A Trinket for Thursday

Hello everyone, hope you are doing well! Today's trinket comes from my Italian Renassance Art History class. Today we studied portraiture and looked at paintings of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino. This peice features the duke and his very idealized wife on the front and then pictures of them in their separate carriages and chariots on the back. Here is the front:

His face is "messed up" because apparently he is missing part of his face, including his upper nose and eyeball. The artist spared the duchess of looking like her actual self by painting her in the ideal female model of the Italian Renassance:  pale skin and blonde hair for purity, expensive fabric and jewelry for social stautus and wealth, and modern hairstyle. Lucky her.

Anyways, that was not the trinket for today, but just consider that an extra tidbit. Here is the back panels and the trinket for Thursday:

This picture is showing the paintings without their frame, but they are placed right behind the portraits in the same over-the-top frame.

The duke and his chariot pulled by white horses are on the left, while the duchess and her carriage pulled by unicorns are on the right. Now...for today's trinket:

FACT:  Unicorns can only be tamed by virgins.

I bet you were not expecting that one! As it turns out, you can learn something everyday.

As you go about your weekend, try to learn some random useless fact. It will do you good. Laugh a little! Oh and remember...it's the random reasons.

P.S.:  Expect an art post tomorrow!

A Trinket for Thursday

Hello everyone. Before I get into today's trinket, I do need to apologize to those of you who might have noticed that there was no trinket last Thursday. I am sincerely sorry. The only excuse I have was that I was busy with projects and was getting sick. Anyhoo, today I have a trinket and am also pleased to announce that I will have one if not more artwork posts in the coming days.

Today's trinket is more or less selfish, it is an announcement and most likely has nothing to do with any of my readers. I have been incredibly unfocused today due to the fact that today, September 22, is exactly 10 days since my Momentum Art Show submission was due, 12 days since I submitted my art, and is the day that the artists are supposed to be notified as to whether their submissions were accepted or....rejected. I have found myself checking their website for the selected artist list and excessively checking my email for my personal message. Since I started typing this post (with my email open, of course) I have received two emails, both of which made a little "ding" when they got to my inbox. Each time made my heart rate speed up a little bit. One was the Recipe of the Day from allrecipes.com and the other was a list of art which will be on my Italian Renaissance quiz next Tuesday. I deleted the recipe and saved the study material.

If you haven't noticed, I am stressing out hardcore. I promised myself I would not get my hopes up, but knowing that I am supposed to find out this news before 5pm today is KILLING me! I will update you all with results.

So, there you go, today's trinket is the reason for my stress and lack of attention today. Regardless of the outcome, I am proud of myself for putting myself and my work out there to be judged. As you go about the rest of your day, don't hide your talent. People will either appreciate or they won't, but as long as you are happy with it, that is all that matters. Oh and, as always, it's the random reasons.

Stress and Deflation

Hello everyone! Hope you all have had wonderful weekends and are ready for the new week to start! I have been working on my two studio projects this weekend, and they are both finished! I am slightly impressed seeing how I did not have to stay up into the early morning hours to have such an accomplishment as two finished projects. Anyways...here they are.

Project 1: Foam Carving. Class:  3D Fundamentals.
Goal:  To create a relief carving out of insulation foam which has a background, middle ground, and foreground. Use an abstract square from a personal photo to a 12x12 inch panel.

I used a photo that I took when CJ and I had a picnic at the lake.

Then I chose this 1.5x1.5 inch square to carve:

It was a lot of work and it definitely took me out of my comfort zone, but towards the end I started to really enjoy it. I am looking forward to getting this piece framed and placed on the mantle.We had to paint the carving in one color, so I chose a pea green. It is going for a more contemporary natural look.

Project 2:  Contour Line Inflatable Object Drawing. Class:  Drawing 2

Goal:  To create a charcoal drawing using vine charcoal and an eraser. The erasure should cause a sense of progression or history, and the object must be drawn from either deflation to inflation or vice versa.

This project and I went round and round. I hated it. I procrastinated to the extreme, but in the end, I love it. It has a meaning and I believe that it can definitely be seen.

