Final Project: All Done!

December 8th, 2013.  8:00-11:19PM

My final project is all finished.  I now have three watercolor illustrations for The Snow Queen and an accompanying narrative mounted on bristol board!

This took a little longer than I thought, but it was fun enough that I didn't mind.  I am not an expert watercolor artist but I am reasonable happy with the way these look and I feel like I've become a little more practiced in this media.

I had been considering inking the drawings as some of the colors were mucky or washed out.  But I really didn't want to to that, so I compromised and outlined certain parts of the drawings using an old, almost dried up Copic liner.  It looks great this way, because the colors don't look too flat against the ink.

The only thing that slightly bothers me is my short "adaptation" of the story, because I had to fit it into a small space and so it is very quick and doesn't totally capture the spirit of it.  And some of the grammar is off because of the permanence of ink.

Overall I think it looks pretty nice.

End Of Class Update

So far, I have everything sketched, and one square is completely watercolored.  Over the weekend, I need to finish coloring and most likely go over everything with ink so it looks less washed out.  I think it will be awesome. Yeah! Party on! And by party I mean watercolor, because I do not go to parties.

December 4th, 2013.  8:35 AM.

Quick little update before I start working for today.

Last night I worked from 11:00 to 1:00 getting a couple of the sketches done.  Its amazing how long it can take to figure out exactly what an illustration should look like, especially one so small.  But I still think I can do it.

So today in class I think I will finish the sketches, or just watercolor the ones I have, then deal with whatever is left over the weekend.  It should not be too much.

Final Project Update

December 2, 2013.  10:54 AM.

So, I have decided to draw and watercolor 3-5 illustrations for The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen.

Right now I have read the story and have decided on a few scenes to do.  I've also made some sketches of the characters.  I'm going to prep some sketches before class on Wednesday because I didn't do quite as much in class today as I would have liked.

Brainstorming: Final Project

November 25, 2013.  10:16 AM

For my final project I want to do another comic/story type thing, possibly without words.  I'm not sure what it will be about.

I almost sort of want to take a song and listen to it and then think really hard about what it makes me imagine and then write a story based on that.  Actually that sounds pretty freaking sweet.  I could write fairy tales.

Maybe Candlelight by Relient K.  That's been one of my favorite songs for a long time and it always hits me with really pretty images.

I also really like the song Savannah from the same album.

Maybe it won't be a comic at all, but a series of small watercolors.  I just bought some really nice brushes and stuff...

I saw this illustration on Tumblr the other day and really liked it.  I think it's worth remembering.

by Tinasol

Now I'm going to go to the library to look at Chris Weir (forgive me if I spelled that wrong.)

The Narrative is Finished!

November 22, 2013.  8:15 - 9:37 PM.

After many hours of sketching, inking, and fooling around in Photoshop and iMovie, my narrative project is finally done!

Look at these cuties, how can they even exist?

I'm really glad I was able to draw this in the end, because otherwise I have no idea how things would have worked out.  The sheer number of bunnies I had to draw for this to come together was staggering and I wasn't sure I could endure it at times. But I did, and it looks pretty dang sweet if I do say so myself.  Not as funny or detailed as the comic version, but good.

So. Many. Bunnies.

There is actually very little Photoshop aside from text and minor alterations of the drawings, for clarity.  That might not go over so well, which is my fault.  But in any case I'm happy with this.  I got what I put into it, which was a substantial amount of effort.

iMovie Narrative Project

November 14th, 2013.  4:00-5:14 PM.

I just submitted my final animatic, complete with human parents rather than bunnies.

I love the animatic, but I'm not sure how the actual narrative is going to come together.  When the characters were all bunnies, it didn't seem like such a challenge to photoshop it all.  But now that they are people, I'm afraid it's going to look too goofy for the heartwarming tone I want.

 I want to use old Victorian fashion sketches as the characters, but that idea quickly falls apart when I remember the fact that I will have to photoshop a pregnant belly, glasses, and other things on top of them, which will undoubtedly look awkward.  And the whole thing will look stiff because if I use multiple poses for each character, I will have to use separate sketches that look like different people.  That would be super confusing.

I'm thinking I might just make this into more of a photography project because I really don't know how I'm supposed to pull this off in photoshop without it looking insanely tacky.

Comic Layout

November 14th, 2013.  5:09 PM.

Creating a short comic version of my narrative with Adam Miller was really cool! In class we talked about our ideas, and then produced finish comic spreads for homework.  Mine was pencilled and then inked.

