Project by: Natalie Peña (10th Grade)
Project Advisor: James French
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Preethi

This trimester, I spent my time focusing on two paintings: a still life, and a portrait. Painting the still life was a very long, tedious process that ended with an acrylic painting of a banana, book, piece of paper, jug, jar, and other small items. Here is a photo of the still life once I had finished sketching it out, and had just begun painting it:

I was unable to complete the portrait with the time I had left, but I still put a lot of work into getting it to where it ended. Learning how to mix colors, how to make skin tone-color, drawing the human face, and working with light and shadow was also very difficult, but I’m happy with what I took from it.

REFLECTION

While neither of the paintings I did are necessarily something I would want displayed in my house (or anywhere, for that matter), I know that I learned a lot about painting from this Honors Project. I learned how to be patient with the paint, how to mix colors, how to layer paint (like how you’d paint the face skin tone onto where the hair should be and then go back and paint the hair over where the skin was), and other things that really changed the way I think of painting. I’m excited to paint more in the future with these new skills/insight, and see where it gets me!

T3 UPDATE

Over the course of this trimester, I have done value charts with watercolor for the color red, two shades of green, blue, yellow, brown, and black; two quick still life watercolor paintings; and a mini gouache painting of a stuffed dinosaur. The plan is to explore acrylic and oil painting next trimester, and I’m very excited!

T2 UPDATE

The project has switched from doing a painting of a photo to exploring different painting mediums. We plan on extending this Honors Project to cover two trimesters.

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T3 Project Proposal

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

This is a continuation of an Honors Project I started last trimester with James. It originally started with the intention of just creating an acrylic painting, but very early on into the project, it switched to exploring multiple painting mediums (watercolor, gouache, acrylic and oil). I hope to learn how to use these mediums properly.

Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?

I’ll be using creativity because I’ll be painting, which is a creative form of expressing yourself. I’ll also be drawing on courage, because it can be scary trying something new for the first time (like a new medium).

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?

The outcome will be a finished piece with the different mediums, which is how I will demonstrate successful completion of my Project. I hope to sharing my learnings/painting by exhibiting my work, maybe on the wall if it’s good enough?

Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?

There’s no set goals, but I’ll speak to my teacher to see how we could come up with ways to ensure we’ll finish the project.

When do you plan on meeting?
Mondays during lunch

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T2 PROPOSAL

Project by: Natalie Peña (10th Grade)
Project Advisor: James French
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Preethi Thomas-McKnight

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

In this I will be doing a painting of a photo that I have. I want to take it on because painting is something that I really enjoy, but I don’t really know much about it, and this would be the perfect opportunity to better my skills.

Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?

I’ll draw on creativity by making art in the studio, and a little bit of courage too because I have to be certain that the strokes I make on the canvas are the right ones because I can’t erase it or anything!

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?

The outcome will be a painting of whichever photo I choose to paint. I plan on sharing it with the community maybe by hanging it up on a wall(?).

Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?

Not quite sure, can I get back to you on this?

When do you plan on meeting?
Wednesdays x-block and another day of the week after school (TBD)