Final process

 We are now working on our final studio watercolor. Our piece will be graded on a rubric by our peers, ourselves and our professor. 
Studio Rubric: Final Watercolor Project

Criteria	Points	Comments
Evidence of experimentation with the watercolor medium. Creative exploration and understanding of what the materials are capable of through demonstrated techniques.	/40
Content: ability to integrate metaphorical themes and concepts into your artwork.	/20
Skill: attention to detail, presentation, and overall design. Effective use of color. Evidence of effort and scale.	/20
Written reflection on artwork. Evidence of research. Creative	/20

Name: _________________________________ Date:_____________

Total                              /100
What is something you would like me to know about your artmaking process that might not be evident in your final project?

2.  If you were to do this again, what would you do differently and why?

3.  What is something about your artwork that you are pleased with and why?

________________________________________
Here is where I start. Words. Lists. Then I group and eliminate. 

 

I started with masks. Masks hide emotions. What are other things people hide?

WHO: Everyone

WHAT: See the list above.

WHERE: See the list on the right above.

WHEN: All the time, sometimes for years or a lifetime.

WHY: Fear.

What does fear look like? How can I paint fear? This is where I research lots and lots and lots of images. I think and think and think. Sometimes I sketch, but mostly think. And then I stop. I tell my brain "Brain, give me an answer to what FEAR looks like? Relate it to a mask is even better." 

We'll see what my brain comes up with in my next post. Wish me luck.

 Metaphorical Landscape

This was a tough one. I started with a space helmet, with a landscape reflected on the spherical glass. Then I tried a mythical landscape of different masks. I tried this several times, but never got what I wanted.

Next came a tree with eyes like masks. This was ok, but to get the masks to read, I overworked it. 

I looked at landscapes I had photographed and selected a ski image from Portillo, Chili, because it had lots of jagged rocks that I thought could look like faces or masks.

Then I went back to the first idea and tried again to make it work, but it, too got overworked.

Talking to my son, I got the idea of going for a specific mask--a spa facial mask. I tired several landscapes within the face, a jungle, a desert, a fantasy dystopian wasteland, finally a city. The first go, the city was coming through too strongly, so, I did a wash to soften it. 

 En Plein Air

Outside Hagerstown, Maryland, February 21, 2021. It was cold. I had to go in for coffee while the water/wash dried. I took it in with me because I was afraid it would freeze. I took some liberties because I chose to use analogous colors (yellow, green, blue). One of the houses in the scene was red. 

 On the mask theme. This one is Mayan during the pandemic. 

This week was a monochromatic version of our object as metaphor. I chose blue for sadness as an emotion to hide behind a mask. Usually the mask is a sunny smile, but the emotion it hides is blue or sadness.  

I tried to "loosen up" but it is still a bit fussy (overworked) for a watercolor.  I'll have to keep working at relaxing and trying to be quicker and more free with this medium.

I used quite a bit of masking for the dots of metal.

Here is a detail of the lips.   
 

 First watercolor in ages. I used a lot of techniques, like salt in the upper background, scoring for some of the wood texture, splatter, different washes, dry brush, etc. Fun, but a bit to fussy. It is hard for me to just flow with the water. I hope to loosen up. Breathe. Relax, Breathe. Laugh.

We are working on metaphors.

She hid her feelings behind a mask.

AVT 692

This is the start of a new blog for my AVT 692 Class at George Mason University.