#cpsa capstone

The past few weeks, I have made a lot of progress in regards to my Capstone Project for CPSA250/CPSA201. Not only did I fully complete my first portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat, but I also completed my journal entry in connection to my visits to the Freedom School in DC with Do Better. In fact, I also have gotten well into working on my presentation through Prezi for ArtsFest and will post a link to it. Below is a portion of my journal for my Do Better visit:

During my visits to the DC Freedom School with Do Better, a community service-centered student organization that has chapters at the University of Maryland, College Park, Morehouse College, Bowie State University, and Howard University; I have had the opportunity to truly see the importance of representation manifest with my own two eyes. I have been blessed enough to have had countless opportunities to interact with and develop mentor-mentee bonds with children who look like younger versions of myself, and take me back to a time where I once did not love myself, people, history, or culture; and had no idea how to.

After volunteering with organizations and initiatives including the Blue Drop Initiative, the Slam the Gap Initiative, America Counts; and even my actual paid junior and senior counselor positions with Forcey Day Camp, one would think that I had reached my maximum potential and hit the quota on knowledge of the importance of representation. This presumption is false.

Purpose/Mission Statement: I will be conducting a research art project on the history and evolution of ancient Greek pottery from the years 1000-300 B.C.E. Using this research I will create replica ancient Greek pots that display the style and technique that was used back in history.

Learning Objectives:

I will research and learn about the technique, style, and design of ancient Greek pottery from 1000-300 B.C.E. and group it into major categories.

I will create drawings and sketches that illustrate the process of designing and creating the Greek pots.

I will enhance my current ceramics skills by creating 6 (or more) models of Greek pots using some pottery techniques that would have been done back then.

Workshop Process:

I will be conducting research on the Protogeometric, Geometric, Orientalizing, Red-figure, Black-figure, and White Ground styles of ancient Greek pottery. I will learn the unique characteristics of the styles and the process by which they would have been made. I will then throw modern day pots that will embody the aspects of the different styles. I will be doing pencil sketches to plan out the pottery, and then I will make the models out of clay using various ceramics tools. My work will be displayed with descriptions and some of the planning illustrations to show the process.

My planning work will be documented through sketches and descriptions in my process binder. I will also photographically document the process of making the pottery at different stages.

Resources:

Cartwright, Mark. "Greek Pottery." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., 12 Jan. 2013. Web. 24 Jan. 2017. <https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Pottery/>.

Cook, Robert Manuel. Greek Painted Pottery. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 1997. Print.

Cook, Robert Manuel, and Pierre Dupont. East Greek Pottery. London: Routledge, 1998. Print.

Grace, Virginia. “Standard Pottery Containers of the Ancient Greek World.” Hesperia Supplements, vol. 8, 1949, pp. 175–456. www.jstor.org/stable/1353892.

Sparkes, Brian A. Greek pottery: an introduction. Manchester: Manchester U Press, 1991. Print.

Sparkes, Brian A. The red and the black: studies in Greek pottery. London: Routledge, 1996. Print.

Walters, H. B., and Samuel Birch. History of Ancient Pottery: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman. Vol. 2. London: J. Murray, 1905. Print.

Project Timeline: Include dates and deadlines set by the course syllabus, as well as self-imposed benchmarks for what you would like to have done at certain points in the semester.

2/16 – Have research complete and begin first pot

2/23 & 3/2 – First look 2-minute presentation. Have at least 2 pots started.

Spring Break – Have at least 4 pots finished.

4/6 & 4/13 – Second look 2-minute presentation. By end of 4/13 have all pots finished.

4/21 – Showcase poster due

4/29 – ArtsFest

Here are the completed painted pages.

Reflection...

1)              What was the most challenging aspect of completing your project, and why? (This might be technical aspects, time constraints, problems that arose, etc.—be honest, this is your space to reflect!)

The most challenging aspect of my project was learning and applying new techniques in a limited amount of time. I had never used photoshop before and it was challenging to teach myself. I wasn’t able to move as fast as I had expected which meant I fell behind following my timeline. Using an unfamiliar medium also caused me not to be satisfied with the amount of detail in my work.

2)              Looking at your learning agreement(s) on ELMS, how do you think you succeeded (or not) in completing your Learning Objectives? Which ones did you fulfill? Which ones did you not fulfill? Why?

I did successfully learn how to structure a comic, develop skills in photoshop, and further develop how to draw the human body. Every step of my project required me to apply all my learning objectives. I didn’t quite master photoshop but I did gain more experience. If I had more time I would’ve been able to successfully check that off on my list.

3)              What were the most helpful aspects of the (semi) weekly class meetings? What would you like to see added or subtracted for next year?

The most helpful aspects were getting critiques from my classmates. It was nice having people see the project develop overtime, so they could give relevant feedback. I would like to see more sharing of work and less on how to share. One class was pretty sufficient in teaching us how to properly critique.

4)              What part of the project were you most proud of? Why?

I was most proud with the final product. I had blended photoshop and water color pretty well so the colors and characters were really vibrant and sharp. I was most stressed about the neatness of the comic and having painted the frames gave me the control I needed. However, photoshop helped me with editing and adding more details that I didn’t have time to add by hand. Overall it was really nice in the end.

5)              What part of the project would you have changed if you could? Why?

I would have added more dialogue and frames to my project. I feel like I did the bare minimum and would have loved to have had more to present. If I was more confident in my work I would’ve printed the final pages to have a hard copy to display. I also didn’t produce art as frequently as I wanted which took away from a part of my overall project which was to release chapters every couple of weeks.

6)              If you had to offer advice to next year’s Capstone students, what would it be?