Adventures in Art Classes
Our maple tree was pretty this year.
2nd week into the new quarter and I just had to schedule my very first root canal. It messed up my creative time for one Thurs. afternoon, to put it mildly! And then I was in pain for nearly a week until we got the bite adjusted.
Georgia O’Keeffe I am not… but I preferred copying some of her ideas as opposed to Picasso!
Assignment: We were given a list of artists to pick from. Then we were to take one of their paintings and photo copy it in black and white. From that point, we were to take the anachromatic forms and give it life using 1 color (a hue and its tint, tone, and shade) to paint half the piece. Any half we desired. The other half was to be done greyscale.
My hue was a tertiary color: orange-yellow. It almost looks green when black is added to it and I liked that.
Remember, I don’t do acrylics, but this quarter I just have to suck it up and do it. But here is the really funny part…this has gotten rave reviews! Charlotte claimed it for her own, the teacher requested to display it next quarter, and even my very country sister-in-law, Annie, likes it!!!
When I was done, Charlotte thought it looked like the point in Genesis when God seperated the light from the dark. I liked that. Don’t you think that the first verses of Genesis were probably quite a tremendous and chaotic time in the earth’s history?
Maybe I missed my calling by sticking with realism and oils or watercolors!
Gen. 1:4 - ...and God seperated the light from the darkness
The very first Illustrator class was loads easier than Photoshop. One big difference is how the teacher is presenting the class. Very well done.
However, my first assignment only netted me an 85%. I am struggling a bit to get my head around the whole Adobe software setup, so I spent more time figuring out how to use the tools than trying to smooth out the look of the piece. It is very rough.
Assignment: Paint over the top of a photo of yourself using the “brushes” and “pen” tools.
Original Me
Illustrated Me
My online class this quarter is Introduction to the World Wide Web. We will be learning basic html and creating our own site in Microsoft Notepad! I was told by a web designer whose work I highly admire that this is nothing short of “masochistic”. Nuff said! At least the class only lasts 5.5 weeks; however, the homework is double (as if I were taking 2 classes.)
1st project for Design Concepts was a 9 panel of an organic object. I chose my Tacey because I can not do anything easy! I need to break that propensity! However, I get nervous about drawing cats and feel I can not do it, so I thought it would be a good stretch.
First…collect photo references of your topic. Ha! The trouble was to narrow it down! Here are a very few of them…
Tacey Photo Reference Panel 1
Tacey Photo Reference Panel 2
(Isn’t she purdy?)
In our Process Binder we had to include exercises that we were assigned and preliminary thumbnail sketches. (This one is my favorite because this is a whole new style of sketching for me. I think I could get better at it and really enjoy it!)
Tacey whoopin' on Toby our pup
The final product had to use 9 different styles from our exercises, including a photo from our photo references. I chose to use about 3 styles that I had never done before (can you tell which ones those are?) My favorite blocks are:
My design concept was to showcase her catly (is that a word?) form, while highlighting the blue of her eyes.
I was right, it was a stretch, and it was loads of fun!!! I will let you judge on the outcome (however, I did get an A and the teacher kept it to put on the wall next quarter. Oh, and the instructor called it “powerful”, which really suprised me. “Serene” was more the word I was thinking. Except for the one wild cat picture, that is.)
Oh…here is the photo reference for that favorite sketch of mine:
Toby was getting his nose wacked…again.
Now here is the class that is really going to challenge me this quarter: Design Concepts!
Beth Remsburg is our teacher. I followed her into class on Tues. morning thinking she was one of the students in the class, which I found very amusing when she stepped behind the desk and began addressing us. Her background is fascinating. She was an elementary special education teacher, then went back to college to get a degree in graphic design. She worked that for years and loved it and is now teaching older students graphic design techniques.
This class is going to be all about discovering our own personal process for creating and how to break out of “dead” zones.
Process binder front cover
The first thing we had to do was create a process binder where we detail out everything we do for the next 11 weeks. That alone takes time because I decided I did not want my original sketches, photos, etc. in it, so everything has to be scanned. I also put most things in plastic sleeves. It will be a nice piece of work in itself by the end of the year!
