Mash Up- Matthew Laurence

I am excited and looking forward to experimenting again this year with the sketchbook exchange. A big shout out to Becky Green for setting this up again!

My theme for this year is "Mash-Up", to combine, add, subtract, elements and processes to mash-up a creation figuratively or literally.

The cover is developed from an idea that will be developed further with a printmaking project for my Art Foundations class to which they will generate a range of mono prints on paper and then apply a silhouette of some sort to form a focal point.

It is a tricky thing to apply more or less to the negative space in order to retain the focal point to the work. Yet this is where the mash-up comes into play. I hope everyone that participates this year has a chance to step out of their comfort zone, get comfortable in letting creativity take over, and just find the time to step out of the ordinary.

best,
Matthew Laurence

Zach's Unusual Daydreams

So I realize this isn't what the "normal" sketcher daydreams about, and it's not like I'm always a total geek, but if there's anything that I can get lost in thought with, it would be thinking about the physics behind everyday experiences.
I decided to use pen which I have never done before and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  It brought a much more dynamic feel to the picture and it forced me to just go for it and adapt as "mistakes" were made.  

Matthew Laurence/ Daydreams

Hello my name is Matthew and my theme for this sketchbook is 'DAYDREAMS'. The cover for this sketchbook is shown above. Over the summer I visited my father's place and in the guest room was this small antique crib toy that I photographed and wanted to incorporate into some type of artwork. I played around with Adobe Photoshop and separated the crib from the background and added a color gradient and downloaded a bird brush to add the winged creatures into the sky. Later, I printed the image out onto photographic paper and then applied several layers of tempera paint to the background and scratched away the surface to get that deteriorated look. Last, I added color markers to the work in addition to applying several layers of varnish to protect the surface.

This is my first image of the 'DAYDREAM' theme. It is a collage of work that started out as a teacher example for my printmaking class that is focusing on the principle of design, unity/harmony. This work uses the technique of the collagraph to which textures of objects are printed off of. the leaves taken from my apartment complex were used for the collagraph and a bit of photo collage from a magazine laying around completed the work. I will be using a number of my posted based off of a collage of media since it is something I find enjoyable and allows me to 'play'.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood-