Nov 11, 2008
Nov 3, 2008
3D Beeld Onderzoek
3D Beeld Onderzoek was the subject I was looking forward to mostly when the rooster started. The most important work I had done before I came to the art academy was a blacklight installation, so I thought this subject would be perfect for me. I was a bit disappointed then when we had our first lesson. The first thing we had to do was to copy 10 pictures of 3D objects we liked and we didn’t like out of books. The homework was then to make collages, simple ones, just with lines and as free as possible.
When our teacher analyzed our homework in the following lesson, he told me that I should not make the things to easy for me. I think the problem was that I thought we should make collages “out of nothing”, so I focused a lot on not thinking to much about what I was doing, so the result was really trashy. For the next lesson I made new collages, this time trying to arrange them a bit more thoughtfully. It was better than what I had done before, but I still was told to work less “nice”.
When we switched to making real 3D objects then, I tried to work therefore really free, spontaneously, without focusing on the aspect. Maybe I was a bit to hard in that this time, because the teacher was really critical and made clear to me that there must be any idea visible, and that everybody could make “trash”, but some of the works I made he liked, so I worked more in that direction. At that time I thought I would understand better what it was about. The objects should not be nice in aspect, but neather just senseless trash. There should be an idea behind the arrangement or the shape giving, but the aim was to make it interesting, not nice.
It was hard for me to get this point. I also was a bit angry, because it seemed that my original standpoint, that this subject would be perfect for my ideas, would not really work out. So what I did for the following lesson was not to put that many things just together like I did before, but work more minimalistic. Therefore I used a lot of ready-mades, because I didn’t want to make “trash” again, which I destructed or deconstructed.
The ready-mades were the biggest criticspoint in the following lesson. I was told not to use so much material, make the things less heavy, and still work more free, because ready-mades have already a shape what allows not so many variations. The teacher made clear to me that, if I wanted to work with ready-mades, I would have to pay a lot more attention on HOW I worked with them in order to make it interesting. But some of my workes asked his attention, and he gave me the advice to inform myself about the artist Erwin Wurm as an example. I followed the advice and noticed that the way this artists used the things was more my direction.
We were also told to think about our works, to find a description for them or for our working style, what it would be about. One big question in my life is the question about identity. If it exists, where it comes from, if things can have a fixed identity or not, and also if I myself, as a person or an artist, can have an identity which is visible in all of my works. So I chose that question to describe my works, “what is identity?”. That explained also why I had problems at the beginning to start producing, because I was not sure about the “identity” I wanted to give the things I made. Also my interest for ready-mades fits in there, because they already have an identity, and my question is if this is fixed or not.
I understood now also better what the teacher ment by saying I should pay more attention on HOW I worked with ready-mades. Just to destroy them or put them together in a new order would not question anything. This happens every day, everybody can do it and it’s not interesting and nothing. So if I wanted to work in this direction, I would have to add something new, something which would not be expected. So for the following lesson I experimented a lot and made several series of works. The feedback I got was then the best feedback I got during the whole period.
The end of the first period was near, and I made a final work which should express all I learned in this period and get in to a point. I “melted together” two light bulbs. Before I came to the art academy I would have left it like that, because I would have thought that this would be interesting. What I did not was to add something unexpected, so I broke out a piece of glass on the place where they “melted”. The aim was not to give two things new identity (“two light bulbs melted together”), but to question the identity in general. So by braking out the piece of glass, I wanted the viewer to ask himself why I did that. Was it an accident? Did he do it consciously? Are this still two light bulbs melted together? I explained everything to the teacher on the day of the presentation. He was still very critical and saw still a lot of thing I would have to learn. The thing is that at this day I could agree with him, and this is the important point for me, because I have now the feeling that I really learned something and understood now better where my weak points are. I’m more satisfied with that knowledge as if I would be if I would have worked perfectly, because I think this is a good base to work on for the second period.
When our teacher analyzed our homework in the following lesson, he told me that I should not make the things to easy for me. I think the problem was that I thought we should make collages “out of nothing”, so I focused a lot on not thinking to much about what I was doing, so the result was really trashy. For the next lesson I made new collages, this time trying to arrange them a bit more thoughtfully. It was better than what I had done before, but I still was told to work less “nice”.
When we switched to making real 3D objects then, I tried to work therefore really free, spontaneously, without focusing on the aspect. Maybe I was a bit to hard in that this time, because the teacher was really critical and made clear to me that there must be any idea visible, and that everybody could make “trash”, but some of the works I made he liked, so I worked more in that direction. At that time I thought I would understand better what it was about. The objects should not be nice in aspect, but neather just senseless trash. There should be an idea behind the arrangement or the shape giving, but the aim was to make it interesting, not nice.
