Routine

So turns out I did not drink enough coffee to really get a cool image. I do kind of like this though.  You can see the details in the filters which is a good thing in my opinion.  I also plan on adding to this piece.  That meaning I'm still collecting coffee filters and hopefully can do something really neat with them one day. 

Inspiration from Routine

I never thought of routine as a source of inspiration.  I mean, if anything, I would think of routine as something boring.  That you have to use your imagination to make daily life more exciting.  However, I do understand how routine creates comfort and relieves stress in a way.  It's like if something falls out of place, it can cause stress; such as if your late for class or you didn't get to eat breakfast.  We try our best to get back into the groove of things.  It is a beautiful thing, routine.  I just never expected it to be something visually beautiful.  I guess the exception is if your daily routine is painting with water colors. 

Wagner

For 2D this week, we went to the Wagner Museum of science, I think it's called.  Not gonna lie, it creep-ed me out a little.  I mean, the stuff in there was definitely interesting, but I can't get over the fact that the taxidermy made even the otters and squirrels look evil and that i saw what I think to be the remains of a preserved human finger.  Anyway, we had to critique the format of the exhibit.  I thought it was just a little funny, some of the things that were put in the same categories.  I kind of think they did according to furry the critters were.  I mean one of the displays had weasels, raccoons, a sea lion and an American panther all in the same case. INTERESTING.

Book binding

I've binded my first book today.  No offense, but I don't know if our instructor knew what she was doing, but it was actually pretty fun to do.  I like being able to say from now on, "yes i know how to bind books, its easy." You know, because of all the people that will ask me if i can bind a book for them.  I also just thought of good Christmas presents though.  Between this and the molds I made in 3D, I don't know if i will have to buy anything for anyone.  I kind of wish that we could do more hands on activities during our lecture more often.  Note to self, if I'm ever worthy to speak at a Tyler lecture, give the people something to do while I talk.

Landscape

So i have two options here...
I like both the night time scene or the daytime scene.
Can't make up my mind so I've decided to just post both of them.

As for the project.  I enjoyed it.  It took me a while to figure out what i wanted to make, but I actually think this is a nice representation of me and my friends from home if we had our own fantasy world. 

notes to self

• for printing, everything needs to be saved as a tiff at the end 
• all of your layers have to be flattened
• has to be set up as an rgb file
• resolution has to be 200 or more dpi
• 19x13
• ink next door with luster image is $6.50
• for mat paper its $5.55
• submit at least 2 images for show... print 4 images
• they have rolls for bigger projects/prints but you need to set it up beforehand- they want the file
• do not do this before class because there is not enough time
• print illustrator files
• safe as command d and save to desktop as flattened image
• once saved go to file export and export it as a tiff
• resolution high
• color mode rgb
• dpi 300 and save
• give file to ppl in office
• print photoshop files
• save directly as tiff from photo shop
• make sure its flattened in rgb and 300 dpi
• flatten artwork in layers section

Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo

This week two artists visited us.  They started out as architects and expanded their talents into the field of art, which apparently is a big no, no.  But they had really interesting stuff.  I particularly enjoyed their photos of billboards.  It made a very pleasant series.  I just really enjoyed the vintage feel they had, with all the billboards being set up different ways, some were broken down and some had cute messages on them.  It is an interesting subject to take up.  I mean, who knew billboards, could inspire such great things.  And by great things I do not mean the photos, even though they are pretty cool.  But anyway, these two made that sculpture for the US border and I thought it was the craziest looking thing.  And by crazy I mean really beautiful.  It was an interesting concept to put the sky in a frame and capture something that seems so limitless.  Also, I really appreciated how well these two seemed to work together.  They went to school together and have been working with each other ever since.  They seem like a great duo who do make fantastic work.

trANSformation pt 2

 

I think these are a little better.  Natural lips work much better with the baby's complexion.  I think the elephants are  kinda awesome, I love mixing black and white with color.  The lobster claws are actually the same thing.  I didn't save my changes right I guess so my alterations didn't make it.  It really didn't look that different though.

Scan Project

I drink Coffee everyday.  I know this is part of my routine because without it, I would probably fall over into a deep sleep mid critiques.  So, the objects I plan to use for this project are coffee filters.  Hopefully, even with their lack of color, I will be able to make a somewhat interesting image.

Transformations

I think its safe to say i need some work with this one...

Retouching Images

Retouching was very easy; and therefore, I like it a whole lot.  The tools were pretty fun to use and I actually really enjoyed bringing the picture back to life.