As we go through this quarter we will be trying out various processes in order to find what works for us and to give us tools for breaking through those times when we are not feeling any inspiration. As Beth said, we must if we plan to make a living at this! You don’t get paid to wait for inspiration.
First week we included photos of our creative space(s) and also examples from our sketchbook (we ARE in an art school so it was expected that we have one of those) …
Florida-one of my favorite sketching spots
Thumbnails of dogs while at an agility training class
Color Theory started out with a bang… NOT!
The first 2 classes were all about taking our 3 primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) and white and black, mixing them all and coming up with a very tedious color wheel and then a color panel. We did all this with our Liquitex acrylics. I despise mixing acrylics, so there you go! A dull few weeks as we kicked off the quarter and to add to that, we were not allowed to be creative with it. It was just an exercise in color mixing.
However, it was easy on the brain, which was really nice! I was so stressed with the overload of projects and doing an online class in 5 weeks, that for this alone I was grateful for the menial tasks in Color Theory.
Primary: Red Yellow Blue
Secondary: Orange Green Violet (purple)
Tertiary: the colors in between each of those such as yellow-orange and red-orange.
Color Wheel
For the panel, you pretty much mix up a big pile of the color on the left, then divide it into 4 piles. Add white to one, black to another, and a grey you mixed to another. Bada bing…
To add to the tediousness, you then have to cut out a 1 inch square of each color called a paint chip (like in a paint store) and paste it onto another page.
Excuse the bad photography…it was a last minute snap before taking it to class.
Starting color / add white (tint) / add black (shade) / add grey (tone)
I am not sure what it is about starting a new quarter, but it gives me a nervous stomach! However, I was doing 2 new things this time… an online class on html and tutoring (work study!)
I thought…ooohhh…I can get a head start with this online class, so I spent about 4 hours on Friday (of my week off) and then some on Sat. and then again on Monday. On Monday I began working on my first homework due on Tues. when I began to realize I was in way over my head. (By then I was freaking out a bit!) With a little more investigation, calling my teacher (who seemed to think we were fine), and finding one little line that said I need a prerequisite, I winged off a panic filled email to my student advisor.
Tuesday I was at the school all day and dear Heather caught up with me… she did her own investigation and quickly enrolled me in the right course. However…that meant I had to catch up on everything that night so I could hit that evening’s deadline for the new class!
At that point I knew I was chasing a train for the week.
On Wed. I began tutoring (teachers assistant) in the computer class (Microsoft Office) for 4 hours. Then in the evening I am in the student affairs office for 2 hours for one-on-one tutoring as needed by the students and monitoring the front desk as a pseudo receptionist when not tutoring. After the first 2 weeks I began to realize this is a great way to get my face known around campus, if that had been my goal (it was not but it won’t hurt anything.)
My first break was so wonderful I just HAD to write about it! Fri. night Lainey took us out to celebrate my straight A completion of 1st quarter. (I have set the bar pretty high!) We were also celebrating a late birthday meal for Charlotte since she was way busy over her birthday week.
We had the place to ourselves for an hour and a half, which is unheard of at the famous Glass Chimney. This is happening a lot around here these days.
Then Sat. Lainey took me out and picked out a new drawing table from Prizm Art Store. Wowee!!! Mom declares that it is out of desperation to have the kitchen island back (with winter coming on, that would be my main workspace!)
So this break was about getting my working area put together to accommodate my art classes. It has been all set up for quilting for a couple of years, but I am selling as much of my fabric as I can get rid of to make room for this and I also got rid of some of the fabric shelving. I even changed over the quilt cutting table to also house my new mat cutter.
I LOVE getting things organized and making life more efficient so this was wonderful!
It was a GREAT week “off” and the topper was taking my niece, Samantha, and heading to Ohio over the weekend to see my newest niece, Kara. One month after her birth, but oh how much fun just to hold her!!! And so much fun having my first road trip with 7 year old Samantha! Bonding time like crazy.
It was a great break!
