Spotty at Best

Unfortunately, I had to work Thursday so I was not in class for the newspaper dot transformations and I may not have understood the assignment completely - but this is what I did and I think it's kind of fun.  I also did these upside down as I was told to do with the dots from the newspaper articles...I guess I could turn them upside down if I need to.  My idea from the time I heard about this assignment was "OH MY KIDS CAN BE THE LITTLE DOTS!" because naturally that is how my thought process works.  From there it got interesting.  My mom (check her out at www.Knorwoodportraiture.com, what what) has a studio and she just so happened (yay for coincidences!) to have her white background up!  The issue I started facing (as I planned this out in my mind) was knowing that with the camera and the studio I was working inside certain dimensions.  I knew I could only add so much depth to the picture so I tried to create curved lines, but...well...it went as best as it could considering I was bribing a 7 and 3 year old.  And also yelling out "ELECTRIC THUNDER TURTLE POSITION" to get my 3 year old to curl up into a ball (seriously...don't ask.)  I found the different size stools and covered them in white and had my subjects (who I am ever so thankful for!) take different positions to attempt to create some depth.  Hindsight (you know, that thing that is 20/20) I would've paid more attention to the line at the 'top' of the picture.  I needed the weight to be even at the top of the dot composition, but I was so worried about the center of the picture that I didn't even notice it.  So - like I said - it's spotty at best ;)  And a great thanks to my helpers!!

The Destroyer Vs. my newspaper nonsense

Today we were given the challenge of creating an object that would support a cinder block as high off the ground as possible.  The materials we were given to use were newspaper and glue.  The materials we already had were our thinkers!  Initially, I'd considered trying to hang it, but I didn't know if that was possible and I'm still working on asking questions.  My mind then went to how to make the most out of what I'd been given.  I folded, rolled, and twisted the newspaper to find out what gave it the most integrity using as little of it as possible to maximize how much I could use making the structure taller.  I concluded that the crumpled up balls of newspaper gave the most width and depth.  To minimize the time I spent gluing I rolled the balls of newspaper and then glued several outer rectangles and stuffed the crumpled newspaper inside the rectangles.  I'd intended to stack the filled rectangles alternating directions, but in attempt to maximize the height I took a chance and placed four of the rectangles as pillars in a square.  I then tried to reinforce them by placing rolled newspapers across the diagonals of the square.  I then (because I was out of time, though still had half of my stack of newspapers) finalized my..."structure"by placing a flat section of newspaper across the top as a bit of a roof hoping to assist the structure in supporting the weight of the entire cinder block.

But alas...it did not work and my attempt was smushed by "the destroyer."