Zoey Bannenberg Art 118

Iteration:

Aesthetic

Inspiration: Christopher Lee

https://www.thebeastisback.com/

Iteration:

Culture:

Christopher Lee's work is influences by color, shape, and nostalgia. He is currently an independent artist, but he does work for many name brands, like Target, Disney, and Facebook. His personal illustrations tend to be of well-known characters, like his Super Mario or Spongebob pieces. Hence, the nostalgic aspect. His style is reminiscent of a cartoon or kid's book; bringing his viewer back to their childhood.

While our personal aesthetics can differ greatly, this specific work of mine is quite similar to Lee's. I was aiming for something nostalgic or childlike in my work, similar to Lee's aesthetic. I wanted to take monsters/creatures that some people may find fear inducing, and make them bright, innocent, and human-like. In both Lee and I's work, there is a theme of non-human creatures doing human things. This creates an air of fantasy, leaving the viewer with no fear of the subjects, as they are done in a playful and exciting way, rather than dark and gory. It makes the viewer question how the "monsters" could have any ill intent in the first place, eliminating the fear that can come with these mythical beings. They become associated with happiness, childhood, and purity.

Theory:

In this project, both Lee and I's works are Icons (a sign that perceptually resembles the signified.) Neith of our works are exact realistic representations of the subjects we are showing. Rather, they are simplified versions of characters, creatures or other items. This makes them iconic. We both use basic shapes of color rather than detailed line arts or intense shading. The lack of realism aids in the light and innocent aesthetics that we both have. They represent something that people can place, whether it is a ghost or a rose, but they are simplified.

Our Aesthetics (contemplation and judgement of sensory expressions) are quite strong in each of our works. Each of us are showing our artistic and individual identities in the style and meaning behind our works. When looking at Lee's work, it is clear that he likes to work in a simplistic and cheerful style. His work is lively, even when it sometimes has darker themes. There is more to it than meets the eye, and that is where his identity shines through. Similarly, my work is meant to be appealing while also conveying a new way of viewing monsters. This work looks a little different than my others, as I picked a lighter color palette, but my aesthetic is still present in the messages that I am attempting to convey. My identity as an artist is still present despite the difference.

Practice:

The vector style art that Lee creates looks like it could have a very similar workflow to the work that I did for Aesthetics. Lee uses traditional methods for sketching his ideas, then he uses illustrator for the color and finalizing.

In my project, I used the pen tool for pretty much all of the shapes that I made. I wanted my shaped to be naturel rather than geometrical, so I found that the pen tool gave me more interesting shapes. Lee most likely does the same considering the intricacy and wackiness of some of the shapes that he is creating. I did use the ellipse tool a few times for circles and ovals, but I otherwise stuck to the pen tool. I then filled the shapes that I was making with solid colors and used the eyedropper tool in the process in order to get some shades for certain shapes. Lee probably does similar, since a lot of his pieces are just flat colors, rather than tons of textures. When he does use texture, he may use the clipping mask option, like I did on some of my variations. I think we had very similar processes considering the block coloring and cell shading that is present in both of our works.

Remediation

Inspiration: Taj Francis

https://www.tajtenfold.com/

Iteration:

Culture:

Taj Francis' work consists of creating people with organic and flowing shapes. He makes murals, digital paintings, animation, and more. He focuses of African ancestry and looking at the "nuances of human behavior." His work incorporates ethereal elements and reality, creating a visual that explores the complexities of identity.

Francis plays with lots of different shapes and colors to convey his ideas. He utilizes organic shapes to add texture and interest to the people he illustrates. This is something that I found appealing when it came to my piece. I wanted to create many different shapes in my image in order to make the piece come to life. At the same time, the lines give Francis' work a fabricated feel. The fact that they look real yet unnatural was something that I was drawn to when considering my aesthetic. It creates intrigue, and really leads the viewer to think about what they are looking at. The slight variations in color that I incorporated into my image invite the viewer to think about the image, consider the situation. Francis plays with shape and color in a similar way that makes the viewer dig deeper when they look at the piece, and try viewing it in more way than one.

Theory:

Symbols (sign with arbitrary perceptual relationship to signified) show up in Francis' work as well as mine. In Francis' work, there are symbols of different parts of his African Ancestry. Whether it be bones or clothespins, the items that Francis works into his pieces are symbols for certain parts of his heritage. They don't directly look like what they are meant to represent. but rather, they symbolize something bigger, a concept or emotion. He does this to take something with a darker history and turns it into something beautiful. In a similar light, my piece also has symbols. The skull could symbolize death or fear. The apple could symbolize death, but it could also symbolize beauty and life, a direct juxtaposition to the skull. These symbols have an arbitrary relationship with the ideas that they are signifying. They help with the creation of a deeper meaning to the pieces and make the viewing experience more thought provoking.

