Final Project
Inspiration
Iterations
Culture
Using the skills learned throughout this course, I wanted to create a dark background with bright, unnatural, glitches invading the photographic space. The hare that I drew, and the colors I placed upon it contrast greatly with the black and white background, along with the supporting images of computer effects. The bright colors taking over the dark space fits my aesthetic by exploring high contrast colors.
Theory
Glitch Art: using errors, often in electronic media, for aesthetic purposes
Technology: any invention or idea that improves life
Creativity: the ability to purposefully bring something new into existence
Glitch Art doesn't connect directly to Feefal's art, however, it could be said that they take inspiration from it, with the colored lines offset from the rest of the image, mimicking the style of Chromatic Aberration. For my piece, Glitch Art was the main focus. I utilized pixels, offset colors, Chromatic Aberration, noise, and other images of computer errors to make my artwork appear as if the entire thing has been corrupted. For Technology, Feefal utilized digital art programs to create their works, with vibrant colors and intriguing effects. For my work, I utilized much of what we learned in class, through Adobe's technologically impressive programs. I also wanted to explore a theme of how technology has invaded our everyday life. For Creativity, Feefal creates bizarre, dreamlike drawings. It's otherworldly, unnatural, something that we can only imagine. I hoped to use Creativity to produce an unnatural world, as well. With a digital drawing invading real life, and bringing the computer world with it. I thought this concept would be great to explore by combining illustrative and photographic images.
Practice
After studying images of rabbits and hares, I drew one leaping down with pencil and paper. I then took a picture and uploaded it to Adobe Illustrator, where I utilized the Pen tool to outline the figure. With the Line Width tool, I carefully changed the widths of the lines to be more pleasing to the eye. I made a copy of the line group, and turned it into a Live Paint layer. Then, with the Live Paint Bucket, I colored in the hare. Once done with that, I made the lines on the Live Paint layer transparent, and put the original, varied lines on top.
Once the hare was done in Illustrator, I put it into Photoshop. I placed a glitch image over the hare, changed its Hue/Saturation and Levels as I saw fit, and put the image to Vivid Light. Then I made this combination into a Smart Object. I copied it so I had two of them. On one layer, I went to Layer Style, and switched off the Red and set the image to Black and White. On the other, I turned off all Green. Then I shifted the different groups to create a Chromatic Aberration. This, too, was made into a Smart Object. Combining the first and the second Smart Object, I used the Rectangle Marquee Tool to cut out slices of the hare, and shift it to appear like the image was glitching. I did this throughout the image.
Next up was the background. For the base image, I cropped it to my liking with the Crop tool. Using the Image and Adjustments menu, I set the background to Black and White. I duplicated the layer, and went to the Layer Style menu, found by double clicking on the layer. From there, I deselected red. I moved the layers slightly so the cyan and red would pop out on the edges. Then, with the help of the Rectangle Marquee Tool, I did the same that I did with the hare; cut out slices and moved them left or right to great a glitch effect. I then turned the background into a Smart Object. I went to Filters, Noise, set it to 16%, and used the Eraser Tool to remove it from the parts I wanted to leave clearer.
On the computer screen, I placed the same glitchy image that I used for the hare, changed its Hue/Saturation, set the layer to Subtract, and cut some slices of the image and moved them. I did a Levels change to make the background darker. Over the background, I placed an image of pixeled lines with a slight blue-magenta tone, on Color Dodge, to continue the glitch effect and unify the whole image. I used a number of glitch images, artistic lines, and a photo of fireworks to add to the space and make it feel less empty. I set these layers to Pass Through, which made the black backgrounds of these images disappear so that only the neon colors remained. Linear Dodge (Add), Lighter Color, and Divide were also used, alongside Opacity being shifted as needed. I also used Hue/Saturation to keep the colors more connected.
Growth From Feedback
During the critique with our class, I expressed my worry that the laptop was too difficult to make out. My professor and peers suggested cleaning up the glitchy lines so that the screen was easier to see. There was an orange color in the bottom left that the class said would look better in a different color, so I shifted it to a red-magenta color, instead.
