Academic Achievement Reflection

Kaleb Smith
Description
An acrylic painting on cardstock eight inches in length and eleven inches in width which shows a
red mgb GT roadster made in 1967. The car is sitting in a vibrant green field under the blue sky.
I got the idea to make an acrylic painting in my art class in grade eleven with Mr. Dykman. It
was part of a personal project which I at first did not care too much about. I did not think
anything of the project at first as I did not have a solid idea of what to do with it yet. The idea
came to me after a whole class of sitting Infront of a blank page. I chose the mgb because I knew
it would be a simple car that I really liked the look of, and it just so happened to be a car that my
family liked Aswell. Knowing colours and how they look better with certain colours. Green goes
with red, and blue is close to green on the colour wheel, the whole thing felt like an afterthought,
it felt as if the stars aligned for this first painting to come together.
Personal Relevancy
This was my first ever big delve into the world of acrylic painting as well as painting in general
and it blew me away. It taught me the basics of composition and acrylic paint technique. It was
also huge in helping me work with different textures such as chrome and shiny paint. My first
actual uses of value scale happen in this piece Aswell. It taught me how to use different brushes
and mediums to achieve different textures. For example, I used a thin brush with soft bristles to
create lighter parts of the clouds to get a wispy texture and a soft sponge to create the darker
parts of the cloud to make some depth. For the grass I used a brush with small spread bristles to
get a grassy texture and used different shades of green to also make depth in the grass. All the
skills that I learned can be used in graphic design and other freelance endeavors like photography
which I can use my knowledge of composition or graphic design for all the techniques in one
use.
Skill Development
The piece made me work with things and techniques that I never thought I needed such as brush
control, so using the brush and holding it in unusual places to get a lighter or thicker line, this I
had not done before, so it was completely new at the time. Using different tools and different
brushes to use in different cases to get different effects. The overall thing that painting the piece
taught me was that creating something that I am proud of takes time and patience, the process
was verry long and sometimes I just could not get the right effect I was looking for, I just took a
step back and tried again the next work block. This was entirely fine with me because I realized
to more time, I took on it made me realize how much better it was going to look in the end. I
learned to effectively use colour and colour theory, but I had learned the colour wheel in other
classes, it was just up to me to now apply my knowledge.

Self-awareness
Making this project made me realize I can achieve anything I can put my mind towards if I plan
and I want it hard enough. It also taught me that I am too hard on myself and should start to
value my work more and accept that I am not perfect, this problem is re occurring and I have
never truly felt as though it had as much of an impact as when I was working on this piece. It
also taught me that I really enjoy the process of learning new things as I do them. It made me
realize that I love the relaxing nature of putting some time towards a painting with some music
and just enjoying relaxation while being productive. It really made me realize that I want to
continue painting even if it means by myself not for my job or anything.
Future Connections
The skills I used and learned during the making of this piece can be translated into my career as a
graphic designer or freelance work such as painting or photography. Learning composition can
help with everything design related but especially in photography, it is the use of space on a
canvas or workspace and creating balance. Colour theory can be used in all design branches
Aswell as photography. The big elements that working on this project taught me can be used
daily or whenever I am working on something big, some include patience when working on
something that takes time, to enjoy the process of creating something and to not be so hard on
myself.