A Technique Challenge:
Reminding ourselves that this is a place to experiment
Your sketches are absolutely amazing. I have a number of revised symbols and such to post, though I have not seen many versions of the acknowledgement entry. Maybe a few more sketchers might send examples along, and I can post a bunch of those, too?
For today's sketch, I want to suggest that we take a moment to lower the bar, make more mistakes, play messier. Your examples have been brilliant and beautiful. And I want to make sure we keep the freedom and flow of possibilities humming along without pressuring ourselves to have perfect masterpieces every time. So let's have a (hopefully) easy one, and see what happens there.
What we will work on is a common collage technique of using "found" objects.
Here we go:
- Cut your construction paper into three different shapes and colors. Your shapes, your colors.
- Glue them in random places on the page. Don't over think it.
- Let this sit as it is. Ideally, you'd do this at the start of the day so the shapes and colors stick in your thoughts throughout your daily travels. But it is not absolutely crucial to separate the construction paper part from the next part, which is about "found" items.
- Throughout your day, pick up "found" items that you see on your travels: an interesting leaf, a wrapper that you find, a stick, a funky pencil left on the ground. (My son and I go on these found adventures all the time, and we discover the most amazing things just laying around.)
- Return to your initial collage at some later point and place several of the items that you found in some arrangement on the page that has your cut out shapes.
- That's it. Don't overthink it. Just put some shapes on the page. Have those shapes/colors floating in your head as you go about your business for the day. Pick up stuff you find throughout your daily adventures and paste them onto your page.
What happened in this process?
One common sense rule: don't pick up anything too skeevy that you find. Ick. Leave that stuff on the ground. I had an artist friend who used to work with road kill. Yes, road kill. When I would go biking, I would look for the best flattened frogs for her work. You shouldn't do that!! Please!
Please share your images--especially making a pitch for you to send along pictures of your inspirations/acknowledgement pieces.
It was fun playing with leaves in different shapes and colors and seeing how they interact with the shapes and colors of the construction paper.
ReplyDeleteIts only the afternoon and I've found many interesting objects laying around this campus to place in my sketchbook. The colored construction paper and shapes really help the objects stand out.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the organic approach to creation that was encouraged with this activity. We collected individual pieces together and combined them with little structural thought behind it. I enjoyed the incorporation of 3d objects as well, they really help the page to pop.
ReplyDeleteWhen doing this challenge, I really enjoyed the freedom we had and that everything we put on the page could just be something we enjoyed, it was so relaxing for me.
ReplyDeleteEven though this challenge was really simple it was really enjoyable! It was fun to see what interesting things I could find throughout the day when I was actually paying attention to the world around me
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was fun, it was simple but enjoyable. The end result was chaotic but interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was an interesting simplistic one, it gives a chance to enjoy the beauty of our campus because we are usually rushing to class or practice.
ReplyDeleteAlthough simple, I found this challenge to be a lot of fun and very relaxing. It was interesting to stop and look at things that go unnoticed on my daily walks to class and practice.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was very simple but enjoyable. I liked working with both the construction paper as well as other random objects.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this challenge as it was the first time i worked with construction paper!
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was a nice change of pace. It was simple and I really liked working and shaping the construction paper.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was a lot of fun. It was fun to look around for "found" items.
ReplyDeleteI think that doing these challenges every day is really contributing to making everything just flow more. Had this been a month ago, I think it would have taken me forever to figure out what I wanted to place where on the page.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this challenge. I like working with the construction paper especially because I feel like it really makes the page pop out at you. Finding other random objects to stick on to this piece was interesting as well.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I did this assignment later in the day, so I wasn't able to pick any items up I saw outside. However, I did find some items in my own room I was able to do. I liked using the construction paper as well.
ReplyDeleteIt was really fun just picking up random things and posting them on the collage, I really like abstract art so this activity was great for me.
ReplyDeleteThis assignment came out very interesting. It looks thrown together, but I kind of like it. I had trouble figuring out what pieces I wanted to put on it as I didn't go anywhere that had interesting things today.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great assignment and I found that there are a lot of things throughout the course of my day that I don't notice!
ReplyDeleteThought it was different to find things that I usually look at and actually pick them up and examine them. being someone who tries to not walk with my head down, it was weird for sure.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was a little different... kind of random but it's fun to think outside of the box and do something different!
ReplyDeleteI was glad to have an easy challenge, but it surprisingly gave me a lot to work with. Different textures, shapes, colors, etc. popped up along the way. I was less challenging, but equally satisfying.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed working organically for this challenge! I also liked looking for different objects throughout the day. Most of these I wouldn't have noticed if I was not looking for them for this challenge.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was a lot of fun! I really liked using random things I found. It was such a beautiful day out. Fall being my favorite season, it was fun to find things that I could use in my sketchbook!
ReplyDeleteThis challenge made me more aware of my surroundings. I was able to find beauty in an object that I normally wouldn't.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was super cool. I didn't feel as pressured to create a "beautiful piece," yet it still came out nicely on the page. I liked finishing this piece the most since I was able to recall things about my day that I had forgotten about!
