Above: Chuck Close in his studio
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
E-Journal #3, Managing Your Studio Time
How do you plan to manage your studio time between now and March 14th? Your response should include 1) a detailed account of realistic goals in terms of progress you intend to make each week on the physical artworks, 2) a discussion of what activities you consider to be "in the studio" in addition to physically crafting works in the space of the studio (either home or school studio) such as prepping materials, sitting with the work while crafting drafts of your artist statement, referencing and consulting research materials in the form of books or essays to help you focus the form and content of your artwork, editing or sorting materials, etc.
Above: Chuck Close in his studio
Above: Chuck Close in his studio
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1) realistically, there are 9 weeks left to execute and finalize our work for the show... a time line i have given myself is the following:
ReplyDelete* 3 weeks for Flag 2
- laying out pieces, color correcting panels, pinning final panels
> if panels of fabric are put together that have too much color
variation then they become overly distracting as a whole, also if
they are too similar then they become visually boring. Also for the
next 2 flags I need to consider not making the flags too busy
because of the top layer of the road map... It can turn into a
jumbled mess rather quickly. When the colors, textures and metal
details are right, then I need to begin pinning together the panels
and getting proportions right
- sewing panels and burning/ charring edges
> Sewing the panels (especially on the next two flags) is the most
time consuming part because proportions have to be spot on and
seams have to be opened are re-sewn due to stretch jean material
(easily puckers and creates an unpleasing wrinkled surface). The
burning then is 3-4 days of revisiting and leaving the flag out.. I'll
do an initial charring and then return again and again with a fresh
eye of what needs to be worked on
- drawing on and then sewing on the road map top layer
> The drawing of the map for the first flag took roughly 4 hours, so I
am expecting around the same amount of time. The sewing of the
map was a pretty long learning curve in that I had to figure out
what was making things go terribly wrong (Eg, accidentally sewing
halves together from the back, and creating bad puckers by
running the stretch fabric through the machine too aggressively...
stretches in all the wrong directions)
* 3 weeks for Flag 3
- laying out pieces, color correcting panels, pinning final panels
- sewing panels and burning/ charring edges
- drawing on and then sewing on the road map top layer
* a week to construct mini flags & removed stitching
- create mini flags for the random people I got to participate
- find appropriate glass containers for the removed stitching
* a week to make all 3 flags work together
- hang them up in the studio and see if visually they work next to one
another (I also do this as I go along, but want to test them up on a
wall with the mini flags and stitchings all together)
* a week to tweak any final details to make the work cohesive
- at this point all should be finished, with only minor details left to
tweak if necessary
2) I consider appropriate studio time any activities spent either physically working on the art itself or research on how to move forward with the work. Recently, work that has been on the pieces includes: taking apart the jeans, picking out the former thread, dyeing the red jeans, color matching and re-dyeing, figuring out proportion, starting to group textures that are interesting together and finalizing the next flag image (I thought i had a clear idea of how to construct it, but last second decided that the design was too straight forward, and too busy because I was trying to incorporate too many elements from each flag). As I work I am always researching other work and trying to locate new ideas, and ways of looking at a theme/ concept that I may not think of.
I consider studio time anything that has to do with the development of my senior show piece. Last semester I spent the majority of the time researching which has enabled me now to focus all my time into creating. Even though I now will be spending all my time creating there will be times that I as Dawn mentioned will use my studio time for things like “prepping materials, sitting with the work while crafting drafts of your artist statement, referencing and consulting research materials in the form of books or essays to help you focus the form and content of your artwork, editing or sorting materials, etc.” All of these other activities are important to do in the studio because I should be spending as much time in there as possible.
ReplyDeleteI had a table but it wont paste onto the blog, it is of every step I need to make the cabinets and how long each one will take. The time averages out to about 14 hours.
At the end of last the semester I was disappointed in how I managed my time so I outlined approximately how long it will take to make a single cabinet. I made the time required more then it will be so that I am forced to manage my time as well as possible. My goal for March 17th is to have 5 or 6 cabinets created by March 17th. I know that this would seem unrealistic because the total amount of time required would be 84 hours. However, 3 of them require only the manipulation, placement of materials and finishing touches. The other three are bathroom sink cabinets that just require me to build a box form to which they will be connected. Although these will take a little longer I believe I can get one cabinet done a week, if I manage my time properly. I have considered the fact that I will be away for lacrosse a couple of weekends, plus practice time which is why I left 2 weeks for extra time needed and finishing touches. This is also why right now I say 5 or 6 because as the semester develops time becomes more of an issue. Right now my plan is to just work and spend whatever free time I have in my studio. I am finally really excited about this project, which makes me want to be there even more now.
Between now and the jury in March, I plan to finish at least 3-4 full size works. That has always been the plan and I feel that this is a realistic goal. I will also do some smaller works alongside some of the larger works to experiment with compositions and techniques. A painting, at the moment, takes about three weeks to get to a “resolved” stage in which some minor touches are still needed.
ReplyDeleteBy this week, I plan to resolve the figure and add the background for the first painting. I plan to finish the painting next week and have a final composition for the second painting. I will prep the canvas the weekend afterwards.
Week 4: get as much work on the second painting for the presentation.
Week 5: Continue second painting and have 1 small painting done
Week 6: Have 2 large paintings and 1 small painting fairly finish for critique
Week 7-8: work on third painting.
Week 8-9: work on fourth painting and possibly small painting.
Week 10: have the four paintings on an equal level of polish for jury. Depending on the time it takes for third painting, the fourth painting might be push aside in order to have three polish works instead. However, I prefer to have 4 finished works.
