Experimenting with watercolors

So for a few assignments in suzanne's class, we started to play around with color...water color to be exact! I ordered a nice water color set that i am excitement to make use of when it finally gets shipped from DC that is. In the mean time I have been using a cheap set much like the one's most of us use in elementary school art class. Nevertheless, I had some fun with the past two assignments "personifying scale figures" and "wearable watercolors". The first was a spread depicting three classmates and their accessories. I learned the value of a good brush after this assignment as the balance between water and color got a little wacky as the brush strokes went on. The second sketchbook assignment was to personify scale figures, namely by placing them next to big objects such a building, a car, or a metro...well at least those are the objects I choose. =) I based these drawings off of photographs i found on fotosearch.

One of those "slouchy" boots that you see often these days, a hand adorned with a ring and a bracelet, and a friend's profile while wearing her gold hoop earrings.

The metro is whizzing by, and so is this couple. I tried to illustrate the fast pace of the photo this drawing was based on.

A man working on his laptop by his big red truck.

Newlywed bliss. By a building, and a very blotchy looking sky.

MORE WATERCOLORS TO COME...

Ritual accompaniment

Final Board, I choose to add color pencil highlights to show the wood grain and highlights.

 A detail view of the grip.

I choose an ebony colored stain and sanded it till the grain cam through. I like the burnt wood look it delivered. This picture is prior to treating it with polyurethane. 

Success with magnets! Insetted and glued in.

Chiseling out the wood for the magnets...

I used this piece to experiment how i wanted to manipulate the wood of my final product, notice the uneven surface which is what my final looked like before sanding. I'm glad i practiced my ideas before manipulating my final pieces given this was my first time working with wood.

A section cut and some detail views of what I thought my final product would look like. This is before I switched from the rubber gripping idea (seen above) to the insetted magnets idea. I also thought it would be cool to carve CLEAN into the bottom given it is a part of my hygienic routine, but since I am neither expert chiseler quite yet and did not have a laser cutter, I thought it would be best to just keep it clean in my final product.

I sketched this when we were talking about our designs, a goofy looking shape that led to my final product. Talking about why the design is the way it is often is what sparks ideas in my experience.

Originally my idea was is mundane as the object itself, based off of what I thought i could do and what i had seen before.

A sketch of the ritual object itself. I identified some of its aspects to help me figure out some ideas.

For this project I created two accessories to an object I use ritually. The object of my choice was my toothbrush which i have used every morning and evening of my civilized life, ritually. Our restrictions in this project were that one of the objects had to be made out of wood, and the other of our own choice. At first my ideas bounces mainly off of the concepts of familiar designs. When talking about ideas for this project I sketched out a curvy hollowed container for my toothbrush adorned with sanded down curves on it's cap much like that of the curvy rubber gripping on my ritual object. I had never worked with wood before until this project so I tried to get a good understanding of how I would go about achieving this design before I went to the wood shop. Since my design was relatively curvy I sanded down the curved gripping of the cap of the container. Prior to that i cut 2 five inch cylinders off a piece of about a poplar dow with about 2 inch in diameter. I hollowed each piece out about 4 inches and the continued to sand it the next day in order do achieve the curvy grip I was hoping for. 

Originally planning to introduce the second material to the cap in the form of rubber gripping of sorts, I got the suggestion to think about magnetizing the two parts together. Personally, I loved the idea and carried forth with it soon afterward. The trick was finding magnets that were both strong enough to hold the two pieces together and yet small enough to fit into the edge surrounding the hallowed out parts which is only roughly about 1/4 inch thick. After various trips to different hardware stores, I found some which had the magnetic quality I wanted, but was a bit too big. To fix this I broke the magnets in half, and they ended up being the right size for my objects. The next step was chiseling out the wood in order to inset the magnets. Although the chiseling took much longer than I expected, it was successful and the magnets fit nicely with some "hard as nails" glue to keep them in there. After sanding down the pieces a bit more the final step was to add some wood stain. I choose the darkest; an ebony stain. Working with wood was definitely had a process to it. Even with the loud machinery, working in the wood shop had a sense of calm to it, maybe it was the concentration of manipulating material with big machines, but certainly after this project I'd like to see what I could make next.