Final Project Proposal
Glitchy Rabbit: What is he doin' out here?
Iterations
Culture
Using my learned skills, I'd like to create a work with a dark background and a dark figure, utilizing bright glitching to light up the scene and draw the viewer's attention. This fits my neon aesthetic by exploring high contrast colors for dramatic effect.
Theory
Glitch Art: using errors, often in electronic media, for aesthetic purposes
Technology: any invention or idea that improves life
Creativity: the ability to purposefully bring something new into existence
Calendar
- Preliminary sketches: 11/29
- Collect images: 11/29
- Illustrator work: 11/30 - 12/3
- Photoshop work: 12/3 - 12/6
- First Iteration: 12/6
- Next steps to be determined after critique.
Research
Inspiration
Source photos
Color Palette
Plan
The plan is to have a dark computer room. A photograph that is color corrected to fit the desired colors. Then, leaping from the screen, will come an illustrated black rabbit, glitching out the screen behind it and entering the real world. I want this to represent how much our technology has intruded on our daily lives, and how our sense of reality is warped because of it.
Aesthetics
Inspiration
Iterations
Culture
In Brian Millers' artworks, they use complimentary and high contrast colors to make their near lineless illustrations pop. Their use of colors gave figures almost a glow that fits my neon aesthetic well. I wanted to utilize Brian Millers' use of colors across one another on the color wheel to push my aesthetic more. It made the colors pop more than just high saturation on black, and elevated my high contrast neon aesthetic.
Theory
Icon: sign that perceptually resembles the signified
Aesthetics: contemplation and judgement of sensory expressions
In both my and Brian Millers' works, we utilize simple, lineless shapes to create icons of recognizable things. They were able to make icons of flamingos, trees, hearts, computers, etc... In my own work, I wanted to create a series of frog icons, and later decided to add what could be considered icons of leaves beneath them, though the leaves are a bit more abstract. I did some research on Poison Dart Frogs, hoping to represent different patterns and colors through my icons. As for the aesthetics, Brian Millers used a variety of gradients and contrasting colors to create bold, eye-catching creations. I hoped to achieve a similar aesthetic, with highly saturated colors that complimented each other, while also contrasting against the black background and very dark patterns of the frogs.
Practice
After plenty of research on what Poison Dart Frogs look and pose like, I mostly utilized the Rectangle shape tool to create the different forms. With the help of the black Selection tool, I could round off the edges of each side all together. And with the white Direct Select, I could change the shape of each corner individually, and even add new corners and edges to the shape so that it became unrecognizable as a rectangle. I did this for individual parts of the frogs, such as the head, body, limbs, and toes. This enabled me to make very organic forms. For the black patterns of the frogs, I utilized a similar technique, though I would occasionally use the Eclipse shape tool for some. And for the most complex shapes, I found that the Pen tool was very useful. It allowed me to create single forms of black pattern with one layer, while if I had used the Shape Tool, it may have taken much longer and required more than one shape to be made. Through this combination of the Pen and Shape tool, I was able to mimic the real-life patterns of Poison Dart Frogs. Brian Millers' art pieces could have very well been made from the same tools that I utilized. Their shapes are mostly lineless and extremely smooth, which leads me to believe that they utilized the Pen and Shape tools rather than drawing the figures by hand. It's especially noticeable in their perfectly round shapes, and perfectly straight rectangular forms. It is very possible that Brian Millers utilized Adobe Illustrator, or a program that mimics its capabilities.
Remediation
Inspiration
Iterations
Culture
When I saw Boris Pelcer's work, I was extremely inspired by their use of bold, contrasting colors, and I was impressed with how well it fit in my aesthetic. I noticed that they didn't use black in all their artworks, yet still gave off this otherworldly, neon style. I wanted to replicate that in my final Remediation artwork by using dark violets instead of black. I also found Boris Pelcer's use of line extremely dynamic, and made it an important part of my artwork by using a wide variety of line widths, and by shifting it off the color below. It gave my piece more energy that built upon my original aesthetic, similar to what I saw in Boris Pelcer's work.
