Collection

All my works have come together! Taking them out of their unique packaging and little hiding places to come under one place was really neat. I had forgotten about some of the pieces and was happy to see some. The challenges showed me another side of my art and style that I haven't really seen. I knew about my trend to make creatures and characters, but what was interesting is that all my work was relatively small and all handmade. I made an effort to either use supplies I had or found. Nothing I had made over the process of the challenges was ever bought. I have always been a maker, but I never knew to this extent. I have always been willing to create and try new things. It is important to try new materials like air dry clay and fail sometimes when making wax relief fabrics. Art is a process and learning what works for you is important. Seeing everything laid out before me made me realize this. 

From this point I decided to go along with expanding the idea of my shadow drawing. I loved how it came out and was not used to working on something of that scale. So I wanted to remake it with a twist and the help of some of the items I made from the quick challenge journey.

Transparency

I am interested in animations and the process of making them by hand. I thought how can I make a piece that showed the line work and the color separately. I went with layers of wax paper and parchment paper. Both are transparent and have unique properties. They turned out okay, but a little to obvious. My favorite is the one eye creature man. Even aliens have hearts.

Maps & Charts

           

I decided to use some traditional materials for this challenge. I made some maps of where I lived, my commute and a train commute ( something I have always wanted to go on). I then made a chart with my hair of how long it was when I was "x" years old with actual hair! Pretty weird, but fun. My favorite was the maps of the human and monster body. Their insides reveal that monsters are just as good as regular looking people. Its what is inside that counts. 

Newspaper

The newspaper I get is very....ugly. So I tried to think of things that were pretty, so I went to Zoolander haha. The skirt and underwear are fashionable "street" wear. The smaller pictures are mouse paintings. The idea that mice collect food pictures from newspapers made me giggle a bit. Even they hope for something better in the future, even if its a close up of a crab leg.

Hair & Drawing in Space

 Hair ...right?

So I had a lot of hair and needed a trim, but I was too lazy to get out of my house and get it done. Perfect timing for this challenge, right? So I made my own brushes I tried to make different brushed like they would have in the store which was a very difficult and messy process. It was all worth it and I have to say my most successful piece was the long hair brush with the purple and blue marks. I used watercolor on bristol and thought it would be nice to show the brush hanging from the piece it made. Sort of like a brush sampling gallery, but with my hair...kinda creepy? 

Drawing in Space

Didn't know how I would draw in space...So I made some drawing and put them into a "space". So there are some vases I made with creepy faces inside. The idea is to have little monsters trapped in vases. Who wouldn't be screaming and upset if they were in a vase. My other favorite is the flying bird on a wire. Birds draw in space in their own way from flying around happily with one another to making trips across the country. 

I had been getting into making storage devices for my challenges. Thought I would share the little tote I took these two challenges to school with. Its amazing what you can make with some cardboard and tape.

Wax

Wax is a weird thing to me since I usually only think of candles and not how it can be applied to art ( well besides the lost wax mold technique). Anyways, I wanted to try to make my own fabric with wax. It was a pain at first since I didn't get the wax to be the right temperature and because the tools I have were just a toothpick and a chopstick. The wax would harden by the time I got it onto the fabric. Ended up just dripping it randomly or submerging parts of the fabric into the wax basin I had. I used beet juice to make the neat purple color, but I didn't rinse it because I did not have the right chemicals to make the color permanent. I would defiantly revisit this method with proper tools and materials. Also made a tiny candle!

Note! There is only six in the top photo because I ended using some of the fabric for my final piece!!! There is a photo with all my challenges on a table. It should show them there!

Pinholes & Holes

A lot of the examples that were shown were pinholes. So I tried to stay away from that. I leaned towards cut paper and air dry clay for this project. The flower was my favorite piece because it is delicate and beautiful like an actual flower, but it is just paper. The bracelet was fun as well since its a weird accessory made from some tape. Some of the best creations come from the least expected materials!

Body Marks

The very first assignment was Body Marks. I was not so sure what to do for these challenges since it was the start of something new. I wanted to stay away from obvious methods, and tried some new things. For some pieces I painted portions of my body and stamped myself to paper surfaces. I tried dropping ink on paper and blowing it around. A body does not only make a mark with its form, but with every breathe we take. For the others I made some air dry clay and imprinted parts of face. The creatures came out pretty neat and opened a new medium!

Final Piece

I started with a sketch of what I wanted to do for the final. I wanted to keep going with my shadow illustration because it was really interesting working with a big piece. I was sad that the paper crumpled though, so I decided to go with making a frame and ready some air dry clay. Since I enjoyed the air dry clay as this new medium, I wanted to explore it more and how it can work for this piece. In the sketch above the green would be air dry clay. So Nightmare would appear to be oozing out dream matter from his eye. Yum.

Made from the finest woods home depot has to offer, I built a frame that resembles the sketch size. Was it a challenge? Yes.... But there is a first time for everything. I liked how it came out and can't wait to apply the illustration to it.

Here is Nightmare's "portrait". This will be copied over to the frame. I'm not cutting the paper, but instead redrawing it. This serves as my 50% as inspiration and is the same art that will be applied yo the wood.

Here is the completed piece! I used the dyed fabric from my wax challenge for his eye. It gave it some depth and a galaxy / starry feel. Around the main Nightmare are cloudy purple and blue auras from other shadows. The light colors and layering technique was accomplished with watercolors and the colors were brought out with a few layers of gel medium.  The gel medium was also used for the dripping pink/ red matter. Looks wet, but is completely dry!

I wanted to keep the grain of the wood visible in some places because of the way it contrasted with the bright colors. It also provided a root to something "earthy" when the overall feel the piece gives off is "celestial" or even "other worldly".