2016 Progress Report: April

April 2016 was for me, both the best and the worst month of the year so far. Part of what made it the best was because the constant work that was being done. This meant that I had to be in creative mode almost all the time, even when I wasn't doing the work. The reason for this was because I had the upcoming show in early May and wanted to get done as much as I could. It was also the worst month because of the extreme amount of hours that I had to devote to working on all of this stuff clashed violently with the near 40 hour work week at my regular job. Because of this, I often suffered from lack of sleep for many days on in and extreme fatigue. As an example of what April was like compared to March, notice that in the previous entry, there are 15 pictures. In this entry, there are 35. So whatever I did in March, more than twice the amount of work was done in April and I cursed at that month for having one less day than March.

4/6/16: This is the drawing part of P5 (later to be retitled as Mary's Dilemma). The overall composition will end up going through a few changes before I got to the charcoal work.

4/6/15: The two-piece drawing for the P13 project. I got a basic idea of what the composition will be. Sadly, this project would not get done in time for the upcoming show.

4/12/16: The glazing work for P4 has been done. It would take several weeks for the actual firing to get done since the new kiln wasn't ready yet.

4/12/16: I completed the glazing on the first piece in a new series of ceramic dishes that I plan on selling. The larger pieces tend to be more square-shaped even though that wasn't the intent. Like everything else that I would end up firing, it took weeks for this one to actually get fired.

4/12/16: This is the second piece of the first series. This is the medium-sized piece.

4/12/16: This is the third piece of the first series. This is the small-sized piece.

4/13/16: This is series 2 of the ceramic dishes that I plan on selling. I figured this time, I should just photograph all three of the pieces at once.

4/13/16: This is the third series of ceramic dishes that I plan on selling.

4/13/16: An early attempt at P28. I would eventually abandon this and start over. Sometimes, it takes less time to start something over from scratch than trying to struggle with something that isn't working.

An early attempt at P29. Like P28, this attempt at the project was abandoned and restarted.

4/17/16: The canvas work on this is finally done. It took a long time and it was a pain in the ass.

4/17/16: The canvas work on the back of P32 is done.

4/18/16: The back of what has now become Mary's Dilemma. The label was laminated which is now a standard for all of my work.

The gesso work on the front of P32 is done.

4/18/16: The gesso work on the back of P32 (now known as Eternal Light) is complete.

4/19/16: P23 has been bisque fired after all this time.

4/19/16: P24 has been bisque fired after all this time. Luckily, everything I made in the kiln this semester was successful. Nothing exploded in the kiln.

4/19/16: The glaze work for P23 is done. It will be another few weeks before this is fired.

4/19/17: The glaze work on P24 is done. It will be another few weeks before this one gets fired as well.

4/19/16: The drawing part of Mary's Dilemma is coming along, although it still looks a little rough at this point.

4/20/16: P28 was restarted and it is a big improvement over the first one so far.

4/20/16: P29 has been restarted and it is also turning out better than before.

4/20/16: P25 has been bisque fired although the saggar firing will not happen until May.

4/20/16: P26 has been bisque fired. It is the second saggar piece so far this semester.

4/20/16: P27 has been bisque fired. It is the third saggar piece of the semester.

4/21/16: The molding paste work for Eternal Light is done on the back. Molding paste is needed to smooth out the rough edges created from the canvas. It also adds stability to the piece.

4/21/16: The molding paste work for Mary's Dilemma was done on the back.

4/26/16: The clay work for P28 is done.

4/26/16: The clay work for P29 is done.

4/26/16: The clay work for P30 is done. The reason there haven't been more pictures of this piece is because it was done in one night.

4/26/16: By this point, the drawing work for Mary's Dilemma is done. If I had to do it again, I would have had just a stormy sky background. When it was all said and done, the background just seemed out of place.

4/27/16: Gesso work was done to this piece so I could start from scratch with painting. The painting work in the middle was done years ago and I felt it only needed touch up work, which would be done later.

4/27/16:The drawing is finally in place. Light molding paste was used here because of how quickly it dries. Spray paint was applied to the gesso parts to be used as an undercoat for when black paint would be used.

4/29/16: This texture is coarse pumice gel. It is difficult to use but the effect looks great when it dries. Unlike the two previous projects that used this stuff (Stone Cold and The Tragic Forest), the gel wasn't just laid down. I used the palette knife to create some additional textures.

4/29/16: More light molding paste was used here.!It will take some time for the painting work to be done.

2016 Progress Report: March

March was an interesting month. There was a lot going on all fronts. I was busy trying to get several ceramic projects done at once while finding time to work on my mixed media projects. Then away from the college at home, several digital projects were being worked on. As busy as March sounded, it would be nothing compared to the nightmare of a month that April was. What I have here are 15 pictures from March. When I get around to doing the April post, there will be a lot more pictures.

3/2/16: I'm continuing the chicken wire work.

3/2/16: A few hours later, I made a little bit of progress.

3/2/16: This came a long way since the previous week. I wasn't quite able to finish it yet, however.

3/9/16: Chicken wire work on the front is complete. I burned myself with hot glue multiple times during this process.

3/9/16: Chicken wire work on the back is complete. The flat part of the back will remain bare for the eventual name label that I'm going to make.

3/9/16: I eventually finished this. It's looking better than it was before. I'm still not sure about those tentacle-like pieces on the end. I feel like I should have take a different approch to that.

3/9/16: My newest future sagger piece. The basic construction of it is finished but it needs to be fixed up a bit.

3/16/16: I'm going to be working on another 2-panel drawing. The bristolboard is on the left while the foamboard is on the right. The foamboard will be used to make sure the bristolboard has a flat surface to lay on.

3/16/16: This is a project that I haven't touched since 2012. It currently goes by the title P13. The bristol board and foamboard in the previous picture are intended for this piece. I deliberately left some parts uncovered until after the drawings are finished.

3/16/16: The back of P13. Having to mofify older projects is often the most difficult thing for me to do. I can't just throw tnhem out because a lot of monet had already been invested into them.

3/16/16: This is coming along slowly.

3/16/16: Another future sagger piece. I wanted to try and create skinnier pieces.

3/16/16: Another skinny sagger piece.

3/23/16: I was working on the overall layout of the back of P5. Had this been a project that I started from scratch and not some unfinished project from years ago, the canvas would not be on there yet.

3/23/16: The canvas I used here looks a little dirty. This is because the canvas I use when working on clay projects is often cut up and used for projects like this. Over the years, I've become good at improvisation. Sometimes, the tools and equipment used for working on projects end up becoming part of a project.