For my 20% project I am doing painting and this week I worked on finishing my final touches to sketching out my painting and preparing it for the real paint. I accomplished figuring out what flowers looked better on the canvas and which ones didn’t appear nicely. I also got my mom’s opinion on certain things because I am gifting these painting to her for Mother’s Day! I struggled on getting the whole sketch on the canvas done before next week because I still have quite a bit to do. I don’t have any adjustments to make throughout this week but we will see what happens next week! Later this week at home I will paint all of the flowers on the canvas and add some final touches to the final painting. Next week I will be starting my tri-fold by adding pictures and writing captions! Once that is done I will make some small side paintings to show all of the different styles and techniques that I have learned throughout my painting journey!

This month I read the book If Only I had Told Her by Laura Nowlin. This story was about the life of a boy named Finn. He has always loved this girl named Autumn but never can come to the fact that he does and how he needs to tell her how he feels. Throughout the story you get to experience their ups and downs through their lives and it’s truly a roller coaster of adventures. I loved the book because it was separated into three sections. The first section was in Finns point of view, the second section was through Jacks point of view which is Finns best friend, then the last section was through Autumns point of view. My favorite character was Finn because even though he was there for a short part of the story, it was a short but sweet way to show me how kind, compassionate, and loving Finn was. A quote that shows this is “ My friend. My dream. My love.” Pg. 86. This shows me how Finn feels about Autumn because it isn’t something that he is physically saying. It is something that he is thinking! That proves that he truly feels this way and he isn’t just saying it because he feels like he should. I also got so many different opinions on Finn from all of his friends and family throughout the story, and all of them concluded to Finn being a kind, and compassionate person that never cared about what people thought and would always stick up for his piers that were in need of a friend to be there for them. My favorite quote from the story is “If only I’d told her that I loved her years ago, I wouldn’t be here now.” This is meaningful to me because I love how it is including the title in the sentence. It really ties together the whole thing and it makes the book feel concluded and shows me how Finn feels and it represents how he sees the situation. This is why I loved If Only I had Told Her by Laura Nowlin.

For my 20% project I am doing painting and this week I worked on starting to sketch out the flowers for my painting. I accomplished getting some of the flowers sketched out on my canvas and figuring out how to get the flowers drawn out quickly and easily. Some of my struggles included fitting the right amount of flowers on my canvas and getting the right sizes of flowers so that when I get to the real painting part, I can still paint inside the lines and its not to small. Next week I will need to adjust how prepared I am for the day. I need to adjust this because I didn’t get as much done as I was planning on getting done. I think that the cause of this was probably because I didn’t have my reference photo ready for me and it took me a while for me to find that photo again. Next week I am going to finish sketching out the flowers and depending on time I may start to paint and fill in the flowers!

I’m For my 20% project I did painting and this week I am working on painting the background and getting the tracings of the flowers down onto the canvas. I accomplished getting the background with an even texture and even color. I struggled with my patience on waiting for the background to dry but other than that everything when smoothly and well. Next week I am going to need to bring some more stuff for me to get it done more efficiently like a cup for water, a blow dryer to dry the paint quicker so I can move on to the next step quicker. Next week I am going to start off by making some final touches to the tracing of the flowers then start to fill them in with toilet paper, glue, baking soda, paint and who knows what else there will be! See you next time for next week’s 20% project blog.

The best room of all time in my house is my kitchen. This is my favorite room for three reasons. Number one is, there are so many different amenities within the radius of the kitchen. My kitchen it is a big open layout that flows into my large living room with a MASSIVE T.V. that is able to be seen from my large island in my kitchen. Our kitchen is pretty modern with marble countertops, white backsplash with a very light bit of grey marble within, dark hardwood floors, white cabinet’s, and all silver appliances. The kitchen, hallway, dining room, big living room, and small living room/sitting room are all connected together into one open layout. My second reason is the food. When I’m in the kitchen I don’t have to worry about having to get up and walk all the way to the kitchen from anywhere else in the house. When I’m in the kitchen Im about two steps away from all of the food. And my third and final reason of why my kitchen is my favorite room is because of the family. At first it may not make sense but once I explain you will get it. The kitchen is the place where everyone hangs out and by everyone I mean all of my family. Im in the kitchen a lot because I love that even if people are in the living room, I’m still with them because our rooms are connected. And I can stay in the kitchen the whole time because I just want to eat. This is why the kitchen is the best room in my entire house.