ReplyDeleteI kept looking for symbols and items during the day so I could incorporate them into my challenge. I felt that this challenge was more relaxing and that I could take my time with it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this challenge because it was something different from what we have been doing. I found it relaxing!
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun challenge because it was very different. It really made me be aware of my surroundings which helped for this activity.
ReplyDeleteI liked the idea of working with "found" items. I liked the process of looking for the items and then looking at the bag of items and seeing how they could all work together.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really fun activity, especially during this time of year! All of the leaves littering the ground provided endless possibilities of shape and color combinations. It really made me appreciate the beauty of my surroundings that I never have truly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThis was really cool because I began looking more deeply throughout the day for objects to add to the sketch. I thought it was interesting combining seemingly random objects.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was so simple and relaxing. I came across a lot of things I didn't know I had while doing this activity.
ReplyDeleteI liked how different this challenge was from the others. It made me more aware of my surrounds throughout the day because I was looking for cool things to add to my page.
ReplyDeleteThis was... interesting. So many little things found on my walk to and from the cafeteria.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was really fun because things that are random are the best.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this! I felt like the objects i found told a story about my day.
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of fun with this challenge, one of my favorites!
ReplyDeleteThis was actually quiet fun today! I didn't really think about the whole idea of picking things up from the ground. Subconsciously, I began to pick up more nature items like leaves and sticks. My items are arranged where it looks like fall was just thrown right onto the page. I really love this one a lot!
ReplyDeleteI thought this challenge was fun but not my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI liked this challenge. It was very laid back and fun! I really enjoyed finding items to use.
ReplyDeleteFelt awkward searching for stuff on the ground and occasionally picking things up with people around. Hard to call my product an accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteIt went against my personality because I was placing things on the page randomly without knowing what items would be on there later. The spacing in the end seemed off but I was happy with how it came out!
ReplyDeleteBeing able to randomly space everything out was fun because I felt like there was no way I could mess it up. I really liked this challenge!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this challenge! I liked being able to put things wherever I wanted on the page. It was fun to be able to incorporate things from my environment that might be ordinarily surpassed. I used things such as a penny and a leaf.
ReplyDeleteThis was fun! I liked it because i didn't have to over think it and map it out in my head. I never realized how much cool stuff could be laying around before this challenge.
ReplyDeleteI felt like i couldn't mess this one up and it was free form any predispositions!
ReplyDeleteI found all of my inspiration at my desk at home where an amazing variety of materials are at rest until I put them into play in an interesting composition. I experimented with 3-D to see how that might add interest and form to the flat surface of those shapes. I wanted to continue on because I began to see interesting things emerge. Maybe next time.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was simple, yet fun. I've always love cutting paper to make designs and I'm happy that was today's challenge
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was fun and simple. It helped me release stress after a long day of classes as there was no need over thinking anything.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was interesting because we got to write about ourselves. Picking a topic was difficult at first.
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of fun with this activity, some friends saw me looking for random things in my room and they helped me finish it of. We got really reative with this challenged, I liked how the final drawing turned out.
ReplyDeleteThis was the best activity. It was fun and interesting and the best part was that you had no idea how the outcome would look like. It involved no thinking, no planning, just random things here and there, and yet the final piece seemed really creative.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it was a very simple challenge, it was very fun doing it. I found interesting to see what was the end product by all the different things I put on the page.
ReplyDeleteI liked this activity. Even though it was a simple one I thought it was fun because we got to do basically what we wanted to. The end product came out different but I liked it.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was really fun because it is amazing what you can find out and about. Unfortunately, it has been raining for the last two days, which has hindered by ability to find objects outside. However, even walking around my house, random scraps of paper, wrappers, stickers, and more are lying around everywhere!
ReplyDeleteI liked this challenge because it really made me work off of risk. Every addition was a risk, but eventually the risks added up to a really cool piece of art!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting assignment, I had some odd shapes from my construction paper and a leaf I found through my day.
ReplyDeleteI thought this challenge was a lot of fun. It was relaxed with not much pressure so I felt that anything I created was good. I enjoyed this sketch.
ReplyDeletethis was a very fun activity. i enjoyed going around and picking up all the different items from outside and using them to be creative
ReplyDeleteI did not like this activity because I found it difficult to glue a stick to a piece of paper.
ReplyDeleteI found this challenge difficult because I couldn't find the perfect object to glue on.
ReplyDeleteI liked this activity because it was quite different from our previous challenges and I believe change is good. Although working with glue stick was kind of annoying it was nice gathering objects I see in my environment.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was walking around Bryant for this challenge, I saw at least 3 beer cans for every cool object I decided to add. Good thing cans can't fit in the sketchbook!
ReplyDeletei like this activity because it was different form the others. it was interesting because i had to pick up random things to put it on my collage, which turn out to be pretty cool.
ReplyDeletethis challenge was fun and easy. My three shapes were a triangle, diamond, and a square. I like the way it turned out
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was quite simple, i chose a rectangle, a square, and a triangle to work with. I spaced them out on the page so the eye would not directly go to one piece.
ReplyDelete