Letter to a friend about your self-portrait

Hi Sonja! 18/11/2011

How are you? Did you enjoyed you holiday a lot? I’m writing you to tell you about my self-portrait we made in the art classes. Your art skills are much better than mine but I’m just wondering what you think of my work. It was my first time I painted a self-portrait. I even never draw one before. So I was really wondering what would be the result.

The way we had to make our self-portrait was based on the work of Van Gogh. The way he painted his self-portrait. First we had to sketch ourselves. Than we could started to paint. I’ve made two painting. In the one I tried to give a happy expression and the other one a serious expression. The background of the drawing is really important to show your expression. So to give a happy expression I used the colours blue, yellow and green. You had to make sure you didn’t mix them to much because that is what Van Gogh did. In the other drawing with the serious expression I used dark blue, red and purple. I’m quite happy with my backgrounds. The reason why I wanted a happy expression and a serious expression was because that is who I am. Sometimes I’m very serious but I can also be very happy. After I finished my background I started with painting my face. The hardest thing was to show the expression on your face. For this I tried to use shadows but it was so hard. You can see it in my drawing that it went a bit wrong.

I like the one with the dark blue, red and purple background the most. Our cloths had to fit with or background. So you had to make sure you don’t have really happy cloths and a serious background. That is why I used the colours dark blue and dark green. It was hard to mix the same colour as your real hair because it is a bit impossible. I am pleased with my hair colour because it took a lot of time. The skin colour I have in the drawing is much better than in the other one. I don’t know what went wrong with my eyes and lips in the drawing where I was meant to be happy. They give a very serious expression. It is still a mystery to me why that one is so bad. I really don’t like it.

It was nice to do and I enjoyed it a lot. I hope you like my paintings. Please give me instruction how I can do it better next time. Did you made a self-portrait before?

I hope to hear you soon!
Yours,
Claire

Self-portrait

We had to make a self-portrait in Van Gogh style. I never did this before. The hardest thing for me were the shadows which make you portrait look more real. One painting of me is much better than the other one. I don’t know what went wrong but my eyes and lips are really bad at that painting with the green and yellow background. I did my best and I am quite happy with my paintings, especially the one with the blue, red and purple background.

Cathedral project

Cathedral project

We had to do this project in different steps. I am going to explain each step:

Step 1

Fist we all had to search for some information to design a cathedral. For example which tools they used or who worked on it or what kind of building style did they have and things like that.

Step 2

We had to make a list of the different parts of a cathedral. We indicated directly these parts on our map of the cathedral.

Step 3

Here we had to make a map of our cathedral with some ideas we had. You also had to make it clear by using some pictures. (I had to do this step)

Step 4

We had to finish every thing and think how long it will take to build the cathedral.

Step 5

We need to discus with al the other groups about what we finally has as our end result.

It was a nice project, but it took really long. It was like there was no end on this project. But when I looked back to what we did about this project, we learned a lot. It was nice to do but I am also really happy it is finished.

gargoyle

My gargoyle

This is a part of the Cathedral project. We had to draw a scary gargoyle that dispel devils. I used pastels to work it out. I tried to make it very scary. I am happy with my work

Brainstorming

Brainstorming

This assignment was to practice your brainstorming. We did it first with words and after it with pictures. I’ve never done this before. It is a nice way to express what you think about any subject. I am satisfied with my work.

The printing press

The printing press

This is my printing press. The assignment was to make a printing press that has something to do with yourself. I am pleased with my work. Unfortunately when I printed it not all the ink came on the paper. So you can see some white spots between the print. However it was a nice experience to do.