Collage

The Pumpkin & His Hat

The first step with the coffee camera is to place a blank white test strip and tape it on the inside while you're in the darkroom to make sure there is no light exposure. Once you have done this, you need to go outside and just stand with the coffee can in your hand for a few seconds and then you have to run the test strip through the chemical process and what you're looking for is a blank very white test strip (this is the top skinny piece of paper in the picture above). Then after you do this you have to place another test strip inside of the coffee can to now test if the picture you are trying to capture will in fact work. I placed two stools outside and placed a pumpkin onto one stool and placed the coffee can on the other stool. I then lifted the black tape that covered the hole (aperture - which is what lets in the light) and I held it open for five seconds and then I closed it and went back into the dark room to run it through the chemical process again, this time looking for a piece of the image I was going to capture. After the chemical process was done, I taped a 4 X 6 piece of photo paper inside of the coffee camera and went back outside and placed the coffee can in the same spot as before on the stool and let the light in for five seconds yet again. I went inside with all of my materials and ran my piece of paper through all of the chemicals and I was looking for the full image this time - which is exactly what I had.
The strongest technical aspect of my work was getting the light from the sun to hit just right and to be able to capture the shadow of the pumpkin on the stool. Unlike other pictures that came form the same coffee camera wasn't able to capture the same light index as I was able to do. The technical aspect of my work that can be improved on is the placement of the stool that had the coffee camera on it. I could place the stool closer to the opposite stool that was holding the pumpkin itself to make the pumpkin more visible to the eye.
The easiest aspect of this art activity was developing the pictures with the chemical process. This was the easiest because I have developed so many different things throughout the year that this just becomes second nature to me and now I know what to do and I don't even second guess myself like I had done at the beginning of the year. The most difficult aspect of this art activity was trying to figure out how many seconds I needed to let the light in through the pin hole for. This was the hardest part because I could've done too much or too little time and would've had to redo the coffee camera process all over again.
I demonstrated the objective in this art activity because I had first made sure that there was no light leaking through the pinhole on the coffee camera and then I was able to make the picture of the pumpkin on the stool. If I could do this art activity again, I would only change the placement of the second stool that was holding the coffee camera because I would place it closer to the stool with the pumpkin on it to make the pumpkin more visible to other that don't know what I was capturing the image of.

Stairway to Life

In the picture above, you can see the process that I have used in order to create the best picture of all of my negatives that I have developed after taking picture inside and outside with a camera. The first step of the process is creating the contact sheet (very top small strip of paper, middle). This is the first time the negatives hit the paper and come to life. After choosing which picture I had liked best out of all those that have made contact with the paper, I made a value scale on a bigger piece of paper in order to decide how much light is needed to create an image with blacks, whites, and grays. The picture I have chosen was that of the stairway that connects the math and art wing together. On the very right and the very left, you'll see four strips of small paper (two on each side) that are called test strips. The purpose of these are to make sure the light you think will look best, truly will and in order to not waste the paper just incase you have to make more than one, I use a small strip of paper. The final step is to recreate the image with the same amount of light on the successful test strip. The bigger picture on the bottom left is the picture I have created at the F-stop of F-11 and for 34 seconds, but after talking to Mrs. DuVarney, we had decided that there wasn't enough black in the picture; so we decided to add another 17 seconds and recreate the image a final time. The final product is the picture on the bottom right. The picture has blacks, grays, and whites along with the focus needed to create an image that is interesting rather than something boring.
The strongest technical aspect of my work is the process itself. I had to be patient and after about a week of working with the same enlarger and negative, I was able to create the image I had originally intended to create. The technical aspect of my work that can be improved on is the clarity of the picture itself. That is more of how I shoot the picture with the camera rather than how I work with the negative in the dark room. I have to ficus the picture a little more than I had before in order to create an image with less shakiness.
The easiest part of this art activity was developing the negatives. The process takes one day - no longer - and as long as you're paying attention to the time or you have someone else watching the time for you, it is the easiest part of the process because there's no true way to mess up unless you aren't paying attention to the time or what you're doing at all. Th most difficult part of this art activity was being patient enough to create the bigger image. The process took me a week because we couldn't decide on how much light was needed to create the image I had wanted to create with all of the aspects of the perfect image.
I demonstrated the objective in this art activity because I was able to take pictures and develop the negatives. Then take the negatives into the dark room, make a contact sheet, value scale, test strips, and then create the bigger picture with black, whites, and grays. If I could do this art activity again, I would change the picture I had chosen to make bigger and focus the camera in on something slightly more than I had. I would rather have more crisp lines and better lighting that I did inside. Next time I'd take more pictures outside rather than inside despite the colder temperatures outside and comfortable temperatures inside.

