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      The first project that I am working on consists mostly of mark-making. I have been patiently waiting to dive back into stippling and pointillism in my artwork, especially with realism. My main focus is to combine realism and abstract into one piece. I always find myself working with contrasting ideas and colors, and I continue to do so in this next. The stippling is so time-consuming and intricate which makes the process very enjoyable and even meditative in a way. I am also adding a mixed media approach by including collage with the dots. The collage will act as the abstract juxtaposed to the realism of the pointillism. 

Current progress

The artist that influenced me the most on this project is Erik Jones. Erik combines the realism of woman figures with the abstraction of saturated shapes and colors. The artist particularly models his shapes around the figures in order to create a focal point in an interesting way. His art influences my art because I plan to model the collage around my own female figure, as well as introduce vivid colors into my work. His interpretation of realistic vs. abstract is what I strive for. 

Erik Jones 

Chapter 5 was all about critiques and how each one is different for each person and is approached in different ways. Critiques should be approached as learning experiences that you can apply to your artwork to better improve and/or tweak. Artists must come to a critique eager for feedback and an outsider's point of view as well as their suggestions. While critiques spark feedback of delight and positivity, it is important to acknowledge that critiques can also bring negative feedback which is just as useful, if not more useful to the artist. What might be considered as a negative comment or suggestion, is very helpful and insightful to the artist because their artwork is seen in new light and new perspectives by others who bring forth such comments. I am guilty of being affected by negative comments about my own artwork in critiques. I take feedback too harshly and take it to the heart, which used to make me dread critiques. Now, I have learned over the years of being in college that critiques are your best friend and that they are solely used to aid and help you as an artist to grow and develop your work into something better than it was before. Critiques help you improve.