Define Useless…

By all accounts, the cardboard “sound amplifier” I made for my phone is useless. It didn’t really make anything louder, and now that I have a new phone (that is larger, so it doesn’t fit) it truly seems like a waste of space.. And yet I feel there was absolutely something gained from making it.

I saw a really cool Instructable that made a cell phone amplifier out of scrap wood, so of course I had to try making it out of cardboard. I know it didn’t really end up working, but I got to practice my new method of adding edges to the previously rough-looking ends of the boxes, and of course, my knife skills.

Even when I realized shortly after starting that all the gaps in the boxes would probably just absorb the sound rather than amplify it, I still saw the project through to completion. Was it useless? No. It was an experience. And experiences are never useless, as there is always something to be gained from each and every one. If not a new functioning amplifier, then a little bit more skill with the materials that will surely come in handy for future projects.

Maybe you prefer drawing, or metalworking, or woodworking, or like me, enjoy making stuff from cardboard. A really great way to branch out is to choose an instructable (or random project) made in a different medium, and try making it in your own. Honestly, it’s something I’ve done twice now, and have loved it both times. (The first time was a park bench in case you were wondering). Maybe give it a shot!

How to have a Productive Break

Either it’s just me, or you too have a hobby that you think might be able to go somewhere.

For me, it’s art.

As a teenager, I of course feel the restrictions of “oh, I’m not an adult yet, so what could I possibly do?” far too often. Then I see people like @couture.to.the.max on instagram and I think “what am I doing??”. Max is an odd one out in the way that his mother is the acclaimed cardboard artist @realsherrimadison whom I already admire because of her outstanding art. This famously led to Max wanting to be a fashion designer at an outrageously young age, his mom making a mannequin for him out of cardboard, and him going on to become a (currently) 7 year old couture design prodigy, and making waves in the entire fashion industry.

How does this relate to productivity? Well… uhh… anyways, art has always been a pastime of mine, and yes I’ve sold art, but I’ve never truly considered it as a possible career. Now that I am a junior and looking at Art Degrees as a possibility for college, I realize my art could possibly lead to being more than a pastime.

Now how this relates to breaks… well… over breaks there is a lot of downtime. There is the constant urge to sit down and binge a TV show or scroll through YouTube until you pass out from exhaustion, only to wake up to a similar sense of non-urgency to complete anything the next massively unproductive day. Hence my encouragement of structure.

To have productive downtime is the same as to have productive uptime. What I mean by that is you need to establish goals. Whether that is to post a new art piece every day over break, spending as little as 30 minutes of your 10 hour day on it, that’s alright. With that post you could reach three new accounts, of those three accounts, one could follow your account and suggest an idea in a future suggestion box you post. That idea could springboard into a series of 6 posts, each reaching a dozen new accounts and of those dozens, 20ish new followers (or more, these are just numbers that would be substantial to me at the moment). The act of posting something was part of the grander scheme of growing a social media presence with your art, and therefore networking more, therefore growing more potential customers, therefore growing a business you may not have even begun yet.

Just think what three posts could do.

Now of course there is going to be plenty of brain-dead time over your breaks. (At least there always ends up plenty in mine however hard I try to maintain a productive state). Motivation is not endless, I get it. However the point is that with just a little structure in a massively unproductive amount of downtime, a hobby can transform into a little bit more than it was before.

The Word of the Day is Patience

…at least that’s what I said the day I went to the University of Indianapolis’ “Riveting” Workshop at which I learned the wonderful new skill of joining metal sheets. However, I’m finding patience to be an extremely common need in art in an even broader sense.

When you’re scrolling through Instagram art, you see finalized pieces, some staged process pics, or sometimes even a nice little sped-up version of the whole process. Some of these pieces take months to create, and all you see is the finished piece on this glorious post you decide is “something I could never do”. Wrong. Patience and practice can take you so much farther than you ever wait to realize.

