Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Science and Art project










































This is just pictures of my final project. I am pretty excited about the way it turned out. It's probably on of the only abstract picture that I have done and I'm proud of. I admit to a project here and there that I had thrown together and gave some out of this world meaning to. But I think I accomplished all that I wanted to accomplish in this project. I have the bright color and the white on black. I also believe I included my inspiration into the piece while making it my own. I think I achieved all that I wanted to and I hope that it portraits what I wanted it to without being too obvious.

Bibliography

This is my sources for my project

1) Sharpe, Shirlie. "Death by Dyeing." www.about.com. May 1998. Feb. 2009

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2) Dine, Jim. 8. 1973. Ten Winter Tools.

3) Halwagy, Basil. Metamorphasis. 2004. Black Drawing.

4) MacMahon, Dr. Stan, and Dr. Peter Burgess. "Why It's Cruel to Dye." Practical Fish Keeping 14 Feb. 2003. Feb. 2009

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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Artificially coloring fish





My final topic I decided on has come about through a process. I didn't know what question I wanted to ask but I did know what I wanted included in it.

nature/animal
color
line

I wanted to have high contrast in color and interesting marks in the drawing. I decided to come of the topic of Artificially coloring fish. Coloring a fish can be done through a few different process which include paints and dyes. A fish can be dyed by feeding them certain foods, dye injected, and finally dipping. Among these painted glass fish is a tetra. A tetra is originally found in black and white. The white are the most popularly used for dying. The big conflict among this is science vs. nature. Our technology and science is killing these fish with these dangerous methods. The artificial colors can raise there stress levels and make them susceptible to do disease, stunt their growth and development, and cause infections in the skin. The tetras are so popularly colored that they are also colored to go with holidays, black and white for halloween, green and red for christmas, and blue and red for the fourth of july.


After researching this process and what colors can be developed I have decided to do my project in multiple drawings. All the drawings will be on a black background with pastel for the marks. The first drawing will be a beautiful white tetra with strong lines and shape. The next few I'm not quite positive how they are going to be but I want them to be the bright colors that they can be dyed with, and finally end it with a overdeveloped in color and underdeveloped in size. I want my whole project to say a lot but be very simple in lines and composition. I think the question I would like to ask is in the idea of science vs. nature. but I am not sure how to put it or ask it. I think that this is something I can discuss in my tuesday meeting.

My idea of pastel on black has come from an interest of the way the black makes the colors pop. I research this and found an artist named Basil Halwagy. His drawing are really high contrast and have awesome line. He has a series on this idea called "Metamorphosis."


I'm still contemplating layering and how many drawings I want. I also am finding myself feeling like I want to narrate it too much or not enough. This I think is also something I can figure out today in our groups.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Science and Art

As a began to think of what to do when I came to this project I have been defining myself as a person and what I am interested in as an artist. As a person I have came to the conclusion that I love nature and that the natural aspects of science draw me in. I have decided an artist I am interested in line, color, and human figures. This is the beginning of my thought and the beginnings of my ideas.

Aging: As an artist I have always been attracted to the human face and the beauty of peoples different features. So my first Idea is Aging. To bring a science twist into it I want to bring in plastic surgery and/or beauty products. It is estimated that the physical aspect of a 70 year old person can be slowed down so far as to make them look in there fifties. I find this unbelievable and very interesting. So I thought this idea would be a great way to bring in my interest in the human figure and line quality.

Trees:
Every day I drive here to Stout. My drive is over an hour of trees, trees, and more trees. Every day I notice more and more about the relationship between trees and humans. As curious as it may sound I feel like there are many similarities

-The bark of a tree, the skin of a person
-The crack in a wood, the wrinkle on our skin
-The limbs of a tree, the arms/legs of a person
-The hard bark, the callous of our skin
-being able to read the age of a tree by it's bark, the smooth skin of a new tree or baby
-dieing of a tree and a person
-The tragedy of a young tree dying, the sadness of a young person
-The movement in a tree, the movement of a person

If anybody has any other comparisons or thoughts let me know!!

My last idea is the coloring of a bug:
The attraction of living creatures and colors brings me to this idea. I was maybe thinking about exploring the color of a bug through this project. The patterns and designs and how they are created are really fascinating. I have to explore more of each before I decide but this is just a brief idea of what has been running through my head.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Thursday's Drawing Discussion

What were Drawings used for? And comparing it to the present:

In our group we discussed that drawings in the passed were used for historical records, cave paintings, architecture, preliminary sketches and studies, and medical diagrams. After discussing and comparing what drawing is used for today, it's obvious that the uses are pretty much the same over thousands of years. We did find a difference in the use of being able to draw many different drawing to portrait a story now and having to draw all movement in one scene like was common in the past. After the discussion I think that it was agreed among us that the value of drawing has diminished with other media and the use of computers.

When has drawing been most interesting to you?

Our group talked mostly about past experiences beginning as a child. I shared my story about how I begin to love drawing and depicting objects and people. When I was younger I would copy my Scooby-Doo Folders and draw the over and over and over. Than in eighth grade we were allowed to do a creative project along with a bibliography on a famous person. So I picked Bill Cosby and drew his portrait. From then... I loved to draw and I loved to do draw portraits of people.

What should the drawings be used for today?

We came to a conclusion that we think putting a specific use on a drawing is taking away it's value. We basically left it at that.