture. I tried to make this as close to the picture as possible. I didn't run into many problems but I was worried that the tree would fall a little flat with few values, so I hope it has enough. My problem was with getting the really light lights because I was also doing very dark darks at the same time as the highlights. If I could go back and do this again I would clean up the buildings in the back, but it doesn't bother me too much. This is my second watercolor and I am starting to really enjoy painting with it. I Finished this project in less than a week - That is a record. I am so proud of myself. I think my next one will also be watercolor, but after that one I have to start to use a different medium. I am just scared to use oil paint because I know it takes me so long to do.
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Reference PhotoIn ProgressFinal This is my fifth concentration piece, a city-scape of an apartment building in the 7th Arrondissement of Paris. This was the view from the terrace right outside the quaint apartment my family stayed in for three days. This building was built in the 1800s, which is represented in the roofing and the overall architecture seen in this photo - this building even had an entrance for horse-drawn carriages. Once my family settled into the apartment, my mom told me these apartments get passed down generations through rich french families. The inside was up-to-date and had a spiral staircase! This picture is very line heavy, so I am going to emphasize them and I also want to make the sky a really vibrant blue for the heck of it.
When I started this piece I knew I could not draw straight lines at all, so I decided to trace it. I also traced it so I could finish this piece earlier. I am very pressed on time and very stressed out, but who isn't? After I used transfer paper to trace I went over it and created more lines and made the traced ones darker. Next I started on actually painting. I knew I wanted to focus on the blues in the image, so I used a navy and cobalt blue to create the different blues. I added black into the blues if I wanted it to be darker or more muted. This project was more meticulous than hard. The challenges I faced were painting all of the dark black lines in the piece. The black was never dark enough at first, so I would have to go over it multiple times. I was worried about layering because I did not want it to look messy or ruined. I like the muted tones in the piece with the vibrant roof. If I had to do this project over again, I would make it less messy. I think I am going to do more water color pieces. I finished this in three work days - I am so proud of myself. |
AuthorEach piece I post here will be added to my AP Art Portfolio. This is the second half of my yearlong journey in Art 4/AP Art. I will be extremely stressed, do to the pressed time . I hope everything goes well and I will actually have 24 pieces to submit to College Board Archives
May 2019
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