Michelle Heatwole's Blog

For this exploration I chose to sit in the stairwell of my dorm between the hours of two and three.I didn’t really pay attention to what sounds where happening at what time, just that they were happening and how they happened.

Sounds:

rain-constant, steady, patterned

car- rushing of tires through the puddles

two voices, male and female, both loud and angry

footsteps below me of wet boots squeaking on the floor

rain- increases in volume

horn-honks twice, loud and high pitched

a door opens, a girl with a lower voice groans, door closes with a loud thump

rain, pattern changes slightly but stays the same weight

a girl runs up the stairs, breath huffing, she stumbles two stairs below me, shoes sound wet and heavy, her keys bang against each other

wind picks up and pushes the rain against the wall of the building,

rain sounds like fingers tapping on a table

another car rushing by through puddles

another person running by with heavy footsteps sounds wet

a girl trudges up the stairs, backpack slapping heavy against her wet back, each step echoes against the rain, her long hair is dripping and creating loud splatters against the stairs.

rain lets up slightly

a car alarm goes off, high pitched, constant, grating, nonstop but stops

a large group of people walk by, each pair of shoes is distinct as they move by, starting as one collective sound, separating into I think five pairs of shoes they sound masculine, heavy, and like the can’t decide if they want to run or not and then regrouping into one sound of moving mass, no voices come though

rain picks up again

a door opens, footsteps walk out, keys hit against each other, the door closes, footsteps sound close, they pause at the top of the stairs, I feel eyes on me…..

the footsteps go down the stairs, they go by me, the steps are light and quick,they continue down, and turn the corner.

the rain continues

my alarm goes off

For the actual map, I wanted to show what I heard and focus on the sounds and not what was around the sounds. The stairs and ear are there to show my location, and are in grey to show that they are unimportant sound wise. I used basic shapes to show what the object or noise is and color to show how loud they were. the number of times an object is scene shows pattern and size show volume. All in all this was an interesting assignment.

Map project

so I started out with a map of my county and I brought it over to a friends to work on. She not being from VA asked about where I went to go home, see friends, and so on so the first thing I did was simply trace over the lines I would drive on daily and circle where I lived. 

Next I tore the map and put it back together using newspaper articles that my mother sends me every week

Then I sewed the pieces to the map to make it one piece.

After that I wrote all of my friends names in yellow and my families names in purple

I then painted a fall scene from home

Then I burned it

I then walked on it with ink on my feet

Next I tore it up

I decided I didn’t want it in many pieces so I taped it back together

and finally I wrote all over it questions about what home means

Going from that for part two, I decided I like how personal I got with the idea of home and how the map led me home, but I also liked how impersonal the map itself was. I also knew that I really wanted to paint something. So I used the original to make tree branches and painted them white because I felt they looked to patch-worked just pieced and glued on to the canvas.  I left the thicker branches with slight color showing through. I then painted mountains on the back to show that I come from the mountains but still not really identifiable that you can say what mountains they were. I really like the line emphasis the piece was taking and to me a map is all about the lines (or I should hope so…..) so I used that idea to add in the questions about home. To make it personal yet impersonal I asked the questions in many different languages that I did write, and I will say Youtube is great for learning how to write them. I had my friend Julie write in Chinese for me but thats the only one I wouldn’t touch. All in all I’m content with the final outcome.

Critique notes:

So not a lot was really said on mine, but they did seem to like the way I almost recreated the map.

They did feel the bottom left corner was messy, and that the mountains were to obvious as mountains.

ABC’s and 123’s

I really enjoyed this project because its one of the few that kept me out of the studio or my dorm and got me walking around even if it was cold!

I go through and give where I found each one first:

A came from behind the museum

B came from decorations in my dorm room

C came from the stairs in the bookstore

D came from my dorm room

E came from railing in the bookstore

F came from the wall of Anderson

G came from the stairs of a random house

H came from the bridge

I came from parking lines on the road

J came from the fountain by the museum

K came from the railing outside of my dorm

L came from the parking lines on the road

M came from a balloon that my roommate had

N came from the bedding on a bunk bed

O came from the lights outside of the class room

P came from the pictures outside of the class room

Q came from a bike

R came from a picture someone made with rose petals after valentines day

S came from the lights outside a hotel

T came from the parking lines

U came from the museum

V came from a picture of a hooker spray painted on a wall and I thought her legs made a really nice v

W came from the bricks on MLK

X came from the railing outside O house

Y came from a road sign

Z came from a stairwell sign

1 came from a mark on the road

2 came from graffiti

3 came from the railing of the bookstore

4 came from the window of a building

5 came from the bricks on the ground

6 came from a clock outside a building

7 came from the stairs

8 came from something my roommate had

9 came from the fountain again

When thinking of the project the first thing my mind went to was the idea of small children. My mother is a pre-school teacher and when I go with her to home visits I play with the children with puzzles. So I got the idea to make a puzzle with all of the letters. I got instant prints to work with. Then I placed them as best I could to make them all fit, and then I cut them out and replaced them to make sure they fit piece by piece.

