Shutter & Aperture - Smooth

Reflection: 

My adjective was smooth. I chose this adjective because I felt that I had objects that I could take pictures of that would evoke this adjective. My shutter speed was around 1/400 and aperture was f/4; I used the same shutter speed and aperture for all my pictures. I used the same shutter and aperture for all my pictures, first off because I am inexperienced in photography and not familiar with these settings but also, the lighting was similar for all my photos. I believe that almost all of my images in some way connect to my adjective. The objects I used all had some sort of smooth component to them, for example the baseball bat had a very smooth feel to it as well as a smooth look. The picture of the lamp has a round smooth look to it which I believe exemplifies my adjective. The picture of the baseball connects to my adjective very well. The baseball is a very smooth round object except for the threading which contrast the smooth parts of the baseball. What I was trying to capture in the picture of the water fountain was the smoothness of the stone and water, I feel that to improve that picture taking into consideration my adjective, I think I should have focused in more on the fountain. The picture of the skateboard on the table I believe really captures my adjective. The table I placed the board on was a black marble and had a somewhat reflective surface, my skateboard had a very smooth and rounded feel and look to it. My baseball bat to begin with, has a very smooth surface and being the only thing in the picture in believe that the viewers attention goes to the smooth texture of the bat. My photo of the wind spinner (don't know what its called), is a smooth object and I think that the way it contrast the grey sky evokes smoothness. The christmas ornaments were not only smooth and round but also had a reflective surface, which, I think, adds to the smoothness of the picture. I personally feel that the photo of the baseball is my favorite picture. I just really like how there is the light difference from light to dark from one side of the baseball to the other, the grass up close is in focus and the farther away the grass is the less in focus it is. I definitely feel like I've gained a lot more experience in film photography (even though I had almost no experience in film/digital photography before) and feel as though I'm getting a better sense of composition, and I can't wait for the next project digital or film.

Into the Darkroom

           To me, the darkroom allows me to really explore photography. I feel the whole process of using a film camera and then having to process and use an enlarger to develop pictures is a very meaningful experience. Before the year started I thought that I would just want to do digital photography but I find that being in the darkroom is a great experience to explore new areas of photography. Especially after yesterday, the feeling after getting a successful print is really awesome. In the darkroom there tends to a lot of anxiety as I place prints into the developer waiting for them to come out. I think this applies much more to the pinhole camera project because you have one picture only. Before going into the darkroom and developing prints I always thought that film cameras and pictures were much easier to make, but that was definitely not true. Taking film photographs and then having to develop them is a long process in which I feel that I kinda get attached to the photos, unlike digital photography where I can take thousands of pictures but with a film camera you only have so many and then with those few, you can tinker and make each one look the way I want it to, in the darkroom. I am definitely looking forward to working in the darkroom over the semester.

Pinhole Cameras

Reflection of Pinhole Camera Project:

          Choices that I made in the creation of my pinhole camera were, one, how it was going to be light tight because it was a clear box and also the shutter. I attempted to make it light tight by spray painting it but that didn't entirely work so resorted to the use of tape which, eventually worked. In the pursuit of intriguing pinhole photographs, I found that using the different lighting and the amount of exposer time could really change the photo greatly. I also had a cool unexpected feature of my pinhole camera causing the affect of an 'X' down the middle of my photo because of the light leaks somewhere in my camera which I thought was pretty neat. I found this project meaningful to me because I think I came to appreciate and gain a greater understanding of photography. I always thought it was just take a picture (even though a lot of effort could go into one picture) and move on to the next intriguing thing that I saw using a digital camera, but with the pinhole there were many hardships and things that I had to experiment with and overcome to have a picture turn out.

         Throughout the project I left my intentions very open so that I could go which ever way I seemed best at the time. But a something that definitely got me off course was the fact that I had a lot of trouble getting my object to be light tight. But I eventually managed to get it almost completely light tight. Ways I might have approached this project differently would have been to choose a larger object that is easier to make light tight. This would have allowed me to have more time to take pictures rather than working on the camera itself. I also would have made the pinhole smaller to get sharper images because some of the images I saw that were very sharp really caught my eye.

Survey Final Reflection

I feel that the value digital photo project was the most successful. I developed this craft through the use of really observing value and the surroundings and placement of my object. Tools that were very successful that I used was lighting or the sun, because the sun gave my object value when out in the natural world. I also used my natural surroundings to take the pictures. These were essential things that helped me compose my final pictures. I wanted my project to express value, great intensity and also light. For this project I think that the value of my pictures expresses great intensity in the dark areas and light in the lighter areas.

I thought that the plaster sculpture was the most difficult project. My final project does in a small way resemble my initial drawings but for this project I dont think that it necessarily matters because I was constantly changing it as I went to improve it any how. The whole sculpture changed except for the base. I made these changes because my sculpture didn't have enough plaster to work with to continue on my original path so I had to change the sculpture. Problems that emerged were that much of the plaster was falling off when I would chisel a small piece on one side of the sculpture, another is that I just didn't have enough plaster height wise. In order to solve the problems I chopped off the top of the sculpture and made that the bottom and sculpted what was originally the bottom.

1. Please discuss three new strengths you've discovered or deepened this year. One formal strength (your ability to work with things like composition, balance, rhythm et cetera), one technical or media-specific strength (working in a specific medium or honing a specific skill) and one conceptual strength (you idea development in the specific project). 

