My first year at EMU studying art I wanted to just work outside of my comfort zone.  My goal was to try new things with art, ignore artistic insecurities, and realize that if a piece is making me uncomfortable or stressed, its probably a good idea to keep working on it.  This goal became really important during my last assignment of my drawing 2 foundations course, the final exam.  Our final was a non-representational piece; it needed no form or subject, just experimentation documented artistically. It was simply, "Make a mark, and push it to the limit".
      Now there were many ways my classmates went about doing this, from eating berries and spitting them on a canvas for 3 weeks,  to sitting in the building's restroom covering their nipples with paint and stamping them hundreds of times, to covering an empty studio upstairs with paper and dipping a yoyo in paint just to play with it for a few hours.
     I felt all those things were a bit too overcomplicated for my tastes, I wanted to make something complex with something simple, or at least that is what I got out of the point of the assignment.  I also wanted to stay true to my goal of working out of my comfort zone, and I wanted to do something giant.  With those goals in mind Lateralization just kind of came to be.  After a week thumbnailing, planning, measuring, testing patterns, testing compositions, testing sizes, testing the muscular endurance of my non-dominant right hand, my final plan finally came together.  I wanted to take a risk, and I figured what is more risky than doing your final exam in your college drawing class with the hand you have no idea how to write with.
    Before starting this experimental project, I made myself some rules. First, I would not be allowed to fix any mistake in the pattern, start over, go back or change things. Second, once I started a panel, I had to stick to only that panel until it was done. Third, I had to use the same cheap, $0.20 ball point pens (which I ended up using over 20 in the end). Fourth, I had to make it giant -- no giving up halfway and cropping it down.  If I was going to do this it would only work if I did it big. Fifth, no cheating.  I set these rules up and followed them so the art project would be a true experiment and a proper representation of what I wanted to show.
     In the end I got my A, although I was pretty nervous going into the critique. After all, drawing lines over and over isnt nearly as radical as nipple-stamping,  but the one thing I knew i had on my classmates was difficulty of process (who honestly wants to use their bad writing hand that much?) and time put into it, I put in three times the work hours anyone else did. I think my final product was immense enough to draw attention from afar, intricate and detailed enough to draw people close, and experimental and scientific enough to make it stand out for this assignment.  I have never learned more about risk taking, experimentation, pushing yourself through frustrating work, and concept in any other assignment, and I left that class feeling much more equipped.  Over 20 shitty ball point pens, over 120 hours of monotonous and carpel-tunnel inducing work (that I brought upon myself), and about  a million questions of "what are you doing and why are you drawing that many lines over and over" from all my non artistic friends all came together to teach me a lot and make me really happy to be studying art.

Oh yea and I got asked to place it in a gallery in Ann Arbor. My first ever piece to be held to such an honor.  Here's their website link.

7.5 Feet Tall!

artist statement:

My work is 1980 sq. inches of pattern created using both of my hands and ballpoint pens that documents the way each side of my brain works as well as investigates the relationships between pattern, texture, and negative space.

I wanted to push a simple medium and process to the limit to find complex results while simultaneously forcing myself to work outside of my comfort zone.

Using ballpoint pens and simple patterns like the alphabet or vertical lines repeated over large scales I completed my first goal, and by forcing myself to complete the right-half the piece with my non-dominant right hand I vanquished any confidence and control I had in the outcome.

Through hours of monotonous repeated patterns, experimentation with relationships of negative space, and attempting to mirror my right-brain’s work with my left-brain I made some surprising discoveries; Work with my non-dominant right hand would be more horizontally linear due to increased concentration, tension, and slower work methods, and work with my left would be more skewed horizontally due to the absence of concentration required when using your dominant hand.

An obsessive and rhythmic relationship with the patterns creates a visual diagram explaining the way each side of my brain handles measured and excessive tasks.

So I've always had a soft spot for photo realistic artworks.  It amazes me how well some people can interpret the colors and shapes that make up everything that we see then reproduce them in such a skillful manner.  Having said that, this post is two fold.

First off, I want to post a link to one ridiculously talented young man and his work.  Check out the rest of the site while you are there: it's chock full of great photography and interesting tidbits.

Joongwon (Charles) Jeong's Paintings

A self portrait.

Iron Man... Er... Robert Downey Jr.

There are some great crops and progress shots as well.

Secondly, I want to see what other people think about photo realistic paintings and the like.  I ask because I had a run in with one of my college teachers and his opinion during my final semester and quite frankly it shocked and appalled me.

We had been given time in class to look up style references and inspiration for an assignment so I was having a conversation with a friend about artists and styles we liked.  I had just found Jeong's work that day and was talking about how impressive I find that kind of rendering.  Apparently my teacher had overheard us and butted in, saying how he felt that photo realism is nothing to be impressed by.  Anyone could learn to be a photo realist and, according to him, it takes very little artistic skill and/or talent.  Suffice to say, we got into a bit of a heated debate, the two of us, and my teacher eventually backed down when he realized that I know a bit of the history of hyper realism/photo realism and am able to back my claims and opinions up.

Honestly, I am disturbed that a teacher at an art college would so proudly tout such a claim.  Furthermore, his claim that anyone can do it applies to almost ANY art style.  With enough time and practice, any artist can replicate any other artist's work.  There are no exceptions.  However, with this replication, you don't gain understanding.  Any artistic endeavor involves an understanding of your medium, your subject, and your message.  It takes a lot of work and a lot of know-how.

