PERSONAL PROJECT

REPORT 2022.

22
My learning goal

Learning Goal :
Exploring how different artists express themselves through painting.

Before we were introduced to personal projects, I had vowed that in the future, I will spend some
of my time just doing drawing art because I liked it and it finally drove me to my project idea.
When I was a bit younger, we used to sit with my siblings drawing our domestic animals in the
mud as they were the common artistic things we liked. I remember even my friends and siblings
used to like and appreciate my muddy artwork during that time, and it was during that time that
my passion for visual arts grew much greater.

Moreover what inspired me most is the fact that after I learned to draw in the mud, I found it
exciting seeing my handwork nicely done and how I wish I would be a great artist in future. Also
during my lower classes, we had an artist who spent his time drawing learning objects for us as
we didn’t have sustainable learning books, I used to look at him and I really was inspired by his
artworks. When I reached my higher primary classes, I ventured into drawing using ink medium,
this is where I used to use my pens to sketch camels, goats and shade them using lines.

I remember in standard six once, it was during mathematics lesson when our teacher was busy
explaining a Math concept while I was drawing a car at the back of my Math book; I didn’t
recognize when the teacher walked to my desk while I was drawing a camel. I was told to
explain the same math concept but unfortunately I didn’t understand. The teacher explained
again but afterwards, he decided to watch me strictly and he would ensure that I am not doing
any artistic work but listening to him strictly.

I almost got into trouble with my math teacher due to the passion that I held for arts. After
joining the MYP programme, I was excited to find out that a Personal project is a core element
that is based on one's interest; therefore I already knew what I could do as my Personal Project.
Eventually I got a chance to fully express myself through arts without having to be worried on
where and how I could do it. Hence in the course of my project, I would like to explore how
different artists express
themselves, artistic techniques e.g painting, shedding, improving on my drawing, tilting.

Looking at my early artistic skills, I didn’t have that many skills to apply though I had an insight
into how to draw and paint in arts. Therefore, Because the passion of knowing more about art is
burning in me, I expect to learn much in the process of making my product through research that
I will carry out in accordance with the art perspective. I expect to learn how to paint using
various techniques, How to draw and its techniques, and lighting and shading an object or a
subject in the artwork.

Product goal.
My product goal is to create a Samburu pictorial representation of a cultural dancing festival. I
intend to produce my product as a painting to archive all the cultural elements of Samburu during
happy moments of music. My goal towards my product is that I will produce a landscape
painting of Samburu morans having a jumping posture that represents the aspect of cultural
dance. In my painting, I should be able to produce a landscape which is a painting that also
includes the time allocation when folk dances are usually carried out in our community.
Moreover, My product goal will be accomplished based on my interest. My product goal is
linked to the areas of my interest because Culture is one of the aspects that I like and I really like
to explore much about cultures and also to show a sign of appreciation.
Recently, I had to just draw some figures which bring about the aspect of culture; for instance,
the below sample is one of the artworks that I had produced when I was learning arts where we
were exploring about roots and culture. On this topic I had a chance to focus on my culture
whereby we were to choose any culture to explore their cultural aspects and fortunately, I choose
my culture which later on I used that knowledge in my Project building because culture is my
area of interest. I therefore intend to make an artistic product that portrays cultural aspect as it’s
my area of interest.

By Deborah Lenasalon

Specification of my personal project.

Philosophy of dancing artwork.

My pictorial representation will be composed of many elements of arts in a way that it will be
expressive and communicative.

Back ground, Middle ground, fore ground.

My artwork will be a landscape, as a result it will have background, fore ground and middle
ground. I intend to have a background with a sunset as an object. Apart from background, by
subjects will be found at the middle ground of the landscape and thus I also expect to have a
middle ground in my work as well as the fore ground which will be the introduction of the
artwork

Color
Color as an element of art will be one of the important components of my product.
In order to make my artwork impressive and understandable, I will use the colors to decorate
the objects for the purpose of bringing it to life. I will consider the colors
that are mostly liked by the Samburu people such as red, yellow, blue,
maroon e.t.c. Though the specific colors that will be indicated in my
work include of red for the Maasai shukas, Black for the shoes,
Chocolate for their skin, Yellow-orange for the sunset and white for
the clouds; blue for the mountains, green for the trees the grass and brown for the manyatta
houses.

Shape

In arts, I have learnt that every artistic work is composed of different elements. In order to
achieve the goal of making the pictorial I will include different shapes in my work in order to
make an accurate and understandable representation. For instance as my picture will include
the people who are dancing, I will need to use shapes such as oval circles, ovals e.t.c to make
body parts.
Texture

Also In my pictorial representation, I will include texture in order to make my pictorial

representation a still life. For instance, texture is used by artists to create depth in their
artworks. In my objectives, I will also use texture to create depth and balancing of element
composition in my artwork. Adding texture to my pictorial representation will help me reach
my learning goal of using elements of art to compose artwork.

