Weekly IP Blog#4

What I did

Sat. 10/1/11: 1 hour and 1/2

I went to the College of Creative Studies in Detroit to getting some tutoring and tips on how to improve my digital painting skills. I spoke to other art students about my natural disasters IP project and got some interesting feed back and reactions to the topic.

Sun. 10/2/11: 7 hours and 20min

I sketched out my natural disaster compositions and ideas on tracing paper. I worked with Copic Markers, pens, pencil, color pencil, and sharpies.

Mon. 10/3/11: 1 hour and 45min

Finished some of sketches from Sunday, reflected on my work and what compositions I like best and why.

Tues. 10/4/11: 2 hours in group critique and shared my sketches. Worked on my IP proposal for about 1 hour and 1/2, and scanned my sketches.

Thurs. 10/5/11: For about 1 hour and 45min, discussed with my partners Lauren and Rebecca about our projects and what we will like to present on Tuesday. 40min of ideation, deciding which natural disaster I should digitally paint. Talked to Stephanie about my proposal and the metaphors that can be found in natural disasters. Worked on my digital painting of a tornado and my blog for about 2 hours.  

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered

This week’s huge accomplishment was finally going to the College of Creative Studies to get some tips on how to improve my digital painting skills. I meet with a friend of a friend who used to tutor other students during the summer, but they have been busy with classes. I learned a lot! I mostly watched my tutor start a digital painting, they were illustrating a children’s book page. They suggested that I sketch my compositions out so that I would be able to do color studies and renderings on the computer as many times as I want.  I got confirmation on the knowledge and skills I already knew, such as the brushes I created in Photoshop being well made and how I start painting from dark to light being correct. I practiced using opacity drops in the brushes I created and how to go about creating proper shadows in environmental settings. The meeting could have been a bit longer, but I will be in touch with my tutor and schedule more sessions. It felt great getting proper feedback on my skills, I came out feeling more confident about my abilities and my IP project. I was afraid to hear that maybe my skills were too poor to carry out my project, but got the reassurance that I needed to keep at it!  I even got some insight and feed back on my natural disasters topic from other art students who were hanging around CCS or knew the person helping me. Religious aspects and the psyche phenomena as to why natural disasters occur was a huge topic that formed a small group around us for a good while. It was fun just talking about my topic, it made me think more creatively and feel more comfortable with my project-explaining it and why I want to make it. 

Sketching out and drafting compositions of my natural disasters was good, even though it took a bit longer than I thought. The note cards and key words I came up with last week really pushed me to get my ideas for each disaster down on paper. Creating the delicate and chaotic look for the disasters with tracing paper, pens, color pencil, Copic markers, and pencils, emphasized the paradox of how beautiful and terrifying my disasters can be. When sharing my sketches with my small group on Tuesday, people really enjoyed the materials and especially the tracing paper I used to map out my project. The feedback I got helped me realize that I should keep the delicate and hand drawn aspects in my work. The limited color used in my sketches was also an interesting aspect of my exploration because it really let the forms and actions of the natural disasters stand out. Below are my sketches.

Volcanic Eruption

Tornado

Earthquake

Hurricane

Avalanche

Tsunami

Out of all of my sketches, I liked the tornado composition the best because it displayed at the same time a fierce power and a beautiful form. I didn’t like my hurricane sketch because it’s hard to tell it's the eye of a hurricane. It seems that the eye/center is a less common aspect by which to identify a hurricane by. My earthquake sketch came out as earthy as I wanted it to be, but could use some more cracks and action. The volcanic eruption and tsunami sketches were ok, while the avalanche had a very unexpected composition in not having much snow fall. I enjoyed making the avalanche more obscure and cold then the rest. In contrast, the volcano came out really dark and liquidly. The tsunami seems to have more graceful aspects than the rest and that can be pushed more. Waves were harder to draw out than I anticipated because I wanted them to be recognizable but not too illustrative like Japanese paintings. My sketches will serve as references for when I start to digitally paint my natural disasters and keep me in practice of drawing out the forms for when I use my digital tablet. Drawing more and continuing to sketch compositions would also be good for me. 

In speaking with Stephanie, she recommended me to look at Anselm Kiefer's work because of how impacting, powerful, and yet beautiful his work can be. I have seen some of Anselm Kiefer’s work in person and love it, but I never made the connection that my work can be impacting and visually demanding the way his is. In finding Anselm Kiefer’s Heaven and Earth piece, I saw the earthy elements of surprise, power, and complex beauty I want my earthquake to have! It was great to revisit some of his work and make connections to my direction and project. Stephanie also suggested investigating other ways people have responded or expressed nature or natural disasters. We spoke about poems, stories, and fairy tales such as the Wizard of Oz that feature natural disasters in a metaphorical sense. Fairy tales and poems about natural disasters will defiantly be worth exploring.  

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/anselmkiefer-at-sfmomahtml.html

What I think I should do next

I will be digitally painting my tornado natural disaster based of my sketch, applying the tips and skills I learned from my tutor. This is what I want to present on Tuesday and get feedback on my skills and composition. I also plan on exploring more metaphors and different meaning of nature and natural disasters in fairy tales, novels, and maybe the physic or religious aspects. Drawing/sketching more is something I should keep doing to further develop my skills and creativity. Lindsay suggested I try drawing on Denril paper, so I will be trying that on a sheet she gave me and compare it the tracing paper I’ve been using. I’m also curious to see how I can print on it and how it looks in contrast to the drawings I’ve made of my natural disasters.