I see the light

This project was one of my favorites. My favorite media is just pencil and paper! so when we were assigned this project I wanted to challenge my self but not so much that I would be frustrated with the outcome. When we had to think of how light could be symbolic I kept thinking of age. I went through many ideas. The subject of my drawing is pretty vague, but I intended for the doll head to look as if it has been left behind by a now grown child.

Clay Alter Ego

Portraying your self in another form is always difficult. Its hard enough knowing who you are as a person, trying to translate that into an animal is that much harder. It was really hard to develop an idea, thinking of the situation and the animal separately to represent myself was simpler, merging the two together posed a problem. When I listed my traits I tried to be as honest as possible. The development stage was the most fun. Helping friends create an alternative self as an animal was really fun and allowed us to learn a lot about eachother. But I struggled when it came to developing my own idea. As soon as a friend suggested the peacock to represent my more relaxed side I knew I needed something like the roller skates to show a more energetic side as well. The conceptual side of this project was challenging and fun, and the technical side provided more of the same. It started out well with the body of the peacock, the real challenge was making the fan. I went through three different ideas before one worked. This project more than any made me exert the most physical effort, but I was pleased with the outcome, although I am yet to see it fully glazed.

Me-scape: reductive block print

This project was a really good experience although I did not feel as passionate about this project as the others. It the process was fun and the carving was strangely satisfying but overall it was a little frustrating. Every step of the way I was sooo worried that I would make a fatal mistake causing something to not show up. Each time I printed it became aggravating that they did not line up each time. This project demanded more brain power than all the others causing it to be tiring and I was dissapointed when all the work I put out added up to something I was not so proud of.

I am a daughter. a friend. a student.

I think the main strength of my project was the drawing of my face behind the clutter. Although it does not look exactly like me, it is what makes my project my own. It was the part I worked the hardest on. The pictures, which were meant to represent what, and who is important in my life add a unique twist. Each photo highlights friends, or family, or activities that are meaningful and play a significant role. Without the pictures this would be an ordinary self portrait. It is the bits of color that add more life to the piece, which although is not what I intended turned out to be a metaphor for what adds color to your life.

Visiting artist

This piece is by far my favorite. I love how the artist has the ability to take many different images and subjects and combine them perfectly to make something new. They way the birds head become almost a billowing chimney to the house is very interesting, it takes a really interesting metaphor and expands it into an intriguing image. I marvel at the ornate detail and how each line is seems to be so deliberate. While looking at each piece I definitely wanted to ask the artist how long he takes on each picture?

Reflecting on Self Portrait Project

In our group we each went around sharing our ideas then saying what we were planning to do next. When it was my turn to share, I told my group members about my plans to add more pictures of things that make me who I am and fill it out more by adding color and life. They mentioned that it is looking little bit too square right now. All the pieces are square and the piece as a whole is square. This gave me the idea to cute out most of the white edges around that drag that, I think, drag down the piece and only make it boring. My next step is to get my act together at home and print more pictures in color, and cut out the white, then finally glue it down to a back piece of paper to finish.

The Book Project: progress and planning

When I first saw my photo I thought about how miserable the man looked, it was not until I picked the second picture I wanted to work with did I decide that one looked like a younger version of the other. I started planning out pictures to highlight times in this persons life that help describe why he is so sad looking in the final picture. In my original sketches I showed different instances where anyone would be miserable but as I am creating those pictures I feel they do not hold together as well as I would have hoped. My biggest problem is where I stop using the young boy and start using the old, I am worried my viewer might not make the connection that they are meant to be the same person only older. What is going well though, is that although I am putting time and energy into each picture I am working efficiently and getting things done.

Drawing the Human Form From Inside Out

I think the goals of todays exercise were to get us to look at the human form as a series of general shapes and less in the hyper-detailed way feel stressed to do. We also heard Ms. Roberts say "draw what you see not what you think is there" so this, like most drop everything and draw exercises, was to reinforce that concept. Also the focus on proportion (one of the principles of design) has been a major topic this week and this class was to drum it harder into our heads. Although I do not particularly like the drawings I created I think I achieved creating the general shape and image of people who are more or less proportionate. For me it was more interesting to see how other people aproached drawing the same subject and how although none were better or worse they were all different. A major challenge I faced, besides my easel breaking then falling on my head and giving a splinter, was drawing from the inside out. Constantly I had the urge to draw something else first, but I think this really made keeping things in proportion easier than if I had started with the head.

Shades of Grey

The goal of todays exercise was to carve out forms from our paper by using shading and erasers as our pencil. By doing this we were forced to take shading into account to make our drawings look realistic. Whereas we might not think to do this, or to shade to this extreme if we were left to our own devices, but here were depended on the shading of each object to bring it to life.

