Play Make Write Think

Similar to how I selected one image first then worked to make it “fit” during my Combo-photo, I decided to select an object and draw something to fit. As I read the prompt, I was in the reading room of the library. After scanning my desk and surroundings for potential objects, I remembered my case of Kleenex in my bag. Coincidentally, I had rushed to the library to get work done before sinner, so I had left my laundry and sheets unfolded on my bed. I think the idea of the Kleenex as a sheet came as a consequence of that, and I decided to run with it.

To manifest that idea into reality was difficult. I originally intended to trace the napkin, draw, then place the napkin down and take the photo. However, It was difficult to draw around the trace, and I constantly found myself placing and picking up the napkin intermediately. In addition, looking on Niemann’s tumblr, I noticed that the physical object creates a two dimensional part of the image, not an addition to the drawing as an afterthought. Consequentially, I created two drawings, one with the Kleenex, and then used the first to help aid the second drawing. In terms of physical issues, having the correct scale was quite difficult. Using the outlining process from my original plan allowed me to get past this issue. Overall, I really enjoyed this process: I think the most valuable lesson was being able to see objects as artistic mediums rather than objective things with purposes.

Link to Prompt. #SQ5

Ever since i was little, whenever I would hear the name “Cookie Monster” my mind conjured a literal monster made of cookies rather than thinking of the blue energetic Muppet. Today, as I bit into my cookie for a late night dinner, it dawned on me that I could make my vision come true. Although my artistic abilities are lacking, I present to you, The Cookie Monster; they are an abomination that has come into existence as a manifestation of the developed world’s gluttony and will end the world in a wave of sugary chocolately doom.

Here is the link back to the assignment post as requested: https://eng101s20.davidmorgen.org/quests/side-quests/side-quest-5-sunday-sketches/

In my opinion, this was definitely one of the harder side quests so far. I found the last one easier because we had access to whatever objects/pictures we wanted, since images on the internet are essentially unlimited. This time we were limited to our own personal inventory. I don’t know if I’m not creative or if I just don’t own many miscellaneous items, but the conception of my idea for the combination took a while. Finally, while listening to music, I was staring at my AirPods case and realized they looked a lot like a character from one of my favorite movies: Eve from WALL-E. It accurately represented the color and shape (no hard edges) of Eve’s body, so I realized it was the perfect idea. The sketch was also relatively easy since Eve doesn’t have the most complicated body structure. For those that have no idea what I’m talking about, this is Eve from WALL-E.

I wanted to create a photo using the spiky balls that I grew up seeing fall from the trees. I thought it would be ironic to make the spiky balls into balloons because they are the complete opposite texture and color of a balloon.

For my Sunday Sketch I combined a pair of scissors and a drawing to make the head of a bird. I came up with the idea upon noticing that my scissors resembled a bird beak when I opened and closed them. I then promptly decided that this would be my 3D tangible object (I think I must have a fondness for creating things from scissors because this is the 2nd time in a row that I’ve used them in my creation). I laid the scissors down on a piece of paper and played around with the opening of the “beak”, eventually deciding to have it slightly ajar. Then, I traced the rest of the beak and the head of the bird with a pencil, and, once I was satisfied, traced the drawing with black and red permanent marker, which matched the color of the scissors. Once I had the idea, the process was pretty simple (even though I am clearly not an artist). The one difficult part was lining the middle dot on the scissors to where the bird’s eye should be. I think it ended up being a little bit too close to the beak, but all in all I’m pretty happy with the end result.

When I was deciding what to include in my Sunday sketch, nothing came to mind at first. I looked in my backpack to see if there were any interesting items I could incorporate into my sketch. I looked at Christoph Niemann’s sketches and saw that he used an earbud in one of them. With this inspiration, I decided to incorporate my Airpods into my sketch but using a different image. I thought of some different images I could create using my Airpods, and a bear came to mind. I looked up photos of bears and ultimately decided to draw a panda bear because of the contrast with colors: grizzly bears have many brown colors but panda bears are black and white. My white headphones would fit perfectly with a panda bear, so I decided to use them as the eyes. I looked up images of panda bears and gathered inspiration from them to use in my drawing. Below is my drawing of “Pandapods.” I hope you like it and find it cute!

I started this Sunday sketch project by looking through objects in my room for inspirations. At first, I wanted to use my tea mug as a bee’s body and wing, but the color was too brown to resemble a bee, and I turned to my drawer. Stapler was my second and final inspiration for this, its blue color instantly reminds me of the ocean and the shape of a dolphin’s rostrum. Then I looked up photos online that fits the angle I wanted and get my color pencils ready. The project officially began production.

I outlined the dolphin and colored different shades to make it look more vibrant than the actual photo, due to the difficulty in creating a realistic dolphin eye, I used human eye drawing technique to make things more humanized. Different color transitions makes it look more lively and smooth. I especially put darker shades on shaded area to make the sketch as much 3 dimensional as I can. This final project turns out better than I expected. With some photo editing, the stapler dolphin is shown above. I picked the name “trick or treat?” to emphasize the more dangerous dolphin rostrum, and want people to start caring and fearing these dolphins. The dolphins and any other animal deserve their own survival right and they need to have the power to leverage the decisions made my humans.

After scanning my room for interesting trinkets I found a rubber frog my friend got me from Morocco, a country famous for its rubber frogs. I initially drew a lilypad but the picture was boring and too simple. Staying true to the theme of the class, I’ve drawn a snapshot from the game Frogger. A classic game I last played when I was 8 and considered to be impossible to win. I revisited the game today and can only look back at my 8 year old self with shame for failing to win Frogger because it turns out to be quite easy.