I realized when I had finished all my blogs, I was supposed to write them likr a paper style. Well, I ended up writing them as separate blogs to each question. So, if you scroll down, each of the blogs that say - Final Blogs, are the blogs for the questions you sent us. :)

    I really enjoyed my time in Foundations this year. I liked how Mrs. Story taught us in depth about art, instead of just staying on the surface. Like, we learned about vanishing points, perspective, and shading techniques. In the art classes I've taken before this one, I was not properly introduced to those techniques. Therefore, I'm really happy that Mrs. Story taught us how to do those things and I'm also happy that we did not only do drawing, but also some painting. I was able to learn the techniques Mrs. Story taught us and also figure out some tricks while I practiced my drawing and painting skills. The only two things I would change about this class, is 1. be able to play music while we work on our art. I'm fine with Mrs. Story playing her music, but I just like to have music on while working. And 2. I don't think this class should have any quizzes/tests. Although I did well on every one of them, I think art should be fun, not making the students have to not look forward to the class to take a quiz. Besides, I don't think they really helped me. I mean, it's fine if Mrs. Story assigns lots of assignments, but it's just annoying to study for a quiz in art.
    But, I'm very happy with my progress in this class. I have learned so much more than what I could've learned on my own. I have very much improved. Before, I could barely draw anything/paint anything. But, by using Mrs. Story's techniques, I am now able to draw in perspective and be able to shade correctly. I can also now figure out how to draw things by just looking at them.
    I've always been a more artsy type of person, but the irony is, is that I could never draw anything without making myself look completely stupid. :P Now, I'm able to show my art talent that Mrs. Story has taught me and can apply it to my everyday life. Even before I was enrolled in this class, I have liked to draw and at least, attempt to draw things in my house, in the car, or somewhere else. I've always wanted to be good at art, I've just never had the opportunity, (especially since this is my first year at Lovett, and my old school did not have an art program, so I haven't known about any tricks to drawing). But now, I am so happy and proud to say that I can finally draw something without me making myself look stupid or the drawing in itself look stupid.
    Yes, I am taking another art class next year during the spring semester. I am going to be taking Advanced Drawing, after Mrs. Story's recommendation and also because of my own interest in drawing. I feel like drawing is my strength in art and I would like to pursue that.
    Anyhoo, as I have said before, I have really enjoyed this class and I thank Mrs. Story for being patient with me, especially when I made really big mistakes on my artwork. :)

    I finally finished my painting! :) I really like how it turned out. I liked the colors I picked and I also like how I kept the same square patterns for Alison's hair and for the background, but I like how I changed it a bit for her face. I decided to keep doing the monochromatic colors, but instead of painting squares inside of squares, I decided to put paint strokes onto the squares. Depending on the color of the square, I added on both dark and light brown colors. I decided to to this pattern to not only make it look more unique, but also to keep varying the styles of my painting. I also added swirls of light brown to some of the squares instead of painting the paint strokes. But, I decided to paint a somewhat thick layer of paint strokes right under her chin to show the shadow. I decided to keep her lips plain and simple. I painted them a pink-ish tan color and added a darker tan line to show the separation of her lips. I painted her eyes their original color, gray-ish green, but decided to make her brows and eyelids a dark brown to fit with the color of her hair. I also added a slight glimmer to her eyes (the small white dot on the corners of her pupils) to show the shine and shading in her eyes. I really like how I painted her eyes, though, because whenever you look at the painting, the first thing you look at is her eyes. That means her eyes stand out against the rest of the painting, which I really like.

     I mean, I'm not working on my project anymore. But I guess you could count my day 38 and 39 project blogs "how's it's going" blogs, so I'll just let you read those for how my painting was going when I was working on it.

    I decided to paint Alison Krauss, not only because she is really pretty but also because she's one of my favorite singers. I also looked into doing J. R. Tolkien, but he isn't one of those "picture" type of guys, so I decided to stick with Alison. My painting sort of came out exactly as I had depicted it. I just really wanted to make sure I did something different than everyone else, because I wanted to keep my style unique. But, I had hoped it would've come out a little less fuzzy looking. What I mean in fuzzy, is that I wish I had gotten my lines and all the squares completely straight and smooth looking. And, I guess the reason why I could not do that is because of the tremor in my hand, as I have talked about in an earlier post. I feel like this project has helped me learn how to keep my hand more steady, but I still have that slight shake, which really stinks because I really try my best to make straight lines. Anyway, I decided to pick the monochromatic blue color for my background because it's my favorite color. And then I asked Mrs. Story if I could do something a little different than just the circle pattern, and she said yes. So, I planned on doing squares but when I saw other people in my class starting to paint squares, I wanted to do something different. So, I still painted the squares, but I made it into a different pattern. I actually really liked how they turned out, but if I had to change something, I would try to make my squares inside my squares more clean looking, (i.e. paint the lines straighter). I also decided to do the same pattern for Alison's hair. I decided to paint her hair monochromatic brown colors, to 1. to keep the monochromatic pattern going, 2. to relate the brown color to the blue background colors (which go nicely), and 3. because brown is my other favorite color. :P I actually pictured my painting with dark blue colors in the background and dark brown colors for her hair, but I couldn't make that many different dark blue and brown colors, and I needed the colors to vary a bit. So, I ended up adding not only dark brown and blue colors, but also some lighter colors too. I then decided to make Alison's face normal skin colors and add gray-ish green eyes and pale-ish pink lips. As I had already said, my painting came out pretty good. I like the colors I chose and it actually looks somewhat like Alison, except that it isn't painted precisely and looks more like a unique modern piece. But, I still like it. :)

