Final Art Reflection

Two pieces of work that I have done this year that I find the most successful are my pop art collage and my landscapes book.  I like my pop art collage because I like how the same exact image portrays a myriad of emotions and feelings just through the different colors used to paint them.  I like how the different paints can also accent and complement many different aspects of the same cups.  I like my landscape book because it conveys all aspects of nature through photo, ink drawings, and digital images.  I also like how I incorporated different sections of nature all into one book to show a portfolio of the work I did.  I like how the pages flow together, and it has a crisp, clean look.

Title: Landscapes

Project: To create a book including a focus on nature through photo, digital image, and ink drawings

 Title: Cup Pop Art
Project: Create a pop art painting using the same image, making one monochromatic, one complementary, one analogous, and one free choice, which I did monochromatic again.

The Landscapes book stands out to me because of the different line qualities used in the ink drawings. The ink provides a smooth texture that can be used to convey many different looks and emotions, which draws me into that specific medium and piece of work.  My least successful work was probably my 3D plaster sculpture.  My clay moquette was fine, and I liked it, but when it came to carving the plaster, I ran into some difficulties.  For example, when I was trying to carve off a piece of my plaster block, half of my sculpture completely shattered and fell off, making my mold smaller than I would've liked it to be.  Also, I did not like the medium because it was very wet at first, and then it got very dry and fragile all of a sudden, so it was very unpredictable.  I also didn't like the tools that we used to carve them because I found them hard to use to do to my plaster exactly what I pictured in my mind.  I learned to be patient about different mediums and learn how to properly work with them to escape making mistakes that are hard to recover from, such as part of my piece shattering.  I would use smaller tools on the majority of my piece instead of using the big chisel the majority of the time of working on this project to get closer detail and use a more gentile tool to decrease the risk of chiseling off too much plaster.  I consider drawing, painting, and photography to be my biggest strength, but more drawing and painting because I enjoy working in the dark room and using both the film cameras and digital, but I had a hard time learning how to use photoshop and at the beginning of the year aperture was very foreign to me.  However, towards the end of the year, I figured out editing in aperture and improved a lot.  Drawing and painting is very fun for me, and I like how I'm in control 100%.  I feel like on projects I really enjoyed I have all my effort, such as the pop art and photo and ray o gram and wire project and drawing the 3D objects, but on projects I wasn't so keen on, I didn't focus as much as I should have, like in the sculpture project and movement sketches.  I'm excited about becoming a more skilled drawer and painter because I have always been really fascinated in those mediums, and I am excited to go more into depth.  In this class, I've learned to be more patient with things and figure out ways to fix mistakes rather than just give up and start all over again.  These will help me outside of the classroom and apply to every day life because they are good things to know. 

Landscapes Reflection

I tried to focus on hillsides and landscapes rather than up close and in detail.  I included a few up close and in detail shots in my book, but I tried to have mostly landscapes and far-away shots.  While taking the photos, I looked at light very carefully, focusing on the natural light and shadows given off.  I tried to have a good balance of my whites, blacks, and grays, since we shot in black and white.  For line quality in the ink drawings, I tried to vary the size and density of each line I made, making no two lines similar, because in nature, no two lines really are similar.  I played on the shadows especially when taking photos both on campus and at phoenix lake.  I tried to capture the fascinating shadows and document them in my book.  I was drawn in by the photos with shadows, and I wanted to incorporate at least one into my book.  I focused on form in both my photography and ink drawings by examining the shape of the objects and trying to capture them either on film or on paper.  I focused on objects with various textures and shapes and sizes to add diversity into my book, even though it all is landscapes and photos or drawings of nature.

Landscapes

Form Reflection Questions

I came to understand the concept of metamorphosis throughout this project by using the tools to chip away at the plaster. While chipping away at it, the plaster transformed from a big block into a movement sculpture. My work physically addresses metamorphosis because the places where I chizzled away at are very lucid and clear. I pushed myself to use different tools and methods of chizzling to better understand the plaster itself. The different tools allowed me to get different looks to the plaster and smaller tools allowed me to get into smaller crevices and make more detail than the larger ones that were helpful to carve out big sections of the plaster. During the beginning of the project, the larger chizzles were easier to use because I was focusing on getting the overall shape of the sculpture. However, the smaller carving tools came to be very handy because once I had my overall shape I started to work on smaller details. At first, I wanted to make the sides more rounded inwards like an oval, but I made them more rectangular because I liked the geometric shape of it. Also, I made a hole from an air bubble on the front of the sculpture and I like how it looks. The air bubble provided the opportunity for the singular hole on the front of the sculpture. I would have worked more delicately when carving out my shape because when I was carving it out, a big chunk actually fell off completely, which definitely changed my final vision of my piece.

Clay Moquette and Plaster Abstract Sculpture Final Pictures

Clay Moquette & Plaster Sculpture

Plaster

My plaster object is called "person stretched out" because it resembles a person with their feet spread and their arms sticking up in a vertical angle.  My piece resembles shape because it has a distinct shape and the shape of it really stands out.  The texture of my piece is really important because it is smooth, and that is the purpose of it.  The edges are key, too, because they are the things that determine that shape and it's quality.

Gesture Sketches & Clay Moquette

Gesture Drawings Reflection Questions

Degree of Exploration (Stretch and Explore)

–      How well do your drawings capture the gesture of the figure? 

