Depeche

A Major

For Q4, my major will be human anatomy/ portraits. I'm exploring more than anything, and if I happen to produce final products, then that's great. But I'm not looking to make any ground breaking paintings- simply more practice. Like I said, if along the way I end up with something I really like, I will consider that my finished work.

As an end result, I hope to understand the human body and the way it curves more than I do now. I want to become so good at anatomy to the point where it won't become an issue for me anymore. That way, I can focus on development and creativity instead of proportions. I am working alone in this endeavor but I am interested in possibly sketching other people around me. My community will probably end up being the same old people- Luke, Sarah, and Ashley. I am just beginning to take anatomy more seriously, and I hope to have an even firmer grasp of it by the end of Q4.

The 5 criteria that I will be graded on include the following (not in any particular order):

• Composition, Accuracy, Volume, Material, Character

A Minor

I'm thinking of having multiple minors going on at once because I can't see myself just doing one small thing for the entirety of Q4. That would get boring way too fast. At the moment, I have three minors in mind. One of them shall be poetry (mostly because Luke said so, not that I mind too much), the second being print making, the the third one being sculpture.

I want to continue to strengthen my poetry because I really do see it as a completely different language. I've always had a love for it and I write poetry every now and then. I want to continue with print making because there's just this inexplainable therapeutic aura that washed over me whenever I'm printing. I will dabble in rubber prints, linoleum cuts, stamps, and possibly even wood cuts. The third minor is a far stretch because it may be too much to take on, but I'm willing to try and keep it on the back burner. I love sculpture because I love to work with my hands, which might explain why I love printmaking. Sculpture provides me with a more abstract and 3D medium then print can provide me with, and that is intriguing. 

In my poetry, I hope to sound less like a angst filled 16 year old teen and more like a person who can actually write poetry. For printmaking, I hope to create a print with various layers of color, ultimately creating a limited edition set. Maybe even a set of cards for special occasions. For sculpture, I am thinking about making another human head sculpture like I did last summer. 

A Book

I am deciding to study Egon Schiele, seeing that I am working with human anatomy as my major. The book that will supplement my study on him will be a book called "Egon Schiele (World of Art)" by Frank Whitford. I already bought the book on Amazon because c'mon, it was only $0.01.

Artist of the Week: Hikari Shimoda

She's a Japanese artist, and her subjects often circle around children. Her style is illustration influenced, along with the use of extremely vibrant colors. Mostly painting in oils and watercolor, her depictions are whimsical and slightly morbid.

I want to try and create a painting/sketch in her likeness. I tend to be afraid when it it comes to using color since that's not exactly my strong suit, which is why I want to tackle something that's similar to her style.

Pratt's Pre-college

For the summer of 2013, I'm planning on taking Pratt's summer pre-college program.

Me, being a very undecided individual, is planning on choosing the major "Art and Design Discovery: Explore 2D and 3D techniques in this interdisciplinary course; sample areas of study such as fine arts, illustration, graphic design; and delve into the 3D process of designing objects within industrial design."

That sounds PERFECT for me because it has a little bit of everything, which I'm hoping will really help me decide what I want to do in college. Obviously I'm keeping Communication Design in the back of my head, but I want to explore my options. I also earn 4 college credits for completing it!

So the Art & Design class will be my major, but upon signing up, they also enroll you in other mandatory classes. This includes a Foundations class, an Art History/ Appreciation class, and a Portfolio development class.

Now that all that is out of the way, I want to get down to the nitty gritty. I'm planning on applying for a scholarship for this program, which will be due on March 15. I need to do this:

ART, DESIGN, and ARCHITECTURE: Submit 5 – 10, color photos /digital prints, or 35mm slides. Individual prints should be no larger 8.5 x 11 and may be printed on any paper. No other formats will be accepted. Images of paintings, drawings, 3-D work, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, printmaking, photography, and other media may be submitted.    (All applicants may include some images of work in their chosen elective however observational drawing is a key component to any portfolio.)

I'll be working on that. I have a few things in mind already:

[ #1 ]

 OR

[ #2 ]

Better picture of this:

[ #3 ]

(Better picture if needed)

OR

[ #4 ]

 A print of that linocut I've been working on.

[ #5 ]

Those giant charcoal drawings/sketches that I did last year for STAC.

[ #6 ]

[ #7 ]

A better photo of this:

[ #8 ]

A completed version of this: 

None of these choices are set in stone yet. I am still open to working more and developing more pieces to add in. I have to consult with Luke and Ganes and see what they think.

