7 Days, 2 Rules

Themes

1. first person that smiles at me 2. first thing that makes me smile 3. compliment/nicest thing someone says that day 4. saddest moment of the day 5. what I miss/long for 6. a place I wish I was at 7. hours of sleep I got 8. dream of the night before 9. first/last image on Instagram 1o. first text message I see when I wake up 11. first notification on my phone 12. shoes of the day 13. favorite meal of the day 14. weather 15. represent most memorable smell of the day 16. dinner 17. pain in my shoulder 18. missing home 19. news of the day, my biggest headline 20. first song that plays on shuffle 21. happiest situation of the day 22. workout 23. outfit, what I’m wearing 24. thought that crosses my mind when drinking morning coffee 25. brightest color I see 26. number one song in the charts 27. trending on Twitter 28. date, what day in the month 29. first/last thing I spend money on 30. first situation I feel uncomfortable in 31. something that made my heart beat faster 32. prettiest building/architecture I see

 

Method/Media

1. morning coffee 2. color of my dream 3. color of my feeling when I wake up 4. use two complimentary colors 5. use at least 7 different colors 6. black and white 7. no straight line longer than 1/4 inch 8. use at least 5 different materials 9. contour drawing 10. drawing without lifting hand 11. colors of the weather 12. pencil drawings 13. things I find in the kitchen 14. materials I find on the street 15. geometric shapes 16. just straight lines 17. draw on street maps 18. draw on calendar sheets 19. draw on first brochure I come across 20. draw on fabric 21. create/draw with my hands 22. draw with toothpaste 23. use just nail polish 24. print with fabric/wire/feathers 25. potato prints 26. draw with feather&ink 27. collage with only my own photos 28. use cosmetics as material (make up…) 29. collage out of the days newspaper 30. collage out of just one magazine 31. candle wax droplets 32. use just trash, recycled materials (cans…) 33. stencil 34. use hair 35. make out of colored sand 36. on black paper/background 37. CD/Vinyl background 38. Comic book 39. Fast Food packaging 40. Shopping bags 41. Music scores

 

For my theme, I chose the news of the day. Instead of using the global headline of the day, I however want to work with my personal headline of the day. This can either be a story from the news, or from my personal life. I like this topic because it gives me a lot of freedom of interpretation, as well as the option to choose something that matters to me. Every story can be interpreted in different ways, I can decide to represent the story, or to represent the feelings that the headline evoked in me. Personal meaning and interest in something is one of the strongest motivating factors for me, pushing me to always give my best.

As my medium/material, I decided to create something on my personal calendar pages. This creates a connection between the medium and the theme, as well as reflecting my personal daily schedule. I will photocopy them onto letter size good quality paper.

Sketches

 

Final Pieces (explanations in captions)

Reflection

Looking back at the process of making these 14 pieces, I am really happy with both how I got to my ideas and the pieces, as well as the final outcome. I loved the idea of making 14 smaller, different little pieces, as I felt it enabled me to add diversity in the process of making them, the materials I used, and in the final outcomes. Looking at the process, I think it was very effective that I chose my headlines in the morning, then did a quick brainstorm, but only made them at night. This way, I had some time during the day to really think about ideas. For some of the headlines, that was easier and I feel like I came up with very successful ideas that I would now love to take further and explore more deeply, but with some I did not feel as satisfied with both the idea and the implementation of it. For me, it was a great exercise for my head as well as for my hands, as I was constantly thinking about little and quick ideas, as well as about new materials and methods.

Though I aimed at trying even more different materials and adding a larger diversity to both method and material, I ended up finding myself working with Sharpie in nearly every one of the small pieces, which really surprised me. I’ve always hated working with Sharpie, because once it’s on the paper it’s there and there’s no way of just erasing a line. My line work is usually rather light and careful, which is why I love working with pencil. Working with Sharpie therefore challenged this, as I had to take little risks of just drawing bold lines without overthinking it.

Looking at the pieces, there are two that especially stand out to me, because I’m not happy with them at all, which are Saturday’s first one and Sunday’s second. Interestingly, both of these are related to the weather. This makes me wonder, if it maybe has something to do with the actual topic and how strongly I feel towards it. Though it shocked me to see the images, it was definitely not one of the headlines I felt most strongly and passionately about. My personal favorites would probably be the gun, the Hamburg sign with the mosque and the KinderSchokolade one. I feel like these are most effective esthetically, as well as with the message I tried to convey.