Printmaking

This was another unique assignment--for this, we would need a lino block, lino cutters, carbon paper, construction paper, tracing paper, and printmaking ink.

This assignment was something I was looking forward to. As a fan of whittling, this was something I would enjoy. Carving allowed me to kind of be with my thoughts, and this would allow us to express our thoughts, as we would be tracing the outline of an image, and then make it our own by filling in the interior with different things--I thought of it as photoshop since we would use different layers to create a final image.My original outline was that of Ray Lewis, a linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens and my all time favorite football player. But I had quite a time deciding how I would fill him in. I tried different things, most notable of which was a judo design, as Mr. Wonenberg suggested. I liked the idea, but wanted to leave it a bit and think on it some more. There was a point where I was just looking at it, and one of my friends started playing the song "Gangnam Style." Now, as much as I do not like the song, it just stuck in my head and I knew it would pop--especially since the average Korean figure is MUCH smaller than that of Ray Lewis's giant wall of muscle. I added a radial design surrounding the central image to give it that extra pop. Once that was done, I traced the image unto the lino block using the carbon paper. Cutting the block proved quite difficult for me, however, due to my image requiring quite a bit of fine details. I admit, I did press too hard while carving and carved off a little more than I needed on the figure. But the design on the background came out exactly as I wanted it to--it was a radial pattern...without really being in a particular pattern. Now for the inking process. This is where I stumbled--I was unable to get a smooth layer on my block, so many of my images came out spotty. I ended making around 20 different prints, all of them similar, but none quite exactly the same. I noticed a couple times that I would need to carve out a little more to get some finer details to show on the copy, which did work out. Despite the difficulties on this specific project, I did thoroughly enjoy it and may do it when I have some spare time.

Relief Sculpture Mask and Mixed Media

This was a complete deviation from most of what we did this semester. Our media would be clay, acrylic paint, and other mixed media we would like to incorporate on our mask. 


The mask was something that really stumped me--with little imagination and creativity, I had to awaken something in me to start on the mask. At first I started by trying to get a lion's face as my mask, but as I worked the clay, it became apparent that it was getting more difficult as I moved towards it. But as I carved off some clay for the mouth, it started to look like something more... foreign, something not of this earth. So I decided to make it an alien.... of sorts. Once it was heated I noticed that I did not like the look of its teeth, of the mouth. An image popped in my head of an alien with its mouth hidden, but I had to figure out how I would hide the mouth. After spending some time looking around at some of my things, my eyes came across one of my favorite books: The Odyssey. So I decided that, since this alien creature made an odyssey to our planet, I decided to make him Ancient Greek-like, in that I gave him quite a beard to cover his mouth, hidden, and ready to eat any human that does not agree with him. I name him, Odysseo. Who says aliens cannot grow hair?

Neutral Ground Blue Figures

With this assignment, we were introduced to a new media, a "neutral ground," grayish color as our starting point. Along with that, we used a pencil, an eraser, as well as chalk for our lightest values.

We started out by covering our sketch paper in the neutral ground. From there, we were told to look at the image in a different manner, to carve out the image with the eraser, and fill in the darker areas with our pencils. It was a little difficult at first, I was used to starting from extreme values, but it was something else to start off in the middle. So I started off with my eraser and began to create brighter values on my neutral ground, most of which were around the contour lines of the blue figures. Once that was done, I began to use the crosshatching technique to fill in the shadows of the image. Finally, chalk was used to create brighter values where needed.  

Crosshatching Seated Boy

For this assignment, all we needed was a pencil and knowledge of a new technique: crosshatching. 

We were shown a picture of a seated boy and we observed the different value changes throughout the picture--most notably, the abrupt value changes. This assignment allowed us to practice this new technique as there were numerous areas with different values, gradual value changes, and abrupt ones. We used a grid to divide the image so that it would be simpler for us to fill out the image on our larger sketch paper. I began by using contour lines to draw the boy himself, as he would be the focal point of the composition. Once the boy himself was done, I could start on the value changes. I decided to start out on the corners, further away from the boy, so that I could practice my technique, as it was the first time I used the crosshatching technique. Once I was confident with the technique, I began to focus on the values around the boy, and the values on the boy himself, as there were numerous abrupt value changes around him.