Susan Derges

 The strongest technical aspect of my work was gathering the information needed to be put on the powerpoint. In order to fulfill the requirements I had to research the artist of my choice and I chose to do mine on Susan Derges. I was able to find all of the information and then take the pictures and place them strategically enough to make the negative space look intriguing rather than placing them randomly. The technical aspect of my work that can be improved on is the background I have chosen to use. The background I have used is a chalkboard style, but I feel like something more solid would look more professional and would have been a better choice than the chalkboard style. 

The easiest part about this art activity was actually finding the information I had needed to place into the powerpoint to fulfill the requirements for this art task. Also using less words than the pictures inside the powerpoint was also easier than doing other power points for other classes because it's always easier to look at photos rather than endless words. The most difficult part of this art activity was choosing which photos of Derges's photograms I had wanted to use. I had loved so many of her pieces of art that I had a difficult time choosing which ones I had wanted to use.There were too many that were worth spending your time looking at to only choose twelve like I have done for this powerpoint. 

I demonstrated the objective in this art activity because I have researched the artist of my choice and I have followed the instructions of the powerpoint along with the use of few words and many pictures in order to make the powerpoint more interesting to look at. If I could do this art activity again the only thing I would do differently is choose another artist to research and create a powerpoint on.   

Photograms Come to Life

The strongest technical aspect of my work is the way I was able to build a piece of art with pieces of tissue paper, buttons, sequins, keys, magazine photos, a circle texturizer, and bingo circle counters and turn it into a picture known as a photogram. I was able to do this through the use of an enlarger in a dark room. The technical aspect of my work that I can improve on is the amount of light I let shine through the enlarger onto the picture. In order to get the bright white, no light is allowed to shine onto the picture and in order to get the black space or "negative space", light has to be fully shining onto the piece of photo paper. Some of the white on the photograms are more of a hazy white rather than a bright white like I would've liked to have had. I also do not like how white the top right photogram with a magazine picture had come out. I would've preferred it to come out darker so you would be able to actually make out what the picture is supposed to look like rather than it being very white in certain places and not being able to tell what the picture is even of.
The easiest part of this art activity was creating the image outside of the dark room to ensure that I had all of the aspects needed to complete the assignment before going into the dark room to recreate the image. This was the easiest part of this art assignment because I was able to see what I was doing and was able to take different materials to create images such as a landscape, a symmetrical image, and a design with the use of a magazine and other objects placed on top to create different values including black, grey, and white in each image. The most difficult part of this art activity was having to recreate the image in the darkroom. This was the hardest to do because without the light I was not able to see very well and I had to wait a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the light difference in order to attempt to recreate the image I had made the day before in the classroom with the lights on. It would have been easier to recreate the image in the dark room if it wasn't a dark room but that would obviously defeat the purpose of the dark room, plus that would destroy the paper used to create the image. Because of the lack of light, my images are not centered the way I would've liked them to.
I demonstrated the objective in this art activity because I created three photograms in the dark room on one enlarger at the f-stop F11 which makes it so there is very little light that shines through onto the paper, but there is still enough light for the image to be created. I also created the landscape and symmetrical photograms with the light shining onto the paper for only four seconds rather than ten seconds like the magazine photogram needed. The magazine photogram needed more light in order to create the image because the paper of the magazine is thicker than the materials used to create the images for the landscape and the symmetrical photograms. After the images were created at the enlarger, I brought the photo paper to the chemicals were the photogram would actually be created and would develop onto the paper. First is the developer, next is the stop bath, third is the fixer and once the photo has gone through this stage, it is safe for the photo to be brought out into the classroom to see how the photogram has come out and troubleshoot it. Once I have troubleshot the hologram, I'd bring it back into the dark room to finish the process. Next the photogram would be placed into the fixer remover, then the pre-wash, and finally the fish tank which will finish removing all of the left over chemicals off of the photogram. If I could do this art activity again, I would use a different magazine page because the one I had chosen was a little too thick and not enough light had shone through and the picture on the magazine didn't fully come out and just looks like a big sloppy white mess which I do not like at all. Although, I wouldn't change the other two of my photograms except maybe redo the symmetrical photogram and let the light from the enlarger shine onto the paper for a longer amount of time than the four seconds because the white isn't a very crisp white like I would've liked it to have been. I'd also try to line the paper and materials up better in order to create a nice, crisp and clean white border around the image due to the easel that overlaps the piece of photo paper. Other than that, I am very happy with the works I have created with very little materials and in the darkroom without having much light to even see anything that I was doing.

