Cycle 1
Chromatography- Colors Inside Colors Lab
For the colors inside colors lab, we explored chromatography. The goal of the assignment was to see what colors were inside the marker colors we had chosen. To do this, we chose a few colors of Crayola markers and drew a band of color on a coffee filter. Then, we dipped the ends in water so that it could reach the color through the filter. We chose peach, aquamarine, purple, and a red-pink color. As seen above, we got a few interesting colors out of them. Some, like the peach, only gave off more saturated versions of the color. We chose these colors simply because several of them were clearly mixes and we wanted to see the original color values.
Cycle 1 Week 2
Materials: Coffee filter and Crayola marker
Thin Film Interference Lab
For the thin film interference lab, I spent a lot of time getting the hang of the process before making my piece. For this, I first drew on the paper with white pencil, because pen would run, and submerged it in the water. Then, I let a few drops of the nail top coat fall into the water and disperse, before taking the paper out with the nail polish on top of it. Because of the way that this disperses the light, it creates a color spectrum sort of look when it reflects light. At first, I played around with a few images just to see how they would turn out, before deciding on my piece. For this, I decided to draw a hand holding a carnation, which is the iconic image of a show called Hadestown. Admittedly, there was not much creative backing behind this besides that I was listening to the show. For the actual drawing I had to focus a lot more on highlights and drawing inversely, as I’m not used to drawing white on black. Overall, I really like how the piece turned out.
Cycle 1 Week 2
Materials: Nail Top Coat, water, white pencil, and black paper
Cycle 2
Shibori Dye Project
One of our projects this cycle was dyeing clothes, as soon to the left. We used a synthetic indigo dye, because indigo is one of the most popular dye materials. We all used different combinations of binding and resist dye techniques. For the one on the upper left, I folded the fabric into a triangle and bound the corners, and then across the sides. For the one on the lower right I tied many bunches of fabric in varying amount into bunches. I like how the one on the left turned out more than the other.
Cycle 2
Materials: Shibori dye, cloth
Natural Dye with Avocado
After using synthetic dyes for the first part of our dying project, we also experimented with natural dyes. We chose to use avocados because they produce a color that you wouldn't expect, along with the fact that it produces a nice peach color. First, we soaked the clothes in salt water for the mordant, and prepped the avocados. We then put the peels and pits in hot water. After about forty minutes, we strained them out and put the cloths in for about and hour. After washing out the cloths, they ended up as shown. They likely would have gotten a stronger color if we had left it in longer, but we decided not to.
Cycle 3
Block Printing
This cycle's main project was making block prints. For this, we carved the parts that we did not want to hold ink into a sheet of linoleum. This is called relief printing. For my design I wanted to have something funny but still a bit complex so I drew Pepa pig and Kermit the frog's family portrait. For the first few weeks of the cycle I mostly fine-tuned my design plan and then focused on cleanly carving out the background that I didn’t want to show. When I started carving out the small details I started to have to change and edit my design on the fly because certain details that I had planned were too small. I also struggled with making certain details, like the dots in bost pairs of eyes, so certain details came out a bit rough. I also found this a bit difficult to carry out because it was a bit complex of a design but overall some of my prints came out well. For printing we used basic block inks, and I personally used black and mixed greens (cyan and yellow) We rolled on the ink with brayers which also took a bit of practice but I am proud of how they turned out overall.
Cycle 3
Materials: Linoleum, carving tool, cyan and yellow block printing ink
Cycle 4
Cat Pinch Pot
I started this piece by making a small pinch pot. First, I rolled a piece of brown clay into a sphere and dug my thumb into the center. I then used the actual pinch method to build up the walls of the pot. I found this was either a hit or miss, as I had to restart once but after it was fairly easy. I finished early, so I decided to make it into a cat. I started by making circles with little cylinders attached for the back legs before making two more cylinders for the front ones. After that I made a sphere, added triangles on top, and carved out the face. I originally also made a tail but that broke off right before I fired it. I had to glaze it twice because the first time the glaze was not thick enough and was unevenly. However, after applying the second coat of the glaze, Oatmeal, I ended up being very proud of the outcome.
Cycle 4
Materials: Clay, Glaze (Oatmeal)
*UNFINISHED* Coil Pot
My other piece for the pottery cycle was my coil pot. I found that coil building was a bit challenging at first. I started by first making a circle of clay and taking it off of the table with a wire. We used the slip and socre method to attach coils, in which I rolled out coils, made scores in the clay on both the coil and the base, and then used slip to attach it. I had about 6 coils before I had reached my ideal height. I used an edged metal tool to smooth it down before having it fired. I glazed it with Galaxy but also accidentally got some Oatmeal on it too. Currently, it is waiting to be fired.
Cycle 4 Week 4-6
Materials: Clay, Glaze (Galaxy and Oatmeal)
Cycle 5
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Value Practice:
Spheres and Value Sheets
Because this cycle focused mostly on sketching based on real-life objects, we started by working on value and shading. The photo on the left shows the set of escalating values we mimicked and then put into spheres. I struggled with this because my pencil wouldn't go dark enough so I had to adapt to the shade difference. The photo on the rights shows several spheres which we drew for practice. I only struggled with the shadows because I often drew them too light or dark.
Cycle 5 Week 1
Materials: Graphite pencil
Sketching Practice:
Mallika's Face and a Plant
We also worked on shading with pens. This is something I'm familiar with because I like to sketch with an old dried out Micron because it can give me a lot of control. I liked these assignments because I draw with pen a lot. To the left is Mallika's face based on how she looked during the Zoom call. I found this a little challenging because I haven't drawn people, let alone with glasses, in quite a while. The other sketch, to the right, is of a flowering plant that was in a vase on our kitchen table, right in front of me. I liked drawing this plant because there were many complex segments and focused on a smaller section.
Cycle 5 Week 2
Materials: Dry Micron Pen
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Fruit Platter Study
Drawing the fruit platter was one of my favorite assignments of the cycle because I don't usually draw realistically with colored pencils. I generally use B/W scale, so it was a bit of a challenge but very rewarding. I worked my way down, starting with the lemons, then the vase, and then the grapefruit. I found shading to be the most challenging part because I had to remind myself not to darken and shade with black, but brown or red instead.
Cycle 5 Week 3, 4
Materials: Various colored pencils, orange oil pastel for background
Car Sketch
This particular still-life study brought me back to my comfort zone because the majority of the drawing was in black and white scale. However, there was a lot of detail and since there were so many shades of grey I had to learn to differentiate. I used about 5 different hardness-es of graphite pencil, using the softest ones for the darkest colors. The prior still-lifes had fewer harsh lines, so there was also a learning curve there.
Cycle 5 Week 5
Materials: Graphite, Charcoal pencils
Real-Life Sketches
For my real-life sketches I focused on two of cats, Paige and Bea, because they sit still a lot. The two colored drawings are of Bea. I found it more difficult to draw her than i originally thought because she is completely black so it was hard to find anywhere to differentiate shade value. Because of that, for my longer drawing I focused on Paige, who is a tortoiseshell so she has a very multicolored coat. Because of this, I was only able to finish sketching her head during the 40 minute period.
Cycle 5 Week 6
Materials: Colored pencils