My drawings capture the gesture of this figure because you can see there is a movement being performed, but it isn't obvious what movement it is, giving it an abstractness. I think I captured the gesture pretty well. My original gesture was someone standing up with their arms raised up above their head, and I think that movement can be deciphered from looking at it carefully without it being too obvious or too oblivious.

–      How thoroughly did you explore the process of simplifying and “abstracting” the gestures in order to best capture your intended form?

I carefully looked at the gesture and deciphered ways to involve the negative into it in an abstract way. I made sure the piece wasn't too figurative, but at the same time wasn't too abstract that no one could tell what it was supposed to be.

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

My intentions have changed over the course of the project so far because I started out with my drawing being more on the abstract side, but then as I made my clay moquette, I ventured more to give the sculpture more dimension and some more figurative qualities so there was a better balance of the two. The opportunity that led to this change was the building and molding of the clay moquette. If we hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able to see that there was more that needed to be done in my sculpture. 

My container is a pint sized milk carton. It is a good size for my sculpture because my clay moquette is on the smaller side, and that is the way I like it.

Movement Sketches

Final Value Post

Reflection Questions:
I Stretched myself to get good borders on my pictures and I explored different line qualities. I engaged in the class by using up all time available to work on my projects and listen to any advice or critique given. I persisted through the project by keeping with it even throughout multiple mistakes. That I why I have many pencil marks that could not be erased. My persistance and engagement in these in these habits pushed me further to resolve my scales and the way my lines lined up. Mr O. taught me how to use your pencil and an angle and hold it up to see what angle you should draw your shape at. I had to redo the majority of my picture because my lines were off their correct angles, but I persisted through it and engaged in the comments Mr. O gave me to improve my drawing. My habits pushed me because I learned I had to develop new ones, like shading all the object to the way they appear. The photo paper felt more comfortable to me because I like the way that you can do another print so easily if you do mess up. It puts more pressure on me to take my time and make it perfect because I know you can't go back. The paper and pencil allowed me more expression because you can choose the pencil you use, the pencil lines, the pencil pressure, the way you draw objects, etc. You can basically do whatever you want on the paper with the pencil, when however with the photo paper you can only print on there the picture that you took. So you still have some expression with the pictures you take, but not nearly as much as you can with the pencil and paper. In the future, I will take my time more to improve my lines and line quality on the paper. For the darkroom and photo paper, I will also take my time to put it the picture in focus.

Final Value Drawing

In-Process Photography Reflection & Image

Reflection:

1. I developed craft with this assignment by learning how much of a difference changing the time and the apperture could make on the single photograph. I had no idea that you could even change the apperture or that the time would make a difference in these photographs! I also learned how to opperate the enlarger by myself. 

2. I used the enlarger, a manual camera, 5"x7" photo paper, film, the developer, fixer, stop bath, permawash, and water wash in my process of printing pictures. I learned all the times the print needs to sit in each for, and it has become almost natural by now. A method I used was adding constant movement to the developer and permawash to develop it fully and get the best outcome.

3. I had some trouble with focusing my image at first. I ended up doing about 6 test strips before I could move onto the bigger 5x7 image. My prints would always end up blurry. I also had trouble with the light, and I had to adjust by aperture 2 different times than the original setting. Finally, I didn't have the right amount of time on my timer, so I had to change that a few times as well. All in all, I ended up with a good final photo!

4. I solved these problems by opening the aperture more to let more light in, changing the timer to 15 seconds instead of the initial amount of time, and focusing my image as much as possible. My plate thing that I laid the photo paper on had some marks on it, so sometimes it was hard to see if the image was in focus or not. I solved this by shining the image and focusing it on a part of the plate with no marks or scratches on it.

In-Process Drawing Reflection & Image

Reflection:
1. I developed a skill of shading in this assignment. I learned how to turn a view of something into a drawing, and how to exhibit extreme shading and color difference. Also, I learned how to line things up and have everything in the right scale when drawing.
2. A drawing board, pencils, a light, the installation, and a paper were essential for this project thus far. The light was especially important because it allowed us to get extreme shadows on our objects. Some methods I used in my drawing was shading and cross hatching. Those helped me a lot develop my shades and light and show the relationship between objects.
3. A problem that emerged in this so far is that I had trouble getting my rubix cube lined up with everything. I had trouble getting the lines on it parallel and everything straight. Mr. O helped me a lot with it by telling me a trick, which is to angle your pencil the way the line is and draw it from that point of view instead of drawing it by estimating the angle.
4. I solved this problem by using the trick Mr. O taught me by angling my pencil to really see the angle by itself without all the other distracting lines.

Texture Collage In Progress

I only have one picture because I was sick for the rest of the working days, but here is what I have.

Texture Project Images

Texture reflection questions

I have pretty varied textures in my project. I have little pieces of paper crumbled up, wire, and wood covered in a coarse material. I explored organization pretty thoroughly in my Project because I wanted to convey my digital collage in my actual collage through layout and organization. I've come to appreciate non art materials a lot because you can do so much with them in art. My process-folio doesn't really show my process because I was sick for 2 of the 5 workdays, so I was really behind. I pushed myself hard to refine my work, especially with the paper because that took a very long time, but I pushed myself to finish. I think my composition is pretty unified because I feel that the textures all tie into each other and represent my digital collage well. I have especially become better at using photoshop because I now know how to operate most of the tools and before this class I've never used photo shop before. I think my work is free of mistakes because even though I did not have a long time to do it, I still got it done with precision. My reflective questions are a little late, but I put a lot of thought into them.