Printmaking

MEDIA: LINO BLOCK, CARVING TOOLS, CARBON PAPER, PRINTMAKING INK, PAPER, TRACING PAPER.


 I was actually very fascinated with the printmaking assignment we did.  Out of all the different medias we interacted with this semester, I personally enjoyed working with the linoleum blocks and carving them out by using a speedball cutter.  This came as a new way to express our skills in art and everything about this assignment was new.  In terms of the design process, we are allowed to take our imagination to another level by creating an image of our own.  We did this by taking a few pieces of tracing paper and transferring certain parts of a chosen image in order to create a unique type of subject to work with when carving out linoleum blocks.  I had a hard time deciding what design to create so I took the longest time in the design process.  After finally finalizing my design, the transfer process was a work in the park.  With the help of the provided carbon paper, I was able to easily transfer my image on to the linoleum block with ease.  The process of doing so had to be treated with extra care.  Carbon paper in art can either work with you or against you depending on how careful you are.  Despite the easy process, I treated the transfer with caution by using tape to hold down the tracing and carbon paper as slowly and carefully trace my image onto the linoleum block in order to complete the transferring process.  When cutting the block, I expected it to be rough and hard.  Little did I know, the only difficult thing about the cutting process is getting through all the tight areas of my image and actually avoiding any cuts from the speedball cutter.  The other things I have to think about is what areas have to be carved out in order to create that image in the printmaking process.  I felt like making some sort of stamped image where I have to pay attention in terms of positive and negative spaces.  All areas that are not carved out will be the areas that will show up in the printing process.  The carved areas in the other hand are the ones that will help bring out the image because the ink does not go through those areas during the inking process.  Using the printing ink and a speedball roller, we are able to apply the ink on to the carved linoleum block by rolling the ink on the created image and transferring the inked block on a couple of printing papers.  This process was actually exciting but suspenseful at the same time.  This process to me shows if we carved in our image the right way onto the block.  Fortunately, my image didn’t look as bad as I expected.  First try didn’t come out the way I wanted to due to the lack of ink.  As I printed out more and more copies, I begin to modify my block by carving certain areas and managing my ink applications each time.  Practice makes perfect and modifications helped out a lot with this assignment.  Personally for me, the design process, like I said, was the most difficult because deciding what image to create took a little time.  With days of debating, a design was finally created. 

Relief Scuplture Mask and Mix Media

MEDIA: CLAY, MIX MEDIA (Feathers, Cotton)


When completing my mask or at least right after the heating process, I did not know how to go about with designing the mask in terms of even painting it. I started off with some black paint on the facial hair areas making them the color black. I later mixed colors to create a skin like color of dark brown to color the whole face. The image later popped out little by little as my mask slowly became an "Indian-like Bob Marley" face. I later took advantage and played around with reggae colors by showering my mask with the colors red,green and yellow. This last step of the relief mask sculpture served as the most exciting because of the spontaneous use of color and mix media. A few additional materials I chose included black cotton hair and feathers for a little flavor. By seeing how the outcome of the mask turned out, putting on hair and feathers as a mix media had to be must in order to complete the look of my relief mask sculpture. I figured that putting colorful feathers can really set the tone and bring out all the hard work I put through into creating this sculpture.

Working with Wet clay/Clay textures

 MEDIA: CLAY, TEXTURE UTENSILS

Modeling wet clay was a very new experience to me compared to modeling play dough clay which I'm sure all of us here has done when they were little kids.  Aside from the enjoyment I get from feeling the wet clay, I found it really slippery and hard to handle at times.  Building my oval-shaped slab took a while due to the process of shaping the slab in a certain way.  It is advised to start of with a ball of wet clay.  We were to work our way out little by little until we are able to form a face like structure.  To me, the quantity of clay served as a factor in making the oval like shaped face.  From my experience, having too much or too little can ruin the shape of the face in size.  Certain areas would be a little bulkier than other areas which us something I would try to avoid.  The best part about wet clay is that is is an additive a subtractive media.  I am able to remove clay from parts of the mask in order to balance out the shape.  Working with wet clay can be very fun but also can be a very messy type of media to work with as well.  With the wet clay, I am also able to work with different textures for practice.  I was a little spontaneous at this point because a just went crazy with the textures grabbing any tool I can find and making it work.  I had shells, rocks, blades, leaves and many other things to help compliment my mask.  I had blades running over my clay slabs, rocks being printed on the clay and leaves being placed for it's natural texture affect.  In terms of plan and design, knowing the possibilities I have let my imagination run loose on my mask.  Taking advantage of the additive and subtractive characteristics of the wet clay, I was able to cut out portions of the face to create the eyes and the eyebrows.  With doing that, I was able to distort the figure of the face by making it a different shape than usual.  I also took advantage of some household items and materials to help design and plan my mask. 

