Foldscopes and 403: Round 4 of Images

One of the most challenging things for me with my 403 was timing. I had a lot of things happening in my personal life throughout this process and that would often coincide with my work time and motivation. I have learned it is most definitely ALL CONNECTED. If I am feeling low or stressed or upset my work ethic generally suffers... anyway!

Second to last batch before critiques... looking awesome in their frames!

My dad had the beyond awesome idea to have round mats created for the drawings to mimic the appearance of the images through the scope. So. Awesome. For the sake of being difficult and thinking out of the realm of normal displays I decided I would display the frames at an angle. I was real real done with hanging squares by that point after working in the gallery for so many years. Square shadowboxes get old, people. Over spring break we purchased frames and mats and affixed hanging brackets on each frame using a hand drill and wood glue. Never a dull moment when it comes to making art. After spring break I was ready to get back to work.

My first subject was earwax. Yep. Earwax is technically a product of the body and is produced to catch debris that could otherwise damage the delicate organs inside the ear. Kind of like boogers - boogers are for nose dust, earwax is for ear dust, dead skin.. you get the idea. 

attempt 1

attempt 2... getting closer

These images were really being heavily altered by the patterning on the scopes themselves. Earwax or dust or ear...bits? is really fine and hard to collect. I am picturing your faces as you read this and it amuses me

starting to get somewhere...

love that dark negative space from the shadow of the scope and lens..

bingo

This was, dare I say, a fun image to draw and work on. I started with a neutral gray and then worked in the green and yellow hues in the background. There were some really interesting hue structures in the foreground from the combination of the camera light and the scope light.

creating a ground

White spots of details and for 'halo'

I spent a few days on this image. Working and stopping and going back to it multiple times. I turned it upside down and on its side and changed the color palettes to experiment with shadow and patterns.

starting to add some darker hues... creating depth

I really wanted to focus on the outer hues in the halo

and done!

This image turned out much darker than originally intended. The photograph was much lighter and hues were less pronounced - but that's the great thing about drawing and adapting an image into a drawing. I can do WHATEVER I WANT. Really though... I wanted to push the limits of the media to add details and create the illusion of depth and textures for different parts of the drawing. This one was met with a lot of praise during critique - again people were reminded of stars and nebulas. When I told them earwax they made a face - I'm pretty used to that by now. But it's all for the good of science and exploration of self.. all the nitty gritty bits. Speaking of bits - or I should say BITES. The next images were taken from a slide made with a hangnail. 

I think we can all safely say that we have some bad habits. One of my nervous habits is biting my nails. I have been doing it for as long as I can remember and it's something I have been working on - mainly because teacher hands are dangerous things haha! I was getting really stressed out from all my work and life things and school things and... basically everything and started biting my nails again. Hair and nails are made of the same stuff (keratin. Nerd points for anyone who knew!) so I wanted to see if they would look similar under the microscope. You be the judge.

first shot

looks like a kaleidoscope almost..

striation lines from the nail. So cool!

I loved the distortion and smattering of colors on this one. 

This experimentation was a little bit more relaxed. The color palette was more predictable and controlled but I wanted to emphasize the violet and blue hues. I also saw a great deal of peach or 'flesh colored' highlights and details which were added later.

establishing a ground.. messy messy!

The image I chose to draw from was much less saturated and more grey and neutral in color scheme. Again I had the problem of the patterning on the scope interfering with the photograph, but this time it seemed to work much better with the overall composition. It created a much needed break from the heavy and busy patterning made by the light reflections and interference from the scope. This drawing was more relaxed and I enjoyed filling in the gaps with pattern, line, texture, and shadows.

The last step on this drawing was to add the dark values and shadows. I used brown and even greens as a complement to the purples and yellows. I wanted to focus on the interaction of the darkness with the sections of the photograph that were clear and in focus. What they say is right - practice makes perfect. This drawing quickly became one of my favorites as I added more details and textures which created depth and points of interest. Many people saw 'space imagery' in this drawing and when viewed from afar they did begin to look like the surface of planets... clouds of dust swirling and particles colliding with each other in some kind of atmosphere. Things only got better from here because then I put them in their frames....

and MAGIC happened :)

The next post will be a life update about all the things!

ALL of the things. Within reason. There are far too many things if I am being completely honest.

Ms. Kanak

Foldscopes and 403: Round 3 of Images

My goal for the next couple weeks: finish up these 403 posts! I have been crazy busy between traveling, packing, storing, and driving all over everywhere. Add on a promotion at camp and a move-out date of July 7th and you have a recipe for a very stressed out Ms. Kanak. 

Anyway... Part 3 of 4 begins now!

One of the first images I experimented with was a photograph of a hair follicle. As stated in the first post I wanted to choose products of the body. In the past few years I have realized that my stress manifests through periodic hair loss...it's an issue I have tried to prevent in various ways and that is starting to be resolved.. I went back to revisit one of the photos and started with a light purple ground. I wanted to make the purple and yellows more saturated than the original photo to create interest and highlights.

