4th year Critic: Vance Chavis Long Life Learning Library.

It was really interesting to attend the 4th year critic and see where all of the things that we have been focusing on come together in what we will be doing in the future.  The 16 students of this 4th year studio were all working together in designing a new library in place of the the old Vance Chance Library on Lee St.  They were designing the building from top to bottom to build a better library for the computer that can continue to grow and prosper.  The idea of growth helped them to decided that they wanted to knock down the original building because with a new bigger building they could start anew and grow from there.  The chose to incorporate some of the brick and a huge civil rights quilt that hung in the old building in the entrance of the atrium.  One thing I really liked about their presentation is how well they were prepared and had thought about every detail within the building.  This is one of the many thing that I have learned about design this semester; every detail counts and comes together to make a whole.  The fully addressed every question easily and without hesitant and I really enjoyed being able to see this level of understand about design.  I took many notes but two specific things that caught my attention was the e cloud throughout the atrium and whole of building and the folding wall in the multipurpose room. 

The e cloud consists of 10 ft long squares hanging from the ceiling fading out throughout the whole library.  They were to be blue and green at the atrium and then blue in the stacks area and green in the multipurpose room and theater.  The whole purpose for these were to bring the rooms together making the whole building flow.  This was an issue I have been dealing with all semester with making my projects come together as one and it was nice to see them do this.  Some of the issues that arose with this was questions of copying the art work of the e cloud in the San Jose airport and the cost for the installation of the pieces.  The students fix for this was to design the e cloud out of recyclable bottles which would change the copyright issues too because in doing that they are designing a different type of piece.  They also suggested installing the pieces throughout time to cut cost however I like the previous solution better.

This was the folding walls that came from the ceiling that came down to help better separate the multipurpose room.  With this piece and also the movable walls installed in this room, the room can be used for various things such as theater, studying, group presentations, and storage of furniture within the walls.  With the library being located near A&T, Bennett, UNCG, and Greensboro College this room can be of great serves to college students in need of areas to practice for anything or get together as a group and study.

I really enjoyed 4th years critic because it helped to put a lot that we have learned this semester into perspective.  I felt myself relating issues that I was having with my project to many of the issues and solutions that they came up with for the design of their library.  The critic also helped me to take knowledge from what they do and hopefully use it in my future designs.

Beginning of Lumiare from material to 2nd to last prototype

The material I decided to use for my Luminare was silver wire and translucent vellum.  I stuck with these two materials throughout my entire project because I liked the simplicity of threading the vellum through the wire which would have been more complex if using a material such as milar.  I also really liked the translucency of the paper.  I chose to cut my paper is squares because I felt you could get a better feel of the layering.  Also, when I think about a could I see the many layers that make it up and when visualising it I see tiny squares of water all coming together to make a huge cloud. 

I first wanted to try to make a circular object binding the wire to my light so it all came together as one. 

I then played around with the ides of making a stand of my circular object out of wood but before that went into effect I liked the idea of just making arches of wire stretching across a flat board of wood.

 I tried placing black sqaures in the center to show darker areas of layer like my light phenomenon represented but this was unsuccessful so I did not use them any further

From here I made my 2nd to last model that was on wood.  I put 1/8'' grooves every 1/4'' all the way across my board and in every groove I placed a wire.  I chose to do this because it helded the wire have more of a relationship with the board in that it all flowed with the wire stopping but having the effect of extending all the way to the end. The placement of my light was in correspondence with the effect of density in my project.  The squares were to begin at the bottom and slowly fade out into the wires at the top of the board.

Issuee I wanted to focus on in my next model and final:
Work on hiding the light better and making it more stable to the board
Figuring a way without using glue to place my wires in the board
Better overall composition that help to show my layers and fading effects better.

Drawings of Luminare

Creation of Final Luminare

This was my final model that I made before staining my board.  I made this model exactly like my final so that I would know if it was going to trun out like I was imagining.

