Finals Week is Upon Us!!

I haven't really thought out what this post is about. I'm feeling... restless, I suppose. So a blog post seemed like the best option for getting it out. Finals are this week, and this is the first semester where studying is not the only preparation I have to do for the end of the semester. Sure, I have an Art History Essay exam on Thursday (which I only need to make a 78% on), but the list is pretty short after that.

All we're doing for Drawing I is showing up to pick up any drawings the instructor still has. I thought metalworking would be taking up most of my time, but as it turned out, my focus for this unit had been working on the only thing that is due next Thursday. Everything else was due last Thursday, so I spent 48 hours in a mad dash to get everything done. Now all that's left is for me to design and create a clasp for the chain due Thursday that's pretty much done already.

That all ended up working out really well, though, because Up until Friday, I hadn't really started on my final project for 2D Deign. Sure, I had the concept and had sort of designed the general layout using Photoshop, but the actually piece didn't get any attention until about 40-48 hours ago. The project is to create two images. One with characteristics of Decorative art and one Plastic. So, definitions:

Decorative: I'm paraphrasing, but basically it is a piece of artwork that makes no illusions about it's 2-Dimensional nature. It is flat and doesn't try to appear otherwise.

Plastic: These are the pieces of art that seem to expand backward into the frame. They appear to 3-Dimensional. Plastic space is created by using many techniques including shading, perspective, fuzzy detail for things further away and muting colors as they move back in the frame... And a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. Anyway...

Of course I made it more complicated than I needed to and chose to do three images instead of just two. The first is still decorative and the last is still plastic, but the middle one will have properties of both. Here's a picture of what I have done so far:

There is absolutely no third dimension in the binary code, as you can see. It's very decorative. I ended up printing the binary and tracing it with pen on green card stock. I then colored in the black with sharpie. The second one is the in between that has aspects of both decorative and plastic. Each techno-gadget has it's own shading and they are on top of each other as they move to the front. At first I was going to do this in papercraft, but aftre stuggling for over and hour to get the keyboard done, I though "eff this ish." So I got the line work lightly traced and did all the color free hand with Prismacolor markers.

Today I am working on the last one. The full plastic image is proving to be a pretty large and complex project. Currently all I have managed was to map out the perspective of the street and the people on it. Now I actually have to start drawing and designing all the details. I'm not sure what medium I'll be doing it in yet, but I think paint or marker are the leading contenders.

That's all for now, I suppose. I'll make sure to post a picture of it once it's complete... Assuming that I get it done by the Tuesday deadline. Until next time!

Almost taken down by, of all things, a MIRROR!

Oh my, is Lucky going to start posting regularly again? Shh! Don't jinx it.

Today was the final day of class as I have known it for the duration of this semester. Finals are next week and, if all goes as expected, I'll be taking in a 3.75 GPA for the semester. Not bad for my first round of art courses. Yeah, there's a B in there, but it can't be helped. Metalworking ended up being much more difficult than anticipated, and I'm not holding out hope that this last assignment will be enough to pull me up to 90%.

All an all it's been a great semester and I already feel like I've learned so much. Even in drawing, a subject I have been practicing independently since I possessed the fine motor skills to hold a pencil in my hand. So many great tools and techniques have been added to my artistic tool kit.

It seemed fitting that the final project in drawing should be a self portrait. I've spent so much time looking at everything around me and taking in so much outside information that initially the assignment proved to be a struggle. I've never drawn myself from a mirror before and I've never done a large scale portrait in charcoal... Actually, I'm not sure I've ever done a large scale portrait in any medium.

So, after having a minor freak out the first day and leaving class early out of frustration, I took some time to examine what was going wrong. There were a couple major things.

First off, I wasn't using my powdered charcoal which has become my new favorite drawing material. You sprinkle it on the paper and spread it around to give your canvas a nice middle grey. This allows you to add not only shadows with charcoal pencils, but also highlights using an eraser. It also didn't help that the mirror was a bit wonky and squished or stretched my appearance depending on where I was.

The second mental block was a fear that it was too soon to 'immortalized' myself. I was afraid that I would mess it up and forever be ashamed to try again. This is silly, I know, but I'm curious if other artists have had the same problem.

