Symbolic Still Life (Portrait) - Final Photo (The OC Characters)

What If? - Final Photo

Windows & Doors Project - Final Photo

Heroes Project

For my heroes project, I am going to focus on all my musical heroes. What I want to do is draw a concert at a large outdoor open venue with all my favourite artists performing together and the crowd going nuts. Perhaps I will draw myself front and center or center with light hitting me and a space between me and the rest of the crowd so that I stand out and the artists stand out. I am going to draw a peaceful environment out of COLOUR which I have not done yet this year. Light colors, pastels, bright blue sky, fresh green grass. I'm going to play with light and they way light hits people to show connection.

Symbolic Still Life (Portrait)

I will be making a symbolic portrait of the characters from my favourite show, The OC. The four main characters are Marissa, Ryan, Seth, and Summer. It is kind of difficult to show them through the objects that I want to use because I do not necessarily have access to these objects.

In a perfect world, here are the objects I would use to represent them:

Marissa: Flask

Ryan: Boxing Glove

Seth: Comic Book

Summer: Credit Card

These objects really do ring true about the characters but perhaps I am thinking a bit literally.

No matter what the objects may be, I would position them all very specifically. Ryan and Seth have a "Bromance" meaning they are best friends. Marissa and Summer are the same way. But Summer and Seth are dating and Marissa and Ryan are dating. I feel that the objects would all be very close but maybe I will play with the shadows.

Windows & Doors Project Brainstorming

I am trying to show more than one space and/or emotion by playing with mirrors. I am going to most likely work with an exact square piece of paper and play with shadows. I have two main ideas. My first is using a rearview mirror to show a space inside the mirror and then a space outside of the mirror (ie. the car, the road, etc). Everything would be in black and white besides what's inside the mirror. My second idea is to have a room full of mirrors with one object (a person, or something symbolic, or random) sitting in the middle or off to the side of the room. The I would draw their reflection in the rest of the mirrors to show many different angles. Both of these ideas play with reflection, introspection, and maybe even deception.

Visiting Artist Hamlett Dobbins

Wow. Hamlett's work is terrific. I couldn't choose just 1 photo and had to eliminate out of a stack of about 10. These two were my favorites though. I like the first piece because of all the different colors and shapes that come together to make one whole thing. It reminds me or Horton Hears a Who and Whoville because I would kind of imagine Whoville to look like that -- colorful and carefree. It makes me want to grab it which sounds weird but I feel like it would have such texture and life. I would love a painting like this in my room and I'm always a sucker for color and vibrance.

The second piece is almost confusing and spiraling. There are these huge gusts of wind pouring over the entire page or maybe its waves and a typhoon. Then there seems to be this cave of sorts peeking out from the corner with a little piece of rainbow. The rest of the piece is 4-toned with black, blue, murky green and white. Then there's just this little burst of rainbow, a little burst of hope in the midst of this wind gust or wave storm.

These pieces connect to the rest of Hamlett's work because they are all of the abstract sort with much pattern and color and distinuishedness. All of his pieces have a similar glow to them with all of these amazingly detailed shapes and colors that pop out of every corner.

Question to Hamlett: Where do you start when you start a piece of art? Which mediums do you like to work with best? How did you start working in abstract art?

Blindfold Drawing

When you first told us what we were going to do I was a little excited and a little dumbfounded. Sure I'd goofed around and done drawings with my eyes closed but they were always nonsensical and had no real purpose to them. I did not really know how to go about drawing a real place or a memory of myself in that place. I just winged it and obviously my result was pretty funny. There's something unnatural about giving yourself up to the darkness. We are so used to being able to see all the little details out there that when we can't, an almost immediate sense of fear overwhelms us. This is only natural. It was fascinating trying to create a matter very close to my heart without being able to see because I really had no idea what I was drawing or if I was drawing over something else for that matter. I just had to trust my instincts and the images I had in my head. I kind of just thought about everything I love about the place I drew and did not try to draw the actual place rather all the things that make it so special to me. I just began with one idea about hammocks and palm trees and from there the rest of my drawing evaporated into some weird mess of scribbles that do not really do my place/memory justice. When I could take off the blindfold I decided to draw more of me in the place and then show the other blindfolded drawing as if it was a dream I was thinking about at the time.