Thursday, April 30, 2009

Classmate Artistic Portrait - DONE

My 4th project for Computer Art is FINISHED...and personally I love it! This is my artistic representation of Laura, she loves Andy Warhol, bright colors, the beach and her zodiac sign is the Libra.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Thumbnails & Puppies

Okay so I got some thumbnails done for my classmate project as well as some inspiration photos. I have decided to base the majority of my project off her favorite Andy Warhol painting, which is his Marilyn Monroe 6 image portrait in bright neon colors. I have chose 3 different images or representations of her personality to put in these boxes, a palm tree, a puppy and her zodiac sign: libra. They will rotate throughout the overall image in a pattern that makes the palm tree the center focus, because her love of the beach overrides all of the other elements. I also created a color spectrum for what I am going to use to create the different color variances in each box. She loves bright colors so that gave me a lot of different options and I will also be including different variations of white and black as well to keep with the Andy Warhol style.

Next Project - Classmate Portrait

Our 4th assignment for Computer Art was to draw a name out of a hat, all names were people within the class, and do a representation of that person without using faces or text. So we were given an interview sheet to try and get as much information about that person before getting started on their representation. I selected Laura R., which was perfect for me, because I take her to class everyday so if I need any more inspiration she's not hard to find, but here are her answers to the following questions...

1. Describe yourself as an artist: Color, Movement and loves to use Text.
2. What type(s) of art interest you: Andy Warhol, Wes Wilson and
3. Favorite Color and Least Favorite Color: I love ALL colors, but if I had to choose one not to use it would be any puke looking colors.
4. Describe your personality in one word: Silly
5. If you were an animal which animal would you be: Puppy
6. What's your sign: Libra
7. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why: Invisibility
8. Any additional information that will help you: Love the Beach

So I have some ideas running through my head and I am going to start working on some thumbnails to post on here as well, I just hope that I don't mess things up again and have to start over...so wish me luck!!!

Well I tried to get it done on time...

Okay so our 3rd official project was due last Thursday, April 23rd and trust me I had all intentions of having it done on time, but due to my somewhat developing skills in photoshop I had to start my entire project over at the very last second. I struggled with the best concept to represent my chosen professor/faculty member, Brad Burton, he's sort of one of those people that as harsh as it sounds you can judge him by his cover. He goes tanning, spends endless amounts of time on his hair, has really bright fake teeth and is in all reality a real life Van Wilder. My initial idea was to do something like a political or superhero poster to highlight his vanity, but my ideas weren't transfering over to the computer very well. So after some mild freaking out and a reality check that I needed to find some more inspiration, I was given an old poster book to look at with posters from 1950s-1990s. I was instantly drawn to the brightly colored and phycadelic posters of the late 60s early 70s and decided to run with my new idea after seeing a Wes Wilson poster. So above is my new idea, it's still not done yet, but it's getting there and will be done soon I promise. I am sort of working off the idea that he is a bit shallow and trying to create a pool like apperance to the entire thing and then also work with the two sides of him. You either like him or you hate him, because he has two sides as well, he can either be a big jerk or a pretty decent guy. So overall that is what I am trying to recreate through this piece and I will post the final project as soon as it is done!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Professor Project...Inspiration

This is my inspiration for my professor project...it's a poster by the world famous artist Wes Wilson, he's incredibly talented and has really given me some true inspiration for this project. I wanted to reference his work because I think it flows very well together and his use of color is very unique and abstract.

No Rest for the Weary - Next Project


WOW! Two posts in one day...all of you are very lucky or very tired of hearing me talk about my projects. After just completing my Artistic Portrait project it is now time to get a move on my Professor/Staff Member Caricature Project, which honestly if it all works out right will be a whole lot of fun for me. Above I have a variety of different thumbnails of things I could do to represent some of my favorite professors and staff members here at Otterbein. Using the things about them that make them my favorites or make them stand out from the crowd would be what surrounds them....some are more entertaining than others, I mean seeing someone spews symbols of the world's most famous religions out of their mouths would be pretty humorous.

However I think I have found my perfect subject for this project through my former CPB Adviser and now head of Greek Life here at Otterbein...Mr. Bradford P. Burton. Now I have spent a good amount of time with Brad from working with CPB and have learned all about what makes Brad, Brad...and trust me some of the things you would only understand if you knew him. Above is one of my reference photos for my caricature of him...this was taken by me, two years ago in Nashville, TN while attending a National Association of Campus Activities National Convention as representatives for Otterbein. Yes, he is on a merry-go-round. Yes, he is riding an Otter. Yes, he did break in to that ride and almost got all 6 of us kicked out of the mall.

Here are a list of the things that I hope to try and incorporate in to this caricature...
1. His love for Otters and anything Otterbein
2. His addiction to working out
3. His extemely white teeth
4. His two favorite sayings....Epic & Legondary
5. His work with CPB & Otterbein Greek Life
6. And his search for eternal youth...aka Peter Pan Complex

I understand that it may seem like I am poking fun at Brad's expense but trust me, over the years that I have had him for an advisor these have all become popular topics in conversation. They also serve as really good creative prospects for this project and I am really looking forward to getting started. Please leave me feedback on what you think about my concept.

Artistic Portrait - D.O.N.E.

