Third Sketch Book Assignment

Sketched with Faber Castle pencils

This picture began as just a spiral on the page as I had no idea what I wanted to do with it and then I thought about the scary outdoors and a pine tree came to mind and eventually I was drawing this. This picture has a focal point which the line of the spiral draws the eye into and the different sizes of the trees make it seem as if you're being pulled into the picture.

Series Art Piece #1 Update!

So I have started my first piece for the series assignment. It was the actual 3D cat piece and it went a lot different from planned. Originally I wanted to make it out of clay but then there was the fear of it staying together or the possibility of it cracking so I decided to use different materials. I started out making like a skeletal structure with two different types of wire, one thicker and one thinner. The main supports I did out of the thicker wire to make sure it held itself up, and the little details I did out of the thinner wire which was much easy to bend and maneuver.

Side picture of wire work

Top view

So after I have all of the main pieces of the body built I was able to continue with progress on making it look realistic. The plaster strips were difficult to use at first, as they had nothing to adhere to making it difficult to stick to the wire. Eventually after one piece successfully dried I was able to add more.

Adding plaster strips

More plaster strips

I finally covered the main parts of the body but then I realized I needed to fill out the shape of the cat more to make him look bigger as he looked pretty bony with his fake skeletal structure. To do this I used pieces of Plasticine to ball up and put in the deep parts and then re-cover them with the plaster strips. My next step with this piece will be to see if any places need re-patching after Plasticine is put down and then hopefully over the weekend I will have gone to town to pick up some sort of soft material to cover the "sculpture" and then add details to it.

Series Art - cats

As a class we were told to think of something that meant a lot to us as it will need most of our attention on it without being bored. To me, cats are one of the most important things in my life. To even break it down a bit more, my own cat, August means the world to me. I even refer to him as my literal child even though that's 100% not possible. I'm pretty sure my future will consist of me being a crazy cat lady with 15+ cats in my house. I'm not sure why I have a connection to cats but I can say it started at a very young age. Possibly when I got my first cat Petrie? I have no idea. Growing up my life was just cats. I collected items that resembled them, referred to them, just anything. By grade 6/7 age, I had so many things I had to put them away and my "obsession" died a little bit. I think I feel close to cats because I know they can't judge me as a person aloud (like sure they can talk to their little cat friends and whatnot) but this makes me feel comfortable around them. When I’m angry or stressed out I find myself talking to my cat, just to talk about it, even though I know I’m not going to get a response it's nice just to talk. Cats are also sensitive to vibes people give off, believe it or not. Depending on the person, if a cat senses they are sad they will go to them and comfort them. (Cool eh?) a known fact is that 84% of women with breast cancer said that their cat helped them through the disease. A cats comforting is shown to lower blood pressure. Like this cat that soothes the baby to sleep.

Alright so for my series now. I plan on using three different materials. Sculpting, painting and some form of graphic design to be printed out. For sculpting I want to make almost a realistic sculpture of a cat sitting down. The shape of it should be pretty easy it’s just the details that might be really hard.

Similar to this but different position and more features.

For my second piece I would like to do almost a series painting itself of four components on different canvases.

.

Using this image almost as an outline I'd like to recreate it as it is simple, yet complex. For my third piece I would like to do something that is considered as graphic design. Something where I create one image in the original colour and then either make duplicates digitally or by person in different colours. I think this would be a really cool thing to do.

With this style to it but only four squares not nine.

I think my three ideas are all very different and easily fit into the theme of cats. :)

Art 21 Film/Artist

The artist Do Ho Suh does very unique work with his form of art. In the piece shown in the video it's called "Floor" . He installed it into the floor of the Seattle Art Museum, in Washington. Using little figurines of people he made a statement on personal space. His art is also a form of architecture so it has multipurpose to it other than to just look at. He used the inspiration of his city Seoul with the crowded streets to make this piece. Using many different colours of little figurines he is able to show multiculturalism and give it a symbolic meaning. The little figures symbolise the diverse groups of people who either support or resist the floor and the people above them. The following are some pictures of what it looks like.

