Finished Cubist Drawing

My Cubist Guitar

Last Thursday I finished my Cubist drawing. I am very happy with the colouring and the shading but it is hard to tell that the drawing is a guitar. Perhaps I could also have put on some more newspaper pieces to add more definition. Overall I enjoyed the unit and, even though it was short and a little rushed, I still feel like I learned some key factors of Cubist drawings. For example, dividing the paper into different sections helps to split up the drawing and makes it easier to offset lines.

New Unit: Cubism

We have now started a new unit on Cubism. Our task is to draw a still life image in a Cubist fashion. I started by drawing several lines on to a piece of A3 paper. After I had done that I drew the still life in front of me - a guitar with several small objects surrounding it - and in each section of the page I drew the still life from a different angle or shifting the outline out of place. I did two drawings and then chose the best one to copy on to a piece of coloured paper. Next lesson I will draw the outline before shading with chalk.

Printing

This week I traced the outline of my tessellation on to an A3 piece of paper so I know where to place the print. Once I had done that I started to print my tessellations. I was unsure of the pattern I wanted them in and which colours to use. I got half way through and I decided that I did not like the colour combination or the quality of my printing so I have decided that I will re-trace and print after the Easter brake. It should be easier now that I have had some practice.

Cutting Out My Tessellation

I finished cutting out my tessellation in this weeks lesson. I am a bit behind on my work because I was absent for last weeks lesson but I am sure that I will be able to catch up. It was a little difficult cutting my tessellation out because the linoleum that I was using was quite hard but i managed to do it in the end by scoring the linoleum and then cutting it out with scissors.

Examples of Tessellations

Escher is an artist who is best known for his tessellation pieces. Here are some examples of his work:

Sky and Water

Pegasus

Beginning my Tessellation

In this weeks lesson I started to make my own tessellation for my assignment. I have made the paper template and i am just about to start cutting it out of the linoleum so that I can ink it up and make the tessellation prints on the paper. My tessellation is a wave sort of pattern but I have not decided which colours to use for the final product yet.

New Unit: Tessellations

We have started a new unit studying tessellations. During this weeks lesson we viewed a slide show with some examples of tessellations. We then had a go at making our own but mine did not turn out very good because the paper i was working with was not perfectly square so they did not line up. I will try and get a picture of it next week.

Completing the animation

Today we finished our animation. All we had to do was add the sound. This took some time as we kept forgetting what to say or the timing was wrong. We did it in the end although the overall animation could have been improved if we had taken more care when taking pictures, had more knowledge on windows movie maker and the sound was better. But as beginners i think we did a good job. I think if I had time I would try to make more animations because it was very fun. I enjoyed being in a team with AJ as we always work well together. I learned a lot during the unit such as: How to use windows movie maker better, I gained more knowledge on animations and how they are made. My goal in future is not to make animations for a living but I will probably have another try to make a better animation.

Making the Animation

We did not get as much done as we would have liked during this weeks lesson. We had begun to put the animation together using windows movie maker but we did not really know how to use it so we spent most of the lesson trying to learn. It took some time but we managed to get the pictures in order and hopefully next lesson we will be able to add on the finishing touches.

Taking the Pictures

Yesterday AJ and I managed to complete taking all of the pictures for the animation. When we viewed the pictures in order it looked really effective and once the editing is done we will have a good animation. We did have to be careful when taking the pictures because it was very easy to move the paper background or knock the camera out of place. We also had to be careful not to move the animation characters or objects too much as this would result in the animation reaching a low quality standard. Next week we wish to upload the pictures on to AJ's computer and begin editing the animation.

Backgrounds

We managed to complete the rest of the props and backgrounds in this weeks lesson. Everything is made out of paper and card and we will be able to use the props in multiple scenes. Towards the end of the lesson we began to practice taking pictures with the camera and finding the right light and positions. Next lesson we will begin taking the proper pictures for the animation.

Making Props

This weeks art lesson was spent making most of the props for the animation. I am pleased with how much we managed to get done. We finished the astronauts and some of the background props such as, planets, stars, rocks and trees (for the new planet scene). We are aiming to be finished with the rest of the props by next lesson so we can start filming.

Story Board

During this weeks lesson AJ and I began to create our story board for our animation. We have quite a few scenes but the concept is relatively simple. Two astronauts take off in a rocket and travel through space for 10 years and suddenly bump in to a planet that looks a bit like earth. When they venture on to the planet they meet an alien and flee back to earth. It is designed to be funny and entertaining. We also started to make the astronauts out of paper with moving limbs and heads. Our aim next lesson is to begin on the background scenes and the alien figure.

New Unit: Animation

In this weeks lesson we began a new unit on animation. Our assignment is to create and animation about a significant event in 2011. I am working with AJ and the first thing we did was to draw up a list of all the important events in 2011 and decided which one would be best for an animation. In the end we decided to make an animation about the new planet that was discovered. we are going to make paper characters and a still background.