Lulz through the pain...

Since my hand has been a blown up mess for the last three weeks and is taking its jolly sweet time becoming functional again... art lulz are in order.
I've had this blog linked to me multiple times today. I very nearly pissed myself through most of it.

Art students, take heed, empty your bladder before you proceed.

Art Student Owl Meme

Some assembly...

Let's see...
Fall of '08. I took Principles of Color with the exquisitely terrifying Donna Larsen. Ms. Larsen. You have to say it with a 'z'. Mzzzzzz Larsen. This is crucial. In all of her eccentric glory, she provided me an education in color that blew my mind. While this made me incredibly excited for future work, I looked around at my old art and works in progress and... deflated. Everything came to a screeching halt with the BRAND NEW INFORMATION that no other art teacher had offered me before. I loved that class. Loved it. Wuvved ittttt. Tons of interesting assignments.

This collage is made with a complimentary admixture of red-orange to blue-green. Mzz Larsen calls it 'esoteric toning'... because she can. Flat colors painted out on bristol paper to make swatches. Swatches are exacto'd into any desired shape. Then you just start stacking. Glorious fun.

Trebuchet
7x7 in. Bristol

Of course, I had to take her other class, Intro to Art & Design, in Spring '09. An equally challenging and awesome experience. Our final project was a Cubist collage. We had to show our 'workspace' in a Cubist mode, include three personal items, and use a number of specific visual cues, like reversals. We also chose a 'slim volume of verse' and had to photocopy the cover and a page from the text to include. I used 'Pieces of You' by Tablo, a South-Korean hip hop artist. Acrylic paint, photocopies, prismacolor pencils.
All of it came together so joyfully for me. Very satisfying.

Walls of My World
14x17 in. Bristol

I'm itching to do a series like this.

Rushing...

At the end of a semester in Etching, everyone is running around like a chicken with their head cut off... myself included. Trying to get those editions finished and last minute proofs through the blotters. It's cool to see the lab working like a well-oiled machine with everyone pushing out a ton of work. I finished/got sick of my grapes and moved on. Actually, I literally got sick. Massive head colds are not good times. Ugh. While I blew my nose into oblivion, I worked on a couple of plates.

First, a 9x12 zinc plate with a layer of soft-ground wax. The Prof. introduced us to this technique earlier in the semester. You make a rig for your plate with cardboard so it doesn't shift, then lay a piece of paper over top. I used charcoal paper, but generally you use something less dense. Then you draw right onto the paper and the marks you make get transferred into the wax ground on the plate. I used a ballpoint pen, since I'm so comfortable with them.


Got it to the lab without messing up the wax and dropped it in the acid for a while. I flat-etched mine for something like half an hour.

The result...

Having never used this technique before I was pretty blown away by how well it worked. It's not a great composition or anything, but WOW I didn't expect it to read the pressure with that detail. *amazed*
I added a bit more value in places and some very rapidly drawn branches (last printing day rush ^^) and kicked out a few of these.

It needs a lot of work, but I rather like the overall idea so I'll keep working on it when I have time in the Spring.

I took a little doodle from a sketchbook and put it on a tiny 4x5 plate. I haven't done anything abstract with any of my etchings, so I thought this would be fun. Not much to it. Only a couple of states, but I enjoy it. The blue is true to life. Very quickly mixed it thinking I might use it on the Scrub Jays above. I like it on this one though.

Needs some aquatint and further tweaking. Reactions from classmates were really interesting. It evoked very different images/ideas from each person. So...

what do you see?
:)

Tasty...

Don't hate.
They count as art.
They totally count.

Gingerbread for the canvas and Powdered Sugar for the medium.

You really can't go wrong.

OM.


NOM.


NOM.

Happy Holidays from the Alley Betwixt!