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!