3/7/12 Entry

The big painting is done! Finally, now I just have to get through the essay, and everything will be okay. I just don't know how I'm going to do that. It's like every time I try to write, even though I have notes and know what I need to include, I trip up on the words and don't know how to express what I mean. I don't know if I'm writing too casually or using too many words. I'm scared that my ideas aren't well organized and that it will sound like everything is out of place. I'm going to go to the media center during lunch tomorrow without talking to anyone, and I will rush home after school so that I can get home early, and work while no one else is home. Right now I seriously need to turn up the volume on my music because it feels like everyone is making SO MUCH NOISE. I can't concentrate.

Okay, I will finish up this entry and go back to my doom-I mean, to my essay.

3/6/12 Entry

I took my three small paintings to school  so I wouldn't have to take all four of them on the same day. So I turned that in, got that out of the way. My last painting is almost done, I only need to put in a few more details and it will be complete! I also need to finish up the essay, and soon! I'm so worried and stressed out! I'm scared that it will not come out okay or I won't finish it on time. Or both. I feel like I'm on the verge of having a nervous breakdown over this. I swear, everything is going to be fine if I can just get through this week. It's like I'm counting down the days but also dreading them.

3/4/12 Entry

So last night I wrote a lot for my report, but I have to type it up on the computer. I'm going to try to do that ASAP but I have so much Homework to do today, that I doubt I'll have a chance. After I'm done with that, I'm going to leave it along for a day and then go back to it and do some editing.
That sounds like a good plan.

I'm going to put in some more time for my painting, especially on those break days before editing my report, so I can hopefully finish both things at the same time.

3/3/12 Entry

I've been working a lot more on the painting, it looks great! I don´t think I was this happy when the other ones started turning out well... I guess this one is just more special to me. More personal.

I' also progressed on the essay, idea-wise at least. I'm going to have a couple hours to kill tonight, so I'll try to start tying everything up into actual paragraphs and such.

It's hard cause everyone expects my project t be so good, my parents, my friends, my mentor... It's just like, hehe, no pressure...

2/28/12 Entry

I've written some ideas down for my essay so that when I start to write it properly I can know what to include. I'll be thinking about it in case I've forgot anything, I can just add it later. I hope I don't go over the word count. The minimum is 1,500 and the max is 3,500. I know some kids dread thinking that they have to get to 1,500 words but knowing me, I'm scared of going over. I just write so much when I do formal writing. And I have a lot to say about this project.

The only problem about doing the essay is that this weeks seems to be Give-Tons-Of-Work-At-School week. And we have a school event coming up that I have to go to, so that will take up some of my time too. Oh, poo.

2/27/12 Entry

I went to talk to my mentor today and got help on how to start and plan out my essay. We broke it down into steps so that I do a little bit each day. So now it doesn't seem as scary.

And I feel so accomplished, I did the title page and the table of contents! Yay, go me. 

Tomorrow I'm going to write down some ideas for the different sections of the essay, and on Thursday probably I'll start actually writing the narrative. 

Then I'll leave it alone for a day, edit it, leave it and then do the final corrections and (hopefully) end up with a good report to hand in.

The painting is also looking good, and i've done a lot of it in just two sittings, which goes great schedule-wise, So everything is good.

2/26/12 Entry

I'v realized that doing this project has taught me one very important thing. That is, don't bite off more than you can chew. Or more like, don't bite off more than you will chew before you get bored. I mean, I should have realized that I would get a tad bored of everything halfway through and put it on hold for a month and a half, loosing a whole bunch of time, having to cram in everything into the last two weeks, and stressing myself out about essays and paintings and whatnot. Really, I should have just known.

If I could go back..... No. If I went back, I'd probably do the exact same thing. Just because I love how everything has turned out so far. Now I just know for next time. Note to self: Don't take on so much work.

2/25/12 Entry

Okay so the big painting is starting to take shape. Instead of doing a complex plan with a specific style scheme, I'm winging this one.
Because of my diminished time, I had to find a more suitable way of painting that would work better with the amount of time I have left. And find it, I did!