Cityscape Assignment

 MEDIA: PENCIL RULER, 1 and 2 Point Perspective

The hardest thing about this drawing assignment is actually starting on it. After creating the roads using the basic vanishing point line, I stared at my drawing sheet for about an hour trying to figure out how and what to draw. In general, this whole assignment was very intimidating. Drawing 15-20 buildings, adding streetlights, roads, pyramids and arches all seem very difficult. The rubric sounded like a basic assignment for students studying architecture. As I ponder on, I manage to get a building done using the basic lines and steps our instructor taught us during class. The media used in this assignment was a simple drawing art pencil along with a ruler for accurate lining. The whole purpose of this drawing was to create a cityscape by using the two techniques we learned during class as well as a created vanishing point we are able to use in order to complete this assignment. The one point perspective technique is drawn in a 3 dimensional perspective as they are seen from a specific viewpoint. With this perspective, only one vanishing point exist. One vanishing point is typically used for roads, railway tracks, hallways, or buildings viewed so that the front is directly facing the viewer. Any objects that are made up of lines either directly parallel with the viewer's line of sight or directly perpendicular can be represented with one-point perspective. The other technique that we used was the two point perspective. Two-point perspective can be used to draw the same objects as one-point perspective. The drawn buildings can be rotated, looking at the corner or looking at two forked roads shrink into the distance. I applied these two perspectives into my cityscape assignment to help prove my understanding of these different point of views. The way I see it, this drawing assignment helped me develop an artist eye for seeing things in a different way. Other than feeling like and architect, I feel like I learned a lot by familiarizing myself with the one and two point perspective. It was a real challenge putting up all the buildings, roads, and pyramids. My strategy was focus on one certain area and try to incorporate these techniques. One different perspective here and another different one there. Using the vanishing point and the extended wings made the assignment a lot easier to create and complete my cityscape. Basically using one and two point perspective helped me complete the objectives and concepts of creating 20 buildings, a pyramid, four roads, and an arch shape building.

Clay Textures for Masks

 MEDIA: CLAY, TEXTURE UTENSILS

Here are a few different textures that were experimented while forming my mask.  I used different items that I found and randomly smashed them into my mask creating different spontaneous textures and images.  Point and concept is to experiment with the different textures and expand on what ideas we can create while building our masks. 

Figure Gesture Drawings

 MEDIA: CHARCOAL

In some areas of this assignment, I found gesture drawing a little fun and exciting. We were to quickly draw different poses, movements and actions of these blue figures in a speedily and spontaneous fashion. Putting time and quickness boosted up the pressure and really tested our drawing skills. Using the media of the vine stick charcoal, we were able to create these different images through what we see. Every drawn pose and movement of the blue figures started with identifying the midpoint of these human figures. By drawing guidelines through the figures we are able to improve our perception of these type of figures and learn how the certain lengths the human figure has on their arms, legs, and body composition. Proportion also plays its role in this assignment by training us once again to try to fit the images on our paper by focusing on size and the various parts of the unit. The figure gesture drawings did not emphasize on detail but actually catch the essence of the subjects that are being drawn. The learning objective was to catch these different essences in a short amount of time which included contour line drawing, bubble drawing, box drawing, and negative shapes. As we worked through all the different dance poses with circles and boxes, we later expand our skills by outlining the figures that we are forming to slowly create a realistic image of our subject. This drawing assignment affected my perception of the human figure by identifying the composition of the small parts of each of the figures. From my personal experience, I enjoyed just letting my mind and hand flow into my drawing. No thinking but just creating out the subject by the way we see it through our minds and then later letting it flow through our hands by our gesture. Sometimes I don't get the image I'm looking for but most of the time I like how my drawings look when no erasing is involved and my arm just flows to what I see by adapting to the essence and objective of this assignment.

Neutral Ground/Crosshatching Still Life Drawing

 MEDIA:CHALK,CHARCOAL (Neutral Ground),PENCIL, ERASER


This drawing assignment was very new to me in so many ways. From my experience, I actually had a lot of fun creating the still life image with an eraser and a chalk. The media used in this assignment was a neutral ground base. We were able to produce this middle value ground by spreading out pencil shavings on our drawing sheets. These shavings helped us create a mix of both light and dark values called a neutral ground base. We were also able to work with a different media on this assignment as we actually use an eraser instead of the usual pencil to create our still life image of the ceramic pot, roll of tissue mannequin, drape, and the stool. At first, I can honestly say I was lost throughout the beginning of the assignment. How am I going to create the given still life image using an eraser? As I experimented with different strokes, values, and shapes, it was clear that I underestimated the power of my eraser. My approach in starting the neutral ground still life drawing was to first identify the familiar shapes I am able to recognize. The ceramic pot was my first target as I quickly saw the lighter values shining on the side. After creating the pot, I worked my way up to the other items and focused on their light values erasing the neutral ground and creating the specific shape. During the assignment, I was fascinated on how we are able to create images through this drawing style. Similar to the Lincoln chalk assignment, our objective was to engage our selves into a neutral ground base and being able to use different media tools such as the eraser to your advantage in pulling out the shapes we see in our still life. We were to create the still life by starting with a surface contour of the drawing. Doing a contour line drawing was not advisable by our instructor because he wanted us to be able to work our way out by recognizing the different shapes to create the image. It seemed a little new to me but it was a very fun way of drawing. Like doing a contour line drawing, a surface contour is just another technique we were able to learn in this course. We used the eraser as a drawing tool just like the way we use a pencil and a chalk. Identifying the different value as well is something we have to look for. When creating these different values we are able to control the pressure we put down into our eraser. We learn how to control our strokes as we get to the different light and dark values. Taking advantage of the light that was given to the still life made it easier to identify these different shadings. Putting our newly learned skill of crosshatching into this assignment helped me see the whole image coming together little by little. If you asked me what was the hardest thing about this assignment I would say creating the drape that was on the mannequin. There were just so many lines and creases I have to be aware about so drawing it was actually a challenge. As I finished up with all the erasing, I used cross hatching to fill in the darker values creating shading on areas that need to shaded. I used the chalk to finish up and bring out the whole drawing. The white chalk really help bring out and emphasize the light portions of my drawing. It was a great media to help add the finishing touches on this assignment. Over all, I had fun doing this assignment. It was hard at first but all it took was time, patience, and practice. What I liked best was actually seeing my drawing come to life. Just knowing that I am able to complete this drawing with a new way of doing so makes me feel a little proud. The down side of this assignment was making mistakes. It was a hassle going back and forth to the pencil shavings to erase and create a new area of neutral ground.