Charcoal Drawings

Compare how the different methods allow you to:

1) Represent form

The charcoal drawing on paper helped me to evoke form because it was easy to create dark shadows with harsh strokes. It was also easy to create highlights by leaving paper blank or adding white conti crayon. Although it was more difficult to create light values using the eraser on the charcoal, the lights and darks produced have a prominent sense of form. There are also many grays in this piece on the left to portray dimension and form. Although the charcoal on the paper was faster to draw with and easier to produce value, it was more challenging to produce a realistically accurate sense of value. It was harder to avoid using too many contour lines with the charcoal on paper, whereas with the eraser on charcoal you were forced to rely on light and value to portray form. 

2) Evoke emotion

The drawing on the left portrays a darker emotion to me, as the background and the majority of the piece are a dark black. The softer lines and shapes help to make a darker, softer, more melancholy emotion. On the right, the emotion is much lighter. Also, the scratched and rubbed lines and shapes make the feeling lighter and faster. However, the lack of dark colors prevent the piece from becoming too dark or intense. With the composition on the left, the lack of light tones further darken the feeling and emotion of the piece. 

3) Define composition

With the drawing on the right, the eye is drawn to the lantern in the front and then the darker tones and shadows guide the viewer on a sort of diagonal up and across the piece. The eye travels from the shadow of the lantern, up the shadow of the watering can, and up into the items in the upper portion of the piece. The eye is also attracted to the fabric shadows and the shadow beneath the mallet. The contrast between the dark and light colors are what create interest and define the composition in both pieces. In the drawing on the left, the eye is mainly drawn to the lamp structure on the left portion of the page. It also travels up the right side of the page, but the light values on the lanterns draw the eye the most and define the composition. 

To what degree do these drawings resonate with you aesthetically? (Did they allow you to fully express your intuitive sensibilities, artistic vision, etc? What did you enjoy / find uncomfortable about the process? 

I found the process of the piece on the left to be more frustrating because I prefer to be precise and detailed in my drawing approach, and I found this challenging using the bulky erasers. The erasers had to be used very carefully in order to keep the integrity of the items I was drawing. I do not find it to be as pleasing aesthetically because there is not enough contrast between light and dark to make the piece interesting and intriguing. I aesthetically prefer the composition on the right because the contrast guides my eye along the drawing. I think that the shadows make logical sense and accurately portray the form that the drawing was modeled after. I enjoyed smudging the charcoal with a paper towel because I found that it gave me lots of freedom when making shadows. 

Charcoal Still Life 2 In Process

I would say that I am roughly 50% finished with my piece. I have finished drawing countour lines and general outlines for every object that I plan to incorporate, but have just begun to shade using charcoal. I plan to use the charcoal to add depth and dimension to the composition. I am pleased with my outlines of the latern especially, and plan to pay special attention to this lantern while working with the charcoal. I would like the proportions to be more precise, but will hopefully improve upon that as I continue to work with charcoal. I hope to add many different values of black, gray, and white when creating shadow and light. I still have lots of work to go, but I am generally pleased with the point which I am currently at. 

Charcoal Still Life 1

What is successful about this piece? What did you do really well? Why?

I believe that I successfully used lines of different value and thickness to represent the objects that I drew. I used thicker, more contrasting lines in areas of great depth and shadow to portray the dimensions that I saw. I used value to create both light and shadow in the piece, especially with the fabric below the objects. I erased in certain areas to show the light that I saw reflecting off of the shining material. I do think that my proportions were a bit off, and I am still working on making objects realistic sizes in relation to each other. However, I think that as a composition, the piece is unified and flows realistically. I also believe that I successfully represented the shadows and lights that I saw while looking at the arrangements of objects. 

Texture Reflection

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.

Texture Collage

Shape and Composition Project

Look at your rayograms and paper cut-out creations.

What compositional styles where you drawn to? (pattern, rhythm, directional movement et cetera). 

In general, I was drawn to balance and unity because I enjoyed trying to unify foreign objects into a cohesive composition. I also was interested in finding ways to balance various objects using rhythm and directional movement. I particularly liked to make pieces that incorporated items that normally would not go together in a choesive, unified, and balanced way.