Crayons are a wonderful medium, but their associated connotations are all wrong. The scribbilistic style of children’s art does not give justice the glorious application of wax art that is possible when used in a delicate and purposeful manner. Similar in a sense is the use of colored pencils. Due to the widespread and early introduction of these mediums to most artists, the materials are associated with art of beginners, not within their own right as an art supply. My conclusion is such that any medium is only able to reach its fullest potential with time.

Blending of colors when using the waxiness of crayons and colored pencil, or the ink of markers and pens takes layers. And layers take time. And time takes immense patience to endure. 

Some of my favorite art pieces on sites like Instagram are those completed with one medium. Of course I love multimedia art, but the simplicity of a ballpoint pen piece just gets to me. The incredible use of sometimes only three standard colors to create these incredible portraits is inspiring not just because it shows what patience and practice can do in such a magnificent manner, but it shows that any medium can have incredible results. A crayon piece done well can be just as incredible as an expensive copic piece, or far better depending on how practiced the artist’s copic skills are (mine are lacking).

The point is, patience is evident in so many areas of life, but especially art, that is if you choose to indulge yourself in the creative process. To achieve the insanely detailed results you can see in abundance on any social media platform ever, you have to put the equivalently inexplainable amount of effort into it.

(I’ll likely revisit this conversation soonish, I just needed to get something out there. Feedback is appreciated)

Old Vehicles into Park Benches

If I were to create a TV show, it would probably be called something along the lines of “Junkyard Dreams” and feature me, along with a bunch of creative friends, turning stuff from a trash heap into art. (Oh boy, now I might just have to make that a reality).

One such “dream” is turning an old vehicle into a park bench.

Just imagine: There’s a rusty old minivan with no wheels and missing seats. The airbag is gone and the glovebox is missing entirely. The radio definitely doesn’t work, and the doors and windows were taken off years ago. I’d say that’s a perfect opportunity for a park bench.

I would first clean out the van, ripping up any carpet or cloth that has the potential to rot if it hadn’t already. Then I would go about cleaning the rust off however one goes about that. I would paint it and make sure to weather-proof it in any way possible. Since the normal seats would be no longer, I would install two rows of bench-style seats facing each other in the van, with a recylced table in the middle (maybe a repurposed tire well…). That would serve as the perfect footrest for the tired individual, the perfect surface for avid card players, or even the perfect spot to crash and work on homework for a teen.

Personally I think it’s a great idea.

Next time you pass your park, picture one of the benches as a repurposed SUV, and maybe you’ll agree.

Overdoing it

Sometimes inspiration strikes in the most unnecessary moments.

One such moment would be a United States History project in which the task is to create a cereal box advertising one of Roosevelt’s New Deal Programs.

Not only did I have an amazing idea of how I would advertise the CWA (Civil Works Administration), but I had the audacity to challenge a similarly creative friend to see who could create the better box. I won in the end… but not without ridiculous amounts of effort on my part.

Firstly, I painted one of the hundreds of cereal boxes I have in my possession a light beige. Secondly, I formatted and printed the information required from the project rubric. Thirdly, and definitely the most time-consuming(ly), I made dozens and dozens of little “rocks”, painting them various shades of gray, adding shadows with markers, and meticulously attaching them to the box with hot glue. Fourthly, I made three little “dudes” to be “working on building” the box. One to put up the last letter on a painstakingly-cut sign, one to paint the final letter on the doorframe, and a third to do something with some sort of squeegee (honestly I’m not sure what the bald dude is holding).

Not only did I receive an outstanding grade for the assignment, but my teacher even wrote me a note saying “You are an encouragement and inspiration to me.” and I’m almost certain my project will be used as an example in years to come.

To go above and beyond on a project like this is completely unnecessary, but to be as proud of a result as I am of this is worth the effort. (I’m not saying I’ll willingly cut and paint cardboard rocks for another six hours of my life-this was quite enough-but it turned out fantastically).

Consider going above and beyond on something as trivial as a school project, or maybe do a boring chore with extra excitement, and it may just give you the courage to go above and beyond when it really matters too!

