The countdown for IP has begun. At this point I am just trying to finish up all my drawings and put the final presentation together. I have 8 out of the 12 drawings complete and a few more started. Also this week I purchased my frames and started painting them white. So al I have left to do is finish the last four drawings, do one more coat of paint on the frames, and in the end determine the overall composition of the drawings. Below is an in progress image of the overall idea of the composition. As I am finishing the final four drawings this composition may change but we will see how it all goes together when the drawings are all completed.

(My images will be posted once I find my camera cord which is currently mia)

        This past week I have just been working on my drawings and trying to get all twelve done by the due date! Also I have been working on the whole framing problem and after talking with another professor we talked about framing the pieces again instead of attaching the paper to wood like I previously talked about. I will be using white frames and each piece will be framed individually but when they are hung they will be placed so they look as if they are one large image. Below is am example of artist Julie Mehretu and one of her pieces that is framed the same way. 

Julie Mehretu

Auguries ,  2010
12-panel aquatint with spit bite (from 48 plates)

        Also below are the images that are completed and some that are still in progress. 

        This week has been all about making progress on my drawings. I still have a goal of twelve final drawings in mind so I have been working hard to try and get them completed. At this point I have about half of them completed and I am excited with how they are turning out. 
        At the beginning of the week some of the drawings I started on didn't work well and I had to start over on a few. This was frustrating but once I was able to get back into the swing of things the drawings started to look good again. I will have my most recent drawings up by the end of the weekend for you all to take a look at. 
        So at this point I am just going to keep drawing so I can reach my goal of twelve final images. Also starting this weekend I am starting to figure out all the logistics of attaching the paper to the pieces of wood I previously purchased. So between that, my drawings, and my paper I am going to be busy these next two weeks! And again my images will be up soon.

        At this point in time I have been working on the final pieces for the show. During the last few weeks I have been using the previous drawings of these shapes and recreating them. The final pieces are going to be 13 inches by 13 inches and I have been using better quality materials. Below are images of the two drawings that are almost finished. 

        In comparison to the previous drawings these new images are taking on a whole new look. Each pieces takes around 8 to 10 hours to complete and the detail that I am trying to put into them is much greater than the other ones. The forms are starting to come alive which I am really starting to enjoy. 

        Also this week we had another small group critique where individuals we able to see these new drawings for the first time. I got a really good response from the images not only about the quality of the drawing technique but of the overall images. All the questions I had going into this critique were answered and also some new perspectives were brought into the picture. One of my main questions was about the final display of the work. In the end I will have 12 of these images and I want them hung in a grid pattern, but my question is how am I going to hang them. Initially I was thinking frames but than started to realize that the frames take away from the pieces and don't allow the viewer to make connections between the pieces which is what I want. So I am looking into attaching the paper to wood and hanging the wood. People liked this method and someone even brought up the idea of using different depths of wood to create more contrast and movement between the pieces so this is something I might start to play with. In additon to continuing to work on the drawings I had to work on the second draft of my thesis. 

        So from this point on my goal is to just keep working on these drawings and get everything done in the next three weeks. Also I am going to start working on the website portion of this assignment that will display my work in the end and hopefully meet with a sweetland writing tutor to help finalize my thesis. 

        This week I have made some progress and I think figured out the best method to execute my project. I started this week off by exploring prints some more from the photolithography plates I made a few weeks ago. Still focusing on the same imagery of the very gestural figures I played with color. In a previous print I printed with white ink on white paper and what resulted was am image that you could barley see with the naked eye. So still wanting to play with this idea of printing white on white I made my inks more of a off white so they could be visible and little bit. Below is an example of one of the prints I pulled from these experiments. The off white ink on paper is hardly visible here but in the real print it looks 100 times better. 

        Also this week I continued to focus on my compositions that I had started last week. I focused on how the forms interacted as well has how many forms were interacting. Along with interactions I thought about size when I was creating these figures. The whole idea behind the forms is the interaction between my mother and I so I started to make figures representing us as individuals through their size in relation to each other. Also I created some compositions where you would be looking at the figures from farther away and can see more of the figure as in contrast I created some compositions were I would be viewed as if you were looking up close at these figures being able to see every detail. Below are some of the compositions I ended up creating. 