Lines

In every artwork, there must be lines, as a series of dots. In every piece of artwork 🖼 lines play

important role of leading the eye of the viewer around a piece of artwork. For instance in my
presentation to show the darkness of the object, the use of thicker lines will be applicable. Also
when showing the edges of an object, I will need to use lines to show the end of the object’s
edge.
Timelines What to do?
Thursday to Sartuday  Techniques of drawing
(29/9/2021) to (31/9/2021)  Shedding and tilting techniques
 Painting techniques
Sunday to Wednesday Application of Elements and Principles of Arts
(1/10/2021) to (4/10/2021)  Research on types of lines, shapes, form, color
 Application of texture using Color
 Harmonization and unity of objects research
 Movement and rhythm application research

Wednesday to Monday Styles and requirements for my project
(4/10/2021)  Gesture and posture decision
 Samburu Cultures Dressing code across the country
 The dancing setting decision

Monday(4/10/21)to Draw and paint practice sketches for Samburu people.

November, 5,2021 Show different mediums of painting.

November 5/21 to December Work on the final piece

10/21 1. Prepare the equipments
2. Gather the equipments
3. Decide on the time and the place to work on the piece
4. Start and finish the piece.
December to Jan 2022 Submission of the First and the second report draft
 Correction making after the response from the
supervisor

January to March 2022 Work on Improving more on the report

 submission of the final report draft
  Improvements after the response from the
supervisor.

CRITERION B : APPLYING SKILLS.

Strand 1. Explain how ATL skills was /were applied to help achieve their learning goal.

ATL skills have played a critical role in making my learning goal successful.

RESEARCH SKILLS
The areas where research skills have worked for me is evident through some of my artworks that
I have currently produced where I used the knowledge that I have gained through my research.

First, looking at the process pieces that I have produced in the process of building on my
product, I really think that I have learnt a lot regarding arts which eventually led to the success of
my final product.

For instance, in the following artwork, I used an art technique

called expressionism which Van Gogh, a famous artist, is
known for using in his artworks. When I was researching the
techniques of arts, I visited a source ( Boddy- Evans, 2017)
which was about expressionism technique and it had detailed
knowledge about Van Gogh and his great use of this
technique. Expressionism as an artistic style was used by the
artists seeking to depict not objective reality but rather the
subjective emotions and responses that objects and events
arouse within a person.After doing my research about the
technique, I found out that actually the style is used to convey
the qualities of sadness, fear, horror e.t.c
 I think for me to discover such an expressive style used by specific artists and also get
inspiration it took me time to research and gain knowledge.

Drawing techniques
While carrying out my research,

There are some essential skills needed to draw ( Design Your Home, 2019). In the following site,
I found some interesting drawing skills which really helped me in my process journal while
developing artistic skills. In the following drawings, I have just borrowed ideas from the source
that I visited that was about the drawing skills that one needs to draw artwork. It states that One
should first try to draw with pencil and the colored pencils which I actually tried in my process
pieces. It also states about drawing with texture which I portrayed in my samples like for
instance for the first sample, the women in the saris look like the saris have folded which I
actually tried to form a texture when having something folded.

The other drawing skill is drawing from One point perspective which I think in my third sample,
I have tried to create a one point perspective where I painted two women going to a direction
which the road vanishes at the mouth of a mountain.

Knowledge on landscape and elements of arts, medium.

During my personal project research, I learnt more about landscape and elements of arts.
Elements of arts include color, shape, form, dot, lines, texture and space, value. All these
elements are the guidelines that help artists to give out their opinions on something. For instance
lines can be used to create emotions on the face of a human while dots are used to indicate some
of the body parts like an eyelid. Color is used to express different emotions like for instance
according to the famous artist Pablo Picasso, he likes to use blue color while expressing sad
emotions because he believes a blue color is made for loneliness and sadness. For landscape,
there are three main parts like background, fire ground and middle ground. Medium is the main
material that I used to produce an artwork, for instance for the above artwork, I used watercolors
to paint the landscape.

COMMUNICATION
Communication skills have been essential in helping me achieve my learning goal. Arts being
my area of focus in arts, Communication has helped me to earn knowledge from people who
expertise in this field. First, Communication has pushed me to carry out research and know more
about arts through my arts teachers and also to get moral support from my supervisor. When
starting my project, I didn’t know where to start from; carrying out the research on my own has
been hectic. After carrying out my research, even though I have gotten all the arts skills they are,
I never knew how they are being applied. I decided to go to One of the Art students who is
expertise a little in arts as it’s his area of exploration in Career Programme. I approached him and
Intended to ask him a few questions concerning arts. Afterwards I just Introduced myself and I
told him to help me in achieving my learning goals by demonstrating what I already found out
while researching. Meanwhile, I somehow achieved my learning goal after he did demonstrate
how the techniques of drawing and painting are applied in the arts. That was when I discovered
that I was communicating since I have gained at least a bit of knowledge in the arts through him.