It was hard for me to get this point. I also was a bit angry, because it seemed that my original standpoint, that this subject would be perfect for my ideas, would not really work out. So what I did for the following lesson was not to put that many things just together like I did before, but work more minimalistic. Therefore I used a lot of ready-mades, because I didn’t want to make “trash” again, which I destructed or deconstructed.
The ready-mades were the biggest criticspoint in the following lesson. I was told not to use so much material, make the things less heavy, and still work more free, because ready-mades have already a shape what allows not so many variations. The teacher made clear to me that, if I wanted to work with ready-mades, I would have to pay a lot more attention on HOW I worked with them in order to make it interesting. But some of my workes asked his attention, and he gave me the advice to inform myself about the artist Erwin Wurm as an example. I followed the advice and noticed that the way this artists used the things was more my direction.
We were also told to think about our works, to find a description for them or for our working style, what it would be about. One big question in my life is the question about identity. If it exists, where it comes from, if things can have a fixed identity or not, and also if I myself, as a person or an artist, can have an identity which is visible in all of my works. So I chose that question to describe my works, “what is identity?”. That explained also why I had problems at the beginning to start producing, because I was not sure about the “identity” I wanted to give the things I made. Also my interest for ready-mades fits in there, because they already have an identity, and my question is if this is fixed or not.
I understood now also better what the teacher ment by saying I should pay more attention on HOW I worked with ready-mades. Just to destroy them or put them together in a new order would not question anything. This happens every day, everybody can do it and it’s not interesting and nothing. So if I wanted to work in this direction, I would have to add something new, something which would not be expected. So for the following lesson I experimented a lot and made several series of works. The feedback I got was then the best feedback I got during the whole period.
The end of the first period was near, and I made a final work which should express all I learned in this period and get in to a point. I “melted together” two light bulbs. Before I came to the art academy I would have left it like that, because I would have thought that this would be interesting. What I did not was to add something unexpected, so I broke out a piece of glass on the place where they “melted”. The aim was not to give two things new identity (“two light bulbs melted together”), but to question the identity in general. So by braking out the piece of glass, I wanted the viewer to ask himself why I did that. Was it an accident? Did he do it consciously? Are this still two light bulbs melted together? I explained everything to the teacher on the day of the presentation. He was still very critical and saw still a lot of thing I would have to learn. The thing is that at this day I could agree with him, and this is the important point for me, because I have now the feeling that I really learned something and understood now better where my weak points are. I’m more satisfied with that knowledge as if I would be if I would have worked perfectly, because I think this is a good base to work on for the second period.
Beeld & Concept
The first step to our concept was the visualisation of a personal memory. It could be anyone, all we should do was to make it visible, to draw it. Before I came to the Netherlands, I lived in Madrid for a while and had some close impressions of the – in my eyes – senseless behaviour of many people who follow strict timetables and working calenders and think that’s what life would be about, whereas no one sees how empty their lifes really are. So this was still a very strong memory when I started in the art academy and I chose to work with it. I was not sure if that would be a good idea, because it’s a pretty bad memory, but finally decided to make myself the things not so easy.
I made several drawings with coal on sketch paper, in which I tried to combine what I had seen there in Madrid and what my impression of it was, what my mind made out of it. I was a bit to much interpretating the things, so my teacher asked me to stay at first a bit more at the concret visualisation of what I had seen.
Further we had to write texts about our memory, different ones, and think about how we could visualize them. I made some poems, a dialog and kind of a “why wall”, because I asked myself a lot of times questions with “why” at that time, and wanted to have all these questions presented like statements on a wall.
While showing all we had made until that time to the rest of the class and having a conversation about it, we then had to find our “concept” in it. In my case it was “standing critically between the worlds”, because what I made showed that I question a lot of things. But this didn’t give me satisfaction, because I could not work with that, it was still to open.
So I had a talk to my teacher, I told her that I had no idea how to go on. She gave me the advice to think about what happens when I travel from one place to another, like I did from Germany to Spain. I had the idea that, when you move from one place to another, you always have kind of a vision in your head how the other place would be and what you can expect to find there, and that these pictures in your mind always have something to do with a search for something better or nicer than where you are at the moment, and that the reality is always different. So I made some drawings of situations how I expected them to be before I went there during the last months, and also wrote down some questions I had connected with the movements I made. The idea was to put them behind a glass plate where I could see them, and meanwhile see myself reflected in the situation how it really was, so confrontate myself with what I expected and what it really turned out to be. I noticed that I felt uncomfortable while doing that, I felt kind of insecure feeling. So I thought this would be the better concept for me, insecurity.