I'm excited.

After quite a while, we got started on the mural.

We took to lettering in "Winter Poem" with the help of myself, Courtney and Ellen! I am quite impressed about the turn out. It turned out much better than what I thought it'd turn out looking like.

We were originally supposed to paint it, but we decided to keep it penciled in because it has this sort of raw quality to it which was just wonderful.

Obviously, we have to see how the barbed wire and the birds go along with it, so the idea isn't set in stone yet.

This is going to turn out great.

 

Painting a soccer ball

My boyfriend's birthday is coming up (in 8 months...none the less), and I was just tossing around some ideas for what I should get him. I arrived at the idea of painting a soccer ball because he's a HUGE soccer fan.

Now, I have a couple of designs sketched out already, but they're not definite.

The first one is of a series of building protruding from the ocean, followed by a sunset/night sky in the background. The second design is of the ocean, a boat, and the milky way galaxy + constellations as the background. 

I'm sort of leaning towards the second design. It's simple and lovely, to me anyway.

Time to think technically- I was doing some research on the web, and I couldn't find ANYTHING about painting soccer balls, but then again, who routinely paints soccer balls? Since soccer balls have a hard and shiny surface, I was thinking that it may be a little difficult to prime. I may have to sand the surface (if it's even possible) of the soccer ball first and apply gesso on top to create a base. I would paint it with acrylics. I will have some planning out/ research to do....except my only problem is that there isn't much stuff on the web about it! 

I might just have to do a trial run and see what happens.

Linocut

I had this drawing that I had done in my sketch book, and I wanted to turn it into something bigger. So I went to Luke for some insight. He suggested that I turn it into a linocut, and I loved the idea so that's what I did!

It is still a work in progress obviously, but I'm getting there. I would like to eventually put down some (burgundy?) block paint, print it, and accent it with some gold/cardamom yellow. I'm planning to create maybe 20-25 prints, and gift them to people for the holidays.

Artistic Inquiry

I am ecstatic to finally announce that I am finally out of my artistic slump.
Do I get a parade equipped with confetti for this?

It all started with this:

I call it "Continuous Referendum."

This is just a work-in-progress which I'm definitely going to transform into something bigger and better. Luke and I were throwing around ideas today, and he mentioned that I should maybe come up with a proposal to paint a mural on one of the school walls. No one in STAC has ever done it before, and it's an attractive idea. I have one concern if I go big on this though- I'm afraid that it'll lose the attractive quality it has for me through the process that I'll have to withstand, that is, if this does make it to mural status. Yeah, doing this on a small scale (my sketchbook) was simple because it was within my physical boundaries, but once I take it out of those boundaries and expand, that's where I'll run into problems. Proportions and rulers will be necessary. Precision and extreme amounts of time will be necessary. And failure will always be lurking around the corner.

One of my fears that I'm still learning to overcome (along with many other people) is the idea of failure. Failure is extremely scary in any and every sense of the word, and that's okay. It's okay to be afraid to fail because as humans, it's not in our nature to see failure as something that is "acceptable." But the more important part is realizing that failure is essential in the equation for success. You don't improve without making a mistake, taking that mistake, and learning from it. Never allow yourself to give up on anything because then it will become a parasite that will continue to feed and grow on you. In good time, if you let this happen, all you will know is how to give up.

Since I'm still learning to cope with failure, I've decided that I'll be taking baby steps. There's going to be several steps (or maybe not) till it gets to mural stage.
- Double the size and paint it.
- Double the size, do it digitally, and print it.
- Create an etching/silkscreen/letterpress on multiple sizes.
- Experiment with it on the STAC wall to get a feel for how it might look on a larger scale.

And if I like the results and believe that I can do it,
- Write a proposal, get permission and do a mural.

Artist Inspirations; An Ongoing List

Philip Guston
Ischia
1948, ink on paper

Egon Schiele

Selbstportrat Als Heiliger Sebastian 

1941, pencil on paper

Standing Male Nude with Red Loincloth

1914, gouache, watercolor and pencil

Wassily Kandinsky

Composition VII

1913, oil on canvas

Robert S. Neuman

Ship to Paradise - The Wreck

1987, mixed media

Ship to Paradise - Encumbered by a Great Rock

1987, mixed media

Ship to Paradise 2

1977, lithograph

Kiki Smith

Born

2002

Banksy

Let's get busy.