I think my drawing came out okay, but I am always very critical of my own work. I think you could see each object. If I had started out my drawing by making the background all around darker I think each thing would have stood out more, whereas right now my drawing feels very....safe.

Reflecting on Found Object Sculpture

I first started with a jelly bean (gumball type) machine. Immediately I knew I wanted to use that for a head on my sculpture. Then I started playing around with putting the facial features inside the globe. It wasn't until sarah lent me purple yarn to use as hair that I decided to make it clown like. Then I found the door handle for a mouth and decided on the pot for the body and the rest just flowed. I think I did not take much away from todays critique about my personal work but I really enjoyed the chance to get to see other peoples thought process and how they took this project differently then I did. My favorite part of my piece in terms of creativity were the door handle for a mouth, a hair pick for a hand (with lots of fingers), and a skrew as a propeller on the hat. The shoes were a last minute addition that added to the big footed clown look but I wish I had used a more original material.

Mid-Term Reflection

So far in this class I feel I have tried really hard to be as open to new ideas as possible. The thing I struggle with a lot is getting frustrated with my self and the outcome of a project. Although this can sometimes get me down, like in the charcoal exercise, I really do enjoy things like this. I try to stay as enthusiastic as I can. I know I talk a lot. I always mean for my input to be constructive but I know sometimes I will get a little too chatty. This term I have arrived to class late more than what is acceptable but I try really hard to compensate that with being committed to each exercise. I gave my "emotional lines" lots of thought especially about the shading and color. This unit I think what I have really learned is to work with color. Usually I enjoy to more deal with color then really manipulate it and use it to push my piece forward. As far as general energy level and inspiration I think most of my pieces so far have been pretty "inspired". In every x-block I have taken my own initiative to work in my sketchbook. Lately I am on in a chair faze. Overall I really like art class and feel that I have put lots of energy into all of the assignments.

What is it the sack?

Today the goals set by Ms Roberts:

-go from general to specific

-move quickly

-use shadowing and light to make the bags come alive

My goals for my self:

-Make something that actually might possibly look something like what I was actually trying to draw

The goals I actually achieved:

umm....

well I think I went from general to specific okay but I have always been one to draw slow. I think I focused to much on the detail and frustration and less on the image I was creating. As far as it goes for achieving the goal I set for my self well... look at the picture

The Changing Still Life

This insane goal felt like alice in wonderland we had to run as fast as we could to stay exactly where we were. Literally we had to erase non stop and draw non stop. We had no time to mourn over the loss of a perfectly drawn cup it was just go. go. go. It all felt a little like the race we run in high school. We have to keep up with the current events and let go of last years jokes and when we stopped to take a breath all we had was a blur. Its hard to do, but it was an adrenaline rush. To tell the truth I did not hate the final product as much as I thought I might. I enjoyed it, but might not want to have to do it all again. Sorta like high school

Reflecting on my first critique

While sitting in the "living room" and listening to Ms. Roberts give instructions for the critique I thought it would be a piece of cake. Usually I am totally comfortable speaking in front of my peers and talking about my work but in those moments where there was no talking at all and I had to stand by listening, I felt the butterflies flittering in my stomach. Although it was very casual and I still felt the jumpy feeling when you know your under a microscope. I though my peers did an excellent job of analyzing my piece. They thought critically about what each symbol meant, and looked at each artistic detail I attempted to incorporate. Although we did not spend to long on each piece I think it was a positive experience and it was a nice check in. It was good to know people are really seeing the work you are doing.

Reflecting on first full week.

Over the past week we have completed exercises such as verbally describing art, Collaborative Drawings, pour paintings, and mapping still lifes. Although one could argue these exercises are random and unconnected if you look at the fundamentals these lessons stress you will find a common trend. In each of these activities we were asked to analyze and think critically about very different types of art. None of the different projects we completed were given to us straight on, each presented its own challenge and unique twist. We never were assigned to look at an object and draw exactly what we saw, we had to work around our obstacles, whether they be unplanned splatter, each other, or simply guidelines set into place we all had to think creatively to come up with a product. In each of these we also practiced basic drawing which helps develop the hand eye coordination that is vital when learning the basics of art.

re visiting observation/description activity

Well, although it the picture Mia created is not exactly the same as the original there are many similarities. (Many more than my picture had) the location of the shapes and shades are almost dead on although they do not mesh together the way they do in the original. She really got the atmosphere of the piece in its lineless simplicity and blurred effect. If I were to do this differently I would recommend materials such as cray pas and stress the lack of definitive shapes and tones.