special edition blog museum 1

This is probably the funniest pic that I took all day. this is the mandatory pic that shows that i actually went to the museum and am not trying to cheat my way to a good grade.

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This is a painting by Paulus Potter. he is a Dutch painter who lived from 1625-1654. The title of this painting is "Two Cows and a Young Bull beside a Fence in a Meadow, 1647.

Craft: this is a painting on panel.

Composition: everything about this picture seems so even and centered. i definitely like the emotion and character that the author gave the cows. and the dead tree is amazing, i love old run down and dying items, they have such beauty to them.

Special Edition Blog 1 Shoes

I guess the first thing anyone would ever say about my artwork is that I place my feelings within every piece. This was the first time that I have ever used the Illustrator program for art and I really enjoyed it. I am known for doing small little details in most of my work, so the program was an extreme joy. In these illustrations I was able to cover many different areas in my personality: the dark and grim, “The Temple Beast”; crazy colors usage, “Crazy Colors”; and fantasy and mystery, “Wonderland.” I never thought about the use of shoes in any major artwork since the shoes I’m most attracted to are too expensive for me to purchase. But, I found out that a simple pair of sneakers can express ones feelings just by changing their color.

When I first began this project I wondered to myself ‘how the heck am I going to make shoes looks cool,’ and then it hit me-personification. I love the idea of looking at objects and thinking about the life they would have if they were people. And when I was looking for places to take pictures of my shoes I came across my front room couch. I guess one can say I have a very active imagination if I could walk past a couch and see a monster within, but none the less I had my perfect situation. By using pipe cleaners wrapped around the laces of my shoes I was able to give them the expression of being scared of the couch. I also propped the cushions open to give the couch the mouth that I saw in my head, I can’t expect everyone to be able to see a simple couch as having a mouth now can I. I took the picture and I had it!

When I first began my illustrations of the picture I was ready to switch it, it was so complicated. But, like most things I stick to it just to see if I can without hitting my breaking point. Well, I made it and finished my first illustration of the couch. I then started the next three pictures in the set. The first was a simple changing of the colors. I loved it, until I made the next illustration. My second illustration was of the temple beast. When I first started this illustration I was thinking ‘am I ever going to be able to finish this on time?’ This illustration took so much time that I literally had a single weekend to do my third illustration. Me being me, I already decided that I needed an illustration that I would, maybe would, place upon my own wall. This is how the “Wonderland” illustration was created.

Wonderland is my overall favorite illustration from the shoes set. The way that I was able to create such detail on super-small objects was so exciting for me, even though many can’t even see the detail unless they place the picture on the tip of their nose. The many different techniques and colors I used for the “Wonderland” illustration were somewhat more difficult because there were so many layers upon layers. I believe this illustration takes the longest to open because of the layers, but it’s worth it.

The only thing I really need to say about my illustrations is that I started to create them for others, but as the class went on they started to go more in the direction of pictures for me. I believe many can look at my work and understand the concepts, and those that can’t can then create their own, that what I love about art anyone can interpret it the way they want.

Week 10

Craft: I changed the colors of my page numbers from the vibrant "christmas-ish" colors to the plain yet delicate white and black by using the swatches tab. I also changed the green name box to a simple black box with the color swatch again.

Composition: I took out most of the text from the first page because I wanted more emphasis on the mask. Also, I changed the font size to 10pt. The other change that I created was a specific style for the layout of my images. I like the idea of a gallery so I think my magazine will use this throughout its entirety.

Concept: I decided to listen to the overall consensus about my layouts. I have changed the numbers to a more delicate color and decided that my favorite symbol, the circle, will be used for most of my images and pull-quotes. I like the idea of a page with the article title on the bottom so i decided to add this in as well.

Week 9

Craft: Since this is the first assignment that we will be using In-Design for we started with a blank document. We chose the letter format and picked as many pages as we wanted to work with. Since we can add more pages later I decided to start mine with six pages. I then created boxes for the picture to be placed within. This is what I did for the text elements as well. I then played with the sizes of the elements until they looked just right.

Composition: I like the idea of open white spaces with very little around it so I decided to make my intro to the story this way. The main picture for the pages is my picture of my style name within my style. I made sure to cover all the text that surrounded this single mask to make it standout even more. I then simply put the title of my article with the by line. I tried to limit my color to make the eye standout more upon the mask. I also layered the mask over both sections of the page spread.

