Origami Installation

We made these cranes the same way you would make a normal origami crane, just on a much bigger scale. Then we took a needle and some string and poked holes in the head, back, and tail of the crane. Using these holes we made loops with the string. These string loops served to keep the cranes on the invisible string we would use later to hang them. We set the cranes up in the V formation, and then wove the clear string through the loops we created with the colored string earlier. Lastly we lifted the cranes with the clear string and hung them up from poles on the ceiling. From this lesson we learned how hard it is to use clear string and how tangled it gets. We also learned teamwork skills for organizing the cranes and weaving the clear string through the cranes. My group especially had to work on problem solving to untangle our mess of cranes. Even though they didn't end up getting untangled we still worked for a long time on untangling them. The process included making the cranes, coming up with an idea for what to do with them, adding the string loops, organizing them into V formations, weaving the clear string through the loops, and hanging up the cranes from the ceiling. The product is 2 flocks of origami cranes hanging in the front lobby of Apex High School.

Tray and Cup

I liked the process of making my tray and cup. The tray was really fun to make because it made me think of Christmas with the snowflakes (but that also makes me sad that we still have more school before Christmas). The ribbon cup was really cool to make too, and I really like how they look. I used red underglaze on my tray to make it look kind of like a candy cane to stick with the Christmas theme. I didn't use any for the cup because it cracked, and I didn't know how I would use underglaze on it. So far my tray has turned out successful, and hopefully it will look good after the glaze is fired. The cup has some cracks in it, but other than that it turned out pretty good. For the future I would make sure that I stamp in all of the snowflakes plenty because some of the indents weren't deep enough for the underglaze to stay in. Also I would use more water to smooth out my ribbon cup to make sure it doesn't crack when it gets fired.

Figurative Work

The two main challenges of this project were making a box with sides that fit together nicely, and finding quotes that would fit into all of the tight spaces towards the end. After sanding and filling in any holes between the pieces of wood I managed to make the box look fairly put together, and the quotes covered up anything that didn't look totally perfect. For the quotes I ended up using more titles and small quotes on the back, and trimming off as much extra paper as I could to try to make everything fit. It took a very long time, but I finished eventually. I think that the different colors and fonts of the paper made the box look very neat, and that was definitely a success. The lid of the box was also a huge success. The gold pages on the book look very nice, and I like that the lid is a book. I think that the lid adds a very cool finishing touch to my box.

"Between the Folds" Documetary

I thought that this video showed a very unique perspective on origami, certainly one I've never thought of before. It made me realize that origami is so much more than just the little things that you learn how to make as a little kid. Here are some of the things that I learned:

     Origami is a metamorphic art form. I didn't know exactly what it meant for something to be a metamorphic art form, so I tried to relate it to something metamorphic that I do know about: rocks (because I decided to take APES and Nagel has a lot of rocks). A metamorphic rock is a rock that has undergone transformation by heat, pressure, or other natural agencies. I can see how this relates to origami because the paper undergoes a transformation through applying pressure to the paper to make it fold in certain ways. That is how I interpreted metamorphic art, and I think that metamorphic art sounds really unique.

     Le Crimp is a style of origami that was mentioned in this documentary that I found to be very interesting and unique. From what I saw in the documentary, and in looking up pictures online, Le Crimp appears to involve the paper having a lot more crumples, or crimps, in it that give the piece a more realistic look. Also sometimes the artist can blow into their Le Crimp piece to make it expand or suck air out to make it shrink, and I thought it was really cool how the artists could interact with their pieces even after they were done. Le Crimp is something I think looks really awesome, but I doubt I would ever have the time or patience to do it.

     Origami math is a real life application of origami that I never thought of before. Origami can be used to help explain math both on a basic and complex level. I thought this could be really helpful for some people who are better at learning visually. Math is a subject that visual learners could struggle in because it is hard to make math visual. So much of it is writing equations, and it is hard to make it stick for the visual learners. Using origami, students have a way to make math visual. This will hopefully help more people begin to understand math. 