Last Thursday I left early and mulled all these things over in my head. After bolstering my confidence (and practicing drawing myself in the dark), I returned to class on Tuesday to give the self portrait another try. I moved to a darker side of the room because practicing in extremely low light had shown me that if my face were not as well lit, I wasn't as afraid of making the picture too dark too quickly. I also moved to a smaller drawing pad so the task didn't seem so monumental. Once I prepped my paper with powdered charcoal, I dropped all insecurities and began to go to work...

After two full class periods, this is the fruit of my labor:

 

It's not an exact likeness, but then again a reflection can't be. Seriously. I don't have a perfectly symmetrical face or hair line, so any drawing of a reflection is going to be backwards! All technicalities aside, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out... And I'll probably never do it again willingly.

My instructor is actually keeping this one for the foundations show next semester along with the fish painting from last week's post (different class, same instructor). He even went do far as to make sure that I signed up for the Drawing II course that was being taught be the best drawing instructor. It's cool to have teachers looking out for you and I'm mildly curious if my reputation will precede me in that class... Mustn't... Get... Big... HEAD!!

Seriously, though, I have done my best to keep my humility intact. As I said before, even in a subject that ie been practicing since I can remember did I learn something new.

I have got a lot of projects that I have been wanting to work on, so when the break is here, I plan to take a mini-vacation from the Internet... Or at least social networking. After all, I do need to find a job. The idea is to remove as many distractions as possible so that I can use the momentum I have gained this semester to work on things that are for my own enjoyment and not a grade. Either way, I won't be gone for too long. Maybe a week or two at most. I'll be sure to post before I go on break as well.

Speaking of projects done for fun... For anyone who hasn't had a chance to see this yet, this is the finished Thor drawing (WIP was in the last post) for my dear friend Shawnee.

Not bad for ten hours of work... Not bad at all. Until next time!

Because Tom Hiddleston is Overrated on DA...

These last few weeks have been... Shall we say stressful? I may have mentioned the crazy neighbors before, but it finally came to a head last week. They were having what a massive scream-fest accented by what sounded like striking each other and throwing inanimate objects around 4:00-4:30 Thanksgiving morning. Those whole ordeal actually woke me, the sleeping dead, AND Josh who had passed out intoxicated. Needless to say, we called the cops. As usual, the neighbors didn't answer and pretended like no one was home until the cops left, I got a gnarly recording of it all from the bedroom and, after being informed of this third major incident, the landlord has issued them a notice to leave the premises or be evicted. So, that's something to look forward to. However, until they actually LEAVE the other side of the duplex, I have and will continue to feel like I am walking on pins and needles. Now that I have THAT off of my chest...

The semester is winding down and finals are hardly a week away. I don't have many exams to study for, but their are a lot of big projects due soon. I'm trying not to freak out about the final 2D assignment because I caused quite a stir with my last assignment and I'm not sure I can top it! What was the last assignment, you may ask. Well, it was a 9 frame painting of a fish demonstrating the different color schemes. However , since I am blogging from my mobile phone, you'll have to scroll down to see it.

Go ahead. I'll wait...

I think it turned out really well. The color schemes are as follows (top to bottom, left to right):
1. Achromatic - grey scale
2. Monochromatic - many shades and tints of one hue
3. Analogous - two or more colors right next to each other on the color wheel (green, yellow-green and yellow)
4. Cool colors - purples, greens and blues (like water and space)
5. Secondary colors - colors created by mixing primary colors
6. Warm colors - reds, oranges and yellows (like fire)
7. Complimentary colors - two colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel (red-violet and yellow-green)
8. Original image colors
9. Primary colors - red, yellow and blue

The whole project showed me that I'm not that bad of a painter and that I REALLY enjoy painting water.

But, you may have noticed ANOTHER image at the bottom. If you missed it, go ahead and scroll down again. I'll wait...

...

Holy S***! What is that? Is it a graphite drawing of Chris Hemsworth as Thor?! It totally is.

This was brought on by some frustration with the current Drawing project. No one has ever asked my to draw myself in the mirror. I found it quite difficult. A lot of it has to do with the subject matter. It is now apparent that drawing is not something I consider where mirrors are concerned.

So I decided to draw someone else's face to blow off some steam. Actually, I had compiled pictures of the Statue of Liberty as potential references for future projects, but that seemed less relevant to my current study needs.

