My Blind Flower Drawing

From Left to Right: Tulip and Rose

Megan Diercks- CyberARTS Portfolio

This year I focused on expanding my knowledge of art. Last year I focused on clean lines and a modern look to my work. This year I feel like my work is a lot more loose and "free". Instead of making the piece "perfect" I wanted to capture the more abstract feel of what I was working on.

"Jamari"
I didn't mind this unit, but I can't say it was my favourite. I did learn how to make my drawings proportionate which is key in any artwork. I liked how these turned out, each one looks a little bit different even though it is of the same person. I was hesitant on using charcoal, but I was trying to expand my comfort zone. Charcoal still wouldn't be my first choice of medium, but I did learn to use it better then I did before.

"NaturBank"
For this multi-media project, I literally wanted it to have media/technology incorporated into it. For this project I planned for a panoramic picture that I took to spin inside of the clear body of the bench. After many, many experiments I found that my model and budget is too small for this to actually function properly. My model still worked, just the motor was a little bit too powerful for this to be executed to my expectations. I also wanted the modern technology that was on the inside to be brought out in the outside, so I used a solid black box as the base to represent the modern technology and to show that it has a strong impact on nature and `everything living in it today. But the significant part of my model was the opaque container with the panorama behind it. Also I added a "Lid" which functioned as the seat out of stained wood that I did myself.

"Set me Free"
In this pastel piece I had to choose a small section of a larger group masterpiece to blow up into a larger pastel piece. I enjoyed this project, it really helped with learning how to scale objects to different sizes. I like how the background colours are pastel and light, and the black lines look like a maze that doesn't end. Then there is the white spiral that represents the "light at the end of the tunnel". I also enjoyed looking around at everyone else's piece. Each one was picked from the same huge "mural" yet all of them are completely different.

"Sunny Storms"
For this large painting we had to paint to music, I can't quite remember what the music was, but from the look of painting it must of been upbeat and have a little bit of a darker side to it. I started really light with blues and whites and when the music got deeper I switched to blacks and greys. I like how this looks, it looks like sun rays with a cloud obstructing it. I like the tones and values that i created from mixing the whites and blacks in with the blue. I feel like the purpose of this assignment was to get us to not just listen to the music, but also feel the music and express how the music makes each individual feel.

"Holton Rower"
Holton Rower is a New York artist that is known for his "dripping art". He was our inspiration for our Palladio video. How we accomplished this was, I originally did a test run at my home on my dining room table with a coke can glued to a piece of plexiglass and I used some leftover wall paint. It took at least 3 weeks for it to dry! So we had Mr. Hazelwood create a wooden tower that we would use to create our own, and to film. We originally used just the footage, but after the paint dried it looked really intricate and it turned into a sculpture. This project was a lot of fun, seeing how the paint would create many different patterns and designs was really interesting.

"Chinese Brush Art"
The chinese brush art unit this year I found was a lot more beneficial. We had a professional brush artist come in and teach us more advanced techniques then we learned last year. She taught us the common themes of traditional brush are usually calming and personal to the artist. During this time the German students were here, it was funny watching them try something that they probably haven't even heard of. The German students also taught me that there is a fine line between deep colours and paper mush! I enjoyed this unit a lot more with the artist teaching us, and I could tell that she enjoyed what she did, which came across in her teaching. 

“Crayons”

My inspiration for this melting wax art was off of many YouTube videos, and I wanted to try it myself. It just so happened that a few weeks prior to me doing this piece, we threw out most of our crayons because no body was using them! So with the left over crayons, I attached them onto a blank canvas and I sat on my kitchen floor for 1 hour melting the crayons with a hairdryer. I would like to try this again, but on a larger and narrower canvas and maybe only with a few varieties of colours and not the full spectrum. I did have some difficulty with controlling the dripping wax and making sure that it doesn’t mix with its complementary, I had a few issues, but in the end I think it was very successful. I