2014 Reflections: Part Two - Favorite Medium

Which medium did you most enjoy working with and why? 


This semester the medium I enjoyed working with the most was oil pastels. Although they can make your hands pretty dirty I enjoyed working with it because of the many techniques it allows. For example in the Space-theme project I used oil pastels.For the planet on which the aliens are standing, I used the scumbling technique, and by applying it many layers, it gave the planet a unique texture and let it seem more realistic. For the Saturn planet I used techniques like burnishing and added highlights to make it seem like the light from the spaceship was falling upon it.

For the 2 in 1 project I also used oil pastels which stood out and contrasted well with the black and white text background. I liked how oil pastels burnish when you apply it in layers to create a vibrant color and unique texture. Using this technique I colored the flamingoes with peach red yellow and white oil pastels.it burnished well and the flamingoes had a natural color.

Overall I like how vibrant oil pastels can be on paper because it helps produce a contrast in your artwork. I like how if you make a mistake, you can simply add more layers of oil pastel to cover it up.I also enjoyed exploring highlights,core shadows and cast shadows in one of our warmups with oil  pastels.
 ~Anam

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Fire!! Thats all I really have to say. It was the most risky medium I have worked with. My portfolio is basically, acrylic, pencil, acrylic, acrylic, FIRE! 

I really did not think my plan would work, which it did fail the first attempt but second time was exactly how I imagined it would look- actually better. It was great for lighting and gaining the audience's attention. It gave a great feel to my piece, just how I people feel excited during a circus performance. 



During the D.C trip in the gift shop of the contemporary art museum, there was a book called Food Art. I just flipped through the pages thinking- How did I not think of that?! Food Art is brilliant, and the possibilities are infinite. There was just bananas suspended in the air and a light above them so on the floor was a shadow of a monkey (haha I am the banana girl). Absolutely genius!

~Michelle

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My favorite medium by far is colored pencil because it allows me to draw with precision while I am still able to mix colors and blend like when using paint. Also, at the end of the year, I made a colored pencil piece with white pencils on black paper which I really enjoyed because I had to emphasize the light values rather than the dark values on a normal colored pencil piece.

My biggest regret about this semester is limiting myself to colored pencil as medium. I wish I would have explored new mediums because I may have found a new favorite one. A few mediums I would have like to tried are watercolor, stenciling, and mixed-media/collage. 

~Anna
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I enjoyed working with the cardboard during this semester. Working with the cardboard allowed me to make one of my favorite pieces that I made during this class. Cardboard is a very interesting media to work with, because mistakes cannot be reverted, and you only have one way to change the way it looks. 

Due to how simplistic cardboard is, it makes it look very easy to reach your vision for the artwork. I was only able to create one piece with this media, (shown above) which I feel turned out very well.

~Chris


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Over the course of the year I got to work with a lot of different medium that I either haven't worked with in a long time or at all. My favorite medium that I got to work with this year was the duct tape. 

During the perspective project our group decided to work with duct tape as our medium. It was a lot of fun I've never thought about completing a project with duct tape before. That was probably my favorite because it was something new and different to work with and it was a group project so I got the chance to do it with a bunch of my friends. 

~ Madyson

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