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