Starting the "Time" unit

Today we started the "Time" unit, and started brainstorming some ideas.

1. One idea I had was doing an eye with the pupil as the center point of the clock, with the iris as the face of the clock. 
2. Another idea was to do a clock which depicted the feeling of that time passes at different speeds depending on what you are doing and how much you are enjoying it.
3. Then I thought of making a cracked clock where the numbers have fallen to the bottom and its face is cracked, which would be quite cool.
4. I also thought about doing something with space travel, perhaps with a painting of the Delorean on the clock face and the numbers going anti-clockwise (12, 11, 10 etc.). I also thought of making the clockwork machinery go backwards, but frankly I have no idea of how to do this, and will probably break it if I tried.
5. Thinking of the fact that the different time zones in the world have different times, I considered doing several clocks with several times, with the GMT in the middle, with the styles of the various clocks representing the country. Although it is an interesting idea, I found that this would take too much time, and if I were to complete it in the time frame allocated to this unit, it would be a rushed project.
6. I had an idea of doing a clock which shows the different colours of the rainbow in circles starting from the centre, with the hands the same patterns so they would be "invisible" showing that time is everywhere, but you can't really see or measure it. If I would be able to, the colours would transition smoothly into each other, giving an interesting effect.
7. The final idea I had, was a modern-looking clocks with an ancient numbering system, symbolising that everything we do now is based on what our ancestors's knowledge, including numbers. 

I was thinking of doing idea 6, but found that it would be a bit boring as it would be difficult to see the meaning. In that way, I better like the last idea, as this is a thought provoking idea that allows for many options and interesting ways to approach it, and the meaning is not that hard to deduce. 

Below is a scan of the various ideas:

Unit Evaluation

During the investigation for my project, I quite enjoyed researching about Frida Khalo, an I found her works and painting style really interesting. I feel that I managed to incorporate some of her styles into the "dark" side of my own painting, and found the research I did quite helpful for getting ideas and inspiration, and therefore feel satisfied with the successfulness of the investigation.

In relation to the drawing I created for the design of my painting, I was quite happy with the way it turned out. I really like the grid method, as it gives a good base to work with. I think I chose a good picture of myself to look at, and I also feel that I managed to represent myself and my personality quite well in the symbolism.

I found the painting part a bit challenging, as I have not worked much with this before apart from the unit we had about it last year, so overall I felt it went quite well. I tried to apply what we had learned about light to dark, warm to cold, big to small and thin to thick, and feel that I managed this quite well, seeing as this is something I haven't had much experience with. I found the toning of the skin especially difficult, but looking at how it turned out, I am quite pleased with the result. Although it doesn't fully look like me, I think you can see the resemblance. I also think that the division between the two halves turned out well, and gave a nice effect to the painting.


When it comes to effort and engagement, I personally think that I have worked well during this unit, and used the time effectively, and also worked on the drawing well at home. However, I would have struggled if we hadn't got an extension of the due date, and this is something I will have to keep in mind during later projects.

Final lesson

Today was the final day we had for working on our paintings. First I worked on the toning of the skin on the right side. I was a bit concerned as it looked somewhat lifeless, and I re-painted the skin many times. Finally I managed to find a tone that wasn't too bad, and decided to leave it at that before I messed it up again. Then I went on to the eyes. I found it very challenging to replicate my eye colour, which I found out was quite complicated, but I thought they turned out quite well. I then went on to the eye-brows. I wasn't really satisfied with the right side, but it had already dried a bit by the time I tried to get it off, so I decided it was best to let it be the way it was. Finally I used brown pastels to make some music notes in the left background (not on the image) which I thought gave a nice finishing touch.