Theory
Derivative Works: legal term for new content created in full or in part from one or more pre-existing works
Remediation: incorporation or representation of one medium in another medium
For my art piece, I wanted to combine two photographs and transform them into a series of derivative works. They were all built upon the same two photos, and using different tools, create brand new images with varying styles and intent. Without the original works, mine would have failed to exist. As for Boris Pelcer's artworks, I can't confirm whether they utilized photographs as a basis for their digital paintings. I can, however, assume that they used reference images to help them create realistic human bodies and faces, which could likely mean that his final art pieces are derivative works. In my final art piece of the remediation series, I hoped to simplify the shapes and colors to make them resemble cut paper, with pink stencils lazily laid on top. Through remediation, I was able to achieve this look through digital means, representing the cut-out style. Boris Pelcer's remediations resemble pop art paintings, again, made with digital tools at his disposal to mimic perhaps acrylic or oil paints on a smooth surface.
Practice
Utilizing Adobe Photoshop, I was able to cut out the beetle from its original image and place it on the rose and turn it into its own JPEG. This allowed me to place the newly made image into Adobe Illustrator for my remediations. I placed down six Artboards using the Artboard tool. Using the Pen tool, I followed the lines of the image to create a Vector outline. On a Live Paint layer, I used the Eyedropper tool to take colors from the original image, and the Live Paint Bucket to fill areas made by the outline to make flat colored areas. With the Width tool and the Properties panel, I was able to change the width of the Vector lines, and the Width Profile allowed me to make each line more dynamic. Image Tracing was able to trace the important parts of the photo. The Properties panel made it simple to change the tracing color, and the Live Paint Bucket made it possible to fill in areas created by the traced lines. Using the Blob Brush, I made a simple squiggle, and turned it into a pattern through Object, Pattern, Make. Then, in the Properties panel, I changed the Blending Mode so it made the photo underneath turn grayscale. For my final art piece in the group, I combined my knowledge of using the Vector outlines with the Pen Tool, and using the Live Paint Bucket to make a dynamic artwork. Boris Pelcer could have very well made his artworks with some of these tools. The Pen and Vector tools would have been extremely useful for them to create the active linework in their pieces, and may have been used as outlines for Live Paint Bucket fills of color before removing the lines. They also would have used the Eyedropper tool to keep their color pallet cohesive.
Remix
Inspiration
Iterations
Isolated Images
Culture
I continued to explore the strong color contrast concept in this art piece, utilizing pitch black and unnaturally vibrant colors. Ameshin's art, though doesn't always utilize such bright colors, brings a supernatural feel and strong emotion to their works, paralleling my personal aesthetic in a different way. I was inspired by their otherworldly beings painted into the skies, clouds, and space. It's another way to provide a supernatural theme that I'd like to explore further in my aesthetic.
Theory
Decode: audience’s ability to interpret and analyze meaning of a creative work
Remix Culture: a tendency to emulate, appropriate, and rework creations
Something I was very interested in creating in this art piece is something for the audience to decode. The meaning that I had in mind when working was very simple and not very profound. Instead of giving the viewers a direct and obvious story, I would be much more interested in what the viewers interpret it as. Ameshin's artworks give me a very similar thought, that the viewer's interpretation in more important than the creator's intentions. One might see powerful goddesses in the stars, or another person may see a physical representation of emotion. I also strongly delved into remix culture for this piece, taking photographs and blending them into a completely new work of art with new meaning. The photograph of fireworks was not originally meant to drop from eyes like sprinkles, and the eyes were never meant to sit in a sky of stars overlooking a city sunrise. But by combining them, there is a new life brought to the photos. Ameshin, though I don't believe they took photographs and combined them, did remix recognizable concepts into one art piece. Combining human faces with clouds and stars and nebulas created something new and unreal.
