Carving Project

So far, my Woods class is by far the scariest and most stressful course I'm taking. I have used far more power tools in the past few weeks than I have ever before in my life! But learning about these tools and how to construct objects properly with wood are the main reasons I took this class, other than the obvious reason that it fills my "3D art elective" requirement. I think it will be a great way to learn skills I never would otherwise.

We've started our first project, and I already feel a little overwhelmed but in a good way. We're making masks that describe us somehow. My first idea was to of course go back to my goldfish roots. Unfortunately, unless I wanted to carve individual fish scales, a goldfish mask didn't seem very plausible. So, somehow I ended up with the conclusion of carving a rabbit mask. I'm not sure how it describes me, but the idea just seems right.  

Here are my sketches for the project as well as some shots of my giant piece of wood I started with. After cutting it into the proper size pieces, I laminated the two largest pieces together. I'll be adding a third smaller piece on top that will make up the nose of the rabbit next class.

Life Drawing Week Two

Here's my gestures from this week, as well a longer drawing in which we had to first draw the outline of our model, then add in the skeletal system. I obviously didn't finish, but like the direction in which my drawing was going.

Photoshop Experiment

During a Photoshop demo in my Intro to Digital Media course, I create this edited photo that I really like.

It's based off of this photo of my using a printing press. I don't think it's a particularly good photo, but I like what I was able to do with it on the computer. My teacher said that he can tell I'm a printmaker, and I thought that was quite a nice compliment.

And we're back!

The Spring term has started, and I'm back to work in my studio classes. This semester I'm taking Life Drawing I, Intro for Digital Media, and Woods I. I've never taken 3 studios at a time before so I think it will be a challenging few months, but I think they should be great classes. Woods is the most intimidating for sure. In a few classes I've already used more power tools than ever before in my life! Intro to Digital Media seems like a really useful class because I'll learn more about Photoshop, Animation, Illustrator, and other art making computer applications. I'm taking it for fun and so far it seems like it will live up to my expectations. Life Drawing is definitely my favorite class. I took a life drawing course at the Mesa Arts Center during summer 2010, but it was time to brush up on my skills. It's felt really good to start drawing again, something I don't feel like I have done enough of lately. Here are my gesture drawings and the long pose I did during class.

printmaking final project: accordion books!

Here are photos from my final project for printmaking! I created an accordion book that was a combination of lithography, monoprinting, screen printing, and ink.

I used a mixture of toner, emulsion, water, salt, and alcohol to create this pattern on a Pronto plate (plastic sheet used in place for a lithography stone) which is what I used to print my image. 

Here is my giant ink roller, plate, and water/gum arabic mixture used for printing. My plate started fading the more that I printed unfortunately. 

The two images above show my five best prints that I used to make each accordion book.

I then added monoprint layers of watercolor and metallic acrylic ink washes. 

I then added colored pencil to each plate, a different color for each. My goal was to try and make each plate resemble a nebula.

No book is complete without text, and I added this line to mine with a screen print. "You are nowhere."

I then added dots of white ink to recreate the look of stars in my nebulae. 

I covered each book in this awful space fabric that I bought at SAS and folded each into an accordion to finish. I am really happy with how this turned out. I think they are beautiful little pocket sized universes and I am proud of my first handmade books. It was a great way to end my semester.

The Monster Engine

One of my facebook friends posted this article, and I thought it was really intriguing. Illustrator Dave DeVries asked the question, "what would a child's drawings look like if they were painted realistically?" He recreates children's drawings into realistic monsters. The result is funny, a bit scary, and really interesting. Here are a couple of the images from The Monster Engine:

The Art of Brian Dettmer

For my final project in my printmaking class, I have decided to make a handmade accordion book. While searching for inspiration today, I stumbled upon an amazing book artist. His name is Brain Dettmer, and he creates art by hand cutting books page by page, creating beautiful, ornate sculptures. Here are some of my favorite pieces.

His website, briandettmer.com, has a lot of images of his work dating back to 2005. It's all really amazing, and although I won't be making something quite like this for my final project, I am still happy that I stumbled upon it.