TED Talk Reflection

Four to five minutes: 3/3

PPT, Prezi, other?: 3/3 I did have a powerpoint, which might have been simple, but I don't think it drove the presentation.

Creative and Supplemental: 3/5 I think I could have been more creative with both my presentation and visual component.

Inspire through your passion: 4/5 I used what I had learned from drawing, my passion, to try to give advice for the audience to use when pursuing their own passion.

Show your product: 2/2 I showed my product by displaying my drawings in the presentation.

Explain your process: 2/2 I explained how I created my timeline, and what I discovered through following this timeline.

What is your purpose: 2/2 I feel that this was shown when I explained the process by which I chose to study the  three famous artists.

Organization: 3/4 I feel like my organization could have been better, as the time I devoted to each part was not even.

Delivery: 3/4 I could have been more enthusiastic, and been more independent from my notes.

If anything, this project was a success in the sense that I have rediscovered why I like drawing, and now I feel more motivated to continue improving. Who knows, with the right steps, maybe one day I could be the next Escher! (or Dali, or Hokusai, or Pollock, or anybody else who is a really good artist).

Style

I have realized through this process that I learn a lot of lessons on my own, which is not what I expected at the beginning of this project. If there are so many resources on the web and in the library, I assumed it must be hard to improve one's drawing skills on his/her own. But I have learned that you can teach yourself a lot of things simply through practice. You start to pick up on mistakes you are repeatedly making, and improve them. I feel like getting better at drawing is really just a matter of trying to improve in a certain area, and then experimenting with new areas and subjects until you learn how to successfully draw them. This, I believe, is how one develops a style.

I have talked a little about developing a style, and it's because without one, you are no different from the everyone else. Though to me, it seems like something that would come naturally when I look at artists like Hokusai, I find it difficult to draw in a way that is unique to me. Instead of the style finding me, I have to go and search for the style. The annual art show is really good at exemplifying different styles, where each student's panel is completely different from the one's beside it. I can tell that a lot of the students in the higher level art classes have found their style. Seeing this makes me want to develop my own more than ever, and I was hoping to accomplish this through the project. However, I think the way in which I organized my project inhibited me a bit.

I decided in the beginning that studying famous and accomplished artists would be the best way to improve my technical drawing skill, because in trying to emulate them and their work, I would need to raise my standards. I would say that this worked out for the most part, since this forced me to draw with a more careful nature, and pay more attention to detail. However, while this method might have been good in that sense, I never really allowed myself to be free. If I had spent more time drawing from my imagination instead of trying to copy various elements from Escher, Dali, and Hokusai's work, I probably would have been one step closer to finding a style that suits me, a place where I felt comfortable and where I interpret others work with my own style instead of simply copying it as best I can.

Of course, my timeline for this project was not completely hindering. Since art has been being created for thousands of years, some would say that there are no completely new ideas anymore; everything is based off of something else. Since I chose artists whose work I enjoy, hopefully I can try to use their work to develop who I am as an artist.

Unorganized

I feel like these past weeks have flown by, I can't believe it has already been this long. This week, I worked on my final piece, which will complete my final product of four drawings. I wanted it to encompass the styles and unique aspects of MC Escher, Salvador Dali, and Katsushika Hokusai, as well as express my own style. Throughout this entire process, I have been focusing on a particular artist, attempting to draw something that looks as similar as possible to their original work. Though I have slightly altered the composition of their pieces, such as my first drawing, which included aspects from Drawing Hands and Relativity, I don't feel like they are my own. Of course, I believe this kind of copying has proved helpful in teaching me valuable lessons about drawing something that looks good. Now, it is really a matter of using my newly refined skills to try to draw at a higher level.

I still think that one of the most important lessons I have learned is patience. Sometimes, I can be impatient, and this has shown in my drawings. I have drawn almost every day since I could grip a pencil, but this could be as minuscule as a few doodles on the margin of a notebook. I never really knew what I was really capable of, since, prior to this project, I did not understand how important taking your time is. Now, with a better understanding of my skill level and practice, I know I will be much more successful as an artist. This is something that I will address in my TED Talk, and explore further, to create a final conclusion that I can hopefully pass on to the audience.

So what is my style? Well, I have definitely noticed in my art classes such as Computer Graphics/Advanced Computer Graphics that I always tend to make my pieces without any real organization. I'm not sure if this is because of the approach my teacher took in introducing the art form, but I do like artwork that is busy. In 5th grade, I did a report on Jackson Pollock, an artist who was famous for his colorful splatter pieces, such as this one:

There may not be any real distinguishable subjects, or objects for that matter, but it is so simple, and --

its fun to look at. This kind of cluttered artwork gives more for the viewer to look at, and potentially more avenues for interpretation.

Overall, I want to show my experiences, and what I have taken away from them. Hopefully, this will lead to more art, and better art, so that the world will ultimately be more diverse and fresh.