Art Minor 2 (Nature & Environment)
This time, no stories to tell (well, maybe one, but I didnât put it here, haha)! But a whole bunch of stuff I made instead, whoo boy! The theme of this minor was Nature & Environment. I had lots of fun, honestly! Iâll divide it in the 4 subjects I took :). Itâs a long post, beware, haha.
Ceramics:
Aaaand the last bit I made! Iâll post a few more :). Especially the glazed ones~!
And thatâs about it for ceramics!
Painting & Drawing:
So, this is actually a(n) (abstract) portrait of one of the students. Itâs a one-line drawing :). It was, ah, interesting to make for sure....
We also had a session on how to draw ârealâ portraits.... with, like, the proper proportions and everything. It was interesting for sure!
This is the âself-portraitâ I made! There is a lot to be said about this one (also because it is a self-portrait). Iâd like to start with the mask. One of the reasons I used it is closely related to an Instagram post of mine (Iâll write it out). Sorry, itâs lone, though. âLately, I have been forced to think about something I had been thinking years back. About the fact that in this individualistic society, you HAVE to stand out one way or another. I donât want to. Whatâs wrong with simply being average and not special at all? Whatâs wrong with wanting to live a simple life with no particular interesting skills? (yes, I do realise I have some, but it doesnât make me feel special or like I have to/want to brag about it...). This was something I noticed in particular 2 weeks back (in May, 2019), when my minor started again. We had to draw a realistic scene in the park. Afterwards, we would âredrawâ this scene as we felt, heard and saw the things we encountered while drawing, changing the initial drawing drastically. So I did. However, the teacher told me he wanted to âsee more of meâ in the drawing. But how come he didnât? The things I felt, saw, heard and fantasised about were all things that came from me and were pictured in the drawing. How is that not me?! Yeah, sure, the girl in my drawing looked manga/anime like. But is that honestly so wrong...? If thatâs how I draw, if thatâs me, how can you say you want to see more of the âmeâ? Honestly, I am so sick of this individualistic society that forces you to be âspecialâ, âinterestingâ or âtalentedâ. Is it so wrong to want to live simply? Is it wrong to not want to be seen as âdifferent from the restâ? Can I just live with a blank face, trying in my own way, on my own conditions?â The mask used in this picture (and the Instagram rant, haha), has the Japanese characters: ă   ăžÂ ăž Â Â Â Â Â Â ăź ăź Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ă       㞠(henohenomoheji). They are commonly used to picture a (blank) face. As such, they are mostly used for mob characters, or those of little significance. So the mask itself already symbolises the wish to blend into the masses. On the other hand, the mask can also signify the ability to be flexible. As in, if you have a blank face, it means you are able to âpaint over itâ. To make yourself be who you want to be. And that clues into my hobby, which is cosplay. I can be whoever I want to be (with the proper means, haha), and that enables me to transform completely. So, yes, the mask signifies a lot to me. And thatâs why I decided I wanted the picture to be like this. Because this is me in so many shapes and forms. Continuing on! Photography:
Letâs just say photography is not my thing... Luckily, we had two classes this block period anyway, so I didnât have to suffer for very long.
Finally! The last subject!
Design:
Ohhhh, I loooooved design! Thereâs so much I did~ Sooo, we had to gather 5 objects we could find outside (in nature), and we had to take 3 pictures (the top one is said picture). Then we had to write a story based on the object/photograph (mine was a feather, by the way). You had to hand the story over to friends/family/etc., and they had to say one word about the story. So, my two words were âpessimisticâ and âinspirationalâ. Based on those two words, we had to find a new (existing) âpictureâ. Then we had to bring items that had something to do with the story. So, I brought a ceramic âmountainâ (one of the words used in my story) I made last block period. So based on that item, we had to design something around that concept and things that prefferably had to do with the (human) body. Sooo, I went to Wikipedia, and took a look at the words written there. So, thatâs when we got to the word âreliefâ (or terrain, mayhaps). Then I started thinking how that was created (e.i. mountains, and its âreliefâ). So, thatâs when we reached our tectonic plates. And then I started thinking about the fact that a mountain was basically a âprintâ of the earth (in a way). Okay, got all that? Then hopefully the next part will make sense as well, lol.
So, the first thing I did was woodcutting! I really wanted to try my hand at this, mostly because of my overlapping interest in Japan. I had a lot of fun, honestly! (Iâll put all the prints at the end ;))
Bad lighting is bad.... But after the woodcut, I tried my hand at linocut! Which went a whole lot smoother.... (I bought my own gouge set <3 - absolutely in love with it). I had a lot of fun with these, honestly!
Ah, yes, then I once more did some etching! I intentionally âmessed upâ the feather one (the stripe in the middle does kind of bother me...) to try and see what happens. I really liked the result of that one a lot! (once more, prints will be put down here~) Finally! I tried my hand at this:
screen printing! I really liked doing this! Itâs very interesting to do, yet less intensive than any of the things I had done previously... I really had fun! And you can experiment a lot! Which I didnât, really, by the way.... (slightly regretted it, but time restraints...). Also, putting Timcanpy on my daily gear is like a dream come true <3. Lovely. Now, time for all the prints!
Because wood is a natural material, it kind of soaks up the ink. So you get a grainy kind of print. Itâs spotty, but thatâs kind of charming in its own way, I guess?
I made loooots of prints for the linocuts, lol. They are way less spotty, and I really liked them! (the stuff in the very back isnât mine, by the way).
I also really liked the ink colours I used! I also printed everything on postcard format.
The print is even more interesting in real life!
A very clean print for this one. Such a contrast with the previous one! I like both of them, honestly.
What would we be without a little Timcanpy in our lives~
I also used a natural âprintâ. Donât worry, itâs not actual snake skin... But it is actual snake skin shed/moulted skin. Itâs from my own snake, Sora <3. So itâs kind of an endless supply, lol.
So, thatâs all for the practical subjects! Now, it wasnât all I did, and I have many, many more photos of the process... But the post wil get waaaaay too long if I want to show everything... So I mostly posted the endresults :).
There is one last thing I want to post here! Which are the âextrasâ.
Extras:
The sketches we had to make for capturing real life (mentioned at my self-portrait). I do have to mention that on that day it was bloody cold, it was raining, and we didnât even know we had to be there... So I had a shit day, honestly....
I havenât finished it, sooooo, I donât have a very good picture, unfortunately... But this was the drawing I got a loooot of hate on, basically....
Ahhh, hereâs the sketch, where you can see it a bit better... So basically, he wnted me to draw it bigger. Which I did. Then he suggested I made a selfportrait (instead of using a manga/anime like character......). Which I did. But donât have a picture of, I believe. Well, I have a lot of issues with all of this, so I kind of want to drop it. Though I will finish the initial one for sure. I donât care much for the second, the large, one.....
We also had workshops on drawing a naked model! Which was very interesting! I had never drawn a human/humanlike full-model, well, model. So I had many, many issues at first.... I especially had many issues with (human) proportions. But in the end, I had a lot of fun! I attended a second session (not the third, unfortunately), but I donât have a picture of it (yet). I might edit it in later, buuuut, not sure...
So, I believe that was all! I had so much fun this period, and Iâm super glad I decided to stay (I was only obligated to follow one minor). If I hadnât, I donât think that in the end I would be this satisfied. Also, this period was, like, 2 or 3 weeks shorter than previous one... So we were short on time, I guess... I learned a lot, I worked with many different materials, and in the end, Iâm very happy. So, here are the final pictures of the ENTIRE table :).














