1. Have you ever kept a personal sketchbook or a sketchbook for a class? What was your experience like? No, I have not. The experience was interesting I guess you could say. It was interesting to be able to creep on other people’s blogs that weren’t in my class and see what they were up to because I’m nosy. 
2. What were your initial thoughts about blogging (in general)? I don’t usually blog according to a schedule so it was a little annoying to have to do at a certain time, especially when I would forget and have to go back in and do it. But, it is interesting to have the documentation from throughout the semester and be able to go back in and look at it. 
3. What did you find hard about the blogging process? Just keeping up with it in general. I didn’t like having the extra responsibility but that’s school in general. Who loves extra responsibility? Haha. 
4. What did you enjoy most about the blogging process? I loved being able to showcase my work but only the teacher sees this blog so there’s that catch.  
5. Was creating a sketch-blog better or worse than creating a physical sketch-book? I think I would have rather liked to have created a physical sketch-book because I like hands-on activities such as scrap booking and building portfolios. 
6. Was the pace of the assignment schedule okay? (1-2 per week, due on each Sunday). Did this work for you or would you have preferred some other format? The pace was alright, I only delayed one or two sketchblogs from simple forgetfulness on my part for not checking emails. 
7. Did you feel comfortable with the technological requirements of each assignment (scanning, photographing your work, editing photos, etc.)? What would you benefit from when it comes to fulfilling these objectives? I loathe scanning and anything that dealt with scanning was generally delayed because my scanner sucks but I would occasionally photograph things that needed to be scanned. I liked photographing and editing my pictures though but that sort of thing I do constantly anyhow so it wasn’t that hard for me. 
8. Now that you’ve worked on a sketch-blog for a semester, how do you feel about the process? Did you like it? Hate it? I didn’t hate it. It was better than having to put everything in a drop box or turning it in during class because it was on my time. 
9. Will you continue to keep a personal sketch-blog? (This one or even starting a new one). If you will continue to keep a sketch-blog, what do you forsee including? I won’t be continuing to keep a sketch blog. But I guess my facebook  is essentially sort of like a sketch blog since that is where I post all of my art work…? 
10. What are some constructive suggestions for furture use of the sketch-blog format in a classroom setting? I don’t really have any suggestive comments for future use. It was fine as is :) 

PART 1:

My final project idea was the idea of photographing smoke being blown out of a mouth and capturing the movement as the smoke billows up.

However, I was unnerved by the idea because it was really, really cliche. So I toyed with the idea and while staring at the wall in my dorm (covered in my past paintings) I got the idea that I would try capturing paint pouring out of a mouth instead of smoke.

My choice media is still photographing it as well as getting it printed at 11x14 and mounted on foam core for the final critique. 

PART 2:
  To show progress, I did a mini shoot to test how I wanted the paint to drip off the mouth. I didn’t choose compatible colors (because I don’t have any yet) so that is why it is converted to black and white. 

Some problems I ran into was how to get the pain to adequately “drip.” A lot of it was just too thick to get a good run going so I started adding water to get the right kind of slide going. That’s why there is so much paint on my mouth as well was trying to test out different ways to move the paint. I used the paint caps at first and poured it but then I got straws and would suck the paint halfway up, plugging the top of the straw with my finger and then guiding the paint down my mouth and chin. 

I accidentally rubbed my lips together which is why it’s all over my teeth so I’ll be sure that doesn’t happen again as well though the effect is rather nice in black and white…

I then went in and photo shopped different colors until I developed a close representation of what I wanted the final image to look like.

As far as trouble shooting goes, I’m going to the store tomorrow to buy a set of droppers from Walmart as well as my choice colors of paint. My friend Sarah is coming over Tuesday to be my model since I found that trying to photograph myself, keep paint from dripping on the floor as well as getting all over my camera was harder than I thought. 

I’ll also be taking this picture in the bathtub as well since I found out acrylic paint does NOT come out of the grooves of my hardwood floor. 

I’m going to say that paint has the most nauseating after taste ever too.

1.) I typically try to cultivate my own creativity by looking at inspirational photos of other people’s past artwork. Sometimes I’ll have an idea but am unsure of how to go about creating it and will look up similar ideas or art styles to get an idea of what direction I want my art work to go. Sometimes I have genuinely creative ideas, but a lot of times those are flawed and don’t work out as well as I’d hope them to be. The problem with my method of generating a creative process of though is that my work tends to be mediocre in a sense that it’s been seen or done before. 

2.) Although I base my work off of the contents and styles of others, I do like to put my own unique flare, skills, or personality into it. Because of this, I’m generally not up for discussing my ideas with others like Johnson’s method of liquid movement because I like to be independent and one on one discussions, conferences, etc. make me feel like I’m being “told” what to do instead of letting me decide for myself. However, my method of cultivating creativity isn’t quite like Cleese’s method of open thinking either since I’m using other people’s ideas (indirectly) to become inspired as well. I do, however, take time away to ponder about my ideas at my unconscious moments. I find that a lot of the times I’ll be laying in bed about to go to sleep and be thinking up of certain paintings or photo shoots I’d like to do. My problem is, is that I don’t write down my ideas and I later forget them. 

3.) After some mulling over, I came up with the idea of using paint instead of smoke pouring out of a mouth. I think this is a good direction to expand my creativity as it challenges me further in my final piece. 

(Source: whitecreek-art)

I began the composition with grouping using lines. Then, my group (I am a bit unsure as to who because names are not written on the back) used continuity, continuity, and more continuity to bring it together? How strange. Personally, by looking at this piece I recognize more than just continuity and grouping. I recognize containment, repetition, as well as movement within the piece. I think my classmates and I were relatively successful as concluding the piece as it does appear to be a “whole” rather than just individual parts. 

As for my previous collage project, 

I think using containment via the frame was a good choice even if it was an unintentional gestalt principle. I think as far as that goes, my piece is relatively good to go as more repetition or grouping would have made it appear too chaotic. 

Magazine and newspaper clippings with paint pin over lay

Fabric. Both sealed and unsealed. 

Toner Transferring 

Pigment transferring through hammering 

I really enjoyed the traditional techniques of collage such as the magazine and newspaper clippings but surprisingly found myself tickled (yes, tickled… we say that in the south!) by the hammer transferring. I had seen it done before but was a little skeptical. The leaves I had picked didn’t transfer but the flowers I picked actually left a pretty good amount of pigment on the page. The technique I least liked was the toner transferring. No matter how many times I tried it I just couldn’t get the hang of it. I rub too hard, toner comes up, I rub to light not enough paper comes off. Everyone else in class thought it was the coolest thing and I admit, having seen it done before this class, it picked my interested as well. However, there are some things you’re good at and some things you just aren’t and this is one of my “aren’t’s.” Needless to say I probably won’t be doing a lot of toner transferring in my final piece (if at all, haha). 

(Source: whitecreek-art)

After sanding down my stereo I figured that using a paint brush would be impractical since the spread of paint would inevitably be thin due to the surface being plastic. I decided to use a sponge brush and to blot or “dab” the paint on in sections letting it dry between layers. About 2 layers were used for what I can only guess would have been seven to ten otherwise. 
I haven’t run across any trouble mimicking the value system as of yet but I’m prepared to have a frustrating time getting the shadow of the handle just right. A cool trick I used was instead of mixing a bunch of different shades of “grey,” I would instead water down the darker color I had used. The thinning of the paint from the water would allow the white base to show through and would lighten the shade according to how much of the “darker” remained loaded in the brush after it was dipped in water and blotted. This washing technique made it easier to fill in large places evenly and saved me from wasting a ton of paint. 

(Source: whitecreek-art)