Degree of Exploration (Stretch and Explore)
How varied is your collection of textures?
- My collection of textures is quite varied. I used both natural and unnatural items in my texture blocks to provide contrast, and my Photoshop digital collage exhibits a large variety of textural photographs and rubbings. I used items of different size, shape and color on my texture blocks and images with a variety of textures in my collage. However, three of my texture blocks featured vertical lines in some way, so I could have varied this more. Although the three blocks were made using different techniques and materials, they all have a quality of vertical movement and could have been changed. Overall, I used a wide variety of textures, but could have explored even more interesting and varied textures.
How thoroughly did you explore the effects of juxtaposing and organizing the collection?
- In general, I thought that I exhibited lots of exploration through organizing the collection. With my texture blocks, I reorganized them over and over again until I found a compelling piece with a variety of different materials. In the rayogram, I also experimented with many different organizations of textures to create an interesting piece. It took me a very long time to decide how to organize the items in my rayogram because I was interested in exploring and organizing the objects in a way that made sense but also provided lots of varied texture. When making my digital collage, I thought that I was very exploratory in organizing the layers of texture and I experimented with many different combinations of texture until I found ones that created an interesting contrast or an interesting relationship. I worked to make the very different textures look cohesive in a final digital collage and organize them to create a unified final piece.
Degree of Craftsmanship and Attention to Detail (Engage and Persist)
How thoroughly do your various projects for this unit exemplify your exploration of "texture"?
- I think that my projects exemplify my exploration of "texture" quite thoroughly. I was able to incorporate a large variety of textures into each one of my pieces, from the collage to the texture blocks to the rayogram. Exploration can be seen in my texture blocks where I have used unique and interesting textures in new and abstract ways. For example, I used a collection of push pins on one of my texture blocks and flipped them upside down and organized them by color to explore new methods of organization and juxtaposition. In my digital collage, I incorporated photos of corn, the texture of rocks, the pattern of a tire, and multiple texture rubbings. Finding a way to incorporate all of these items took lots of exploration of texture. In the final project, my exploration of texture is shown because I was able to use real moss to bring out the mossy texture of the rock photographs I had taken. Finding this connection took lots of exploration of texture and thinking about how texture can be used to unify a piece.
To what degree did you push yourself to rework and refine your work?
- I do feel that I pushed myself to reword and refine my work, but that I could have done so more. For example, I was exploratory in my use of textures on the texture blocks, but I was not able to rework any textures that I was not completely satisfied with. I would have liked to play around more with certain textures and rework them in my final texture blocks. However, I believe that I spent a very long time refining and reworking my digital collage. I would reach a point where I wanted to restart, but instead I chose to rework and reorganize certain images in order to further refine my work. I made sure to look closely at the details of my collage to ensure that all of my textures worked together. I also thought that I successfully refined and reworked my rayogram until I was happy with the results. I tried a variety of different materials in a lot of different positions until I found a final composition that I wanted to photograph. Overall, I think that I was able to push myself to rework and refine my work in most aspects of the texture project, but that I could have been more exploratory and paid more attention to detail when creating the final texture blocks.
How well unified is your final texture block / digital image?
- I believe that my final texture block is very well unified. Although I used a large range of textures, images and rubbings, I believe that they all came together to create a unified composition. Specifically, in my digital collage, I was able to pull the texture off of photographs of rocks using Photoshop and put them in the corners of my collage. When considering which texture to use in my final composition, I chose moss because I noticed that the rocky texture was very natural and organic-looking and closely resembled moss. Also, when considering which rubbings to include in the background of my Photoshop collage, I chose rubbings that I felt looked organic and rough, similar to the texture of the rocks. I thought that even though the texture of corn is very different from the texture of a rubber tire, I was able to unify the two photographs by placing the corn photograph inside of the tire outline. I further unified the outlines of the tires by including the real moss here. In general, I feel that my final texture collage is well unified and cohesive.
Level of Understanding and Growth
In what ways have you developed technically in areas of drawing (rubbings), digital photography and Photoshop, and sculpture?
- I believe that I have improved my rubbing skills through trial and error and that I was able to improve my photography skills through exploring camera settings. When I first began the rubbings, I used charcoal and found it to be messy and unwieldy for the kinds of rubbings that I was creating. I then switched to a different more waxy media to create cleaner rubbings. With the waxier material, I was able to define the texture where I wanted to and keep the negative space relatively empty. In this way, I believe that I became better at creating precise texture rubbings. I also believe that I grew as a photographer because when I was photographing various textures, I was able to play around with settings and use the macro mode when shooting objects close up and the auto-focus mode when capturing larger textures. Also, simply by using such high-quality cameras, I feel that I developed my knowledge of photography and improved as a digital photographer. Coming into this class, I had never used Photoshop and I definitely believe that I improved my digital collaging skills. Now, I am able to extract certain textures, crop and move images, change colors of pictures, and select specific areas that I would like to focus on. Lastly, I also believe that I improved as a sculptor through working with such a wide range of textures on my texture blocks. I learned to use hot glue guns efficiently and to create texture using items that may not seem textured. I thought that my final texture blocks were sturdy and clean-looking, and this shows my improved sculpture skills.
Are your final works free of glaring technical flaws or difficulties? How might your works have benefitted from technical understanding or control?
- I feel that my final texture collage, digital collage, and rayogram are free of any glaring flaws or difficulties, but that my texture blocks may not have completely been free of error. I feel that my final collages and rayogram were very clean and organized looking and that I did not have any obvious technical errors to improve. In my texture blocks, I feel that I may have used hot glue in situations when it was not necessary and left certain objects slightly disorganized on the blocks. I feel that some of them could have been glued down better or organized more cleanly. In these ways, I think that my work was mostly technically error free, but that my texture blocks could have used some extra technical work.