I don't remember when or why Hemsworth first came to mind, but I made a definite decision around the time the third or fourth drawing of Tom Hiddleston or Tom Hiddleston as Loki hit my Deviant Art DevWatch. I'm not knocking those who like him, but he just isn't my style. Besides, I have a friend who is practically in love with Hemsworth and Thor so I'll have someone to give this to.

Which brings me to my last point. In Non-Westen Art History, we are learning about how many cultures do not see art as a product, but as a force that radiates forth from the artist. Many of these cultures have art that is destroyed or given away once completed because they knew that they can and will create more. So I picked something I knew I would be able to give away to practice this thought process.

I have a possessiveness about my work and have a hard time letting it go. Perhaps I feel that I have left a piece of me with the graphite, charcoal or acrylic paint piled onto a canvas. Perhaps I am just scared to feel rejection, or unimportant if the person should lose or mistreat it. Either way, as someone who is now studying art as a potential profession, I've decided this concept will be important for fighting potential hurtles in the future. I wont be scared of losing pieces of myself with my artwork but will be happy and excited to share and give my talent to others.

Until next time!

How About Some Metalwork For a Change?

I really need to quit making a habit of only posting ever three weeks. Such is life, I suppose. However, this blog post will serve to demonstrate what the hell I've been doing with my time since the last post!

As some of you may know, I enrolled in a metalworking class this semester. It's been hard work, but having the weight of a finished piece in my hand is very rewarding. I have enjoyed it so much that I've actually signed up for a 1 hour credit next semester so that I can continue to use the studio for some things I have planned. That will come later, though.

This week, I thought it fitting to show off my (mostly) finished hollow construction piece. The term 'hollow' denoted that it was crafted by creating a box like structure with a top, bottom and walls and soldering the entire piece together. I say mostly finished due to the fact that these pictures were taken before I had completed the sanding process, so there are still quite a few imperfections that can be seen in it. Without further a due, here it is:

Pretty sweet, eh? It's a ring, but during the design process, we were told not to think of it as a piece of jewelry but instead as a 'stie-specific sculpture.' I created it to have a hole for three fingers to prevent any tipping. The top part you see here is made of brass while the walls and back were made of copper. All and all, it turned out pretty nice. Sure, there was a little half centimeter stretch where I couldn't get the seam to solder, but I still consider the whole thing a success.

Seriously, though, I'm pretty sure I put a good 40-50 hours into this. If I had managed my time a bit better, I probably could have gotten it perfect, but that's a dangerous path of thought to begin down, so I'll just love it the way it is.

While I'm on the topic of my metalworking, I suppose I could go ahead and post the first two project that we did before this one. I warn you, though, the pictures are not too great.

This was our first project, the layer project. We were to design a minimum three layer piece using three 2x2" pieces of brass, copper and nickel. The design was based off of a set of 'evolutions' we based off of magazine tracings. I believe my original image was of a really interesting interior arch way. Everything was done using cold connections (i.e. no soldering, only rivets). The picture is pretty washed out, but I took it while the piece was actually in the display case at Ellis Hall. I could probably take another since it's back in my possession now, but I need to clean off some finger print gunk that's on it first.

An the simple ring project. The initial designs were a bit more complicated, but, for those who don't know, sterling silver is expensive. And I'm not even talking about fine silver here. I think this tiny design ended up costing me a little over $7 in material and a good 25 hours of work to construct it. She told me what the stone is, but I don't remember. I went with the blue one because it was the perdiest of the stones I had... Though, given my love of Slytherin House, it was a close race between this stone and the green one I had.

Welp, that's all I've got for now. I would say that once I take better pictures I'll post them, but then I'd have to go through and edit the whole damn post and take out all the comments about the horrible pictures and unfinished work. So, when I get around to taking better pictures, I'll put them on Deviantart and post a link here, that cool?

Until next time!

And then she found an amazing book...

I've been long overdue for a new blog post, so I guess I’ll go ahead and get on it now. Quite a few things have happened in the last… Wow, has it really been 3 weeks? Jeez, I’m horrible about keeping a schedule, huh? Anyway…

One of the coolest things that happened was that I got to mean a guest speaker named Rafal Olbinski when he visited MSU earlier this month. He’s a painter/illustrator from Warsaw Poland and he’s pretty much awesome. Part of why I was so excited to visit his lecture was because he himself actually started off doing engineering architecture but switched to painting at a later date. Beyond that, he gave me hope that as an artist getting a late start on my education, nothing is lost. Olbinski didn’t actual come to America, where he gained notoriety, until he was 37. And here I am freaking out about being just barely over 30 when I plan to graduate.