Figurative Sculpture Artist: Michael Alfano

Michael Alfano works in Boston, but has events in many different states across the country. His sculptures are made from bronze, hydrostone, resin, or cold cast copper and bonded bronze.  I like the way that his pieces portray humans. The two pieces I have picture above are called Labyrinth and Unwound, and I like how they literally interpret people as both of those things, but they also allow you to think about how people are like that figureatively. His work is literal to the name of the piece, yet it still requires imagination. His pieces aren't tiny either. Some may be smaller than others, but they are bigger than the pictures make them appear to be. A few of his pieces are actually small though. Alfano's website can by found by clicking his name: Michael Alfano

Vessel Project: Cinderella Shoe

Some challenges that I overcame while making my Cinderella Shoe were making the shape of the shoe realistic and smooth. The shoe had to start off as multiple pieces, and when I first started putting them together they didn't look at all like a nice shoe. Also making the bow was difficult because originally I was going to make it out of Plexiglas. The Plexiglas did not want to break in the right shape though, so I changed the material that the bow was made out of. The heel was a successful part of the shoe, and it ended up turning out much better than I expected. Also the bow was successful once I decided to not use the Plexiglas. I really like the shattered pieces of glass on top of it, and the glaze on the shoe adds a nice touch to make it look fancier. In the future I would try to find something clear to make the bow out of. I do like how it turned out, but i think it could have been really neat if the base was clear instead of white. This piece is a vessel because a shoe holds a foot, and in the case of Cinderella's shoe it holds a story. This piece isn't exactly functional because I don't think a clay shoe would be very comfortable, and I don't know who's foot would fit into this shoe anyways because it is fairly small. 

Molds

I didn't take a picture of my mold when we did it because it was unsuccessful, and I didn't realize I would need a picture of it. I attempted to recreate the banana bowl, but when peeling the clay off of the bowl it all fell apart. If I had taken a picture it just would've been a picture of a big pile of pieces of clay, which is not very exciting. I think that the mold process is something that could end up being really cool for a piece, and it is something that I would be willing to try again in the future, but it definitely didn't work out for this project. I should've put something in between the bowl and the clay, but I didn't remember that step until I had already put the clay on the bowl. While the clay was on the bowl it looked like it was going to turn out really well, but the moment I started trying to take it off of the bowl it began falling apart. The mold process seemed to work well for other people, so it is definitely something that I would be willing to try again.

Vessel Mini Lesson (Pit Fired Piece)

To create my pit fired piece I started out with a clay base, and then made a coil of clay that slowly wrapped its way up forming the sides of the little container. I smoothed it out some so that the coil isn't quite as obvious. The container isn't very big, so I'm not sure what I will use it for yet. To prep it for the fire I took some of the copper and wrapped it around the top of the piece after it had been through everything that Mrs. Sudkamp had to do herself. Then I added a bunch of different kinds of leaves around my piece until I felt I had covered it enough. Lastly I wrapped it up in the tin foil. The finished product turned out pretty cool, and I really like how you can see where the copper burned away on my piece. I thought that this style of work was very unique and different, and it is something I would be willing to do again. I am debating using it for my main vessel project, but I am not sure that pit fired is the look I am going for with that piece. Either way I really like this method and the final product it creates.

Relief Main Piece

To make my piece I used techniques I learned from the cardboard mini project to create a Captain America shield. At first I wanted to make it look old and rustic, to represent Captain America before he got frozen in a block of ice, but water color didn't look too good on the cardboard. It just soaked into the cardboard and ended up looking more like mold then old paint. After trying the water color I decided I would use acrylic paint to represent the new Captain America with his new outfit and nicer looking shield. I thought my piece was successful because I ended up getting the shape and the colors of each section of the shield right. Also I think the size of the shield is fairly realistic. Next time I would try to find some way to make my circles a little more precise because they aren't totally perfect. Also I would find a way to better center all of the circles to make sure that the circles all line up in the middle. I decided to make this shield because I love Marvel movies, and Captain America is my favorite Marvel superhero. I have a few shirts with him on it, and I thought it would be really cool if I could make his shield.

