Cockroach video: This assignment was a simple one where I make a couple minute video using scenarios and characters created by myself. I was excited about creating my on scenario and character, but being never created anything with video footage before in my life, I was worried if I would be capable of technically taking and editing footage. However, once I set up basic scenes and found musics that are suitable, things turned out to be okay. The response from the class was generally good. People liked it because it was funny. I heard people couldn't understand what the cockroach was saying, so I added subtitles for it.
My Brother and Panic: This work was the final project for my Time studio class. We were to make an animation about a dream or memory that we had when we were little. When my Time studio teacher showed us a video of William Kentridge's charcoal animation, I liked it a lot and I wanted to try charcoal animation. For the story, I decided to do the moment when I went to the beach when I was little and fell in the water with my brother. It was perhaps the moment in my life when I panicked the most. My brother panicked also and he apparently tried to pull me out of the ditch but I dragged him with me. The hand that comes out in the video is my brother's hand, trying to pull me out. I wanted to portray the panic that I was in at the moment, so I used very quick music and set my animation according to it.
I created this by setting up a camera on a tripod directing towards the wall and taping a newsprint on the wall and drawing/erasing with the charcoal, taking pictures evertime I make changes.
Drawing of Bread and Shoe on a Pillow:
This is an observational drawing of a baguette bread, a shoe, a toilet paper, and a banana sitting on a pillow. The assignment was to draw a still life with a strong directional lighting using charcoal. I set up objects with various textures. I used a vine charcoal to start lightly and slowly and compared one value from another in order to get each value right. I like this work because I can feel the various textures of objects and I got a good review by my classmates.
Figure Drawing
This drawing was drawn in the drawing class during a nude model session. My class had about forty minutes to work on this one. I used charcoal on drawing pad.
Hand Anatomy
My drawing class instructor wanted us to reference an anatomy book and draw one of our own body parts with layers of our muscles and bones showing. I chose to do my hand because I thought hands are important part of figure drawing.
Landscape Drawing
I was tasked to do a landscape drawing of anywhere we wanted. I went to the Monroe Park and drew the Landmark Theatre from the park. There were much more trees obstructing the Landmark Theatre, but I omitted some because I wanted to show more of the Landmark Theatre. One of the hardest thing about drawing landscapes for me is that the weather and the sun changes and the view continuously changes but I kept to it for this one and completed it. While I was working at the park bench, various people came over and talked to me about the drawing. It was wierd, but most of them were encouraging.
Self Portrait
This is an observational charcoal self portrait. I used vine charcoal for most of it, but softer charcoal for the black parts. While I was drawing it, I felt like the piece was too ordinary, so I added the pose with my hand under my chin.
Creepy Pedestal
36x24x24
For this assignment, our teacher handed us out two pieces of paper where in one an adjective was written and in the other a noun was written. The noun was a place where my artwork should be placed on and the adjective was what should describe the artwork. My words were "creepy" and "pedestal". So I twisted the assignment a little and built a creepy pedestal. The pedestal was sitting in middle of the class in the morning when the class started. Before the class, I went inside the pedestal, held out a fake flower out of the small hole, played the "Mr. Softee Jingle" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBlyC9bJacs) from inside the pedestal, and when people came to look because of curiosity I pulled in the flower and smiled at them creepily. I scared many people that morning.
Self Portraits
This was the first assignment that was given to me in the surface research class. I was to draw 72 self portraits of myself. I started out with the big drawing in the lower left corner, but soon realized that I would not be able to do all 72 of drawings in such quality. So I started to draw parts of me. I like how I used hatching and cross hatching in this drawing. This drawing was drawn from observation.
Destroy and Rebuild Seven Times Project
13x10
The assignment for this piece was to create and destroy an artwork seven times using the same material. So you would create an artwork, destroy it, then create something else using the same materials, and so on. I created comic strip for this piece, where I draw a page of comic strip, erase it, then draw another page on the same paper. I could only post two pages here, but all the pages can be read at http://aaamakuksu.blogspot.com/. I created a scenario where these characters within the comic which I drew try to stop me, the artist, from destroying them because that will destroy them. They fail to stop me, because I am drawing the comic, but at the last page they trick me into using my eraser too much and succeed at stopping me. In the end I create a cutout of them so that they may live. Generally people thought it was funny.
Flip Book
I made a book as an artwork this time. It was one of those cave books where you can look at it by stretching them. This was one of my first works that I really tried to put a meaning behind it that I cared for. At the time I made this I started to go to church and I was shocked by how many different denominations of churches there are in Richmond. Thinking (wrongly) that each and every one of those denominations considered each other heretics, I was shocked and a little repelled by the church. I tried to put that confusion and repelled feeling into the work, so I put all kinds of negative signs on it. I put a wire fence, DO NOT ENTER sign, and pictures of all types of different denomination churches that I found in Richmond. I wrote "BLESSED ARE THEY THAT DWELL IN MY HOUSE" around the front edge of the book (I wrote it with a material that is hard to read.), which may sound positive but it was negative meaning to me, because I saw that engraved on the gates of a cathedral of a different denomination church.
