• Exploration of Media

How can experimenting with different tools and materials (e.g., pencils, ink, charcoal, brushes, found objects) change the variety and expressiveness of your marks?

Different tools leave very different marks on a piece of paper. For example, a marker might create straight lines that look sturdy, strong, and intentional. While ropes tied to a stick being draged on the paper creates random twisty lines that look weak or uncertain.

• Intentional Choice

In what ways does the choice of media influence the mood, texture, and meaning of your artwork? How do certain tools help you communicate specific ideas or feelings?

In my opinion I think my answer for question number 1 could also be used for this question. Adding on to the idea, choices of media like colors can also simbolize mood or tone, for example, red organge might symbolize anger, while blue and purple might simbolize fear, anxiety.

• Process and Reflection

As you layer, repeat, or vary your marks, what decisions do you make about control versus spontaneity, and how does the media you select either limit or expand these choices?

Control is something that everybody has to learn in life. Similar to controling yourself in life, controling yourself in art means being able to control your emotions in your artwork, otherwise, it would be too confusing and your tone/idea doesn't get communicated effectively.

The practice of countour drawing is more about understadning the structure and relationships in a subject than creating a polished final image because contour drawing is about appretiating the way the object is made, how it is formed, the lines on it, the patterns in that moment. You are not comiong back to it to improve it, its about how you intepret the image in that moment. The more you do it, the better your hand and eye coordination will be and that will help make your drawing look better.

The imperfections in blind contour drawing shows your progress and thinking in the moment. This approach prevents you from worrying about the final product. Results at the end may reveal expressive qualities in line that you didn't know existed. By doing this you are being more open to different outcomes, providing you with more perspectives.

Starting with a positive shape contour helped me outline my classmate’s basic form so the proportions looked right. Then, layering gesture drawing added realistic details to the drawing, such as folds in the clothes or details in the face. The gesture lines made the drawing feel more natural and realistic. Together, these steps showed both the accurate shape and the personality of my classmate.

• When adding details from the reference photo, how did you balance accuracy with your own creative choices in media and mark-making to strengthen the final outcome?

I balanced accuracy by carefully observing the main features from the reference photo, like the shape/curves of the body and for objects I look at the lines. At the same time, I used my own creative choices in the way I shaded and made marks with the media. This let me keep the portrait recognizable but also unique to my style. By mixing both, the final outcome looked realistic while still showing my artistic voice.

My final piece is inspired by a black-and-white photo I took during a trip to the Alps. The picture shows a pigeon sitting on top of a lamp post, with people walking below and mountains in the background. Even though it might look simple, there is a meaning behind the photo which I really like. The pigeon, sitting high above everyone else, represents peace and calm in the middle of a busy world. The people below seem distracted and focused on their own lives, some on their phones, some talking, while the bird just sits still and watches, undisturbed by the busy life beneath it.

The contrast between the still pigeon and the moving people shows how fast life can feel, and how easy it is to forget to slow down. Using black and white made the photo feel more peaceful and focused on the contrast between busy/movement and stillness. Using black and white makes the drawing feel more timeless, able to be understood and related to by more people from the present and from the future which could also be said the same for Leonardo’s sketches.

This project taught me to be patient and to notice the small things around me. Taking this photo reminded me to pause once in a while and appreciate the quiet, beautiful moments in everyday life. My goal with this artwork is to help others do the same, take a moment to stop, look around, and find peace in simple things.

This principle was movement, this was a risk for me because at first I didn't really know how to show movement in my drawing. I was stuck with the idea that movement is something that has to be shown with arrows, not with lines and flow. I experimented with drawing a river which I thought showed movement through how our eyes would naturally follow the bends in the river.

Focusing on the negative space helped me see the shapes around the object instead of just the object itself. This made it easier to notice if something looked too big or too small. Because of that, I could fix the proportions and make the whole drawing look more accurate.

A technique that I found useful from unit one would be positive shape contour as it basically the same thing as negative space just the opposite.

Turning an image into black and white helps me see the main shapes and light or dark areas. It shows what is out of line and what needs to be balanced out. This makes the design stronger and easier to understand.

I created depth by overlapping objects (the mountains), making things smaller in the distance (river width), and having cars driving on roads in the background, which helps create the illusion of space.

I used design principles such as balance to keep my drawings from feeling uneven, movement to show how people travel through the city, and emphasis to make certain areas stand out such as the bank in all of the drawings since one of the characteristics of the city Esmeralda is its high crime rate. The design I plan to follow for the sculpture would be sketch number one, as it shows the zig-zaged river the clearest, which I believe is one of the most important characteristics of the city Esmeralda.

(potentially for a suspended bridge), hot glue (or other glue since I know this is banned), tape, paint, and a strong base to help support and hold the sculpture together.

