Wow, it’s hard to believe we are already halfway through our senior project – it’s amazing how short five weeks really is. My project is one that relies heavily on how quickly I can not only comprehend an idea, but apply it in technique. The ideas have come naturally the technique not so much, but maybe it’s not a technique if it comes naturally.

Technique and ideas are something that I’ve struggled with in all of my self learning experiences. My deep dive into math had a communication of both until I passed into the realm where I didn’t have enough time to put in the practice required. CS was something that I always focused on theory, because outside of practice problems I didn’t have a lot of natural ways to put it into practice. Guitar is the outlier, it started and has remained a purely physical discipline. My understanding of theory is entirely reliant on my understanding of the guitar. Sketching has been interesting, because I’m noticing myself getting better at control over my charcoal or seeing important ideas, but at the same time I’m so new to it that this progress seems to be a log graph when compared to its linear brother rooted in theory.

This by no means I haven’t been proud of my work and more importantly improvements, but it helped point out the parts of art that can be grasped in a week, and never perfected in a lifetime. In concrete terms this would be something like value control while keeping a constant edge, or seeing the gradient ambient occlusion in the cast shadow. I might be able to overcome some of these issues with just working on more iterations, but I also think I might be able to approach it from a different angle. 

The biggest change I’ve seen in my focus is how I’ve moved away from landscape drawing, or rather been putting it off until I feel more comfortable with some prerequisites that I only realize while working on something else – for example, perspectives, shading, and texture. The weather has also not been very conducive to going outside with drawing materials – snow, rain, and hail.

My goals for the project were made to be lost, because you’re seldom in the driving seat with art – especially one you have little experience with. I’m confident that I want to focus on ending with a portrait of myself, some type of landscape work, and some realistic shading of still life. We will see if I achieve any of these goals, or rather make something that couldn’t be described as my contribution to abstract modern art. 

In conclusion, I’m proud of the work I’ve done because while I didn’t see the roadblocks I ran into, I knew this metaphorical road was in a similar situation to America’s infrastructure – bumpy. I find some of the theoretical applications interesting – especially how light and shadow works – and enjoy taking notes on them. I don’t have any plans to work with hue or chroma, but I might just learn some of the basics out of personal interest.