Non-Traditional Portrait

1. Who did you choose to do a portrait of? Why did you choose that person?
I choose to do a portrait of my best friend's puppy. I chose to do the puppy because her dog is cute and she recentlty got it so I thought it would be interesting to do.  I've also seen her dog almost everyday since he waa adopted so I have connection to the puppy.
2. When brainstorming about this project how did you decide what would be the best materials to use to create it? Explain how your material choice impacted the look of your piece. Why was this so important. Explain.
When I was brainstorming I came up with the idea to use buttons, newspaper, yarn, or tape.  I decided to use buttons because I thought it would be interesting to use different sizes and colors to create the value in the dog fur.  My choice in buttons made the dog look more cartoonish and not as realistic.  It also made it look colorful and dimensional.
3. Describe the risks you took or that were involved in creating the project. What were the challenges you faced?
Some of the risks with using buttons was having the hot glue leave strings around them.  Also it got harder to make the buttons fit together without leaving large spaces between them.  I faced the challenge of making the value noticeable and making distinctions between the ears and eyes with everything else.
4. How did your choices impact the look and feel of the piece? Did your choice of materials have any connection with the person you chose to represent?
My choices made the piece look less realistic than I had hoped.  It also didn't allow the tongue or eyes to be very distinct.  My choice in materials didn't represent the puppy because I choose to do buttons because I thought it would look interesting and not because it related to the dog.