For the texture and detail, we plan to use materials like cardboard for the main structures of the houses, bridges, and with stripped cardboard for the roofs which would have more texture. For the mountain we are thinking of using cardboard egg containers which is another different texture from cardboard. We are also planning on adding rocky textures to the city with shrap pieces of coardboard, however the details and texture would be added towards the end of the project when all the main strucutres are already finished.

Today I cut out the base of the city, the small islands, and glued them all together. I started by drawing where I would want each house to be first on the main base, then I drew the rivers in between the houses focusing on making them zig zagged to match the prompt. After that I cut smaller islands that would fit around the rivers which the houses would be placed on later. I used 2 types of glue, the all purpose glue Mr. Larson provided and a smaller bottle of super glue. The all purpose glue was used for bigger pieces as it is gel form and we also have more of it, for smaller islands I used the super glue as it dries quicker which makes the glueing proccess much easier with smaller rpieces.

"pop".

Before today I usually started a drawing by drawing the outlines first and then adding shading inside after. Today was different because we focused on shadow shapes instead of outlines, which was confusing at first because I kept wanting to draw the contour of the skull before shading. What felt familiar was recognizing where the dark areas were, but treating the shadows as their own shapes felt new. I used cross hatching to build up the dark shadow area on the left side of the page, and lightly sketched the placement of the skull and the two figures.

This experiment went so well that I plan to use a mix of fountain pen, pencil, and ink for my final project. Trying something new helped me see that I can get much more variety in my work by layering different tools. If I ever feel nervous about taking risks next time, I’ll just do some small practice sketches first to see how the ink reacts to the paper before I start the main piece.

It was really frustrating, especially since I had already missed so many classes. I decided to just start over. Starting again was actually useful in some ways. I already knew the composition I wanted, so I didn't have to figure that out again. I also knew which parts of the first drawing I wasn't happy with, so I could fix them from the beginning instead of trying to correct them later. I got the outline back down and started rebuilding the structure.

The main element I focused on was the water tower. It was the tallest part of my sculpture, so it made sense to make it the center of my drawing too. When I was designing it, I was inspired by Viking villages. Both Esmeralda and Viking architecture have a raw, unfinished quality to them. I wrapped string around the base of the tower during the sculpture phase to show that texture. I wanted to bring that same feeling into the drawing.

For media, I used pencil and ink on kraft paper. Early on I experimented with combining a fountain pen and a fineliner. The fountain pen ink was a lot darker than I expected. It made the lines pop in a way I really liked, so I carried that boldness into the final piece by focusing on strong contrast between light and dark.

The process wasn't easy. I missed a lot of class time because of a robotics competition. Then during spring vacation, while I was working at home to catch up, I spilled orange juice on my drawing and ruined it. I had to start completely over. It was frustrating, but starting again actually helped. I already knew what I wanted, so I could fix the mistakes from the first version instead of repeating them.

For texture, I tried to make each surface feel different. The supports of the tower use short layered strokes going in different directions to look rough. The main block on top is smoother to contrast with the base. I used value to create depth throughout the whole drawing. The foreground is darker and the background fades back.

I kept checking my drawing against my reference photo of the sculpture to make sure the shadows and proportions were right. I'm happy with how the texture and value came together in the end. The drawing has a sense of weight and dimension that I think represents Esmeralda well.

If I had more time, I would go back and add more detail to the background. Right now it supports the tower without distracting from it, but it feels a little empty in some areas. I would also spend more time on the value in the middle ground, since some parts still look a bit flat compared to the foreground. I think adding more contrast there would make the whole drawing feel more three-dimensional. I would also try adding ink washes to some areas to get a smoother range of values instead of relying only on pencil strokes.

I also led the Notan design workshop with my group. We taught people how to make designs using black and white paper. The idea is simple. You draw a shape, cut it out, flip it, and glue both pieces on the opposite colored paper. Starting with a live demo helped because people could see what to do before trying it themselves.

Both workshops helped me connect with people in the exhibition. With robotics I already had experience so I could actually contribute instead of just watching. It felt good to use something I have been doing for years in that setting. With Notan, explaining it to others made me understand it better myself.

If I could improve next time I would give more time to experiment. Thirty minutes was a bit short and some people did not finish. For Notan I would definitely come up with a better plan to advertise our workshop, as the entire time we only had 2 people stop by our workshop. This partly was due to the fact that our workshop was in the class instead of outisde. For robotics I would make the instructions clearer for beginners since some people were confused early on, but this wasn't my station so I think I did pretty good.

I chose this because photography is something I do outside of school. Mountains are one of the hardest things to photograph well because the scale is hard to show in a single image. A collage lets me combine multiple shots to build the depth that one photo alone cannot capture.

