Individual Writing

Something that occurs often when drawing a still life or face is the fact that it may not look like the image at all. Then you realize that all of measurements are all wrong and you have to redraw everything to get the measurements right. But what happens when it still doesn’t look like a face or bottle? You drew all the measurements right, so what else is wrong? Something that people don’t realize is the fact that all of these lines and measurements must be in a relation with each other. They must work and be proportional to each other for you to get the image right. As an artist, this is something I often forget. I forget that you always have to take to account the relationships between those lines. That was the skill that I had to work on.

            During the workshops we had to learn relationships. Relations between lines, color, and features are essential to understanding how to paint or draws as well as learning how to work with flatten pencils. With flatten pencils it had helped me see relations in the face better. For example, I was drawing an image of Grace Kelly.  Her jaw line had certain sharpness to it and her cheek bones stood out. When using a flatten pencils to draw these features you must make sure that each line is proportional because the whole point of drawing these faces were to be quick and as precise as you can get it. As quick as these 30 second drawings may be you begin to see how the eyes align with ears and how the darkest shadows tend to be under the chin.  One of the hardest things for me to draw or get right during this portion of the workshop was to get the side profile of a face.  Relations between features vary since the eyes may be at a different angle and getting that angle seems to be the hardest part for me to get right.

            Relations between colors seem to include more basic color theories. I have never learned color theory before so learning this topic was all new to me. I have always been use to mixing colors and never took to account on how putting an opposite color can make a perfect gray. If you were to make a shadow for a red cup you wouldn’t make the shadow red. You would have to add in to opposite color which is green. The green would be a contrast from the red cup, showing that the green tint is part of the shadow.  It doesn’t really sound likely that the green tint and red cup would go together but it makes a shadow more distinct. I had tried putting this technique to use while first using oil color and I can’t really say I was as successful as I wished. I had gotten so use to using watercolor and having the paint apply on the paper so easily, that using oil felt so foreign. Oil felt so thick on the paper and it was hard to find a balance between not making it watery and not having the paint run out. Mixing the paint also make it quite complicated since the paints contained a lot of pigment the littlest drop of color could turn out darker then you would imagine. The main conflict is to find a perfect balance between the paints and oil.

            The skills in this workshop that we have learned to develop have helped me learn to see what was never there before. When I now see faces I instantly look at the relationships between all the features on their faces. Same as when I look at the color of a wall. I instantly think about what the color was based off of and what would be complementary to it. This workshop has been applied to a lot of the daily things I do and has most definitely help with a lot of art projects. I have learned to see things differently and I think that contributes to what I think the definition of art is. Art to me is to train the eye to see what may not be there at first glance.

If Life were a movie

What would happen if life was a movie? Would we realize all of our mistake and realize everything that we can't now? Could we see if we were being stupid or silly? All of these questions were running through my mind today as Luke gave out sheets explaining plot points and how they affect everything through the movie after. Is there a point in our life where we have our own plot points?
I started thinking back to a point in my life where there might have been a plot point and I definitely remembered a time in third grade where a girl use to bully me and call me stupid names that my innocent mind didn't know.That point in my life was definitely when I had became really loud, out-going, and being confident to stand up for myself. So basically I had became really aggressive. But I started thinking how in movies the plot points weren't really the obvious but they were the simplest and subtle actions. Maybe there was a point in my life where it was the fact that the girl bullied me but more of the fact that maybe I was just shy. How movies can be affected by the simplest action of throwing tacks mind boggles me but also gives me an appreciation towards film. Being able to make everything from plot to characters' actions alter because of a subtle move is powerful.
As every aspect of film that Luke had mentioned was familiar to me but when I turned around and saw the look on Matt's face you could see everything running threw his mind.  My respect for film directors and any person that has to do something with film has increased to an enormous amount. They have to be one step ahead of everything and it is a really useful skill. Props to you film people!

Intense Art Week

This week I have to say has been really successful. Drawing people's face has always been my downfall and I don't tend to practice it since I am not good at it and as Luke said "People that suck at something don't tend to do it". My case exactly! Drawing grids also help a lot with seeing relationships between the eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. I have been able to draw faces more realistically and proportionally too. Also I have never learned color concepts but just tend to blend colors that seem complementary.  I enjoyed this week a lot even though it has been brain frying. It doesn't require a lot of work but it tends to just fry your mind when you start to grid the points.  Thought the results are successful I think this had helped me improve on seeing relationships.

MIchaelangelo

After reading what fresco is and how famous artist would use this material I have actually became very interested in how this material works. Since it was considered to be "only for men" I really wonder how it would feel to actually use this and what makes the feel different than oil. Since it dries really fast it is interesting how artist adapted to using this type of material. Also it seems that back then the artist reputation was to see who can outdo each other like Leonardo Da Vinci .and Michelangelo. I was also surprised by how much they were respected but earned very little money. With the exception of Michelangelo earning 3, 00 ducets which is equivalent to 301, 456 U.S. dollars. I thought that the packet actually wasn't half bad and help me learn about the history of some artist.

What is Expressionism?

I think that expressionism is a way of art where the artist expresses emotions in radical ways. The video of the Japanese form of dance had a creeping and disturbing way of emotion through the body where as  in the operas you could hear the singers' pain in their voices. Expressionism seems like a form that is settling but more dynamic in the sense of death.
Also I had realized the haunting use of space in the performances. any prop being used was simple and also the colors that were used contributed to the feel or the performance. The dark light helped make the space either feel vast or small. Expressionism to me seems like a way of expressing emotions through a intense and torturing way.

STAC Live

Now with STAC live approaching it is amazing how different this show will be and all the prepping  is from last year. It is very interesting how a single thought can connect to all different videos, movies, and pictures. It seemed really difficult to find a connecting aspect between all of these different projects without changing the very project itself but to dream is the very core subject in all of these videos. Last year the prepping for Stac live was with all the dancing and more promoting the idea of stac, stac, stac. But it seems different this year since Stac live has became the chance for us students to really make what we want and weave it into each other. For example, I really wanted to make an installation this since I was able to make on last year without it turning half-bad. With all of the school regulations and rules against fire hazards it turned out to be quite difficult to go through with the original idea I had. I had spent two hours deciding on different ideas and every way they can or cannot work until a saw a picture on Ashley's laptop of a subway tunnel  with two people. So in that five or somewhat second I whipped out an idea that turned out to be the best one. Weird how things turn out but sometimes there is no need to over contemplate something.

STAC TRip : Cymbeline

I realized that a lot of Shakespeare's plays have difficult intertwining plots that all seem to make sense towards the end. As the king has said "Are there any more plots to unravel?". I had absolutely loved the play. It was really very difficult to understand in the beginning but every line the actor and actress's had were very intriguing . Also the way that the actor had played off of the audience member was different and they had all kept a fine line from including the audience and from acting like they weren't there.
I had also found so many aspects of Metamorphoses in the play. The way the sheets were used and the beginning speech with unwrapping the candy. I'm not sure if it is a coincidence or the aspects were copied. I remember that during the beginning of rehearsals for Metamorphoses Luke had said something about how you have to make it clear when you are changing characters. During the play you could tell which person the actors and actresses were being. They did not have to even change costume, you could just tell from the essence of how they acted. I loved the play and grown to admire it more since Metamorphoses.