Course Reflection
What was the most significant critical concept you learned in the Lecture? and why?
The most significant critical concept for me was mythology, "a collection of culturally specific narratives that support and validate a culture", as I had not considered the term outside of obvious settings like Greek Mythology. It gave me a whole new perspective for viewing the world and art and interactions, and gave me a great place to start when deciding what art to create.
What was the most significant practical technique you learned in the Lab? and why?
Line work via the pen tool and using shapes and adjustments to create recognizable items in Adobe Illustrator were the most enlightening techniques I learned in lab. They helped me to break down complex ideas and images into simple forms, from which I could build up layers into a whole new complex creation. It gave me a whole new realm of creativity to tap into.
How will you take this knowledge with you as you move beyond this class?
I plan to continue experimenting with creation using this knowledge to expand my understanding and skills. I hope to be able to hone my craft and apply it to graphic design, as well as exploring the connections between philosphy and art, especially in regards to how culture influences creation.
Bonus Project: Emoji
Final Project
Growth From Feedback
I received a lot of suggestions on how to make a movie poster style image, and various ways to place characters on the background. I used tips about placement and styling to create a smoother flow and bring the image together.
Iterations
Final Project Proposal
Culture
I find this project to be the epitome of my personal aesthetic Memories of Tomorrow. To capture an important era in my child's life, and his own creative journey, in a way that highlights how he sees his world is a task that uses all of my current skills and centers around my current drive and passion. Freezing important moments in time through creative expression that actively moves me towards my goals is the best example of my aesthetic I can think of.
Theory
Image: a visual representation of a subject
Autonomy: control over one’s own decisions, goals, and motivations, free from external influence
Encode: to establish meaning in a creative work intended to communicate with an audience
I chose these critical concepts to highlight the intention behind my final project. My kiddo has an extensive inner world in his imagination that started off as what he called the "Tobys Everywhere" movie. I have been wanting to bring this idea to life for him in the form of his own movie poster, and I think the skills I have gathered in Art 118 will support that well. I am hoping to encode the project with deep meaning, at the very least for kiddo, and want to provide an image of the autonomy he experiences in his imagination. I specifically want to include pieces of kiddo's artwork in order to really draw the intention together.
Practice
I did most of my work in photoshop, using the magnetic lasso tool to create masks and cut out the characters and images I needed. I used some of my child's drawings to help bring in the imagination feeling of the poster. I used illustrator to make the city skyline photo background more sketch like and then brought it in and mixed it with a gradient and filter in photoshop to get the desired effect. I arranged layers to get the fire around the plane and to get the words on either side of the center figure. I adjusted angles and sizing to get the characters how I wanted them, especially for the child hanging off the plane. I used Canva to make the words and then brought them in and masked them to work with the poster. I adjusted the filter on the lower plane to add to the burning visual.
Calendar
I plan to dedicate an hour or so to gather images and artwork specifically for use in my project. I also plan to dedicate 2-3 hours between Dec. 2nd and Dec. 7th to working on my first iteration to begin the layout process. I plan to dedicate 3-4 hours between Dec. 8th and Dec. 14th to complete my project and have everything posted.
Research
Inspiration
https://www.deviantart.com/padawandrew/gallery PadawanDrew
My own photography
Photography from family & friends
Source Photos
Color Palette
Inspiration
Plan
Using a mix of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator tools and skills I plan to create a movie poster featuring my child and his imaginary world. I aim to get photos of kiddo as his various characters, as well as some photos of his buddies and scans of his art work to combine on an action movie poster style background in order to represent and showcase his inner world movie "Tobys Everywhere" from Tobyville.
Aesthetic
Growth from feedback
My peers suggested a softer shape without a background in order to keep the mugs from being lost or the overall look being too crowded and busy. I tried spacing them out without the shapes as well, but ended up settling on using a shape background. I chose to make all the backgrounds the same and made the reminiscent of a coffee stain, as the subject is coffee mugs. I also simplified the second mug so that I had two with patterns and two with symbols or decorations.
Inspiration
Ryo Takemasa
Iterations
Culture
A big part of my aesthetic is using a variety of compilation styles, from a simple well framed flower to a complex party scene. Something that caught my eye in Ryo Takemasa's work is the way he incorporates the detailed with the basic, creating gorgeous images that are pleasing to look at. I like to explore the range in my work, creating both complicated and gentle imagery to draw in the observer and convey emotion.
Theory
Sign: Anything that communicates meaning
Index: Sign that suggests, references, or indicates the signified
Using known imagery to convey thoughts and feelings is, to me, the epitome of art and expression. Forming thoughts and beliefs about the things we see feels like getting at the core of what it means to be human. Every day we interact with a variety of semiotics - shapes, colors, sounds, textures - a million different things that we interpret and understand, communicating our very souls to each other in a myriad of ways. In Takemasa's work we can see the use of simple shape and colors to convey every manner of signs, from fish to landscapes. In my own work I try to capture the emotion of a moment, hoping to express how I view the world in a way others can interact with.
Practice
Ryo Takemasa uses a simple shapes and gentles lines mixed with soft colors and basic highlights to bring his works to life, creating a minimalistic style that is clean, straightforward, and pleasing to the eye. I utilize the ability to warp basic shapes into specific styles and colors drawn from photos of real items to create simplistic yet pleasing renditions of every day objects.
Remediation
Inspiration
Nutsa Avaliani
https://www.behance.net/gallery/117284847/Collection-of-Illustrations-3
Iterations
Culture
I find a joy in capturing mundane moments, especially ones that have a gentle yet somewhat stark arraignment to them. I see this illustrated in Avaliani's work, with bold colors, drastic lighting, and a blending of lines and colors that takes a mundane moment from plain to center stage. Taking a moment as simple as sitting on the balcony and turning into an artwork of bright color and sharp edges is something I find to be incredibly beautiful, and provides a lot of inspiration for how I see the world and form my own art.