How do the shapes of the objects relate to one another on the page? Choose one collage and one print as your most compelling work and explain why.

I chose my white-paper-cuts on black paper collage as the most compelling collage because I found it interesting that directional movement was conveyed using organic shapes that did not clearly indicate a direction of movement. The organic, natural paper cuts were placed in a way that invoked movement in a specific direction without the use of arrows, geometric shapes, or curved shapes. I find the final piece to be unexpectedly unified and moving directionally. 

I would consider my rayogram to be an interesting piece because it incorporated both natural/organic and industrial/inorganic materials. I really like the contrast that these very different items created when they were layered on top of one another in the photo. I also like the dimensionality that was achieved in the rayogram with the translucent screwdriver and three-dimensional nuts and bolts. 

Working in the darkroom can be challenging. There are a lot of technical and mechanical components to keep in mind. Make an outline of your process in the darkroom, go through the steps of making a print. (you do not need to write in complete sentences).

     - arrange your objects on the photo paper and place below the developer                     

     - expose the photo paper to light for 8 seconds

     - place the exposed paper in the developer chemical until fully developed

     - move the exposed paper to the stop bath for 30 seconds

     - move the paper into the fixer chemicals for 2-5 minutes

     - place the paper in the water bath for a few minutes

     - move the paper into the permawash and then back into the water wash

     - remove the print from the water wash and onto the dry racks; leave until completely dry

To what degree did you push yourself to rework and refine your work? How well unified are the compositions of you final collage and photogram prints?

     I definitely pushed myself to rework and refine my work during the paper cuts project, as I would cut and arrange paper cuts and then completely rearrange them over and over again until I found a layout that I liked. I would choose one compositional style to focus on, and then switch my focus to another one and redo my collage in the process. It took me many attempts to get two final collages that I felt satisfied with. However, in the end, I think that this experimentation payed off.

     In the rayogram, I liked being able to experiment with various materials in the darkroom and get a feel for those that appeared best in prints. This process really helped me to discover some interesting objects that i was eager to use in my final piece. When creating my final print, I definitely had to rework and rearrange the materials almost constantly. Although I feel I could hae taken more risks, I thought that I was able to successfully experiment with the materials to find intriguing combinations and create a final composition that respresented one of the elements of composition.

     I think that both of my paper cuts are very unified, as I used the same types of shapes (organic, geometric) throughout each piece to invoke a sense of unity and balance. In the rayogram, I think that the contrast and lack of complete unity was what made my piece interesting. There were no objects that completely did not belong, but some objects were more emphasized than others and I think that this created an interesting display of proportion and contrast. 

HABITS OF MIND
Look at the Artist Habits of Mind. Besides, Develop Craft & Reflect, which habit did you excel at with this “Shape and Composition” project (consider all facets of the project)? Which habit did you struggle with? Give a little explanation about why you chose each one. 

I think that overall, I was successful with experimentation when finding the pieces to put in all three of my final compositions. I had to experiment many times to find ways to successfully unify the sshapes in all three of the pieces. Oftentimes, I was not pleased with the outcomes of my combinations and had to rethink my element of composition and experiment with using materials and shapes in new and unusual ways. I also thought that I did well experimenting while practicing in the darkroom, as I made many prints using a variety of objects in order to see which ones I found most interesting.

Final Rayogram

I chose to focus on contrast when I created this image. I think that the image illustrates contrast because there is a competing mixture of both natural and unnatural elements that create an interesting contrast. I made sure to incorporate both organic shapes and more angular, structured shapes to provide a contrast between items. There is also contrast between the mesh and the black space in the background. I chose to use various industrial materials including chains, nuts and bolts, nails, and screwdrivers and organic materials like fern leaves and honeycombs. I chose the screwdrivers because they are very strong solid shapes that provide the piece with structure. I especially liked that one of the screwdrivers was slightly translucent because I think that this created an interesting dimensional effect. I also chose the honeycomb because it is both opaque and translucent and creates interesting shadows that evoke depth. i think the disorganization of the chains throughout the piece provides some variation and interest to the otherwise organized and balanced piece.