Brainstorming in class was really useful.  I ended up changing the story to be about people who have baby bunnies, rather than bunnies having baby bunnies.  I think it's a thousand times more interesting than before.  And the comic turned out awesome! I just got really excited about the idea and I've always loved comics, so I put a lot of effort into making the panel layout balanced and attractive.  And apparently people liked it, so I'm really happy.

Storyboard

October 28th, 2013.  10:50 AM.

Alrighty, I have a storyboard all done.  Basically it's just bunnies having babies.

Visual Narrative Project: Ideas

October 27, 2013.  10:14 PM.

For my visual narrative project, I want to show two rabbits as they get married and have kids and grow old together!

It's probably going to be in Photoshop using pictures from the internet, and maybe some drawings.  In the first part, the cat and rabbit will meet each other and fall in love.  Then for a while they will stay in one place on the screen as the narrative progresses, showing them in wedding attire, then pregnant, holding a baby, getting wrinkles, and etc., showing how they age.  When they have become hunched over in old age and surrounded by grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, they abruptly drop dead.

So I there's the time element and a plot twist.

Memento

October 22, 2013.  11:28 PM.

So I just looked up Memento on Wikipedia real quick.

Apparently it utilizes an unusual form of narrative.  The color sequences are played backward from chronological order, while the black and white sequences appear chronologically.  Together they eventually meet and form one connected narrative.  I think that's pretty darn neat-o and I'm excited to keep watching.

Visual Narratives

October 22, 2013.  10:55 - 11:07 PM.

I suppose one could define a visual narrative as a form of visual art which tells a story: movies, comics, and children's books are all examples of visual narrative.  Some passage of time and events, or at least a suggestion of these, must be present.  Basically, a visual narrative primarily uses images instead of words or sounds to tell a story.

I think it is interesting how many types of visual narrative are combined with other forms of communication.  For example, movies and cartoons are accompanied by auditory imagery--sound effects, music, and dialogue.  And a comic or children's book is often accompanied by written storytelling.  Visual narratives in their most popular formats are almost always combined with some other form of narration.

Images and Sounds

October 16, 2013.  8:30 to 10:00 AM.

Today in class I put together my image and sound projects.

I had a lot of fun with this one.  I tried to keep it pretty light and even funny: there's a cat running through snow accompanied by various sound effects, and there's a doorbell which rings for different visitors.  It's just very nice.  I think I'm getting better at using flash, because this really wasn't hard, aside from a few issues cutting the frames properly.

Artist Research: Outline

October 15, 2013.  10:35 PM to 12:08 AM.

Here is the outline for my research project.

A. Objective Research (THE FACTS): 

i. Born in Pieve di Cadore, a small Italian town, and named Tiziano Vecillio, also known as Titian.  Lived from around 1490 to 1576.  Moved to Venice at the age of 10.

ii. Studied under the famous Giovanni Bellini in 1507, then later Giorgione.  Worked with Giorgione on murals in the "Fondaco dei Tedechi" in Venice from 1508 to 1509.  In 1511 he painted his famous frescoes in the "Scuola del Santo" in Padua.  Painted many famous portraits such as the "La Schiavona" and the "Portrait of Gerolamo Barbarigo".  Painted a mural, the "Assunta", for the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari church in Venice in 1518.  Between 1519 and 1528, he also painted the "Pala Pesaro" for the same church.  In 1516 Titian began painting commissions for Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara in his castle.  He also painted works for the court of Mantua starting in 1523.  In 1532 he took on many wealthy clients such as the Duke of Urbino, and the court of Pope Paolo III Farnese.  

Titian is renowned as the greatest painter of the Venetian school, and an important artist of Italian Mannerism and the Renaissance. He painted religious, mythological, and portrait scenes, usually commissioned by a church or court.  His work was praised for its unprecedented use of color and movement. 

B. Subjective Research (THE OPINIONS): 

i. Titian was one of the first painters to focus not so much on strict observationalism, but on employing light and color for more beautiful results.  Whereas Florentine painters made sketches on paper and copied them perfectly onto canvas, Venetian painters like Titian sketched on the canvas and made changes as the painting evolved, prioritizing light and color. 

His technical skills with frescoe and oil paint are indisputably excellent.

ii. Of course, Titian worked to earn a living, but as a Venetian painter he was also very concerned with the expressiveness of color.  There is also fondness for  mountains and landscapes in his work--in fact, the first Venetian painting to be classified as a landscape was done by him in 1552. The mountains reminded him of his hometown.

