week 3 recap

what an odd week! i didn't have my one class thursday of last week because my professor lives in richmond (2 hour drive) and with the threat of snow... he didn't want to be stuck here. did we get the snow, NO! oh well. monday was a holiday, so no classes for me or the kids. i think my mom enjoyed her 4 day break from my kids. so the rest of the week i had my classes as usual and the kids got a snow day thursday and came home early friday (we barely got a dusting of the stuff).

photography was fun. not because i took awesome pictures, but because i made a camera! yes! you heard me!! it's not hard at all, my dad even said "we did that with the cub scouts"... scuse me for being behind the times. anyways, wednesday i got to class early enough that i made a contact sheet of my photos taken over the break.... soooooo not happy that they are so dark. but, it was night time photography and i haven't mastered that at all. there are a few potentials. when i get more photo paper i just might print them.

so on to the camera. super easy! but it did take us almost the entire class period to make them. thank heavens my mom had a canister that i could use, the soda can wasn't hard to come by (thank you grandma jones for the mt dew).... what?! you didn't know that you could use an ordinary (but light tight) canister and a soda can...? why yes, yes you can! let me show you

 my container... wasn't totally light tight, i needed to put black electrical tape all over the lid. i also painted the inside black, didn't have to be perfect, but mostly covered.

see that black tape? i wasn't covering up vital nutritional info, that tape is my 'shutter'. i cut a hole in the side for my 'lens' so peek through.

and here is where the soda can comes in. you make the tiniest hole possible in the can, then place it in the larger container, glue/tape it down and you have your lens. you can't see it, but the arrow is pointing to it. the smaller the hole, the sharper your image. all i gotta do is put my photo paper in the container (in the darkroom of course) then go out where it's sunny, and then 'take a picture'.


i was hoping to make some pictures this weekend... didn't happen. i need paper, money is a bit tight and i had all the kids with me. i think monday will be a work day for us anyways... i'll show ya what i come up with.

so my easy-a art class.... i got a b on my first paper. a page on a controversial artist. my professor's comments explained that i didn't really write enough on why he was so controversial (i chose paul mccarthy). i'm ok with that. if i want i could rewrite the paper... don't think so. i really don't like the guy and don't want to get in too deep with his nasty stuff. we have a new assignment to write about a color. i'm choosing blue, my favorite, and have begun the research. due friday, so i have time... and it's only a one page piece again.

design class! so our first big assignment was to draw an object 52 times in black and white, then another 52 times in color. well, because we missed a class, i wasn't aware until after all 104 drawings were done that i didn't chose a good enough object. i decided to draw my necklace.... i get his reasoning behind why he didn't like what i did. he said "i appreciate your effort"... which in art terms means "uhhh, try again". so i decided to draw my sneaker... he was fine with that. thankfully, i didn't have to draw it 104 times, this time only 6. (this all is an example of think-tank type work... lots of ideas, then you pick the best of those and work on them some more, then you pick the best one of the last pick and run with it). i really liked my stuff and found it to be much easier to find different ways of seeing my shoe. now i need to pick one (but i'm gonna do two) and really refine it and make it a final. i hit my mom's craft stash for papers of various colors and patterns.... when i finish, i'll let ya know what the professor thinks.

not a great artist... but i really liked some of these. if i could have done them in charcoal as a final... woo-hoo!

 i think i just was trying to get the project done, so i didn't really enhance or change anything (like the prof was hoping). really didn't like theses in color... in a way (very small way) i'm glad he wasn't a fan of the work.

top left and middle right are the ones i will be finalizing. i like all but the middle left and bottom right... wasn't feelin them. but i needed 6 drawings. the top left reminds me of roads though the apple orchards at a distance; the middle right is like a city seen from above....