YAY! After two weeks of struggling with design ideas, placement of images, figuring out how to blend and basically trying to define my creative process in to one 13x19 sheet of paper...I have finished my Artistic Portrait project. In the most simple of terms this is a representation of how my creative process works and what I draw from for inspiration. I selected a black and white portrait of myself to be surrounded by some of my favorite pieces of work....all of which help to proclaim my love for color and vibrancy. Embeded across my central photo is a quote that I rely on heavily when searching for inspiration for a new project, "what good does us reason, if we fail to see, and what good does us freedom, if we fail to be free." Basically saying what good are the things we value in life if we don't take advantage of them...so it pushes me to take advantage of my surroundings, my talents, my eye for angles and my willingness to step outside the box. This was a hard project for me and I learned a lot of things that will become very useful to me in future projects. I hope that you enjoy my work and please feel free to leave feedback of any kind.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Slow & Steady Wins the Race





















Now I haven't been very good at keeping everyone posted on how I am doing on my current project...Artistic Portrait. It is coming along much better than I ever expected and I am really looking forward to seeing what it will look like when I am done with it. So to sort of explain the process of how I got prepared for this project I have uploaded copies of my thumbnail sketches...now forgive me for not being the best at drawing, but I think this will be able to give you a good idea of the concept I am going towards. I am much further than these thumbnails on my project, but the one that will give you the best idea of what my project is going to look like, when this is all said and done, is the thumbnail on the left. Basically surrounding my self portrait are pieces of my own photography...everything from concert photos to landscapes to some portrait work I have done...all of them mean something to me in one way or another and they are what I use as my continued inspiration. Those images are going to be surrounded by a cloud-like backdrop, which represents my creative process, and then lastly the song lyric, "What good does us reason if we fail to see and what good does us freedom if we fail to be free", will run through all of the images. Hopefully that gives all of you a better idea of what I am working on...soon I will post what the project looks like so far and then my final product towards the end of this week. Again feel free to leave feedback!


Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Project 2 - Artist Portrait

This 2nd project is all about us, we have been asked to create a portrait of ourselves using things that represent who we are and what we draw from for inspiration. There were a lot of different ideas that came to mind when I began thinking about this project...below you will find my intent statement as well as some of the photos and ideas I am thinking of using in my project.

Intent Statement-
For this project I have decided to try and integrate my choice form of art and my love for music and color to create an overall representation of who I am and what I look to in order to find inspiration. Being a photographer by trade and heading off to photography school this fall that is a big portion of my life, so I really want to be able to include one or two of my favorite pieces of my photography along with my portrait. The two portraits of myself that I have chosen to possibly use for this project represent my personality very well, I am a genuinely happy and friendly person, and so I wanted a picture with a good smile and a sense of that portion of my personality. I also want to include the lyrics from my some of my favorite songs. Music is a huge part of my life and is what I focus a lot of my artwork on, so representing some of the bands and artists that inspire me will help my creative process come forward. I will also be trying to include as much color and vibrancy in my project as I possibly can, because color surrounds my world and helps me draw inspiration.


These are the two images of myself that I am trying to decide between, both have aspects of myself that I like and both are naturally black & white. I wanted a black & white representation of myself because the true color and creativity of my personality comes through in artwork which will be represented alongside of my portrait.



All of the above photos are some of my photography that I am trying to blend in to my image and use to represent what I see art in and what I draw from creatively. I am leaning towards a dream or thought theme for my project and having all of my photos and my inspirations coming forth from my head, showing my creative process and how I can take simple things and see how to make them in to a beautiful photo.

There is also a song quote that I am wanting to incorporate as well, this lyric is from one of my favorite bands to not only listen to but photograph as well, Cartel. "What good does us reason if we fail to see and what good does us freedom if we fail to be free?" from their song Georgia. I think it represents the process I go through when I photograph and reminds me to look outside the box.

Anyway these are my thoughts so far on this project and would love to hear your feedback and comments. I am still very much so in the early stages of this project, but it is looking positive so far.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Project 1 - Logo Type


Our first project for Computer Art was to create our very own logo type, a way to brand our work with a special symbol.

This project was actually something that I have been wanting to try to do for quite some time before I even started this class. As a photographer I am constantly looking for ways to stamp my work in order to show ownership over my pieces and had yet to develop one on my own.

Deciding what kind of logo would really best represent me as an artist and the pieces I create was more difficult than expected. I have two very specific personalities when it comes to my work, one loves structure, perfection and clean lines and the other concentrates on my love for the abstract, bright colors, obscure images and overall girly/glitzy side of my creativity. So internally I fought over what side to bring forth for this personal trademark I was trying to produce.

After dozens of sketches, both during class and at my apartment in my sketchbook, I had almost way too many options to choose from. I had everything from big block letters to sloppy exaggerated script to trying to add little details like hearts and loops. I just could not decide what way to go and what would be the best looking for this project. Finally after stressing and contemplating over and over I decided to do a little bit of both my creative personalities.

Above is my final product and honestly I could not be happier with it, it is a simple black box with clean lines and encased is a brush stroke representation of my signature initials. It reminds me of writing on a chalk board, but overall I think it will lend a good representation of my creative process to each of my pieces of work.