I took the photos with this idea in mind so I tried to keep the clear letter but also bright and colorful.

Critique notes:

They really liked the idea of a puzzle, it made people want to play with it

It was also noted that you could clearly see all the different places I went

The only things was that people wished that the pieces were thicker

For our first communications assignment we were given the story of Jack and Jill broken into six lines to reinterpret in a small group. After forming my group with Olympia and Taylor, we decided on the story idea from Olympia of Jack and Jill being agyrophobics, which is the fear of crossing streets. From that we solved the problem of why they needed to cross the street and how that fear caused Jack to fall down the hill in shock of seeing another street. It was then mentioned as a joke that Jack would get hit by a semi but we decided in the end to go with that as our ending. We then broke it down into the six lines to make the six boxes as follows:

1. Jack and Jill hiding from the street
2. They went up a hill to avoid the street
3. They see a street on the next hill and freak out
4. From the shock, Jack trips and falls down the hill
5. Jack falls onto the street and gets hit by the semi, thus proving their phobia
6. Jill has a mental breakdown

From this we sat down with the six boxes and sketched out each one by looking at what we could find in the shapes given. After many revisions we found our final outcome. It was decided that I would sketch each box out, being an illustration major, while Olympia and Taylor took the finals and inked them and then matted them for the group.

Normally I am not fond of group work in terms of small scale projects, however this project has helped me somewhat rethink this opinion. I feel the story was much more finished in the end due to three minds working on it and the overall outcome was very full filling to the assignment.

Our Critique Notes:

-the story was simple and easy to understand but was still creatively strong.

-the overall composition was strong

-they did not like the street so small in the first two boxes, or they were not bold enough

-good craftsmanship- but ink was a little splotchy

-good use of shapes

-the don’t cross signs were a good common factor

-good show of depth in the third box

-the first two boxes could be heavier, like bold the words or something

-good balance of layout

When I began searching for illustration blogs, I was surprised at the lack of individual illustrator’s blogs. Instead I found that one person would host a blog and then many illustrators would show their work and sell it through that blog. However, I enjoyed this aspect as it was much easier to find the artist and many like them as well instead of searching in the dark so to speak.

I actually enjoyed the shared blogs more so than the individual blogs mostly for the way they were set up. In the case of Ape on the Moon it is one blog with authors who post on their own and others work. It article is tagged my medium and will include their own comments, as well as comments by the artist themselves. At the top is a line of pictures of others work that you can randomly select to read about as well, or you can also search by year. http://apeonthemoon.com/blog/ 

The same setup is used on the blog illustration friday. However instead of the authors writing on what they have found, every friday a theme is announced (last week the word was storm) and then artists have a week to create and upload their work. These submissions are what make up the home page and from there you can navigate through their market or by name. I feel that this is the most appealing blog I have found so far for reasons such as everything being incredibly currents as well as any age and talent can show on this site, not just the professionals. http://illustrationfriday.com/blog/

The last blog is more of what I thought I would find. An Illustrator’s Life For Me! is by Lynne Chapman a children’s book illustrator where the blog follows her current work and just about anything she feels like noting. Her’s actually really reminds me of the blogs we are running for class, in the simplicity and design of it. However I also enjoy the less professional feel of her blog, and in a sense it feels a lot more fun than the first two. I also enjoy the more personal feel of hers and the idea of that if I were to run a blog outside of the schools site, I think it would turn out a lot like hers. lynnechapman.blogspot.com

For our second exploration we were given flat black squares to represent the words:

Order              Congested

Increase         Playful

Bold                Tension

Before I began the assignment I went to Dictionary.com and got relevant definitions for the words.

Order:  an authoritative direction or instruction; command; mandate

Synonyms: aligning, classification, categorization

Increase:  to make greater, as in number, size, strength, or quality; augment; add to

Synonyms: escalation, elaboration, expansion, multiplication, optimization, swell

Bold: not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff; courageous and daring

Synonyms: forward, adventurous, assuming, resolute, undaunted, valiant

Congested: to fill to excess; overcrowded or overburdened; clog

Synonyms: choked, closed, crammed, gridlocked, mobbed, obstructed, packed, teeming

Playful: full of fun; sportive, frolicsome

Synonyms: cheerful, comical, elvish, gamesome, impish, joyous, jaunty, mischievous, spirited, prankish, vivacious, whimsical

Tension; the state or act of being stretched or strained; the force producing deformation

Synonyms: balance, constriction, force, pressure, rigidity, stiffness, strain, tautness, tersity

From these definitions I created thumbnails to decide which ones I would enlarge with india ink.

The first is Order where I chose to show order through different shape squares are all in their proper place.

Order:

The next is Increase where I really attached the word swell to the definition so I attempted to show wave-like swelling with the squares

Increase:

The next is Bold where instead of going big to show bold I looked at it as the idea of standing out from the crowd.

