Shutter and Aperture: Calm

I chose the adjective calm because when I looked at my backyard, I thought of a serene and relaxing place.  I have a pool, and in the summer it is nice to relax and lounge by the pool.  The bench relates to calm because it is a place where I can just sit in peace.  I also think of nature as very calm because everything around us is very serene and beautiful.  The aperture was on 4.2 for the top image because I wanted the background to blur.  On the bottom two images, the aperture was 6.7.  The shutter speed was 1/125 on all my images because that is a standard speed.  

Darkroom

My Experience in the Darkroom

I love the moment of first stepping into the darkroom.  I love going from the light into the pitch black darkness.  Photography is a nice break within my school day, and it is always exciting to be able to go into a different style of classroom in order to learn in new ways.  I love the satisfying feeling of making a print that I'm happy with.  In the darkroom, I use so many test strips to find the perfect lighting and focus, and it feels great when I see that my hard work has paid off.  The darkroom feels very mysterious to me.  The revolving door enters me into the world of developer and fixer.  I have grown to love my enlarger more than the others because I have grown accustomed to the way the timer works and where it is located.  I am so lucky to have the materials of the darkroom all supplied to me, and I'd love to keep taking advantage of this new world I am welcome in.

Pinhole Camera

 Pinhole Camera

I made my pinhole camera from a
papyrus box, and I used cardboard
paper to block out light from the
aperture.  I found this process to be
fascinating because I never knew it
was possible to make a camera from
a few simple items.  I took pictures of my beautiful surroundings at
Branson.  The middle picture of the
tree is my favorite because I find the
balance of black and white to be very evocative.  While taking pictures using the pinhole camera, I focused on finding places with a lot of lighting in order to see all of the different features of the photo.  This project was meaningful because I was able to explore with average materials in a way that I did not know existed.  Over the course of the project, I continued to explore with taking pictures in new places.  I originally photographed many plants by holding the pinhole camera, but I found it difficult to get a focused image because of my breathing.  I continued walking around Branson and eventually flund some places were I could set the camera on the ground to maximize the quality of the image.  With the knowledge I have now, a change I may have made in the process would be to build a larger pinhole camera in order to create a larger photograph.  I found that the aperture I constructed work well, so I would not change anything else.

Final Reflection

 My most successful project was the color project where I took pictures and edited the photos in photo shop with monochromatic, tetradic, and complementary colors.  I developed my craft with this assignment by taking multiple photos until I found the angle and colors I wanted, and by experimenting with photo shop.  For this project, the understanding of how to use cameras and photo shop were essential to succeed with this project.  For this piece, I wanted to express happiness and joy about nature.  I expressed this by taking pictures of flowers with beautiful colors.  

The most challenging project was the sculpture project because it was sometimes frustrating working with plaster.  My final work resembled the idea of my brainstorming, but the end result came out very different as I explored with new techniques.  I originally had my idea about a flower with a vine coiling down in a cylinder shape.  By the end, I still had the flower but there was no vine coiling in a cylinder shape, but the base narrowed in at a diagonal slope.  I made these changes to further express my idea of hope.  Instead of the base being the same width as the rest, I thought a narrower base would show how even when you don't have much, you still have hope.  A problem that emerged with this project was making my sculpture smooth.  At first, I realized I would not be able to have a smooth sculpture while chipping away plaster.  By the end, I was able to solve this problem by using many different types of sanding paper.  

 One formal strength I gained this year was working with balance.  I was able to learn how to make my composition work as a hole, and not be hectic in many places.  One technical strength I learned was how to use the basics of photo shop.  During the photography unit using photo shop, I found a love for cameras and photography.  One conceptual strength I gained was never giving up in art.  Sometimes art can be frustrating, but if you keep working with the material, colors, texture, etc, the end result can always be beautiful.  