I got a new art tool a couple weeks ago that I've been meaning to try out and use, and now I have, and I've discovered that it helps me a lot because I paint a lot faster. And I love the results. The job looks rushed, but in a good way, like time is passing in the painting. Which is good because that's what I was trying to capture.
I haven't been to concerned about the colors. I mean, it's a picture of my life, I should pick the colors I want. I've also become less worried about getting all the details right, which is a good thing because I don't have enough time to worry about the details.
The thing that I really like about this new "technique" is that it makes this painting stand out from the others; it makes it seem more raw and real.

2/20/12 Entry

Okay, so I've drawn out my third painting on the canvas and I'm about ready to start. I'm still not really sure what I want the final thing to look like, and I'm kind of scared considering that I don't have much time to experiment/mess up.

I'm also going to ask my mentor if she can help me start the essay, or at least outline it, because I do not even know where to start with that.

2/16/12 Entry

Okay so Venice is officially done. That's good. Now I just have to do the big painting and the essay. In like, three weeks. Oh God.

I'm definitely worried about the timeline.
I'm going to see if I can get started on the essay/get some help during lunch, so that I don't have so much to worry about later.
I just know that I have to start the big painting and do it quickly, no messing up and having to re-paint on top of the mess up. It's worrisome, cause that's what I've done for the first three paintings.

It's just hard to focus, knowing that I still have so much to do in so little time.

2/2/12 Entry

Okay, so the deal is, I haven't posted in a really long time. I also haven't been working o the project very much. Oops. Guilty face.
So I'm officially hitting the re-start button. Not on the whole project, obviously, but on myself. I have to get going.

On the bright side, I've finished the first two small paintings. And I'm halfway through with the third one.
On the down side,  I still have to finish the third one, do the big one, and write the essay. And I have five weeks. Ouch. Pained face.

I'm going to go work on the third painting now, hopefully get close to finishing it, and [try to] check back in tomorrow. I'm worried I won't have time to do everything, especially write a really nice essay, so I'm going to try to cram in the rest of the painting this weekend and next week. Hopefully that works. Hopeful face.

11/18/11 Entry

Procrastination. Procrastination. Procrastination. Why, oh why have you taken over me?

Okay, so I actually started my first painting about 2 weeks ago and then I didn't write about it here. Oops.
It's looking really good, and I hope to finish it up this weekend.

I also drew up an outline of a plan. It really just a rough division of my time but I will post it here and probably on the side bar.

1st and 2nd weeks of November: Do first small painting.
3rd and 4th weeks of November: Do second small painting.

1st and 2nd weeks of December: Do last small painting.
3rd and 4th weeks of December: Start big painting.

January: Finish big painting.

February: Personal Statement (essay thing).


I know it seems like a lot of time to just paint, but i am really slow. Seriously. So slow. -.-
I already feel like I'm kind of behind, like I should be finished with this painting already. It's partly because I made this painting really realistic and I'm taking care to but in every little detail, which takes me a long time because I'm a big perfectionist. Also because I probably started later than I meant to. And then it's partly because I'm SO slow.

I've decided that the next two paintings, I'm going to change them up, do things a little differently. I'm going to paint them in different styles, especially one of them is going to be Impressionist style. It is a style of painting where you use a lot of paint, thick brush strokes, bright colors, and there is few small details defined. I think this is going to fix two things; a) It will take me less time, because i won't go crazy with the details and such, so it'll put me back on track. And b) I'll be painting in a way that I've never painted before, so it'll help me expand as an artist.

9/26/11 Entry

Okaii, so. On Friday i turned in my project proposal AND my mentor contract sheet. Go me. Yay.

So now, I'm flipping out about the research. Like seriously, who knew there were so many types of art supplies. And I'm seriously having doubts about deciding to paints in oils. I've never done that before, and with the research I've done, it seems so much harder than I thought. >:\
I think I'm going to practice a bit with the oils first and the see if i actually want to use them in my final product. I hope I get the hang of them because I really wanted to incorporate something that I'd never used in my project.
And I also started sketching and planing exactly what scenes I'm going to incorporate in my painting.
         
              Ahhh so much planning :P

9/20/11 Entry

Okay, so quickly checking in:

• I pretty much know what I'm doing- just kind of the rough outline that i need for right now to start researching and stuff. I can work out the finer details as I go along...

• The project proposal is due in 3 days, so i need to draw that up soon!