Afterwards, I also visited the atrium in order to have a conversation with one of the arts tutor
around the school. What inspired me to visit him is the fact that I have seen so many pieces that
he had produced and I wanted to learn a bit from him. Communication skills really helped me to
achieve my learning expectations of knowing more in order to finally know hoe to make a
product. Communication occurs when there is sender, message, receiver and the feedback. I
communicated with the arts teacher via email requesting to know a piece of information about
arts as I am focusing on arts as personal project. After sometime, I received a constructive
feedback from him who explained to I could create the space for both the subject and the objects
in the artwork. Also In my process journal, I was focusing on the global context of personal and
cultural expression and as a result, I was trying to
communicate about the Samburu community
through arts. As I was doing my research in
Criterion A, I focused on knowing how arts has
enhanced communication overtime. The conclusion
that I could draw from the communication is that
arts has enhanced communication in a positive way
as it doesn’t choose to create conflict among people
but to protest or pass message but in a way that the message could only depend on the Audience
Interpretation which is being shaped mostly by their cultural background. Example of Artist that
are known for their way of communicating through arts include; Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch,
Leonard da Vinci, Vincent Van Go e.t.c. Thus the artist have really inspired me in terms of
communicating through arts.

SOCIAL SKILLS

Social skills were too essential in developing my learning goal as I worked on my project. First,
Social skills have helped me gain effective communication skill. For instance, I joined Arts club
in order to gain knowledge on how to handle arts e.g mixing paints and Identifying the colors. In
arts club, I developed my communication skills because I related with my fellow student from
other year groups and classes. In the arts club, I have been able to know how to mix paints to
archive a more complex color. For instance when you mix yellow and red which are primary
colors, you get orange which is a secondary color.

Before, I never knew how to handle paints and never new that having to work with limited paints
you could use the idea of mixing paints to achieve others. In the arts club, I got the opportunity
to interact with arts tutors where after I formed a healthy relationships that helped me in my
learning goal through the support that I received.

Also, while doing my Pp process journal, I got in contact with a some of my friends whom all of
us were exploring arts as an area of interest for Personal Project. Being supported by 1
supervisor who is also interested in arts, we were working together to learn and find out more in
arts field. While working with my colleges, we had to communicate with each other and organize
the time when we would meet at the arts room and work on our projects. I socialized well with
them which later led to all of us gaining much knowledge on the arts field . That is where I
developed my skills of shading and tinting because we used to practice and help each other to
develop the skill.

Strand 2. Explain how ATL skills was/were applied to help achieve their product goal.

THINKING SKILLS

The ATL skill that

boosted my product so
much is thinking skills.
Under thinking skills,
creative thinking skill has been outstanding for me. I acknowledge that All the artworks that I
have so far produced were all produced in the process of creativity. Before making my product, I
applied the knowledge that I have already gained about Samburu community and tried to find out
how I can arrange the objects and the subject in my artwork in order to make it a landscape.
After then I took a step and tried to sketch before transferring it to the real artwork of painting.
After having gained artistic skills and really looked at my potential and what I wanted to
produce, I realized that It was hard for me to draw face proportions in the small space and thus I
looked for an alternative way of making my product successful. I concluded to use an African
artist way where the face is abstract, the facial features are not clear; while the body is visible
well. After considering my process, thinking skills helped me to distinguish on the areas of
improvement that I needed and in my final product, I have done it much better.

Also under thinking skills, transfer skills has played a major role in making my product a
success where I applied the knowledge I gained during the process to produce a familiar artwork.
Similar to subject skills, knowledge and understanding, it has helped me to cover much in arts
that eventually contributed to the success of my product.

Communication
Skills.

‘‘Behind the need to

communicate is the
need to share.
Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.’’ By Leo Rosten. Communication is a
human nature of wanting to pass information either verbally or non-verbally. Arts is a non verbal
communication that is mostly considered the best way because it never creates violent
environment. In the process of dealing with arts in my Personal Project, Communication has
been the driving key of my artwork since my interest was to pass information about Samburu
culture. I needed to communicate about some aspects that make Samburu have a culture. In my
artwork, dancing is an aspect of culture for Samburu community that is portrayed. There are
specific elements of arts that contributed to my communication skill. Colors variation represent
emotion variations.

