Hand Drawing

I am left handed. 
1. What was it like using your hand as subject matter for a drawing?
It was incredibly difficult. I like to use my hands to hold down paper when I am working. It felt awkward to draw my hands. 

2. What media did you select - pencil or charcoal? Why?
I chose pencil because I am not a very good drawer anyway and charcoal smears really easily. I also drag my hand when I write and draw so i would have been covered. 

3. How did it feel to create a drawing with your non-dominant hand?
Horrible. I feel accomplished because i drew it and it does not look terrible. But i fell like my dominant hand is so much better. I kept wanting to switch hands to draw. 

4. Compare and contrast your final drawings. Do you think they are successful studies?
I like the drawing with my dominant hand so much better. I think it is cool to be able to compare the two drawings especially side by side. 

5. Would you consider using your non-dominant hand to create artwork in the future?

I sometimes use it to write. I am not terrible at it. I think I might give it another try. The more you use it the better it is going to get.

Module 9

Velázquez- I have heard of Velazquez before. I like to pick the videos that I think I will be interested in. I will not pay close attention if I am not interested in the film. The fact that the video was only 36 minutes was an added bonus! He was close friends with the King. He always thought the king was eloquent. He loved to paint and painted the King in a timeless way. "He didn't give a fig for eternity." He was a very educated painter.  Velazquez died in Madrid shortly after he returned. I feel like Velazquez was more of a Rococo painter. His pieces used more subtle colors and seemed more elegant and not dramatic. His paintings are massive like the Baroque style. This is confusing to me. The war painting he created was neutral. There was no clear indication who won in fact the battle faded off and we saw landscape in the background. He was an abstract painter. His paintings are beautiful. The video shows so many of his pieces. He does a lot of portraits and his characters seemed fixed or frozen. The movement was inner. Velazquez will not beautify a person. everything he painted was a reaction and reflection of himself. They keep referring to Baroque but looking at his work I see Rococo. He is sparing in his use of color. I thought this was a great informative video. 

I wanted to watch, The Night Watch,because that sounded interesting but it said it was no longer available so I chose Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master. I took German in high school and it is part of my heritage  I find it completely fascinating to learn more about Germany. The silver point drawing is cool. I have never seen anything like that before. Enjoyed painting hands. He carefully observed the process of aging. He was one of 18 siblings. His charcoal sketch of his mother makes her look crazy, really has a cruelty of showing age. i love the color he uses in his pieces. It is the opposite of  Velazquez who is sparing with color. Print making allowed him to make many copies and reach a larger audiance. One of the favorites was of the virgin Mary. This was an interesting video. It is not was I was hoping it was going to be. I liked seeing his paintings more that his wood prints. 

Module 8

Cairo Museum
I chose the video because I like museums. I find museums interesting, so I figured that the video would be one that interests me. The title is a big reason I chose it. The video showed the basement. It is spooky looking. There is so much history in the basement that it is hard to chose what to display. The video related to the text because of the history of the pieces in the museum. What influenced modern times. They went to tombs to find more work to display in the centennial exhibit. I enjoyed the video. The objects are really interesting to see. Some of the objects were hard to depict what they were. It helped me to understand where ancient art comes from. Not only where but how it is gathered.
More Human Than Human

1908 Venus of Willendorf was pulled from the ground only 10cm high.Our first clue as to why human figures are not as realistic and have exaggerate characteristics. It discusses the fertility of the women in book and  movie.The video was interested. I enjoyed seeing the art in the video and the stores caught my attention. The piece that was under the sand in the water was awesome how he found them. God took human forms. The video helped to explain the evolution of art. They used their eyes to build on the progress. 

Module 7

Architecture: The Science of Design

Buildings a hundred stories high can sway a whole meter in high winds. To much of a sway can stop elevators and ruin the structure. They build models of cities and use past weather pattern to see if the building can with stand the weather. Smart houses can do a lot. It is an expensive dream. A computer can deal with the security and the appliances of a house. The ideal spot to have concrete harden is under water. 

The video talks about concrete and how the Romans and Egyptians used it and how it became more popular again in modern times. Reinforced concrete does not break abruptly. 

I thought the film was very interesting, but I thought it needed to be updated. When showing the smart house I noticed the computer. That is an old computer, now we can do those sorts of things on smart phones. The information was interesting to listen to and see. I really enjoyed the parts about skyscrapers and the sway they have. I have never lived in a city and haven't seen many big skyscrapers. I knew they swayed but not that much. 

It looked interesting to me so I chose it. I also saw that it was the shortest film so that also played a factor in my choosing. 

Frank Gehry: Architecture as Art

He uses decomposition forms and likes to incorporate sunlight. He designs also make sure to have functionality. The breaking up of parts and the decomposition of the building is the most important function of making a building successful. We should not always name things. 

The readings discussed the green architecture and part of that was using natural light. They also discuss how they build from models before they actually create the large building.

I really liked the film. It is what I was hoping it would be. Getting to see some of the amazing buildings was awesome. It makes me want to go and see them in person. 

 I chose this film because my brother is an Architect. When he was going to school and growing up with my father who builds houses we always looked at interesting buildings. To me I saw some that look more like beautiful sculpture that houses so I thought this film would give me more of that. 

Module 6

After watching the videos Through the Eyes of  a Sculptor and Glass and Ceramics i found out how important glass is and its role in our lives. Glass is everywhere. I also found that glass gets strong as it is heated. I found the glass and ceramics video to be very interesting. I restated a lot of the information that we read in out textbook. Ceramics is created out of clay and can be molded. It can also be pressed like plates. The use of different materials and heat put on the materials the better the ceramics. The videos talk about the stained and the techniques used to produce them. This was a very interesting video with a lot of good information. I am fascinated by glass blowing and would love to go to Corning so this video was awesome. Through the eyes of a sculpture was an interesting video. It was not my favorite and seemed slow to get into. The sculpture and the process of making a sculpture is incredible and intricate. It amazes me how they start off so small then make a full size just to make a cast with silicone to create a marble sculpture. So much work for one piece. The book discusses the casting process and the human figure is sculpture. Sculptures require multiple people to create a piece. Both videos really go into detail to help people understand the concepts presented in the video. Watching these pieces happen and process for creating them helps me as a student and learner better understand the process and steps to create magnificent pieces of art.

Reviewing Peer Art Work

http://beastmode1012.blogspot.com/
http://smanthayorko.blogspot.com/
I did agree with both of the Blogs that I looked at. I think they did a great job at taking photographs of all of the elements and principles. Actually each had a different interpretation of value. I thought both were very interesting. Each of there value pictures were my favorite of all of the elements and principles. I believe that most pictures have not only one element or principle inside them. I also feel that the more interesting pictures involve more than one. Beastmode's value picture was a close up black and white of a dog. It could have been emphasis too. I did not have any of the same pieces from the Albright Knox. I was surprised. I must say that I did almost have the same Julio Le Parc, Serie 14 No. 2, 1970. It looks like a colorful bulls-eye. I was attracted to the colors but I found other pieces that got my attention more. This is the only piece that really caught my attention and I believe that is because I almost chose it myself. I do want to know what really inspired the artist to create such a colorful piece that is a symbol of something normal? I found this very interesting. It was really neat to see my fellow students pictures. I thought that Project 1 was the best project thus far. To see other peoples interpretations of the same elements and principles was really inspiring. As of now I do not have comments that I have seen. I believe that the comments will be beneficial. People have different opinions especially about art so I am interested to see if others fell similar to me.