I did then several tryouts, in order to give myself more insecurity while producing something. That I thought would be the aim of the subject, to make your concept to something productive. I changed e.g. my own standpoint towards the picture while painting it, I painted upside down or on inline skates, in order to see what would come out. Nothing really satisfied me, because I never felt like using my concept in a productive way, so I decided, one week before the end of the first period and the final presentation, to make an experiment with myself and bring me in real insecure situations. My plan was to program my watch to ring the alarm by coincidence during one week, and everytime when it would ring, no matter where I would be or what I would do, I wanted to do some artistic action.
This plan finally failed, because I just never did it. I asked myself why and analyzed my concept in form of a text. I wrote about insecurity, where it normaly comes from, what happens with people when they are insecure, how one can deal with it, and so on. Using this text, this analyse, I noticed why I could not realize my original plan. People never bring themselves consciously into insecure situations, they happen or not.
This text was then also some kind of key for me in this subject. A lot of things about insecurity and why it developed as my concept were now very clear to me. On the day of the presentation I then made kind of a performance out of this text, in which I realized several things. Using a text which analyzed the topic “insecurity”, I visualized on the one hand the concept itself. On the other hand, I inscenated my personal situation in which I was during the week when I wanted to bring myself in insecure situations. Furthermore I even “lived” or worked with my concept during the performance, because my original plan was to show the results of my original plan which I could not realize, so finally I had a complete other result than expected, so I really was insecure on the day of the presentation itself.
This final step put my concept and how I worked with it until now in a complete new light. I also realized how it had an influence on me from the first lesson on. Because I was insecure what to do, I always had problems to experiment, or to bring experiments I wanted to do to an end. So my conclusion was that insecurity doesn’t bring you anywhere, the more interesting point is a new creative potential that comes when you look for ways to come out of insecure situations, like I did e.g. with the performance in order to bring myself out of the insecure situation of not being able to realize an experiment. I noticed how complexe the whole process was until the last step, but I think I finally made something really productive for me out of it, and that my thoughts from the first lesson, not to make the things to easy for me, turned out to be the right ones, because I thinks the confrontation with really personal conflictes or feares brings out complete new potentials out of one.
In the next period I’d therefore like to work more spontaneously, more free, having a close look on what I finally discovered: the use of insecurety by having a look on the ways how to avoid it.
I made several drawings with coal on sketch paper, in which I tried to combine what I had seen there in Madrid and what my impression of it was, what my mind made out of it. I was a bit to much interpretating the things, so my teacher asked me to stay at first a bit more at the concret visualisation of what I had seen.
Further we had to write texts about our memory, different ones, and think about how we could visualize them. I made some poems, a dialog and kind of a “why wall”, because I asked myself a lot of times questions with “why” at that time, and wanted to have all these questions presented like statements on a wall.
While showing all we had made until that time to the rest of the class and having a conversation about it, we then had to find our “concept” in it. In my case it was “standing critically between the worlds”, because what I made showed that I question a lot of things. But this didn’t give me satisfaction, because I could not work with that, it was still to open.
So I had a talk to my teacher, I told her that I had no idea how to go on. She gave me the advice to think about what happens when I travel from one place to another, like I did from Germany to Spain. I had the idea that, when you move from one place to another, you always have kind of a vision in your head how the other place would be and what you can expect to find there, and that these pictures in your mind always have something to do with a search for something better or nicer than where you are at the moment, and that the reality is always different. So I made some drawings of situations how I expected them to be before I went there during the last months, and also wrote down some questions I had connected with the movements I made. The idea was to put them behind a glass plate where I could see them, and meanwhile see myself reflected in the situation how it really was, so confrontate myself with what I expected and what it really turned out to be. I noticed that I felt uncomfortable while doing that, I felt kind of insecure feeling. So I thought this would be the better concept for me, insecurity.
I did then several tryouts, in order to give myself more insecurity while producing something. That I thought would be the aim of the subject, to make your concept to something productive. I changed e.g. my own standpoint towards the picture while painting it, I painted upside down or on inline skates, in order to see what would come out. Nothing really satisfied me, because I never felt like using my concept in a productive way, so I decided, one week before the end of the first period and the final presentation, to make an experiment with myself and bring me in real insecure situations. My plan was to program my watch to ring the alarm by coincidence during one week, and everytime when it would ring, no matter where I would be or what I would do, I wanted to do some artistic action.