Storytelling and Composition

For my design Visualization class we started out the semester with an array of interesting assignments. The first one called for us to create a two page layout displaying 5 illuminated objects having some form of value, including a quick description. We were also allowed to use pen and one colored pencil of of choice. Since my theme (cheesy, I know) was "off the beaten path" I added brown accents to my objects to make them appear a bit more "beaten"...along with a path that travels along the spread. The path served as the main focus of the layout, the words were important as well but serves more as accents much like the brown pencil i added does. The text is a curvy font that winds in and out at the ends of each letter, though the first letter of some of the descriptions is blown up like that in a fairy tale storybook with all its filled in designs that I took note of and incorporated in my spread. Each of the objects has varying importance but they all have some form of meaning to me as they came across my path.

"All I ever needed to know about composition...

I learned from flipping through the pages of magazines"

The next assignment was to tell a story of our first week back at school in the form of a magazine layout. I choose a spread from the "Dwell" Dec/Jan issue. The left side of the spread located as the fountain outside the school cafeteria, the girl came out looking a bit rigid and I added "brace yourself" at the bottom. The other pictures on the opposite page display several items that I associate with the beginning of a new semester.

LUMINESCENCE: final design

FIELD OF LIGHT : GLOW

PLAN : ILLUMINATED

SECTION: PLAN VIEW CUT

ELEVATION: ILLUMINATED

SECTION : CUT FROM MIDDLE OF ELEVATION

The above drawings were part of this project as well. We could use either pencil or pastel on colored canson paper to depict an elevation, plan, and field of light drawing. I choose to work in colored pencil which involved quite a bit of layering! This is the first project drawings we have done which involved color, I don't normally work in colored pencils so this assignment was a learning process in how to layer and blend additionally.  I added an additional section drawing, I thought it balanced out the composition of my paper more effectively.

ILLUMINATED MODEL IN THE DARK: PLAN

MODEL IN THE LIGHT: PLAN

ILLUMINATED MODEL IN THE DARK: ELEVATION

MODEL IN THE LIGHT: ELEVATION

  Twelve trapezoidal faces held at a slight curve. Inspired by the warm glow cast in the pictures of the parking garages at night (see below in luminaire research) Made once again of acetate, tracing paper, and bamboo skewers. The faces that you see are made out of the yellow and orange acetate and the tracing paper, while the bamboo skewers internally help support the structure. This model faced many challenges in its creation because acetate  doesn't like to be help at a curve...even less so when doubled as I did with yellow and orange sheets. When I sketched this model out I did not mean for the trapezoid faces to be overlapping, but as it came together I experienced the happy accident of the mod-looking edges and shapes of richer color that were made when the trapezoids overlap as they do it the model above. The material shaped what my project became.  Although I'm happy with my final result I learned a lesson in how hard acetate is to work with.  Finally, I'm satisfied with the warm glow my final model projects. I hope you enjoy it as well!

sketchbook brainstorming, first sketch model, second model before final product

Sketchbook brainstorming...I decided I wanted to make a lantern with a marmalade-like glow. Using yellow and orange acetate  I planned to create scales in a pattern that would allow some pure light to peak through, casting interesting light patterns on the ceiling.

SKETCH MODEL

In no way a final. A sketch model which helped me in finding out what my materials can and cannot do...apparently acetate doesn't like to bend. First trials can be very helpful in figuring out these sort of things

SECOND MODEL

My luminaire casting its marmalade-y color of light on a dry erase board in a dark room.

The star-like light pattern.

These two images above and below are examples of the kind of light I was aiming for.

Using bamboo skewers, I created a hexagonal frame with two rows, which added up to 12 faces. I added triangles of varying sizes so the luminaire would cast light patterns onto a surface, these triangles were a combination of a layer of orange and yellow acetate and a film of tracing paper (to dilute the light). As you can see I did not cover up the top row, but this nakedness developed a harsher light when held at different angles so I decided my final product will conceal the bulb entirely. A little bit of process..