C.  Personally, I admire Titian's skill.  His ability to render the textures of various fabrics and the human body are amazing, and his use of color is often eye-catching.  However, I am not particularly drawn to his style as much as John Singer Sargent's.  Titian's work is beautiful, but very technical; Sargent's mark-making is more intriguing to me.  His brushstrokes are more soft and natural, whereas Titian's are more precise and posed.  I prefer Sargent because he more accurately portrays warm, fuzzy feelings through his paintings, if that makes sense.

D. Gather 3-5 images of this artists work. (NOT a screen grab, cite the images)

i. 

"Man with a Glove", 3'3'' x 2'11'', oil on canvas, 1520 (http://www.ranker.com/pics/N63405199/man-with-a-glove-artwork-photo-1)

ii. 

"Man with a Quilted Sleeve", 2'8'' x 2'2.1'', oil on canvas, 1509 (http://www.ranker.com/pics/N63613966/a-man-with-a-quilted-sleeve-artwork-photo-1)

iii. 

"Assumption of the Virgin", 22'8'' x 11'10'', oil paint, 1516-1518 (http://www.ranker.com/pics/N8488384/assumption-of-the-virgin-artwork-photo-1)

iv. 

"Bacchus and Ariadne", 5'9'' x 6'3'', oil paint, 1520-1523 (http://www.ranker.com/pics/N529392/bacchus-and-ariadne-artwork-photo-1)

v. 

"Danae", 3'6.2'' x 6'1.6'', oil on canvas, 1553-1554 (http://www.ranker.com/pics/N63221615/dana-artwork-photo-1)

Artist Research: Choosing an Artist

October 15, 2013.  10:15 to 10:25 PM.

To start out my search for an artist to research, I picked John Singer Sargent, because I've seen a lot of his work on Tumblr and more recently at the Museum of Fine Arts, and I think he's just fabulous.

Upon Googling his name, I found his biography on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.  It turns out Sargent was encouraged by his teacher to draw influence from a number of painters including Diego Velazquez. 

Velazquez himself once copied the paintings of Titian.

So there you go.  I'm going to research Titian!

Unidentifiable Object: Brainstorm and Finished Product

October 15, 2013.  3:40-4:30 PM.

To get ideas for the unidentifiable object animation project, I thought about movements that make me happy.  I started to think of soft things, like cats, that would move delicately (most of the time.)

When animating a cat proved too confusing for me at this point, I tried to think of other delicate objects that would not be too complex to animate.  That is what lead me to animating a flower.  I thought of the way flowers sway in the wind, whether slightly or violently, and attempted to replicate that motion.

Today I finished the animation which I started in class.  I'm reasonably happy with the results.  With only 120 frames, things don't look super smooth, but at the same time I can't spend 3000 hours on a little flower.  But for what there is, I think it looks pretty good and you can tell what the object is.

Nancy Bookhart

October 13, 2013.  8:52 PM.

The Nancy Bookhart talk on Wednesday was actually really interesting.

To be honest, I was confused at first.  I wasn't exactly sure what was being said, literally and intellectually.  But by the end I really appreciated Bookhart's thoughts.

I have heard of Kara Walker but never actually seen her work.  Now I can say I am a fan.  It seems so very simplistic, but it is actually incredibly deep and symbolic when you analyze it.

What intrigued me the most was the idea that black Americans are still hurting from issues that were never resolved.  There was never a generation that unanimously agreed whites were forgiven: people simply passed down their unresolved grudges to their children who became angry in their turn.  As Bookhart explained, she herself once hated white people for no other reason than that her parents were poor, and their bosses were white--facts that in reality held little correlation.  Many black Americans believe they are trapped in poverty or inferiority, and while these feelings hold some merit, it causes them to give up on trying to change things.  Because they believe whites will always oppress them, they can only continue to be oppressed until they change their mindset.  More accurately, all races need to change their mindset.  We need to actually think of each other as equals, not just feel bad because we are not treated equally, if that makes sense.

So I'm glad I went to this talk.  It made me consider new ideas from different perspectives, and introduced me to the fine work of Kara Walker.

Infographic

October 7th, 10:58 AM.

Wow! So I forgot to blog about my infographic last night!

It was actually really fun making this project.  First I watched a list of the 33 most viewed cat videos on youtube, taking notes on various properties like cat age, hair length, number, and other things.  Then I calculated some percentages and used the data to construct a picture of the "perfect cat".