My point of view is about how mountains make everything else feel small. I want the viewer to feel that when they look at my piece. The cyanotype process will give the whole image a cold, distant feeling, which matches that idea. On top of that I will use techniques from this year to add a foreground and bring the depth out even further.

For this project I also learned a new technique called Cyanotype printing. It is one of the oldest photographic printing processes. It works by coating paper with a solution made of two chemicals. When the coated paper is exposed to UV light, the chemicals react and turn a deep Prussian blue color. The areas that are blocked from the light stay white. After the exposure you wash the paper with water and the image appears. I learned that the contrast between dark and light in the original image matters a lot because the print only produces blue and white tones. This technique adds value to my piece because the blue tones naturally create a cold and distant atmosphere. That atmosphere matches my topic of mountains since it is usually cold. It also makes the piece feel more unique because cyanotype is not a standard art process. It connects photography and chemistry in a way that most people have never seen before.

I have also linked a Google photo album where I have uploaded a variety of mountain pictures that I took in the past.

The shorter ones came out really light. The image was there but the blue was faint and the details were hard to see. There was not enough contrast. As I added more time the blue got a lot deeper. The shadows in the rocks and the foreground got darker which made the snow stand out more.

The middle exposures looked the best to me. The longer ones started to lose the lighter details because everything was getting too dark. It showed me that even 15 seconds makes a big difference with cyanotype.

Doing these tests also made me realize how important the Photoshop editing was. The high contrast negative I made is what let the details show up clearly on the paper. If the negative did not have enough contrast the print would not have worked well no matter how long I exposed it for. Overall I think the test prints were really useful because they let me figure out the right time before committing to the final print.

The way it works is you start with a piece of black paper covering 90% of the fabric and expose it for 15 seconds. Then you move the paper back so it covers 80% and expose for another 15 seconds. You keep doing this until the whole fabric is uncovered. By the end you have one piece of fabric that shows you every exposure time from 15 seconds all the way up to 150 seconds side by side. It made it really easy to compare and pick the right time because everything was right there in front of me. I could see exactly where the detail looked good and where it got too dark or too light.

From that test I went with 122 seconds for the first exposure. That was where the rocks and foreground had the most detail without losing too much in the shadows.

The problem was that after the 122 second exposure the top part of the image was still way too light. The sky and clouds were just coming out completely white with no detail. This happened because the sky in the original photo was bright, so that part of the negative was very transparent and not blocking enough light.

To fix this I cut a piece of black paper along the shape of the mountain ridge so it matched the line between the foreground and the sky. After the first exposure I placed the cover over the bottom half and did a second 30 second exposure on just the top. That extra time darkened the sky enough to bring the cloud details out. Instead of a flat white sky you can actually see the clouds in the final print. I thought the double exposure was a really cool way to solve the problem and it ended up making a big difference to how the final print looked.

For my final piece I took two of my best prints and put them together as the finished project. The settings I went with were 85 seconds for the full exposure and then 40 more seconds on just the top portion using the black cutout to cover the bottom half. This double exposure technique brought out the clouds in the sky while keeping the detail in the rocks and foreground.

One change I made for the final prints was switching from normal paper to parchment paper. I found this out while experimenting earlier. The parchment paper let the highlights show up a lot more clearly, which made a big difference for the brighter parts of the image like the snow and the clouds. The texture also gave the print a nicer feel overall.

For the presentation I printed two of the same image but one was inverted to create a mirrored effect. I think this is called a mirror diptych or a Rorschach style composition. The two prints together gave the piece a nice symmetry and made it more interesting to look at than just one print on its own.

I mounted both prints on a big white foam board. I picked white over black because I tested both first. On the black board the shadows in the print just disappeared. Everything blended into the dark background and you could not see the detail at all. The white board made the shadows pop and kept the whole image visible.

To stick the prints down I used gloss coating instead of glue. The gloss has a natural sticky feel to it which works perfectly for attaching the prints. First I used masking tape to mark out the exact area where the gloss would go. Then I used a brush to put a thin layer of gloss inside the marked area. After that I went over it with a roller to thin the coating out even more. This step was important because it made sure the prints would lay completely flat with no bumps or distortion underneath.

Once the gloss was smooth I placed the two prints on top. After they were down I repeated the whole process again on top of the prints. I brushed on another layer of gloss and rolled it out. Doing this second layer had two purposes. The first was to protect the prints from getting damaged. The second was that a gloss finish just looks really nice and gives the piece a more professional and polished look.

Even after all of that I felt like the presentation was still missing something. The white board was clean but it felt a bit empty around the prints. So I grabbed a brush and some squid ink and drew a border around the whole piece. I did not want the border to be neat and perfect. I wanted it to feel flowy and a bit messy on purpose. The idea was to show the same brushing motion I used when I was layering the gloss. It ties the whole presentation together and makes it feel more handmade.