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Finished :)

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I went to see a short film festival on Friday! Each of the 6 films we watched were five minutes or less, and each was created by students from UMD. It was cool to see amateur films and how our campus' students are making movies. They dealt with many different topics and genres, ranging from comedy to a documentary style narrative of middle easterners living with dementia. Watching all these films revealed how important many different aspects are to a film's success: the cinematography, script, acting, lighting, and more all contribute. I think that film is one of the most difficult forms of art, as it combines so many different aspects. Overall, the film festival was a fun time!

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Reflection on Feedback

Everyone in my small group seems to be doing some sort of writing: whether it be poetry, lyrics, academic review, or a storybook. It was really awesome to see what all these different writers working in various genres were doing. Also, everyone’s feedback was very helpful-- and supportive! Thank you to everyone for commenting. :) I got good feedback about the collection as a whole-- perhaps some poems didn’t completely fit the theme. Also, I was given support through the editing process, which is in my opinion the hardest part of writing. My goals moving forward are to take these critiques into account and try to make my collection more cohesive. I have even decided to drop Fall, Fall and Stargazing from the collection because I believe they do not really fit in the collection-- perhaps I can use them for some other project later down the line. I’ve also started the editing process slowly, fixing up punctuation and slight problems with tense and grammar. I’ve written an author’s note as well, which I will be posting later on this page. Next on my agenda is to contact various places across campus where I could distribute my books. I had one very good comment asking if there was a way I could make the bookbinding less tedious and painstaking for myself, so this is definitely something I will be thinking about. Also, people wanted to know if I could keep track somehow of the effect of my books in different places, and so I am considering having some pages in the back of the book that are blank for people to leave responses and their own personal stories. I think it is important to make this a two-sided conversation so that people can feel like their stories are heard, and then I can listen and write from their experiences as well to share the problems they face. Perhaps I will turn this whole project into a blog to expand the reach of these stories. I definitely at least want to start a blog (probably continue this one) where I can share my work and keep tabs on my progress as a writer. Anyways, I am excited to move forward with this project!

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Hi Andrea!

I first want to start off by asking what the story is that you are trying to tell. I’d like to know more about the message you are trying to get across with your storybook. So far, from your illustrations, I get this dreamy and happy feeling. There is something very calming about your style--I think it is the mix of watercolor and the color palate that brings about this effect. I picture a very lovely, bright story to go along with this illustrations. They seem full of hope! 

I also definitely see the influence from Van Gogh and Claus in your work, but at the same time I think you are doing a great job of making it your own. 

Also, I really love the chalk drawing! I understand how the medium is incompatible with your project in many ways, but it is very interesting to look at. If you ever want to do black and white drawings, I would hope you return to chalk, as I think it is very striking. Also, chalk to me gives off the vibe of impermanence, as after you have left the drawing someone would surely come by and erase it. This is intriguing to me, and certainly something I have never seen before in a storybook. Perhaps you may not want to write off the idea completely. :)

Also, yay for storyboards! So important to creating an illustrated story! I hope everything goes well with your project, I look forward to seeing it. :) Best of luck!

Tumblr Process Assignment

Day 1—Monday, March 28

The progress with this capstone project has lagged from the projected schedule developed at the start of the semester. The reason for the divergence is mainly caused by illustrator’s block (a spin off of writer’s block). Since the story will be captured as illustrations and each picture worth a thousand words, I found myself inundated with a sea of possibilities but venturing on in any particular direction only proved to be futile in actually producing something on the page. 

Not anymore! Tonight, I sat down and doodled. The image below is an example. The boxed images form a storyboard of sorts that helps to outline every piece of the story onto a single page. The text serve as general notes and as a reminder of the story’s plot. Inspiration for this plot comes from the line, “faith as a mustard seed”. Mustard seeds are of the smallest seeds to be planted, yet when granted a heap load of patience, produce in time a grounded and lasting mustard tree. Likewise, I envision the protagonist who takes care of the mustard plant is very small but very determined. 

Day 2—Wednesday, March 30

I am taking an art history course this semester for the I-series requirement in Art Scholars. It examines the existence of colour, and arguably non-existence as well. Colour is classified as an illusion, determined merely by the light which reflects off of the objects that bear it. The material that we cover is significantly impacting my development of an artistic style. Like “The Giving Tree” is etched in black, or “Harold and the Purple Crayon” in purple, there is a distinct theme I hope to establish visually as a reader flips through the storybook.

