Breadth Works. . .

         At first, I was worried about this project because I felt like the criteria was too open and that I wouldn’t know what to do because there are just so many options, but once I started looking deeper into Pinterest, my brain started to get filled with inspiration. I had to make sure that these pieces worked to complete my breadth section of my portfolio. I had three strong ideas that I decided to roll with that ended up having varying concepts. I knew that I wanted to go back to working with cut paper, so I decided to create an intricate design that I was going to lay over a photograph. I wanted this first work to show a dreamscape in a flowing, abstract way. For my second work, I wanted to do some simple geometric patterns in Photoshop it give the image a trapped feeling by making it look like the viewer is either in front or behind a fence. Finally, for my third project, I wanted to create something that was really abstract and had a sharp, hurt feeling.
         To create all three of these works, I used many different kinds of materials. For my first work, I transferred my photograph using the hand sanitizer transfer technique onto rice paper and I painted watercolor paper and used an exacto blade to cut an intricate pattern into the paper to layer overtop. For my second work I attached tiles to a piece of wood to make a background and printed a photograph on organza and attached it to a wire to hang it. Finally, for my last work, I photographed pins using a macro lense. I also put the pins in foam core to keep them in place and used studio lights to create sharp shadows and highlights.
         Throughout all three of my pieces, I used many different elements and principles. Line was used in all three of my pieces along. In my first two works I used shape, texture, and contrast in the cut paper and the organza. The last two works had balance and rule of thirds because of the way that I organized and placed the images. The second work used form in the tiles and pattern in the editing in the photograph and finally, color, movement, leading lines, and fill the frame were used in the first work.
         After working on all three of these works for a while, there are some things that I can see that I have done well and some things that I could improve on. This was the first time that I had to come up with three different concepts at once and I think that I did pretty well making each one different. I also think I did well with craftsmanship in all of these works because I had to complete them is a short period of time. Finally, this was the first time I had transferred a photograph using hand sanitizer. I think that for my first transfer using this technique, it turned out pretty well. Along with things that I did well, I also have things that I would like to improve. I wish that I could change my last photograph because I liked how it looked without the pins at the bottom, but I was just afraid that the original would have too much negative space. I also wish that I could get rid of the pencil lines on my first one, but whenever I tried, it started wrecking the paper.
         Throughout this whole project, I learned many things. The main two things that I learned was how to shoot photographs using a macro lense and how hard it really is and also how different papers can give your final print or image a different color, texture, look and feel.

Death

          For the alternative media project, I was actually really excited because this time I actually had a concept in mind. We were required to create a work using an alternative media that we have never used before. At first, I didn’t really know what to do for this project because I have printed on many different things when I was in photography 1 and 2. I realized that I have never printed on newspaper and I thought that this project would be a good opportunity for me to try. One thought lead to another and I started thinking about printing on obituaries which lead me to my concept. The main concept of my work is death and the beauty of death; the beauty of the transition from life to death. I was mainly inspired by the movie The Corpse Bride and also because it was getting close to Halloween and I was feeling spooky! To create my work, I used obituaries, unprinted newspaper to back some of the prints, a needle and thread, and a camera.
          I used two elements of art: value and texture. I used value in the photograph and the different blues of the butterflies and I used texture in the substrates. I also used six principles of art: balance, contrast, movement, leading lines, rule of thirds, and fill the frame. I used balance where I put the butterflies and I used movement, leading lines, and rule of thirds with the butterflies. Finally I used contrast in the color of the butterflies and the photograph and I filled the frame with the portrait.
          After looking at my final piece, it is easy to tell what I did well, and what I need to improve. I’m glad that I made all of the butterflies different colors and sizes to add variation and I also feel like I did a good job printing. I was very nervous at first because I have never printed on newspaper before and I didn’t want to mess up. I’m pretty glad how it turned out. Along with things that I did well, there are also things that I need to improve. I feel like I could have sewed the pieces together better, maybe by using a sewing machine. It would have made the process a lot faster. I also probably would have printed a lighter colored photograph because this one printed really dark and it is hard to tell what some parts are. Finally, I would print on two layers of newspaper instead of one so they would be easier to rip off.
          Overall, this project taught me a lot. Mainly that printing on newspaper was harder than I thought and that sewing paper is hard (and a little painful). I feel like in the future I will try to print on different materials to make my work more interesting.

