other drawing work throughout the semester...

Since October I have been working two days a week at one of the elementary school's in Menomonie (River Heights Elementary School). When the principal and a few teachers found out I was an art major, they started getting ideas! One of the teachers was a reading specialist, so she asked me if I would be willing to do a mural on her wall, using some of her favorite book characters. She printed off the images of the characters, and I arranged them into the final composition and such. Not having much experience painting AT ALL, I was a little hesitant and nervous as to how it would turn out, but I think it went quite well and was a great experience. I have included an image of the entire mural, and also a close up of two of my favorite completed areas.

As soon as I was finished with the mural, the principal already had another idea for me. She wanted me to paint some quotes on the students bathroom walls. After she gave me the sheet of quotes that she wanted, I used Photoshop to find a text I thought would work well with the specific quote. After that, I went back and chose a fitting color (which this idea I also used in the 2nd of my 2 final projects), and then a layout and placement on the wall for the quotes. Finally, I quickly sketched out the simple letters of the words, then painted them in the specific font.

I really enjoyed this project for the school because I got to do multiple steps, such as fonts, colors, layout, design, and the actual painting part. Another upside to this task was my agreement of actually putting quotes on walls. I have always loved quotes and find them inspirational. Also, most schools walls are much too boring and do not add to the excitement that could make a child want to go to school. By putting these quotes on the walls it makes the students interested and gets them thinking about the quote and its meaning. A couple of my favorite quote paintings are shown above.

Keep The Change You Filthy Animal: Drawing 3 Show piece

My piece for the final drawing III show in the student gallery was decided on for me... Although I did not like the whole piece that was chosen, it was suggested that I cut out the lined image in the corner of my second project, which was the only part of that piece that I had liked. This also happened to be the focal point of my second project, so I was happy to have that be the only portion focused on by cutting it out.

The body language and emotional feelings that are displayed by the figure basically culminate my feelings of an entire year, if not longer. It displays the troubles and defeated feeling of what I have been going through, and trying to figure out how to fix, therefore, it was a very personal image/piece to create.

Final 2 Projects

For the first of my final two projects I really wanted to try to duplicate the idea of Escher's tessellations again, but on a larger scale. The final product is not at all what I had in mind when I first started, but I could not decide how I wanted to do it, so I ended up 'just going with it' once again.

As I was looking at the larger shape I thought it looked a lot like a tree, so I started with the bottom middle piece and began a tree..but then changed my mind again and decided to make it one big tree, with the branches spreading out onto the other upper pieces. Since the tree shapes were black and white, I figured a solid color would look better with the background, and red seemed to be the answering contrasting color that worked well.

I see the overall idea of this piece revolving around the strength, growth, and mysteriousness of the tree, combined with the love, energy, and attention that the red brings in.



The other of my final project ideas was sort of a combination of the themes from the first two projects. I wanted use the first idea of the 'everyday path', and also the second theme of 'cluttered existence'. I also chose to experiment with the idea of the psychology of color in order to represent the feelings i have at each point in my paths.

There are eight squares in the piece, each representing the eight places I spend the most time in each week; 4 classes (Art History, Drawing 3, Aesthetics, Statistics), 2 jobs (River Heights Elementary School, Menards Distribution Center), and 2 'homes' (Menomonie, Rochester).

Model Drawing

This was not one of the main projects of the semester, but I thought I would include it anyways because we did work on it in class. I am not sure exactly what the date on this piece was, but I believe it was around, or right after, the second project. As I was still thinking about my word 'triangle' from the second project, I decided to incorporate that into this short piece as well. Although not finished, my idea was to have the head/skull where it is in the corner, and put smaller pieces of various parts of the models body and the backdrop inside the triangle.

#3 Artist Emulation... M.C. Escher

The third project of the semester was an emulation of one of our three influencial artists from our paper. With my three artists being Escher, Lichtenstein and a lesser-known John Robertson, I chose to go with M.C. Escher. I have always been drawn to Escher mostly because is work is very geometric and mathematical, which have both always been a strong point in my abilities.

One of Escher's trademarks of his work are his tessellations, so I wanted to try to duplicate that idea. My thought was that I could handle the tessellation theme, so I wanted to make one that started as one object and morphed into another. I soon found out that this was a lot harder than I had bargained for!

Two other aspects of the piece that coordinate with Escher are the geometric block forms on the left, and the overall narrative story that moves through the work. Escher has many geometric architectural forms, all very blocky, and black, white, and/or gray. In regards to the theme, Escher always has strange little figures in his pieces that create narratives which will never be confirmed or denied...they seem there just to intrigue the viewer and make their own story. I feel that I emulated these aspects of Escher's works quite well, although I do wish the tessellation would have been longer and I had been able to do more ink-ed graphic pieces.

Drawing #2 Cluttered Existence, Triangles, Found Surface

For our second drawing we picked 3 words that we had to incorporate into our piece, mine came out to be cluttered existence, triangles, and found surface.

I wanted to use wood because I knew I was going to use paint and spraypaint, bringing in the spraypaint idea from the first piece, and also because I thought it would work well with the cluttered theme. I struggled to find an idea for a composition for this work, which may have helped with the clutter theme as well because I ended up 'winging' some of it. The small graphic images in each of the triangles represent portions of my life, or things in my life, that cause a 'cluttered existence' in my life.

