Unit 7 - Project reflections

What a thoroughly enjoyable project! Despite not really liking this unit, this project has more than made up for it. It took me a while to get into it but once I did, I go really stuck in!

I looked at this painting at the National Gallery for the annotation for this unit and at first I wasn't sure whether to use it for the project as well. I looked on the web and in books for other paintings but the detail and variety of reproductions and quality put me off. I thought that as I had seen the painting up close and seen all of the details for my self, this painting was the best one to use.

I had bought a postcard already to put in my collection and this was helpful, especially as the requirement was not to use other resources for the description part. It helped not only to refresh my memory on the painting, my annotation picture is not great, but also it meant I could put a ruler across the image to determine the lines and composition.

The notes from my annotation were very helpful and reminded me of small elements in the painting, such as the sea shells, that can't be seen on the postcard.

I did find though that the sheer volume of content in the painting made it difficult to keep within the word count limit, and I did go over just a tiny bit. My first draft was nearly 2,000 words so I had to be very efficient with words and almost ruthless with what I needed to say and what could be left. I didn't mention some of the smaller details in the background, and I didn't even look into potential symbolic references to the animals, the flowers in the foreground or the instruments.

Overall, I mostly enjoyed getting into the picture in such detail, really breaking it down and seeing what makes it so good and work so well. It amazes me to think that Titian, and other artists, are able to plan all these elements to work together and not to let it be obvious.