Another concept that is present in both of our work is Remediation (incorporation or representation of one medium in another medium). The process of taking photographs and representing them in a digital form is present in my Francis' and my work. In Francis' pieces, he alters the colors and shapes in a way that is drastically different from reality. This remediation helps to create a different piece of work, and brings new meaning. Francis is representing real people in a totally different way through a different medium. In my piece, I took a different approach. I decided to keep the colors natural when I remediated the photo into a digital form. I wanted it to feel like a painting of a real scene, and keep it dark and mysterious. The meaning is still changed due to the medium switch, but it has less of a drastic visual change. Both of our use of remediation show the impact that different mediums can have on the same subjects.

Practice:

Francis does not specifically state whether he uses Adobe Illustrator or not in his process, but I could definitely see the tools that he would use if that was the process that he was using for his art.

Due to the shapes that are present in Francis' work I would say that he utilizes the pen tool a tremendous amount in Adobe Illustrator. This is the main tool that I used in my process. I could see us using the pen tool for the same purpose, which would be to create shapes that we would later be filling in with color. For some of Francis' work, he may use the live paint tool. He may fill in the colors naturally, and then mess with color setting after, similar to how I did for my color variation that I did. This ensures that the colors are successful in creating the larger shape (so the contours on a face for example), and that they are the right shades. I could also see Francis just filling in the colors himself though, without the live paint tool step. Some of the colors that he uses are very saturated and bright, and so the live paint tool would not be very useful for him. For mine, the colors are meant to be muted like the original photo, so the live paint tool was extremely important. I would assume that he does parts of his projects in illustrator, and then opens them in photoshop for more freeform abilities.

Remix

Inspiration: Adam Burn

https://www.artstation.com/adamburnart

Iteration:

Culture:

Adam Burn's work is typically concept art for video games/movies, book covers, and more. He creates an aesthetic for the larger product. His work leans towards the horror and/or sci-fi genre. Burn's work tends to not make sense in terms of reality, but rather it evokes emotions, specifically unsettling and unpleasant ones.

Color and shape are two parts of Adam Burn's work that I really was drawn to. The soft, flowy, natural shapes are something that I wanted to implement into my piece. The shapes that Burn includes in his pieces are a great mix or horror and beauty. The imagery is unsettling, but the forms within it are organic, making them feel less extreme. I attempted to incorporate some of that style into my portal at the top of the page, it creates a stark contrast to the architecture that is the background, and brings some beauty into a dark piece. Color also plays a similar role in Burn's work. The muted colors create a solemn and creepy mood, but also make the piece feel real. Including minimal color in my piece is something that Burn's work inspired. I feel both or our works are clearly not real, but due to color and shape, they make a viewer ponder about what is actually happening, and what the world would be like if they were real.

Theory:

The concept of Encode, (to establish meaning in a creative work intended to communicate with an audience) is present in Burn and I's work. Both of our works have concepts, and they are meant to tell a story or evoke emotion. Form burn, through the use of digital painting, he can create a connection with his audience through the fact that the pieces look like they could be real. They portray things that the audience would know are not, but the medium that Burn uses, along with the underlying intent, he creates an image that the audience looks at and questions. On the other hand, my piece also is meant to form a connection with the audience, but it is more in the sense of seeing and creating a story. The scene is clearly not a real situation, yet when they look at it, they can imagine if it were. The audience can look at the image and try to decipher what it means.

Appropriation, (the act of recontextualizing content to communicate new information), is also in our works, but in different ways. In Burn's, he will take the same character and/or concept and recreate it. Sometimes it will be for his concept art, where he takes the content and makes different scenarios to test out different ideas. he will have the same character present, but create different scenes to convey different moments. Burn also takes concepts and makes different character designs based on them. They will have similar aspects, but are trying to convey totally different information. I have appropriation in my piece with the use of many different photos, and combining them into something with a completely different message. The cats are all from different images, all in different situations, but I appropriated them into the same image to create new information with them.

Practice:

Adam Burn uses Adobe Photoshop for his projects. He does lots of digital painting, so he mostly creates his own original images. He probably does not do as much work with crop tools, but he may use some of the editing tools to edit his digital paintings that were used in my work as well.