The final for Fundamentals of Design: “Joy of His Coming”
Project Criteria:
Having cut my reading eye-teeth on classic literature, for a few moments I was overwhelmed (as in did I choose from Dickens or Five Little Peppers and How They Grew? What a variety!) Then I broke down my own criteria. Namely, since we were going to be working on this by creating thumbnails and talking about it for 3-4 weeks, I wanted a positive emotion. Also, I wanted something that would add to my own growth as a person and as an artist.
Whew…next time, someone pinch me and say “make it easy, you goof!”
I chose a Bible passage that has been intriguing me ever since my nephew, Simeon, was born almost 2 years ago. Bible – Luke 2: 21-33 (NIV) – Excerpt included in portion below:
25Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. 30For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31which you have prepared in the sight of all people, 32a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
I have never created an emotion without symbolism before, abstracts not being my “thing”, so this challenge was painful in many ways. That being so, I decided to document the process in order to help myself later on down the road (and maybe share the angst a little?)
FIRST: I created a list of emotions I thought the old priest would have been feeling.
I really wanted to become empathetic and connect with Simeon the priest. This connecting took all 3 weeks (off and on) as I “discovered” new things about Simeon by delving into my own spiritual walk, beliefs, hopes, feelings. It is like I almost know him in some ways now!
SECOND: Hone in on the elements and the feelings I wanted to deal with (there are so many in just this one small passage!)
Worship, joy, praise, release, awe, a sense of “God has it all in control and I am held in His loving Hands”
I also had a lot of thoughts tumbling around such as how we lift our hands when praising. Also at times of great spiritual joy and triumph people will often dance.
How to convey all this?
THIRD: I began thumbnailing.
I have never thumbnailed much and never an abstract, of course. It was really messy in so many ways. Below is the good, the mostly bad, and the quite so very ugly, I am hiding nothing… (anyone know about chaos theory? Then you might grasp some of the process. [ ie you often have to create disorder in order to have order.])
FOURTH: Decide upon which thumbnail form I want to concentrate on and a medium and start creating.
I love working with pastels and felt I could recreate the feeling with them much better than with stiff acrylics. Below are some of my attempts and my takover of the kitchen island… (this was a piece I realized I needed to stand to do.)
FIFTH: Pray for inspiration because it was just NOT happening (and pulse your Facebook friends for feedback…feedback will often help break through the creative block at this stage.)
I knew what I wanted, but it would not come no matter how many times I tried. So I put this out there: (And as fellow student friend, Rachel, noted, this had a look of flames…what I was NOT wanting! But where to take it? I was trying to capture the feeling of warmth and security along with praise and worship.)
This is also the point in time I did a little color meaning research just to refresh my memory on the meaning of color. Of course, it always depends upon your subject. Yellow is joy, oranges are warm and happy, red was passion, purple-royal, blue-heavenly, green-safety. I decided to add some green and reduce the level of reds.
SIXTH: Try it one more time and then finish it with a bit of Divine intervention.
On the Tues afternoon before it was due (3 weeks after it had been assigned, mind you!) God brought the inspiration via my Jewish friend and housemate, Lainey.
Lainey came home from work early that day to find me in a terrific struggle with the piece that was to become my final. I had the basic concept but it was lacking feeling. I was looking at her and describing Simeon’s world as I saw it, suddenly we both exclaimed in almost unison, “this is Jewish art!” The colors and forms are what you see in Jewish art! Wow!
Lainey, my sweet Jewish friend, then began singing a joyful Hebrew song and doing a dance around the kitchen. If you have ever seen Jewish singing and dancing, it is something really special as it is a building of worship bringing the singer/dancer slowly into the Presence of the Almighty. (I think we Gentiles could learn something from our Jewish counterparts on how to approach God!) As soon as she did that, inspiration struck and I finished the piece right there on the spot – only adding a few defining strokes here and there throughout the evening.
How appropriate that my inspiration for the connection to a Jewish rabbi of 2000 years ago came through a Jewish woman of this era, who loves God and is currently in the spirit of connectedness as she observes her High Holy Days – Rosh Hoshana.
This piece is about the spirit of worship and the joy of an eons old God-promise being fullfilled.
Enjoy it with the joy of the Lord in your heart!
Flexing My Wings 