Paul Cezanne is a French Post-Impressionist painter.
Now, I have absolutely no clue what Impressionism was, let alone Post-Impressionism. So I looked it up.

"Impressionist painting characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), common, ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles."

• Short, thick strokes of paint quickly capture the essence of the subject, rather than its details. The paint is often applied impasto.
• Colours are applied side-by-side with as little mixing as possible, creating a vibrant surface. The optical mixing of colours occurs in the eye of the viewer.
• Grays and dark tones are produced by mixing complementary colours. Pure impressionism avoids the use of black paint.
• Wet paint is placed into wet paint without waiting for successive applications to dry, producing softer edges and intermingling of colour.
• Painters often worked in the evening to produce effets de soir—the shadowy effects of evening or twilight.
• Impressionist paintings do not exploit the transparency of thin paint films (glazes), which earlier artists manipulated carefully to produce effects. The impressionist painting surface is typically opaque.
• The play of natural light is emphasized. Close attention is paid to the reflection of colours from object to object.
• In paintings made en plein air (outdoors), shadows are boldly painted with the blue of the sky as it is reflected onto surfaces, giving a sense of freshness previously not represented in painting. (Blue shadows on snow inspired the technique.)

"Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour."

Now that I got the basics covered, I can move onto Paul Cezanne. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, interesting things. Hearing that Picasso and Matisse said that Cezanne "is the father of us all" made my ears perk up. Also the fact that Cezanne didn't have any financial worries surprised me too, especially since there's always that myth surrounding starving artists. The light airy techniques of his paintings intrigue me as well. They evoke moods that words alone cannot.

Also the way that Cezanne approached his work very similarly reminds me of how I was taught to draw growing up. To simplify and to look at everything in terms of geometric shapes. I don't know if even after years of formal training that technique has stuck with me or not, but I have definitely learned to draw like that before.

Cezanne liked to concentrate on still lifes, portraits, landscapes, and studies of bathers.

The fact that Cezanne died while painting took "doing what you love" to a whole other level.

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I especially enjoy the landscapes he painted of mountains. He utilized the physical structure of a mountain- jagged, rocky, and rough- and through that, the essence of cubism evolved.

QUESTIONS GALORE

1) You've worked on a group film and on your own. In which situation are you most comfortable - group or solo? Which do you work best in?

- I'd like to say that I'm good at communicating with people as well as myself. This being said, I enjoy working in both groups and flying solo. In groups, you have the ability to bounce ideas off of each other and the ability to build on one another. Working solo, you have the gift of having to listen to yourself and yourself only. That could be a good thing and a bad thing. The same would go for working in a group. 

Now I think I'm only saying this when it comes to working in a film. If you're talking about working on an art project (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.), I usually prefer to work alone. Other people tend to mess things up.

 2) What did you learn that you expected to learn?

- Pretty much everything. That and well, just working hands on. It's an interesting experience since I'm so used to working 2D. It's a different type of experience when you move from the flat planes of 2D to the tangible aspects of 3D.

3) What did you learn that you didn't expect to learn?  

- The technique that you can use a fan brush to get rid of streaks of paint.

4) What didn't you learn that you expected to learn?

- Nothing really. 

 5) Praise your amazing achievement and explain your brilliant plan for pulling it off.

- My project is witty, smart and nasty as well as being incredibly well done given the fact that I completed it in a mere 5 days. It really gets the message across of it being a snarky political remark. Even my name for the sculpture is fantastic! GOOP being a play on word, of course. GOOP in the sense that the sculpture is literally constructed from trash, and GOOP in the sense that it's sending subliminal messages about the Republican Party. I couldn't have done it better, and neither could have anyone else.

-----------------------------------------------

1) How much time did you spend working?

- I spent around 5 days working.

2) How much time did you spend thinking about the work - sort of sitting there and staring at it, or listening to it over and over again, etc.?

- I spent, I'd say around two days thinking about it and completing some preliminary sketches. Three days if you count buying all the supplies I needed in order to execute the project.

3) How much time did you spend doing other stuff that seems like work to that make you think you're working but you're not?

- None. I slammed through the entire project.

4) How much time did you spend socializing?

- None. Nada. Zip. Just me, my sculpture, and some good ol' music.

5) How did you use your community?

- I used my cheerleaders to continuously confirm that what I was doing was good. I also bounced ideas off of Luke, which was good because after talking to him, things morphed.

6) Rip apart your awful project and how did such a disaster happen?