LIGHT AND LUMINESCENCE

In my next venture I will be designing a luminaire using two materials (besides the actual light and hardware) from my previous projects,  along with a new material of MY choice

...loose restrictions and wide boundaries...

possiblilities galore!

First off I began to research the many fields of light, curiosity is key.

Below are my observations and explorations

SHADOWS AND LIGHTPATTERNS

I love the effect created by the shadow lantern's i found at an online store...I started to ponder what other kind of patterns could be casted on a wall like so. One of my most intriguing finds so far...

Shigeru Ban's archtectual model uses gateways to cast linear rows of light. 

Web surfing yet again, this wall sconce delivers a delicate balance of bright light combined with the soft light that casts loose geometric patterns up and down the wall.

I took interest in the light pattern's created from the natural sunlight and surrounding branches...a touch of natural beauty.

DAYLIGHT: 3:30 p.m.  

...you might have to squint 

Sun rays beaming out of the branch's, a pleasant distortion of light.

Sunlight on a reflective window. This reflection casts intensity of the original source.

The intense glow of the afternoon sun dominates, my classmate included (:

The white wall seems to glow due to the position of the sun at this time (keep that in mind), the Deville's surface reflecting this light along its classy curves.

A building  framing the light coming from a lone window.

HARSH FLORESCENT LIGHTING

Dorm hallway light is harsh but purposeful.

A combination of daylight and florescent light. Do you see difference's in their whites?

Allows us to see yellow and white light side by side.

I swear this light looked hideous from afar...peering straight up at it  the warm grow escaping from its contained space appears much different than the yellow bulbs in the pic above.

Evening Glow

The surrounding deep blues of nightlight range in darkness between these two pictures which is relative to the hour in between taking the photo's. The main focus of this was the nice warm glow the interior hallways cast as night. During the day the florescent light appears white but when night falls a glow like that of a sunset takes place.

SUSPENDED LIGHTING 

Tian Xia Meta light

This product creates an awesome array of patterns on the ceiling, an awesome aspect I would love to incorporate into my luminaire...maybe i'll take some cues from this chandelier along the way.

Tamiri Suspension

The use of color is really spectacular in this product. The combination of the different colors creates this supernova-like effect. Both  lights are from Artemide.

DIALOG

HORIZONTALLY CUT SECTION ELEVATION

Eye level view from straight on.

A FRONT VIEW 

A display of my intent to create a repetitive pattern.

FINAL PROJECT- PLAN VIEW

SKETCH MODEL

Collage of some preliminary concept inspirations.

DIALOG...

the project above was another involving the limited use of 12 bamboo skewers and 12 4x6 bristol board cards on a 12x12 base. This is not to say in any regards that the ideas that came from these restrictions were limited at all however, the class brought in a diverse assortment of distinctly different projects that went along with our assignment to create a dialog of two spaces. My ideas for the project shifted entirely when I began playing around with the materials, an above image shows the tower like form which was my first "go" at the idea, also some sketchbooks brain-wandering including a rough doodle of the design I based my final project on.

PROJECT REVIEW

The two projects that caught my attention this morning brought a bought a strong sense of unity in my eyes. Although at first glance, Jessica and Kara's projects are extremely dissimilar. Made up entirely of linear lines, Jessica fashioned her 12 bamboo skewers and bristol board cards atop a 12x12 plexi-glass square base. She explored the idea of opposites in collaboration with one another by creating a reflection of the half hexagonal form  adorned with a six skewer beam on the under side of the plexi-glass. Kara's project also explored opposites but in a totally different light...her project was composed of rounded forms opposed to the very linear look of Jessica's project. It consisted of a bristol board half-dome and 12 skewers that were curved opposite to the dome, creating a cage-like pattern atop her circular base made up of a thick foam core. While Jessica's project creates a direct refection through her plexi-glass base, Kara's project derived a sense of reflection as well through her opposing curves. Both projects create a distinct form using this idea resulting in very interesting compositions of negative space.