Hands Drawing

1. I found it quite difficult but interesting to use my hand as a subject for drawing. The hand has so many details with creases and lines I found it difficult to get all of them with the shading for the line. Especially using my opposite hand to try to draw such a detailed item as a hand it was difficult to get all of the lines of my dominant hand.
2. I choose to use a pencil for this drawing. I choose a pencil because I felt it allowed me more control over the lines I was creating to make them lighter or darker. Also allowing me to add width to the lines to make sure they didn't smudge to look like shading.
3. I found it very difficult to create a drawing with my non dominant hand. It was much harder to make sure the lines I was trying to draw were straight in the way I wanted them to go. I notice that many of the lines with my non dominant hand were wavy rather than crisp like I would have liked them to be.
4. Looking at both drawings Im surprised at how close the two actually look to each other. It still is easy to figure out which one I did with my dominate hand and which with my non dominate. But I would say it was successful in demonstrating the ability to draw with both hands proving that art can be done in many ways.
5. I would rather to continue to use my dominate hand to create works of art because I feel it gives me more control over what im doing allowing for less wavy lines and mistakes. However I did enjoy this work and the challenge of using my left hand so id consider using it again to see if I could improve the next time.

Module 9 Video review

1. I choose the video on Albrecht Durer and the one on Velazquez because they are two who I have heard little or none about so I wanted to use this as a chance to make my knowledge of different artist great than only learning about a few. In choosing these two I not only learned about different artist but I learned about lesser known topics such as prints and the different ways both respectively did portraits of people. Durer was highly skilled in demonstrating extreme detail in the age faces of those who he painted and Velazquez was skilled in demonstrating the human aspect of someone who at the time was seen to be less human due to deformities.
2.Both artist were influenced by Italian ideas in there works. Both men had spent time studying the ways of former Italian artist to achieve the ability to simulate the works they were creating. Durer was a very instinctual artist he relied less on scientific fact than his own ideas and thoughts. However Velazquez saw things in a light that was unintentionally scientific in my eyes, With his paintings of the gestures he was humanizing and painting people with deformities for what they were as people.
3. The videos helped to make the connections explained in the reading such as the fact Velazquez worked for the king and all pieces he was asked to created went through Velazquez first despite him working under the king he still was able to do things the way he choose too. The video for Durer showed first hand his influence by going and spending time in Italy in his art work. It gave a chance to see his pieces and how that influence stood out.
4. I felt the videos were very helpful in this case, They were able to offer a much deeper understanding of overall artist in the time period of the Renaissance. Also it showed how many artist from this time were heavily influenced by Italian works. Also they gave me a incite into artist I previously knew very little about and now learning more about them has made them all the more interesting to me.  

Module 8

1. I choose the video on the Byzantine and Later Greek art video because of a interest arisen in me due to the mandatory video we had to watch. It made me want to know if the ideas of importance in Greek art continued down the path of being very over defined or if it would return to a more basic description of man in the images.
2. For the How Art Made the World video the key concept is looking into what was deemed important to those who created art at the times of the pieces being made. For the figure of Willendorf it was clear that the important items to the culture was over defined features focused on that of fertility and health. Which did arise a odd question for the design of people in art in Egypt because it seemed as if the only importance was demonstrating the features of the face and hands but the explanation of the ability to repeat the images with the grid made it more clear they were focused not as much in the importance but the accuracy of the pieces. This was evident that art returned back to the focus of whats important to the society in Greece where the art showed the overly athletic build of people.
The second video I watched showed the focus of the way of life of the Greeks in the design of there art and even there architecture, They had examples of there Gods in front of the buildings they designed. This shows the similar result of the demonstration of the body of Greeks because it shows what was important to the culture at the time.
3. The videos both related to the reading by being able to show the examples of the most prominent cultures of the past and most influential cultures on today's society. They showed how the ideas of these cultures hasn't deviated much from one group to another. Those of Mesopotamia were similar to the ideas of those from Egypt or even that of the ancient civilizations that lived in the Egyptian area prior to it becoming a desert area.
4, The videos are extremely helpful in expanding the understanding of what people found to be important to them in there society. For something to be important enough to be a common theme in all art of a time period or location in the world, that demonstrates the importance of learning the values and reasoning associated along with the art. The demonstration of the over exaggerated body of women in ancient society showed the importance of fertility that meant they were heavily focused in the survival of there culture to pass it on. This is still true today which is why the mother figure is so important in our society today.

M7 video review

I choose to watch the second and last videos of the list. I choose the two due to the connection with more modern architecture.

1. For the second video the key points were to explain the challenges that face architects now with limited space for buildings. The battles has became to choose to build up or to find new places to create individual buildings. With building up there are challenges in them self due to needing the structure to be far more sound in its building to be able to with stand the winds it will face. For the last video that I watched the key points of it were to look into how to make buildings more economically and environmentally friendly. The use of roof top gardens and solar power are two main ways that were brought up to help counter the argument of fossil fuels to maintain energy in buildings, but these still aren't the most cost effective ways to do things yet. The search will continue to try to find a way to make these more cost effective to save the planet.

2. The videos that were watched helped to future the understanding of the building and thought of architecture. The videos did a goof job of demonstrating the different types of buildings such as a single level building compared to a sky scraper that can be many stories high. The videos emphasized the usage of polls and supports to keep the buildings up right in the elements with a higher taller building it requires more to keep it in the air than it does for that of a shorter building. The base of each building has to be able to support the weight of the building with the maximum amount of weight inside of it. This refers to the load bearing ability of the base which also differs in the different sized buildings.

3.The videos are extremely helpful in creating a better understanding  of how architects make the buildings we see everyday. It showed how much different the planning for a sky scraper ends up being from that of a one story building. I would have been interested to see a combination of the two videos I watched to see on what scale can they use the green energy systems such a solar power and use of wind to heat and cool a building. Id like to see if those ideas can be scaled up to be done on a sky scraper level.

4. I choose the videos I did because they were focused more in modern architecture. Which with a slight background in the subject it interested me more than the history of it. I took classes in architecture and design when I was in high school the classes were college level so with my understanding it was more interesting to see the practical and modern usage of the topics.

Video Review

1. For the video on sculpting I found the key concept that I wasn't previously aware of to be the effort and begins of making a sculpture. From finding the right piece of grant by testing each one to make sure you don't get a sound that indicates there being a crack. That's something I never thought about but if there's a crack then the whole piece could come undone at any moment. The second concept I found interesting was that due to the pieces being three dimensional and all of the cuts of grant being different each piece had to be created by looking at another there is no way for casting so the level of detail is amazing to me.
For the second video I found it interesting that there isn't more casting for the glass making. The fact that the majority of pieces are created by guiding the glass into shape with either a mold to move the glass in with a circle movement keeping it in shape or using a wet paper to move it by hand I thought much more was done with molding.
2. These videos did a great job to compliment the reading. These videos were able to give a look into the background of the reading to show more of a history of the sculpture and how it has progressed but also not changed entirely in the last few centuries. In the glass making the videos showed the techniques they discussed of casting and and molding of the pieces to make them into the proper shape.
3. The videos I felt helped greatly, they were able to show me more about sculpting than I ever would have learned. In the past all I ever saw or knew was the face value and seeing the finished product. It is refreshing to see all of the work that goes into a piece. For instillation its interesting to notice the subtle things that are in the details, on the cover everything seems to be so much easier than in the end it is.

Art Gallery photos