Theory
Remediation: incorporation or representation of one medium in another medium
Mimesis: representations that mimic the real world
I find creating/re-creating every day type images in digital media to be such a perfect example of remediation and memesis. Avaliani and I have both represented mediums like photography in a digtial medium and in a way that mimics the things you can find in real life. While the colors and sharp lines may not be what you see every day, it creates a very easily understandable image of moments we see all the time.
Practice
While I do not know exactly how Avaliani created their images, I can imagine they have used the crisp lines created by the pen tool and the smoothness from the color filling tools of adobe illustrator to create the bold, stark tone of the images. I used the pen tool to outline the image I wanted, dividing up sections as I felt fit best. I filled the sections in a way that represented the lighting and shade affect on the colors, creating a patchwork style.
Remix
Growth From Feedback
My peers suggested outlining the pilot, as I originally had him in black and white and it blended in a bit. I didn't want to fully outline him, but I did adjust the filter to a sepia style to help him stand out a bit more. It was also suggested that I had something to the background color to make it pop and support my image more, so I added a gradient to it, as opposed to keeping it solid yellow.
Inspiration
Idccollage
Iterations
Culture
A large driving force behind my aesthetic is capturing a moment with the anticipation of looking backwards in the future. To catch a glimpse of what was while continuing to pursue what comes next with a pure curiosity. I try to capture that idea in my works and in how I live my life. I find my inspiration, Idccollage, has work that captures this sentiment in a way, combing old and current, imagining a reality where both exist, and expanding the imagination.
Theory
Remix Culture: A Tendency to copy, transform, and combine creations
Ideology: Coherent system of thought that informs one's actions, expectations, and goals
I find that Idccollage and I both enjoy the concept of mixing the past and future into one visual, creating the sense that time is not as separated as we might think. Taking subjects from one image and placing them into another opens up a whole world of creative possibility and story telling. I cannot speak for Idccollage's ideology, but for my own I find that my aesthetic ties in well with the idea of always moving forward with curiosity and kindness.
Practice
What I see in my inspiration's work is a lot of collage style, the cutting and pasting of images together, as well as color adjustment and filters to change the style of images. For my Remix photo, I chose to start with the image of a pilot flying through lightly cloud skies, with the idea to create the feeling of moving from one reality into the next. In the first iteration, I changed the saturation and hues of a picture of clouds and used part of that image on the pilot's shoulder and also replaced the sky outside the plane with an abstract photo of museum decor and a yellow background. I also extended the yellow into the plane and onto the pilot. I added a sepia style filter to the pilot to take the focus off of him, while adding a gradient to the background to add depth and channel the vision a certain direction. I filled some of the tiles with various images to really highlight moving towards pieces of life and memories.
Myth
Inspiration
Kevin Dooley
Iterations
Culture
I find my aesthetic in the everyday mundane, moments in time captured in photos, ticket stubs, and memories. The feelings I try to capture tend to be easiest to get in landscapes and still life style photos, but I never shy away from trying to capture in the moment feelings as well, even if it ends up being nothing but blurs. My digital artist inspiration, Kevin Dooley, has a similar interest in my opinion, focusing on street, landscape, and event photography. Dooley often uses composition to put emphasis on a subject, and using clean lines such as parallel horizons to bring about the highlight he intends in photos.
Theory
Critical Concept 1: Culture - the human development of knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors that depend upon social learning
Critical Concept 2: Mythology - a collection of culturally specific narratives that support and validate a culture
These two critical concepts work well together in discussing my personal aesthetic and my inspirational digital artist's style. Documenting the day to day, capturing events, showcasing moments in time. These little pieces, placed into the internet void and combined with pieces from other people, help to create a big picture look at our culture in this time, both locally and globally. Adding to the narrative of our time, documenting the events that we see taking place, enshrining the way that people look, act, and spend their days currently, these are all little clues that I imagine future historians might look back on and use to piece together the story of now. We capture tomorrow's memories as they happen, helping to create the mythology of today.
Practice
Dooley uses some lighting editing, as well as some cropping and micro-rotation. He says he often uses the “rule of thirds” in his composition, using this guideline to provide the intended emphasis. This can be seen especially in the photo of the flowers against the wall and the person putting together a puzzle. I also like to use composition to create the desired emphasis in my works, with preference to either centering a subject or using blur and clarity to highlight it. For Myth I chose a photo that holds personal significance and one that I felt could be adjusted to highlight the idea of pursing the future while being in the moment. I used some minor cropping and micro rotation to bring the subject where I wanted it to be in the photo. I changed the saturation and hues to make the center figure stand out while making the setting more other-worldly and muted. I then added a cloud background to the center and a little of the side of the figure, making it glow around the edges of the center. Ovals of cloud and color are added to the floor. I felt this added a sense of wonder and imagination.
Questions & Archive
Personal Aesthetic Statement
I find my personal aesthetic to be summarized by the phrase “memories of tomorrow”. What was, what is, what could be. I love the way emotions can be found in the mundane every day. Combining nostalgia and the hope of the future, holding close the comforts of old and reaching towards the intrigue of new. A favorite hoodie worn so much the design is fading. A collection of info pamphlets for the next adventure. The warmth of the memories of years gone by, the cool courage and curiosity of days to come. A spread of old photos full of longing for a different time. Maps laid out with new paths to follow. There is something new to be found every day, and I cannot wait to look back on the memories made.