Tools like the brush were most certainly used by both of us. I utilized the brush tool for the portal at the top of the page, and for some shadow work as well. Burn most likely uses the brush tool for a lot more of his projects, but he may use it in a similar way. I used different brush styles to create different textures and then tools like the smudge and blur to make a swirly mass at the top of my piece. I could see Burn doing something similar due to the natural and flowing shapes that occur in both our works. In my piece, I used some layer effects to help with blending, but also with making certain aspects stand out. Burn could utilize some of the effects available, like gradients or inner/outer glow to emphasize certain aspects of his piece. Color layers are something that Burm may use as well. To get a cohesive piece, I used hue/saturation layers and color layers to overlay the entire piece. Burn may also do this to make the piece come together, and make all of the colors blend nicely together.

MYTH

Inspiration: Erik Johansson

https://www.erikjo.com

Iteration:

Culture:

Erik Johanssen's work expresses surrealist ideas. The work incorporates trippy imagery, and creates situations that seem natural, despite being everything but natural. Johanssen's work tells a story, and a different one every time. He creates the impossible, and makes his viewers think about what they are looking at. The viewer is meant to be creative and use the image to provoke thought.

I was drawn to the repetition in Johanssen's work. The eeriness that he creates by repeating people and forms was something that I believe initiates an interesting viewing of the piece. It can create a line to follow, or draw the viewer's attention to a focal point, creating emphasis in one way or another. For my iteration, I wanted to choose an image with an interesting figure, one that could be repeated and transformed into something more thought provoking. I wanted my figures to be ominous, similar to some of Johanssen's pieces with many people. I took the figure in my piece, and repeated it, but with different colors. I think this repetition aligns closely with my aesthetic, which is meant to make people think.

Theory:

Connotation, (the cultural meanings associated with a word, object, sound, image, etc.) comes into play in both my work and Johanssen's. In my work, there is not one specific way to interpret it, but depending on an individual's culture and experience, they can look at it differently. The colors and textures could convey different things to a viewer, depending on how they look at it. There is no one story that it tells. Similarly, Johanssen's work can be viewed differently depending on a person's culture. The associations that they have with certain colors, shapes, and sounds can create a fully different experience for them when looking at the pieces. Maybe they see a story about struggle, where another person interprets success.

The concept of Mythology, (a collection of culturally specific narratives that support and validate a culture) also is relevant in both Johanssen's and my own work. Many people, see stress as a negative aspect of their life. When representing the feeling of pressure, whether it is from other people, or from oneself, both Johanssen's work and mine have aspects of repeated people, darker colors, and unsettling imagery. They are not downright scary, as stress is not necessairily something most people are afraid of. There is more of a universal dread of becoming overwhelmingly stressed or overworked. It can feel as though people are constantly watching and judging, making you feel more pressure that you already did in any given situation. Both of our works use universally stress inducing imagery, making that an important part of the interpretations of our pieces. They take unrealistic situations and make them seem nearly natural, although my piece has some added effects.

Practice:

Erik Johanssen uses Adobe Photoshop CC for his work. He does a lot of combining of images, but he also needs to readjust dolor and lighting when he does that. He does this because when taking a subject and placing it into a new space, it gets a new lighting source, and so if he wants it to look smooth and fit properly, using retouch tools and fixing lighting is important.

In my image I uses color layer tools to change some of the colors of my image. I made the leaves black, and the clones of the person in the raincoat red. Changing the colors in my piece was important in order to convey the story and the aesthetic that I wanted to portray. I, however, wanted to make my image less realistic that Johanssen's images were. I focused less on making my objects look natural, and more on making them look like they don't belong. For that, I used the retouch tool to try and make the main figure look subtly off. Almost too perfect and clear. Then, I made the background figures look blurry using a filter on a smart object. If Johanssen were to make a work that was meant to be less realistic and more obscure, I could see him using similar tools to distort parts of his image. However, we probably used similar tools like the marquee and the clone stamp when it came to getting repeated people or patterns in our works.

QUESTIONS AND ARCHIVE

Personal Aesthetic:

Unsettlingly Calm. Whether that be an overcast early morning walk, or a late night adventure through an abandoned building, there can be tranquility in lieu of an objectively off-putting setting or object. My aesthetic is built around the ideas of turning fear into fun. Though things like death and decay or monsters under the bed can be disconcerting, I find there to be something comforting about it as well. I enjoy looking at things that some people may find scary or unappealing. I gravitate towards darker colors. Silence or quiet noises of nature inspire the aesthetic. I love the idea that one person's fear is another person's favorite thing. Fear can be over-encompassing, I am a person who sometimes lives in fear, and with this aesthetic, I am looking at turning that anxiety into something beautiful and fun.