What I did
Sat. 10/8/11: 1 hour, 20min
Started my digital painting of a tornado. Studied the kind of colors and style I could have.
Sun. 10/9/11: 6 hours and 1/2
Painted two versions of my tornado. Got feed back from my Tutor online. Edited my drafts and color studies. Worked on digital effects.
Mon. 10/10/11: 24min. printing my tornado on three different kinds of paper. 1 hour and 1/2 working on my IP proposal.
Tues. 10/11/11: 6 hours and about 20min
Got feedback on my IP proposal, got answers to some of things I was confused about. Read other people’s proposals and talked about how to make them better. I meet with Hannah and Stephanie to get help on my sources and timeline. Reworked and edited my IP proposal based on the feedback I got, wrote my timeline and sources in depth.
Weds. 10/12/11: 1 hour getting my IP Proposal peer edited and printed.
Thurs. 10/13/11: 1 hour or so reflecting on this week’s work, my proposal, and studio meeting with Hannah and James. Wrote my IP blog based on these reflections and added to my sketching ideas, this took about 2 hours. Read poems and heard stories of natural disasters for about an hour.
What I accomplished/discovered/encountered
I really worked hard this week to create a descent digital painting to present on Tuesday. I got a head start on it Saturday, but still ended up reworking and painting my tornado a lot on Sunday. After creating the first lighter version of my tornado, I got on Skype with my tutor from CCS and they did not like my tornado at all. They said it was too messy and that the colors were a bit off for a storm. They gave me tips on how to make it better; my strokes were too thick and could be lighter. So I created a second darker version of my tornado that had more of a stormier effect than the first version. I personally liked both versions, but I really wanted to get feedback from others as to which of the two was stronger. I printed the lighter version on normal printing paper and then the darker version on thick tracing paper and also on photo paper, so I had three prints to present in total. I really liked the effect the tracing paper had on my print. I played around with it a lot by placing it on top different colored papers and textures and also held it up to different light sources.
On Tuesday’s in class critique people liked my digital painting of a tornado and were very curious about the 3 different printing methods I tried. People overall seemed to like both the lighter and darker versions of my tornados equally the same. Each version of the tornado presented good and bad qualities the other did not. The lighter version’s good attributes were that it was unique in being more abstract, was alluring, had interesting colors that were not too straightforward, had better form, and shape. It had softer and gentle qualities, so it played off my idea of capturing the paradox of natural disasters more appropriately. The darker version was successful in having cleaner line strokes and better digital effects, but people told me that too many effects could be distracting such as the lightening. It also had a lot more depth in colors so people liked how that made it stormier, thus more recognizable as a tornado.
I also spoke with Stephanie and Hannah on Tuesday about reading poems and people’s experiences with natural disasters. I really want to explore these topics and the metaphoric meanings natural disasters can have. I also want to investigate how dreams and fairy tails symbolize natural disasters. Stephanie shared this great website with me, poetryfoundation.org, and I found an interesting poem. The poem was Burning Island by Gary Snyder, and it mentions wave, volcano, and sky Gods in a way that personifies nature’s elements. It was very nice to read because it characterized nature in a mystical way and I like that more than reading sad aftermath stories. In reading other poems and stories, I started to notice how people have described nature as a female. There’s the expression of “mother nature” and how most hurricane names are female, addressing them as “her” and “she”.
During my studio visit on Thursday with Hannah and James, we talked about me doing more sketches for each natural disaster, and what kind of concrete sketches or prints I should have for my IP presentation. James suggested getting sample packs of paper from different printing services so that I can explore more methods of printing. Sketching out more compositions and styles for each natural disaster, on the basis of the keywords I have in mind, will help me a lot.
What I think I should do next
This weekend I will plan out what one or two natural disasters I can study and design on a week-to-week basis in order to be ready for my IP presentation in December. I also will be making more sketches of each natural disasters during the fall study break. Sketching on tracing paper will help me draw a bit quicker and allow me to play with layering and compositions. I’m excited to just make more stuff. Looking at different cultural representations and stories about natural disasters is something I plan to explore more. The poems and personal experiences I am finding online are helpful, but I want to read a bit more to see if they inspire me to explore new things.
Marian,
ReplyDeleteI'm eager to see you dig in deep with one or two of your themes. You might want to choose two that are similar, so that you can really focus on what makes them different -- what essence defines each one?
It's great that you are seeking out feedback from a range of places. I would also encourage you to use some of your time to try to analyze the work yourself. Take a break from something, but then come back to it fresh, with your original goals in mind, and try to assess it: what moves you made that were successful, which moves might be improved, what you did unintentionally that worked beautifully, what you did as intended that didn't live up to your hopes... jot down some notes and keep track of your process. Once you've had time to think about it yourself, look for responses from others.
Hannah