Created Surfaces 2018

Manipulation of Materials

I wanted to use this specific created surface because I liked the way it turned out in the end after randomly placing the paper on acrylic paint in the sinks. Because the colors of the acrylic paints were already really strong on the paper, I didn't want to make the piece too colorful by using a medium of choice that is too bright or colorfuly specifically for this surface. I also thought that the detailed parts of rapidograph would be a good contrast to the soft, watery paint. 

Problem Solving

At first, I was debating on whether or not to add something in between the two hands because I had initially thought that it looked too plain and empty. I was thinking about adding either a string, a ribbon, or even an object (like an apple), but after asking for advice, others said its best to leave it blank to really show emphasis on the connection between the hands, as if they were reaching for one another. 

Creativity

With this piece, I really wanted to incorporate the created surface into part of whatever I decided to draw instead of just drawing anything I felt like on a piece of paper with color on it. Because the created surface turned out to form in a vertical shape, it looked as if it could emphasize a form of connection of whatever I decided to draw, so I decided to do hands. This was also partially because I had always disliked drawing anything related to body parts, so I decided to challenge myself a little bit by drawing hands without a reference photo and contour-lining from life. 

Manipulation of Material

I had initially only wanted to use watercolor as the medium of choice for this piece, but after I finished watercolor painting the juicebox, I noticed that there weren't enough emphasis on the lines and shapes of the drawing, especially since the shapes of the food on the actual paper bag were outlined clearly in black lines. Because of this, I decided the add the lines in black onto the contour line of the juicebox to give it a more "pop art" look and work better with the shapes on the actual found surface. 

Problem Solving

I had a problem with the paper bag in that I thought it was too small to draw on, so I decided to cut it up into different parts and pasting them carefully on another piece of watercolor paper. 

Creativity

With this piece, I had originally just wanted to draw on the Marche paper bag, but I realized that it was too bland, especially it was almost entirely white with only a few black drawing lines, which is why I decided to add red ink onto some parts of the paper, which would also help with complimenting the bold red color of the juicebox. 

Found Surface 2018

Manipulation of Materials

I decided on using rapidograph for this specific piece because of my found surface. I wanted to use the children's book as one of my final pieces because I liked the layout of the pictures and how it can complement my artwork, but since the texture of the book is similar to shiny and waxy magazine paper, I didn't really have any other options other than rapidograph as my medium of choice. 

Problem Solving

I had difficulty with the spatial reasoning of the entire piece (the size of the fish, the placement of the piece, and trying to make the white spaces of the book work with the drawing). Even after I had finished the two fish drawings with rapidograph, it still felt as if the found surface background was too white and empty. I tried to give it more emphasis by adding yellow colored ink and orange watercolor around the fish so that the background wouldn't look too blank. 

Creativity

At first, I had thought really hard about what I should draw on the found surface. It was a hard decision because whatever the object I choose draw can really affect the entire piece on whether on it works with the initial pictures of the children's book. The character on the pages of the book is looking around in a "dreamy" sense, so I thought that I could make it seem like the character is watching the fish as it swims around the page. Adding the soft watercolor and colored ink also added onto the dreamy vibe that I got from the entire piece. 

Found and Created Surfaces Collection

Found Surfaces

- most likely good with rapidograph (the simple red and blue colors can compliment the black ink)

- soft and colorful medium like watercolor (go over the printed drawings instead of around it)

- probably works best with rapidograph (the rips of the cardboard can also add to the piece)

- since the printed images on the shopping bags are mostly black, maybe watercolor or acrylic paint

- most likely works best with rapidograph because of the shiny magazine texture (draw around the North and South Islands)

Created Surfaces

- since the red ink is very concentrated on the paper, rapidograph on the completely white areas would be best

- since the ink isn't a strong color, I might want to try watercolor and go over some of the lines created by the ink

- concentrated colors again, so rapidograph might work best in the white areas

- since the ink is very dark already, I might use watercolor paint instead of rapidograph on the white areas (but the strength of the colors might be too much overall) 

- Watercolor paint on the white areas and overlap on some of the brown areas from the ink

Self Portrait Collage 2018

Creativity:

As a second self-portrait assignment, I wanted this one to be a lot more different than my first one to show that I'm a different person than who I was two years ago and I also just wanted to try something new. Last time, my piece was completely in black and white tones so I decided that I would make the collage with very bright colors, which was perfect to create with National Geographic magazine photographs. 

Manipulation of Materials:

I decided to use Nat Geo magazines because they're well known for the bright and deep colors of their photographs. At first, I wanted the collage to be as similar to the reference photo as possible, so, for example, if a specific area is plain blue in the photo, I would collect blues from a magazine that are almost exactly the same hue and tone. However, after pasting the magazine cutouts down on the matteboard, I realized that using similar but different tones of the same color type gave my overall piece a lot more texture and emphasis. 

Problem Solving:

A problem that I encountered during the making process was that if, for example, I looked through a magazine and found the color green in a photo of a forest, it may not actually look as green and bright once I cut it out and paste it down on the matteboard. I realized that I only thought the photo was bright green simply because it was a forest, not because it was actually of the bright green color that matched my reference photo. As I looked through multiple magazines, I had to really focus on the color itself and if it truly matches the color on my reference photo rather than the whole picture I was looking at.