Majestic Monsters
Photos and more
For my graduating year at W.H. Croxford, I got to do my third and final year in the visual arts and media academy that my school offers. This year is exceptionally special because by now, the grade 12s have been taught how to independently work and achieve our goals with guidance. With that knowledge I have been graciously given the opportunity to do a full semester long independent art project.
At the end of the school year last year, any second year academy student could choose to enroll in their third year. While I’m not sure if each academy had the same entry fee, I know I personally got to write up a proposal with my idea for this year's project. It was a bit daunting as I had all the creative freedom I could ask for, but I decided to step outside my comfort zone. I decided I wanted to do something that would make my younger self proud. Something that let my inner child out. I decided to do a series of paintings of different mythical creatures. While I may not be the best painter and it's something that I definitely struggle with, I figured this would be a learning curve for me.
My project contained 7 acrylic paintings on canvases of different mythical creatures. Each of them are creatures that I either loved and adored as a child or are things that I’ve learnt about more recently and wanted to create a painting of how I envisioned each of them. Some were more difficult than others to create while others came more easily with more inspiration. Many surprised me with the outcomes for both better and worse. I’ve always struggled with drawing anything other than the human figure so The more animalistic paintings were more difficult. That being said, I did learn a lot from this project and my knowledge from my previous years in the academy helped me overcome the many challenges I faced.
With each painting I used different techniques and learned from each mistake I made and changed what I was doing or looked for new ways to solve each problem with each new painting. For example, After spending a long time trying to evenly paint the background color in my first painting, I realized I could achieve the same look in way less time with a paint knife. It helped keep an even coat of paint throughout the whole painting as well as the colors blended nicer. The whole experience really brought me out of my comfort zone but I’m so happy with the results. Even if the painting didn’t turn out how I imagined, I still took a lot away from this class and learned so many new things.
At the end of the school year last year, any second year academy student could choose to enroll in their third year. While I’m not sure if each academy had the same entry fee, I know I personally got to write up a proposal with my idea for this year's project. It was a bit daunting as I had all the creative freedom I could ask for, but I decided to step outside my comfort zone. I decided I wanted to do something that would make my younger self proud. Something that let my inner child out. I decided to do a series of paintings of different mythical creatures. While I may not be the best painter and it's something that I definitely struggle with, I figured this would be a learning curve for me.
My project contained 7 acrylic paintings on canvases of different mythical creatures. Each of them are creatures that I either loved and adored as a child or are things that I’ve learnt about more recently and wanted to create a painting of how I envisioned each of them. Some were more difficult than others to create while others came more easily with more inspiration. Many surprised me with the outcomes for both better and worse. I’ve always struggled with drawing anything other than the human figure so The more animalistic paintings were more difficult. That being said, I did learn a lot from this project and my knowledge from my previous years in the academy helped me overcome the many challenges I faced.
With each painting I used different techniques and learned from each mistake I made and changed what I was doing or looked for new ways to solve each problem with each new painting. For example, After spending a long time trying to evenly paint the background color in my first painting, I realized I could achieve the same look in way less time with a paint knife. It helped keep an even coat of paint throughout the whole painting as well as the colors blended nicer. The whole experience really brought me out of my comfort zone but I’m so happy with the results. Even if the painting didn’t turn out how I imagined, I still took a lot away from this class and learned so many new things.