Letter Project Reflection

1.     My process of creating the letter project consisted of drafting out different designs, making various sketches, and finally settling on one.  I found the process of making thumbnail sketches very helpful.  At first, making twenty sketches seemed a bit much but it helped me to fully explore every idea, gave me options, and pushed me to think outside the box.  Thus, the overall process was helpful to me.

2.     I arrived at my concept for this letter by considering my interests as well as how that could creatively translate to a letter.  My concept was nature and I represented this by making a letter out of vines and branches.  As someone who lives in the city, I’m around lots of geometric shapes and buildings so, I wanted to derive inspiration from something I might not be around as much.  I don’t observe nature as often as I do other things and I thought it would be interesting to try it out for this project.  This can be seen in the design itself.  I also wanted to work with color because I don’t often do this and so, while I used green for the vines, I tried to incorporate other colors into it such as red and brown in order to explore color further.

3.     I think the most challenging aspect of this project was coming up with the initial concept.  Once I had decided on something, it was easier to execute the idea, but I usually have more difficultly thinking up an idea.  I wasn’t sure which direction to take, how complex it should be, what materials I would use, etc.

4.     I think it’s hard to ever be completely satisfied with any type of project, but I think I drew everything I had set out to do so, in that sense, I feel that I completed it or followed through with what I had planned on.  Aside from this, in terms of how it actually came out, I’m not as familiar with colored pencils and upon examination, some of the areas look a bit flat or lack depth because I don’t have as good a hand with the material, but I did try to use them to the best of my ability, and I’d like to work on my blending and shading with color in the future.

5.     If I could change anything about my design, I would probably make it a bit more complex.  I didn’t want to get carried away with the details because the design I have is already complicated, with the many intertwining branches, but ideally, I may have wanted to add some leaves to the branches and maybe the background as well.