Joaquin Seminario
Section 1: Inquiry Question and Concept Exploration
Inquiry Statement: How can layering, color blending, and composition choices transform an everyday object into a compelling and realistic work of art?
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Writing:​
Layering, color blending, and composition choices all work together to turn an object into art that feels alive. By building depth and texture, the lighting and shadows are created with a sense of realism that contrasts with flatness. Color blending is what allows the artpiece to feel more believable by mimicking the way light works. Composition is what ties everything together and makes the piece of art seem balanced. With all of these combined, an everyday object is transformed into something engaging and worth looking at. (86 words)​
Section 2: Connections
Cultural, historical, and artistic influences with critical evaluation.
Rhonda Dickson: Desert King (No date included)
I look up to Rhonda's way of using perspective that enriches her artwork of a regular object. The point of view of the artwork makes the cactus, a regular plant, look important and imposing. I want to use this in my artwork and use perspective to make the candy more than just a regular object, but something enjoyable to look at.
CJ Hendry: Peony Study (2018)
CJ Hendry employs an incredible use of lighting and shading that captures the realism of the flower, and makes it have a 3-dimensional aspect. This is what I want to capture into my own piece of art, and use shading to make the drawing feel more realistic, while mantaining the meaning of the drawing.
Choosing the Picture:
Image #1
Image #2
Image #3
I picked candy of mainly three colors, green, blue, and yellow, and dispersed the candy in a disorderly manner around the lollipop, and took many pictures. These three were my main contenders to represent my drawing, however, I chose image #3 due to its wide angle and perspective, where the shadows could be seen clearly, and the source of light shines from a clear view.
Section 3: Investigate
Visual evidence of material tests, alternate compositions, sketches.
Reflection:
The colored pencil value scales allowed me to learn color layering, and mixing to make other new colors. I struggled with some colors where I put too much of a color, making the value scale not line up with some other colors.
The gummy bear practice I made it somewhat rushed, but it gave me a sense of how difficult drawing dark objects would be, as well as the importance of varnishing, which I didn't do with the gummy bear. The gummy bear without burnishing and correct shading looked really bad, but it allowed me to know what I need to improve.
In the colored pencil sphere builder, I learned that I need to use more color while coloring lightly, but not too lightly. Here, I started building confidence towards using the right colors and blending them, as well as making my own value scale with colors of my choosing.
Section 4: Create
Visual documentation of steps of creation
Grid Drawing – Sketch
Day 1 – Coloring
Day 2 – Coloring
Day 3 – Coloring
Day 4 – Coloring
Day 5 – Coloring/Burnishing
Day 7 – Coloring/Burnishing
Day 6 – Coloring/Burnishing
Section 5: Final Artwork
Sweet Composition
Date: 3/10/25
Size: 21cm x 21cm
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Medium: Colored pencils, burnished pencil
Why: For me, this piece represents childhood, and simplicity with the arrangements of colorful candy. The bright colors and random placement look like spontanitey and joy of being a kid, as if a child dropped their candy. The ordinary object of the candy turns into a meaningful symbol for the short, random, and spontaneous life I lived in my childhood.
Section 6: Communicate and Reflect
Challenges, successes, and self-evaluation of how the artwork aligns with the inquiry question.
Overall, I am proud of how I finished this project because I was able to learn how to use colored pencils properly to make a realistic composition. Looking back on "Sweet Compostion," I was able to accomplish my goal of creating a colorful, realistic drawing that has a deeper meaning of nostalgia and joyful childhood memories. However, while I really like the outcome, I believe that I could have burnished the drawing better in some areas, like the blue gummy bear and lollipop, and also made the shades more consistently the same color, with fewer areas that look somewhat blue, and more chromatic black. Overall, this project has opened a door to work with coloring pencils that I didn't know how to begin to open, but now I also know what to improve, and how to keep moving forward with this art style