Practice
To start with, I placed the eyes and upper part of the face onto the sky, using a large eraser with the hardness at 0% to make the face fade back into the sky more naturally. I also put this layer to Linear Dodge (Add) so the colors blended and were more vibrant. After that, I did a lot of color fixes on the background and the eyelids, trying to get the sunrise colors and the eyelid colors to match up using Hue/Saturation and Levels corrections with masks. I then added the fireworks under the eyes, setting them to Color Dodge so they glowed against the dark sky, and using the Healing Brush Tool to bring the firework sparks down to meet the city lights below as if they were falling rain. Lastly, I placed new eyelashes on top of the fireworks to make them look more like they were coming from under the eyes, and so that the eyelashes on the eye popped more. Though Ameshin didn't use pre-existing photos to create their pieces, it's very likely that they used Adjustment Layers such as Hue/Saturation and Levels as I did, making sure colors were cohesive, and deciding what should become brighter or more muted.
Myth
Inspiration
Iterations
Culture
The bright colors against dark backgrounds in both Yuumei's work and my own tie back to the neon trend in my aesthetic. They show a harmony between the high contrast, and invoke emotions in the viewer. Bright colors draw the eye, pulling attention around the darkness of the image. It creates an unnatural aura, too, that appears to glow. This was something I found particularly interesting in Yuumei's work, and I tried to bring that glow to my moons and clouds, too. The use of stars in their art was also a nice way to break up the otherwise pitch-black spaces, giving even the negative space something to explore.
Theory
Mythology: a collection of culturally specific narratives that support and validate a culture
Connotation: cultural meanings associated with a word, object, image, sound, etc.
Colors, in many cultures, represent different feelings and can change the atmosphere of a piece of art. In both Yuumei's works and my Myth Iterations, we incorporate bold colors to ensure that the audience is drawn to certain emotions. In Yuumei's first artwork, she provides us with cool cyans and blue-violets. They are calming and mystical. In their second, they go from a turquoise to a warm, rich orange with reds and yellows. With our culture's connotations with these colors, the viewer may see a warm, welcoming destination. Though it could also be interpreted as hot and dangerous. This is similar to how our culture views fire. Sometimes it is meant to keep us warm, and sometimes it causes destruction. In Yuumei's last art piece, the cool glow is almost ethereal, which is often viewed as something magical or otherworldly in our culture. In my own artwork, I improved the saturation of the colors to give it an unnatural, magical feel. I also used our culture's mythological association with the moon. The moon is extremely important to our society, scientifically and mythologically. It controls the tides and can influence behavior. It helps us tell time, and gives us light at night. It's often a symbol of mysticism. I wanted to explore a world in which there is more than one moon, and how that might influence things. It's an alien concept, so I thought it fitting to give the clouds unnatural colors.
Practice
Utilizing the Hue/Saturation and Levels layers, I was able to drastically increase the contrast of the image, and make the clouds brighter, richer colors. It's likely that Yuumei would have used similar techniques to increase the saturation of their images, and make the darks and lights stronger. Though Yuumei seems to have a more painterly art style, less reliant on photographs and more on their skills as an illustrator, the Healing Brush Tool and Spot Healing Brush Tool let me "paint" on more clouds, brightening up the dark spots, and hiding imperfections or inconsistencies. These tools gave me more control over what was prevalent in the image. The Healing Brush Tool also allowed me to bring new elements into the image. Instead of using a brush that would create a spray of pixels to mimic stars, as an illustrator like Yuumei may do, I was able to pull stars from one image, onto the one I was editing, and place them where I wanted them to fill the empty darkness. It also helped me insert another moon into my work from another image, giving the original photograph an entirely different meaning. Using Layer Masks and the Hue/Saturation and Levels corrections, I was able to match the new moon to the one in my art piece, ensuring that it didn't look out of place. Although Yuumei's illustrative work is much different from photo editing, I was still able to mimic their contrasting colors and out of the ordinary imagery utilizing the tools available in Photoshop, and it's clear to me that these tools would be useful for illustrative purposes just as much as it is for photographic editing.
Personal Aesthetic Statement
I seek to make art inspired by contrast. I aim to explore brightness and darkness coexisting in one image, and how the colors and how much they share with one another can create different energy and emotion. Like how the moon in the night can bring a calmness to the mind, while a neon light in the dark can create excitement. Strong contrast can be fierce and sharp, but it can also be bubbly and uplifting. My own style reflects the idea of standing out, and this is something I want to explore further.