How to sketch a sculpture

In a sculpture class my sophomore year of high school, I was introduced to the material that is foam core (I think that’s its official name). Foam core is a sort of thin-ish sheet of foam with paper glued on either side, making it firm. To work with it you must have very sharp knives, else the foam will tear away in chunks when cut. You also must be very cognizant of the way you are holding the knife, as with the depth of foam core, holding it at an angle will affect the edge.

My first project using foam core was inspired by a Dr. Seuss drawing of a house. Something as crazy as…

The Reference Photo

…can be a bit intense to look at and say, “I know exactly how I’m going to replicate this".” It’s just so all-over-the-place.

So I sketched it using cardboard.

With my hot glue gun in one hand, and my scissors in the other, I had no trouble mashing together pieces until it resembled something I liked. Similarly to sketching a portrait, the point of a sketch is not to be perfect, but to eventually get to a product you can finalize and add detail to without wasting time. In a previous post I mentioned the importance of proportions, and how they are part of the sketching phase. Well, in sculpture it also applies, and while not many people will “sketch” their sculptures beforehand in 3d using something like cardboard, they may need to adjust their design just as much as they go along.

With my mini cardboard model, I was able to jump straight into the unfamiliar medium of foam core with plenty of confidence, and ended up with a result I was quite happy with (until I painted it, but that’s just because my painting skills were sub-par).

If you’re ever uncomfortable or unsure how to approach a new medium, try approaching it with one of your favorite, or previously well-acquainted mediums in a similar way first, and then jump into the new one.

Proportional Importance

Let me preface this by saying I am no master of proportions. This is simply a compilation of my observations and recent experiences with proportions and their relevance in art.

If you have seen any of my Instagram’s work, you will know it mostly consists of blocky, somewhat cute, cardboard figurines. Their proportions are, more often than not, lacking in accuracy and extremely skewed to the side of artistic liberty.

If you have also seen a relatively recent blog post about my interest in caricature art (which I sadly have not had time to pursue), then you would also question the validity of my following thoughts, as caricature art is incredibly skewed to the side of artistic liberty over realism.

Now why, you may wonder, would this boy write about proportions in art when he clearly doesn’t know anything about them? That’s where you would be mistaken. Just because I choose to dismiss standard proportions in most of my art does not mean I am unaware of them.

Bobble-head toys are funny. Why are they funny? Because they have big heads. My cardboard figurines are not particularly trying to be funny, but rather have a charm similar to that of a bobble-head. The blowing-up of one’s head proportionally can lighten the mood of even some of the darkest characters. Proportions, in fact, are used in bobble-heads, they simply are not accurate for the reason of humor and simplicity.

Similarly, there is caricature art. Caricatures humorously mock those being drawn by exaggerating their most noticeable features. If somebody has a round nose, you know there’s going to be a giant circle in the middle of the caricature mocking it. But the mocking is funny, and the disregarded proportions aid the humor of the drawing. Since it is often the person recieving the drawing who is being drawn, it is taken as light, banter-like humor between them and their close family and friends.

Proportions in realistic drawings are what it really comes down to.

If you want a drawing to be realistic, the proportions have to be spot-on. If you’re trying to draw a nice portrait, you want to make sure the nose isn’t too crooked, or the head too large, as it would often send the wrong message.

Artists love using circles and lines to get their proportions right. The trick is to not become attached to your “sketch” and to be willing to erase it and alter it until it resembles preciselt what you are attempting to draw in a proportionatly accurate manner. “Eye-balling something” is when you look at it and roughly sketch the shape of it. Artists need to do this when drawing things like monuments, landscapes, portraits, and anything in which there is a physical reference being observed for the piece.

Above is a sketch. There were lines used not only to get the basic layout of the picture (of which there was a photographic reference), but also to get the proper proportions for the faces and bodies. I used circles for the heads, lines for where shoulders would go, and boxes for glasses. Yes, this is the end of my sketch, but they start out incredibly rudimentary, often with little resemblance to the finished piece.

Some artists have the ability to do an inch of their drawing at a time, and finalize it as they go. Most artists, however, benefit from sketching out, extremely roughly, the entire drawing so as to get their proportions right, and finish it by adding waves of detail afterwards.

