The Concentration print that I posted on here that was of my ex's hands I decided would not go into my portfolio. I have furthered developed my idea and decided that my portraits through hands would be of people doing something, people that are close to me like my friends and family. Here my concentration print with my friend, a close friend Marie, writing. Marie wants to become a writer and one day wants to publish her work and I know this is important to her so I decided that I would include her in my concentration, writing some poetry.

It looks really dark here, but in the print it's not.

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

We had to do a High Contrast sketch book assignment, and I did actually shoot High Contrast but it didn't come out good because my light meter on my camera was busted.

Here's my sketch book spread:

We had to another sketch book assignment for Identity, an assignment I never did. We had to write, who am I, in my sketch book and this is what I wrote.

I am a daughter, I am half Hispanic, I am a sister, a Christian, a girl, I can clean and cook and live, I breathe eat, sing terribly and try to play piano, I take photographs, write and read. I don't know who I am and what I stand for exactly; I'm a Christian and I believe in all that jazz and I believe everyone deserves a chance, no one should be hindered, people should be free to be themselves. I love English, I want to be an English teacher because I love writing. I sometimes feel like I don't belong like I can't confine myself to a stereo type, I'll never fit in. I'm insecure and childish and I act serious but like to be playful. I'm considered to be nice but I;m also thought of as bossy and bitchy. I'm random and I can just come out of no where saying something that makes no sense. I'm supposedly loud and than I can go quiet, I'm a thinker and an over analyzer. I love to try to sing, even I'm not a Grammy award winning artist I still still in the comforts of the dark room and I constantly serenade my friends. I'm really close to my friends but not with my family. I'm never this organized and I will never make sense, I think I learned a lot by just talking things out, which I love to do, I love hearing my voice. I'm Paulette, I'm perfectly confusing and happy about it.

I love me.

We had to do a sketch book assignment on Night Photography and I had to go and look for pictures for my sketch book. This is what I found:

I decided to do another artist reasearch on David LaChapelle. LaChapelle, according to Wikipedia, is a photographer and video/commercial/film director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique and often humorous style. Like Yosuf Karsh, my previous write up, he photographs famous people, but unlike Karsh, LaChapelle does vivid and surreal portraits of celebrities. To me, I feel that they are both equally different and yet alike photographers.

The picture I decided to talk about in my sketch book is of Jennifer Lopez (see below), the singer, who is dressed like the actress from Flash Dance. I chose this piece because it has pop culture in it, Flash Dance a movie, and it has a person that is famous already and the photographer decided to revisit an older movie and make it new, giving it a new spin and giving it a new life while still staying true to the model, Jennifer Lopez who is a singer/dancer.

What I feels makes this a sucessful image is the fact that it's so simple, a woman, on any dance floor, its in bullseye, and its posed but at the same time it has aspects that make it look natural, such as the sunlight.

I am also putting my sketch book spread.

I decided to do my third artist research on Yosuf Karsh. According to wikipedia, he was a Canadian photographer of Armenian heritage, and one of the most famous and accomplished portrait photographers of all time.I chose this photographer because he is a portrait photographer and as soon as I looked through out his collection of work I fell in love. He photographed famous individiauls and to me, he made them look like everyday people yet they were doing something that made them more than everyday people. The picture I decided to describe in my sketch book was of a man, Albert Schweitzer, thinking (see image below). According to my sketch book, I wrote, in the photograph you have a man deep in thought, shot in black and white at eye level. The man is in a dark suit and white shirt and this photograph features various photographic elements such as texture (in his hair), line (in his wrinkles) and the shape (of his hand).

What I decided to take from Yosuf Karsh, is his simplicity that he uses, a simple person doing what he does best, for instance, thinking. I really love his lighting effects, which are hard, which make me appreciate the work more. I am also including the spread that I did in my sketch book.

"Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness."

I liked sharing my work so much with everyone that reads this I decided to incorporate more of my wonderful doodles that live in my sketch book.

I never was an artist, but I've been drawing since before I could talk. My mother and father have always told me that I would be in my room drawing stick figures. So I've decided to share some of the sketches from my sketch book with all of you.

“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.”