• I asked the MYP coordinator at my school to be my mentor and she said yes, so now i have to draw up the mentor contract sheet thing.... (due OCT 7)

So, yeah....  I think I'm going to start drawing up a list of materials this week so I can go to the art store during the weekend, and kinda see how much I'm going to be spending for this project.

9/14/11 Entry

Okay since I have pretty much and outline of what I'm going to do for my project, it's time to start writing the Project Proposal, cause it's due on Sept. 23rd!

• Also, start to think about what materials I'm going to need, what they will cost, when I can go get them, will I have to start saving up $  -- RESEARCH!
• Think about whether I will physically do the project in my house, or whether or not I could just set it up in one of the art rooms at school - ask teacher!
• Think about when during my busy schedule will i have time to specifically work on my project. Weekends? - Think long term (whole year-wise)

• Think about who I want to be my mentor. I'm thinking about asking the actual MYP coordinator...

• Think think think!

The Beginning.

    So this blog is my process journal, and it's actually pretty cool considering we don't have to do our entries in those boring, standard black and white composition books. If we did, I definitely would not be as okay motivated to do this.  Because it is just now sinking in that I'm going to have to follow through with this (not one of my strengths) until May. Or is it March? Whatever.

...So, when all of this MYP project stuff started back in May of last year, I was like, omg I have all this time to think of something really cool to do for my project, and i really, actually wanted to do something cool. I wanted it to have a lasting effect that I would think about even when the project was over. And I had a lot of vague idea, like doing a sculpture or mural or something with my friends, but i wasn't too sure. But I didn't really care at that point cause I thought okay, whatever, i have ten months to think about it anyway. 
And I did discuss a couple of times with my dad, and he gave me this really intricate idea of something i could do, and it sounded really interesting and everything, but it just seemed like too much to do, and while i thought it was interesting, i just wasn't passionate about it. And, at first, I wasn't going to say anything because i didn't want to hurt his feelings or anything, but then i realized that my project wouldn't turn out as good as I wanted it to, if i wasn't 100% behind  the idea.

So, fast forward over the summer and onto the first week of school and into my art class 3rd period. I was working on a project with my friend Angela, and we were talking, and she told me that the proposal for the project was due on September 23rd. And I was like, Oh crap. Because this was like the 9th of September and I had no clue about what I wanted to do. So I started thinking about it.

I had always known that i wanted my project to be artsy, because that's what I'm best at, but i could just say, 'Oh, i want to do a painting, or a sculpture, or a collage, or whatever' because of course, then i'd have to say to myself 'well, about WHAT?' and that question was really hard to answer. Because I wanted it to be personal, but not so personal that nobody else would understand it. And I wanted it to be meaningful, but not so meaningful that it would be corny. Catch my drift?

So I spent a couple days talking to my friends, my parents, and my internet friends (: and I came up with a rough outline of what my product is going to be: I'm going to paint a big, long painting of the following: on the far left side, I'm going to paint a picture of Buenos Aires (the capital of Argentina) which is where my family is from, where I was born and where I lived until I was 5 years old. In the middle I'm going to paint a picture of the place where I live now and have been living in for the past 10 years, and on the far right side I'm going to paint a picture of probably New York, because that's where I want to live where I grow up. The three images are going to be kind of faded together on one long horizontal canvas. It kind of represents the past, present, and future, and the changes in my life.

There's still a lot of things that I have to think about, research, plan, and all together smooth out, but I think this is a good start. Wow, this entry is getting to be very long, but I guess all of them are going to be like this, especially since I'll probably keep most of my records on here anyway.

Okay, I'll post again next time there's anything to report. Or maybe just when I feel like it ;)
x

What is all this MYP stuff?

Okay so the Personal project is 'an independent assignment that can be on any topic and take any form as long as it has a strong connection to at least one Area of interaction (Health&Social Education, Community and Service, Human Ingenuity or Environment)'. I will be working on this project for many months.
The Project has three parts: the project itself (the physical product), the Personal Statement (fancy talk for essay), and the Process Journal (this blog), where I will make entries to record my progress.

I'm to have to decide what I'm actually going to do for my project. With that comes research and planning and lots of other things to do during my already busy schedule!

I'm also going to have to choose a mentor, who will guide me, give me feedback and assess my project at the end.

Ack! So much to do...