The student chose an oil painting of a powerful woman for their portrait assignment because they found the simplicity and direct gaze aesthetically pleasing. They aimed to reflect the subject's personality and success in their own portrait. The student used sketches and annotations to plan their portrait composition, taking inspiration from source paintings. They experimented with different painting materials like acrylic, watercolor, and oil to see which they were most experienced with before choosing acrylic for the final piece. The student had difficulties getting the skin tones and proportions correct in their initial portrait attempts and had to restart twice. Through practice and research on skin tones, they improved their portraiture skills with acrylic and watercolor.

1. Portrait Assignment
I chose this painting because I think the
simplicity of it is very aesthetically pleasing. I
like how the painting is composed. The way
she is dead center and staring right at you,
with nothing else distracting you from her.
Which I think is supposed to be a reflection of
her personality, a powerful and elegant
women who has achieved great success and
becoming very influential in fashion. Its
painted in oil on canvas

2. Portrait Assignment – experiments and decisions
I used drawing to help sketch and develop some
ideas for my final portrait. I did simple sketches to
plan out my ideas and annotated to show the reason
for why I chose to compose them like that.
I took in the different aspects from my source
paintings, like the vast area of space around the
subject and just the head and shoulders being in the
frame. I then added my own aspects like changing the
light, the angle of my head and my positioning in the
frame.
Unfortunately I didn’t really experiment with materials and
processes the only way I did that was having a few practice runs of
painting myself in acrylic, watercolor and oil. I did this to see which
paint type I was best with. I chose acrylic to paint my final outcome
because I found that it was the paint I was most experienced in
and therefore would make my final outcome the best I could.

3. Portrait Assignment – Final Outcome
I had a few hiccups on my final piece, so much so I had to scrap 2
before my final piece came through. I was struggling with getting
the right skin tone and then being able to blend the different
shades of the skin together. I overcame this by researching how to
make skin tones and then through practice a few times I got
better at it.
Overall I learnt about watercolor and acrylic a lot more, because I
had never done portraiture before it was a learning curve trying to
get the right skin tones and the proportions of a face.

4. The Kew Gardens sculpture assignment and the Tate graphic design assignment were important learning
experiences for me because in the Tate graphic project I hadn't had much experience with using Adobe
Illustrator and Photoshop, so it gave me an opportunity to work with those programs and allow me to learn
new skills. In the Kew Gardens assignment I had the opportunity to gain further knowledge and experience in
the workshop to create a 3D sculpture. As I had already used the workshop a lot for my other subject it allowed
me to develop my skills and also learn some new skills.
This year I would like to develop my skills on using the computing software as my skills are quite limited on
them at the moment. Developing these skills would help me create a vast range of skills to show in my
portfolio. I need to develop my annotation skills this year as I feel they're quite basic at the moment and would
be useful to develop these skills. I’d like to keep developing my basic skills like painting as I feel I have a lot of
work to do to be able to paint well.
Reflecting on last year

5. My ideas about progression have developed quite a lot of the year because I have been
able to look at all the different skills that we have been able to learn and use during the
year and I can see which that I need to develop to help me progress onto university.
My current progression aim is to be able to show a vast range of different skills to a
good standard to put in my portfolio for university in a couple of years. To do this I will
need to achieve to achieve a distinction in Art and Design, and to be able to do that I
will need to practice and develop all aspects of art and design, especially time
management.
I will do this in year 2 by keeping on top of all my work and creating a list of the most
important things that I need to improve.
Plans for the future