Up... up... and away!

Lately I've been drawing from comic books... Its good practice because all the muscles and gestures are extremely exaggerated

Green Lantern(Hal Jordan)

If you don't know who Green Lantern is... look it up....

Spectre

Spectre is a product of DC comics. Created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily, he first appeared in 1940. Spectre's original story of origin in the "Golden Age" was as a cop(Jim Corrigan) who was murder. When his spirit was refused entry to the afterlife, he was sent back to earth to punish and eliminate the evildoers. Today his story of origin is slightly different.  Now Spectre is the embodiment of the Wrath of God, and Jim Corrigan is only latest human spirit assigned to guide him while he existed on Earth. It was also said that the Spectre was a fallen named Aztar who had participated in Lucifer's rebellion, but then repented, and that serving as the embodiment of God's anger was its penance.

...and *BAM* they were ceramic

For the past year I've taken an amazing ceramics class at my High School. I'm preparing my portfolio for college and the AP art test. So far I have about eight or nine (usable) pieces. Ceramics is probably one of the most difficult art forms. So many things can go wrong in the process! The clay can be too dry initially causing it to crack, or too wet causing it to warp, the glaze can melt strangely in the kiln, it can even explode, etc! I worked very hard on these pieces and I'm pretty happy with the results.  Here is a quick peek inside my portfolio!

"Flower girl"

 "Flower girl"

    This is the piece I worked the longest one. Its about a foot and a half tall and 3/4th of a foot wide (I'm just eyeballing it here) The project assignment was "surrealism". It took me a month to finish hand building it (longer if you count the glaze time). I used colored slip for the petals and clipper handle, porcelain for the eyes and teeth, and black stain for the rest of it.

Seedpod vase

This assignment was to take ideas from nature. I used the seed of a dandelion for inspiration. The glaze was medium fire "hare's fur" and "shino".

"Motion of the Ocean" cup and tray set

 This piece took a short time to make, but about three months to get it fired... because I was lazy. I used a "Transparent turquoise" glaze for the outside, "Tenmoku" for the barnacles and "Temple Orange" for the starfish. I also carved sharks onto the sides using a blue slip overcoat but the turquoise glaze was to heavy making it hard to see.

Horus draped plate

There wasn't an assignment for this piece. I just really wanted to paint something. I made a plate by draping clay over a mold and then throwing a foot (for the plate) on the wheel. I painted this image on to the plate using colored slips (just watered down colored clay). Its the Egyptian god Horus.

Steam punk Teapot!

This is the last piece I'm going to show. It's my steam punk teapot! I wanted to make a functional ceramic piece that looked like it was metal. I made "screws" and used a glaze that looked like it was rusting. I think it was high fire "Shino". This is one of my favorite pieces. It works too!


Thanks for checking out my art! 
More to come...

Some Haiku's I Found Behind My Books

I was looking in my bookshelf yesterday and shoved behind some books were some haiku's I wrote a while ago. Most of them are pretty silly but its kind of interesting to see what I was doing and thinking about a few years ago. Well ... it mostly seems like I was not doing my homework, staying up late and stressing about boys.... not much has changed :)
    
        Procrastinating,
     It's not a good idea,
        but it's addicting

         It's so cold in here
  even with this warm jacket
        I am a snowflake


            I can't tolerate
boys who don't act their own age
      just grow up now, please


         I would rather write
   haikus, but haikus don't get
        you an "A" on tests


      It's fine, you don't have 
         to apologize to me
     I know you're on drugs


      The clock says it's late
  but I cannot sleep right now
      my brain is buzzing