Landscape Reflection

1. For this project, I wanted to incorporate texture into my drawings and pictures while also showing tension. At first, I didn't really know how to control the ink coming from the brush/caligraphy pen, so a lot of my drawings had many darker values, which brought out the lighter values and created a nice contrast. However, I wasn't as happy with that first one, since I thought they looked "messy," and I think part of that was because I could see where I messed up. For my next drawing, I was proud of it and liked how I gained control of the flow of ink, even though the mountains further away should have been lighter than the ones closer to the foreground. I also tried to make more meaningful strokes in the drawings, which helped to make them look slightly more polished. With all of these lessons that I learned throughout the project, I was able to make my final drawing (the picture of it is attached) my most successful, since it included a variety of textures and values. I became much more comfortable with painting the trees with the mountains, and I really liked how the leaves on the trees had a combination of light and dark values. I took a different approach when taking my pictures at Phoenix Lake. Although I still included the moments of tension, I unintentially took more close-ups than landscape pictures. I really like my first picture (attached) because the area where I focused it draws the most attention. I also like how the background has lighter and darker values mixed into it. I also liked my second picture because the tree roots create an abstract pattern.

2. Based on the feedback I got, I did a good job of using textures and contrast. Also, the people who wrote the feedback said that they liked how I used mountains to create a calming tone. Some suggestions were that I could have added more of a variety in my paintings so that it's easier to find a theme. In some of the paintings, I should have made the background darker than the foreground. I think I also should have also made my second picture a little darker to bring out the dark values.