   I've been working on my painting now for about 2 weeks. It's actually looking pretty good. I like the colors I've used for my background and I also like my design. I decided to keep the same design for both my background and her hair, just so it won't get too busy looking. I painted her hair with different brown colors and then painting squares inside each of those. Then, I ended touching up my painting with a few specks of dark brown, just to give the design a little more flair. I am now working on her face and skin. I've decided to paint her skin a skin color, and then I will add a few swirls on each of the squares to spruce it up a bit. I also went ahead and outlined my person's face and hand. I will also outline her eyes, nose, and mouth. After I've finished painting her face with the skin color, I will then paint her eyes, eyebrows, and mouth. I actually really like how my painting is coming. I like the colors I've used - they contrast nicely, and I like how I've done my designs so far. We only have one more class left, so I hope to finish it then. I might come in one last time tomorrow during my free just to make sure I finish it, but otherwise, I'm excited to see how it will turn out. :) 

    Today, I finished painting the background of my drawing and started to paint my person's hair. I decided to paint the background a monochromatic blue color. I used pale blue, light blue, blue, darkish blue, and dark blue. I really like how it's turned out and I think it will be a nice background to the person who I am now working on. After I finished painting the background, I then started painting the person's hair. I've decided to make her hair a dark brown/brown color, even though that is not the original color of her hair. But, I asked Mrs. Story if I had to paint her hair the exact color that was in the picture, and she said no, so I decided to make up my own colors that still sort of relates to her hair, but are different. In the next class, I hope to keep painting her hair but also start to add extra patterns to the blue background. Originally, we were supposed to add circles to each square, but I asked Mrs. Story if I could do something a little different and add squares inside of the square instead. She told me that was fine, so I'll hopefully be adding those in the next class too. 
   When we first started this project, I had a hard time painting the lines really straight because I have a slight jitter in my hands. I don't know why, but my hands have always shaken a little, ever since I was a child. So, this has really prevented me from painting straight lines. But thankfully, I have learned a new technique! Instead of just holding the paintbrush in one hand or having my hand sit on the desk, I've figured out that if you hold the paintbrush with your writing hand and then put your other hand on your writing hand to make your hand steady, you can easily paint the lines straight by holding the paintbrush with both hands. It might look/feel a little odd, but it really works. 
   But, like I had said before, I'm really excited to see how my painting will turn out. I really like the person I am drawing and I like the colors I am painting on  the canvas. 

    We finally finished our color wheels! Mine didn't come out as well as I had expected because I have a very unsteady hand and therefore can't really make straight lines even if I put my hand down on the table. I spent about 2 - 3 days making it, and I wanted to move on, so I decided to leave it as it is. But, I'm taking Foundations to get better at painting, so I hope I can learn how to keep my hand more steady and therefore be better at making straight lines. I am already accomplishing that in our last project in making the background colored squares. I'm excited to see how my painting will turn out!

    Because I missed a day this week for RAFT (on Tuesday), I am a day behind everyone else who had class on Tuesday. So today, I worked on drawing my image on my canvas. I am drawing Alison Krauss, one of my favorite singers, so that will be nice. I started out drawing my person really well, but when I asked Mrs. Story about how to draw Alison's nose (which I was having quite a hard time with) she told me I was off on the grid on my picture and on my canvas. So unfortunately, I had to erase the whole thing and start over again. I guess that was good though, because this way I will be getting more practice drawing people and I will know that my drawing will be better than if I had kept it the old way. However, I did waste a lot of time (about 45 minutes) drawing it the first time in class, so I only had about 15 minutes to try and re-draw my picture. I only got to erase the whole thing and finish the bottom half of the picture, so hopefully, I will be able to finish the drawing on the canvas in the next class. I am hoping to paint my picture with an analogous color scheme, probably Violet-Red, Violet, Blue-Violet, and Blue, so that will be nice when I start painting. Overall though, I'm really excited to see how this is going to turn out, especially since I haven't had much experience with drawing people and painting, but I hope to improve these skills with this project. So far, I think my drawing is ok. I just need to keep up with the rest of the class and make sure that I don't make anymore mistakes! :P

    Today, I finished working on my palette for painting. I tried to paint inside the lines the best I could. The only issue is is that my hand shakes (even when I put it down on the table). I don't know why it does that, but it has always shaken a little when I try to hold it still, so that makes painting extra hard when you want to keep lines straight (and you can't use a ruler). But, the places where I did go over the lines, I tried to cover up with white paint. Besides finishing the palette, I also took a color quiz. I got a 100% on it, so I guess I don't need to explain any of my answers. I thought it was a little challenging, just because I couldn't really tell what the colors were, but I guess I got lucky. :) For the next class, we are supposed to bring in a picture of a famous person or just a picture of ourselves to paint. I am going to be bringing in a picture of Alison Krauss, one of my favorite musicians. I'm excited to start working on this next project and I hope to be able to learn some techniques to how to keep my hand still when painting.... :P