MIAD Fieldtrip

(I wrote about each piece in my sketchbook below)

(The image below is the image that I sketched above)

When I saw these spaces in the images above, it made me think about how art making should truly look like. It looked messy but clean at the same time. I also loved all of the gray and blue tones throughout the whole building.

I also took a lot of photographs of the architecture because I loved the combination of the modern and old throughout the third ward. I also loved how blue the sky was that day and I thought that is contrasted well with the red of the bricks.

You Pick Three : Symmetrical Balance, Value, Cubism

          For the second project this year, I was relieved to find out that we had a longer time limit to complete our work. We were required to choose three cards: a principle of art, element of art, and a art movement. My cards happened to be Symmetrical Balance, Value, and Cubism. When I first saw Cubism, I wasn’t that excited, because I don’t really like the Cubism movement and I wasn’t quite sure how to create a photograph in the Cubism style. After doing some investigating on Pinterest, I found this cool looking tutorial on low-poly photography. The whole image was made out of triangles and it looked very complex. I shot a photograph of four tomatoes and went quickly to work. I mainly used Adobe Illustrator to create the triangles and Live Paint; I used PhotoShop only to give the image more contrast and saturation and to make it symmetrical. Since my required element and principle were symmetrical balance and value, I still used other elements and principles within the final piece. I used the following elements of art: shape, color, value, and texture. I used shape, color, and texture in all of the triangles that make up the entire image and value in each individual triangle. Finally, I also used the following principles of art: contrast, pattern, and symmetrical balance. I used contrast in the contrasting colors of the background and the tomatoes and symmetrical balance and pattern in the way I split the image in half, so each side was symmetrical.
          When stepping back and looking at the final photograph as a whole, it is easy to tell what I did well and what I need to improve. I can see that I did a pretty good job making the final image still look like tomatoes, even though the image it totally made up of triangles. When I was finished, I was very surprised by all of the detail that you could still see. I also think that the texture that the triangles made is awesome because it almost makes the image look 3D in some parts. Finally, I think that I did a pretty good job creating a makeshift photo-studio in my living room so I could get the plain background. I just laid a poster on the floor upside-down (so the white back was facing up) and taped another to the side of my couch in front of my living room windows. The lighting was awesome there and I wanted to take advantage of it. When I look at the final image, there is one thing that stands out to me that I think that I could improve. I would have liked to make the triangles more different sizes throughout. In the beginning, I was making the more detailed spaces smaller triangles and the spaces of more solid color larger, but as I kept working, I just wanted to get the triangle making over with (and I think it was making me just a little crazy). If I had more patience, I think it would have looked even better with all of the varying sizes.
          When looking back at my process and the final product, I can confidently say that creating a low-poly image will drive you insane! But all of the time and headaches are worth it to see the end, because the final product looks very cool. I even plan on printing this photograph even larger after critique! Then it will be easier to see all of the different sizes of triangles and all of the detail.

