Second Piece - Photography.

Photographs of my sister for my Second Piece on Henna. Need to decide on Three.

Sorry that it's a little messy - the post wouldn't let me edit it around too much.

Oops - I meant Third Piece!

Working on the Third Piece

Oops! On my last post I said this was my second piece when it's my third - the second is in process still, since it's a photography piece. Being developed as I write.

For this one, I switched it around from what I originally planned. At first I was going to have the whole face showing but I decided a close up of a face from a profile view would be better. Decided to use tissue paper to give the painting texture and a suggestion of hair, and to convey a sense of spiritual fragility through the delicate material. I still have to section off the subject's face to show deterioration.

I'm now debating though whether I want to include fabric as I originally planned, or whether this would make the painting chaotic. Hm.

Started with a Basic Outline.

Then began with the tissue work. Used white tissue, which I then painted over with acrylic to get whatever color I wanted. The acrylic also helped as a glue.

Was considering whether I wanted to leave some white to get this rocky texture to give the painting harshness. Decided against it though, as it was too overpowering.

Adding color. Almost done - just need to section off the face and write in the text!

Post 2 - And should've posted a month ago!

Hey Guys - this was the planning I did for my second piece. It's not a self-portrait, but I wanted a reference of some sort so I used myself as my Muse ;). I took a lot of different photographs, but the ones that I was decided between are displayed, with the cropped close-up being the chosen one.

Musical Elements to Brain-Machine

Over the last few weeks, we've been building up some of the musical elements of the piece.

Now, introducing the guitar playing robot!:

We're working on tweaking the song so it sounds good. We programmed it so that as a user's attention level is high, the song will play at speed (and actually sound like real music.) Excited to see it come together...

I forgot to post this earlier, but here is a video of of early prototypes of the instrumentation. We tried playing Thermin, thumb pianos and even a flute...

An early mallet prototype for striking marimba bar elements.

updates

Here are some more images from my project. The third one is a lithograph. The entire image didn't scan but you'll see the real one at Party on the Edge. Been having a lot of fun working digitally on my traditional pieces... it's also fun to be working with the end goal of making something completely out of my own head. Lots of imaginative stuff. All your projects look amazing, I'm really impressed!

Tibet Painting Series Update

I'm still working on my project, a series of nine different paintings all reflections on my trip to Tibet and China. I tried to incorporate my own style with Chinese propaganda and Tibetan influences. This is where I am. I have been working on all paintings concurrently and am just about done with the project. I will be putting the final touches on these paintings in the next few weeks. Here are some pictures of my work spaces these past few weeks. Sorry about the low quality images. When I am done, I'll take some nice, high quality photos for a later post.
 

Ariana's blog on art

Hey guys,
Just a reminder to check out my artsblog at koblitzarts.wordpress.com for continuing updates on my project process.

My camera broke down and so I'm working on it at the moment, so most recent photos will have to wait, but being back on campus means I finally uploaded earlier ones!

Cheers,
Ariana

Update on Pop-ups

Hi everyone,

This summer I've been busy refining my pop-up book about how seeds grow into flowers. I've improved my paper engineering skills by researching other children's pop-up books, practicing various techniques, prototyping mechanisms, and applying them to my book. Each of the mechanisms in the final version should be more intuitive and functional.

Here's a sample of the refinements made to the book.

BEFORE

Problems: The pull tab sticks out beyond the boundary of the page and it jiggles up and down instead of moving in and out smoothly and consistently. Also, the "flow" of the water works nicely/somewhat realistically as you pull the tab out, but not as you push it back in.

AFTER

Solution: Using a wheel allows the water to start, flow, and stop in a more realistic way

Blog 2 Pablo CA and China

I just returned from the Deep Springs Valley in eastern California, where I found and sampled an incredible variety of rocks and minerals. Work to do, things to do, rocks to cut apart. Here, however, are my newest micrographs of serpentinites from Livermore, CA., and sandstones from the Gansu Province, China.

In exchange for my temporal absence in this blog, here is a small summary of how my project developed throughout the summer.

I just had a plan and an ambitious idea; I wanted to make a series of huge charcoal portrait drawings (and by huge I really mean big). The beginning was very frustrating. It turned out to be extremely difficult to get the paper I needed for the drawings in Mexico, since I was living in my hometown this summer, Mexico City. After searching literally dozens of art stores for a roll of paper bigger than 1.5m tall I managed to find the one I needed in a little art shop in San Miguel de Allende, a small but beautiful town north of Mexico city filled with new artists. I was happy and ready to start drawing, now that I had my “big paper”. Of course the next problem was where to draw such a big piece. After discussing with my mom I took control of a room in my house where I could do everything I wanted. This is a picture of the room, with an adapted drawing table and the paper.

Everything was ready now, except I didn’t had a subject to draw. I knew I wanted portraits, and I wanted to mix them. After thinking a while I decided to make my own portrait, since I had never drawn myself and it felt exciting. So I started…

The way I do my drawings is buy first painting the paper as dark as I can with the charcoal, until it ends like black velvet texture, then I begin “painting” the light with an eraser; so I basically do it the other way around, draw the light instead of shadows. After two weeks and a loooooot of charcoal I finished the drawing.

It was time to start the second one. I decided to make a portrait of my best friend. I thought it would be interesting to have both portraits mixed, for he is like my brother and we have twin souls.

The next step was not easy. I was afraid of cutting the drawings. If I did one wrong movement, that would have been weeks of hard work destroyed. My hands were shaking, but I manage to do it. I cut both drawings in small squares of 10x10cm. Each drawing ended up in 300 small pieces. I then began mixing them, like building a puzzle. It was very interesting to see what new faces came out. Each new drawing had a unique expression, some were happy, others angry, other neutral. It was very shocking to see myself in those drawings, for I could recognize myself, but also my brother at the same time; it felt very creepy, but also extremely captivating. I mixed them a couple of times until I was satisfied with the expression. These are the final drawings:

These drawings have a special meaning. The drawing represents the two souls together; two friends united by experiences, dreams and hopes; two souls that are one and who’s image only exists in our minds and a new spirit which I hoped to capture in this drawings.

Here is a picture of me (left), my brother (right) and the finished drawings; to give a better idea of the size of the drawings.

I hope you like it.

Jorge