(The following pictures are less-so focused on proportions as on the process and “waves” of details added during each “phase”.)

I sketched the entire drawing. Then I inked the entire drawing. Then I added inked, stylized shading lines to the entire drawing. Then I erased the graphite from underneath the ink. Then I colored the entire thing with colored pencils (a layering process in itself). And finally, I added marker to really make the colors pop.

All of it was laid atop the proportions of my sketch.

The sunk-cost fallacy applies to art a hundred times over. You can think, after sketching for what feels like eternity, that you “deserve” to just move on to the next step. When you step back at the end though, with everything inked, shaded, colored, and completed… you will notice the proportions are off if you didn’t put the effort in up front.

Proportions can make or break every piece. Whether the used for comedic effect, such as in figurines and caricature art, or for portrait and landscape work in which they need to be accurate, proportions will be there. Make them the best you can.

Art Teacher Simulator

For the 2022 Innovate WithIN business pitch competition, I pitched a website called “cardboard.com”. This website would be home to thousands of uses of cardboard compiled in a free, easy-to-navigate format. It would encourage reuse of the versatile and amazing medium that is cardboard. However, I needed some proof that this was a decent idea.

That’s where my art teacher, Mrs. Burnworth comes in. With her sometimes lenient policies when it comes to productivity, I was able to teach two of her art classes for a week.

Of course she was still the presiding disciplinary officer, as that’s not something you can entrust to a 15 year-old, but I was leading the classes through their activities.

I chose to give each table group a prompt, and told them to use cardboard. They didn’t have to follow the prompt at all, but many groups leaned on them to get started.

My favorite prompt was “draw your favorite food… but alive”. Here are the incredible results:

And that was just one table group. I’d say I led an impressive amount of projects to fruition from just the two art classes. Here are most of the rest:

My business pitch didn’t go on to win any prizes, but this experience definitely won a positive spot in my memory for many years to come.

I spy with my artistic eye…

Something… forklift-ish? Not to go off on a tangent, but I love the suffix “-ish”. You can put it on anything! Buttery-ish, cool-ish, smart-ish, and it makes any word seem uncertain. Not that I’m a fan of uncertainty… but I digress.

When some people see an ordinary object, such as a metal bookend used in a library, creative minds see opportunity. I saw one such opportunity in this exact situation, from which a forklift was born.

The Forklift

It took an unnecesarily long time to make, but it turned out great! As of now it is on the front desk of NMPL, supporting a featured book selection.

The Post on NMPL's Instagram

The idea is not to turn everything into a forklift… (though now I’m thinking of how I could turn this keyboard into one…) the idea is rather to look at everyday objects differently. For a construction lead, that could be a clipboard. For a teacher, that could be your classroom pencils, whiteboard, or desk arrangement. For a librarian, that could be a bookend.

Creativity is not only the creation of new things and ideas, but also taking ordinary things and making them extraordinary.

Goodwill Builds (ft. Waffle Blanket)

The idea of timed, limited budget creations with a theme in mind is used all over cooking and game shows. You don’t need to be on a show however, to enjoy the creative energy associated with competing for the best thrown-together project. My aunt and I tried this ourselves at a Goodwill, and it went great!

We each started with a $20 budget, and the theme of “Disney” (though we both chose Star Wars ideas anyways) and tried to find everything we needed for our creations at Goodwill. I went into the challenge knowing exactly what I intended to create (a jetpack), while my aunt wasn’t so sure. After I had found my haul of guns and noisemakers, I came back to find she still wasn’t sure… And then we saw it. The infamous ugly green lamp. It was perfect.

The challenge played out quite well, ending in no clear winner (as my Mom was the judge), but two great results. Without much stress, only 6 or so hours, and only $20 each (plus an Arby’s lunch), we had a fantastic experience both of us enjoyed. I highly recommend doing something like this with a friend or family member when you get the chance.

Things you’ll need when trying this:

• Two people willing to look crazy in a GoodWill Store (you have to be to pick up that lamp)

• Basic home materials (glue, knives, cardboard, scissors, markers, paint etc.)

• A budget

• A theme

Have fun!