For this model I put my wires in at angle corresponding with each other on each side of the board.  Every other wire was the same height.  This helped me with cutting the 15 peices of wire used because in doing this I only had one size for all my wires without them all starting at a straight point.  I also really focused on not using any binders because I wanted to carry this idea from our other products this semester.  I did this by drilling holes on each point where the wire was to be place and then bending the tip of the wire so would fix right into the holes. 

I was happy with this model so then begun the creation of my final

Final Luminare

For my Final I decided to center the area of my light, which would be the brightest area, in the center of my board so the area of most density was directly in the middle of my board, fading out on each side.  This helped to better balance my board. My board size stayed 24'' long  because, I felt as a lighting fixture this was a good size.  I drilled a hole to run my cord out the back of my board to take care of  it hanging very noticably in the front.  On my previous critic, varying the sizes of my sqaure was discussed and in trying this I felt that it helped to show my layering and fading out better.  I also stained my board with cherry stain to give it a more finished look and to also better contrast the white squares.  My final luminare did not contain any glues or binders (since that was something we had worked with all semester I wanted to keep with that idea)  There are holes drilled in the board to hold the wire in and the paper is threaded onto the wire. 

 Front View

 Side View

 Side View

 My model without the light on

Inspiration for Luminare

For my luminare design I was inspired by two different designers.  During our class day light artist presentations I was really inspired by Ingo Maurer's work.  Originally I wanted to just use wood to try to represent my light phenomenon but through observing some of Ingo's work that idea changed drastically.  A lot of his lights were designed using wire and some type of paper material.  It was really interesting and inspiring to see how he used such simple items that we ourselves had been using in previous projects to make very inspiring projects.  From looking at his designs I decided to use wire and paper ad the main materials for my project.

One of Ingo Maurer's light fixtures

Later on in my process Leah introduced me to a sculpter in Greensboro named Jim Gallucci.  One of his pieces which reminded me of my project was a sculpted gate called fluttergate. 

Fluttergate was inspirational to me because the concept of squares and rods compare to my luminare.  The piece is very dense with squares that fade into the rod structure on the left.  From the fluttergate I begin to play with my design.  I started thinking about how a cloud was made of many layers dense in some areas and less dense in others.  From this I wanted to use my wire and paper in a way that my squares layered and cluster and then faded into the wire so that the bottom layering effect represented the density of a cloud and as the squares gradually faded it represented the less dense areas of a cloud.

Most Successful Drawing/ Reflection

I feel like this is my most successful drawing of the whole semester.  I have had a lot of drawings I have posted that have represented my progress in shading, line quality, and detail.  I like this drawing because I used line strokes and the darkening of line to represent all these important aspects we have been focusing on in class.  This is a different technique that I used in this drawing and I feel it was successful in capturing my features.

Reflection:

Coming in to this major I had never had any type of drafting or understanding of the concept of drafting.  I was also never a drawer.  Yeah of course I doodled and sketched on the side of my papers during boring lecture classes but I never really felt like I could grasp what it took to draw well.  I stressed out a lot this semester because it seemed as if nothing was ever turning out like I wanted or that everyone else seemed to be understanding and excelling when I wasn't.  I had to keep reminding myself that this was all new to me! Looking back I am really pleased with the progress that I have made throughout the semester.  I have learned a lot about drafting, drawing, and composition and although it takes a lot of work and time commitment, I am really looking forward to what we will be learning next semester.

Drawing Contest

Thursday was our last class day so in celebration we had a drawing contest!  Through our class period we had models pose and in groups of 6 went up to draw the models for 10 to 15 minutes.  The things that we were to focus on was our line quality, expressions, movement, and just show off what we have learned this semester.  The drawings that were the most successful represented all these qualities very well. This was my drawing of Molly.

