Book Carving

Prompt: Explain how you developed your design for your book carving. How important was it to have a clear plan before starting? 
 I spent more time researching book carvings and finding ideas then carving the book. Since you are cutting, you want to make sure that you are 100% sure that you are doing it right. Once you cut it, its unattached forever!!
There are hundreds of styles to carving your book. There's a panoramic, outside carving, taking several books and carving, pop-out, or carving it inside. I thought about doing the panoramic style, but the directions didn't make sense to me.
I chose the pop-up style, because it was different then everyone else's. Also, I wanted to have enough time for detail and being careful when cutting, and this style is less time consuming as far as planning goes, which means that I was able to just cut. The other style seemed four times harder, because once you cut something wrong you had to tear out that number of pages, and the process was incredibly confusing. I knew that I wouldn't have had enough time to focus on the details and making the paintings and cuts intricate. 
My idea process:
With the panoramic style in the beginning, I thought it would be great to not make little carvings to make images in the book, but actually make carvings in it to make the book become an image.
Something in a panoramic shape would be a carousel. My birthday was coming up around this time the project started. When I was younger I had this little fancy carousel jewelry box, I got it for my birthday, but it was stolen when our house was broken into. So I thought that if I did the panoramic style I could make it one big carousel! Once I started trying to plan and research instructions, it became really hard. I had to cut every page of the book in order for this to work. I wanted there to be different designs on every page because thats how I would be able to make the carousel. I had to think of something else.
My second favorite style was the pop-up book! So I went with it. I wanted to still incorporate the carousel, so I thought about continuing the amusement theme, and make a fair, but I thought it would make it cuter by adding some feeling so I thought adding a couple kissing and the Eiffel Tower would make it special.
 
What were the challenges you faced when working on this project? Explain how you overcame them. 
 The most challenging part is curved lines! Curved lines are hard, and take time to do right. To overcome this obstacle I had to go little by little, and practice on tracing, so that I was comfortable with the lines, so I knew the shape better. 
I went through planned out steps: 
1) think of a theme 
2) choose a style and make your layout and design
3) cut tracing paper, proportional to the book (to the area you will be cutting). Practice your final design on the tracing paper. This is the time to add things, or adjust the design.
4) lay the final tracing paper over the book and cut away!
5) add paint, found materials, etc.
 Done! (touch lines up here and there with the exact-o knife)
 
Discuss your design and how it relates to the book you chose (if that was the case, if not just discuss design). Did you take any risks? How and why? 
 The book I used was actually a dictionary. It didn't relate to my carving, which was Love in Paris (a summary title for my book's theme). 
I did not take any risks with this project. Honestly, I am not understanding how to take risks.

Describe how you felt about the overall project and if you felt it was successful. 
I felt good about my project. It was what I wanted to do, and how I imagined it, even if I did not take a risk. I always feel like I can add more to it, but it never works out. I wanted to have lights on it, but there was no way it was going to fit on to the book. There's more that I could've done to make it stand out. My favorite part is the painting. I spent time on it and I was careful with it. Painting it made it look so much better! Also I am glad that I was able to put in a plastic wrap paper to make the water in the river. It looks really cool and realistic when the light shines on the plastic.

 

   

1. How did you show amusement and variety in your piece? Explain your choice of subject matter and how you created a unified piece of art.
I showed amusement and variety through my piece by incorporating pictures of what makes people all over the world pleased, or amused. My choice of subject matter was making a paper maché Earth and covering it with things that show different cultures, politics, and languages from different regions, but I unified them by having the pictures be related to one another. For example, in Iraq I put a picture of terrorists holding a poster threatening to kill all Americans, but in America I put a picture of Barack Obama on the news with the caption saying "Osama has been killed". I also, included a picture that reads 'Made in China" and I put it on America as well to show that a lot of our things come from there and that we run on material shipped from China to here. This demonstrates that all countries and continents all have relationships with another, and that the world is inner-twinded and unified.
2. Describe your experience with using mixed media. What mixed media did you use for your piece? 
I used paper maché, colorful teared pieces of paper, hot glue, yarn, print outs and I was supposed to use wire but it didn't work, because the surface of the globe was so bumpy that trying to make roller coasters out of wire was not working or adhering. 
3. What role did our lessons on visual journals play in the success of your piece? Explain.
 The layering, and taking pieces from different magazine cut outs to make one picture where the objects worked together to create a new picture/setting, both worked in my ideas and I used them to make my project. In Antarctica I found a picture of two penguins holding hands, so I looked for a proportional veil, bouquet, and top hat for the penguins to wear to let the audience assume they were husband and wife. I also used that technique, for Australia. In a magazine I found a picture of a trampoline, and then it gave me an idea to print out small kangaroos and place them on top to make it seem as if they were really jumping on it.
4. Discuss any challenges you experienced and how you overcame obstacles. 
My biggest challenge was the wire and trying to come up with more materials/mediums. At first when I tested out the wire out, to shape it like a roller coaster it worked but I was disappointed when I actually was ready to adhere it to the globe, because it would not stay. I tried gel, poking a hole to place it in, turning it certain ways, and hot glue. I was surprised when the hot glue wouldn't hold it, but I realized it was the height of the globe and the wire weight that were really unporpotional, which made it so unstable. Eventually after my several attempts to try and make the wire stay in place, I had to work on something else and just let the wire go, because it was starting to become a waste of time. So finally instead, I decided to spend that time layering and covering things up and trying to make sure there weren't too many blanks on the globe. At the end my projected looked okay, but I still think that I could have done better. If I would have known the wire would not work I would've tried something else before I ran out of time. 
My main goal in this project was to show the joys and pains that amuse people. What some people find amusing causes other things pain and suffering, in this the world in constantly in cause and effect, where one thing you do effects another person or thing. This shows how the world is unified through our everyday challenges, most joyous or saddest moments, and cultures.

Untraditional Portrait

 

1. Who did you choose to do a portrait of? Why did you choose that person?

I had to choose a family member to do a portrait of, and the only person who let me was my brother, John.

2. When brainstorming about this project how did you decide what would be the best materials to use to create it? Explain how your material choice impacted the look of your piece. Why was this so important. Explain.
We were not allowed to use paint. So, when listing the materials that I could use for this project, I decided to pick a medium that would be textutral. Honestly, I wanted to pick something that was not costly. My other ideas were cereal, melted wax, using pictures of that person to create one big picture of them, etc. One of my classmates had already choosen wax, and cereal was boring, and using mini- pictures was too challenging. Then, I thought about cakes and how I've seen pictures of people made of icing on the cake. Icing was in my budget, and it allowed me to incorporate a textural element.

3. Describe the risks you took or that were involved in creating the project. What were the challenges you faced?
I challenged myself by only buying red, blue, and yellow so that I could make my own colors and have every part of the face different from the rest. After coming up with so many colors it was hard to create new ones. Also, I wanted to have a color that represented lights, and a different color to represent darks, so that this way I could have value even though I was not using any black or white.

4. How did your choices impact the look and feel of the piece? Did your choice of materials have any connection with the person you chose to represent?
The choices I made to impact the feel of the piece, such as using bright colors and all of them different, gave it a fun and bright look. My subject was an old picture of my brother when he was about five to six years old, so the colors that I used in my piece gave it a youthful feel as well. The materials I used did not have any direct connection with John.