        Also at the end of this week I was able to sit down with the professors and get some new perspectives which was really helpful. I started by hanging up my compositions in a 2 by 4 grid on the wall and this brought up some new questions and ideas. Initially I was creating these compositions as individual pieces that would just collectively go together in the end, but once I saw them all together I looked at it in a different way. In an example below there were new figures that were beginning to interact and create new forms. Also a new complexity was beginning to arise and it overall started to create something more dynamic and interesting, exactly like the relationship I am basing this entire project off of. 

        Also during this conversation the idea of turning all these graphite drawings into prints was discussed again. I was starting to see it while playing with the different prints but the question of does this need to really be turned into prints necessary? By taking these drawings and going through the method of creating prints the overall figures and compositions were losing something. The prints were just not as successful as what I wanted and as what I initially saw in the drawings. So at this point I am going to go buy some rally nice drawing paper, nice pencils and start creating drawings pulled from previous compositions I have done and new compositions. I am just going to continue drawing and see what comes of it. 

        This week started out by having a small critique of my work up to date. I met with Professor Endi Poskovic and we were able to have a conversation about my images and how to be able to push this project farther. Instead of just talking about the imagery he focused more on the process of making the images and the story behind every image. So based on his suggestions I started to thin of my project and try and figure out how I could push it even more.   
        I continued to play with compositions and started to play with size. Initially all my compositions have been small in size so I took the seven compositions form last week that have the most potential and printed them 11 inches by 17 inches. Next I played with different ways to crop them and see how I could push the drawings a little bit farther. My images will be posted Sunday night. 
        Besides the size of my images I have started to think again how I could use the layering and bring in that element of surprise to make my pieces more details and overall dynamic. In a previous drawing there was an embossing effect that occurred on the piece below it and this is something that turned into a happy mistake. The embossing effect is an almost invisible element in the piece that brings more detail to the piece but only form certain angles. 
        So for this week my plan is to first finalize the compositions that I am using and decide on the final size of each piece. Also I am going to play with the embossing effect and layering of photo litho print like I did previously to see what interesting interactions can occur and what surprises could be created. I need to just keep working and pushing my drawings.

        This week I have been doing a lot of printing and trying to figure things out. Last weekend I started the process of exploring new compositions with the drawn figures I had previously created. I did this by transferring some of the figures onto tracing paper. With these new pieces I was able to layer and create new compositions with the figures. I started with just the interaction of two figures and after a while began playing with multiple figures and seeing how they interact and what relationships started for form. Below are some of the compositions I was able to come up with. The thing with these compositions are that they are all still calm and pretty the one thing that I am still struggling with is creating interactions that are negative or create a tension between the figures. So I don't know if there are any suggestions, but I still am just going to play with the figures until this feeling is accomplished.

        Also this week I started to create some photolitho prints. I chose 4 main figures that to me were the most interesting and had the most potential to create interesting interactions. Through the process of creating the prints I began by making four separate plates, each containing a different figure. With the plate this gives me the freedom to play with the compositions and even colors. After the plates were made I started out by puling a few proofs just to get an idea how the plates inked up and if they had the quality that I wanted. After the first few proofs things looked good so the next night I tried pulling a few prints. Below are the first three prints I created and I have to say I am not that happy with how they turned out. Even though the proofs of them looked alright and it seemed like the inking up process was fine these newest prints don't look as good. So I am not sure if it was how I inked them up and if I just need to keep playing with it to get them to look just right. Also with these prints I was able to experiment with the layering of images to see how that would translate through the print. Also the first print has a layer that is printed in white ink. This is something that I have been wanting to try and seeing it here it did not work how I wanted. It was one pure white paper that I was printing so maybe if I print on an off white paper it may look better. So I still have some things to figure out with these but they are close to what I was looking for.

        So for this week I am first going to keep playing with the compositions. I need to create some that are visibly negative. I hope to be able to narrow down to five or six compositions that I will be using to create my final images. Also I want to try printing again with the photolitho plates that I created. I think it will just take practice to get them to print how I want them. Also this will give me the opportunity to keep playing with the compositions, the layering of figures and the color. Finally this week I want to try something new with the size of the images. Everything I have been working in has been small in scale so I want to try and blow some of the images up and see how they translate in a larger size.