Up Close and Personal Theme - Softball

Artists Create Original Work
For this project when we started out by doing the different techniques I noticed how bright the different medias all were. When I was picking my ideas I focused them on bright things, then i thought of doing a softball and I found I really liked the way it turned out in my sketched and trying out the different medias. For my reference pictures I actually took my own pictures to make it easier when i was sketching. I put my original pictures into the sketches and then used the more professionally done pictures for my values and seeing how the color reacts to the light source. I'm really glad I chose to do this idea because I had my object so accessible to me and I was more familiar with it.

Artists Solve Problems
When I was doing my project I noticed how the quality of the construction paper didn't really mix well with the chalk. When I first started the project  by doing my sketches in my sketchbook the color was really bright and vibrant and smooth. On the construction paper the chalk didn't mix smoothly and it made it hard to  layer the colors to get my value in between. Also because of the layering problems I had to leave a blank spot for the stitches of the ball because that was where i had most of my highlights so I needed the whites as bright as possible. Also to overcome the dulling colors and the increased difficulty to layer I just had to spend a lot more time than I originally thought, but i'm glad I did because I thought it turned out really well.

Artists Reflect
My camera made the color look really separated and not blended! For this project I really had to step back and look at it to make sure I was following my value well and staying true to how it would really look. When I had to move onto the second softball (bottom right) I remembered how hard it was to get my color bright so when I had to move onto the next one I tried making the back completely white and then adding on top of the white. Even though I thought this would help it really didn't make that much of a difference but I'm glad I tested it out. My favorite part of this project was when I would finally do the stitches and laces because it really tied everything together and make it look really good. I had to do this part last because it had to be completely on top of the other colors to make it the most prominent and to keep it separated. I also faced a challenge when deciding my background. I originally was just going to do dirt/sand because I thought grass was going to be really hard. I am very happy with the grass though. I thought it added a really great factor that i hadn't thought of. I know I was dreading doing the background because I thought it was going to ruin everything but it turned out great! Overall, this was my favorite project even though i had to wash my hands 3,000 times I loved the way this one turned out compared to other projects.