It's Friday again!

What I did:
- Experiments
     - sketching (30 mins)
     - painting (2hrs)
     - photoshop (2hrs)
     - feedback (1.5 hrs)
- Proposal update/reflection (45 mins)
- Character design (2hrs)
- Drawing/researching nature patterns (1 hr)

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

     I spent the beginning of my week making some watercolor paintings of a skull and two vertebrae (1 lumbar, 1 thorax). It has been a while since I have painted, so it felt good to do that again and forget about everything else. After I completed the three paintings, I scanned in the images and had some fun. I played with duplicating, rotating, and patterning the images to make designs that from far away would look fairly innocent. I believe I succeeded in making some interesting designs, however, I don't know if what I made accomplishes what I'm after. In the end, my work almost feels too reminiscent of Virgil Marti's work. It was a worthwhile experiment though, because I was able to get some interesting feedback from peers. From far away, my work reminded classmates and housemates of wallpaper and interior design. Some saw flowers, others saw ninja stars, for the most part they were non-threatening concepts. When looking closer, some were still grossed out, other intrigued. A general consensus was that they wanted to see the images much larger. Perhaps this is something I should look into. After seeing studio neighbor, Noelle go much bigger with her work, I would be open to seeing what possibilities this opens up for my project.

not as creepy from afar

     Hearing the feedback from my experiments led me to reconsider the ideas I presented in my project proposal. I had a suggestion that I was was more occupied with patterns than I was with the actual subject matter (anatomy). I used some time to evaluate how important the content was in relation to the physical means. I came to the conclusion that I'm sticking to my guns. It is my goal to show anatomy in a playful, non-morbid way. Pattern is simply my current means to get to this goal. I did however research how patterns relate to the body. One thing I found particularly exquistie is the structure of bone. I have learned about haversian systems in both my musculo-skeletal anatomy and chordate anatomy classes and I have always admired it's intricacy. The structure of compact bone which is made up of bunches of osteoons, which are basically concentric circles of lamellae surrounding a haversian canal. I think it's fascinating how those tiny structures work together to keep one strong and stable, however I think almost anyone can appreciate it's beauty.

osteons!

What I think I should do next:

     Next, I am going to address exactly how I am going to bring a new light to anatomy so that I may be very clear in my project proposal. I will also address scale by making large patterns with parts. I will however, make sure that each anatomical aspect is important not only for it's physical contribution, but also it's meaning.