2nd Self-Portrait Re-do Plans

For the second self portrait re-do. I plan on asking other people for their knowledge and expertise that I don’t necessarily have about certain technology. In order for this to be art gallery worthy, I need to think about craftsmanship. And, this is why I need help.
My idea is to take everyone’s advice and do more. I plan on making several pictures of myself showing multiple different faces of myself laughing. I will retain every image wearing the same outfit to show that it is still me, even when I may act differently around certain people.
Physically, I’m not too sure if powerpoint is the best option for this or not. I’m thinking that maybe I could use multiple headsets and have the pictures printed out?

Conceptual Self-Portrait

I honestly don't know what I want to do for my second portrait. I was kind of hooked at first on doing something that had to do with laughter. I have gotten advice from a lot of other people about it, but all the ideas they come up with remind me of sculpture class, which I didn't like at all. I want to do something with physically drawing it.

Today in my impacts of engineering we talked about Regulations. More specifically with cloning. I'm really interested in researching that more. I have some ideas in mind, but I need to talk them through more with people and get some advice.

Mid-Term Reflection

Portfolio Link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashleynandory/


Is it already time for mid-terms?? Wow. This semester is flying by.

I am learning a lot from this class about who I am; How I learn, my styles, my techniques. I am very thankful of the criticism that I receive, whether it's good or bad. I can feel that I am growing from it. Let's start off with some of the weaknesses that myself and others have noticed. My sketching gets too dark and it makes it hard to erase lines that I don't want anymore. I have been given advice from others to hold my tools differently. Also, from this I need to learn to map out everything slower and it will prevent me from making darker marks too soon in the process. I think that I have a pretty good perception on shading and value. But, I can always improve. And that's what I'm here for.

I wish I had more time in my schedule to work with the skull more. I think that's helping me understand the human form in general more. Getting underneath everything. Studying what makes those bumps and curves and lines. How to make something look more realistic... Being more scientific about it. We are learning about this in my Italian Renaissance Art History class this semester. As artists continued to study the human form, they realized that they can't just draw or paint or sculpt what they think should be there. What society sees as perfect, when this isn't rational. Instead of assuming, they started studying what's behind the flesh. What is it that makes us look human? (Shadows and layering also play a large role in this.)

I have a better understanding with direction just based off of the 3d box forms that we used to draw in elementary and high school while learning about geometry. I never knew that something so mathematical and scientific could play that large of a part in getting proportions correct. I think that has helped me most of all so far. They really do go hand-in-hand with one another. I also think that I should sketch more outside of class. After being in this class, I've kind of been looking around at people differently and wished that I had a sketchbook with me at all times to use everything that I'm learning. Because of the skull studies, I look at people's faces closer and examine them and wonder... "How would I be able to draw that and make it look realistic?" or "OH! I understand now."

I would like to work with more details like hands, eyes, feet, ears, toes, nails, etc. at a larger scale. I think that would be really interesting for me. I know that we have already done that, but I would like to do more of it.

Understanding

I found some images on Wikipedia, I thought may help with my drawings. These show and define all of the different planes on the skull. I didn't realize before that there were so many planes before this class. I used to just draw what I saw, but there's definitely more to it than that.

Practice makes perfect.

I am not exactly the best at art. I may understand a lot of it, but sometimes I can't make my hands do what I want them to. It's frustrating. I wish I was better. I guess all that I can say, is that I can only improve from here. I was nervous about showing my first three skulls to the class, but once I was in here, I was fine. I realized that just because I made a few pieces that I'm not proud of, doesn't mean that I can't hang them up to get feedback on what I can do to make it better. That's just what happened. I got some good advice. I tend to take criticism hard, but in order to better myself, I need to listen to other people. I think one thing that will help, will be to sit down and just make a ton of quick sketches. I need to make more time for myself if I want to improve. That's what I'm going to start doing from now on is instead of starting with the thoughts that the first one is going to be my final drawing, I need to practice first. Practice makes perfect. The more I practice, the better understanding I will get. I will learn how to visualize better and understand my movements better.

Skulls

Honestly, I'm quite embarrassed about these three. But, I will say that I have a lot of room to grow for this semester. I got really sick this weekend with allergies and it made me miserable. Must be the change of season. I've never had allergies before, so I'm not quite convinced it was that considering everyone around me has been getting sick with the same symptoms.

I realize that these are not fully finished, but I wasn't seeing the result that I wanted to with them, so I put them aside especially since I was in bed pretty much the past three days. Hopefully this will be the end of getting sick for me for the semester... key word: hopefully. Anyways, no use chatting that up anymore. Back to the drawings. I've used the example that Amy showed me. I think I'm starting to understand the concept of trying to make the figure look 3D with learning how to use and recognize my angles, although it does need a lot more work.

Good News!

So, I just have to say this because I'm pretty stoked. I got my results back from taking my PPST a few weeks ago. I passed. :) I found this out in the middle of one of my classes and I was pretty much bouncing in my chair from excitement. I couldn't wait for class to be done so I could call my mom and Luke (my boyfriend). I was really nervous about the whole situation and put it off for as long as I could. I kept hearing such horrible things about it, even from people who were scared out of teaching because of that test. Happy. :) Anyways, done with that news and on to Life Drawing....

We took some molding clay in Wednesday's class to get a better understanding of the cranium portion of the skull. It is the hardest part to make look three-dimensional on paper, because there are so very few definite lines. Amy showed us the importance of the high points in the skull, like the parietal eminence (basically the side bumps towards the back of the cranium.) Side View, I put a charcoal pencil next to it to show the scale. It was just an exercise.

This is Amy's drawing. I didn't have Life Drawing 1 with her, so she sat down with me during class and explained to me how to look for noticeable changes in planes and how to apply that to my sheet of paper. She uses more of a box-like approach to explain those differences in the curves and planes. I have been trying that out on my own, and I think I've got the general idea down. Now, to perfect it. We'll see as the weekend comes when I finish up the three skull drawings for Monday's class.