- It was messily put together. The plaster gives the elephant such a gritty and uncomfortable texture to stare at. I should've used plaster to give it that smooth quality I was looking for. I should've also used masking tape to tape off what I wasn't painting so that all the lines were crisp, clean, and straight. The stars on the elephant were also a complete and utter mess. And don't get me started on the actual structure itself. It's jagged. It's not even balanced. One leg of the elephant doesn't even properly touch the base. It's so shitty.

7) You've completed a step on your path. What is your next step?

-Keep workin.

Fresh Breath

Phew! It's been a while since I've been back on this blog. I'm sort of glad summer is over. To an extent, anyway. I missed thinking and pondering. Doing and getting things done. I missed STAC. Anyway, here it goes:

• 1. What is the first creative moment you remember?

• - I remember my first creative moment when I was probably 6 or 7. Something like that. I remembered it was spring time and me being outside running around with a plastic cup, collecting plants, rocks, pieces of garbage, whatever I could get my hands on, and dropping it all in the plastic cup. I took a stick, mixed it all together and called it a "secret concoction." I tried feeding it to my friends and family. 

• 2. Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it?
• - Yes! There was! I was in on this with a good childhood friend of mine. Her grandmother didn't really appreciate it when I plucked off all the flower buds from her flower bed and added it to my secret concoction though. 
• 3. What is the best idea you’ve ever had?
• - Oof, this is a hard one. I think maybe the best idea I've ever had was deciding to eat french fries with ice cream. It's delicious.
• 4. What made it great in your mind?
• - How can you go wrong?
• 5. What is the dumbest idea?
• - One time when I was blow-drying my hair, an idea suddenly popped into my mind. I thought, "how cool would it be if instead of wind and noise blowing out of the blow dryer.....WIND AND MUSIC blowing out of the blow dryer!? I could make millions!"
• 6. What made it stupid?
• - I told my mother about it and she laughed at me.
• 7. Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea?
• - I like music, I like having nice hair, but I hate the wait time of drying hair. LET'S MAKE IT FUN AND INCORPORATE MUSIC AND MAKE IT IMPRACTICAL.

Day 5

I played around with the physical properties of this, and look what I made, haha! I just stuck a layer of tracing paper behinds it, and I popped some tea lights inside of it to represent a prototype.

I do eventually plan on making it into an actual lamp/candle cover cut out of sheet metal..but before that, I must find out how one goes about that. I have to ask Mr. T (the tech dude!) what to do about my final project and where I could possibly get it done, so more on that later.

From this stemmed another idea. An installation. I was having a conversation with Luke, and we made the idea of taking every word involved on the lamp/candle cover and replicate it larger. This is to cover all the ceiling lights leading down towards the STAC room! Meh, I'm doing a terribly shitty job of explaining this. It all makes sense in my mind, I swear!

Anywho, I figured out what I'm doing for my side salad. I'm going to do some charcoal work in order to tackle my problem with anatomy. I decided upon charcoal since I'm not afraid to work with it. It covers a large surface area, which is convenient for me because if I happen to mess up, I can just rub it out. I just fooled around with the charcoal and tried to get used to the feel of it since I've never drawn with it before. It's cool.

Day 4 - Fresh Starts

On Thursday, we watched a documentary on Andy Warhol that strongly influenced what I decided to start. I decided to start fresh. With a new idea. I realized what my problem was and why I couldn't get a solid idea- it's because I was thinking too hard. I was trying to plan what I didn't want to plan. It's a formula for disaster.

Anyway, I'm just going to cut straight to the chase. I was thinking about Andy Warhol, and how all he ever wanted in life was fortune and fame. To be recognized all over the face of the Earth. Although he achieved all of this and practically reinvented the wheel of art, the real solution he was looking for was happiness...and I honestly believe he never found it.

Yes, money can buy things that can make one happy for a period of time, but what is true happiness? Is it what social media says happiness is? To be famous and to have money? What does it mean to be  happy? At what state will one achieve happiness? Is true happiness even achievable?

 At first, I was going to just cut out a stencil and paint over it multiple times to give it that "printed" feel, but my work/motive/idea evolved as I continued to work. It eventually became what you see here.

I chose the words I chose because it's what I believe social media commonly portrays as being truly happy. I cut it out because it's empty; figuratively and literally. But I decided to leave the word "happy" alone and prop it up.

From this, I realized what I actually like to draw, and what I frequently design without realizing it- conceptual art. Luke pinned it for me, and it really opened up my eyes because it's what I've been doing for so long.