In order to paint a portrait like Jeong's up there, an individual needs to understand what makes that face.  From the colors visible in the skin to just where to render out pores and where to only hint at them.  If every detail was painted out as it exists, the painting would not look real.  It would look quite grotesque.  Now, that could be another very interesting take on the painting, but it would not be photo realistic.  So photo realism involves not only the understanding of what is there, but the understanding of what to leave out.  Beyond that, it involves extreme and precise control of color, value, shade, and texture.  Focus and a balance of hard and soft edges are paramount.

There is so much that goes in to a painting like this that I am hard-pressed to find a way to not think of it as art, and impressive art at that.  It might not be some people's 'thing'.  I can understand and support that.  However, in my opinion, making the brazen claim that this is not art and is just pure mechanics is down-right ridiculous.

Alright, so I have neglected to be very active on The JAR lately and I feel bad about it... So, since I have something new that I am working on and can show, I decided to reveal some of my imperfect, ever-changing process.  Please, bear with me on this.

In reality, everything starts on paper with random, unfocused sketches and doodles.  None of which are pictured here.  I have a few pages of heads and faces that I was playing with before becoming interested in one that had an old, worn, and rather royal feel to it.  So I drew it some more in different angles and positions until finally deciding on a simple profile.  I wanted to keep it simple since I intended to try out some new brushes in my work.

Once I had a rough idea, I jumped into Photoshop and continued where I left off on paper.  I redrew the head again using my pencil drawing as a reference.  Only this time I planned out a body for it as well.  I had trouble deciding on a pose and what style armor he should have.  At one point I played around with a sci-fi theme but I quickly dropped it.  Eventually decided on something more basic like what a barbarian might wear.

Two of the better body sketches.

Once I made a decision, I then worked on refining the pose.  His balance was off and the legs seemed somewhat stiff and unnatural.  Adding more/darker lines to what I liked and whiting out areas that I didn't want worked well for me here.  I also noted what I need to take reference for, namely his hands and ears among other things.

Refining the sketch.

Next it's time to work out a color pallet.  From the beginning I wanted something cool and blue so that's where I started.  I tried out several shades and hues before settling on a muted teal as a base.

Picking out a base tone.

From there it was a matter of deciding on a skin-tone and other color shapes.  I liked the idea of red skin in an icy environment.  This stage is very rough and messy.  Staying inside the lines is not a priority: I just want to work out what colors work well and where.  Once I have a basic understanding of what I want I then start laying in blocks of value.  I decided that a gradient going from light to dark helped focus the eye on the sword and his head as well.

Playing around with shapes and colors.

In order to help me pay attention to value groupings, I place a black/white filter over top the image and periodically turn it on to get an idea of what the image would look like as a greyscale.  I also add a dot of black and white and move it around for comparison.  Proper value depth is a problem of mine that I still struggle with so I tend to check this often.  I also regularly flip the painting horizontally.  This is to aid in spotting defects in the painting such as poor figure balance, lopsided anatomy, or a lopsided composition in general.

Value comparison.

Finally, this is where the painting stands as of this post.  I recently edited a brush to give me two-tone and really speckly strokes to help add some texture since most of my paintings turn out looking really smooth like clay.  It's not a perfect integration yet, but I rather like it and think it's something that I am going to stick with.  Now it is time to take a break from working on his head and move to other areas to help prevent the risk of over-working his face.  I still need to add the darkest-darks and lightest-lights to the painting.  Those will come later.

Where I am as of this posting.

Head detail showing texture brush.

Alright, so here is the 'finish'.  It is pretty likely that I will go into this again some time in the future, but for now I am moving on!  Check out this and other works of mine on my blog: Zachary Wojnar Illustration.

Final result.

Some of you know who I am but those who don’t my name is Sara Mardeusz and I am a 6^th year student at Michigan State University.  I am going for my Bachelor of Fine Arts and next spring is when I graduate… finally…  Throughout my time at MSU it has been a hit or a miss with classes.  Originally I went to school for zoology with a concentration in zoo and aquarium science because I love animals (who doesn’t?). After 4 years of passing and failing classes it was about time for a change.  So in short I changed my major to Studio Art.  I have been happy ever since and made some money out of it.

            When I took my first art class last summer I knew I made the right decision because at the end of the semester I 4.0 all of my classes.   When I talk to people , people think that art is EASY… I hate to break it to them but it’s not easy at all.  Just like any other college course you have to put a significant amount of effort into your work because your grade will reflect.  With that being said people tell me that I look much happier doing what I am doing, which is true! A person should be happy doing what makes them the most happiest because your overall outlook on life is going to be vastly different. 

            Now here is the big question that I get asked a lot: “What are you going to do with your degree?” and my response is this “I really do not know”. Which is a sad response to hear but its an honest response.  I have been looking at trying to find jobs that I qualify for but with having no luck I have not found anything so the hunt is still on!  Sometimes it’s discouraging and it sucks but I had some luck recently though while taking my comics and visual narratives course.   At the end of the course our final project was taking all of the comics we made during the semester and compile it all into a comic book which is to be sold on such and such date.   When that date came it was one of the best days because I sold out on my comics and made some money! This is a really great feeling! Also one of the MSU Alumni directors also came that day and he was trying to recruit a few people to help him with a comic related event.  He did not go into detail that much with the event because he is still trying to plan it out.  Just hearing this was making my day even more because it is a potential job opportunity.  I emailed him the next day saying that I am interested in what he is doing and he emailed me back saying he will keep me inform of any and all plans.  I am so excited!


 I hope this upcoming and last year will go well! I want to go out with a bang!