I actually got to meet him and gushed a bit to him about how he is my inspiration. How does he react? With graciousness and humility, that’s how he reacts. I want to be all these things when I’m older!! Basically what I’m trying to say is that if you have some time, you should really go check out his work which you can view here!

What else happened in the last three weeks? Well, I had a dog for about 72 hours, and then sent him back. He didn’t misbehave or anything, I just didn’t have the time or dedication to train an adult dog. Uuuum, I finished my second project for Metalworking. I started looking for a part time job (because I have WAAAAY too much time on my hands). Oh! And I offered to do a collaborative work with another user on deviant art!

I always find myself trying to give my own creative input when working with others. This can be good, but I also wanted to have a stab at not creative input (at least story wise) and strictly creating a visual experience of another person’s tale. She’s written a clever little short story and seems to be incredibly honored that I would like to do a black and white manga of it. I’m nervous, but it will be a great learning experience and hopefully prepare me for potential commissions in the future.

So, on to the art… I bought an AMAZING book last weekend. After a brief failed attempt to find tasteful nude photos to use as drawing reference, and by the way, where they hell are all these children on Deviantart parents at?! Anyway, I gave up rather quickly on Deviantart, ran to Barnes and Noble and found “Anatomy for the Artist” by Sarah Simblet.

The problem I have always had with anatomy books is that there are too many words! Even the artistic anatomy books have so much jabbering. This book, while still filled with good information and diagrams of the inner anatomy, is filled to the brim with human figure photos in color and black and white. So, I chose my favorite photo as my first self-study practice session tonight:

Actually, I’ve been drawing a lot of male head figures lately. It’s not entirely intentional, I don’t get to choose the subject our Drawing instructor puts in front of us. This image just jumped out at me when I was flipping through the pages. It’s a great lighting choice and one I was excited to work on. I didn’t really finish the finer detail because I was working with charcoal on a smaller surface than I’m used to. Regardless, I’m pretty happy about the outcome. I’m really looking forward to doing more drawings from this book.

Until next time!

Holy Hornbeam, we're SHADING!!!

Well, I managed to make it over 24 since my last post! I'm so sporadic with this darned thing. Anyway, there's not a whole lot new to say except that my drawing class has gotten way more interesting. The reigns have been released and we are now SHADING!!! As some of you may have noticed, I have already been shading a lot of my pieces, but I've been timid about it since we have been trying to focus on our line work up to this point.

This new approach is actually challenging my ability, so I'm super excited about it. Until this week, I have been finishing at least two drawings per class period. However, since we began shading, I have yet to really complete a drawing in class. I'm not complaining, though, because this means I am outside my comfort zone which means I am learning. Before this week I was getting kind of bored in class, but now I'm actually excited to begin my next piece.

These are the two pieces I have completed this week:

Plaster Cast Head Drawing 2

Plaster Leg Muscle Group Drawing

 
Another piece of information that is new is that I just upgraded my deviantart subscription and am once again a premium member. You should really go check it out at some point. It still looks about the same at this very second, but this evening will be spent updating and fancifying all the nifty stuff that you can when your have a premium membership.

That's all for now, back to watching Cloverfield and fiddling with my DA account. Until next time!

Making street signs and thinking that maybe I should have tried scrap booking...

Perhaps it was a bit dramatic for me to say that it could be weeks before I posted again. I think a break from the Right Brain Retrain could go very badly for me since this blog has become a sort of outlet to de-stress during hectic times. I've been so stressed out and trying to keep myself in overdrive for so long now that my hair is going grey!! Actually, I've been 'going grey' since I was 19, but during prolonged periods of stress I get a lot more grey hairs. At least my hair's not falling out. If that were the case I might have to seek the help of a professional who could prescribe me with a strong sedative. Anyway, where was I...

Ah, yes, I mentioned scrap booking in the title. I don't actually want to get into scrap booking, but I think I would have had a lot of fun if I had at some point in the last 10 years that I wasn't taking art classes. Paper art is becoming a favorite for me at this point. This is partially because I never knew the joys of rubber cement until this semester and partially because I had never really considered it a good medium for artistic expression... Well, of course, other than the paper you would draw or write or paint on.

