Design Class, Project 1

Leaves & the Letter O

I started an art class recently, a basic design class, and so have been spending the last couple of weeks either climbing up and down ladders, busily painting my new house (!) or sitting at a table playing with inks and paints in class.  This combination means I currently always have paint in my hair, under my fingernails, and on at least one elbow.

We've only completed one project thus far, as the printmaking project is more involved and taking longer. I have to say, I am glad I'm auditing the class - this is not a world where I think I'd like any grades.

Project 1 involved taking a leaf (real or photo), making a 2D simplification of it, and creating a pattern with it, and a letter of the alphabet, where the leaves and letters interwove at least 3 times.  It sounds easy, but I made gazillions of thumbnail sketches with various leaves and letters that were all aggressively ugly.  The final product I finally created post thumbnails and roughs, well, umm, it's not perfect.  Critique included very politely worded commentary on the importance of craftsmanship, as in, ahem, I'm a slob, and the paint ended up extra lumpy on this one, and white paint doesn't really cover fingerprints terribly well on board, etc.  The design itself is not terrible though, not nearly as awful as some of those thumbnail sketches. Varying the letter O sizes more would have probably helped - that, and better craftsmanship.  I am not good at being careful and precise with paint, as the baseboards in my house will attest.    

The interesting thing about working on the project was knowing I was learning something in all the experimenting, but not being really sure what I was learning.  My hope is that the experimentation involved in art leads to developing a personal aesthetic style. We'll see if, down the road, I'm better able to articulate what I like, what I don't, and why.