NATURE wALk

I spent a majority of my time peacefully meditating/relaxing by the field and creek. I noticed how the ever-lasting water flow molded the ephemeral shape of the river bank. This balance has made me struggle to find a place somewhere in the ecosystem that was fitting.

Ephemeral art can be placed in nature too, to naturally biodegrade and become a part of the surroundings. This can reform, reshape or destroy the art, but in doing so rekindle the process of erosion. I can use these concepts in my artwork, as i reshape materials into something else - particularly on the grounds of how I relate to said material.

FINAL REFLECTION

1. Which project do you consider your most successful? How did you develop your craft with this assignment? What tools, methods and materials were essential to your success with this project? What ideas, feelings or meanings did you want your piece to express? How did you go about expressing it? 
• I consider my texture project my most successful. I used a variety of tools and mediums to really EVOKE the TEXTURAL design within the project. The hammer and hot glue gun were by far my most important tools. They aided the construction project. Paint was important in capturing my color designs. I wanted my piece to express the textures of nature contrasted with the creative design found in the industrial world. I expressed this by using a variety of materials, including shiny metals and rough wood/canvas.
2. Which project was the most challenging? Look at your brainstorming for this project. How does the final work(s) resemble your preliminary sketches? What changed? Why did you make the changes that you did? What problems emerged in the creation of this project? How did you solve the problems?
• The form project was BY FAR the most challenging for me to do. For me, the final work was extremely similar to my drawings. The only changes i made came in detail. It was much more challenging than i previously thought to create the minute textural details that expressed the realist values of a shape. This actually made the project more abstract, which turned out to be what i wanted. Many times i accidentally took off too much plaster, and at one point i had to add back plaster in order to better convey the shape in which i intended.
3. Please discuss three new strengths you've discovered or deepened this year. One formal strength (your ability to work with things like composition, balance, rhythm et cetera), one technical or media-specific strength (working in a specific medium or honing a specific skill) and one conceptual strength (you idea development in the specific project). 
• Evocativity of Balance: I learned to use balance to further develop my projects. I used different contrasting colors, or even opposites, to offset or balance my projects.
• Chisel: I became very good at using the chisel to mold and shape the plaster. The form in which i needed to create was very difficult, and my chisel skill development helped me really evoke the shapes that i wanted.
• Flowing Design: I really pushed myself to use rounded flowing designs in my works, because i enjoy the way it looks. This idea was essential in all of my design processes.

Form Project

Envision | Express

Restate your intentions for this project--how did you combine abstracting the figure with an outside influence?  

• I chose to combine the image of sitting legs with spherical objects as well as spring forms. The springs were the inspiration for the the cylindrical shape, while the rounded knees were inspired by the spheres. I came up with the idea for spheres when we did them in Geometry class. I tried hard to work with my images while I sculpted to really evoke the ides and inspirations that I drew from.

Develop Craft |Engage and Persist

How did you push yourself to gain a better understanding of the physical properties of the plaster? 

• To push myself and to gain a better understand the physical properties of the plaster, I used a variety of tools that each had different effects on the plaster. At times i wetted the plaster, and once I even re-mixed the plaster to ADD back to my work. Notably, my plaster was much older than everyone else's (by months), so it was much drier and more brittle when i began. This created a new and exciting challenge.

In what ways did you come to better control the various tools you employed?

• I attempted to understand how each tool worked, in order to use it as productively as possible. This helped me refine and sculpt my work at a greater rate of speed, which later gave me more time to sand and refine the textural features of my work.

Stretch and Explore

In what ways did your intentions change over the course of your project?  What opportunities or occurrences led to these changes?

• My work was going well at first, but about midway through large chunks randomly chipped off of the base and came close to ruining the entire goal of the rectangular plane shape of the back. When I remade plaster to fill in a hole that had been drilled accidently during a class demonstration, I used that same plaster to rebuild the back of my sculpture. This "second chance" really helped to achieve my goal of a smooth, near "perfect" box on which the legs are sitting.