Mini Projects- Relief

Clay Relief:

This is my clay relief tile. I think that this is probably Mr. Sands' favorite relief project that I did because it is a Zonkey. I think that it turned out really well and I am proud of my effort to make his favorite animal (or at least I am assuming that this is his favorite). The one thing that I found challenging was getting the clay out in the tight spaces, like around his nose and whatever you wanna call the two squares at the top, otherwise I thought this one was fairly easy. This one is probably my favorite of the mini projects because I feel like it is the one I worked the hardest on.

Cardboard Relief:

This is my cardboard relief tile. It is supposed to be a panda if you can't tell, and this is another one I am very proud of just because I think it turned out to be much better than I expected. The only thing that I found challenging about this was making sure I was only cutting through and peeling off the layers that I wanted to take off. The only thing that I wish could have turned out a little better was the panda's mouth. I ended up just making it a straight line, but I feel like it isn't noticeable enough.

Paper Relief:

This my paper relief (sorry that the picture didn't turn out very good, I was in a hurry to get it since class was almost over). This one is my least favorite because I didn't like working with the paper. It doesn't have layers that I could carve out or peel away like with the cardboard or clay, so it was harder for me to come up with what to do for this one. I would say that this is definitely abstract, and it turned out sort of how I envisioned it would.

Inspired Artist

My inspired artist is Calvin Nicholls and he lives in Ontario. He works with an interesting material, paper, and he does relief art like we have been doing in class. His relief is of a much higher level though and one thing that I really love about his work is the attention to detail. He seems to typically do animals and if they have fur he really manages to make it look realistic. Also he adds little details that make the piece even more interesting than it was in the beginning. One piece that is a good example of this is the dog that I have shown above. The detail that can be hard to notice is the outline of the cat in the dogs eye. I found that very neat how he could hide something like that and the moment I noticed it the cat became completely obvious. This made me feel like I should have noticed the cat at the very beginning. Here is a link to his webiste: Calvin Nicholls. I am positive that his paper relief is way better than my attempt of it in class.

Styrogami

I feel that my styrogami piece was somewhat successful. The first  time I tried to do this it didn't go very well and I ended up scrapping it for this one (partially because Grayson thought he could "fix" it which turned out to mean break it). This cup was supposed to show a spiral effect, and if I could change anything about it I would try to make the toothpicks a little less noticeable. Also I would try and make the spiral not quite as thick so that there would be more spirals going around throughout the whole cup. This picture, in my opinion, makes the cup look much better than it did when you were looking at it in real life. While my cup wasn't by any means the prettiest or the most creative I still think it was a success because I am happy with how it turned out (and it didn't break like the last one did). 

Final Exam Blog Post

ART INSPIRING TECHNOLOGY

This piece was one of my favorites because of how cute it is, and it shows art that inspired technology. I used art to draw the seal, cut it into pieces, and color it. I used technology to take pictures of the seal in different positions, and I used the computer to make the seal appear to be moving in a cycle. The art that I used to create the seal inspired the use of technology to try and make the seal move. I thought that the seal was too cute to just be a simple drawing of a seal, so I wanted to make it move with the use of technology.

TECHNOLOGY INSPIRING ART

In this piece I used technology to make art. I used technology to take all of the individual pictures of Kara, the jump rope. the sport court, the USA Jump Rope logo, the frames,  and of me. Then through photoshop to cut Kara and I out of our pictures, change the color of the inside of our frames, and in general just piece the picture together. In the end it created art that was nothing like any of the individual pictures. Kara and I are on different jump rope teams and using technology I was able to create art that showed the battle that we go through at competitions. 

PERSONAL CRITIQUE: WE COLLABORATE

This project was one that was worked on by a big group of students from our class. If I remember right it was Kara, Megan, Ashley, Grayson, Chris, Caitlin, and I. We collaborated a lot to create this dog. We were all constantly asking each other to back up and look at the dog to make sure that it looked right because we all wanted the dog to turn out really good. Kara drew the dog in her sketchbook and inspired us to draw it on the street. She helped us figure out the size to make the dog so it would stay proportional to the size it was when she drew it. Without Kara we wouldn't have even had the idea to create the dog on the street. We all worked together really well and the end result turned out to be very close to the original. 

SUCCESS

This project was my most successful because I actually managed to make Carter's stick arms look like they are my arms. I didn't think that this picture was going to work out nearly as well as it did, and I am very happy with it. I solved problems because I had to clone my hair to make it where my arms used to be because my arms were in a slightly different position than his were. I also had to blend our skin tones to make it look more realistic. I developed my art skills because before this project I had never been able to successfully use the clone tool on anything, and after I was able to use it to make it look like I actually have hair where I don't.

DO OVER

If I had to choose one project from this year to do again it would have to be the light art. It sort of worked, but right as we were finally starting to get it class ended. If we were to redo this I would want to make the room even darker because everything we did had a red light in it because the red paper was too thin. Also since we would already know how to do the light art from last time so we would hopefully be able to get much better pictures this time. We could even try some completely different designs with the light from what we did before. 

12 Days of Photoshop: Day 7

Today we had to combine a Disney character with a superhero. I chose to take Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame and combine her with Loki from The Avengers. Here is what Esmeralda looked like before I merged her with Loki:

Here is Loki before he was merged with Esmeralda:

Here is what they look like merged:

I think that it turned out pretty well.

12 Days of Photoshop: Day 6

Harry Potter becomes Hairy Potter when Harry gets facial hair and Hermione becomes a cat. Ron gets a hairy spider.

12 Days of Photoshop: Day 5

ANIMATION

THE PICTURE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

12 Days of Photoshop: Day 4

Literal Interpretaions 

This is what these words would mean if you took them literally. 

Horse Shoe:

Dogwood:

Jellyfish: 

Eardrum: 

Watercolor: 

12 Days of Photoshop: Day 3

For Day 3 we had to swap body parts with someone or something, and because I felt bad that Carter broke his wrists I decided that we should be twinning. I put his arms on my body and now we can both have broken wrists together! Here is the end result:

I had to make his arms smaller to be proportional with mine, but I think it works. 

12 Days of Photoshop: Day 2

For Day 2 we had to create a shadow on an image that was different from the actual image itself. The whole point is that the shadow is showing your true self. My image is a puppy and the shadow is a wolf. This shows that while a puppy may be little and cute, it can still be strong and brave like a wolf. This is the finished product:

12 Days of Photoshop: Day 1

For Day 1 we had to slice something and put something else inside of it. I wanted to slice a pegasus, and originally I was planning on putting a rainbow inside of it. That didn't end up working out so well, so I decided to put a really bright diamond inside of it. Originally the diamond was just white but I wanted it to really stand out from the pegasus. I changed the hue and the saturation to pop out a lot, and here is the final product:

Monster

We decided to create the monsters designed by a class of 1st graders. I got a monster that looked like this when drawn by the first graders: 

After that I had to make the monster out of clay and paint it to look like the monster that the kid drew:

We also designed boxes to put the toys in to make them look more like toys. There are no pictures of the finished product unfortunately, but I think that the toy ended up looking a lot like the kid's drawing in the end. Hopefully the kid will like it. 

Anamorphosis

For our anamorphosis project we decided to Patches from 101 Dalmations. He is adorable and we all thought it would be fun. Since we had a very limited supply of black and white chalk we made him rainbow colored, and I honestly think that worked out better than it would have if we left it black and white. The whole thing turned out much better than all of us expected, and we are all very happy with the effort that we put in. So here we have our chalk Patches:

It doesn't exactly look 3D, but the shadow did give it a pop effect.

Sticky Note Art

This is a picture of my group working on our sticky note art picture of Paul Walker. We didn't get to see the end product in person, but I did get to the pictures of it at the mall. I think that it turned out really well and I had a lot of fun working on it!

Animating "Walk Cycle"

We are working on animation, and we have to do the walk cycle. I wanted to animate a seal and because seals don't exactly walk it is just moving its head, tail, flippers, and the ball on its nose. I think it turned out to be really adorable.

Cinemagrah

In jump rope we have to do gymnastics in our routines sometimes and so I know how to do a cartwheel. I thought that it would look cool if my shadow was always doing a cartwheel forever. This way my inner gymnast will shine forever!