Although I did not win I feel like this drawing had some positive qualities such as every line on the page gave her motion and her clothes movement.  My shadowing was successful although I feel I could have used shadows in  more of the drawing.  I also could have used less sketchy lines to represent Molly.  Overall I feel very positive about this piece.  People are very difficult to draw but I have came a long way since we started. Now the only thing to get out there and do is draw!

Powers of Ten

The weeks theme during drafting class was the powers of ten.  This focused on how things look or how we observe things to the 10th power. For this special themed week we all took 2 squares 1'' x 1'', of a picture and trasnfered what we saw on a 10'' x 10'' square.  When all the squares were complete they would peice together to equal a 100 x 100 picture.  This project helped us to understand scale and also techniques in using different leads to shade and the right gradation of shading.

This is what our final product looked like

This image is from the movie The Powers of 10

my scale figures

I find drawing people quite difficult but this excercise helped me to focus on learning to sketch people and to practice techniques.  Although I need a lot more practice I feel this excercise was successful.

 This sketch was at 3/4'' : 1' scale. It was a regular contour just drawing the outline of the person sitting indian style on the floor.

This sketch was at 1 1/2'' : 1' scale.  In this sketch I added a little more detail than the previous. 

Self-portrait

Self-portraits are so complicated! It took a couple of bad sketches and many studio laughs as I shared them with my classmates for me to finally begin to develop techniques of drawing myself.  I still find it difficult to completely replicate myself but I guess that is why self-portriats are some complex and complicated.

This was my most successful sketch.  The techniques I focused on in this sketch was shadowing.  I focused on the outline of my face and shadows cast without focusing on definite lines

This is my cartoon masquerade me! Although this drawing does not look like me I still feel like I did a good job with transitioning my lines and shading to represent my face.

Exploring Classmates Observational Sketches

Kristy Stroud

I really liked Kristy's usage of shading and detail.  I have trouble drawing shadows and making them look like the actual shadows of the objects but through observing Kristy's techniques I can use her sketch to improve on my shading.


Kendra

I find it hard to show detail of 2x4's and wood but here Kendra has represented detail well.  Her usage of shading is also very helpful to look at when adding detail to drawings.

More Sketches!

All three of these sketches where representing sunlight through water and sunlight of objects. 

In drawing this image I focused on light and shadows off the object

For this image I places a full bottled water under a table lamp and focuced on the way the light hit the water.

This image was drawn during an inclass assignment.  I placed the coffee pot infront of my window and drew the light through the water in the coffee pot.

A System of Wood

For our project leading up to our Luminare, we were to make a system from one 18 inch peice of 2x4.  We were to use every peice of the 2x4 and make a system through connecting the wood WITHOUT any binders meaning, glue, nails, etc.  This project was to help us become familiar with the woodshop and tools and also, so that we might understand what a system is because most of the world opperates through systems.

System: An assemblage combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole. (dictionary.com)

My system

                                            Final

                                              I started out playing around in the woodshop and decided to use fingerjoints to connect my system

                                                
                          18'',16'',14'',12''10'',8'',6'',4'',2''
I cut my 2x4 into 4 peices and from there cut each board 2 in shorter than the last ending up with 9 peices ranging from 18'' to 2''.  In doing this I used every peice of my 2x4.

 

 My finger joints were 3/4'' down and from there i drilled 1/2'' holes 1 1/4'' down to connect my finger 1/2'' wide fingerjoints into to make a sturdy hold.

System of Patterns

                                               

                                                      Here and throughout my whole project you can see that my system focuses on patterns through measurements and overlapping of connections

                                      Joining area

I feel my project is a good representation of a system of wood. One can see the patterns, which is an important part of a system.  Also, one can see how i connected the wood using only fingerjoints and drilled holes that percise mearsurements to them which represents my wholes system's measurements working with 2''.

I used a good amount of the machines down in the woodshop which was an interesting experience because I had never really worked with powertools before. I found it fun once I got the hang of it and can see myself taking more trips down to the woodshop.