This weeks assignment for Two-Dimensional Design was about one of the principles of organization known as Economy (The distillation of the image to the basic essentials for clarity of presentation). So, we made road signs. The objective was to choose three out of a list of six possible road signs and create a design that could quickly convey the signs' meaning to someone driving by. The sign stipulations are as follows: 6"x6" square which may be turned at a 45° angle to form a diamond, circle with 6.5" diameter or an 8" equilateral triangle sign constructed of colored paper and glued to Bristol board (attempting to use no more than 3 colors). I chose to create the following three signs:

Explanations Below (left to right)

Alien Sighting Area:

While this sign went through a couple of different transformations, the basic idea was there from the beginning. I knew that simply putting the unversally understood 'alien head' shape on the sign might not be enough to convey the entire message. While I saw many of my classmates choosing to use eyes and binoculars to express the concept, it was not my first instict. Living in the digital era means that when you are going sight seeing, you're going to want to document what you see so you can share it with people who weren't there. Nearly everybody has a camera these days, so I figured a simple thumbnail would suffice. As for the shape I chose, and alien sighting area is something I would not percieve as an urgent matter requiring the attention of every car passing by. And of course I chose green, why wouldn't I? The simple shape with the cool green color create a calm and orderly mood with this sign.

Spiders Ahead:

This sign is meant to be more cautionary. At first I had two lines depicting a road leading up to it, but then it looked like a giant spider, which is not the message I wanted to convey. I used the diamond shape to show that caution should be taken, but since the diamond is still a square it still comes across as orderly. Yellow is conventionally used to show when caution should be taken and the general design of the sign itself is modeled after countless other '[insert animal species here] ahead' signs. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Zombie Zone:

At first I wasn't even going to do this last one. "But Lucky," you might find yourself pondering, "Didn't you take your Sophomore Seminar on 'Society and the Modern Zombie'?" Well, you would be pondering correctly, assuming that you actually were pondering such a thing... I'm being generous because I'm not sure anybody really reads this thing anyway, but yes! I took a whole flippin' class on zombies: Why society loves them so much, how authors use zombie stories for social commentary and zombie survival strategies and techniques. So, why wouldn't I choose this sign? Because I knew that everybody wanted to do this sign. I don't pride myself on being a completely unique snowflake in a sea of shit bags, or anything. However, I do try to stray from the well beaten path. It is very difficult to stand out as an artist when you are doing the same thing as everyone else. But, as the deadline was approaching rapidly and I didn't even have a third design, I decided to return to this one and do it right.

Initially the sign was of just a brain with a bite taken out of it, but a brain is a very difficult object to simplify. So, the shocked human head with appropriately placed bite was sufficient. Triangles are supposed to be the universal symbol for danger, or hazard, or something to that effect. At first I had it upside down, but I thought right side up expressed a better sense of urgency. And of course it had to be red. Apart from the zombie apocalypse being a rather bloody affair, red is used to catch attention fast. Stop signs as well as yield signs are red because you need to pay attention to their message. Otherwise, you may end up in a car wreck or running over a whole troop of Girl Scouts! I was going back and forth between black and white accents, but, as luck has it, I was working on the color scheme for the Alien sign in a separate window of Photoshop. One of the color schemes looked like the green sign you see above and I already had the spider sign done. Suddenly it was so obvious and the whole project fell into place. I know that if I saw this sign I would do one of two things: 1) turn around or 2) check that all my guns were loaded, within reach and step on the accelerator. Which reminds me, I still need to look into getting a gun...

I actually have a second picture of them in a vertical arrangement. It was really a coincidence that the colors ended up being green, yellow and red. It was even more of a coincidence that the only vertical arrangement that looked balance was to put them red, yellow and green from top to bottom. However, I don't like to be thought of as a copy cat and I know my classmate Yee is doing her 3 circle signs in the arrangement seen on intersection lights. I don't want to steal her thunder, or her idea, so I will keep them in the horizontal arrangement... Or maybe I should just ask Yee which way is better... I don't know, I'm just glad to have them complete.

I suppose that's it for now. I have to get back to my Metalworking homework now. It's not nearly as fun, but it must get done. Until next time!