Writing 3 (blog posts) for Crit 2

My first Critique in my first Critique course ever went really well! I really enjoyed seeing everyone's work and hearing about their processes and their goals for the rest of the semester.

Here are a few of my final images, I brought a series of 8, 5x7 pencil drawings in a portrait series of the ever so lovely and kind Mr. Gene Shaffer:

Josie Mai was critiquing our work this time and I have to say that she was so helpful and supportive of everyone. She asked questions and I felt very comfortable and at ease.
Josie said that my pieces were delicate and poignant and she suggested that I should compile a book of the portraits! She also recommended that I really take some time to get to know the subject. Really figure out the essence of their character and try to portray that in these works.

Keeping that in mind, the series that I'm bringing to our second crit is a little different. The two men I've met with at the nursing home are very different. Gene was very reserved and gentle. Tom, the subject of this series, is rambunctious and passionate and a great story teller! I had the best time with him. I recorded over an hour of conversation (by conversation, I mean Tom telling me stories!) and have been meticulously transcribing his words.
When I asked him how he liked it there, he said some wonderful thing about the nurses and their work and although the narrative I am choosing to illustrate is not about Tom himself, I think it will make a beautiful series. For this crit, I will be doing this instead of a portrait just like Gene's.

2. ARTIST POST
This time I am here to tell you about the stunning Jacqueline Denton! She is really doing some really unique and wonderful things in the art world, AND she has over 10,000 followers on Instagram- TEACH ME YOUR WAYS, JACQUE.
On her blog, http://jacquelinedenton.blogspot.com/  Jacque describes her process and shows her work that she brought to our first critique. Check her out NOW. Her style is completely unique chock full of dripping neons, pale and beautiful femme fatales, and lots of stars.
Here it is again unless you forgot- http://jacquelinedenton.blogspot.com/ 

Writing (blog posts)_1

For me, art has always been about people. Faces in particular. If you ever see me doodling, 99.9% of the time it is a face, one that I just made up on the spot or is based on a wonderful nose I saw earlier that day.
Ever since I was a little girl, the only thing I wanted to draw was portraits. I have sketchbooks and sketchbooks chock full of pencil drawings of celebrities that I found in magazines and drew. This obsession stayed with me in middle school and into high school where I dealt strictly in realistic portraiture (most images taken from magazines.)

Middle/High School Sketchbook.

To this day I still choose to draw faces. I have branched out and abandoned the realistic pencil sketches, instead choosing to do more exaggerated caricatures or just inventing a strange face (generally the elderly- wrinkles are more fun!) I think I've stuck with portraits and faces for all these years because I love to examine how each face smiles. And how they cry. And I like to imagine all the life that this particular face has seen.
 

Current Sketchbook.

For this project I am going to explore the field of illustrated journalism. I will be visiting a nursing home in the area and interviewing some of the residents and proceed to create "portraits" of them. I will be recording our conversations and taking a few pictures that I will then turn into sketches, along with bringing a journal to sketch in on the spot. I plan on incorporating typography into this project and writing down direct quotes from the residents.

I love wrinkles and I love listening to stories and I hate paraphrasing. I wanted to interview these residents because their stories aren't often heard, and they deserve to be.

This project is largely inspired by Humans of New York but mostly the work of the amazing and badass Wendy Macaughton. Go to link below to see her wonderful portrait of the San Francisco Public Library:
http://wendymacnaughton.com/#portfolio#journalism01

Wendy Macnaughton's work can be found at  http://wendymacnaughton.com/ PLEASE DO IT SHE'S INCREDIBLE.
Humans of New York is another inspiration of mine. Photographer Brandon Stanton asks strangers on New York City to allow him to photograph them and then on his blog he includes a direct quote or short story that they tell him. These often become intimate portraits. Brandon's work can be found on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, his website http://www.humansofnewyork.com/ and basically everywhere because THIS THING IS HUGE.