sculpture adventures

Here are some process pics from my adventures in sculpture class. I have found this class extremely challenging so far. I am definitely out of my comfort zone! My brain is having a hard time coming up with ideas in 3D. But we're learning some fun things. We had a plaster demo a couple weeks ago that involved the instructor pouring plaster into our cupped hands. So now I have a weird looking plaster cast of my hand sitting on my table. I think I would like to try plaster some more, it looks like it could be lots of fun.

Last class we learned how to do a vacuum-form. Really cool stuff. Well I think it's cool. The vacuum-form machine has a metal plate that you put your object on (whatever you want to do a vacuum-form of), and there's a heater on the top of the machine. Inbetween the metal plate and heater there is a slot that you clamp a sheet of special plastic into. Basically the heater heats up the plastic sheet, and when the plastic is hot enough and flexible you pull the plastic sheet down on top of your object. Then you pull up a lever to release the air pressure (?) and it sucks all the air out. And you're left with a plastic shell/container of your object.

For part of my current project I have a hand form/container. So I started by making a clay model of a hand. This was my first time working with clay since junior high, so it's not stellar or anything, but that's okay.


modeling clay

Then once I had the model of the hand, I put it in the vacuum-form machine which created this:


styrene


styrene

ta da! I was scared of using the machine at first, but it wasn't so bad. It was kinda fun.

portrait

charcoal

one more pic from drawing class. We did portrait studies in the last class.

final drawing project

This is one drawing from our final Drawing class project. The assignment was to pick an artist and try to copy the style (in technique and in the overall look of the drawing). So I crazily picked Shaun Tan, and was kicking myself halfway through. Grand total roughly ten hours drawing. Building up the tone took the longest.

Shaun Tan is one of my favorite illustrators. The particular picture I chose to draw from is from his book The Arrival. Gorgeous tonal pencil drawings. I would highly recommend checking it out if you have a chance.


pencil

The radiator in my living room was the reference for the radiator in the drawing. It looks pretty much the same (minus the weird pipes snaking up the wall).


detail



detail


Process pics. I've been trying to take photos throughout the drawing process on all my assignments. Process is emphasized a lot at Emily Carr.

life drawings

Here is a sampling of what I have been up to the past couple months. These drawings are from my Drawing class that I finished up at the end of October. We had a model almost every class, that was really nice.

These first three are some of the gesture drawings we did. We started off every model session with some gesture drawing. I like starting a session that way, it's like a warm up.






conte or charcoal


This is a still life I set up at home, cuz I missed that class. A few odds and ends from around the house.


charcoal

More model drawings. This one we were supposed to break the body up into shapes.


charcoal



charcoal


Light and shadow studies.


charcoal



charcoal


This one is supposed to be a skeletal structure study. This is the one I think I had the most frustrations with. Not a good drawing day.


charcoal

Contour study. This was a blind drawing. We weren't allowed to look at our paper while drawing the model. The object was to try to follow the outline of the body as closely as possible, all the nooks and crannies. It's kinda fun. I was surprised at how well it turned out.


felt marker

survived first week of classes!

hello all! Just finished my first week of classes. Still feels a little weird, but getting slowly settled in... doing homework definitely makes me feel like a student. And I remember how unfun reading a textbook is. At least it's semi-interesting reading (art history). The chapter I read the other day was focussed on China, and the bronze age. It was describing how the leaders of China would be buried with the rest of their family and friends, even if the family and friends were still alive when the leader died. The family & friends would be ritually killed so they could accompany the leader into the afterlife. Creeepy..... later on they used clay sculptures and models of the family instead of the actual people.

anyway... happier things.


felt marker

We had workshops as part of our orientation at school. In the "english" workshop we got to make zines, or chapbooks. Basically little books made of scraps of paper. I ended up doing a combo of collage and writing in my zine. I didn't take a picture of it, so I can't show you the actual zine. I wish I had taken a pic tho. It was really fun, i enjoyed it. Would like to make more if I have free time.