This plan finally failed, because I just never did it. I asked myself why and analyzed my concept in form of a text. I wrote about insecurity, where it normaly comes from, what happens with people when they are insecure, how one can deal with it, and so on. Using this text, this analyse, I noticed why I could not realize my original plan. People never bring themselves consciously into insecure situations, they happen or not.
This text was then also some kind of key for me in this subject. A lot of things about insecurity and why it developed as my concept were now very clear to me. On the day of the presentation I then made kind of a performance out of this text, in which I realized several things. Using a text which analyzed the topic “insecurity”, I visualized on the one hand the concept itself. On the other hand, I inscenated my personal situation in which I was during the week when I wanted to bring myself in insecure situations. Furthermore I even “lived” or worked with my concept during the performance, because my original plan was to show the results of my original plan which I could not realize, so finally I had a complete other result than expected, so I really was insecure on the day of the presentation itself.
This final step put my concept and how I worked with it until now in a complete new light. I also realized how it had an influence on me from the first lesson on. Because I was insecure what to do, I always had problems to experiment, or to bring experiments I wanted to do to an end. So my conclusion was that insecurity doesn’t bring you anywhere, the more interesting point is a new creative potential that comes when you look for ways to come out of insecure situations, like I did e.g. with the performance in order to bring myself out of the insecure situation of not being able to realize an experiment. I noticed how complexe the whole process was until the last step, but I think I finally made something really productive for me out of it, and that my thoughts from the first lesson, not to make the things to easy for me, turned out to be the right ones, because I thinks the confrontation with really personal conflictes or feares brings out complete new potentials out of one.
In the next period I’d therefore like to work more spontaneously, more free, having a close look on what I finally discovered: the use of insecurety by having a look on the ways how to avoid it.
Oct 28, 2008
Serieel Beeld
The first time I had a look on our schedule, Serieel Beeld was the subject that told me less. I was therefore curious to our first lesson. It turned out to be a really short one. The most important thing was that the teacher gave us the homework to realize a 12 minutes walk our journey and the way back, and to take photos all the time. We were free to choose time and place, also a “mental journey” was possible. As I had no further information, I was not sure what to do, if I should make myself a concept for kind of “special journey” or just go to the supermarket around the corner. I wanted to try something, so I made myself the concept of a “way towards my future and the way I’m coming from”. I surrounded a lake which gave me the possibility to take photos of place were I would go to on the other side, and the same for the way I was coming from. While realizing that walk I noticed that I could not stay with my original concept, because I was more interested in interesting sceneries and details I found on my way. So I took mostly photos in that style, until my batteries were out of energy.
I showed the photos to the teacher in the following lesson, explaining what I originally wanted to do and finally did. I for myself “lost” my concept, so I was surprised that he started to analyse my photos and found a new concept in it. He made me aware of that I mostly took photos of wide sceneries, but always with some kind of “border” between myself and the wideness, like leave of a tree. He asked me if I would perhaps be looking for freedom, setting own borders to myself in order not to loose orientation. I thought about that and, I must admit that, he was right. I was so surprised (and even a bit scared) what we seem to do without being aware of it, and that it is so easy for other people to realize. But finally I had a new concept, maybe a even better one, not so mentaly constructed.
I compared my photo serie with photos I had taken in the months before I came to the art academy and found out that I could find a lot of photos taken in the same way. I also saw that I had a lot of times water, air or light as a motive in them. This could be seen as symbols for freedom as not touchable, soft elements. I did a second walk, trying to focus even more on these things, and compared the new photos with the older serie and got the impression of an increase of expression in them. I also experimented a bit with a glass plate, because on the one hand you can see through it, on the other hand it is also kind of a border and reflects what there is behind one, or even oneself as kind of a transparent shadow, making your own standpoint between the world and the freedom not so clear. It was an interesting experiment to work with such an artificial “thing”, I got some good photos, whereas tryouts with Photoshop effects led more to an innatural kind of “wanna-be” look. Another analyse of my series made me aware also of details I banned on photo on my walk. Kind of momental snapshot where I was actually standing.
Next lesson I had an interesting conversation with my teacher. I showed my tryouts to him and explained my thoughts. We also talked about the final aim of all that, the final presentation. At the end I had two possibilities left: I could make a serie of really large printed photos, hanging next to each other on a wall with some space inbetween, or realize a moving photo projection on a big wall. After some thinking I chose the second option, it seemed to fit more to my concept to work directly with light (projection), this would give a better impression. I anyway tried some prints, but they just confirmed me in my thoughts.
I also worried a bit about esthetic, because with my concept and the way I took the photos I was pretty much in very soft and smooth colors, and generally I got the feeling that esthetic is seens as blocking the expression at the art academy, but I discussed that with the teacher and he told me that in this case it would be ok, because it would support that I wanted to do.
I tried to come closer to a point for my presentation, and looked for words what I could use to realize my projection. These were:
Air, light, soft, free, transparent
Water, flow, relflecting
Connecting, movement
I was not really secure about all that and did some more photo series to focus more on these things, which forced me to use good natural light moods, so I went most of the times in the late afternoon. Finally I had a big amount of photos to choose from.
I was now ready do plan my presentation. The projection project needed some kind of “guidance” through it, especially because I wanted to “melt” photos out of different situation together, because one aim was also to make the border between a physical and mental movement more transparent. This is something really important for me, interpretation the things I see while seeing them. So I devided the project in several “chapters”, which should alltogether lead through my “journey”, letting the viewer see the world out of my eyes. The whole presentation should not take more that 3 minutes, because I thought that would be the maximum in order not to get bored.
I went to the realization with PowerPoint. It turned out to change the things again. The most difficult thing was to choose the right photos out of my really big collection. 3 minutes are fastly filled, there don’t fit more than around 30 pictures in them. So I really had to concentrate on the “essence” of all my photos. Therefore I had to leave out a lot of photos or photo effects I wanted to work with, but I had to admit to myself that just packing together a lot of photos and showing them in a short time would more destroy the effect than to support it, so I worked more minimalistic as I wanted. But after I had finally finished it and watched the whole presentation afterwards, I knew that it was well done to choose less, but therefore the best photos and put them in a senseful order. The final result was a 3 minutes projection which connects all the different aspects of my project and “takes the viewer by the hand”, guides him through the whole journey, seen “out of my eyes”. I also learned a lot how to connect the photos, because there were photos that fitted better together than others, or there were also photos that needed some kind of “border” inbetween. So I worked with fading, zoom and movement effects.
After having finished this project I can say that it was really surprising for me that I seem to have a personal “signature” in the photos I take without being aware of it. At first I was a bit scared of that, but after a while of working with that it started to interest me more and more, more than a constructed concept I could not hold like the one I had at the beginning. It was fun to take all these photos then, trying out different things in order to get always an increasing expression. My enthusiasm turned around a bit then when I had to choose a selection out of all the photos I took, because I noticed that it’s a different thing to make photos just to show them on their own, or to combine them to kind of new project. This was therefore the hardest part for me in the whole process, I’m not that good in selecting things out of a big amount of things I like, but I’m good to produce a lot of things once I found the theme. But I think I learned a bit how to do it while realizing it, now I see a lot of photos I wanted to bring in at the beginning as nice when you are the one who took them, but looking on the final presentation (which I can do now in a more objective way as I could during the construction progress) they would seem in the wrong place. I still have to work on choosing the most important aspects.
I showed the photos to the teacher in the following lesson, explaining what I originally wanted to do and finally did. I for myself “lost” my concept, so I was surprised that he started to analyse my photos and found a new concept in it. He made me aware of that I mostly took photos of wide sceneries, but always with some kind of “border” between myself and the wideness, like leave of a tree. He asked me if I would perhaps be looking for freedom, setting own borders to myself in order not to loose orientation. I thought about that and, I must admit that, he was right. I was so surprised (and even a bit scared) what we seem to do without being aware of it, and that it is so easy for other people to realize. But finally I had a new concept, maybe a even better one, not so mentaly constructed.
I compared my photo serie with photos I had taken in the months before I came to the art academy and found out that I could find a lot of photos taken in the same way. I also saw that I had a lot of times water, air or light as a motive in them. This could be seen as symbols for freedom as not touchable, soft elements. I did a second walk, trying to focus even more on these things, and compared the new photos with the older serie and got the impression of an increase of expression in them. I also experimented a bit with a glass plate, because on the one hand you can see through it, on the other hand it is also kind of a border and reflects what there is behind one, or even oneself as kind of a transparent shadow, making your own standpoint between the world and the freedom not so clear. It was an interesting experiment to work with such an artificial “thing”, I got some good photos, whereas tryouts with Photoshop effects led more to an innatural kind of “wanna-be” look. Another analyse of my series made me aware also of details I banned on photo on my walk. Kind of momental snapshot where I was actually standing.
