Table of Contents
As soon as I heard about preparing of a creative project, I realized that it would be hard to do. To be honest, I never considered myself creative. I do not think of myself as of a person who has a great imagination to create something special. Therefore, not only the project, but the work performed during the whole semester was to demonstrate whether I can perceive and analyze art or at least evaluate it in a different way.
The first thought that appeared in my mind concerning this creative project was related to dance. Actually, I am not the biggest fan of dance. However, I should admit that if I had to pick one of the disciplines studied in class, I would choose dance as something I feel comfortable with. Participating in the Olympic Games in 2000 as a gymnast required a great knowledge in the dance field. Though I do not consider myself as a good dancer, I have taken ballet classes.
I have been thinking about the dance idea for a while to make a right decision. I considered many pros and cons. First of all, I had to decide what I was going to do. I was going to make a dance by myself and record it. Further, I had to teach someone choreography. The choice of music and clothes was another task. In general, all that seemed to be very complicated and hard to organize and perform. Second of all, I realized that we were not supposed to pick any discipline that was in the comfort zone. I am not a dancer. Before attending ballet classes, I knew little about dancing, but now I feel more comfortable in this area.
After some time, the second and final idea came to my mind. I decided to paint something related to dance or gymnastics. Painting is not in my comfort zone. However, if I decided to paint something that I like and take some effort to do it in the best way, the results would be great. Therefore, with such idea in my mind, my creative project was underway.
Preparation
The first thing I had to decide was what exactly I wanted to paint. On my first draft, I decided to depict my ballet shoes that I still had at home. Therefore, before I went to buy the materials needed to create a painting, I first had to make a draft on the piece of paper with crayons and pencils. While doing that, I realized that the ballet shoes were complicated to draw. Consequently, I had to look for a new idea. Namely, I started looking through some pictures relating to gymnastics. The idea of painting a gymnast seemed really nice. However, if I could not draw a shoe, how was I going to depict the gymnast? I thought that a face was the hardest thing to draw, and I would never cope with it. Thus, I kept searching for new ideas. I could not come up with anything that would suit me the best. Then I remembered that my mother is a really good painter. She retired three years ago and started taking painting classes to make herself busy. Therefore, I called her to ask some advice. Fortunately, she gave me an idea that I loved. She advised me to try to paint an abstract gymnast with no face. I could try to paint a gymnast in a very easy pose without putting emphasis on his face. It may sound weird, but at the moment, it seemed to be a good idea. After finishing a few drafts, I had finally decided what pose would be perfect for my gymnast.
Everything was ready to proceed with my creative project, so it was time to go and buy some artist materials. I went to A.I. Friedman. I had never been in that store before. That store really amazed me with a huge amount of art supplies one can buy there. I got a couple of painting frames and a few painting pencils for the thin and thick lines. I had already tried to draw my gymnast, so I was sure about the needed colors. Therefore, I have chosen black and red and considered myself absolutely ready for work.
Development
It took me three days to prepare my creative project. First, I had started to work on my painting in spring. I knew that I had a plenty of time to complete the project, but if I started preparing it during the last semester week, it would be a very stressful and complicated process for me. In such circumstances, I would have to work under pressure. Second, I thought that I would need to do many tries before finishing my creative work. I am a busy person as I have a full time job, being a full time student, a housewife and a mother. Therefore, it was not easy to devote much time to my project; however, I coped with it.
Implementation
Finally, I approached the hardest part of my creative project. I had changed my idea several times, but when I had my sketch ready, I thought that it would be the final painting. I should admit that working on the painting was still quite complicated. In the first painting, the gymnast did not look bad, but the bottom looked empty and unfinished. I was not satisfied with my work, so I had to redo the sketch. My second painting looked much better as I changed the bottom color. However, the gymnast seemed to look differently; I did not like the color I picked for his leotard. The frames I bought appeared to be inadequate and had to go and buy more. Finally, my third picture was the best. I liked the color in the bottom of the painting, and the gymnast looked more naturally. Nevertheless, I felt that something was still missing and then I decided to create one more element to make the painting look harmonious.