Final Week Spring Term

It's done, over, finished, my last final, my last critique for the winter/spring term. Yesterday I had my Graphic Design final critique, Monday I had my Color and Design final and Tuesday I had my drawing final critique. When the dust settles I think I will have two A's and two B's but we will see.

I don't have a lot of images for you this week just my final projects.

First is my drawing final, we had to draw at least 4 people, I have 5 figures in mine. I used a photo in the April issue of Smithsonian Magazine that was taken by Eudora Weltry. By the looks of the clothing the photo was taken back in the 30's but it might have been later. Men taking a break from their work to enjoy some music. I left several background figures out, and my instructor suggested that I add her name as photographer to the drawing so I did.

I had been wondering what to draw for my final, but when I saw this photo I had an ahha moment and knew I had found my subject. Wonderful composition, strong lines, lots of lights and darks, perfect for my purposes. I am relatively pleased with how it came out, and know that I probably couldn't have done it at the beginning of this last term, at least not so well, my figure drawing skills have improved a lot.

Graphic Design final project was my logo design for a non-profit group or society. I chose Mass Audubon as my group. We had to write papers about our selections so that we would have an understanding of the what the group does and their ongoing goals. I did a lot of sketches and finally ended up with the following as my logo.

The bird silhouette is done from a photo I found of a chickadee sitting on a branch. The chickadee is the State bird for Mass so I wanted to use one for my bird image. I am quite pleased with how this came out, though I received and used a fair amount of input from my professor and fellow students the basic concept is mine, and I made the final decisions about font's and layout. However it wasn't enough to design the logo we had to put it on stationary, letterhead, business card and envelope. The images below are my final designs.

So now I take a deep breath and try to figure out what to do next. I have some quilts to make for my Challenge group, I want to keep up my drawing skills, and hopefully create a "body" of work. Maybe do a website or two. In the near future the School is putting on an Arts Festival this coming weekend which I will attend. Lots to keep me busy.

Last week Spring Term

Last week of classes are done for spring term, a strange feeling, and I am trying to decide what to do next. Was thinking about a Photoshop class, but even though it is only for a month it is intense, as they meet 3 days a week. We would be doing a web site design at the end, which I want to do, but I think I need a break. Classes this spring have been intense and I have been feeling a bit of wanting out and done with the work. I have a little bit longer to think about this as next week is finals.

In the meantime I have images for you. I did my final presentation for Typography, a talk from my paper on John Baskerville English printer and typographer. I can show you the handout but the paper is a 9 page word document so we will skip that.

I am pleased with how this came out, even though I had to be lead to it by my instructor, still some of it is totally mine so I can take some credit.

In Graphic design we are still working on our logo, I will let you see it next week though it is really designed at this point. I am still designing the letterhead, but I think I have the business card and envelope done. Still until I glue it down I can always change my mine.

In drawing we had our last class on Tuesday. We spent half the class working from slides and the 2nd half starting our final drawing. Final drawing has to have at least 4 people in it. I am using a photo I found in Smithsonian Magazine as my basis and will have 5 figures. Wish me luck. In the meantime here are my last two homework pieces. One I like and the other is so so.

My not so good dwg, don't like his foot, or her arm


I like this one much better

We did 4 drawings from slides on Tuesday, first one was fairly quick and the others a bit longer. I sort of preferred the last one at a slightly sketcher stage, before I put all the dark around the bodies, but I think it still works.

This pose reminds me of a famous painting but not sure whose

That is it for this week. Next week I will post my logo final and my Drawing II final. After that any images will have to be either quilts I am working on or drawings that I am doing for me. At least for the summer. If I want to do art I have to have a body of work so I really need to be doing drawings this summer. Per usual comments are welcome.

First of May

Its May first and around here the trees are leafing out and flowers are blooming away. I know many of you south of me have leaves already and even more flowers. What can I say, I am happy to see them, it felt like winter would never be over this year, too much snow. That said we had some really hot weather earlier in the week which I didn't enjoy, but temps have returned to more normal today and through the weekend. We will also have rain showers, or so they tell us, good for the woods and the flowers which were getting a bit dried out.

Only one more week of classes, then some final tests or critiques and I will be done for the term. I am still trying to make up my mind if I want to take a class the first summer session. It would be a class in Photoshop, we would meet 3 days a week for 3.5 hours a day for about a month. It is supposed to be how to do Photoshop for web design. Thinking about this, guess I should ask my Graphic Arts instructor if this would be worthwhile for me.

In the meantime lets get to this weeks images, first up are two photos of my last sculpture. I didn't do very well on this one, design is ho hum and integration of the stones isn't all that well done either. I will probably smash this to get my stones back as I really don't care for it at all.

No images from either Typography or Graphic Design this week. I am working on my final project for both classes, in Graphic Design my logo is starting to take shape, but still needs a bit more tweaking before it will be done. And images for typography are all photos that I will use to create my handout and display for my presentation. Not original art at all.

On to my drawing images, first is my homework from two weeks ago. The instructor handed out photo's of other artists drawings of nudes and we had to copy one. I chose a pencil drawing of a guy sitting backward on a chair. Sorry I don't have the artist's name for you, but I think it turned out pretty well as a copy of someone else work.

We had another live model in drawing this week a women we have had before. There is a "hiring freeze" so the instructor wasn't able to bring in a different model for us. Talk about weird since models are paid per hours worked and having a different one wouldn't change the expense. Oh well can't figure out some of the rules that HR will put in place. But I know I would have enjoyed a different body/model. Still here are three drawings out the several I did.

That's it for this week. Hope everyone is enjoying some good weather. Till next week. As always comments are welcome.