Next lesson I had an interesting conversation with my teacher. I showed my tryouts to him and explained my thoughts. We also talked about the final aim of all that, the final presentation. At the end I had two possibilities left: I could make a serie of really large printed photos, hanging next to each other on a wall with some space inbetween, or realize a moving photo projection on a big wall. After some thinking I chose the second option, it seemed to fit more to my concept to work directly with light (projection), this would give a better impression. I anyway tried some prints, but they just confirmed me in my thoughts.
I also worried a bit about esthetic, because with my concept and the way I took the photos I was pretty much in very soft and smooth colors, and generally I got the feeling that esthetic is seens as blocking the expression at the art academy, but I discussed that with the teacher and he told me that in this case it would be ok, because it would support that I wanted to do.
I tried to come closer to a point for my presentation, and looked for words what I could use to realize my projection. These were:
Air, light, soft, free, transparent
Water, flow, relflecting
Connecting, movement
I was not really secure about all that and did some more photo series to focus more on these things, which forced me to use good natural light moods, so I went most of the times in the late afternoon. Finally I had a big amount of photos to choose from.
I was now ready do plan my presentation. The projection project needed some kind of “guidance” through it, especially because I wanted to “melt” photos out of different situation together, because one aim was also to make the border between a physical and mental movement more transparent. This is something really important for me, interpretation the things I see while seeing them. So I devided the project in several “chapters”, which should alltogether lead through my “journey”, letting the viewer see the world out of my eyes. The whole presentation should not take more that 3 minutes, because I thought that would be the maximum in order not to get bored.
I went to the realization with PowerPoint. It turned out to change the things again. The most difficult thing was to choose the right photos out of my really big collection. 3 minutes are fastly filled, there don’t fit more than around 30 pictures in them. So I really had to concentrate on the “essence” of all my photos. Therefore I had to leave out a lot of photos or photo effects I wanted to work with, but I had to admit to myself that just packing together a lot of photos and showing them in a short time would more destroy the effect than to support it, so I worked more minimalistic as I wanted. But after I had finally finished it and watched the whole presentation afterwards, I knew that it was well done to choose less, but therefore the best photos and put them in a senseful order. The final result was a 3 minutes projection which connects all the different aspects of my project and “takes the viewer by the hand”, guides him through the whole journey, seen “out of my eyes”. I also learned a lot how to connect the photos, because there were photos that fitted better together than others, or there were also photos that needed some kind of “border” inbetween. So I worked with fading, zoom and movement effects.
After having finished this project I can say that it was really surprising for me that I seem to have a personal “signature” in the photos I take without being aware of it. At first I was a bit scared of that, but after a while of working with that it started to interest me more and more, more than a constructed concept I could not hold like the one I had at the beginning. It was fun to take all these photos then, trying out different things in order to get always an increasing expression. My enthusiasm turned around a bit then when I had to choose a selection out of all the photos I took, because I noticed that it’s a different thing to make photos just to show them on their own, or to combine them to kind of new project. This was therefore the hardest part for me in the whole process, I’m not that good in selecting things out of a big amount of things I like, but I’m good to produce a lot of things once I found the theme. But I think I learned a bit how to do it while realizing it, now I see a lot of photos I wanted to bring in at the beginning as nice when you are the one who took them, but looking on the final presentation (which I can do now in a more objective way as I could during the construction progress) they would seem in the wrong place. I still have to work on choosing the most important aspects.
Oct 25, 2008
2D Beeld Onderzoek
Now, at the end of the first period, I can say that this subject was really surprising for me most of the time. I learned a lot, mostly technics how to use color, cole and pencil. Everytime we had to try something new or make several variations I started with something and ended with something really different I would not have made like that before. And everytime I did not immediately see the sense of what we were doing or thought I wanted it to do in a special way, I anyway followed the instructions and got always a better result than what I originally wanted it to do. But this was also the most difficult part for me, really to TRY something. I noticed that everytime we should do something different I had already a very specific idea of a possible result in my had, like for example when I made the first colored variation of the coal drawing. But that was exactly wrong, because what I got had always the effect of artificialy constructed, or at least it seemed to me like that. I noticed that I’m in general working that way, I try to make something following an already fixed imagine of the result in my head, and just if it not looks like wanted, I make more different variations. This is also on what I want and need to work from the second period on, in order to work more free and spontaniously, less forced. Let me a bit more guide by the process itself, maybe that’s the best way how to say it. I don’t know if this will radically change my way of working or if I want that, but it helps me for the moment a lot to find out more about what’s possible. Something which already helped me with that was the use of the Spalter, a really broad kind of pencil, which does not allow to paint to many details. It was really hard for me to paint in that way at the beginning, and it still is a bit. But anyway it got better while using it more and more times.
