January 26, 2017- Weekly Studio Update

So I wanted to start a new blog series to post my happenings in the studio each week. As many of you know I am an art student and this semester I have 3 studios in addition to my personal work so this will be a good outlet to keep everyone up to date on what I am creating.

In my Printmaking course, I just finished the first project. This project was a collagraph, which if you’re not familiar is the process where the plate is built up with found objects, glue, and other random stuff to be able to print. It is honestly a really cool process that even non-artists could have fun doing! After building up the plate I did a series of relief prints (which took longer than it should have since I was trying to get used to the Medieval torture device press), a series of etching prints (or for those of you printmakers out there intaglio), and a series of combined prints. Below I’m including a picture of the three best that I used in the class critique.

In my Advanced Multimedia course, which is a combination of video art and interactive media, I have been working on my first project which layers two videos with Millumin and uses a Kinect to track a person’s movement in order to reveal the video on the lower level. Oh and I almost forgot that I made my own sounds for the video to further get my message across. Through testing the project is coming along well, but there will be more to come on this project next week.

In my Graphic Design course, I am in the process of finishing the first project which I chose to design the wrap for a donut truck (the other option was a heating and cooling truck). In this process, I went from basic sketches to a full-blown digital 3D rendering of the final product. Now to create the presentation!

 

Finally, for my personal work, I am beginning to think more about how I want to focus my work thematically. Currently, I am wanting to experiment more with art from an activist point of view in a similar fashion to Pablo Picasso. His work, especially during and after WWII, made commentary about world events which is part of what makes visual art such a strong medium for communicating ideas.

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DIY Antique Sketchbook

Have you ever seen the antique-looking sketchbooks or journals at art supply or crafts stores and wanted to buy one? Then, have you looked at the price? These sketchbooks have a high cost and many of them don’t have paper as nice as a more traditional sketchbook. This article was written to teach you how to take an antique book and turn it into a modern sketchbook with high quality sketch paper and the antique look most people love.

Advice on Finding a Book

The best places to find antique books tend to be yard sales, thrift stores, or any kind of used book sale. I personally found the book I used in the demo at a used book sale at my university, but I have seen many older books at various thrift stores and people are always trying to get rid of the books they have in their attics. You just need to make sure the cover and spine is intact and not damaged. These two parts are the whole reason why you are doing this project so I recommend subscribing to the VW Bug restoration rule. There are plenty of inexpensive antique books that are in perfect condition, so unless it is special to you I recommend not using a book that is in bad shape.

Finally, when choosing a book make sure you don’t use a first edition. On the library of congress page there should be printing information and if this page says “first edition” don’t use it for this project. If you do come across a first edition book in good condition it is wisest to purchase the book and then sell it on the internet; there is a huge group of people who are willing to pay large amounts of money for a first edition book of any kind, so become an entrepreneur make money off of this market.