On halloween, the art department viewed a presentation on Japanese aesthetics through the lens of the western world. We talked about the major components of this style which are: Wabi, Sabi, and Yugui. The general premise is that the beauty is focussed on simplicity and remembrance as apposed to in the western world where there is a more gaudy view of beauty. What I found interesting about the presentation was that it seems like the Japanese view everything like a memory, they can be simple and sometimes sad but in the end most memories are beautiful. In America we see beauty as a more objective thing, either it is or it isn't, but in Japan it seems that beauty is what each individual makes of it.  

This week we continued to work with Tommy on developing value in our figure drawings. This was our last week working with him, and in the end I'm not sure how I feel about this style of figure drawings. In my opinion, my figure drawings look best when I have free reign to start and finish where I want. While for some people, this method of building up with gestures might be helpful, I prefer to focus primarily on the negative space. I found that with gesture, many of my proportions were inconsistent and by the time I realized it it was too late to fix anything without erasing an entire body part. 

My home project is not moving along as quickly as I would like. I have gotten pretty far into the design of the tattoo, but I want to spend more time on it seeing as it will be going on my dad permanently. I also think that it will be impossible for it to get tattooed on by the deadline, so I have put that project on hold and am shifting gears a little bit. I plan to do a print of a similar theme, because my inspiration for the tattoo was  Japanese block printing. 
On an unrelated note, I got an idea for a new project that I think could be really cool. I have my old iPhone that is completely unusable and plan to possibly smash it, attach it to a wooden "canvas" and continue the shatters out. The shatters will have moments missed, presumable because of being absorbed in technology, in them. Right now it is just a brain storm though. 

This week we have been working with Tommy to make figure drawings. Monday we focussed on searching lines, and Wednesday we worked on the surface of the figure. 

This week I finished the second sign, painted the edges and got them ready to hang. I need to work more on clouds and coping with acrylic in place of oil for the given time.