Sometimes I was a bit worried, because other students made a lot more different variations that I did. But I have to admit that if I would have made a lot more myself, I would have been a bit lost, because than it’s really difficult for me still to decide my favourite. I don’t know if it’s always helpful to produce to much, at least for me personally.
The teacher gave clear and understandable instructions, which was especially good for me because my Dutch is not yet that good. So it was easy for me to follow his lessons. I have the feeling that I learned a lot, but I also had my difficulties and had to admit to myself that I sometimes want to work to forced to realize any development. I learned that you can’t get better if you want to force the things to much. I need to work on that.
After that, I still went on to try more, and made another variation in order to see which effect another radical color change would have. I did not like what I got, I think the reason is that I had already a final result and was not able to make a deconstruction out of it which I still would like.
The last few lessons left until the end of the first period consisted mostly of making a row of variations of this sequence, trying different color combinations using the color composition, in order to come closer and closer to our “personal favourite”. We should also remember the technics we had learned before, like using the pencil in different ways and painting with more or less water.
This was the most interesting process in the whole first period for me, because I first chose all the colors out of my color composition I liked most to colorize the picture. After several tryouts I noticed how constructed they seemed, how artificial. The colors I chose didn't fit to the chosen motive, or better it’s original expression any more. I did not have the feeling to be on the right way. So I changed the colors radically, still using my color composition. What I got was then, in my opinion, a lot better than before. This was for me personally a big step, because I would never have chosen the colors which finally seemed better to me at first. However, I than had more or less found the colors I liked most in that case, which gave my picture the best effect. I made some further variations of it, trying to, for example, connect the fore- and background better or playing with intensity, bightness and structure of the color, following the teacher’s advices, until I had the final result which I liked most.
The next lesson consisted of a research of the different colors visible in the photos we took as homework. We should try to mix the colors with acrylic color and paint them next to eachother in 5x5 cm squares. It was really interesting to have all these colors next to each other, especially because every single color was painted in the same size, not like in the photos themselves in which one color appeared maybe just as a little dot. Then we had to cut out the squares and recombine them to our individual color composition, which should make personal “sense” for us or how we liked it most. We got very deep into the theme, having a very close look also on very light shades. The most difficult thing for me was therefore to mix also these different shades just with the three prime colors.
Using the color composition we finally had, we had then to colorize the chosen part of our coal variations. We had to make different variations of that, this time using different combinations of colors.
For the following lesson we should bring some painting material, especially acrylic colors in the prime colors and a broad pensil, a “Spalter”. By mixing the colors in the right way we should try to get “black” and paint whole sheets of paper full with it. I was really surprised by what we should do, because I thought that mixing yellow, blue and red would give brown, and not black. It was then also very difficult for me to get the right color (I did not really succeed), I got more variations between brown and violett. Then we should also do some “tryouts” with the color shades, trying to use the Spalter in different ways and also to use the color more or less covering. At the end of the lesson I noticed that we were doing more or less the same with color and pencil as we were doing the week before with the cole. We got the homework to take photos of interior and exterior situations with different light and color moods.
We had to choose the best or most interesting drawing we made and further the most interesting part out of it, using paperstripes to hide parts of the drawigs in order to find the right part.
This was pretty interesting for me, because I noticed that the drawings I liked most (seemed the nicest ones to me) were at the same time not from ME. What I mean is that I perhaps copied some styles from artists I knew and used them to make my variations without being aware of it. I finally chose a part from a picture I really could identify with myself, which was the one I had made in the first lesson.
This part should then be copied several times, enlarging it and varying the technic to use the coal on the paper. Everything was important, the thickness of the lines (also some tries without any lines, just drawing flat), our position towards the paper and the way we held the coal in our hands.
The next step was to combine all these different motives to one single coaldrawing, trying to place them in a senseful order. The homework we had to do until the following lesson was to make four new drawings which should show the same motives, but we should vary e.g. the way of placing, drawing, adding details etc. The condition was to “try something”.
I already have a little experience with coaldrawing, so this was not that problem for me, also because in this level we were really free in the way we used the coal. But I had at first some difficulties with the homework, because “trying something” lets a lot of possibilities. Finally I decided to axploit the condition and tried to do the homework as free as possible and had for the following lesson a row of different variations of the coaldrawing, reaching from abstract to surrealistic.
The first lesson of this subject started with drawing several motives that told us the teacher with coal on sketch paper. For example “Several little girls standing in a group”. We had to combine and place these motives partly free, partly following the teacher’s introductions. We had to make three pieces of paper with these motives.
