Sticky Situation

  My ideas for Sticky Situation began with thinking of various situations without a good ending one could get into.  For example, having a pencil with no erasor during a test, stepping on a tack, animals stuck in honey- anything like that.  Yes, I was able to think outside the immediate box.  When you hear "sticky", most people think a fluid or something that is adhesive, but this project was trying to get you to focus on a more wide range of options.  Or so I thought.  Who knows.  I put repetition and pattern in the picture by having a striped wallpaper in the background, stairs, and railings.  Repeating, sort of.  It was a little annoying to shade the railings.  I kept messing up on them, and it'll still never be perfect, but I tried.  Using tape to reinforce the lines was a good idea.  I chose paint.  Acrylic paint?  Yeah, I'm just going to call it paint.  I preferred using it as well because I could layer things without the previous layer being too visible- unlike watercolor.  Haha.  I layered a lot and the amount of paint caked onto my canvas is probably an inch wide.  Bet you could crack it off and get a panel of just paint.  (not really).  Mini lessons?  We had those?  Well, my dad told me that holding the paintbrush near the bottom gave you the most control, but I already knew that.  I don't really remember doing any mini lessons.  This project was pretty interesting and fun to do.

Vessel

My idea for a vessel was a snake mug.  You know, with the snake coiled around it, squeezing.  Or something along those lines.  I wanted the snake to be coiled closer with itself, but that didn't work out.  It's still pretty heavy anyways.  The underbelly of the snake was carved out- something I didn't want to do and made it more likely to explode due to my bad craftsmanship.  There were probably a ton of air bubbles, but there were even more holes poked into it.  I really didn't want it to explode.  My medium was red clay, and I wanted to paint the underside with white clay so that it would appear to have a white belly.  That didn't happen and it wouldn't have mattered since it was glazed over with dark blue glaze, blue glaze, and red glaze for the eyes.  My vessel is supposed to hold water, or any liquid deemed nonlethal.  Preferrably liquid that won't harm, in any case.  You want to hear my process?  Well..  First off, I took a great lump of clay.  Flattened that flatter than a pancake.  Cut out a circle, cut a rectangle out.  Rolled up the rectangle into a cylinder and stuck the circle onto the bottom, sticking them together like you would if you dropped a banana onto the floor from 20ft in the air.  The tail was supposed to be the handle, though it doesn't work too well.  Then guess what I got.  Clay.  Rolled it out into a giant noodle or worm.  Then I got more clay.  Rolled that out, too.  Stuck them together.  They still weren't that long.  In the middle of that, somewhere, I crafted the head of the snake onto the end(front) piece.  Ms. Sudkamp thought, rightfully so, that it would be dumb to just keep doing it like that so I had to chop up the snake into itty bitty pieces.  Snake sushi.  Then I carved out the belly -guts- and it was ready to eat.  That snake sure was delicious.  Anyways,  I scored and slipped so much trying to put that snake onto the mug.  More than half of it didn't even get put on.  Wow, that was a waste of time.  Making the parts that didn't go on, that is.  Then I used a sponge or something and tried to smooth it out.  "Tried" being the key phrase there.  After, it got tossed into the kiln and burnt to a crisp.  Then  I glazed it.  Another trip to the clay oven.  That's pretty much it.  I took it home, but I haven't taken a drink from it yet.

Up Close and Personal

The theme was up close and personal.  My media was/were colored pencils.  Chose a rabbit because there had been lots of rabbits over the past few days and I wanted to see how well I could draw fur.  It was fun.  I emphasized the rabbit.  Maybe the eggs, too.  They all stand out.  Due to their bright colors, of course.  I chose colored pencils over the others because it seemed like a good idea, and the most interesting one.  It did not dissapoint.  Well, "interesting" might not be the key word.  Probably more "familiar" or "good to draw animals with".  The colored pencils enhance my piece by being my piece.  They make it colorful, give it contrast.  The background is uneven.  That's what I get for not wanting to accidently color the bunny's head.  Oops.  Ok, so you encourage risk taking.  That wasn't a question, though.  Yes, I took risks.  Almost messed up the eggs completely.  Thanks to the Primacolors for being able to layer.  Also I have never drawn an animal like this.  I don't mean rabbit.  Well, I haven't drawn a rabbit before like this.  But what I meant was that I haven't drawn an animal in this style before.  It doesn't even have outlines.  The rabbit looks like an alien.  I included technique, concept, and medium.  Who doesn't include medium?  Besides those people who make those blank canvases and sell them for tons of money.  I guess you could also say this is new.  Maybe emotion, too.  Maybe.  Probably not.  It was meant to be an easter bunny, but a normal bunny with eggs is fine too.  And that's pretty much it.