Form Unit Self-Reflection

Envision ~ Express

My outside influences were a flower, hand signing the letter h to stand for hope, and a red apple amongst many black and white apples.  I created an abstract object in the shape of an apple, but there were flower petals on the top with two fingers reaching out symbolizing hope.  

Develop Craft ~ Engage and Persist

I pushed myself to gain a better understanding of the physical properties of plaster such as brittle and hard by experimenting with multiple tools in order to find the shapes I wanted.  At first I was going to have my object be cylinder shaped, but while I was in the process I changed the structure and had the base go in towards the center.  I was able to adapt to the difficulties of the plaster by simplifying my once detailed idea.  I came to better control the tools by practice.  At first it was difficult to find the shape I wanted.  Throughout time as I chipped away, the process became easier.  I also was able to use different sand papers in order to get the smooth texture I wanted.

Stretch and Explore

My intentions changed over the course of my project multiple times.  Before I felt the plaster, I thought it would be easier to manipulate to the shape I wanted.  I simplified my idea in order to make my project successful.  Later on, I had a cylinder shaped flower with vines coiling at the bottom.  This shape did not express hope in the way I wanted, so I chipped away at the plaster at the bottom at an angle.  My final piece is top heavy; this shows the hope I wanted to portray.  I focused on texture and shape to realize my piece.  The texture was smooth at the bottom, and rougher towards the top to show struggle.  The shape and form being top heavy and two fingers coming out showed hope reaching up.  My piece had a gesture being tense, but reaching up for better times through hope.  Overall, many formal elements influenced my piece.

Final Value Post

For the charcoal drawing portion of the project, I tried to continue to explore having a complete value scale, and showing movement through the charcoal.  After much trial and error, the fabric began to look realistic and 3-D.  In regards to shadows, a white line next to the shadow makes it stand out.  These habits pushed me to further develop my artistic practices that I can use in the future such as contrast and movement.  My work in the darkroom is similar to my drawing because the diamond has a lighter value than the background, but it is different because the diamond is shone at different angles.  My drawing took more going over my original sketch, and was more difficult for me.  I am more comfortable with the photography portion.  I believe the drawing allowed more medium for expression because each stroke impacts the drawing, whereas the dark room has more technical features.  I could improve my drawing by making the diamond look a little more realistic, and standing out more than the background.  With the photo, I could show a larger value scale.  Overall, I learned a lot of skills through the value project that I can use in the future.

Interim Value Blog Post

In my work, I am trying to evoke a contrast of different shades ranging from black to white.  I tried to balance my composition using the value scale.  In both photographs, I used value to draw a center of interest at the diamond.  The diamond has the lightest value and was placed next to dark values to stand out.  A diamond has changing values when one moves only slightly, so I attempted to express that through my photographs by standing in different places to take the pictures.  When I get back from break, I'd like to improve the focus of my photographs, as well as continue to show a wide range of shades in the value scale.  The images to the left seem to have more dark values than light, so I may experiment with closing my aperture more to create lighter values in the photograph.

Value

What is value? How do you plan on employing it in your art?

Value is the different shades of colors ranging from dark to light that allows an object to look 3-dimensional.  I plan on employing value into my art by starting with the darkest color, and than shading from there to receive different values which work with my piece.  I can use techniques such as crosshatching and drawing with the charcoal to show the light coming onto the still object.

 Digital Photos:

I believe the most evocative picture is the photo to the right because the lighter value of the diamond reflects well against the dark tree.  I believe the left photo shows the most value in the value scale because there are many different values in the background, and different values within my fingertips and the diamond.  In the future, I will take similar pictures with the manual camera.  I will continue to explore value in different places in nature.

Texture

 Texture 1

This composition has four various textures.  There may be an illusion that there are more textures, but this is because of the layout of the composition.  I chose this layout because I was experimenting with cropping squares in the textures.  I wanted the eye to be directed toward the center of the composition and than to explode outwards.  I explored the juxtaposition and organization of the collection by spreading out the values.  This allows for the composition to have different contrasts in the tint of gray.  I chose for the center to be lighter because I wanted it to stand out against the dark grid behind it.

