2D Design: Final Projects

This past spring I had the pleasure of taking 2D Design with Gary Burnley. These first four pieces were a part of my conference work, a final project where we were able to decide what we wanted to focus on. My purpose for these pieces was to create a believable sense of belonging between obviously flat, drawn shapes and the photographs. I wanted the people to inhabit the otherwise desolate areas. 

The final two were our very last assignments. For the first, we were tasked with writing the words Sarah Lawrence College in an unexpected manner that would make you see the page differently. I played with positive and negative space, making the white have different levels between the letters and background despite being the same color. 

Our other assignment was to create a pattern to be repeated four times. This was probably the most challenging piece, but extremely enjoyable because of all the elements you want to fit together. I started with an initial design with just the clouds and crystals, but added the ribbon to weave in and out of everything and the face to add a new center when the pieces were placed together. 

Hope you enjoy them!

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back to basics: pencil drawings

Up until college, my 'training' in art was as informal as it gets. While I took a few art classes here and there, the majority of my learning came through practice in the margins of my notebooks when I should've been paying attention in class, or at home trying to copy the styles of shōjo manga like Tokyo Mew-Mew or Sailor Moon. Despite any real structure, my constant doodling helped me build a strong foundation and find comfort in pencil and paper. 

Once I discovered deviantart and began learning how to digitize my images, I picked up my pencil less and less. By my freshman year in college I was placed in my first serious art class, printmaking, and produced the acetates for most of my silkscreens on my laptop without the need to sketch them on paper first. 

With the inception of this blog I started to get more excited about making and creating. I wanted to produce more, and I wanted to create outside of the classroom. After uploading my works from the past year, I stopped by the art supply store and picked up the most basic of materials: a couple pencils, an eraser and some blending sticks. 

My process starts with a couple old magazines. Even the abstracted face in my "Looking Up" piece took inspiration from an old Mango ad featuring Miranda Kerr. I usually take points of reference from multiple images from the magazine, and begin sketching from the eyes outward. From there, the image develops organically. I'll sketch from a photo until I've exhausted its use, then flip until something else catches my eye. After all the sketching and blending and molding is done, I'll dot a few highlights around the eyes, nose and lips with my white Posca pen to finish the piece. 

There's a real intimacy you get working with pencil and paper that I haven't found even with painting. I've missed it! Very glad to be reunited with my trusty 8Bs.

"Looking Up" // Introductions

"looking up"

pencil/posca pen on paper

Finally, my first new piece up on this very new blog! 

Those who know me will probably recognize my incessant need to create and invent and produce. I've ventured into a number of different projects, from helping others build their websites (The Phoenix and Baldwin Wears Black, which is still a work in progress) to producing art (seen here!) to writing. I'm hoping that this space will act as an archive for my visual work, a record for my thoughts and an incentive for me to keep producing and doing what I love. 

I hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoy creating! 

printmaking 2013-2014: copperplate intaglio

printmaking 2013-2014: "852" series

"ladies market"

"central"

"wanchai"

"home"

these images were templates for acetates used in a silkscreen series I did of Hong Kong. Each silkscreened image corresponded to the location of the photo, ending with a self portrait featuring the south-side (my neighborhood).

printmaking 2013-2014: silkscreen images

"horned girl"

"nightmares"

"nonchalant"