Concept: My concept for laying this spread out the way I did is for effect. The next couple of pages will all be different because I really like organized chaos in my work. I think it best describes my life, and when people see it they will know it’s just me and my work. But there are many more elements that I wish to incorporate into this layout, and will hopefully learn how too.

Week 8

Craft:

When I first began these illustrations I kept thinking about how I was going to draw the object. I realized, after our introduction to the pen, that it would be best to use it the same way I used a marker. I started to sketch the objects with fluid lines and filled them in with lights and shadows by adding more and more lines. I used lighter colors to represent the lighted parts and the darker colors to show the shadows. This worked from the very first mask that I created. I then began to play with the different line types and thickness until I found the one that popped out to me as if it was saying ‘yep, you find me and I’m perfect for your mood’.

After looking at the masks that I crated I realized that I needed something else, something to express myself, so I began to write with the pen tool around the masks on the paper. This was simple like writing on a piece of paper. But after trying as many as five of my different hand writing styles I realized that only one worked for these illustrations. So I recreated all of my text, my own poems, with that specific writing. I then increased the lines thickness until I found the perfect amount to pull the illustration together.

The next step that I took was to use the box and octagon creators. I used a simple black outlined box with no fill to surround the text and mask. I then used the octagon creator and matched the color to those I used in the mask illustration to help pull the illustration together as a whole. I then pulled the octagon shape slowly into the picture, but not the entire octagon. I used just a simple corner of the octagon. I placed an octagon at every corner of the illustration.

Composition:

When I first began the sketches of the masks I placed three masks upon each picture. I then realized that I had created a lot more masks than I needed to create. So, I ended up picking my six favorite and placed a single mask in the center of each illustration. The masks were sort of floating there, as someone pointed out to me, so I decided to give some of the masks, but not all, a simple shadow underneath. This helped the masks look like the belonged there, but I realized that I needed something more to pull them together.

When I looked at the masks I began to think of the type of story each mask would have. This led to me thinking of some of my past poetry that I had created so I decided to do some fishing. I decided that the poetry should surround the mask, but not go through or behind the mask itself. This made the page look like a jumbled mess and I needed something to fix it and fast.

I decided that the best way to fix the jumbled mess was to include something on the outside of the illustration to make it look like it wasn’t just thrown together. I used the octagon symbols first to make the picture look as if it was being held down as if it was in a scrapbook. But, after another person pointed out that maybe the text shouldn’t run off the illustration we decided that I should place a boarder around the text and under the octagons. This made it look like a simple picture that was being held down. It worked perfectly.

Concept:

These illustrations didn’t have anything of importance to me until I began to change the colors and designs. Then they struck me. I always had this old story in my head about the evil that went along with the mask, funny enough it was from a movie I watched as a child with my grandmother. The fear that sent a chill down my back and the wanting of that mask is what had made the mask such a big part of my life. I wanted to help express this to all those around me.

When I looked at the masks alone on the sheets I knew that others would most likely never make connections to the feelings that I was having about each and every one. I knew from many past acquaintances that the best way to express oneself is to show them the deepest feelings through a group of words. I decided that my group of words would be my poetry.

The colors of the illustration just stuck to me and I couldn’t change them but the masks that held these colors made me realize that a shape can make a feeling more distinct. I placed those poems that expressed my feelings for the mask around the masks. Now the only thing that I have left to do is wait and see if everyone else feels the same once they looks into the eyes of the masks.

Bedizen Textsketch

There are many reasons why I named my style Bedizen Textsketch. Bedizen basically means tasteless and when I think of something written or drawn I either like it or I don't. And I believe that everything needs to have a specific taste for someone to like it. So, when I was looking upon my illustrations I realized I was placing the two different ideas of poetry and drawing in one picture. I then decided that this work would be seen as tasteless yet tasteful to many people, so I decided on the term bedizen. The textsketch part came basically from the idea that I was writing text within an application by sketching it. When one writes text they are simply writing or typing it, but when one uses an application like illustrator they will need to draw or sketch the text within the illustration. This is how I created the word textsketch.