Before -----> After

Tuesday Lecture

This week we had current students come in and talk to us about internships.  It was nice to see what accomplishments these people made.  The one girl was only a sophomore and was already an apprentice to her 3D teacher.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Another girl got to work with Hallmark.  That was also exciting to hear because, I think anyway that Hallmark is kinda a big deal.  I feel like I got the most help and advice from this girl.  Do not be shy is what I learned from this girl.  She certainly was not a quiet character and I believe it is obvious that this quality really helped her progress.  I wouldn't mind working for Hallmark someday.  Especially since it was a paid internship.  Kinda awesome! I mean graphic design is not exactly what I want to get into, but the opportunity in general is a great thing.  That is what I am so excited about going to Temple.  We are given so many opportunities to prepare us for a successful future.  These kids who spoke to us are proof.

Autumn Story Animation

I thought this was absolutely beautiful.   It felt really whimsical and organic though I can't say exactly gives it those qualities.  I think maybe its how the images are so simple yet compelling.  I love the way one image shifted into another.  My favorite part was with the girls and the birds.  I loved the images themselves and I felt a sense of freedom during that particular part; however, I don't know why.  I think this video still sort of has me guessing.  I also loved the movement of this piece.  The individual drawings did not line up perfectly which i think worked better than if it was an immaculate cartoon.  The video also took me by surprise a little when it jumped to the different chalk boards.   
The remains of the last drawing gives a dream like or ghostly effect to the new image.  I think that's what I liked most about it.  It put me in a dream like state.  This and the song was beautiful in itself.
I feel like there is so much more I can say about this, but I really can't seem to find the right words to describe it.  Lets just say instead of failing to try to do it justice, I posted it on facebook so I can show more people because I really think it needs to be seen.

Self Portrait: Kandinsky-style

I really enjoyed this project.  It was very time consuming, don't get me wrong, but working with photo shop and all the different brush strokes was a lot of fun to me.  I had a lot of trouble with my face and hair though.  I still think it looks a little weird; and i had to pretend my hair was down because drawing the different wisps of hair that was falling out was getting really difficult.  Then my next struggle was whether or not to include the black lines in my face.  I tried it out, but didn't like it so much.  I figured Kandinsky's self portrait didn't have any black streaks or circles so i figured it'd be okay.  I think I wold of added more bold shapes in the background if it were not a self portrait.  I obviously wanted the image of myself to be the main focus, after all it is a self portrait.  I figured too much would get distracting.  So here it is! I still think my face looks a little weird, but overall, I think it's actually pretty fun.

Ben Volta

I really liked this guy.  I really have no idea what his job title would be, but his work just looks like so much fun and getting kids involved is a great concept.  Over the summer, my high school art teacher got a couple of us together and we went to a school in the city of Reading, which really is not a very nice city.  But, we went to an elementary school and kids from around the area would come and we would do art projects all while painting a mural in the school.  Unfortunately there were some conflicts with my schedule so I never actually got to work or see the mural, but it was such a great project and listening to this guy talk about his work really made me miss those kids and that program we did.  I also really wish my math classes were like that when I was in Junior High.  I did have some trouble with whether or not he took credit for the art though.  I mean, he seemed more of a chaperon instead of the artist himself.  His ideas were brilliant, by creating the projects for the kids to work on, but he did not actually do the work.  I guess as long as he gives them credit.  Anyway I found him to be oh so delightful.

Waking Life

This movie was kind of amazing.  Now knowing how long it takes to make one picture via photo shop, I cannot imagine how long of a process it was to make enough to fill a whole scene.  Especially for those clips that had great exaggerations.  I mean, it is one thing to just go over the image (which I am sure takes a lot of skill to be able to make the different images alike enough to go together so well) and it is a whole other accomplishment to make a whole new image in the background or as a way to embellish the scene if that's the right word to use.  And when I say this, I am talking about the scene where the guy lit himself on fire.  I highly doubt that actor actually lit himself on fire so the artist had to create that without any reference or background to guide them.  Another example I am thinking of is when the men are at the bar and as the customer is describing his conflict with the man on drugs, the artist reshaped his body to match the description of the story, and the smoke and simple objects in the background would also change shape to go with his story.  That is what impressed me the most, but I really loved the different styles used in the film.  I am not going to lie, I was unaware that there were different artists that would design different scenes, so at first I was a little confused when I saw the image change for the first time.  But the different styles made the film so interesting.  Even though we watched random scenes and had no real concept to what was going on in the movie, we were all still so interested just because we were excited to see how the next artist altered the image.  That is how I felt anyway.  Overall, it is a beautiful movie.

kandinsky self portrait pt 1

This is it so far!!