Bold:

The next is Congested where following the definition reminded me of part of the drive I take to get to get to Georgia from from Virginia where four lanes go to one. this is my interpretation of what the planners wanted to happen.

Congested:

The next is Playful where the idea of children playing came to mind. And one thought more so where my friend and I when we were little would jump on his parents water bed.

Playful:

The last is Tension in this one I thought of a rubber band and and bridge, and I’m not really sure why but this is what came from it!

Tension:

                                    

Repetition Grid

For our assignment we were given instructions to create a grid with a motif of our own creation using repetition, variety, rhythm, balance, emphasis of a focal point, and economy.

I began by choosing my motif of a triangle cutting through a square which I decided to place in the center of my tile but purposely not fulling fitting the tile. I decided not to take up the entire tile because I liked how it appeared to be like an arrow. The motif was kept at the 1×1 because I felt that would give me more options.

As I began laying my tiles down to form my grid I was reminded of what the center of a mandala. So as I placed the motif I began focusing on the idea of the layout of a mandala. Which led me to my final product.

The chosen one plays on the traditional idea of focusing on the center and working from that unity out to include different aspects depending on the person or group creating the mandala. Both Navajo Indians and Tibetan monks create sand mandalas and mine personally is more directed toward the Navajo style as per my personal taste and relations.

Once I chose the pattern, I copied the design on another piece of tracing paper to transfer to the illustration board. Once transferred I inked the final pattern. The border I cut to match the corners since most mandalas are not meant to last, I felt a regular border would defeat the idea. So I cut the border to look as if the patter would continue instead of being held in.

Critique Notes:

For the critique of my piece the group started out by stating that they could not figure out my motif. They did feel that it was creative except for my focal point being in the center, but the focal point did fit the piece. However the middle seems to create a static composition. The border received mix reviews as some did really like it and others felt it was too distracting. They seemed to like that it was not so busy and felt there was good symmetry even though there were pieces missing in the top right corner. The overall feel from the class was that I should have presented it at a diagonal instead of straight up and down to help the composition.

In class we were given the assignment to explore concentration and isolation. Concentration is the grouping of a shape into one focal point. In class I used a butterfly stencil to start with and then move on to just the wing as a less recognizable shape, and then finally onto a simple grouping of circles. In each area the focal point is clean and clear but without seeming forced, which tends to match my personal aesthetic.

Isolation creates a focal point using more than one object of shading of one object to bring the eye to the one piece that stands out from the rest. Again I made use of the butterfly stencil while working on my isolation pieces. I used the butterfly in two of the four as its full shape. In my fourth piece I used the wings to create a type of flower pattern, and in the third I simply used lines and a circle to play with the eye movement from inorganic to organic.

looking back on these pieces I am beginning to notice the fact that I do tend to do more simple and clean pieces than chaotic and over lapping. But this is just my own opinion of my work.

Here are my final four 8x10s based off the sketches.

                                                 I chose to enlarge this piece for the very reason mentioned in class during the critique. I had recently purchased some new music and this piece was one of my responses to the variation in the music in going from a heavy drum and fiddle part to a more lyrical part of the song.

                                   This piece was pointed out in the critique for appearing lyrical and reminding some of my                         classmates of a sound board. No constructive criticism was vocalized.

The sketch for this piece was chosen because of the way the thicker and lesser lines appear

to balance out the many thinner lines. This also may just be me, but I like the way it reminds me of my friend’s the barn back home with the many spiderwebs in the corners.

Personally I tend to prefer more organic appearing pieces with a sense of structure. To me the

sketch for this piece accomplished that, and therefore I chose to enlarge it. However I do feel it was more sucessful on the 2.5×2 than on the larger paper.

This piece was mentioned in the critique for having nice flow, however

the bottom left corner appeared to be crowed and the knocked off corners were not visually appealing.

In response to the critique I chose to redo my third piece to what is now shown above, but I do agree that my third piece was

the weakest one of my four and I enjoy the chance to change it to something I feel better about.

I feel the tension is more pleasing to the eye and the curved lines seem to work better with each other now.

For my final piece I chose the sketch that had elements that I found pleasing in my second

and third pieces. I tend to enjoy creating pieces where the more delicate elements appear to hold the bolder, heavier pieces. I also enjoyed the contrasting negative to positive space used.

This piece was also heavily critiqued. There were many different views, some liked the balanced but

unbalanced feeling with the heavy lines and delicate swirls, while some felt the contrast was too much. the right corner needs harder lines, the top is too heavy, or there’s not enough contrast. The right corner is too diagonal, it creates a positive cluttered tension, and the right corner is in a weird middle ground and needs to appear even more delicate.

I personally enjoyed the critique on my pieces greatly, due to the constructive criticism gained. However I also understand that I received more of a review than most of my other classmates due to them choosing three of mine to talk about.

Here is my response to our first assignment.