Ceramic Handbuilding

I really liked my ceramics class this semester and i got some pretty cool pieces out of it. I'm excited to be taking wheel throwing next semester.

This was our final project. We had to make a hybrid out of two different objects so i chose to use a spraypaint can and a praying mantis, thus spraying mantis. clever i know. the arms are made in three different pieces that i had to glue together after everything was all glazed. unfortunately two of the pieces glazed together so i had so break them apart. you can't tell the damage from these pictures because the parts that broke are on the other side, but i definitely had a lot of issues with this piece.It's about 15 inches tall.





Our third assignment for the class was a landscape project. we had to make some kind of landscape. i chose to do these mountain inspired forms. this thing is gigantic. it's 29 inches tall and weighs about 50 pounds. everything went pretty well with this piece until the final glaze firing. it ended up cracking in the back, which was really disappointing because it came out of the bisque fire perfect. i plan on putting it outside surround by some rocks so the unglazed lip at the bottom won't be that big of a deal.



Our second project was to make a zoomorphinc vessel. we had to choose an animal and combine it in some way to make it any type of vessel. i did a great horned owl and just made a simple vase. it's about 14 inches tall. i kinda think it looks a bit cooler before it had been fired or glazed so i included a picture of that.




And here is my jomon pot again. i'm really happy with this one. it's 16 inches tall.

Drawing III

I ended up liking my drawing class by the end of the semester. I produced a lot of stuff, and even though the majority of it isn't anything great, or anything i really like that much, I learned a lot.

Having to explain these projects is gonna make my head hurt, but I'll do my best. For our final project we had to do two drawings, and divide the picture plane at least two more times than just the paper itself. the two drawings are supposed to function as one big drawing and the assignment was based on a thematic idea. So my theme for this ended up being order and chaos. It was originally supposed to be inside and outside, but somehow it evolved into this. There was a lot more guidelines we had to follow but that's the gist of it. each piece of paper is 22 x 30 so they're pretty big.


This was a pretty quick color project we did. we had to use two objects that related to each other and make them look old and new by use of color. again, it's four different pieces of paper but it's supposed to work as one drawing. I used and apple and an apple cutter for my objects. each piece is 11 x 15 and done in pastel and colored pencil.


This project was also multiple drawings that are meant to work as one big drawing. the theme was daily rituals so i chose driving as my daily ritual. we were supposed to create a pattern with some drawings predominantly light/dark. each piece of paper is 11 x 15.

Painting I

Here are the other two paintings I did for my painting class. Our final project was the tromp l'oeil painting. i chose to do something a little more conceptual by framing a paper airplane. The frame has a couple of glaze layers on it to give it a more shiny effect. for the time i finished it in, i'm pretty happy with the result.





This is the apples glazing project. I had a really hard time with the underpainting in acrylic, because it was drying so fast and i couldn't get the paint to do what i wanted it to do, so i basically just rushed through it. I liked the way the glazing itself turned out though. There's about 7 or 8 layers of glaze on it.












Overall, I learned a lo in the class and I definitely want to try some more paintings in the future.

Vanity

I finally finished my vanitas painting this past weekend. I used headphones for a kind of contemporary take on the traditional instrument, as well as my birthday 21'st birthday candles for the traditional candle. For it being my first ever real oil painting, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Finished Jomon Pot

My first project for my hand building class is finally completely finished. It just came out of the glaze kiln yesterday and i'm very happy with it.

Painting I: Geometric abstraction

So i forgot to post my first painting assignment. it was pretty much torturous to do at times, but i do kinda like it.

Low Relief Still Life

This was our first outside assignment for my drawing III class. we had to create a low relief still life and give it a clear focal point by using contrast to highlight that. we also had to use a variety of marks as well as tone. i'm pretty happy with the way this came out. it's 22"x30" so fairly big. i was able to do this in a bout four days so i'm proud of myself for being able to pull it off in such a short time.

Update!!

So I'm kinda already over this semester and we're only five weeks in!!! I've been keeping busy with all my classes and three studio's is definitely pretty challenging. I'm always working on projects and at times i feel like I'm crazy, but surprisingly it's nice to always have something to work on after taking such a long break without producing much over the summer.

My painting class is going pretty well. I've spent a lot of money on it but I'm excited to get some projects done. I'm still working on the first abstract painting, which is very tedious. I just want to see it done but it's taking forever. last week was my first time working with oils. we did our a la prima paintings. it's a lot harder than i thought. i'm still unsure about it, but I'm looking forward to getting into an actual project with oils. here are my first two a la prima's.