WORD

To be honest, when I first learned about this project, I think I died a little on the inside. Completing ten works of handmade art in one week what all fit one random word just seemed impossible! But somehow I did survive this project, little sleep and all! I created ten works of art that seemed to fall on the large side of the spectrum: three paintings, two drawings, two mixed media works, and three installation type works. When I first saw my word, I was a little glad that I actually knew what it was, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go across creating ten works from it. The word that I chose was bulk. After doing some extensive research on google images and the dictionary, I finally had a vision. Well, multiple visions. The main way that I envisioned ‘bulk’ was the litterial way, meaning things of large quantity and items created in large amounts. I also saw the word for how it sounded and felt, which would be dark and hard. In order to use this newly found knowledge of the word ‘bulk’, I needed to figure out what materials I needed to use to help portray the word. Mainly, I just walked around my house to see if I could find anything that was sold or produced in bulk: like cotton balls, books, birdseed, buttons, and sticky notes. During this time of art making, the hot-glue-gun became my best friend. I used it in many of my projects (without even burning myself once! Achievement!!!). The main three elements that I used in all ten works were: line, texture, and shape. Texture was very prominent in all of my works and helped portray the idea of mass production and the feeling of the word ‘bulk’ and many different shapes found their way into my work. Line was also used in many of my works, creating a feeling of endlessness. Also, the three main principles of art that I used in most of my works were: pattern, contrast, and balance. Pattern and balance worked specifically well with my word, because things produced in bulk often do create a repeating pattern and have some balance to them. I also used contract in many of my works to give them a pop of color, since many of them were black and white. Overall, after having critique and getting a chance to look at all of my works side-by-side (or as side-by-side as I could get them), I noticed a few things that I did well and what I need to improve. The thing that I noticed that I did well in was going “out-of-the-box”. To be honest, I think that I went a little too out of the box because I never took sculpture class and I’m not really interested in doing sculpture, so I’m not sure what compelled me to create so many sculptural pieces. But I guess thinking out-of-the-box is good, right? Along with the thing I did well, I also feel like I need to improve on my craftsmanship and working on proportion and size differences. I know that we didn’t have a lot of time for this project and we were a little rushed, but I still wish that my craftsmanship would have been better. Also, I know (and will forever need to) work on proportion. Many times I wanted to make things different sizes to vary up the image, but for some reason, I just kept drawing them the same size! I know that this is a think that I will try to work on this year. Finally, throughout all of this, I learned many things. One, that I am capable of a lot more that I though, because never in a million years would I have thought that I could create ten (decent) works of art i seven days! Also, that art is more painful than I remember, because apparently when I was working, I had really bad posture and my neck and back hurt after each piece. I will definitely work on not slouching when working on my following masterpieces so I don’t kill myself in the process. Well, a dead painter is usually a famous painter, am I right? :)

Artist Statement Reflection

This was probably the busiest summer that I have ever had. I worked most of the week and we are slowly remodeling my house at home; but through all of this I still found time to do art. In the beginning, I tried to do all of the online stuff at once to make sure that I got it all out of the way so I could have more time to be more artsy! I made a plan for myself to post to my blog every Friday with what I did in my sketchbook and what photos I took and what I have edited. I shot over 80 photos and posted them to Flickr as soon as I could. I feel like I could have shot more still life photographs, but I shot way more than I needed to. I also tried to work in my sketchbook everyday, and sometimes some pages would take more than one day to complete.

I believe that the 2-D Design portfolio would fit me the best, because I absolutely love photography! I shot and edited six photos for my final pieces this summer. In the future, I would like to be able to make a living doing what I love to do. Even before the summer started, I knew that I wanted to make my final portfolio in photography.

Throughout the summer, I noticed that I was exploring the more abstract and simple concepts and designs. Many of my sketchbook pages and photographs are simply designed and edited. I might want to work some of this simplicity and abstract quality into my final portfolio.

Also over the summer, I experimented with a lot of different media and techniques. I tried cut paper, spray paint, working with leaves, watercolor, marker, pen, pencil, PhotoShop, and my phone. After experimenting with all of these just made me want to try even more new techniques and to push myself further.

All throughout the summer, I used Pinterest to help my find inspiration for many of my sketchbook pages and photography edits. I never really followed the images I found exactly and I made them my own. In the future of this class, I might use Flickr more for find inspiration for my photographs.

Last post before school starts \ 0o0 /

Sorry for not posting at all for a week. I was out of town at my Aunt's house in Beaver Dam. While I was away, I did take pictures and I did a lot of sketching!

Let's rewind all the way back to August 14th! () _ () I decided to do another mandala, because why not!

 

Then I was thinking about doing something with lines... And this is the result...

All of these next ones I did when I was at my Aunt's house. :) It was a little hard to do them sometimes because of her two kitties Steve and Lola. They kept trying to chew on my paint brushes and pencils!

The mandala was one of the more complicated ones that I have done. It took a lot of measuring and patience...

Also, I posted these on Flickr, but here are some of the photos I took while I was away. ^.^

Goodby for now! I got to go to work now. See you all at school in 5 days! e_e