The Semester's Almost Over!

So this week is chock full of fantastical final projects and enormous and a half exams, but soon I will be off to enjoy Christmas... and keep working on my capstone. I'm terribly tired, but I will just have to keep pushing forward. I finish a day early with my finals, so I'll be spending Friday finishing Billy. If I can complete one, it will give me hope for the break, methinks.

Since I finished my inflatable dragon today, I'm not really in the mood to do any more art, but I did make sure to put my project binder together. Binders aren't really my thing because I prefer simply putting everything into a sketchbook, but I made one anyway. It's nice and organized and crap, so you think I would like them more often. It doesn't actually work that way, though, because I don't have a big hole punch and I always feel like the papers fall out eventually. Half-torn papers annoy me more than anything else, let me tell you.

In conclusion, this is just a simply quick update on what I'm up to, and hopefully images of a finished Billy will be up soon! Hold your breath 'til then!

Plans for Winter Break

Before I leave for break, I’m going to burn a lot more receipt paper so that I can have it for the break. I will also be finishing my first piece, William Shakespeare, before I leave so that I have a very good idea for what I’ll be working on. I will also sketch my next piece if possible.

            As for on the actual break, I am a little behind from where I expected to be. Granted, I stopped to experiment and figure out if I would be heading in a new direction. Therefore, I want to do two or three pieces over the break. Four would be ideal, but I do know that is a lot of work. I want to really take advantage of my time, and at least sketch out more of my ideas.

            I like figuring out the different compositions early so that I have a good idea of how much work lies ahead of me. I may also experiment with other ways to make the texture and shade of jeans (which all of the men are wearing in the pieces. The women will be in black dresses) because I have a limited supply of barcodes which I have been using so far.

Working with Heat and Thermal Paper

Different shades on paper

Close-up of burns

If the heat gets too close, the chemicals burn away

After my second presentation before the class, I was pretty mush told not to do anything new and keep with my original idea. I had gotten off topic by also wanting to add more background information about the writers and by wanting to add text from their works. In the end, my message became too complicated and muddy. My main focus has returned to selling literature through sex to illustrate how writers of the past still matter today.

I have been working on burning the thermal paper with more technology than simply matches or lighters, which gives me much more control and is much more efficient. I've also experimented with a soldering iron, which gives me the ability to crosshatch and sketch onto the thermal paper using heat. I like the many different lines and marks I can get from the iron, but I do need to practice it some more. The problem I have is I 'm not sure if it fits with my project anymore since I'm returning to the collage idea. At least I know I have that option, and later on in the project, I may find a use for it.