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Figure Drawing Brainstorm

in this "action & emotion" project i would like to portray excitement as the emotion. The scenario that will be taking place is a man who is trying to convey his excitement to someone else on the other end of the phone line. The significance of the pay-phone is to include my personal reaction to excitement: the need to tell someone else. I tried to add some humor to the picture very subtly by choosing the conversation to be in public, because in theory as the man gets more wound up over the course of the conversation because no matter how exciting the news is, the receiver will never have the same enthusiasm (part of the thrill will be lost over the communication ). Keep in mind all this will be in a public place where it can be observed by passersby who are only imagining what is going on in that conversation. Posted by EM at 11:37 AM No comments: 


Mid-Term Relflection

For me this is my second year art beaver, and i can say without hesitation, Art class is something that i actually look forward to. I have enjoyed making art for a long time and beaver art class has been a great experience so far. Last year i met my two best friends at beaver in my art class, and met Mrs Roberts, one of my favorite teachers at beaver. I am happy to say that while i may not be having as much fun in this class without my two good friends, i am always happy in the studio.

Engagement: This art class so far has been a lot different than last year mainly because i keep forgetting its only half as long. While last year we had 2 terms this year we only have one term, which frankly is making me anxious right now. I feel that its halfway through the Intermediate Drawing and Painting course and i still have a lot to finish. I think this effects my engagement in ways that are not always good, but it helps me in some ways too. For instance: even though we have no real due dates for projects during the term, i am envisioning the final day of art class and ending with only the mark making portrait as a finished product. When i look around and see the progress and appeal of the other kids in the class and their artwork, i often get discouraged because i don't like how mine looks. When i don't like the way my piece is coming along i unfortunately cant help but lose some passion or interest in the work. An example of this is the still life project we were working on, which was very challenging for me to approach with confidence and openness because I knew it would turn out bad. I figured if i am having trouble making art with pencil which i am much more familiar with, i couldn't make a good painting. I got lots of guidance and help from the teachers which helped me but i definitely could have had more of an open mind about painting rather than going in to the project with a droopy attitude. i guess i thought that if i didn't get my hopes up about the outcome i couldn't be disappointed with the outcome, which is a terrible state of mind for an artist or anyone else.             Another thing that i need to work on is participating in the discussions more. I remember at the beginning of last years class we wrote a letter to the teacher describing how we individually show engagement. i said that i don't like talking in front of the class so just because i might no speak out in the discussions doesn't  mean I'm not interested or engaged.  However pretty early on i remember i began to participate in the discussions a fair amount because i felt comfortable speaking in front of that particular class. This year however, i have gone back to being shy  not purposely but because I'm not as familiar with the people in the class. I think it is partly because i know the people that well , and partly because the class is made up of various grades. Don't get me wrong I'm sure everyone is nice but adding kids who are a grade above me to the audience makes me more nervous.                 I think i do a good job focusing on my work even though it gets harder if i am not as enthusiastic about that particular project, and I don't think that distracting others by talking to them is a problem for me. I try to ask for feedback often and am generally open to the suggestions, and if i am not keen on making said change, i usually have a explanation for why i like to stick to what i was going to do.

As far as process goes, i think that i am generally pretty good at planning in my sketchbook especially when i am trying to come up with an idea, but there are some times where its hard to sit down and blog about or sketch about the idea because i already know what i want to do and just want to start the making of the artwork. I don't know if this happens to other people or not but i get a lot of my ideas for art outside of the art class, and more often when I'm not trying to come up with an idea. I might be watching a  movie that inspires a piece, or i might see something while I'm outside, etc. Other times i am just doing nothing and out of the blue an idea pops into my head that isn't sparked by anything that i saw at that moment. it seems that things sometimes form in the back of my head and i don't notice them until they are an idea that i can picture in my mind. Its hard for me sometimes to use these ideas in class because i have a picture in my head of what i want the art to look like and having to incorporate the parameters or the aspects of the project are challenging without changing the idea. I end up having a bunch of ideas stored in the back of my head for another time when i can freely make them and pull them from back there.

As for the Product, i mentioned my challenges with the product somewhat in the first paragraph, and how i am often disappointed in the final outcome of my work but another challenge i have is that i am not that familiar with the experience of finishing pieces of art regularly because i get behind a lot of the time. i cant keep up with the pace of the class at some points which makes it hard to finish all my projects. I always try to do my best work but sometimes i get burnt out from a project and find it had to keep going full force. i also wish that i took more time in my sketchbook because i know that is something i enjoy once i actually am working on it but i usually save it for a time that i don't or cant put everything into it.

Just for the record if this post sounds kind of gloomy, i want to be clear, I enjoy art class a lot.
Posted by EM at 4:06 PM No comments: 

Portrait of Sister-Anna 101 Posted by EM at 11:03 AM No comments: Labels: IDP