Due to the nature of painting, most of the studio time will be actually painting. Painting takes a lot of time and I can easily reach 10 hours by just painting. This will mostly be done in the college studio but the smaller works will be done at home. I also include prepping the canvas and transferring the composition to the canvas. I only include brainstorming/sketching ideas in the log when accompanied with a painting session since it’s the only time I’m keeping track of the time. In short, my definition of ‘in studio’ for this semester is when I’m in front of the canvas.
1) I’m giving myself 4 weeks (technically 3) to complete the comic itself so the remainder of the time will be used to create the posters advertising the comic.
ReplyDelete-Two weeks to finish coloring all my existing artwork and complete any new illustrations I find myself in need of. (I will record the process of at least 5 of these illustrations using a program called Copernicus.)
-One week to combine the photo backgrounds with the illustrations and tweak page/panel layouts, taking extra photos if necessary.
-One week to make sure everything is in working order, uploaded, and submitted in time to receive a proof in order to correct any potential errors and have the finished product available by the 14th. During this time I will also be working on the posters.
A minimum of two hours a day (on average) will be spent doing this until the work is complete; if finished early, I will progress to the next step.
2) I’ve spent a lot of time researching and although I used to count that as part of my studio work, I don’t anymore. I just need to spend my time doing the work now. Anything that I do which counts towards the completion of the comic/posters/videos such as sketching, inking, coloring, editing, and so on qualifies to me. Brainstorming ideas for the posters is something I’m going to count as well, as long as I set aside a period of time to do only that (and possibly some sketches, but I already have a number of ideas for posters anyway).
1) Of the 9 weeks left until our work needs to be finished I plan on spending the next six weeks reshooting my top favorite photographs from last semester in RAW format and polishing them. I also plan on making new photographs and sense I know exactly where I want to go with them now it should be easier to make my editing choices especially when I put them into my sequence of photos from last semester. With the next two weeks after that, I'm going to make my final prints and frame them. I'm going to leave the remaining week to be a cushion if I have issues with framing, which I'm kind of anticipating, I can fix it all up and make sure everything is polished and up to the craftsmanship that I want to display and feel is necessary for this show. I plan on having the starting point photo with Ryan and I and then branching off into my side with my one picture and his side with about 5-8 pictures and then ending with us reunited.
ReplyDelete2) I'm done with my research and getting all the backing I needed from the people most affected by what I'm making, Ryan and Alan. At this point my studio time is going to consist of creating the photographs, editing them, and either keeping them or throwing them out of the sequence. So my studio hours are going to be straight production, editing, rearranging, and framing.
Jan 10-17: starting over, so I gessoed the canvases that were not pertinent to the project and sketched out some new ideas.
ReplyDeleteJan 17-24: I purchased 22 new canvases and will begin sketching more photographs on to them so that this weekend I can begin base layers.
I think you are right in that I should not wait until I have all of them sketched to paint, just in case I can't get a larger number finished. So I will spend this weekend getting base layers on them.
Jan 24-31: I hope to have layers on each of the 40 canvases I now have, and have them gridded on the wall how I would like them. From there I can decide how many more I think I will need and continue to work on them. i know that I will need a lot of time to get all of the paintings up to "snuff" and that is why I think getting base layers on and then working individually on each for a solid amount of time will help bring them all to the same level.
Jan 31-Mar 17: Ideally I have a better idea of the grand total of canvases that will hopefully be in the show. I will spend this month focusing on each painting and ensuring that it comes to a complete stage before moving on to the next. This will be the most tedious month of work and I can't say that I can break down how many each week, it depends on the complexity of the painting.
I tend to consider studio time as time I spend actually crafting the works in the studio or at home, as well as prepping materials to be used and time researching other artists and finding inspiration. It's hard to judge was can be considered studio time, so I tend to only log hour that include paintings, sketching, or prepping materials, otherwise it would be hours of me sitting on my computer looking at doggie pictures and acting like the crazy dog lady.
Nine weeks left! Hammer Time
ReplyDeleteWeek 1-4: Work, work, research, work. During this time I plan on making multiple layout for real-estate signs. With layouts I will also be making different sayings for each sign. I am treating this like photography, taking a lot of shots (options) so I can edit them down to the best ones at the end. I will also continue with my research on the housing market, recession, and current economics. Winter Park history will also be a key focus for me, because I want to make my real-estate signs site(community) specific. Winter Park is a very wealthy, older community and I want to use that to my advantage. I WILL want to know if I will take on a company image. Decide on colors by this time, and being recognizable like other real estate companies. Contact real estate agents for old sign/ frames to use.
Week 5: Narrow down my point of view. Decide what is working best. I will need to review my ideas and signs with multiple people. Then I plan on expanding from real-estate signs and create brochures, business cards, and depending on time other real estate related items (magazines). I will need a logo, company name, and figure out what to do with the telephone numbers.
Week 6: Keep on editing and discussing my work with others. Have a theme and aesthetics. My message should be very clear by now. Keep on creating sayings….But start looking into making physical signs. How many will I want? Look up locations around the community, and how to display them in the museum. Start contacting places to print signs.
Week 7- 8: Final editing process. Be done by the end of week 8 so I can do final touches by March 17th. Printing signs and setting them up will take time so save that for week 9. Already know where I will get signs printed.
2) In the studio I relate to anything that has to do with my project (that is not a part of your class). Most of my time will be on my computer in Photoshop. I will also be taking my own pictures for brochures, sign and anything else deemed necessary. Prepping materials, like the signs, will be more in the last couple weeks than right now. The artist’s statement is not a part of being in the studio, but is a major help or the process and content of the work. I am not sure if research counts, but it is a huge part of my work. Like in class with blog reader I have decided I need to do that on real estate/ economy too. This will help me stay current with the market and understand the content of my artwork! Editing is being in the studio too. Just like photography a big part of my project will be in the editing…