As an end project on this however, I'm thinking about heading towards a product design and making this into one of those candle covers. Meaning from this, I'm going to transfer it from paper to sheet metal. You'll see.

Day 2

My thought process is very scattered right now; I'm thinking about 10 different things at the same time, and I'm trying to get those ten things all down in paper at the same time. It will get a little bit hectic and I don't feel like fixing anything right now, so I apologize for any discrepancies.

Currently, I'm refreshing and expanding my knowledge on Wicca and trying to nab that Enneagram book from Ellen. I'm planning on reading it if I get the chance to. Also, I think I'm going to start moving away from tarot cards since I figured out that's not exactly what I want to do.

Grace came over to me today and added some of her insight into my work since she realized that I apparently hit a fork in the road. She proved to be very useful, and I think I can call her my Sounding Board and Commiserator. I told her that I was having some trouble, and she suggested that instead of focusing on the art aspect of things, to focus on the bigger picture and then draw something from that. She also suggested drawing portraits of people in STAC and characterizing them with what seems fit under the Five Elements of Wiccan religion.

The Five Elements are air, water, fire, earth, and aether (or spirit). In Wicca, the Tree of Life symbolizes this. It's specifically a tree because it's composed of the earth (soil and plant matter), water (sap and moisture), fire (through photosynthesis) and air (the creation of oxygen from carbon dioxide), all of which are believed to be united through spirit.

Right now, I'm just doing some more research on the five elements and seeing if I can match them to those of the enneagram test. http://www.religionfacts.com/neopaganism/charts/wiccan_five_elements.htm

This will take a while.

Individual Written

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been involved with the Photography Intensive. I’ve begun to take up photography these past couple of years as a hobby, and what better way to improve my skills then partaking in a workshop?

During this intensive, I worked with cold lights, flash units, backdrops, and umbrellas/boxes. The following were shot in mainly black and white with flash units to accentuate the specific shadows being cast. I learned an immense amount of techniques and ways to light a subject. For example, this photo I shot is an example of Rembrandt lighting. It is characterized by the small triangle of light underneath the shadowed half of the face. This is used to evoke a “moody” fashion.

As I further progressed within the intensive, my group and I started to bump it up to the next level and incorporate more personality into the photos. This is a photo of myself with Rembrandt lighting. As you can see, it is not as “constrained” as the previous photograph.

This is an example of Hatchet lighting when used in conjunction with the cold lights. Hatchet lighting is commonly known as Clint Eastwood or Split lighting as the light is only cast on half of the subject’s face. This type of lighting is commonplace for lighting male subjects as it gives off a “manly” feel.

I started off working with only one main light, known as the key light, but eventually expanded to working with both a key light and a fill light. Fill lights are used to “fill” shadows so they are not as harsh. I put a soft box over our fill light for most of the time to diffuse and create a soft indirect light.

           

Taking from what I learned in the so-called “practice” studio, I took it and applied to an actual photo shoot that I shot with a partner. With photo shoots, it’s never about the actual photo per say, but the story behind the photo. The setting was a closet, with “Messy” being the overriding theme. These are a couple of already retouched photos from the shoot. 

I did another photo shoot, using the same principles as I did with the last one I did. With this one I will show you what I learned about photo retouching because it is a big factor playing into whether or not a photo looks presentable. Take this photo for example. The subject is backlit, which makes the viewer’s eye go straight to the background instead of the subject’s face. There are also slight imperfections in the subject’s skin and in the contrast of the entire photo; the list goes on. 

 

Using Adobe Photoshop CS5, however, one can easily fix these problems.

The retouches are made up of a multitude of layers. As you can see, I darkened the background and brought her face out so that the first thing you see when looking at this photo is her face. I brought the photo into Liquify to give her face a more appealing shape. I also added shadow to it to give it a slimming effect.

Working with unpredictable subjects can sometimes be quite troublesome. You can’t get a proper picture due to them either being nervous and uncooperative or just plain crazy. Creating a somewhat “normal” and comfortable atmosphere before shooting was one of the biggest problems that came along during this project. People were nervous and unsure what to do with their bodies; it was nerve-racking for both parties. At the same time however, that is what really tests your knowledge. How to talk to your subject so that the camera pointing at them becomes secondary. It becomes more about the experience and the bond between photographer and subject. How to make it seem natural, yet at the same time as a result, take nice photos.