Texture 2

This composition has five various textures.  I used juxtaposition in attempt to have a form of directional movement because of the triangles forming arrows.  In this piece, I also spread out the different values.  I didn't want any two textures to have the same shade of gray, and I wanted the details and lines of the textures to stand out.  I chose to use each of these textures because of their differences.  I was sure to place the two grid-like textures on opposite sides of the composition in order to balance it.  Overall, I am thrilled at how both of my pieces are very different, but are unified because of the straight lines and sharp edges.

Final Composition

My final composition has many various textures and materials.  When I decided I wanted to use this piece, I explored in the art room until I found the perfect texture for each part.  I pushed myself hard when I was frustrated with my composition.  There were times when I could not cut the burlap the right length, the nails were falling out, and could not find the perfect texture.  I took my time to put the composition together in the way I wanted it to look.  I believe this composition translates well to the original one I did on the computer (see above).  Known of the textures I used were similar to the original one, but everything came together and looked good.  I believe I was very involved while evaluating others artwork.  Some of my classmates told me that they liked the geometric portion to my piece, and that it was well balanced.  Although this is not a color project, they thought the colors went well together and brought out the different textures.  For example, they liked the black netting on the white background.  My classmates compositions were all well done, and I thought the different pieces in my group of 4 actually went very well together.  They all balanced each other out and looked like they could be seen together.  I believe I am able to communicate my aesthetic insights and concepts well.  There is always room for improvement, so I hope I am able to help my classmates further reflect on their compositions in the future.

Color PopArt Painting

Apple PopArt 

 

In the painting on the top left, my painting technique was quick dots.  This was my free choice, and I chose to do black and white because I thought it would be interesting to see an apple in black and white.  In the painting on the top right, my painting technique was flowy and loose.  My group gave me the feedback that this painting looked the most expressive and excited, and that was what I was going for.  I chose to have a triad of orange, green, and purple, because I wanted to take a risk and choose the more difficult triad than complementary.  In the beginning, I painted the whole background a light green.  The final result was different than the others because you are still able to see some green through the other colors.  I chose for the largest portion of the apple to be orange because I did not use orange in any of my other paintings, and I thought that would be a good contrast.  In the painting on the bottom left, the analogous painting, I used a larger brush.  My technique was for the apple to look very smooth.  My group told me that this painting looked the most clean and realistic.  This painting took me multiple trials, and I ended up painting over the original painting once or twice in some places.  I wanted the end result to look as calm and precise as possible.  In the painting on the bottom right, my painting technique was for the different monochromatic colors to blend together.  I also painted over this multiple times because at first I did not know that I was going to be blending my colors.  I am happy that I chose this style though, because I believe it looks more realistic and different from the others.  Each painting used many different techniques, but I decided to lay out the paintings in this way in order for the greens to be opposite each other.  I wanted the colors to balance each other out.

I thought about color in photography and painting very differently.  In photography, I looked for very vibrant and contrasting colors to make the image look interesting.  While I was walking around campus, I was intrigued by colorful flowers and leaves.  When I was painting, I thought about colors more separately.  When I was mixing my paints to make the colors lighter and darker, I would mix until I found a particular color that stood out to me.  I laid out my four paintings thinking about color also.  I wanted to make sure the greens were balanced, so I put them on opposite sides.  Overall, in photography I looked at colors in relation to the rest of the image, but in painting, I narrowed in on the individual colors.  I felt more comfortable with the photography portion of this project.  I love cameras and taking pictures; it is something I really enjoy.  When I enjoy something, I usually feel more comfortable with it  Through both processes, my attention to detail and color grew immensely.  Now, when I see a pretty sunset or a piece of gorgeous scenery, I notice how beautifully the colors fit together.