My Reaction:

Alrighty, at first when I saw it I thought it was just a glass floor. Like nothing special what can be so artistic about this. As a first impression it wasn't looking very good to me, but as it got closer and it showed you what it actually was, you see it as a really cool thing. Having a bunch of tiny little "people" hold you up and also give a symbolic meaning to it. This work brings unity to mind. How a bunch of people from the different cultures and backgrounds can get together to literally support someone/something. This doesn't necessarily evoke any emotion to me but if I had to say maybe happiness? The thought of multiple people working together on something can be a happy thing right? As it could be a step towards a better world. What puzzles me most is how aren't the figurines crumbling under the weight of the viewer on top? Are they made from a specific material that allows them to stay together? Maybe something like concrete? Or is it the distribution and placement that allows the weight to be held? I can't really make any connections to this as I've never seen anything like it before and it’s very unique.

The only source of social media that Do Ho Suh has would be a Facebook page that hasn't been updated since 2009 unfortunately. I don’t have any questions for the artist but I do have a liking to his art that he creates not only for the way it looks but for the symbolic meanings they have.

 Here are a few of his other interesting pieces:

"Home within home" (2013)

"Karma" (2003)

"Some/One" (2001)

Second Sketch Book Assignment

Poor quality picture but its obviously a rose

So for the week of the 9th - 13th of February I chose to pick my own theme and eventually decided on one that went with Valentine’s Day which was on the 14th. As I've said many, many, many times before. I dislike using colour so much as it can really ruin a vision of the art I've done. This sketch to me is an exact example of it as well. I had previously drawn the picture out with graphite pencils and then moved on to colouring it with my water colour pencils. I really wanted to try them out, as I had had them for over a year but had never really touched them to paper. Anyways, back to the point. The elements I used in this week’s sketch book assignment were colour and form. Colour is obvious from the red and greens. Form is somewhat used on the petals to give them a 3 dimensional look, using shading.

Elements of Art

My interpretation of the elements

So instead of looking up pictures on the internet of the different elements I decided to just draw them instead. Drawing them would give my interpretation of the element to the way that I understand it. 

Colour - one of the most easily known elements. Colour can play a major role with art, depending in if you are choosing to use it. It can be warm (reds and oranges) or cold (blues and greys) Colour is seen in three ways: hue, intensity, and value. 

Line - line can be used in many different ways. Line can be used to draw the viewers eye into a picture or to a certain point in the picture. There are many many different lines known to art as well. Lines show the distance and spance of one place to another. Lines have width, direction and length which all can contribute to shape. 

Space - an area which the artist makes on purpose to provide a purpose. Space usually shows the foreground, middle ground and background which gives the picture dimension to it. Space can also be broken into two areas: negative and positive. 

Value - refers to the light and dark in a piece of work. Often referred to with the black and white spectrum.

Texture - used to describe how a 2 dimensional piece of work looks like it feels or how

 a 3 dimensional piece actually feels.

Shape - the use of an area to create space defined by edges and curves in 2 dimensional art. Shapes can either be geometric or organic. Shape is usually defined by the other elements.

Form - pertains to the actual or perceived volume. 3 dimensional art has depth, width, and height. 2 dimensional can only get this look from the use of perspective using techniques like shading.

First Sketch Book Assignment

So for my first sketch book assignment I decided to do the first thing that came to my mind. This ended up being a turtle, I have no idea why but I just went with it. I think having the factor of just drawing/sketching anything that comes to mind is important because even though sometimes you may want to the think of the greatest idea, it’s better to be able to just get started on something. The shell isn't an actual representation as I had learned after, there are supposed to be 28 pieces to the outer rim of the shell with thirteen bigger chunks on the inside. I used three main pencils to sketch this: HB, B, 6B. Of my 6 pencil set I wanted to use a soft, medium and hard to show the different lines and textures in my work. Principles that I used included: line, shape, value, and texture. Line is used in the pieces of the shell mainly. It outlines and it gives it a textured look to make it look somewhat realistic. Shape would be those within the shell and the turtle itself. Value is the shading that I have done and the darkness and lightness to it. Texture is the feel the picture appears to have.

The first stages of my drawing

Finished product

The criteria the class came up with for the sketch book assignments

My sketch meets all of the criteria. It shows four of the 7 elements as well as it shows a lot of effort I put into it. I met the deadline of Friday to hand it in (This blog post is a little late though) and it shows the appropriate level of detail. As of now there isn't any improvement to be shown as it is the first sketch of the year.