Almost done

This week I kept working with my cup, and now I'm more or less ready for glazing and putting it in the oven. Initially I thought of doing a green slip, but the slip we have is not only pastel green (I wanted more of an emerald), it also acts a bit strangely becoming drops of glaze. Therefore I have decided to do a metallic brown slip.

At the beginning of this week's lesson, I discovered that my cup was bone-dry, not leather hard! I had covered it in a plastic bag and all,, bu it still dried. Lucky for me, I found that it was still good to work with, and that it was perhaps easier getting it smooth, and carving the scales.
I made the coils more even, before finishing the carving. Then I added the bottom part. At first, it looked a bit strange, as the tail was suspended from the air (I had made it without the bottom part). However I managed to make the bottom part to look like it was part of the coil, and I made a new tail, which now rests on the ground.

I really hope that it won't crack while drying so that next lesson I will be able to smoothen it out (especially on the inside, which currently looks a little messy), add the slip, and it will be ready for burning! :D

Here are some in-progress pics:

Continuing my cuppp!

This week I continued working on my clay cup. It was now leather hard, so it was good to work with. I emphasised the releif of the snake coil (making sure that the thinnest parts didn't become too weak). I also made the bottom part, and added the head. For the head, I decided not to make a mouth in order to keep my design "clean", and added the eyes by creating indentations at each side of the head, and adding some clay for the "eyebrow" ( I know, not the right word to use at all, but you get it; the area above the eyes).
Then I started carving the reptile scales. I want them to be darker than the rest of the glaze/slip/whatever I will be using, so I carve them before glazing.

I think it's starting to look nice, but I'm a bit afraid the tail will crack :/

Wellwell, here's how it looks for now:

Here's our cover sheet for this unit :)

Due: 18 April

Clay Cups 

March-April 2013, MYPD

istarts-romans.blogspot.no

Unit Question: Form follows Function...Or?

AOI: Human Ingenuity: Impact of innovation and creation on society;

Taking Action to think creatively.

You will be assessed through all four criteria:

A.Knowledge and Understanding: (DW blog assignment) Write a 400 word essay on a type of ceramics culture and how it is inspiring to you. (See http://istarts-romans.blogspot.no/ for some links to examples of ceramic cultures. You're not limited to those only-- ceramics is possibly the oldest technology and art form known (30,000 years old.) That means that you have a lot to choose from!

Mention: Who made the ceramics? When? What was its purpose? How was it made? (techniques.) Why is it interesting to you?

B. Application: Develop skills and apply techniques in the making of your own cup or vessel.

C. Reflection and Evaluation:(DW blog entries) Describe your process, evaluate your work; consider feedback. Use design cycle as a way of ordering and developing your ideas, from rough stages to more finished.

Vocabulary you should/can use in describing your process: slab, plastic, leather hard, slip, score, relief, carving, surface, glaze, firing.

D. Personal Engagement: Demonstrate curiosity, self-motivation and willingness to take informed risks. Support and encourage peers.

Objectives: 1. Develop critical thinking.Develop composition skills

2. Create a cup that has artistic form as well as function.

New unit!

Today we started a new unit: clay! I'm really excited about it, and I've already more or less started what I want to be my assignment. We were learning about different techniques of making cups (or similar vessels). One of them was making a slab (alternatively cutting slits in it), the other was putting coils of clay atop each other in the cup shape you want, and smoothening it out.
My idea was to join the coils together into one continuous coil, and not smoothening out. By leaving the bottom end of the coil sticking out, and adding a head to the other end (and adding the bottom of my cup of course), I would have a snake cup!

I also had some other ideas, whose sketches (not very good, I must add, as they were part of my brainstorm..) I have added below: (I'm sorry it's a bit weak, but it was pencil sketch, so that's how it came out of the scanning)

End of unit evaluation!

Now that I'm done with my drawing, I guess the unit is finished. It is a bit sad, because I really enjoyed it, but the next unit will include working with clay, and I'm really excited about that, so it's not that bad :)

Evaluation

Actually, I'm oveall quite happy about how my drawing turned out. I particularly like:

The bunad-embroidery
Not only does this represent one of my interests well, but it is also an uncommon pattern that makes the drawing interesting.

The hut 
I think this turned out very realistic, and is super-typical to Norwegian people's outdoor life, including my own. I was a bit scared about the shading beneath the roof, but think I managed that quite well.

The shoe
As I mentioned in my previous posts, I used quite a lot of time on the shoe. It was a practice excercise that lasted several lessons, allowing me to focus on this for the time I needed. I was therefore quite thorough with it, and like the grading of it. In hindsight, I think it was a smart choice to use this shoe, instead of drawing a set of a new pair. Although I would have liked to be "looking down on my own shoes" in the drawing, it saved me a lot of time which I used on other areas of my drawing, and turned out quite cool.

The Sami sun and the pine tree
I feel that the Sami sun adds a cool effect to it, even without knowing what it symbolises. Also I think the pine tree looked quite realistic.

I also like that I managed to use atmospheric, one point, and big-small perspective, how the different object symbollise my culture, and the general composition of the drawing.


On the areas that could have gone better, I would have liked to be able to create more contrast in my drawing. Even though I used the darkest shade I was able to on some areas (like the tree in the foreground, and areas of the shoe and its leg), and completely white on the background, I felt that things got a little smudged into each other while I drew and moved my hand over them.
Another thing was the flag. I wanted it to be waving in the wind, but struggled with getting it realistic.

Changed design of my blog!

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I've changed the design of my art blog! I thought the previous one was a bit dull and dark, so I replaced it with a pic I took on holiday in France. I think it looks pretty neat. :)

Finished with working on the drawing!

Today I finished my drawing! I finished the million trees and shaded the hill in the background. I also drew the Sami sun, making it a bit darker around the edges because a white sun against a white sky would be kinda invisible. (Yes, my sky is white, I wanted to use the atmospheric perspective technique where close things are dark and faraway things are light. Initially I had planned on doing a flag, but placed the flag by the cabin instead.) I decided some transmission towers instead of the camels because:

a. I don't really know why I wanted camels in the first place

b. There has been a lot of debate about if we should build transmission towers to supply the cities of Norway with electricity, even if they're placed righht in the middle of nature landscapes. Thus, they fit in with my "we trample on nature" idea.

c. They demonstrate the usage of one-point perspective (and big-small perspective i guess).

Finally, I made some of the shades darker, and some of the highlights lighter so that there was a bit more contour in my drawing.



Now, I'm done, and happy with my drawing :D