My hand building class is going well too. i just finished our first project. we had to replicate jomon pots. we were provided images and had to make them at least 15 inches. somehow i had some issues and it ended up being like 20 inches. i used a whole bag of clay and it weighs about 25 pounds. it's the biggest thing I've ever made in clay and it was definitely a challenge. I'm pretty happy with the result, even though i hated a lot about it when i was making it. not as good as i wanted it to be but I'm excited to see it glazed.







My third studio is my drawing three class, which is unfortunately my least favorite of my studio's. we do nothing but draw objects. i have about 6 gestural drawings of a stapler, a wine opener, and a sea shell, and have even more to come. none of them are worth posting. we have an outside assignment which is slightly more interesting. we have to create a low relief still life and draw it. I've had it for about 3 weeks and it's due this Monday!!! i only have a little bit done, so that will definitely consume my weekend.

Finally!!!!!!

I at least was able to get one actual drawing done. I had this idea form song lyrics and came up with this. It came together pretty quickly and I am overall pretty pleased with the result. i haven't drawn on this paper in years. it's done on strathmore medium drawing paper so it kind of has an off white yellowish tint to it. I usually do all of my drawings on bristol board so this paper was a nice change. 11" x 14" in charcoal. Here are some process shots too.

Feel like one

I 've basically been working on smaller stuff this summer. I wanted to work on things that wouldn't take me forever to finish because i really have very little motivation or patience as of lately. I've mainly been sketching, or doodling actually, so I have come up with a few ideas for projects that i want to eventually do. It's just really hard for me to just create for some reason. I feel like if I do something it has to be a good finished polished product or else it's not worth doing. i don't know why i can't get over it and just experiment and try new things even if it ends up coming out horrible. So this is me slowly starting to do that. I did this little drawing with charcoal on colored paper, there was also some ink and paint used, and then i messed with the colors in photoshop.

Animal Animal Animal

Wow, so I've kinda been not as productive as I wanted to be this summer, but I have accomplished some stuff. I've had a wacom tablet for a few years but have never really used it that much, so one of my goals this summer was to learn how to paint/airbrush digitally. I tried it out a little bit but didn't create anything amazing. It's pretty difficult for me and will take some time to get down, so I hope I eventually get better at it. Here is my first ever painting attempt. It's an owl!!!!



I also wanted to do some real painting. Once again I didn't really get around to doing it but I did manage to pull this little painting together. It's done in acrylics on some scrap wood and it's of a snake!!!



Nothing amazing here but I just wanted to try these mediums out and see what I could do.

Ceramic Survey

My ceramic survey class was definitely my favorite class this semester. It required a lot of outside of class work, but I am pretty proud of most of the things i made. I'll be taking a hand building class next semester too!

We had to make teapots for our final project. We had the option to make them however we wanted, either on the wheel or hand built. I made the body and the spout using the wheel and then i did the lid and the detail designs using hand built techniques. The lid ended up getting stuck in the glaze kiln so i had to get an xacto knife and wedged it apart and unfortunately it flew off, hit the ground, and shattered into a ton of pieces. luckily i was able to glue it back together and you can't really tell it was broken!





Half of the semester was hand building and the second half was wheel throwing. we had to make 6 cups and 6 bowls. I had a really hard time photographing all of them and i didn't want to take a picture of each thing so here is one picture that came out good of two of my bowls.




This is the second assignment. We had to find an object and make it at least 12 times bigger to scale. So here is a giant battery!





This is the second part of this assignment. We had to take something from the original object and abstract it. I decided to use the little connector thing and make a planter.



Here is the first project finished. The glaze on the face was supposed to be a brown/honey color but it turned out black. it actually looks more charcoal/gray in real life.

Life Drawing II

Here is a few of my better/favorite drawings from my life drawing 2 class. I don't think i really learned much from the class, but i did experiment with new mediums.

ceramics

I'm really liking my ceramics class and this is the first project we did. the project was self portraits and we were supposed to tell something about ourselves with it. it was really open ended but i chose to do a traditional self portrait with the thing i was revealing being more abstract. I haven't worked with clay in a couple of years and i've never done anything like this so i'm happy with the way it turned out. it hasn't been fired yet because it's still drying but i'm just praying it doesn't explode in the kiln.