What were some of the specific formal areas you focused on to realize your piece? how did you employ form, gesture, texture to reinforce your intentions?

• I focused a lot on texture and abstraction. For the texture, i made sure to spend almost 3 days sanding and refining my work. Although my work may not be as abstract as some, the legs really drew from my inspiration of springs and spheres.

Value Project

Final Blog Post

-How has your persistence and engagement in these habits pushed you to further resolve the questions, tools, methods, etc as discussed in your previous post?

•  I spent lots of time refining my drawing, using pencil to complement the texture and values of the charcoal. Instead of making radical, contour changes, I slowly developed the shadows and highlights to create a stronger piece. These small changes really emphasized the shapes and value that my part of the still-life had.

-How have these habits pushed you to further develop your artistic practice in general as well as your understanding of value (employing shadow and light to represent 3-D form)?

• This experimentation has really helped me grow as an artist, because now I can apply these new skills to artistic work in other disciplines. After finishing my charcoal drawings, i returned to the dark room with a better understanding of value. This helped me develop better negatives than before.

-Which medium felt more comfortable? Why?

• To me, the work in the dark room was much more comfortable. Because I had previous experience from the beginning of the year, I was able to concentrate more on adjustments than on learning the basics. I also enjoyed how you could make many prints, some with very different adjustments, until you selected one to print on the large photo paper.

-Which medium allowed you more opportunity for "expression"? How?

• The charcoal allowed me more opportunity for expression. I was able to evoke more textures and shadows creatively, where in the photographs all of the creativity came in the photo taking.

-How might you better improve your experience and/or results with each of the mediums in the future?

• To improve my results in the charcoal drawings, I think that i could use more pencil. It made it much easier to add to certain areas in order to create better shadows and highlights. To improve my work in the photography portion, I need to take better picture. Some of my picture were decent, but others were not worth developing. This is important, because I only had 12 pictures.

Interim Check-in and Reflect

• What are you trying to evoke in your work through the use of value?
• I am trying to evoke detail as well as contrast through my use of value. By using total blacks and varied values of grey and white, I was able to evoke details and intense contrasts

• How are you currently using value to influence your viewer's experience of the drawing and  photographs?
• I am using value to ensure that i cover every shade of the value spectrum, even when working in color. This is helpful when i am painting or even sculpting to create a good value scale in my evocative artwork.

• What specific techniques and habits do you need to focus on?
• I need to focus more on using darks. I am very good at incorporating light shade in my artwork, but i struggle to successfully express dark tones.

What is Value? How have/will I use value in my drawings and photography?
          Value is the representation of lights and darks across a spectrum that objects without different colors. Currently, we have been practicing adding lights to darks, using two methods. First, we  erased charcoal from a completely black piece of paper. Next, we used a white pencil to add white and lighter values to other parts of the picture. These two method both involved increasing whites, different from what we normally do in contour drawings.

I find this photograph to be the most evocative. To me, an evocative image includes many focuses as well as several varied values.

The photo above most clearly exemplifies the value scale. It encompasses the darkest of darks as while as very white values.

In my black and white image, I hope to capture as many values as i can along with varied ranges of focus to produce an image of exceptional photographic quality.

Texture Project

Texture Project: Part 3

          From my point of view, this is a very varied composition of textures. I did not spend as much time organizing the composition as I did in the photoshop portion of the project, but I still spent a significant amount of time aligning and repositioning the different pieces of this textural composition. I spent a lot of time using different tools to create the proper textures in my work. A ball-hammer was used to create the unique, still-shining texture of the green circle. I also used several types of screwdrivers and hammers to make patterns with screws and nails. I continued to make modifications and adjustments to my work up until it was time to take a photograph. My final print and relief sculpture are extremely unified, with the only difference being the green metal circle instead on the random shape. I was very involved during the reflective and evaluative discussions about my work and the work of others. I felt that I was very thoroughly able to communicate aesthetic ideas, something I am comfortable doing. It is well-balanced, which was one of my project goals.

