Drawing

I've had a bit of a rough go with my drawing class. I was a little disappointed in the content of the course. I don't have any pictures of my major assignments because one of them my professor misplaced, another I don't like, and the last one I haven't finished. So instead, I'm sharing a bit of what the sketchbook work is like. We are required to keep an ongoing sketchbook for most of our classes. The drawing sketchbook has specific requirements for what we have to include, so these are a few pages out of it.

Ongoing facial features studies

Our drawing class has visited the Allan Gardens in Toronto twice this term to study plants in different media. We have been working with water based materials quite a bit. This one is ink and ink washes.

This one is not from Allan Gardens, but it is also water based. I bought water soluble oil pastels and graphite, and have had a lot of fun experimenting with all of the water based media available. 

Water based media

Along with the facial features, we also have to complete ongoing studies of hands and feet.

We have done way too many plant studies.

This is actually one of my major assignments. It isn't finished yet. It's supposed to be a foliage canopy with shaded textures in the negative space. I am not a fan of shading. EVER. 

Water based media

OCAD comes with a membership to the AGO, and the professors take advantage of it as much as they can. One of our sketchbook exercises was to study the Henry Moore sculpture collection at the AGO. I really enjoyed it, it was nice to sit in a gallery where it's quiet and draw these beautiful sculptures.

Photography Final: The Sun Beard.

The Sun Beard

For my piece I used the box from a barber's set to take my images. The inside has a section that fits a length of film perfectly. I taped the film down while sitting under a pile of blankets. After shooting my images, I kept the exposed images inside a camera to keep them from being exposed again.

My first try gave me no images because my hole was actually too small. After I made the hole larger, it worked much better. 

I used Kentmore 400 B&W film. Because the film is so close to the hole, and the film strip is so long it gives the images a wide angle view. 

We had access to the OCADU darkroom to develop our images. 4/6 of my images turned out.

Our assignment required our images to have something to do with what our cameras were made out of. Since mine was made from a barber's set box, I took pictures of Andrew...who has a beard. However, without a viewfinder on my camera I had no idea where I was aiming at. So my final product actually does not feature any of his facial hair, just the hair on top of his head. 

I exposed 6 shots all together. The first set of Andrew facing forwards at three different exposure times. The second set was in profile, again for three different exposure times. I did this to ensure I would get an image because I was a little concerned I didn't have the physics right and was pressed for time.

For this reason, none of the images on my final image are the same. They are gradations of one another because they were all exposed for different times.

I chose the box at first because it was convenient, but after shooting I realized that my concept was kind of stupid and really cliche. For some reason there's an ongoing facial hair mania. I have socks even that have mustaches on them. They've become a really over-marketed image. For me, it was a happy accident that Andrew's beard didn't end up in the image. Though I like facial hair (a lot)... I didn't want my project to be part of the obsession.

I was pleased with the result, and that I managed to make my own camera and have discernible images turn out. 

I call it 'the Sun Beard' because when I was discussing my title options with Andrew I said:

"well, it could have something to do with Movember, or Decembeard..."
and he said, 
"I like that- the sun beard!" so that's what it is, because I think that's pretty funny.

xo
Hayley 

Time Based Media (Film) Final

Time Based Media (Film & Video) class has not been easy for me. I have issues with the technological side of things, and when I went to school for Drawing & Painting, I did not think I would have to take a video course. I appreciate the course a lot more now that it's over. The course exposed me to performance and video art which I never would have stumbled onto otherwise. My videos aren't that good, or exciting. But I've posted my final if you're interested. It's 8 minutes long, and it's an exploration of two abandoned houses just outside of Alliston/ Tottenham. 

One of my other videos is in the process of being viewed for a juried show at the university, so you can wish me luck with that one!

I decided to share a few of my favourite performance pieces & videos that I saw while in that class.

1. Yoko Ono's 'Cut Piece' 

2. Lisa Steele's 'Birthday Suit: with scars and defects'

This video is not on Youtube, so I can only share a link for this one. 

There is nudity in this film. 

http://vk.com/video14378603_163477177?hash=ab8b0b7fc09bb153

3. Martha Rosler's 'Semiotics of the Kitchen'

3. George Melies' 'A Trip to the Moon'

I haven't watched the full thing, it's just interesting to skip through and look at all the different scenes. 

4. Edwearde Muybridge's works

 

And finally, here's my video... 

Shapeshifter.

It's finals week and for my mid-term painting project (painting class goes through the whole year, so it's midterms for this class) was to cut up the 10 panels from the semester which I shared before, and create something new. The theme was shapeshifters. Take that how you want to. It was very open ended, and she recommended doing a self portrait. This was the result of mine.

My concept was paint-by-number style. Because we were required to show which project each piece came from, it was easy just to number them.

We have a class of critiques for all of our major projects and the process is this:
1. Concept
2. Major Snag- which for me was that I ran out of the right colour on my past paintings by the time I did the nose, so it's rather white. I also wanted my nose ring to stand out more. Oh well.
3. Major Triumph- I like the way it looks from far away, it blends better and looks a lot more like me. And after staring at it up close for so long, taping each little piece on (that's a lot of little tape rolls to make!), I appreciate it a lot more from a distance.

It's a mix of acrylic and oil, on acetate mounted on foam board. It's 20X20". I used a gloss gel medium on top to unify it and keep some of the tricky pieces stuck down.

Shortly, I'll be sharing my drawing portfolio so check up here in a few days.

xo
Hayley