Warms colors such as red, orange and yellow give the are used to create feelings such as warmth,
happiness or anger. For this case, I used orange and yellow color in my artwork to represent the
feeling of happiness. This is because as per the situation of my characters, Samburu people
mostly express their happiness through dancing:therefore relates well with the background colors
of my artwork. This colors generate a positive attitude and energy for people to understand well
and view my painting in a positive perspective. The purpose of my artwork was to communicate
about the Samburu community and their identity. I believe that through my project, I have been
able to communicate about Samburu culture and it may have created a new perspective about
Samburu culture apart from just knowing them as nomads and cattle rustlers. It has been able to
create open-mindedness among people who not only didn’t know Samburu community but to
understand their ways of expression.

CRITERION C : REFLECTING ON THE PROCESS.

Strand 1. Evaluate the product against the success criteria of the product.

My goal was to create a pictorial representation of the singing and dancing cultural aspect in the
samburu community. Fortunately, the final piece is actually as intended though not really
because It has missed some of the specifications that I intended to meet. In my first specification
which was color, I have actually met 4/5 of the intended color because, In my specification, I
stated that I will use understandable and pleasing colors to the Samburu community and actually
I included their favorite colors such as red, blue and yellow in their dress code.

Secondly, I specified in my specification that I will used shapes on the human body and actually
though I used irregular shapes which I didn’t intend to used I saw that the material I was using to
produce my artwork was not really enough for me to draw a whole human body whom was
accurate and is visible enough for every feature thus I decided to use free style shapes to create
the human figures.

In my third specification, I used texture well in my artwork where it is evident in some of the
mountain areas looked like thy are rigid and rough though it is an implied texture. Also around
the sun, I used blending technique to create light streams in order to make it much in depth just
like the sun rays.

Moreover, I specified that my final product will be formed by lines either in the edges of the
subjects or around all the artwork. I’m proud that I have achieved to use lines in my work where
the edges of my subject and objects are differentiated by lines.
Finally, I specified that I will use Form to create the effect of illusion in my artwork and I have
achieved that by using some color paints to create the essence of dark clouds in my artwork that
creates depth in my artwork. Also on top the mountains, the artwork is dark because I used dark
paint to make it look like while the sun is setting, the shadows of the mountains fall in the front
of the mountains.

For the cost of my product, I specified that my product will not be for sale and it will cost so
much to produce it including materials and the time that I will use to make it. I’m glad that the
product used the materials that I intended to use which cost the water colors, painting brushes,
drawing pencils and the canvas and also it took much time for me to practice and produce the
final product. For the materials for my product, I used the materials that I mentioned.

Also, I specified on my product that it will contain of not only background but also middle
ground and fore ground. The specification has been met completely because it is evident in my
work through which the far end space I s the background while the space that is near to the
viewer’s eyes is the fore ground while the middle space is the middle ground.

Finally, the function that I specified before making my product is fulfilled where by most of the
object of the artworks are the ideas of samburu background and the subjects themselves are
Samburu morans dancing with their style of jumping high while in a bending posture.

The strengths of my product is basically it is beauty which is created by aesthetics put in

consideration. The parts of the landscapes have been achieved where the background is set to be
sunset while the place is starting to be dark and the Samburu men have started dancing after
retiring form grazing in the highlands.

The area of weakness is proportion of the features. In my product, the subject looked so small
that they were not clear enough for one to identify them. I look forward to improving on them
through the practice on the human body features drawing and painting. Also I can improve on
them by painting on a large surface which will not limit me from drawing deeper human features
to be visible.

The following project has not only boosted myself in art-class but also, it has really made me
extend my knowledge about identities and relationships. This is where I explored the samburu
culture where I found much about their values and traditions that guide them day by day. I
realized that if I were a visitor and wanted to relate with these people, I should consider some of
their aspects like clothing, language and their values. In my artwork, I evidenced how I explored
Identities and relationships among the Samburu community by using some of their cultural
objects to represent their identities. Through my project I realized that relationships can be built
through accepting one's values the way they are.

The most challenging part for me in my project was drawing the facial components of a human
but after researching, I found out that African arts actually have visual abstraction in their
artworks and I decided to make it an African based artworks. Also while I was painting, I faced a
problem of having the watercolors not working when I added them water but then I used pure
water colors and a dry brush technique to paint my product.

While doing my project, Open- minded learner profile stood out for
me where I critically appreciated my culture and history. I also
consider the cultures of other by drawing other artworks that are not
for Samburu in my process and also I considered the inspiration from
other artists that made me reach my success.
I drew this girl which represents the western culture people and their
physical and emotionalism which I. Highly appreciated as they were most of the times. I feel that
having done the following project, It will impact my future because right now I believe that I am
a young artist who is looking forward to be a great artist being inspired by the existed great artist
like Vincent de la Vinci.