                                                            Texture Project: Parts 1 & 2

Final Markup

Texture Grid:

          I feel that my collection of textures is quite varied, ranging from industrial patterns to natural textures. In this collection, I chose to balance the rubbing in the corners and the photographs in the middle. A careful eye will also notice that the lighter colored textures form an "X" in the collection's composition. In my final composition, I made several design changes and re-arrangements, including a a drastic decision to crop the composition down to a much smaller size in order to capture the striking detail of the texture collection.

Color Project

Reflection Overall

Working with both paint and photography was a fun and interesting challenge. I found that with paint, you had to be more decisive about strokes and color choices, as there really was no delete button. It was nice to be able to take many photographs and then select a few, whereas in paint you could only create the four, with no more to chose from. I surprised myself by being more comfortable in paint. I enjoyed mixing colors, something that came quite naturally to me.

Painting Color Schemes

From the top left clockwise: Complementary, monochormatic, triadic, analogous. My goal of this project was to created a series that displayed the four color schemes in a balanced, relatively clean-cut way. The top two  paintings were designed to be relatively clean, with intentional strokes that followed the pencil lines. In the triadic painting, I tried to make the color VERY monotone, with almost indistinguishable strokes. This was achieved by using a very small brush and mixing the paint all at once, instead of as i went along. The analogous painting was designed to be a much freer interpretation of the paint jar. Several of my group members enjoyed the compostition and placement of the paint jar on the page. Another group member enjoyed how the paintings were similar at a distance, but quite different close up. One suggestion was to vary my color schemes more to include greens and purples. Overall, group feedback was positive, with a general consensus that it was nice to have a cleaner cut piece among several more expressive works.

Photoshop Color Schemes

Analogous

This is a tiling of an analogous pattern of leaves that I found in a bush. The three different colored 

squares represent colors from the image, and they help bring theses 4 copies of an image together.

Complementary

The red fire-hydrant and the green grass are complementary colors. The pattern at the bottom is designed to mimic the shape of the hydrant. Colors from the design were drawn directly from the image.

Monochromatic

In this image of leaves, the only/most prominent color is a bright shade of green. The triangular variations of the color green are intended to mimic the triangular-like patterns  and direction of the leaves.

Triadic

This is an image that I set up myself, because a triadic color scheme is difficult to find in nature. The design around it was meant to be a continuation of the image itself. The colors of the rectangles were directly drawn from the image itself.

Composition/Shape Unit

Composition Discussions

 This collage is meant to show balance through symmetry  With only 2 different shapes used, it was important to organize the pieces on the page in a way that showed balance.

          In order to make this collage have directional movement, I first created an outline with these peculiar shapes I got from a sketch of wood blocks. I then filled the outline with more of the same shapes, following the general direction of the outline. The circle at the end was designed as a focal point for the viewer, and to be the completion of the movement.

This sketch is a possible idea for a photogram to go with the second collage. (Jasmine)

The Final Diptych

          The shapes for the collage were actually outlines from a sketch of a block of wood, while the left photogram was from the garden behind the sculpture studio. Drawing random things seemed to help me find shapes that were interesting, and then I just traced and cut them out. With help from Mr. Oldmixon,  I began to branch away from rigid lines and move to a more fluid, abstract style of composing. If found shape in almost everything, so that was easy for me. Before i would glue a collage down, I would briefly experiment with the amount of white v. dark. I would also make sure it fit under one of the categories, like balance or directional movement. The final diptych is two images side by side, both displaying directional movement. Designed to complement each-other, they are arranged to show a "ying-yang" type balance through relative symmetry. The organic v. inorganic shapes added contrast. I developed my knowledge of how to cut out and design collages with a razor blade. I had never used a darkroom or enlarger before, but by the end i was working comfortably and independently on my various photograms. My work was greatly benefitted by group discussions and feedback sessions. Most influential was Jasmine Klein, who came up with the organic contrast to the collage.