Project for Hope

It has been really hard to settle on a final project and I am not sure of what is keeping me from just making something work. When I bought this 24 x 36 canvas I was excited to get something on it but trying to fill up a huge white canvas does have its pressures. So to avoid painting on the canvas I look through a photography book and found this image of a boy. He was wrapped in rags standing in front of  the water and buildings that had a certain quality about it that I couldn't stop looking at. It was difficult to try to draw this image with charcoal on a index card but it came out to be an okay sketch. but what I like that most was when it had faded out on another paper that I lay on top to prevent it from smudging.  Somehow I like the way that the image had faded and the reflection of this piece. I had wanted to incorporate it into the large canvas painting I had on top but what would be the message? Would it be PHOT?
My original plan for that canvas was to have overlaying faces that were washed out. Each overlaying face on top of another would show different layers of personalities that people have. It shows how sometimes people are confused about how they are or who they want to be. Also it would be a opportunity to just practice painting faces. I don't think I can explain how many times I have gotten frustrated and just pored a whole cup of water on the painting to wash it away.Then I came across a picture of a woman with her head thrown back and it seemed as if she was free. Without any limitations and with every flaw having a beauty to it, even the curve of her neck seemed beautiful according to the photographer. So that was how I developed a meaning to start with. I wanted to paint anything on the canvas that may seem free or without limitations. anything that may bring joy but also just show hope. It seemed throughout this whole process I had been so hopeless in trying to find a project but that sense of hopelessness and frustration had turn into my project itself.

Cross-Hatcheting

Since I haven't bought a canvas and extra paint yet, today I decided to try to learn how to cross hatchet. I remember hearing the term when I was younger but never knew how to do the technique of cross hatching. Mr. Ganes was working on a piece one day that was a self-portrait he drew using cross hatcheting (I think that is how you refer to it). In his work the cross hatcheting was neat lines and never seemed out of place. It seemed to be a sort of print with how straight the lines were, unless he used a ruler and I didn't know. So today I tried to experiment with cross hatcheting. I started drawing windows that were outside the dance studio and trying to get shadows is harder then it looks. With pen lines don't always turn out clear and with cross hatcheting the shades may look to similar. When I had tried getting a shadow it would merge with the object itself and every line that was put in would just have the shadow remain the same shade. Cross hatcheting is a skill I most definitely need some work on.

Does a meaning exist?

To be honest, every idea that crossed my mind I had doubts about and thought it was a waste of time. When I started to think about why I would do a project or  what was the meaning of it I just never came up with a reason. At first I had wanted to do an installation but what purpose would it serve? It would lie on the border line of being there just because it was just interesting or it would be FOT. People devote so much time into something like and installation when it may not serve a meaning at all. This also applies to why do people live life? They work so hard on trying to be successful and stay alive, devoting all efforts to being the best when in the end death reaches all of us. The basic question that crosses my mind is if all of this effort is worth it? A artist that I use to mentor had a Buddhist idea for a project I was helping  on. She had spent around a year making collages on a huge roll of paper demonstrating how girls have expectations to be like models in magazines. It took so much work to cut glue then arrange on this roll of paper that was longer then the room. One week when I walked into the studio I heard a paper shredder and walked into the room seeing the huge roll of paper being shredded up. The point of the project was to show how art can be amazing and everyone admires it but instantly when it became shredded, it lost the value it meant in people. If someone where to see it they would instantly think it was trash even though it was the same art work if it was whole. but her practice was to put so much effort into something but having the ability to make all that effort worthless in a sense was what she had wanted to do.
Therefore for my individual project i had thought of doing a painting each day on a large canvas. That feeling when you have so many little insignificant scenes that you want to paint but their value doesn't extend to becoming a full on painting. On this large canvas I would paint small paintings that I feel like painting that day and make it into one large artwork. then maybe I would practice the Buddhist practice and find a way to shred all of the effort and learn that not everything has to have a meaning. This might be a fear I have now that i realize it. The fear of making something without a meaning or sense of worth. This fear is what I hope to overcome this quater through my individual project.

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.