Dominic & his Polaroids

The strongest technical aspect of my work in the picture of my brother in the aquarium is the way I chose to spread the polaroids around the picture. I was able to break the plane along with creating a shuffled and almost thrown across the table look with the placement of the polaroids. If you were to rearrange the polaroids with the pictures that are inside each individual one, you would not be able to see the original picture; rather, it would look like a jumbled mess. The technical aspect that can be improved on in my work is the way I had cut my edges in order to break the plane. Although, I was able to physically break the plane like I was supposed to do for the project to be complete, I could've used a different tool to make the cuts much more clean looking.

The easiest part about this art activity was placing the sharks in the background as a symbol to represent my little brother. His favorite animals are sharks; therefore, it was relatively easy to find a nice picture of a shark to continuously copy and paste and place all around in the background. The most difficult part of this art activity was trying to place the polaroids all over the original picture in order to create the shuffled look. Although it may look easy, it is not at all. It takes a lot of time and thinking to decide where everything should be placed and which part of each polaroid needed to be erased.

I demonstrated the objective in this art activity because I used polaroids from the internet and duplicated them in order to make the picture look like there are individual polaroids of my original photo to create a masterpiece of one. I also broke the plane to make my brothers hand look like it is coming out of two of the polaroids to almost create a 3-D effect. Then I erased the original background and used the color blue and sharks to create a new background that symbolized my brother and his personality. If I could do this art activity again, I would only change the picture and the way I had placed the polaroids. I would use a brighter picture that is more visible than the one I had chose to use along with try placing the polaroids in a new manner to create a new look; then the picture would look completely different than the image I had created.

Sisters - Facial touch-up

The strongest technical aspect of my work is giving the face of my sister in the first picture the "California Glow". Rather than her face being the normal color that it always is and has been, it has this yellowish undertone that is shining through and makes her skin look healthier and kind of gives it the flawless skin" effect. The technical aspect of my work that can be improved on is the way the makeup looks on my second sister's eyelids. It doesn't look like it belongs there, but I could always try a different blending tool next time to make it seem like it was on her eyelids the entire time - sen before the photoshopping took place.

The easiest part of this art project was making the freckles disappear with the use of the healing brush. This was the easiest aspect for me because it didn't take me longer than roughly ten minutes on each face to rid them of their freckles that are scattered around their face. The most difficult part of this art project was painting the entire face and making sure the color didn't make it look extremely fake. This was the most difficult aspect of the art project because trying to find the right color and opacity to ensure the reality of the face stays in-tack.

I demonstrated the objection in this art activity because I used the different tools to make the skin of their faces have the flawless look along with the healthy glow and I gave them a makeover with different shades of eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick. I also made the teeth whiter when they were visible along with sharpening their jaw lines and making some facial feature more prominent than others in both of their pictures. If I could do this art activity again, I would change the color of the eyeshadow, blush and makeup to create a different look. I'd also maybe change the color of their hair completely and maybe make the picture have a more drastic change than the changes I have made in the pictures above.