There are some flaws but I pretty much like it.  It only took about an hour to assemble, after I had watched the videos and done a few calculations in class.

Internet Addiction Statistics

October 1st, 2013,  10:11 PM.

So I've decided to pick out statistics that have to do with internet addiction.  I have no idea how I am going to use them, but here is what I found:

In a Chinese survey of 1618 teens, 10.6% of whom were addicted to the internet in some way, 16% reported harming themselves in some way in the preceding six months.  The conductors of the survey calculated that internet addicted teens were twice as likely to self-harm.

(Source)

In a Stanford survey of 2,513 adults, 13.7 percent (more than one eighth) found it hard to stay away from the internet for several days at a time, and 8.2 percent used the internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood.

(Source)

Copyright

September 29, 2013.  3:40-3:55 PM.

Read up a bit on copyright law.

Copyright, basically, is the idea that citizens are entitled to certain powers of distribution and sharing when it comes to their own ideas and creations--the "right to copy".  It was first conceived with the growth of the printing press during the 17th and 18th centuries.

A creator is entitled to certain powers over their work, which expire 50-100 years after their death, depending on the country. At that point the work becomes public domain.

Pretty neat-o.

Source~

Finished Adage Image

September 28, 2:21 PM.

All done with my image adage project.

The change is subtle but I think it makes a big difference.  In class, I basically discovered that people couldn't tell what was in the x-ray, so I increased the contrast within the frame and decreased the opacity of the flowers to make it more clear.  I think it makes a lot more sense this way. 

Finished Spoof Ad

September 28, 2:05 PM.

I managed to finish two versions of my spoof ad in class on Wednesday.

Version 1

Version 2

I was pretty intimidated by this project at first because all I could think of were cliches.  But I'm pretty happy with this.  I basically thought it would be funny to imagine a model thinking of really deep, science-y stuff and ran with it.  It turned into a thing about genetic engineering and designer babies, which is OK with me because Gattaca is one of my favorite movies.

Brainstorming Ad Parodies

September 24, 9:20-9:41 PM.

Right now I'm searching around Google for ads and thinking of ways I could parody them.



I like the aesthetic of this ad, so I wonder what I could do with it.



I really don't know what's going on here, but I think it's an opportunity for humor.



This ad is actually interesting to me because I had the same exact one hanging on my bedroom wall for my entire high school life.  I loved the balloons but I never got why the woman looked so bored. Maybe this should say, "FLYING! Meh."



Another vapid model. Or maybe she's not vapid.  Actually I think it would be really neat to edit out the words and mascara and then type a big long paragraph detailing the model's thoughts on some deep scientific topic.

"Beauty is only skin deep"

September 21, 2013.  4-5:30 PM.

Today I finished my photoshop image that I had started in class.  

I'm actually surprised at how nice it looks.  At first I was befuddled, completely unsure of how to approach this assignment.  Because my adage is "beauty is only skin deep", I at first wanted to find images of hilariously ugly people--the kind of people we laugh at in cartoons because they are so unrealistically strange looking.  I wanted to juxtapose that against the x-ray full of flowers, to show how physical ugliness has nothing to do with the soul.  But after I did that, it looked really cheesy.  I wanted it to be more serious, so I googled "burn victims" and found a different face to place in the image.  It looks a thousand times better!  

And the fact that the person is a burn victim adds to the depth.  Burned faces are often horrifying, being marred and unnatural.  Realistically, it's hard for most people to find the beauty in that.  We cannot really say that everyone is pretty because some people are just terrifying.  They are hideous.

That's my problem with the new body acceptance movement: it assumes that everyone is gorgeous, no matter what.  But the truth is beauty is completely subjective, and fades fast.  So instead of focusing on outward beauty, which really means nothing in the end, why don't we start focusing on inner beauty, which is far more valuable and useful to society

Thinking

September 16, 10:38 AM.

Here are some aphorisms and adages that strike me:

"A fool and his money are soon parted."  This is both painfully true and potentially hilarious.

Maybe this guy spent too much on shoes.  I don't know.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed."  I never understood this saying.  Why should a person be in need for me to be friends with them?  Did I take something from them?  This is something I want to think more about.

"Hey friend, need a hug?"

"All we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."  Also painfully true.  

He probably knows something about history.  Or nothing.  Which is something.

"Beauty is only skin deep."  This is extremely important because with the recent body acceptance movement, people are actually forgetting this saying.  It's great to feel beautiful and love your body, but beauty is a temporal thing and shouldn't be such a big deal to us.  

