During the first marking period in another class we built masks out of a pitiful sort of sculpy clay. I chose to take it a step further and used some of my own red clay to make a mask. I had never worked with clay in any other way that ceramics so molding it into a face was interesting. I decided I wanted to make more animated and human-like forms. Over three weeks I ended up with four new masks dried in brittle red clay. After that I left them with my uncle to be bisqued. That's where they are presently. When they're done I will paint them with acrylics. 
Each mask is completely different. The first is shaped like a porcelain baby doll. It has small lips that will be painted red, huge round cheeks that will be painted white and a smooth forehead. This mask was created to juxtapose my favourite mask - the old man. It has a sort of calm, simplicity to it's child like face where as the old man has a sad, heavy demeanor plastered across his face. 
There are two others, also meant to sort of pair. One is a fresh faced, eager, rebellious warrior and the other a passive, tired veteran. With these two the colour is important. Though it hasn't been added yet they will be very thick and smooth. The colours of the young man will will sharp reds and blues and yellows. The veteran will have grays and greens, a symbol of ld military work and such.
This process opened up a new world of clay to me. I had often been involved in pottery when I was younger but this was something I hadn't thought of. The idea of scultpure, for me, is t display an image or idea that doesn't fit in two dimensions. That requires a depth and texture. And that is exactly what I was trying to do with my masks. 

(pictures to be posted as soon as the masks are done in the kiln)

For this marking period I wanted to draw a picture of the Shinobi Traceurs. They are a mixed martial arts and parkour group. I wanted to draw them while they are actually doing some martial arts and parker. So I found some pictures of them in actions. I then drew a forrest background and drew them beside their animals. I decided to draw them with a forrest background because of their animals even tho some of their animals are not forrest creatures. This project was hard to do because I wasn't simply drawing people standing around I was drawing people I know and see everyday so I wanted to have them actually look like the people I was trying to depict. I decided to use both crayons and rakers so that certain parts of the picture would stand out more then others. For example, the words Shinobi Traceurs stand out against the trees because they are colored in red and in marker so they look bolder then the trees surrounding them. I also colored the people in marker so they would stand out against the trees and the grass. 

The people in the picture are the Founder Andre Wiley (the lion), Co-Founder Will Thomas (the wolf), and their student Rashaun Williams (the ram), they are the leaders of the Shinobi Traceurs, and in second rank of the Shinobi Traceurs is Tyreé Wright (the dragon). Shinobi by definition is a covert agent specializing in the art of stealth and combat. Traceurs by definition is a practitioner of Parkour, the art of displacement, overcoming physical obstacles in one's environment. Combine the two, and you have the essence of the Shinobi Traceurs.

I decided to draw them because I think what they do is really cool and I wanted to draw a picture of them to show off that coolness using my artistic talents. 

The Title:

 
The Founder Andre Wiley (the lion):


Rashaun Williams (the ram):


Co-Founder Will Thomas (the wolf):


Tyreé Wright (the dragon):


The Whole Picture:
:

Unfortunately, I didn't plan accordingly and didn't expect to need so much time. At first I transferred those sketches onto freezer paper and cut them out but it was very time consuming. I was aware that I could cut them out on contact paper (shelving paper) but unfortunately, I couldn't get my hands on it for a while. I will most definitely never under estimate a project like that again. But the MOST MOST difficult part of the process was cutting the images out of the freezer paper. I forgot how its very challenging to get the contrast right. I had to compromise some of my cutting because I didn't want to have just random pieces cut out. I was able to finish one shirt. I will try to finish the rest of the shirt during third quarter right along with the third quarter project.

Artist's Statement:

For my second quarter art project I decided to move back into the realm of illustration with my artwork. At first I wasn't really sure about what I wanted to draw. I spent the majority of my free time over winter break watching horror films with my cousin, and then the idea hit me, "I should draw a monster from one of these movies." It wasn't very difficult picking the creature I wanted to draw. Well, my one friend used to have an internet girlfriend from Ireland, and my cousin and I, being the A-holes that we are, used to make fun of her and call her The Creature From The Black Lagoon. She became my inspiration, and I added feminine features to my illustration to display this. My cousin also assisted me with the shading. The types of media used were pencil and a Pilot G-2 Rolling Ball Gel Pen. I couldn't finish the piece all the way because it was quite labor intensive and took a while to do, as I take my time to draw.