Thursday, June 19, 2014

Its the last day of classes, my mask is finished and i think it looks great.

Spirit Animals: Mask Lore

Janine Heuving

Long ago, before history of time was recorded there were many different tribes across the land. They all had different aspects on how life should be lived, and food between tribes were scarce, trading was starting in some clans. Although, despite their differences each tribe had one tradition that they all shared. Before every hunt the tribe would gather and celebrate, asking the spirits for a good hunt. The hunters that would be leaving for the hunt would wear the masks. The mask had several different spirit animals on it. It was shaped like a coyote, with a panda, cat, spider, tiger, deer, sheep, wolf, and a tree with vines on it. The coyote to represent, adaptability, and believed to reveal truth behind illusion and chaos (if there was a herd of animals they would be able to find a weaker one easier) the panda for peace and positivity the cat representing independence, the spider for patience creativity and dark aspects, the tiger for strength and courage, the deer for gentleness, sheep represented innocence, wolf for intelligence, and the tree with vines would be for camouflage. It was believed that the hunters who wore this mask would have all the different spirit animals watching over them and giving them the aspects they need for a successful hunt. All the masks varied slightly but all had the same spirit animals

Thursday June 12, 2014

 How artists use proportion and distortion

1. How do exaggeration and distortion affect proportion?

          Takes away the 'realistic illusion' and create more expressive qualities.

2. What distorting affects can an artist use? 

          "Artists can lengthen, enlarge, bend, wrap, twist, or deform parts of or all of the human body."

3. Why do artists use distortion? 

           "to convey their ideas and feelings."  And to "show moods and feelings that are easily understood by viewers."

4. How can artists create monumental qualities without using a larger scale?

           Artists can create monumental qualities through exaggerated proportions and spacing rather than through large scale.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

I have now started the painting process of making the mask and have painted the coyotes fur i think i might get to start painting the other animals tomorrow there's going to be: of course a coyote; a wolf; a deer; a cat; a tiger; a panda; a sheep; and a spider. They each represent a different part of me, so all together the mask will be my personality. My mask will have a tree branch that i found wrapped around the snout hiding the originally painted animals, then for even more hiding i will have pipe cleaners around the branch like a vine.

Friday, May 30, 2014

After painting the colour wheels we went on and learned new techniques for painting by work sheets before we went on to our masks. We started to continue on our masks yesterday and today. So far i have made the mold added the snout and done the lining. On Monday i will be adding the ears and putting the plaster over my attachments, then making a thin layer of clay the next day.

Thursday May 1 2014

     Colours in a Colour Wheel

     Before starting to create our masks we learned a bit more about colours, the primary (red, yellow, and blue) the secondary colours (violet, green, and orange) by making a colour wheel. We each got to create our own 'creative colour wheel' meaning a colour wheel with tints and shades that we can design how ever we want to. I made mine a spider web like wheel with the tints going inward and the shades creeping outward. I had a lot of fun painting.

Wednesday April 16, 2014

     Masks are a good way of hiding or concealing ones true identity. They are used in multiple different ways, for celebrations, mascots or to rob something so that the cameras won't pick up who it is. There are tribal masks used for celebrations or memoirs

     Our new project for masks is to create a mask that resembles you. We are each to use the seven stages of the creative process

• challenging and inspiring-getting inspiration from other pieces of work
• imaging and generating-developing on each idea to expand them and think of more 
• planning and focusing-making a plan for what you might want 
• exploring and experimenting-testing/drawing out how your plan would work
• producing, revising and refining-making your plan 
• presenting and performing-showing off your project and plan to people
• reflecting and evaluating-thinking back at what you can or want to do better next time

    So far we have looked at the the first three, we looked at different masks and their meanings, thinking about what we like and what represents us and are working toward sketching out two ideas that we feel represents ourselves.

Tuesday April 8, 2014

                                                      Positive and Negative Space

      After learning the difference between positive and negative space we tested this by picking a simple silhouette shape, ( i chose a wolf) and trying different ways of taking positive and negative space and making an abstract type of picture with different values but the same image. I found the instructions that were on the sheet we got made the assignment harder, more complicated and more confusing than it actually was, but after getting it figured out it was quite easy.