I Take Risks
This was only the second time I have ever used clay. I was already worried about it turning out badly because of how inexperienced I am with clay. The clay project I did in Art I I didn’t paint so messing up the colors really worried me as well. A lot of people needed to cut pieces and score and slip them together. I had to roll my clay out and twist it into a pretzel then score and slip.
I Solve Problems
One of the biggest problems I had while making my clay pretzels was twisting them. I had looked up multiple tutorials showing step-by-step instructions but it was hard to make it look like a real pretzel. I also had to roll the clay long enough that it twisted but thin enough that it would twist easily. Sometimes the clay would break or crack to the point that I would have to restart on the whole pretzel. It was a frustrating process. When the clay would break, I would just make it back into a ball, re-roll it and try to twist it again. It was inevitable that all the pretzels wouldn’t look the same and they wouldn’t be perfect.
My second problem was mixing the colors. I originally looked at pictures and tried to make various shades of brown for the lights and darks. Making brown was a lot harder than I expected because I wanted a darker brown but not very dark. The red in the brown would sometimes come through when the brown dried, so I would have to do many coats in order to get a brown. I overall wish I made a lighter brown because I think the brown I have now looks kind of odd.
I Developed My Art Making Skills
While doing this unit of clay, I learned a lot more about clay than I did in Art I. In Art I, I really only learned about score and slipping, slabs and pinch pots. I learned much more in this unit about clay techniques, including wedging, hollowing out, glazing and more.
Since I painted my pretzels after I painted my Gustav Klimt-inspired painting, I had a better idea of using acrylic paints and mixing paint to get the necessary shade. Since I had to make brown for my tree in the previous project, I knew how to get the shade I wanted by mixing different amounts of red, yellow and blue. It was still difficult, however, trying to mix the colors to create a realistic pretzel brown color.
This was only the second time I have ever used clay. I was already worried about it turning out badly because of how inexperienced I am with clay. The clay project I did in Art I I didn’t paint so messing up the colors really worried me as well. A lot of people needed to cut pieces and score and slip them together. I had to roll my clay out and twist it into a pretzel then score and slip.
I Solve Problems
One of the biggest problems I had while making my clay pretzels was twisting them. I had looked up multiple tutorials showing step-by-step instructions but it was hard to make it look like a real pretzel. I also had to roll the clay long enough that it twisted but thin enough that it would twist easily. Sometimes the clay would break or crack to the point that I would have to restart on the whole pretzel. It was a frustrating process. When the clay would break, I would just make it back into a ball, re-roll it and try to twist it again. It was inevitable that all the pretzels wouldn’t look the same and they wouldn’t be perfect.
My second problem was mixing the colors. I originally looked at pictures and tried to make various shades of brown for the lights and darks. Making brown was a lot harder than I expected because I wanted a darker brown but not very dark. The red in the brown would sometimes come through when the brown dried, so I would have to do many coats in order to get a brown. I overall wish I made a lighter brown because I think the brown I have now looks kind of odd.
I Developed My Art Making Skills
While doing this unit of clay, I learned a lot more about clay than I did in Art I. In Art I, I really only learned about score and slipping, slabs and pinch pots. I learned much more in this unit about clay techniques, including wedging, hollowing out, glazing and more.
Since I painted my pretzels after I painted my Gustav Klimt-inspired painting, I had a better idea of using acrylic paints and mixing paint to get the necessary shade. Since I had to make brown for my tree in the previous project, I knew how to get the shade I wanted by mixing different amounts of red, yellow and blue. It was still difficult, however, trying to mix the colors to create a realistic pretzel brown color.