felt marker

Allison and I went to Jerico beach a few weekends ago. Lazed around on the beach and read. And ate ice cream.



pencil



pencil & felt marker

procrastinating already.



felt marker

This is from my Creative Process homework assignment. We are supposed to pick a word and continuously write or draw or mark-make for 10 minutes. It's fun, I liked doing this assignment. Get to learn how your brain works and comes up with ideas. Really random, as it turns out. We were assigned to do 12 words in total, in different categories. This category was "signifigant object".

a few sketches from bc

ink

mmm... watermelon. I got a deal on watermelon from the farmer's market on granville island. It was really ripe and the guy needed to sell it, so i got it for $1.



watercolor pencils

went for a bike ride to the seawall. So pretty. I think the seawall is one of my favorite spots in Vancouver, especially if it has a beach. :)



felt marker

"I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious."- Einstein


felt marker

sketching from the balcony. View of the hospital, which is down the street. I don't know if this particular building is the hospital, there's a lot of buildings that we can see out the back.

grade two, ninja turtles and astro boy

While packing and going through my stuff, I dug up my old journal from grade two class. Always good for a laugh. I remember we had to write in it everyday. I think most of the time our teacher had a question up on the chalkboard for us to answer. This entry made me reflect tho. I have always enjoyed drawing, although I did have my dry spells where I don't remember drawing much. I remember in grade four I was constantly drawing Ninja Turtles. They were awesome. Leonardo and Donatello were my favs. I liked Michaelangelo too, he was funny. I had a phase where I drew Garfield too.

Anyways, I found it neat that I have this entry from grade two, stating that I will be an illustrator when I grow up. And here I am, 21 years later, going into fine arts to study illustration.

this might be my last blog post from edmonton, we'll see. This time next week, I will be on my way to Vancouver!!




in other news, I am stoked about the new Astro Boy movie. I hope they don't ruin it.

felt marker

pretty self-explanatory. bleah.

may you be

digital collage
Images are from Shutterstock and StockXchg

Collage I did a few weeks ago about how I feel about going back to school. The unknown is both scary and very very exciting. Hope and doubt collide very easily.

Words are by Seven Devil Fix. I apologize if I got them wrong, there's no lyrics sheet on that CD. But nonetheless, one of my fav songs from that album.

A few notes about the images:
wing symbolizes the angel spoken about in the song
tree - growth
compass - direction
rosary - faith
maze background - direction

I don't always explain directly what things mean cuz I think in effective art it should be self explanatory. But sometimes people are curious and ask me.

Click on the images for free wallpaper.



digital collage


oh and on a side note - I took down my Taniguchi Design website, so if you are looking at archived pages and images are missing, that's why.

holiday

felt marker



pencil

this was sketched while on holiday in Kootenay Bay, BC. We had our family reunion there, and a bunch of us were sitting outside watching the thunderstorm and lightening show. Oddly it wasn't raining at the time, so it was kinda nice.

musik dude. and... um, a chair.

pencil

pretty happy with how this dude turned out. The reference is from a Shutterstock photo that I may or may not have stolen from work *ahem*. I used the photo for a cover I did, and thought, hey that would be fun to draw. So i did. :) This drawing took around 1.5 hours.



charcoal

felt like drawing with charcoal. This drawing was much faster, as you can see, cuz it is sucky. Maybe 15 minutes or so.

back from the dead

oi, has it been a month?


graphite
drawing from a reference photo I took of tree roots in Whitemud Ravine. Took the photos about a year ago.... and drawing them now.....


pencil crayon


pencil
drawing from The Hour. one of the best interview shows ever. george strombo is awesome.



paper, felt marker, pencil
playing with paper...


watercolor pencils
drawing at the lake by my house. Which now has a mother duck and seven ducklings. They're so cute!


pencil


pencil


felt marker
more drawing from The Hour. Interview shows are good to draw from, the people usually sit pretty still, and the camera stays on them for a decent amount of time.


I am working on another t-shirt design, will post happenings here later.

leave me alone v2.0

version 2 of my coffee t-shirt design is up.

check it out on Threadless