In this piece, I wanted to capture the details and textures of the objects. At first, I struggled with the onion and it's complex layers. I didn't have the texture or vibrancy that I wanted, so I used many layers of wet on dry to achieve this. I think the background ties in very well with the subject matter. I pulled colors from the foreground and added them to the background to make a cohesive piece.
Painted Turtle
Within this piece, I wanted to capture the colorful shell of the turtle and make it stand out from the rest of the painting. I used a wide variety of bright colors within the shell to demonstrate this. I struggled with the background and making it stand out, but not too much as it would combat the subject matter. I think I could've worked and played with the background texture and values more to improve upon this painting.
Sweater Weather
This piece challenged me to go out of my comfort zone and try to paint fur. It seemed intimidating at first, but I learned that you should paint chunks of value, not every individual strand. I struggled with definition in the face, so I added bigger chunks of value in to try and balance out the texture. I added in bright hues of red, yellow, and blue to the fur to make it less stagnant and more vibrant. The knitted texture of the sweater was intimidating at first, but like the fur, I added chunks of value instead of doing every individual detail.
Rodent
This piece was a challenge of my watercolor abilities. I struggled with the background and giving it more definition as well as making it contrast enough from the foreground. To help achieve this, I added darker values to the animal and gave the shadows underneath it a more blue tone. I added bright yellows throughout the piece, especially in the animal, to make it pop. I think I could improve upon this piece by giving the background more definition and adding richer colors to the animal.
Plein Air Paintings
With these pieces, I tried to capture life in a very colorful way. It was a little bit of a struggle to paint in a plein air style, but once I got the hang of it I improved. The first piece was difficult as I struggled with time and making it look realistic without making an in depth sketch before painting. I added many different colors into the paintings to make them more lively and give them more character. I wanted to depict these images in a realistic, but colorful way.