I am inspired by impressionist painters such as Van Gogh and newly discovered Emile Claus. Claus’s paintings harbor a similar effect as the works of Van Gogh. From art history class, we would ascribe this similarity as the effect of value scale. The stubby brush strokes and undefined forms contribute to a sense of movement. In effect, the artistic styles bring evokes movement is taking place in the painting. I hope to achieve this same effect in my storybook. 

Day 3—Thursday, March 31

18:00 PM In the first floor lounge of my residence hall, I am drawn to the immaculately cleaned blackboard. At this point, I am still deciding on what medium to produce the illustrations. So far I have considered…

- Oil Color on Canvas

- Watercolor

- Thread embellishments

…and tonight, chalk! I was drawn by this idea seeing that chalk marks are resemblant of the thick brush strokes of Van Gogh and Claus’s works from yesterday. Staring before me at an array of coloured chalk, I picked up the classic yellow coloured nugget and etched a deep stroke. That stroke turned into many, traversing from one point to another. Uniformly, the collection turned into a birds nest. 

Switch to blue. 

The contrast is subtle, which is the major reason for my abandoning this medium. But I will address this at the end. In yellow, there is warmth. Blue on the other hand tends to emit coldness. Together, they give rise to depth and three dimensionality. 

Build bird. 

More delicately determined strokes emerge from the chaotic nest. They are the coating feathers of a bird. 

Ultimately, what led me away from pursuing chalk drawings for the storybook is that the only way to transfer the drawing onto paper is by capturing it as a photo. As exhibited below, the chalk marks look white. There is no clear distinction between the yellows and blues as elaborated earlier on and seen when producing the image. Nonetheless, I’ve archived this idea should there be need to return to it.

Day 4—Saturday, April 2

Paint to Paper

At last, after weeks of deliberation and preparation, I’ve proposed a painting style that amalgamates the vibrant colours and abstract forms of Van Gogh and Claus’s art. However, this illustration is done with watercolours and on printing paper. 

A Reveal

The story’s unwritten plot is grounded in the theme of planting. When this was determined, I began researching the life cycle of various plants. One plant in particular that took my attention was the mustard tree. An unassuming tiny speck of a seed that could even be mistaken for ground pepper, transforms into a sturdy rooted tree. But not without some help along the way. 

Video: The Life Cycle of a Mustard Plant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSB_At4H8kA

When I painted this scene (Which I imagine will be close to what the last page of the book will be), I used a compostable plate as the palette to keep the watercolor paints. The more I mixed paints the preparation for the printing paper, the more I became amused at how the same paint revealed itself on the browned plate. I could possibly paint each image onto a plate. That could even send another unwritten message about recycling having multiple purposes, even for the expression of art. 

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Hi Kemi! I relate to this so much! It is so difficult to get yourself to just get ideas down. As someone who writes a lot, both as a philosophy major and as a poet, I’ve tried to work out some methods that allow me to feel more comfortable in writing a first draft. One of the things I do is I keep a journal where I just allow myself to write about every day life without a filter. While this has nothing to do with a first draft of anything, it helps me train my mind to just write without editing myself through the entire process. Another thing I like to do is handwrite everything. Even though it is a lot less convenient than writing on a computer, for some reason I feel more at ease to make mistakes. For some reason I associate typing with the editing process, so writing by hand allows me to disconnect from the editing habits. Maybe these methods will help you, maybe they won’t, but I thought I would share. On another note, I love your capstone project. Education is something that always needs constant reform and attention. Excited to see what your paper has to add to the discussion! Good luck :) 

Reflection

Something that I’ve struggled with before writing the lit review and during the draft process is, just allowing myself to write terrible material. I tend to overthink things and I want every single sentence to sound perfect, which actually makes me take forever to write anything down or finish the process. Although, I’ve been struggling with this, it helps to know that my draft is just a draft and probably won’t see the light of day, so it’s very okay if I make mistakes.