Sometimes I was a bit worried, because other students made a lot more different variations that I did. But I have to admit that if I would have made a lot more myself, I would have been a bit lost, because than it’s really difficult for me still to decide my favourite. I don’t know if it’s always helpful to produce to much, at least for me personally.
The teacher gave clear and understandable instructions, which was especially good for me because my Dutch is not yet that good. So it was easy for me to follow his lessons. I have the feeling that I learned a lot, but I also had my difficulties and had to admit to myself that I sometimes want to work to forced to realize any development. I learned that you can’t get better if you want to force the things to much. I need to work on that.
After that, I still went on to try more, and made another variation in order to see which effect another radical color change would have. I did not like what I got, I think the reason is that I had already a final result and was not able to make a deconstruction out of it which I still would like.
The last few lessons left until the end of the first period consisted mostly of making a row of variations of this sequence, trying different color combinations using the color composition, in order to come closer and closer to our “personal favourite”. We should also remember the technics we had learned before, like using the pencil in different ways and painting with more or less water.
This was the most interesting process in the whole first period for me, because I first chose all the colors out of my color composition I liked most to colorize the picture. After several tryouts I noticed how constructed they seemed, how artificial. The colors I chose didn't fit to the chosen motive, or better it’s original expression any more. I did not have the feeling to be on the right way. So I changed the colors radically, still using my color composition. What I got was then, in my opinion, a lot better than before. This was for me personally a big step, because I would never have chosen the colors which finally seemed better to me at first. However, I than had more or less found the colors I liked most in that case, which gave my picture the best effect. I made some further variations of it, trying to, for example, connect the fore- and background better or playing with intensity, bightness and structure of the color, following the teacher’s advices, until I had the final result which I liked most.
The next lesson consisted of a research of the different colors visible in the photos we took as homework. We should try to mix the colors with acrylic color and paint them next to eachother in 5x5 cm squares. It was really interesting to have all these colors next to each other, especially because every single color was painted in the same size, not like in the photos themselves in which one color appeared maybe just as a little dot. Then we had to cut out the squares and recombine them to our individual color composition, which should make personal “sense” for us or how we liked it most. We got very deep into the theme, having a very close look also on very light shades. The most difficult thing for me was therefore to mix also these different shades just with the three prime colors.
Using the color composition we finally had, we had then to colorize the chosen part of our coal variations. We had to make different variations of that, this time using different combinations of colors.
For the following lesson we should bring some painting material, especially acrylic colors in the prime colors and a broad pensil, a “Spalter”. By mixing the colors in the right way we should try to get “black” and paint whole sheets of paper full with it. I was really surprised by what we should do, because I thought that mixing yellow, blue and red would give brown, and not black. It was then also very difficult for me to get the right color (I did not really succeed), I got more variations between brown and violett. Then we should also do some “tryouts” with the color shades, trying to use the Spalter in different ways and also to use the color more or less covering. At the end of the lesson I noticed that we were doing more or less the same with color and pencil as we were doing the week before with the cole. We got the homework to take photos of interior and exterior situations with different light and color moods.
We had to choose the best or most interesting drawing we made and further the most interesting part out of it, using paperstripes to hide parts of the drawigs in order to find the right part.
This was pretty interesting for me, because I noticed that the drawings I liked most (seemed the nicest ones to me) were at the same time not from ME. What I mean is that I perhaps copied some styles from artists I knew and used them to make my variations without being aware of it. I finally chose a part from a picture I really could identify with myself, which was the one I had made in the first lesson.
This part should then be copied several times, enlarging it and varying the technic to use the coal on the paper. Everything was important, the thickness of the lines (also some tries without any lines, just drawing flat), our position towards the paper and the way we held the coal in our hands.
The next step was to combine all these different motives to one single coaldrawing, trying to place them in a senseful order. The homework we had to do until the following lesson was to make four new drawings which should show the same motives, but we should vary e.g. the way of placing, drawing, adding details etc. The condition was to “try something”.
I already have a little experience with coaldrawing, so this was not that problem for me, also because in this level we were really free in the way we used the coal. But I had at first some difficulties with the homework, because “trying something” lets a lot of possibilities. Finally I decided to axploit the condition and tried to do the homework as free as possible and had for the following lesson a row of different variations of the coaldrawing, reaching from abstract to surrealistic.
The first lesson of this subject started with drawing several motives that told us the teacher with coal on sketch paper. For example “Several little girls standing in a group”. We had to combine and place these motives partly free, partly following the teacher’s introductions. We had to make three pieces of paper with these motives.
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