Week 3: The Day the Earth Stood Still

We started the painting process in week 4 (which was really week 6-7, but shhh...). Painting took much longer than expected, as we only got about a tenth of the painting finished. Luckily, Isabella tagged along and assisted with painting and mixing paint which helped speed up the process. Mr. Bursch's new tutorial policy had also aided our work ethic because there was less people in the way and more room to work with.

First, we started and finished up the space background which we painted purple (dark byzantium to be more specific) because it was the easiest to finish. Then, we began to paint the Earth (or rather the top half of the Earth). Thanks to the additional help of Izabella Rodriguez and Haley (I don't know her last name), we managed to more than half of the half-Earth (1/2 of 1/2?) in only three days.

While Morgan and I finished up the landmasses and oceans, Isabella began outlining the Tree's roots with dark brown. During class, we also managed to start some of the documents required for the ESLP project (Project Outline, Budget Statements, Activity Logs, etc.). We'll be working on both the mural and the documentation.

Week 2.5: Artistic Beginnings

Week 2.5 of Operation:

Project Tree of Awesomeness has been fairly productive. We began our painting journey by setting up a base coat on the front side of the board. Since none of the desks were large enough to hold the board, we used Mr. Bursch's lab stations. It was pretty straightforward and 'basic' (that was a pun) so it only took about a day or two to complete. Mr. Bursch provided us with a large piece of cardboard to ensure we didn't get any paint on his lab stations while we were setting up the base coat. Hopefully, none of the other classes were working with acids at the time. (Get it? Bases and acids? Science class? Anyone? No?)

 We ended up creating two layers of white acrylic paint on the board. At first, we thought a single layer would be sufficient; however, there were many unpainted spots showing, so we covered those up with the second layer. We should have called Skrillex to drop the base instead (another lame base joke). Now that the bases are loaded, we can commence sketching the tree onto the board.

Week 2: Pen(cil) and Sword

[If you don't understand the title, Google Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy (It's an awesome play.)]

This week was when we truly started making art. We took a little more than a week (2-3 weeks actually) to finish the sketch on the plywood board; it was mainly because the sketch was a crucial part to our mural, and we wanted to do it perfectly. A sketch is used for multiple purposes; however, to painters and sculptors, a sketch is a blueprint that tells them what is where and what it will look like. Morgan brainstormed some ideas, and I went out off in search of a tree to duplicate.

I started sketching possible tree
candidates for our mural.

While I was sketching, Raven was out searching
for real trees to base ours off of.

Eventually we had our sketch and, with the help of Izabelle, we transferred it onto our board.