Author: borrero.5

I chose Sue Coe as my artist to research for this project. She is a political artist who has created pieces critiquing the Trump campaign, and in order to emulate her I chose to depict the POTUS as an elephant (for the GOP mascot) sitting atop a pile of bloody money. The numbers represent the following: 3.5 $ trillion on health care, 1.6 $ trillion in student debt, 27 $ trillion in national debt and 286 k U.S citizens who passed due to COVID 19. The 750$ is how much he paid in federal taxes. Sue Coe often creates prints, so I choose to mainly do a black and white image but used color to bring attention to very specific details in the piece, which I have also seen her do in her own work.

This collage is supposed to tell a short story of a perspective tour of my living room, capturing an average afternoon on the couch. It follows my eye, first looking down on my table to find the remote (charcoal piece), then looking up to turn on the TV (the two point linear perspective) and then getting engrossed in the film I put on (the ink composition is supposed to convey the tinier image in the two point piece, just blown up to symbolize me getting into the movie and only looking at it). I used different mediums for each piece to symbolize this perspective shift and to show difference between each view point. The table and the movie piece are enlarged to show how my eyes see them. Image looking at the pieces as if from a camera inside my head as I sit on the couch.

 I did the outdoor perspective mixed with aerial perspective, incorporating a hazy tree line and town in the background and hazy outlines of clouds that didn’t show up in camera. I plan on incorporating the pieces as a short “see through my eyes” experience of me in my living room first looking down at the table to grab the remote or eat the food then looking up at the tv in the corner of the room then becoming engulfed in whatever I choose to watch on the screen. This outdoor scene is what is on the TV, I will draw it in small form on the TV in piece 2 and then this piece will be representative of zooming in on and focusing on the film. There is a large amount of negative space but I wanted this piece to feel light and peaceful, just a horse walking down a lane through some grassy knolls towards town, juxtaposing the busy crazy disordered table.

The perspective of the directly above photo is from above and to the left of my table top. I am using the elements of over lap and object size (bigger is closer) in isometric perspective.
The Photo on top in landscape is now from the right hand corner of the same table, so moving from left to right, to the right corner of my living room. I used  linear perspective for this. Still deciding whether to add the bricks all the way up since it starts to get a little wonky.

I loved this book growing up but trying to draw it in all these perspectives-especially the dragon-almost made me dislike the book. (Not really) 3 point was the absolute worst and the book ended up tiny to fit all the points.

Like in the first collage there is a lot of German influence and things concerning my education in Plant Pathology and my goal of working overseas. There are aspects of German culture, hints of class work and OSU symbols, and many other things that are similar to the first collage. The bees are still there and the roses, but I gave them human traits to add to the dream like quality of the piece and uses different values and line making techniques to add visual interest.

I used German newspaper articles depicting the things I love most about being home in Gunzburg, the holidays, the food, sports, and the people. I used pictures of flowers and plants overlapping to illustrate my goal of working in Plant Pathology in Germany to protect the landscape that I love. I inserted photos of money on the right hand side to illustrate the obstacle that is money in getting myself over there. Covering the face of Andrew Jackson on the 50$ bill, is a sign that says give the bees a chance. My nickname is Bella Bee, so hopefully someone gives this bee a chance to overcome that obstacle and achieve my dream.

Using tools not intended for ink was challenging, and using them and getting the same mark/value as before in a consistent way, was challenging. Finding ways to get a precise line, and portray depth and shadow was also difficult. Finding tools that had a different amount of surface area interacting with the ink and paper added utility in that it enabled me to have different thickness of the line. It also helped to just give up on being consistent, the nature of ink is one of irreversibility and lack of perfection, you can’t erase it and it immediately will dominate a piece, so it’s best just to go with the flow. Using water also helped with value to get lighter tones, and placing water down before using the actual ink on a spot helped blend the ink into other segments as well, which I initially thought was a risky move since it could’ve made the ink drip or run away in a way I didn’t intend. It was helpful to hear people’s interpretations of what they saw in the piece, and what they thought would’ve worked better to add interest to the piece and depth. I also liked hearing others give background information to their artworks during the critique; after more background knowledge was given it was like you could look at the piece with fresh new eyes. I will take those comments into account and experiment with different forms of mark-making (stippling, hatching) instead of primarily washes in an attempt to increase visual interest and value differentiation.