I was really pleased with my end results - the highlights and white spaces started to resemble electrical currents. If I had started with a grey background I may have been able to achieve the periwinkle/ light purple hues in the original photo. I did not want to lose any of the details so I chose to keep the hues mostly pure and not blend them.

This next set of images is one of my favorites. The photograph was from a slide of tears. I remember reading articles in the last few months about the appearance of tears from different emotions.

Looking at Tears Under a Microscope...

The Topography of Tears

As I took photographs of the slides I did notice slight differences between images, structures, and lighting. I made the slide after a heated argument and took the images two days after during class. This was one of the first images where I really noticed how the pattern on the scope itself could interfere with the colors in the image.

Started with a complementary ground to pick up on highlights and contrast... I also did a very light outline/drawing in of the basic shapes in the composition.

This is kind of funny - like one of those cooking shows where the host creates an elaborate mix of ingredients and then magically has a finished product waiting for them in the oven ha! As I have stated before each of these drawings took several hours to complete. This drawing was particularly challenging in that there were so many subtle hue changes throughout. I started with the background colors - which were inadvertently created by the pattern printed on the scope - and blended those in to  more closely match the photograph. After that I darkened the outlines of the shapes to create depth and the illusion of shadows. I took some artistic license when choosing the saturation of the different hues - I wanted the shapes to stand out and have dimension and texture. Highlights were next, followed by creating the outside halo of darkness (sounds like a metal band..). I wanted to preserve the sharpness of the lines and highlights so I blended those less - really just on the edges of where they touched darker hues.

the final result

I really am pleased with how this drawing turned out. Critiques brought in responses like "it looks like space" "nebulas" "environment" "soft". I was able to create the illusion of depth and space in a fairly simple and undefined photograph. To be fair I spent a lot of time zooming in and out to examine the image more closely and see which areas I wanted to focus on. Some were much clearer than others, but my ultimate goal was to draw the appearance of liquid on a flat surface. 

Okay.. we are getting into 'gross' things again. So prepare yourself. The next set of images may make some queasy. 

Remember how I was talking about 'products' and 'being a woman'? Well there is no product associated more with womanhood than blood - in all its gory glory. I will spare you the details but the following images of slides were all menstrual blood from various times of day and days of the week in the same cycle. This is apparently becoming a thing! I read this article about Jen Lewis, an artist who has been using macrophotography to capture the movements and complexity of her own menstrual blood. My own exploration of the images was investigative and revealing in many ways as well. 

Lewis and I had a similar mission but much different results. We each wanted to make people see something natural, but taboo and stigmatized, in a different and objective way. Reproductive health information is something women are either inundated with or completely isolated from. Over the past few years I have learned more than I probably ever wanted to about my own body and health issues - but it has been important for me to do so. I need to know what is going on so I know where to go next, right?

I photographed one slide with two different strength magnifications, from different angles, upside down, right-side up - you name it. What I found was complex structures and textures that ranged anywhere from crisp and ragged to fluid to something that resembled string. Taking into account the human element of pressure put on the slide while taking the photograph, the air bubbles which slipped into the slide between collection and completion, however my own body chemistry was that day... every single image was different and beautiful. I wish I had more time to draw more or even enlarge the images taken because most were really surprising and dynamic.  

I chose this photograph to draw from - I loved the translucence and iridescent qualities

This is right about when the boyfriend starting making faces haha!

"Look what I'm working on today!"

"Ohh, what is it?"

"Blood"

".... I only ask because I care about our relationship."

Too too funny. Needless to say he played video games while I drew. Another pink ground for this drawing, but I also included purple and greys. I started with color blocking and quickly moved into shading. I always struggle with taking the time to fill in details - I work quickly in short bursts of energy. But with this image I tried to slow down and work lots of shadows and hue changes into the structures.

Moved from color blocking to mapping out darkened areas and starting to suggest the dark outside edges. I wanted to increase the saturation of the reds and purples from the photograph to create emphasis and points of interest. The original photograph was much less saturated but provided a great deal of textural information and freedom.

Nearly completed... added some bright blues and blended purples for more contrast between the background and foreground shapes. I also made more highlights and texture lines to break up the hue structures in the foreground... they were looking too grey for me.

This drawing was the beginning of the process of framing and matting my work for display. SO exciting! My dad and I ordered custom mats that were cut and beveled in the round to mimic the display of the slides under the scopes :) Exactly the effect I was looking for! I wanted to maintain that feeling of dark uncertainty that surrounds the things we observe from our bodies. There is always that thought of "is this normal?" whenever our body produces something. I wanted to present products of the body as something that could be seen as beautiful, but still mysterious and a bit unnerving. Apparently that is my thing - freaking out the viewer and making them take a closer look. Artists are weird.

More to come! Last installment of my 403 reflections is next.. and then I will really be hitting the books HARD for student teaching and lesson planning.

Thanks for reading! Hope no one lost their lunch.

Ms. Kanak