So today, having posted my Day 5 assignments at a pleasantly early hour, I decided to read ahead a little.
Each class has more or less the same pattern: Day 2, discussion question. Day 5, two design exercises: one technical, one artistic. Day 7, class critiques. The technical exercises are usually pretty quick and easy, so I figured I'd take a look at what was coming up and maybe do a little preliminary work.
Well, that was a mistake. Not only did I discover that next week I need to produce an informal composition for my design class (what, no parameters??), but also that there's a Final Project looming in Week 6. (Did I mention Week 6 is only three days long?) No instructions, just a "portfolio-level" piece of art.
When did I ever claim to be an artist? Oh, yeah - when I applied to art school. Well, at least I have 3-1/2 weeks to think about it. Yikes.
Next week's exercises for my color class are also shaping up to be frustrating. We need to do the old make-the-same-color-look-different-by-laying-it-on-a-different-background trick. Not as easy as it looks. I did the Week 3 reading (Josef Albers, a fascinating and unconventional writer), and it seems that inexperienced folk like myself are supposed to tackle this exercise with trial and error.
Art is Not-Math. My brain is having a hard time with the concept of an infinite number of right answers coexisting with an infinite number of wrong answers.
Perhaps I need to turn off my brain a bit more often. I fretted quite a bit over my floral design, but I didn't get the same kind of criticism I did for last week's negative space design. So maybe it's better. I think it's better, at least right now. The other thing I'm learning is that designing is a bit like writing for me: I have to get away from it for a while before I can look at it objectively. I can look at the negative space design now and say "Oh, yeah, of course - too much black!" But I truly didn't see it at the time.
Is that learning? Maybe? A start, at least?