Beneath it all we're just a bunch of skeletons.

This is what a soul should look like.

A similar, more Biblical quote: "I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God." 1 Timothy 2:9-10.

John Baldessari

September 15, 2013, 10:43 PM.



For my research homework, I chose John Baldessari.

Baldessari is an interesting guy.  I like that his work breaks the "fourth wall" and makes you think about the formulaic nature of some art--his work encourages artists to break rules and create new and different things. He is by no means my favorite artist.  His paintings are a little too bold for my tastes, and lacking in detail; Yet the driving ideas behind his work are admirable.

Fonts and Images

September 15, 2013, 10:29 PM.

First I want to talk about Wednesday's class, when we analyzed images and words and then played around with fonts.

I liked to see everyone's individual interpretations of words like "explosive" or "beauty".  The way we grow up and learn to understand these words can make our choice of fonts very similar or very different.  It reminds me of the fact that we will never be able to fully understand each other simply because the meaning behind a word can be completely different depending on who is hearing it.

Now about the image and word pairs that I put together: those required a bit of thought, too.

Choosing words for my muffin picture was a little tough.  I confess I did not think hard about the image before I chose it, opting to challenge myself to come up with fitting words.  Some were alright, while others don't make total sense.  Overall, I don't think these combinations are amazing.  But I did my best.

As for finding pictures to fit the word "breathe", I had a lot of fun!  The pictures are so different in intent and mood that put together, they create a dark and humorous contrast.  I'm not sure exactly what my method was... I basically Googled "breathe" and similar words, looking for interesting meanings.  I'm happy with them.

Words and Images

September 10, 2013, 10:26 AM.

I just picked out my image and listed as many words as possible that could be associated with it.  It was harder than I thought!

My picture is of muffins in a pan, so it was interesting coming up with words.  I wrote a long list ranging from "breakfast" to my childhood pet, a chicken named Muffin.  In the end I narrowed it down to "cupcake", "muffin man" and "muffin top".  I think these are equally interesting and different words. Woo!

Failure

September 10, 2013.  9:53 PM.

In class yesterday we talked about failure--that is, failure to meet conventional rules.  We talked about how inevitable failure becomes in a world that is constantly changing.

I really liked the video game analogy that was brought up.  I love video games, but they can be tough.  There's always a puzzle I get stuck on or a boss I can't quite beat.  But I rarely give up on a game because of that.  I keep trying, for some reason.  I fail and fail and fail and punch the couch and fail and fail and yell at the wall and then, finally, by some miracle, I get through.  The boss is beaten and the day is saved. And because I failed so much before succeeding, it feels even better.  Games take work and a lot of failure, but they are worth it.

Life should be like that.  We shouldn't be so afraid to fail.  We should accept our failures as educational experiences, and then keep trying.  Nothing is really impossible.

EZ Does It

September 6, 2013, 12:30 - 12:50 PM.

Just read the article about R.F.I.D. technology and answered the corresponding homework questions.

The article was interesting, because it's hard to believe that technology is becoming so advanced.  However, it's also kind of terrifying because there are so many ways it could be used to violate privacy.  Sometimes I wish we could just be happy with what we have instead of trying to make everything super extra crazy efficient.  Convenience seems nice, but everything has to come with a cost.

Complex Image Combinations

September 6, 2013.  10:30 - 12:25 AM.

My complex image combinations were a little easier to do than the image pairs.  It took about an hour and a half to find the right pictures, and then maybe half an hour to cut it all out.

I aimed to use the same method as before, tearing out whatever images seemed pretty to me.  However I couldn't help put prefer pictures that had to do with flowers and the change of the seasons, which is apparent in my final product.  There are tons of flowers and leaves! I like it.

September 3 Class

September 3, 2013.  8:30 - 11:10 AM.

Today in class, we talked about and examined our image pairs.

It was neat to see all the pictures up on the wall.  A few were flawed, but overall each one was deep and interesting.  Our conversation brought up things I hadn't considered in other's work as well as my own.  I think discussion adds to beauty because it helps me see things better.

Image Pairs

August 30th, 2013 - 1-5:06 PM.

Today I put together my image pairs.  It took a little over an hour to find the right pictures, and then a few more hours to crop them and put them all together, because I'm terrible at cutting things.

To find the right images, I simply looked through magazines and tore out anything that caught my eye--then found pairings later.  It worked pretty well, and I will most likely be using similar methods in the future.  However, I had a really hard time trying to crop the images properly.