P.S.

Here is my slowly developing Photoshop Sketch:

Week Twelve

This week I went to Fingerle to get some Formica samples. My aunt suggested using Formica as a possible surface material and I really liked the idea. I've been in e-mail contact with John Fingerle (who is very nice, by the way) already about wood and so I e-mailed him again to ask about Formica. As always, he returned my e-mail very quickly and told me about their free samples and where to go to pick some up.


If I use Formica, I might need to build a support frame for it but first I wanted to test gluing a piece of cardstock to see its holding power and it is on there! I'm very excited to have an idea I am considering more now.

Looking at the work I made this week, I feel like I did not make a lot. Though I spent ten or so hours cutting, assembling and gluing the pieces, it just looks like so much less! I did, however, get rid of two people who just did not make the cut. I did not like the size of them, their gestures or their expressions. It kills me when I have to do this because a person can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to make (give or take, depending on the detail), but I've set high standards for myself and want to be able to stand behind every individual element on the map.

Here are the people:









Utilization of time:
Collaging: 10 hours
Fingerle trip: 45 minutes
eBay hunting for more papers: 45 minutes
Scanning and Photoshopping: 1.5 hours
Working on presentation (I don't know if this is necessary to include): 2 hours

Some questions I've been having, specifically in regards to my people, are listed below. I would really appreciate it if whomever comments on my blog this week could answer them.

1. Should I be exaggerating certain people more?
2. Is it okay to have characters that are more proportionally realistic juxtaposed with those that are not?
3. Are there any stand-out figures that you are not responding to or just flat-out don't like? Why?
4. Should I be making more people that are seen from behind?
5. For the people I am creating that are not based off of specific individuals, how can I make them more "Berlin"? That is, what can I do to associate them with this city as opposed to any other city. How do we know these people aren't from Dallas or London? Can this be achieved with clothes? Materials I use to make the clothes

Thanks in advance for your input!

Week Eleven

First of all, I am no longer convinced that I have my weeks correct. I thought we were on week eleven but I have seen different weeks referenced in others' posts so take my blog titles with a grain of salt.

Erica offered me some really useful suggestions for my surface and the question of what I should use for my surface/support material is one I will ask my committee as well. As I mentioned last week, I do have some ideas brewing in my brain but none are jumping out at me at this point.

I'm very excited that I got notification of my grant award today so I can go out and buy some paper, paste and other supplies soon! The amount I was awarded will really help my project.

Over the Thanksgiving break I worked on the poster wall for Berlin, which was INCREDIBLY time consuming because of the tiny pieces of paper I had to work with. I'm very happy with how it turned out though. The edges are intentionally a little uneven because I think slight irregularities provide a sense of effortlessness (even thought it was not). Perfectly straight lines, especially given the overall playful style of my map's contents, look too forced.

(To give indication as to scale, this poster wall measures approximately 2.5 by 20 in.)

I also started making trees because I remember Berlin having a lot of trees and I wanted to make something besides people. The trees were fun and relatively quick to make. I especially enjoyed creating the trunks and branches of the trees because I was able to create really interesting silhouettes based on the negative spaces. There will be many more of these babies to come.








And, as per usual, I made some people and two dogs. The rosy-cheeked guy is Johannes, a guy with whom I worked. The others are random.




In thinking about Hannah's advice, I have some ideas for ways of achieving a different point of view without it looking out of place. The poster wall was a start, as it recedes slightly into space, but another idea that I have is to show the tops of tents set up at the flea market at Mauerpark. I can also show the tops of people's heads. I think this could set up an interesting pattern and possibly provide some breathing space in an otherwise very dense area. The pictures below (taken from Flickr) kind of visualize what I am going for but I want mine to be more directly overhead.


Utilization of time:
Collaging: 19 hours
Wood-hunting: 2 hours (came a way empty handed, though)
Scanning and Photoshopping: 2 hours



P.S. I am very excited for my classes next semester. Because I think it's relevant, I will note here the classes I will be taking:

I.P.
Figure Drawing (I was going to take the paper sculpture class but with IP I think it will be too much of a time commitment. Additionally, I think that improving my figure drawing skills will really help my project, as it will allow me to create more expressive characters and learn more about proportions and scale so that I can then distort them!)
Art History (It's a class about magic and the diabolical in the Italian Renaissance.)
English (The class is about texting, IM-ing and how conversations work as well as the difference in male/female conversations. I'm very excited for this class--it sounds really interesting.)
Blogging (This class, too, will benefit my integrative project so stay tuned for even better blog posts in 2011!)

P.P.S. In the back of my mind I've been wondering about gluing when I go to assemble the large-scale map. I'm concerned that I won't be able to apply glue to the entire back surface of a building, for example, without it drying in another area. I'm also concerned about thinner papers curling from the glue. Thoughts for prolonging glue drying time and for preventing curling with more delicate papers? I was thinking Yes! paste might be a good idea for the thinner papers but I don't know how well it will hold with the heavier, cardstock-type papers. I think another test is in order. I still have a scrap piece of particle board but because I don't think I will be using that as a support material, I don't know how useful the test will be.

Jo Mora Map Images

Week Ten

Sorry for the post-noon post. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to post today. That said, I will keep this post short and sweet, as I am in vacation mode!

This week I went back to making buildings because I felt I was starting to fizzle out with people and needed a break from them for a while. I completed Kino Babylon and redid Konditorei Krautzig. I did, however, make some more people.

(The background of the new bakery is less washed-out in person. It has a textured pattern that's not overly visible in the scan.)
(She will be serving a slice of Danish apple cake and a cappuccino.)

I have been thinking a lot about my support surface and it is causing me a lot of grief. I did my practice 1-foot sample but that was primarily helpful with figuring out which glues worked. It really did not help with deciding upon my surface material because my actual piece is going to be profoundly larger than my sample. The final will therefore be much heavier (I went with my mom to Home Depot today and she and I lifted a 4' x 8' piece of birch ply and and it was HEAVY), and there's no telling if it will warp or not.

A couple ideas that are percolating in my brain right now are as follows:

1. Gluing my pieces to a large sheet of Rives BFK paper and letting it hang how it may (be it slightly warped/puckery) from a wall.

2. Gluing my pieces to a large sheet of 1/4" wood and gluing that wood to a wooden support frame with crossbars.

3. Gluing my pieces to a realy heavy piece of 3/4" particle board or birch ply.

4. Somehow attaching my pieces to a wall, directly.

*Option 4 really intrigues me because I would be able to spread out the contents without being confined to a frame but I don't know how I would take down the work at the end.

Utilization of Time:
Collaging: 10 hours
Library Research (looking at Jo Mora maps): 1.5 hours
Scanning, Photoshopping and printing book images of Folk Art: 45 minutes
"Sketching" possible layouts in Photoshop: 3 hours (see below)