Semester summary

Starting this semester I was trying hard to think of a project I could start working on straight away. This started by painting two portraits in that were created using different techniques. the first being a bug like creature painted with a round brush with spacing added to the brush so that it gave some very basic texture to the painting. This was a technique I learnt from watching an Anthony Jones video titled 'painting with confidence.' I was still interested this semester in trying new techniques and methods of producing work despite feeling more confident with the looser style paintings I started to produce in previous semesters. I figured there was no point in closing myself off to other techniques that may also work well for me. The second painting I did around this time was some fan art of DVA from Overwatch but painted in a more classical style. I thought the idea of transforming one style into another would be an interesting practice to have a go at and possibly help to develop my loose painting style more as it could produce new issues I would have to figure out when it came to replicating certain looks into this style. 

I also had the potential opportunity to work as a pair this semester with another student who focused more on 3D and building levels in Ue4. He needed someone to paint concepts and I agreed to work with him on his establish project. However it didn't take me long to realise that this wasn't the best option for myself to take as I knew I was looking for a project with a bit more freedom to paint more various landscapes and topics. The project I would be working on was a zombie game set in a realistic world that would be overgrown. This didn't really excite me as an idea because it's been seen before many times through out the gaming industry and even in other forms of entertainment such and tv, films and literature. I cam to the decision to leave that project before getting too far into the project. The secondary reason I decided that this wasn't a good choice to work on was because I needed to be producing pieces of art that would stand out in a portfolio and when being hired it not just about the skill in painting but also the actual idea being the concept work. 

After this I felt a bit of pressure to quickly think of another project idea I could focus that would allow me to achieve my goal of painting various environments. I wanted to do this as my previous project mostly consisted of wild west painting as I had set myself that theme. Although enjoying that project and being passionate about it at the time it did create a comfort zone of only painting western feeling landscapes as I knew I could paint them better after having the practice. I briefly started to work on a second project about mice that hunt larger creatures. It was going to be a sort of knight verses dragons twist using the perspective of a mouse to make what would normally look small to us seem large. I started working on how the mice would look. The first thing I did was to start sketching the faces to test what style the project could be in. It started looking like more of a cartoon design and evolved more into a realistic look. I then tested out how the mouse would stand and hold its posture and once finding a pose I liked I painted over it with some costume designs. While doing this I could tell it wasn't going to be a project I'd be happy working on throughout the semester and it suffered the same problem as the zombie game where I wouldn't be able to paint a wide range of environments or themes.

Last semesters project felt different as I had more time early on to plan what I would be doing as a project as I was mainly focused on artist research and studies for the first two months.

I thought about what it was I wanted to gain from this semester and it wasn't to craft a themed project this time around. I wanted to give myself the chance to paint whatever I wanted in order to help improve areas that I felt I lacked in such as forced perspective and fantasy environments. I ended up Just letting myself paint whatever I wanted to. This way I could focus on a wide range of topics and also methods of painting and would still then have the chance to try new artist techniques along the way. However I do like having projects to work on as I have more focus when being able to craft a larger project as I think of more ideas when developing it further. During this semester I made it my goal to have two projects already established and thought of by the time this semester ends so that I could start the third semester knowing what I will be doing. I'd be using the concepts and studies I painted throughout this semester to help think of these ideas. This also turned into an exploration of not only painting concepts but finding a way I could create them more efficiently and effectively while still enjoying the process. I ended up finding this process through using a split canvas technique so that I could work on two paintings at a time. Doing this help me identify issues in my paintings faster as when coming back to one painting after focusing on the other gave me fresh eyes when looking at it. Usually I would take breaks when painting in order to achieve the same effect but once starting to use this method I no longer have to spend as much time away from the paint therefore helping me to speed up the process of painting despite having double the work load. When starting the paintings I've started painting a mess of colours and shapes to get rid of the fear of painting on an empty canvas and to start seeing ideas through the mess of colours and shapes that I've placed down.

As I was creating paintings using different methods towards the end of the semester I wanted to get back into painting some studies as I felt I was starting to loose the looseness with my brush strokes and my style wasn't up to scratch. 

Refreshing myself with studies had a greater effect than I originally had thought. At first I was planning on painting them as just a way to get the looseness of my brush strokes back as I used studies to help define that style in the first semester. However this time around as I was more confident with that style it allowed me to focus more on looking at what I was studying properly and learn more in depth about what makes the study appealing to paint in the first place. Such as colour schemes used, the contrast of lighting and the composition. I felt that these studies helped me greatly not only in improving my skills but also in coming up with a project idea. the studies helped me to develop two ideas that I am now going to be working on in the third semester. 

Over all I'm please with the progress I've made this semester compared to the last. a big sign of improvement I can see in my work is the studies from last semester compared to this one. I'll carry on working on studies through next semester as well as my projects because I've found they're a great way to learn and keep my technique fresh. I'm glad I made the decision this semester to give myself the freedom of painting a wider range of topics as It's helped me to become more confident with painting a wider range and allowed me to practice different styles and methods of producing work and not having them look out of place.