Sparkling Illustration Friday

Vessel

Vessel Piece

My piece is considered a vessel piece because the back of the fox is open and can hold a number of things. I plan to put a succulent in it's back when I am finished making it. So far my piece has been really successful. The shape of the body and head turned out better than I expected. The only problem is there's a crack between the leg and the tail but it can most likely be fixed with glaze. I was inspired to make a fox that could hold a plant because foxes are my favorite animal and I love plants.

Pit Fire

Part 1:

Pit Firing - pots are placed in a hole or pit in the ground, covered with combustible objects and then burned.

Foil Saggar- aluminum foil saggars are wrapped around the pot to contain fumes so the pot picks up the color from the fumes.

These techniques are unique because they use other materials to leave different colors and patterns on the pots.

Part 2

 I used the coil method to make a round pot. I attached the coils to the of the base of the pot and then smoothed it all out the best I could. I painted that stuff on the inside and top half of the outside leaving only the bottom portion unpainted in a wavy design. Then I covered the pot in pencil shavings, leaves, coil and salt. After it was finished being covered and wrapped in foil it was pit fired. I think this technique is cool because it uses a lot of random materials to make an unpredictable and unique outcome of colors and shapes on the pot. I would use this technique again but I would rather know what colors and patterns are going to end up on my piece so it isn't my favorite.

Form Challenge

 Form Challenge

Relief Project

Relief Project

I want to make a mountain landscape on a clay tile. There will be a total of 5 mountains, the sun, 2 clouds and a border on the tile. I will remove some the sky in the background but leave the clouds and sun. The clouds will be built up over the border and so will the mountains. The closer the mountain the more built up it will be. 

Part 2

Looking at my original plan my piece was pretty successful. The mountains layered well like I planned and the sun and clouds pop out well. Also the colors I chose compliment each other well and the glazed mountains, cloud and sun look good against the arcryllic sky. Next time I would make the mountains have more dimension and I would shape the cloud to look softer. I think if I were to do the project again I would plan something more intricate and creative and not so simple. Originally I planned to have two clouds on my tile but soon after I began scultping I realized there was not enough space for two. My sketch also made the mountains look more dimensional because of the shading and the clouds were more round. The mini tile project helped me get a good idea of how to use relief with clay and gain basic skills with clay tools. One downside of the mini tile project, which was my fault, was that I did not think of how relief can be created outside of a flat clay tile. The cardboard project showed me relief can be created through other mediums rather than just with clay. Throughout this project I had to overcome building up objects without losing the shape of what I was trying to create. Since my peice was so simple I had to really focus on perfecting the simple shapes. My battle with having such a simple piece worked out for me in the end because I recieved many compliments.

Inspired Artist

Elicia Edijanto

Elicia Edijanto is an Indonesian artist who strictly uses black and white watercolor. Through her work she expresses relationships between human and nature. She says most of her paintings depict a small child with a large animal because "they are honest, sincere, unprejudiced and unpretentious". Her paintings are inspiring to me not only because of the way she can work watercolor but because her subjects are so pure. I love animals so the fact that she incorporates one in almost every painting is really awesome especially since she is showing their gentleness and personality by creating a relationship with humans. Every painting provides me with a sense of tranquility but at the same time gives me a sense of lonliness. They make me feel something which is how it should be.

http://www.eliciaedijanto.com/index.php/work/

Practice collage

My collage's theme was based on the 50's-70's. I wanted to incorporate black and white elements because TVs were still black and white up until 1967 and then I included tie-dye because of the 70's. Newspaper was a common thing back in this time period and so were VW bugs. The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe were all popular stars and were partially what this time period was known for. To stick the newspaper to the paper I put gel underneath the newspaper then gel and a little water over top of it. After that I would rub the newspaper and press it down then I took it off and a thin layer would stay in most spots. The bare spots looked cool but I stuck the newspaper down this way mainly because lack of time. In all the bare spots I added water color which gave it a really cool torn and old look. After the background was finished I pasted one of The Beatles album cover over top and replaced two of the members with Elvis and Marilyn buy pasting them over top. Then I went around the edges of the picture and added some more newspaper and water color. To the left of that page is another part of the collage which I haven't finished. My plan for the right side is to add some newspaper and water color to the left of the newspaper. Then I will have the VW bug come out of the bottom right corner on top of the newspaper and water color shooting into the tie-dye. I really like how the left side turned out so I think the right will look great! I love this time period because of the music and lifestyle I have seen in it. My new records (one being a Beatles album) inspired this piece. I also love buggies because they are so cute (especially the old ones)! I did have some struggles with this piece though. The water color wasn't looking the way I wanted it to so I had to work with it for a while and the newspaper was hard to make stick with the method I used. Overall I really enjoyed learning how to make a meaningful collage.