Project by: Alexa Kennedy (12th Grade)
Project Advisor: James French
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Karyn Silverman
Description of the Project:
Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):
Final Reflection on Learning:
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Trimester 1 Updates:
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
For the first two weeks of my honors project this trimester, I worked on my fairy self portrait from last year. I’m thinking of calling it “Queen of the Butterflies”, but I’m not sure yet if I like that title or not. As most of the piece was done already, for the most part I worked on painting my skin and face. A challenging part of this process for me was deciding whether or not to keep the face highlights I had put in, and in the end I decided that they should stay. The final touch on this piece was adding some butterfly polka dots onto my wings, as originally I had planned to keep them very simple. Here is a photo of my finished piece (once I get a better photo of it, I will replace this photo):
After I finished this painting, I continued to work on another painting from last year. This one depicts at cat at the white house on the computer, and so far I have been working on blocking in colors before I work on refining the details in the painting. My goal for this next piece is to make a political statement somehow, so I am spending a lot of time thinking on how to convey that visually. I have only been working on this painting for a month, and so I haven’t taken any photos of it yet. Once I update this project for weeks 4-6, I will include some more progress photos of that painting!
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During these weeks, I worked on finishing the drawing part of my cat painting and trying to block out all of the colors in it. I haven’t added too many details to this painting yet, and I am excited to make the painting feel much more presidential and regal. Some of the challenges I have when creating this painting are the perspective of the desk, the texture of the cat, and rendering the details of the white house. Here is the painting so far:
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
These past two weeks I have worked on fixing up errors in the painting. I repainted the walls white and am trying to adding wall paper and crown molding to indicate that the cat is in the white house. I also fixed the desk so that the perspective makes more sense. Now, my main goal is to make this painting look as presidential as possible, which making the cat at the computer the focal point.
Trimester 2
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Over this past trimester, I have tried to add as much detail to make this painting more interesting and magical as I can. I spent a lot of time on the resolute desk, especially the shading I had to render due to the painting’s perspective. For what is on the computer, my friend suggested painting a sexy cat on the screen, and I thought it was a very clever and provocative idea. As I work on finishing this piece, I want to see what other details I can add to make it as intriguing and absurd as possible. Here is the painting so far:
