Crit Week: Conclusion

First year Critiques are over! I just finished presenting my work, however I was not just sitting around this week. I drew, quite abit actually so lets begin. Wednesday crits started and I set about to drawing my peers, projects and people



As you can see, I tried to get more people into the view this time, and I think it worked out pretty well. A few proportions out of place but all in all not a bad attempt. I didnt use any measuring technique either, a sign I may be learning to read proportion with out using my pen.

Just a few peoples projects drawn as they appeared on wednesday I've realized that my Micron pen is already running out, it seems odd to me that I should dry out so quickly, does anyone else see this problem or know of a solution?

Fridays, critiques revealed more projects with various curvy shapes. I also drew my initials in what I call Jazz Squares as they strike me as being jazzy. In no offense to others but I dont see curvy shapes when I think about jazz, I see curves just not to an extreme. There is still some geometry to them.

Also like my blue pen? I was getting bored of black and white drawings all the time. So I bought a blue pen to spice things up a little.

Crit Week 2 the revenge of the crit

ITS CRITIQUE WEEK! The week when all the studios gather to judge everyones projects and make judgments to our own beliefs on our designs. Its also a great time to draw, especially when you need practice drawing people.. Big Crowds lots of overlap, it can get hectic (the drawing not the critiques. I got a few good drawings done today, one involving trying to fit everyone in my view into my space on my sketchbook.. I think I was moderately successful..

I think next time I will try to make the people fill up the whole page, just to give those who are reading this the sheer scale. There were probably close to 100 of us in our little tiny critique room. The rain was overpowering our presenters today, it was actually kind of funny, we had to stop for 10 minutes while we waited for a lull in the rain.

Just look at all those people, I myself am impressed with my effort you can really tell that their are alot of people between me and the projects being displayed. Certain people keep getting messed up because they kept fidgeting or someone would lean forward and block my view but I'd already be about half way through the person and not wanting to change the image, so I'd wait and then my subject would have moved anyway. Oh well! Still looks good to me

This is Ben Adam's Project, he designed a very interesting space for Rothko. I originally only intended to draw the project, but then the veil covering the stool it was seated upon began to call me, before I knew it the stool was too, and then the wall... and then the shadows so it pretty much became a whole scene, only his board is missing. I've been working with my markers so much I almost forgot how you can show contrast using just your pen, I was so ready to whip out my cool grays. By the way Suzanne I think you'd agree that the shadows were likely a cool gray number 1 today.. maybe a 2 in the darker spots.

In conclusion, now that I've finished my final project I'm happy to say that I reunite myself with my sketch book and have some fun. This year has been odd. I used to be incredibly bored, I'd simply play video games or talk to my friends. Now I love to go out and draw and look at the world around me. But this post has gone on far to long, and that big world is in need of documenting.

Bottle Caps! everywhere

So we had a nice week long project now that we have finished our fruit pattern projects. This project was to design something that made use of the bottle caps that are very difficult to recycle.

So I teamed up with Robert who sits at the cubicle next to mine, together we both made some ideas including a plant pot, shotglass, and fishing bobbers. We brought them to our lectures Wednesday. Ultimately we decided to go with my idea of an envelope which actually stemmed from an idea I had for a coin roll. Our first model was really just a simple rolled up sheet of paper with bottle caps on the ends to seal it off.

This design posed a few problems as it really didnt protect the letter and also it seemed easy for the caps to just fall off. Therefore we took the design and tweaked it a little bit.
This caused it to change over to a protective shell made out of a sheet of thick paper that generally comes out of a shirt's packaging. This would insure a protective shell around the letter. We also added some yellow rings (also from soda bottles) so that an address label could be secured to the envelope and then it could actually be sent.

The revenge of presentation boards

Another presentation down, second one in a week, this time our lovely fruit pattern projects. I started with an apple and really just worked my way to very different architectural statement. My photographs may not be the finest quality but that was simply due to the fact that when I took them there was no space to hang them in the crit room as the next group of people were already set up with the next days presentations.

Working With Wood

So recently in studio we worked with a single 18" piece of 2x4 to create a system. I didnt really enjoy this in the end as I felt like I had gotten hung up on system because I kept thinking of like a system in physics where balance can be achieved through counter weights which is ultimately how my project was destined to end up. I wanted it to appear that the heavy top piece was actually being supported by a very thin and off center support which required very careful distribution of weight. Actually getting it balanced took a little while to figure out. Ultimately it was fun working with wood and I'm a little sad that we had to stop because I was really enjoying it.

This project was difficult and although I was not totally happy with the result I'm not completely against it either I think it succeeds in some ways but could be improved in others