Kidnap Story
I did this for my final project for my surface research class. We could do anything we want, so I decided to do a comic strip again. I started to draw with a story that I have thought before, but it became longer than expected and I had to cut it in the middle. But I am happy with this work because I learned so much while working on it. I learned how the things that was focused so much in the surface research class - the composition, balance, and other things, were so important and relevent to comic drawing. It was surprising to find that. I learned that I can print comic magazines faily easily at Wythken. You can also read the whole things at http://aaamakuksu.blogspot.com/.
Cardboard Sculpture
This was the first assignment given to me at the space research class. I was to make an enlarged replica of an undistinguishable machine part out of cardboard. I went to a junkyard at mechanicsville and found a mysterious car part and got to work. When I was done, I was horrified at how shabby it looked. But once the critique started and I removed the original car part away from it, I instantly fell in love with this piece. This thing looked so crappy and lovable. It was funny, sad, and poor. Many people mentioned Wall-E during the critique. This is my favorite space project yet.
Bamboo Skewer Sculpture
I only used bamboo skewers and old magazine papers to make this. I needed to make it so that it is hanged on the wall.
Mug Cup
The assignment was to create an enlarged version of an object with textile. From the first moment I planned to create something that is wacky, funny, hobo-like, and slumpy. I gathered materials that would accomplish this. I got some textile that is old and flowery and some poka-dots also, some clothes that was torn apart at the hospital when I was hit by a car and went to a hospital, and etc. I combined these to create this mug cup. I put polyester in it but not enough so that I can add that slumpyness. It is very snuggly.
Brian Bress & Matthew Spahr Workshop
These are some stills from a video piece I made while doing the Brian Bress & Matthew Spahr Workshop couple weeks ago. I made my own costume and performed various things in front of green screen. I added in the rainbow background through the green screen; I made it so that the rainbow background spun in circles continuously. Along with the costume, I had to set up a character to go along with the costume. My inspiration for my costume was poka-dots. I was called "Dotty" during the filming. My character was a creature who had the brawn but not so much brain, but happy and positive nonetheless. I also made a prob by cutting out a cardboard and painting it. It is Dotty's friend Holly.
I think an important part of being an artist is to have open mind and broad experience. I think artists are rarely if ever inspired to create art by art. They are inspired to create art because of politics, philosphy, religion, family, love, death, etc etc. In order to be properly inspired, an artist must first and foremost be outgoing, ready to try out anything and experience anything. Inspiration is required to create any kind of art, whether liberal or not, and only experience can give you inspiration. Whether you are a designer or an artist, you can't create anything by being stuck in the studio. You must go out, experience this, experience that, in order to be inspired.
I had a chance to work as a part of a cloth photographing studio for a clothing whole sale company. I was introduced through my aunt and I only worked as a person that changes clothes on the manakins so the photos can be taken rapidly, but I gained some close experience with studio practice. The main photographer of the studio had a very hard time taking the satisfactory photos. Even though he had the best equipment, he had problems with the setup and he seemed to be quite oblivious to fasion and taking good photos of clothing. Even though he graduated from one of the finest art schools in New York, he was not the right person for the job. Experiencing this in a professional setting and observing how much of a horrible effect this had on the entire company, I learned that having the right knowledge and skill on whatever design you are working on is absolutely crucial. Whatever you are designing, it just won't work out unless you are inspired about it.
For my first major choice, Communication Arts, I am interested in the drawing and design techniques that enables the people who practice it to portray various things to the viewers. I want to be able to communicate not only beauty, but ugliness, happiness, sadness, depth, light, darkness, things that are physical and emotional through my drawing. I expect Comm Arts department to be a place where I can learn these techniques and I expect it to give me heavy amounts of assignment because I know technique is about the amount of practice. For my second choice, Painting and Printmaking, I am interested in it because I think painting is one of the most interesting ways to create art and I am somewhat interested in fine arts also. I expect this department to have a lot of surprises, both from the instructors and from myself if I ever go into it. For the third choice, Craft department, I am interested in the glass blowing major. I had it for project class in my first semester and the properties that glass has shown me was just amazing.
I am very much into comic making, as you can see from some of my portfolio pieces. I want to learn from the basics the technique of artistic communication so that I can create better comics. But I know that just having refined drawing skills in various subjects is not everything I need for comic making. Although comic making is one of my ambition, I am open to anything that interests me as far as ambitions go.
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