I feel that three strengths that I have discovered is balance, value and composition.  In the past years of art class I have never been good and creating shadows and dark to light areas. But this year I felt that I developed that through photography and my charcoal drawing. For balance I felt that I was able to create balance between certain objects, drawings, and or in my sculptures because I could make things in good proportion and keep things from either being to small or too large. I also felt that I was able to work with contour because I felt that I could really create good edges using contour to create shapes. I feel that I did better in the area of painting because I have never being a good painter and in the pop art paintings I felt that I really improved in painting. I felt I also developed in photography, I always liked photography and I was never good at it. But I think that this year I was able to do fairly well in photography and I cant wait to learn more about photography next year!

Plaster Sculpture!

Reflection: My outside influence for this project was a jelly fish but I didn't have enough plaster to work with in order to create the shape of a jellyfish so I ended up making a very abstract figure that has some of the qualities of my original jellyfish influence. In order for me to gain a better understanding of the plaster I explored various ways of using the tools and the amount of strength I used when hammering in certain areas of the plaster object. I did come into some troubles of breaking parts of my object off but I was able to learn from that and make something new. I found various ways of using the tools which helped make different types of lines and shapes on the object. I started out trying to make a jellyfish but as I progressed through the project I ended up not having enough plaster (height) in order to complete the jellyfish so I ended up having to start making changes. For example the bottom of my sculpture was originally going to be the top of the jellyfish and the top (but I had to cut it in half) that you are seeing was going to be the tentacles. I tried to employ shape and abstractness and I felt that the shape makes the figure very abstract. 

Final Value Project Post

Reflection: After Using pencil for a quarter of my drawing I decided to move to charcoal because it seemed more efficient and I also needed to get my photographs done in the dark room. I had trouble really making the darks and the lights pop when using the pencil but when I moved to charcoal it was much easier to make the darks and lights. This project I feel has given me a much better understanding of shading and darks and lights which is something I have always had trouble on when drawing, painting ect. In the darkroom my pictures were somewhat similar to my charcoal drawing if you look at my object. I say they are similar because they both have a light and a dark showing value. I liked working in the dark room much more and felt more comfortable there because drawing isn't my favorite thing to do. I feel that my drawing gave me more opportunities for expression because I can control all the parts of the picture especially the fabric. I would spend more time on the drawing and spend much more time taking the actual pictures because a lot of the pictures that I likes didn't turn out well and I wasn't able to use them. 

In the Process still life drawing reflection - NOT COMPLETE

Reflection:

Part 1:

In my drawing I evoke value from the light that is given off by the lamp. It creates a separation  between the lights and darks. I use my darker pencils to create a fairly dark shade moving from very dark to light. I am planning to make half the drawing dark and the other half much lighter similar to the object. I need to work on my shading and blending the lights and darks making a smooth transition from light to dark in my drawing. I would say make the contours of your whole drawing than start to shade. I would also say make the contours a quick sketch and really focus on the shading giving the drawing good value.

Part 2:

Charcoal Drawings

   





































Reflection: Besides being a very messy project, it was a fun project. I feel that my object was one of the stronger parts of my drawing because of its value. Throughout the process I was constantly erasing and redrawing parts of it. I did have trouble with this drawing in trying to get the scale right. At some points I would make one thing 3 times bigger that it should be. During the process I really liked the white conte crayons because it really stood out making certain areas stick out. During the process I restarted which I found to have been a good idea because the drawing I have now is much better than what my final project would have looked like if I kept going with the drawing I had before I erased.

Still life pictures of VALUE!!!!!!!! - Ethan T

Reflection:

I feel that my third ^^^^image^^^^ is my most evocative picture. My definition of evocative is that that the image sticks out and is very defined by certain parts of the picture. My object in this picture shows value in the way that it moves from grey at the top (light grey) to the bottom where it is black. This is similar with the wood stump, in the cracks of the wood stump are black where as the rest of it is grey. I feel that this same picture of the 3, gives the best example of a full grey scale. I will be looking for value, or in other words try to get my object to show the scale from light grey/white to black.

Texture Sculpture!!!!

Reflection:

I feel that my collection of textures is varied. I have wire, unwound rope, wood block thats cracked and burlap. Throughout the process of the project I explored multiple ways of organizing my objects and also added and discarded certain objects. I pushed myself to refine and rework my project because I didnt have my mind set on a certain final project. I think that they are unified. For example I wove the broken up rope through the wire mesh and the bottom of the rope is coming out of the cracked wood. The wire mesh also is connected to the burlap.

Ethan T - Texture Collage

Reflection: Throughout the course of my project I was always exploring different ways in which to organize my textures. I also was choosing many different textures from the many I had giving me a wide range of textures to choose from. For the each section of my collection I out together and organized the textures so that they would in some way connect to each other and also either contrast or relate. I constantly replaced and reorganized my textures to find the best combination. After sketching out what my project would look like I was fairly set on that being how my final project would look like but I was very wrong, I was constantly changing things from my original sketch. Every so often I would refine and edit my work whether it was the size of a texture, the effects, opacity or placement of the texture. I feel that I pushed myself to refine and edit my work. I certainly feel very happy with the outcome of my project.

Pop-Art (Name Stamp - With Tiger on top)

Reflection:
For each painting I decided to make the paint application and colors different. For the paint application I  used different brush strokes/techniques that I tried experimenting with. In each of the paintings I attempted to make the object stand out making the background either light or darker. In my group one comment on my paintings was that the paint application on my monochromatic painting was "intriguing" in the way that I painted the object. They also suggested that if I were to edit my paintings I should work on my complimentary painting. I myself comparing my paintings felt that my shadows were inconsistent in size so if i were to edit them I would also make my shadows bigger. I felt that in photography I thought that I didn't have as much freedom when it came to finding colors where as when I was painting I could make/mix paint to find the color I wanted (although you can always edit in aperture in photography). I personally feel more comfortable doing photography but I really enjoyed painting over the past few weeks (before and after break).