Newimal

My animal for the biology zoo project is the gorilla, and even though they were not out at the zoo yesterday, I get the pleasure of merging them with another animal today. I was trying to think of an animal that is black so that it would blend in with the gorilla's fur. The first animal that came to mind was the panther. I added a panther head to the body of a gorilla and below we have what will now be known as the pantherilla.

Personality Frame

One thing that is a big part of who I am is jump rope. I decided that my team, Super Skippers, makes up a big chunk of my personality. We are always competing to be the best team in the country and Kara's team is one of the teams that we compete against. In this picture we are coming out of frames that represent our teams because they are our team colors on the inside. We are fitting over a rope on a sport court, which is what we jump on at competitions, and the competition logo is in the background. This all represents my personality pretty well.

Light Art

We all brought in glowsticks and light pens and decided to mess around with the light while having the room dark. Kara and I wanted to try and create a jump rope out of two glowsticks (of course) and I think that we were fairly successful in creating something that looked somewhat like beads on a rope. Below is the finished result. It is somewhat hard to see, but I tried to create blue and green "beads" on a rope.

Acrylic Painting

At first I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to paint on my canvas. I knew I wanted it to be different from what everyone else was doing, and when I looked around I noticed everyone seemed to be painting some type of landscape. I thought I would look through my pictures and try to find something that could be interesting to paint. I ended up finding a picture from one of my jump rope performances and painting that. It honestly turned out much better than I expected it to. While some people might not like that I didn't go into very much detail with faces or clothing, I think it makes my painting unique. I am proud of myself for actually managing to pull this off. The painting can be seen below.

Questions About Illustration

What does it mean to be a freelance artist?
A freelance artist is an artist who sells their work or services by the hour or the day instead of working on a regular salary basis for one employer.

What does an illustrator's portfolio consist of?
The portfolio consists of about 10 to 12 of the artist's pieces that are mounted. The portfolio needs to flow like a book and have a good cover. The portfolio is meant to show what the illustrator is capable of when they are trying to get hired for a job.

What does it mean to have an "illustration style?"
An illustration style is the way in which an illustrator expresses themselves. All of their work will fall under a specific type of illustration so that it is easy to tell when a work is or isn't one of theirs.

Pinterest Link- Illustration

I created an illustration board on Pinterest that you can access by clicking this link: Illustration Board. On this board I have put the different types of illustration that have been interesting to me during my life. Most of this comes from Dr. Seuss and other children's books that I read when I was little. Enjoy!

Cartoon Comic

I decided that for my comic I wanted to involve cows in some way, shape or form. Don't ask me why because I don't know. I just like cows. Anyway I wanted them to do something cows don't normally do. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do and while I was texting one of my friends she said that she wished she had a cow who could give her peanut butter instead of milk. Then I said I wished for a cow that could give chocolate instead of milk. Then it hit me. I could have two cows, one that made chocolate and one that made peanut butter, and use that as my comic! That is the motivation for the lovely comic that can be seen below. All I have to do now is color it and then I will be done.

Questions About Cartoons

What's the difference between anime and manga?
Anime is animation of a cartoonish show and manga is a book of pictures or comics (ex. graphic novel).

What is the difference between a graphic novel and a comic book?
Graphic novels are much longer and tend to be more complex. Comic books tell stories over many issues. Graphic novels typically complete their storyline in one or two books.

How are panels designed and layed out in comic books, newspapers, and graphic novels?
They can be designed in single frame or multi-panel, and they tell stories through the panels.

Pinterest Link- Comics

I created a comic board on Pinterest that you can access by clicking this link: Comic Board On this board I have put any type of comic that interests me. This seems to be mainly Disney stuff along with a little bit of Marvel and a couple of things from books that I like. Enjoy!

Cartoon Bones

For my cartoon bones assignment I decided to use the character Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls. She originally looks like this:

Then I traced a photo of her onto the transparent paper and then colored it. Here is what that looked like:

After that step I created what I think that Mabel's skeleton would look like if you were to take an x-ray of her. Here is the final product:

I am proud of myself because before this class I could barely draw one bone and now I was able to draw an entire human skeleton.