The line-based figure in the bottom left corner is the focal point of the work because it culminates the feeling of the piece and my life. The figure looks defeated and tired, which has been how I felt the entire year with school, work, and life choices/decisions. I have felt like there has been so many things in my life the past year and I have just not had the time to deal with them all, and they have been so overwhelming that I have just not had the motivation to continue with them.

i am an... ISTJ ...yup

Brittany Schmelling...is an...
Introvert: 78
Sensing: 12
Thinking: 1
Judging: 44
The Myers-Briggs personality/type indicator basically described me perfectly. First, I am definitely an Introvert. I have a lot of opinions and thoughts, but I would rather keep them to myself and think, while hearing other people talk. As for Sensing, I do go with facts or what I know or think is right, instead of a more intuitive approach. I am definitely a Thinker...I think about what will be the result for almost everything I do, which also goes along with my Judging category. Managing and planning things out is something I have always done and enjoyed doing. That could also explain my slight 'neat-freak' quality and need to have everything organized.
One of the things I found a little ironic about the test was that it said my top 2 career paths should be in the management field, and before class I had been planning and mapping out the possibility of either switching my major to management or adding a human resources or project management minor...weird i know.

In regards to my drawing, my type appears to have a great influence. Structure and organization has a very geometric sense to it, which is very much present in my work. I enjoy organic forms, but when drawing, I always seem to produce structured, geometric works. Another contribution, not sure if it is good or bad, is the planning aspect. I try to plan, and usually do in my head, but a lot of the time it seems to change as it goes along. I guess if I was strictly sticking to my type I would most likely sketch out my ideas in order to plan what I was going to do, but that never seems to work out well...my head works better. As for overcoming weaknesses, I believe my sketching production should improve in order to make my drawings/compositions more successful.

My type has a lot of thoughts and ideas, but keeps them to ourselves. I think this idea of many thoughts about various subjects is present in my work. My two pieces so far in this class have been solely about my personal feelings and emotions right now, so the works are my introvert self explaining those thoughts.

The strong Introvert in me plays a major role in a group/critique setting. I have opinions, sometimes quite strong, but I never seem to share them. It is not that I am afraid of speaking up because that does not bother me. I think I would just rather let everyone else speak and listen to what they have to say. So, in order to address my weakness, I need to share the thoughts that I am thinking more and participate!

Ordinary/Extrordinary Drawing Critique Summary

I am not sure what the right word for the critique for my Ordinary/Extrordinary drawing would be...the piece had more of a personal concept that maybe everyone did not see at first. The idea of feeling trapped and not having much freedom seemed to be quite recognizable, which is good since that was the main message.
However, I think there was too much of a personal idea in it for people to truly see it. The icon man and woman spray painting graffiti appeared to be well-liked and fit the idea of the piece. The background and pipes on the other hand, did not go over well. Some people thought that the boxed-in idea of adding the pipe outline was over-doing the idea, however that was my intent. Comments on the brick background were also mixed, which I agreed with as well. I was not sure what I was going to do with the background when I started, but I thought the brick might work well with the graffiti idea. I do agree with the comments I received on the background and pipe areas, but I am not sure what I would have done differently with them. But yes, they could have been done differently to make the piece stronger.
The idea of my drawing came after I had chosen the images and started sketching a few out. I had all these images of the place I have begun to come sick of, so that is where the images took me. I started with the slide picture, taken from a small playground by my house that I pass every day. I always seem to think about the contrasting ideas of the playground...the intended 'fun', childish aspect, combined with the abandoned, lonely feeling that the playground has. I then added the rest of the Stout images, the 'Polytechnic' lightpole flag, the iconic male/female symbols, the light socket, the bland brick, etc. I tried to sketch out a composition with all the chosen images, but it did not seem to be working, so the final drawing is simply a collage of my thoughts.

'Art Lessons' Reflection

I found this book as very easy and informative reading. The author has had so many experiences to share with the reader, which makes you really think about things and relate them to your own life. As she talked about all the different cultures and monuments she has studied I began to realize how little I know about these things! She mentioned a lot of foreign places, people, and things that I have not heard of, so it made me interested and wanting to find out what she has seen.

The portion of this reading that I related to the most was about schooling. Haynes has been in school for so many years, while also taking time off here and there to travel and go explore other places. Her art has always been a part and focus of her studies, but she mentions that writing and other areas of study have also captured her attention. I have begun to feel the same way through the past few years. Art has been something I have done my whole life, and when deciding where to go to school and what for, I knew that had to be it. Not only did I enjoy it, but I really couldn't see myself doing anything else, like sitting behind a desk or a 'boring' job like that. Having explored three different, but similar majors, graphic design, industrial design, and now art education, I still enjoy art and think I want to continue it, but at the same time I wonder if art education is what I want to do for the rest of my career. Here path of taking some time off during her schooling is something I have seriously considered at points over the last two years. Not only has the stresses of money, work, and time become a major issue, but also the matter of if I should continue with the path that I am on. Overall I really enjoyed reading the first few chapter of this book, and I am looking forward to more stories, information, and advice throughout the book.

DRAWing III INtroDUction

I am Brittany Schmelling, currently a senior Art Education major at UW-Stout. I chose to take Drawing III as part of my drawing concentration for my major. As a future art educator, this class will allow me to practice and advance my drawing skills and explore more ideas/mediums in order to better assist me when it comes time to teach. I feel that I still have a lot to learn in a short amount of time before 'the real world,' so I am looking forward to a lot of practice, exploration, and learning this semester. I took Life Drawing I last semester and it went a lot better than I had expected, so I see good things happening this semester as well.

I included images of previous work below, there are more images under the other tabs from past blog posts.

Images...
life drawing- skull
life drawing- figure
printmaking- wint '09
drawing I- fall '06- peanuts, popcorn & tape