This semester, I am taking an art class called Principles of Design. In this class, we are learning how to better apply the Elements of Art and Principles of Design into the pieces that we make. Our first project was to design the portfolio to hold all of the art that we will be making this semester.

To begin with, we spent a little bit of time looking at the feelings that are associated with each of the colors that we had access to. From there, we looked at color wheels to decide the color palate we planned on using. I chose some blues, purples, and a pink to try to give a “sunset” feel to my portfolio.

We then got our paper for our portfolio, taped it down so it wouldn’t move around, and started to use a string and a cup of black paint to scatter lines across the page in random, nearly uncontrolable designs.

After we left them to dry for a couple days, we went in with the color pencils and shaded in the area we thought our colors belonged in. I chose to blend all the colors together so that it would have a nice flow to it, as well as to fade it out as it got farther away from the black so it would look a little bit like the colors were being spiled and pulled away from the black itself. I covered a little of the black on accident while coloring, so everywhere that was covered i went back in with a thin Sharpie to define the black and make it more clear.

After everybody finished coloring, the portfolios were laminated, as well as a piece of paper of identical sizing, and then stapled together to create a smooth sleeve to put all of our art in without risk of everything inside smearing onto the portfolio.

My favorite part of making this portfolio was probably the second day of coloring. That day was when we could see everything coming together, and since there was much less coloring I did on the second day than on the first, my hand didn’t start aching nearly as much from holding the colored pencils.