For my 20% project I’m doing painting and this week I was working on all of the different methods to create a thick and textured paint. I accomplished three different types of methods that create a good thick paint for me to draw more realistic 3D flowers. One of the ways includes toilet paper, glue, and acrylic paint. I shape the toilet paper into the shape that I fancy, then glue it down to the canvas. After its glues down, I put a couple of drops of glue on the toilet paper, then spread it out going towards the edge so it will stay. This gives it that realistic flower look. My second method was using baking soda! I combined acrylic paint, and baking soda to creat a paste that’s almost like watered down clay. My third and final method was puffy paint. I paint a flower petal with normal acrylic paint then once it dries I outline it in puffy paint. My accomplishments were figuring out what works so that I know what methods work most pretty, and efficiently. I struggled on figuring out how to get the perfect shape and size with the toilet paper. I don’t need to make any adjustments to my painting techniques because so far its all working! Next week I am going to start my first painting by sketching out my entire painting and depending on how much time I have left I may get to start painting!

I have been waiting for summer this whole year and it is finally close! Don’t get me wrong I love school and seeing my teachers and friends, but there’s something about summer that gives me the sense of relief, relaxation, and freedom! I have been preparing myself for summer for a while now. I’ve done things like move my winter clothes to the bottom of my drawers and move my summer clothes to the top. Or start to get my summer tan on, by laying in my backyard with a bathing suit on. (btw I don’t even have a pool) With the UV index being 8 when its only April, its close and I wont be hit by surprise when summer finally comes. (Which is in approximately 37 days 13 hours and 25 minutes) This summer I have so much to come such as two beach house trips, soccer games, house boat trips, lake house, Palm Springs, and so much more! Those are just a few reasons why I am ready and out of this world excited for this upcoming summer!

Hi I’m Charlotte and for my 20% project I decided to do painting. For my first week of working on my project I just did some research and got all of the supplies that I need to get my project done. The first thing I did was make a list of everything that I needed to buy for both my paintings, and my tri-fold. Then I made two other lists. One for the different kinds of paints and what the difference of the ways that they paint, and the second list is the brushes and what the difference of them is and what types of paint is for what types of brushes? Some of the struggles throughput this research was figuring out if these hacks were reasonable with price or capability. Then I looked up different hacks and ways to figure out how to make the paint look thick and have texture. I found many different ways that other people did this and then I wrote them all down on a google slides. After I found all of these things, I wrote a list of all of the things I would need that I would like to add to my paintings. I went onto amazon and found all of the things that I would need to buy for my 20% project and now I am all ready and prepared to do more of my project next week. I left off on having everything on lists, and in my amazon cart! Some of the things I need to make adjustments to is making sure to stay on track with my schedule. I need to make adjustments to this because I would sometimes fall behind on my schedule or get to far ahead on my schedule to the point that I wouldn’t have anything to do the next week. Next week I am going to be testing the paint, and brushes on a canvas along with the different methods to add texture.

This month I am reading If I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin. I have not finished this book yet but I am currently on page 155. So far this is a story about a boy and girl named Autumn and Finny. The two grew up together because their moms are best friends and they have been since they were little kids. In the first book Autumn and finny took their first steps together, their first words together, but their first day of middle school was a bit different than their other firsts. They claim to have just grown apart but deep down inside they both know it was something much more. As the book continues we get to see the ups and downs throughout their lifetime and relationships with their other piers through Finn’s, Jacks, and Autumns perspective. I love this book so far because I love how the same story is told in three different perspectives which makes it feel like three totally different stories. I love it because in one perspective they could be having the time of their lives but at the same time with the same thing that’s happening someone else they could be feeling lonely or depressed or annoyed or who knows what but I get to see how everyone else in the story feels and that really helps me get a sense of what is happening in other peoples lives and minds and not only the narrator. My favorite character so far is Finny. He is my favorite because Finny just has a special kind of love in a way that makes it feel like its you two in the world and you two only. He gives off this special feeling that is unmatchable. A character trait that describes him is loving. He is loving, because when a character is around him they can always tell that they feel safe and almost honored to be a part of his life. An example of this is what it states this in the text “ ‘Oh, Finny,’ Autumn says. Her voice has so much emotion in it that my heart flutters.” Pg. 97 This part was loving from finny because the way he felt a flutter in his heart because of the way that Autumn was admiring him was showing a sense of love and compassion towards Autumn. My favorite quote from the story is “I love you Autumn.” Pg. 87. This is my favorite quote because it is the first time that Finny is confessing his feelings to Autumn. This is a big deal because after eighteen years of a strong love towards each other the word is out and they are able to spend the rest of their lives together forever. Or so they though…