H. John Thompson

At first, I'm not going to lie, I was not really a fan of this guy.  He just didn't have any work that impressed me.  However, once he got to the story about the model house and how he made an addition to match the addition to the original, I began to realize how personal he makes his work.  I'm not saying this either just to be like there's good work in all artists.  I mean, if I don't like someone's work, I'll say it.  But this guy genuinely grew on me.  He really puts himself into his work.  While I think his stuff is still a little boring, I have great respect and admiration to artists who really try to represent a story or meaning in their work which I think he does beautifully.  His work also had a lot of humor in it.  The way he used a barbecue to showcase the fence piece was clever, interactive and fun. 

Self Portrait. Final project

So one thing that I need to not do next time I use adobe illustrator is use the effects.  Now, I might need some help getting the effects off because I am not so sure this will even print.  There were also some things I was thinking of doing, such as adding patterns to some of the background, but that looked way too busy as a final project.  I cannot say this face really looks like me and I think i look a little angry, which I wasn't, I promise, but for the most part, I think it is colorful and that's all I can really ask for.  In a semester full of darkness and black and white, it is really good to get some color in my work. 

Art Lecture

We did not have a speaker for our lecture this week.  Instead, we went over schedules and all that fun stuff.  There are some things I am excited for and some things I am not looking forward to next semester. First, I love color so the fact that we get to work with that next semester is something that I am really excited for.  One thing that I am kind of upset about is the fact that I have grown to really like all my teachers and it is a little upsetting to know that we are going to be switched around for the spring.  I do think it is going to be a little easier though.  I have less classes so my work load should be somewhat smaller.  Overall, I just hope that I am going to get the classes that I want to take.  Scheduling can be stressful at times.

Kadinsky

So I think for my assignment I am going to use the influence of Wassily Kandinsky.  His work is very abstract, but I think it is so interesting, colorful and expressive and I really think I will be able to make a very interesting self-portrait.  Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow, Russia in 1866.  Because of his parent’s influence he became a musician, learning how to play the piano and the cello.  In 1886, he studied at The University of Moscow and afterward, became a teacher with the Moscow Factory of Laws.  It was not until he was thirty that he showed a real interest in art and went to study life drawing in Munich.  He showed a real talent in art and soon exploring with new ideas.  He added color and lines to his paintings, which soon developed into abstract art.  His work was inspired by a variety of things from music to controversial issues.  But he continued to create even with all the criticism he received.   Wassily Kandinsky died in 1944 as one of the founders of abstract art. 

 

Doug Bucci

I have to give this guy props.  I am exhausted because of all the projects and homework.  I could never imagine going through this with a child.  I am so impressed that he did not give up on his dreams.  I am also impressed, not just that he was able to make it through art school, but that he was successful afterward. We have had impressive people come in to speak, but I admire him the most.  He went through so many obstacles.  I mean, he is fighting for his life due to his diabetes and he is raising a family.  The odds were against him from the start and he was able to make it through on the top of his game.  He worked with royalty and Bam Margera after all.
Another thing that I liked about this guy was the fact that he was willing to give up his success to create work that really means something to him.  He made a line and gave the profit to organizations that relate to helping those with diabetes because it is what inspired his line.  I liked how he took something life-threatening and was able to make beautiful work from it.
One last thing, he gave great advice.  One of the first things he said was that it was the best thing to be uncomfortable.  I feel like I am always trying new things so it is nice to know that uncomfortable is a good thing.

Patterns!!

This would be my first pattern.

 

Second pattern.  

Third pattern.

And so on...

Creating the patterns were actually pretty fun.  I had some problems with borders.  I did not understand at first that the images had to be lined perfectly in the square we made or we got a large border in between the image we created.  However, I think I eventually got the hang of it and was able to make some interesting designs.  I really like working with the different brushstrokes.  The water colors are very appealing to me. 

Marianne Dages

This week our lecture was with a Miss Marianne Dages.  It is funny because in my 2-D class the next day, unfortunately, nobody could remember her name.  She was a good speaker and talked about interesting things, but she only mentioned her name once.  She emphasized the importance of finding your own space to work once you leave school.  Throughout the speech, I grew very envious of this girl.  She spoke of this magical place where artists go to do work.  They have infinite time and limited distractions.  I cannot help but crave the time she was given.  When were all waist deep in work, time sounds like the most beautiful thing in the world.  Besides the wonderful work we create of course.  Anyway, she also talked about her friends who were also successful in finding studio space.  The one that really caught my attention was the story of the married couple she was good friends with.  I couldn't imagine working in unison with your spouse.  They must have so much fun together. 
As for Mariann's work, I never would have thought of book binding as a career, but her work is beautiful and unique.  I personally would be so proud to be able to carry around a book that was hand bound by me.  She is very talented in her field of work.