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Hi Blue! Watching this video was very interesting to me, as I found myself searching her face to try and find whatever it was that was causing her to act so scared. Staring at her for so long made me feel uncomfortable, but I feel like that is what you are going for. Also, from your caption, I get the idea that maybe you will be overlaying the narrated poetry over these videos? If that is what you are planning on doing, I definitely love that concept and can see how it will work nicely with the videos. I wish I could see the poetry and video together now! I have one question about your project: you seem to have so many different elements, videos and paintings and erasures, so how are you going to link them all together in a cohesive way? How are you going to present your project at arts fest? If you could have the video playing on loop next to your art work that would be really cool. I think the way that you present all your different pieces together will definitely change the impact it has on the viewer. Good luck, can’t wait to see the finished thing. :)

Yesterday, I completed filming for my first video, which will use a disjointed narrative structure and visualize my overall theme, While At The Grave of Wellness. In the last 24 hours, I’ve filmed about ten potential scenes to work with, as well as narrated poetry picked for the purposes of this project. Unfortunately, the recordings are not in a format uploadable to Tumblr, but this video is a sample of my concept.

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Hey Carolyn! I don’t know if you’ve already thought about this, but if you are trying to take on the roles of different characters through vocals, I would seek inspiration from musical theater tracks. It might help you to find musicals with characters similar to those you want to portray in your songs so that you can copy the voices of those actors/actresses. I think that this might help you tell the story better as well. Anyways, it sounds like you are in a good place with your project as it seems you are happy with your first recording of everything! Best of luck :)

Today, I started on the vocals :) I didn’t quite finish them and I’m thinking I am going to have to rerecord a lot of it because my voice just sounds very plain. It just sounds like I am singing for the sake of singing and it’s a little boring. To fix that, I want to try to embody the voices of the characters a little more so that there is a little more emotion to enhance the meaning of the words. I am not worried or stressed about this because I expected it to take me a little while to get the vocals where I want them to be and honestly, I did a lot better today than I expected so it was a good start. 

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Here is a draft of an illustration for the collection expanding upon the phrase "for those with timid souls." I was thinking of putting this in between section 1 and 2 of the collection. The idea for the image is based off of the poem "The Tundra" and the words are based off of the poem "This Poem" along with the title of the collection. I am planning on doing this in watercolor and ink. I think this illustration embodies the main idea of my project.

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Getting More Help!

I am taking a class currently called Why Poetry Matters, and I know my TA for that class is a graduate student getting her MFA in poetry. So, I decided I would ask her if she would be willing to critique some of my work--and she said yes! I think this will really help me to get someone else’s eyes on my work who writes poetry and studies it. I am currently struggling through the editing process, and I’m hoping she can give me some advice to help me become a better editor. 

In other news, I’ve arranged all the poems into one document to try and decided in which order they will appear and how I will divide them up. I’ve also decided to drop Stargazing from the collection and replace it with The Dreamer, so I have 16 poems I think total! I’ve also been working on an illustration which plays off of the poem “This Poem” and the title of my collection “For Those With Timid Souls.” I will post that later on when it has become more than a rough sketch. This may be the one illustration in my collection, as I have decided I’d rather focus on quality over quantity.

Anyways, things are still staying on track. :)

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The Dreamer

I lied! This is poem 17. 

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A List

So I have written 16 poems so far for this collection, and while I may add one or cut one out, I think this is the number I am going to stick to. I really think it is important that I really spend time revising my poetry, so I am going to shift from writing to editing. Some of these poems need a whole lot of work. 

So here is the list of poems that I believe will be going into the collection, which at this moment I am thinking I will title “For Those With Timid Souls”:

This Poem

Tardigrades

Stargazing

Beating Breathing

Walking

The Harmonium

Fall, Fall

Someone’s Savior

Funny Girl

Burn

Bubble Wrap

Skin

The Invisible Girl, No More

The Tundra

Kill the Bamboo Girl

The Parade

All of the drafts of these poems are posted here on my blog, any feedback is more than welcome. :)

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This Poem

-is a short one!

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Tardigrades

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Stargazing

A poem I am not sure will go in the finished collection, but am considering.

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Beating Breathing

A poem to keep going.

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Walking

A sort of love poem? But also, not a love poem.

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This is a poem inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's novel Sirens of Titan. In the novel, creatures called harmonium are found living in the caves of mercury, surviving solely off of sounds and the song they sing to each other, which goes: I am here. (And then another responds) So glad you are. I wanted to play with spacing in this poem, as well as repetition.