Here is an up close view of the final piece. It shows the sense of history that the drawing has due to the repeated drawing and erasing.





This is the finished project. I drew my inflatable pool ring from inflation to deflation. In the beginning the object was simple, but towards the end it became more and more complicated. The final drawing is darker than the rest and was not erased like its 100 predecessors. The title is Stress, and it represents a big ball of stress. It also can be seen as: 1. Stress causes you to feel deflated. 2. Stress takes over. 3. This project stressed me tot he core. As you can see, the ball has completely taken over most of the page. It covers the border and the whole ball cannot be seen. It is complicated and confusing.

Critiques are tomorrow! Wish me luck! As you go about your week, don't let stress take over your life. Take a breath and relax...it ALWAYS turns out ok. And, as always....its the random reasons.



A Trinket for Thursday

Today's trinket is coming from a video we watched in one of my art classes and it's influence on my Drawing 2 project 2 that I am working on. You can read about it in the post, Let Me Just Erase That. Anyways, this video is a drawing animation done by William Kentridge of South Africa. His videos are all done on paper with charcoal. He only uses about 20-30 sheets of paper per animation because he uses erasure to add a sense of history and progression to each scene. Look him up and watch more of his videos, they are pretty fantastic. Here is Automatic Writing:

Hope you enjoyed that! It is really neat to watch and to know that all he uses is paper, charcoal, and a video camera. As you go about your day, try to find something wonderful that is accomplished with surprisingly simple tools. What you find might shock you. And as, always...its the random reasons.

Let Me Just Erase That

Hello everyone! I am now making good on my promise of a post with some art in it! And yes, I am aware that it is Thursday, and I will still have a trinket for you! Anyhoo, today's post is mainly focuses on my first two projects in my Drawing 2 class. The first project has been finished and graded, and the second one is due on Wednesday, so I still have a lot of work to do on it.

The first project had three simple guidelines: 1. Use charcoal as the media. 2. Use two different light sources for each piece. 3. Use your eraser as a mark making tool. The technique of erasure is not one that I am overly fond about. There is something about erasing my work that just stresses me to the core. However, no one asked me and I am paying the big bucks to learn things like this in college, so here is the first project...step by step.

First, I covered the entire paper using vine charcoal. Then I put my charcoal to the side and used my eraser to sketch out my objects, which were a set of 5 glass bottles.

                                        

Using the eraser as my main tool and occasionally fixing things with my charcoal, I was able to add value and space to my drawing.



While I was happy with the finished pieces (there were two--one with light from above and one with light from the right) the process was irritating and will most definitely not be on my favorites list any time soon. I managed to get a great grade on them though! Yay!



The second project is even more frustrating. We were instructed to get an inflatable object and show it going from inflation to deflation using contour lines in charcoal. I grabbed a clearance rack floaty from Wal-Mart and decided to go from inflation to deflation ending up with a deflated ball at the end. The piece is supposed to have a sense of history and progression, so we are drawing and then erasing our lines. We are supposed to have something close to 70 to 100 drawing on this page...of the same object...erased. We shall see how it goes. I am making good progress, but am still not loving my piece. However, as my first art teacher told me: "Every art piece goes through an ugly stage before it can be pretty." I am banking on those words right now.

I have two projects due on Wednesday, so be expecting a post of the final works. As you go about your day, get out of your comfort zone. It will be frustrating and possibly ugly, but it will soon turn to gorgeous. And, as always....its the random reasons.

A Trinket for Thursday

Today's trinket is a tad bit nerdy and caused some confusion for me this morning. On Thursday mornings I have my geography lab. I hate my geography class, and it is becoming more and more clear that the only reason I am taking it is to fulfill my science credits. Anyhoo, today in lab we worked with maps. Now, I don't know about you, but when I see a group of dots with numbers beside them I want to grab a pencil and connect the dots. You don't do this with isolines on a map. You have to draw around them and such.

Sorry for the boring trinket, but at least now you know that the geographers are doing more than just connecting the dots...it may not be as fun, but it is a little more complicated. Enjoy the rest of your day and don't forget...it's the random reasons.

P.S.  Look for an art post coming soon!