I'll call him Bob

So this is the chihuahua that I created in adobe.  It was really easy after a awhile; once you get the hang of it.  I think he looks a little frighting personally but overall, I think it was fairly successful.

First Friday

I just wanted to post a few pics I took from my first experience at First Friday.  Thank you, Clarice for telling us about it because it is amazing.  First of all, I did not realize going in to our adventure, we would be going to Penn's Landing, a place that has recently made its way to one of my favorite locations in the world!  I was in complete bliss from the start and as we carried on walking up and down second street, my love grew.  There were people everywhere and you would expect the stands to get redundant, but all of these people were so unique and interesting.  Now I just cannot wait for next month.  As for the pictures, I think they are a little interesting.  It was night time so some did not come out very clear, but I think the effect was really neat actually.  I love the pictures I got last night.  Especially when I would walk up to people and ask for a photo.  Have I mentioned the people there were awesome?

Memoir part two

I like my first memoir project better, but this time  played around a little more with the words and how I can make them follow a line i just drew.  If i can learn to draw nicer lines that will come in handy soon.

Those kids take after their parents exactly!

Its really exciting how I got to do this project three different times because the computers kept freezing up.  That just makes anything frustrating.

So these are my two icons and I really hope I got this right.  Don't remember where the paper was with the icons on it, but I do remember there being one for no smoking so I decided that was a safe bet.  Besides, I am all for not smoking myself.  The first icon shows thread and a needle.  I've always liked to sew.  I got it from my mom who got it from her mom.  I guess something about having at least three sewing machines in our house at all times helped out with that one.  I mean I'm not very good but it is something that I really enjoy doing and sewing was pretty much the first creative hobby that I had. 

Tech Center

It is official.  The tech center hates me.  I finished all my projects last night and as i was figuring out the best way to save it all, the computer froze.  I had to put up with that colorful spinning wheel for 15 minutes before the tech guy had to shut it off and I lost everything.  On the bright side, I am a MASTER at making little families of shapes.  As of right now I am pulling an all-nighter to get my folios completed.  I am so tired I am having a lot of trouble moving my fingers to the right keys.  But at the same time, if I can pull this off and not collapse mid-critique, I'm going to be very happy.  Wish me luck!

Art Lecture

So I literally just got back from our lecture, where Candy Depew talked about her work with silkscreen and molds and bikes.  I found this to be exceptionally interesting.  I had always been interested in the same type of art and hearing about her life kind of inspired me.  That is very similar to what I want to be doing when I grow up. So much that I am tempted to email her and later on in my schooling, try to be an intern.  I’m not going to lie; the past lectures we had I would often doodle and concentrate more on my 2-D sketches, but I was just so involved in what she was saying; even when she got sidetracked and talked about bikes at the bottom on the canals in Amsterdam.  Another thing that got my attention was her variety in work.  She appeared as a graphic artist to me at first.  I mean she used solid colors and lines to make her images.  Then she got further along in her work and I realized how much variety she uses.  Such as Tony Hawks skateboard for example.  The design on that was so beautiful and romantic in my opinion.  Then she had molds.  Some complex and some simple, going back to that graphic look.  Then she showed us her fabric, and not just her silk screens but I was amazed with the dress she gave the ballerina who performed at one of her exhibits. The fabric was very bunched up together and had little form, but I thought it was beautiful.  And in general, she seems like an awesome person.  I mean she’s an artist who works with skaters and punk rockers.  I’m not too into either one of those things myself, but its still pretty cool.

The Met!!

So this was my first trip to the met. Ever.  I cannot describe a more perfect day.  I got to explore the met, I strolled around central park talking about music and art with a friend, and, finally,  I really just experienced New York on my own for the first time.  Every other time I went up there I would be with my mom who, despite my adult age of 18, would not let me out of her sight.  I don't think I need to even begin talking about how AMAZING everything at the met is.  I was so awed by everything.  And, I really enjoyed our tour with Professor Kline.  The art seems even more interesting when he talks about it.

At one point I also got to see european art and was completely mesmerized by a Van Gogh painting for about 10 minutes.  I literally could not look away.  The way he mixes his color to show dawn is absolutely gorgeous.  But I digress.It was an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go again.

Some pics from the museum and central park... 

Memoir

This assignment was a little frustrating.  It took a while to figure out how to put the final picture on my actual blog.  Other than that though, I enjoyed playing with the Illustrator.  On this particular picture, I used an effect to make the image look like water since my memoir involved a pool.  I chose this memoir because it represents my life very well and also there was no way to incorporate goggles to these pictures and this project.