Print Project Beginning Stages

My inspiration for the print project was a book I read in English class called A Fine Balance.  A Fine Balance is set in India, and is about the interactions and lives of many characters.  Each character has his or her own life philosophy.  Some were negative, and some positive.  One major theme was the train system in India, so I will use train tracks as a background for my print.  In addition, the game of chess is used as a metaphor for the positive and negative events in life.  Life is about having a balance of good and bad, so I am planning to print many pawns one on top of the other to demonstrate the theme of balance.  I will use linoleum as the material, and chip away at the negative space.

Early Modernism Painting Project

I initially was drawn to this impressionist strip because I found the blended colors in the sky and water to be very serene.  In my previous year in photography, I did a project taking pictures of sunsets and silhouettes, and I believe this previous project influenced why I was drawn to this strip.  I intended to focus on demonstrating a sense of differing textures between the sky and water.  In the peer edit, Ellie and Francesca expressed how they liked the symmetry, contrast of colors, and texture.  I focused on maintaining the symmetry, but making the texture of the sky and water different in order to see a clear difference.  Through the peer edit, I learned I was successful with my intention.  After this project, I believe I am a painter.  Painting includes many technical elements such as color, texture, and brush strokes, and I learned to use these elements throughout this project.  I have come to realize that I intuitively can tell when the painting looks right, or when I need to make a change.  When the blended colors did not look right, I could see it, and I did what I could to change the colors or brush strokes in order to produce the best work possible.

Learning how to See: Representation and Approach

1. My intention was to explore myself as an artist.  I feel like I succeeded in discovering that I focus on a precise use of contour lines and value.

2. In the past, I was in photography, so I took photos that were all very realistic.  In class, I have also always enjoyed doodling, but the lines of my doodles are always very exact.  I feel like both of these past experiences have influenced my aesthetic voice.  I like my pieces to always be very precise, and I struggle to get past a line that appears out of place, and feel the need to redo it.  My strength is maintaining my artistic voice, but I struggle to step out of my comfort zone and present a more abstract representation of objects.  For example, blind contour drawings make me nervous because I feel like I have no control.  I like to be in control of each line that I make.

3. The group feedback generally stated that they liked my precision, value, and composition.  These attributes represent my intentions, and I feel that I was successful in producing a piece that I am proud of.

Still Life Feedback

Learning to See

During this project, I have explored with many different drawing utensils such as pencil, pen, and watercolor.  I have found that I am most successful with pencil because I enjoy focusing on contour lines.  I am very literal and realistic, and I struggle drawing in an abstract way.  I believe that I was able to represent the contour lines well, but I struggled with representing value and texture.  I found these drawings to be most successful because I spent the most time and attention to detail on these drawings.  My peers responded similarly, and said my drawings were literal, and the lines were very exact.  My representational tendencies are to use fine lines to create a very one-dimensional image. In the future, I'd like to focus on adding value and texture into my drawings.

Final

Which project do you consider your most successful? How did you develop your craft with this assignment? What tools, methods and materials were essential to your success with this project? What ideas, feelings or meanings did you want your piece to express? How did you go about expressing it? 

My most successful project was my "A Room of One's Own" project, where I made a book called "Through the Dark." I developed my craft by beginning by being inspired.  I went outside to take pictures one night not even thinking about this project, but because I wanted to.  I take my best photographs when I am taking pictures of something that I like, and I want to be there.  I develop better photos when I am taking photos for myself rather than a specific project, but in this case, these two aspects overlapped.  The timing that I took photographs was essential for my success with this project.  A few days during time were very foggy, so I was unable to take photos of the nonexistent sunset.  I wanted my piece to express the hope from looking through the darkness.  These photos had a transcendental feel because I was surrounded by nature, and there was consistently one central light.  I expressed my feelings by taking photos where the sun was hidden slightly behind a cloud, or behind a mountain.  Overall, this project was the first project I found to be truly successful.

Which project was the most challenging? Look at your brainstorming or original intentions for this project. How does the final work(s) resemble your preliminary sketches or plans? What changed? Why did you make the changes that you did? What problems emerged in the creation of this project? How did you solve the problems? 

The most challenging project was the high key and low key project.  My final work was unable to achieve my hopes of taking photos that demonstrated these concepts.  My ideas of finding an area where I could take a high key or low key photo did not work out, and it was very difficult to find a location that suited my needs.  The inability to find a location that allowed for me to take high key and low key photos was a problem that emerged in the creation of this project.  I solved this problem by constantly trying to take photos in different places, whether it was inside my house, outside my house, or at Branson.  Overall, I struggled with this project.

Please discuss three new strengths you've discovered or deepened this year. One formal strength (your ability to work with things like composition, balance, rhythm et cetera), one technical or media-specific strength (working in a specific medium or honing a specific skill) and one conceptual strength (your idea development in the specific project). 

One formal strength I discovered was my ability to take a photo with good composition.  I love the concept of dividing the frame into three sections, and explored with this concept throughout the “Exposure triangle/shutter aperture,” “A Room of One’s Own,” “Off camera flash,” and “Mind map” projects.  One technical strength I developed was in the dark room.  I learned how to look at a test strip I developed, and know how many seconds I needed to add, if I needed a filter, and if I needed to change the aperture.  I loved being able to become more independent in the dark room, and toward the end of the year I spent a lot more time there.  One conceptual strength I developed was the ability to let go and take pictures of what I wanted toward the end of the year.  In the “Mind map” project, I placed a bunch of random objects that are important to me in my map, and the end result, although strange, is a work that I am proud of.  In addition, I learned how to work with a holga camera.  The photos I took in Chicago with the holga camera were my favorite photos I have taken this year because I was able to let go thinking about shutter speed, aperture, and many of the technical aspects, and simply click a button to take a picture with the holga.  Although this contradicts a lot of what I have learned this year, I enjoyed taking pictures with simplicity.

A Room of One's Own: Through the Dark

I address light in my book Through the Dark as a character that gives color to my images, and allows the silhouettes to stand out.  In the A Room of One's Own assignment, I focused on contrast between the dark silhouettes and the light and colors that shined through.  I explored my artistic voice as a visual artist by finding a theme that I enjoyed working with, and using the rule of thirds to my advantage.  In many of my images there are mountains, telephone poles, or trees, and I attempted to place their silhouettes in interesting places.  This project was meaningful to me because I was able to explore my surroundings and find the beauty around me.  The colors I saw in the sky were stunning, and I was glad I was able to capture the beauty within my images to share with others.

I originally wanted my photographs to all be of beautiful pinks and oranges that I saw in the sky the first day I went out to take pictures, but my intention was forced to change due to the weather.  I eventually accepted blues and purples, and allowed them to be included as well.  This change gave a good balance to my series.  Given what I know about my work, I may have tried to venture out farther and find more places to take pictures.  A few of my images looked fairly similar, and I would have liked to have a bigger variety of settings.

A Room of One's Own

Artist Statement
In the A Room of One's Own project, I experimented with taking pictures of silhouettes during sunset.  One night I decided to go outside and take pictures, and I was very lucky that it was an amazing night, and I was able to take some phenomenal photos.  From there, I continued to go out around 5-5:30, and took pictures at different locations.  I struggled with the weather because some cloudy and rainy nights I was not able to take photos that I was happy with.  The colors that came out of the sky some nights were surreal, and I'm glad I was able to capture the beauty in this project.

Light is a character

 Light plays a character in this photo because the sun is shining through the clouds, and makes the mountain look like a silhouette.

 In this photo, the lighting at sunset allows for the array of colors in the sky.  The photo is fairly simple, but the lighting in the sky is what makes it intriguing.

Again, the lighting in the sky and clouds allows this photo to demonstrate complementary colors blue and orange, and a very unique texture.

Off Camera Flash

I enjoyed using the off camera flash.  I had many troubles at home, and I ended up pressing the camera button along with the off camera flash button which was not ideal, but I ended up with a few images I was happy with.  The top image of the pinecone was taken with a functioning off camera flash, and I think the shadow/lighting of the pinecone came out well, but the overall image is very Branson and not very intriguing.


At home was where I had my struggles with the off camera flash.  I tried to focus on reflections instead, and I think the bottom three images captures what I was looking for.  Overall, my favorite image is the bottom photo, but I wish I had used a white/solid background.  I will continue to take more photos and hopefully the off camera flash will make my images more successful.

High Key/Low Key

What works about my low key image is that the umbrella was highlighted in intriguing areas due to the porch light in my backyard.  Low key was difficult at first, but once I found an area with enough but not too much lighting, many of my photos improved.

I had a more challenging time with high key.  I had trouble finding an area where the lighting allowed for me to take an image with a mostly white background.  When I was inside, I did not find a space where I'd find success taking high key photos, so I took photos outside.  In my backyard, I had lighter photos but they still did not achieve the high key I was looking for.  Eventually, I took photos of the skies at Branson.  My photo did not appear how I was hoping, but my ability to take high key photos definitely improved over the course of this assignment.

Exposure Triangle

The strengths of these three images lie in the exposure triangle: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.  I experimented a lot with changing the f stop.  As I lowered the f stop, the background blurred and focused on one particular place/object.  Specifically in the middle and bottom photos, I focused on having a low f stop, and I think that gave me an evocative photo.  The exposure triangle also allows me to control the lighting, and I think the top image has an interesting lighting from the lights on my Christmas tree.  I like this photo because of the colors that were reflected onto the ornament, and the contrast in lighting.

Portrait Photos

I considered the idea of the portrait while taking my pictures.  Angela was my model, and I tried to frame the images in a flattering way.  I attempted to keep the rule of thirds in mind, but I broke the rule a couple of times.  My work physically addresses the priorities of the assignment because I was able to print successful images of Angela.  I pushed myself to gain a better understanding the physical properties of light by experimenting with different angles and reflections.  I used different settings on the camera such as changing the aperture to provide a variety of styles.  In the dark room, I was able to use my knowledge in order to know whether I needed to make my print lighter or darker.  I was able to change the time or aperture to improve the image.  I was able to better control the variety of tools over time because I became more accustomed to the different settings.  I found an aperture that was one or two stops from all the way closed worked the best for my roll of film.