The work... of Art....

Back to School! & Modular Design

2011-01-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

I have been gone for a bit. Sorry about that. I had my little boy and he is a delight. For updates on my personal life...please feel free to check my family blog. DonTreader.blogspot.com.

So Im back at school, with graphic design in full swing.

Im taking typography I (art 254) , 3D design (art 117) and Communication Design Studio (art 224).

So you will be seeing a lot of work from all of them. I like to try to document the process.

So here Goes!

ART 117 Modular Design.

For this class...we needed to pick something that we can get in mass quantities.

I chose the coffee bean.

I am hoping to make a coffee cup out of them.. and just see where it takes me.

Here is what I got done just in the 3 hour class I had today.

I started by glueing 2 beans together at a time.

I used super gule gel...and had it all over me by the end of class.

After I got some grouping of two's I then did four's and used this bowl to get the shap I needed.

My first ring. Its a good start..now to fill in the center and start stacking them up.

Im starting to get a nice blow shape.

This is 3 rows up.

This is what I had after 3 hours..
Im not sure if I put more on my plate then I should.
This is 7 rows up.

This is going to take awhile...
and its due thursday.

Not to mention how fragile it is.
How am I going to get it
there on the bus?

Charity Water Project Poster & Cards

2008-12-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

The other part of the project was to create awareness, and in order to do so, we as a class, decided to create posters and post cards.

I started with this drawing, but had not decided on what wording I wanted to use just yet. I like how its a gift, and water for some people is a gift and its something we take for granted.

Next I took my drawing and scanned it into photoshop and used it as a template to draw it in Illustrator. I also added text. I used this template to make a stencil for our postcards.

This is how my postcard turned out. I tried it with some different colors, but I liked the blue the best because of water.

I made a larger stencil for a hand made poster, but I printed off the font and just used the bow and bottled water to stencil.

And finally I used the file I created in illustrator for my digital file as well.

I liked my drawing the most because of the extra detail, but when you start thinking stencil that changes everything.

Instead of sending out a mass email, I created a group on facebook, and sent invitation out to all my friends. Check out my group. I used my digital poster too.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=38401394405

Charity Water Project Chandelier - part 2-

2008-12-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

On our second workday we were able to finish up, minus how we were going to hang it, but it turned out nicely. We added more than we thought, but it was a good addition, and named it the Jellyfish Chandelier. Here are some final photos.

Close up of the spheres

Close up of the addition, to give it more of a cascading look.

And one with the lights out

I really enjoyed this project, I was glad to be doing something that was more hands on.

Charity Water Project * Chandelier*

2008-12-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

So we decided that we were going to make a Chandelier out of empty Bottled Water containers.... We broke up into groups and brain stormed different chandeliers, and ways that we could use the materials we had. Finally, we decided as a class we would break up into groups, and make 3 different chandeliers. Here is what we got done on the first work day.

We cut the bottles, and used the middle of them to create sphere around each light.

For our structure we used an old bike wheel frame, the I got from a friend of mine, and lisa spray panited it a nice silver color.

After our first work day, we were able to cover all the lights, and decided we would need another string of lights to make have more coverage. Here is what our work got us to on the first day.

Its a great start, and now we know what we will need for next class, More water bottles, lights, and another coat of paint.

- Oscar Wilde - Final Thoughts

2008-12-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

Below you will find the final ten pieces that I chose to go into our book. Overall, I like the ones I chose, but I also wish I had more time to think about this project and work through the thoughts I was having.

Again, I feel that the class focus on more beauty then corruption, which says something about either our class, or our society. If I could do this project again, and was in a place where I could handle the topic that I would choose, I think I would have focused more on corruption. I feel that because we showed our choices almost every week, the as a group we went with what the majority was doing rather than going with those ideas that we had.

Anyways, I would have done more of my compositions by hand, rather than photography, even though it is what I tend to go to. And I would focus on the war. From what I saw put up in class, my images were the only two that touched on the subject. So if I could create the images in my head, and have time to do so, I think that I would have chosen all of my composition to be about that.

So ideas I had were going to the VA hospital and talking with Vets, putting in images that I have when I think about the war and my fathers death. I have more information then I really need to know about how he died, and it could make for some interesting images.

Anyways, just some thoughts I have had after we finished this project.

- Oscar Wilde - FInal Choices Cont..

2008-12-02T14:22:00.001-08:00

- Oscar Wilde - FInal Choices

2008-12-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

- Oscar Wilde - part 3.5

2008-12-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

With these compositions, The top two are to continue with nature and its beauty. The flower I had in a previous set of photos, but I cropped it and made it focus on the center of the flower giving it more white space (since we are organizing the book based on amounts of black to whites). With the two below, I had notices that a lot of people were doing more beautiful things the corrupt and corruption is half the idea to our project. I had thought of these before, but as they are really close to me, I found it hard to make myself do them. The first being my fathers grave stone and photos from his memorial service, and the second being a statue that they put up when there is a fall solider.

- Oscar Wilde - part 3

2008-12-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

The next class we went over the last of our compositions to see if they all should get in. I have to put half here, and then the other half in a second post. With these compositions , still was leaning towards something more playful and youthful, in the other half you will see a drastic change. I will talk about that more in a little bit. I wanted to include some nature but not too much as I had notices that there were many other people who were doing the same thing. I picked my cat because she is still a kitten, and really curious, something i feel we loose as we get older. Another composition that has the same thought in might our the couple making snow angels. Whens the last time you made a snow angle? Then I included some love because is was a topic we talked about and two because it reminds me of youthful love. More to come with my next post.

- Oscar Wilde - part two

2008-11-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Our next class discussion broke down more of what we thought the poem's meaning was, and brainstormed multiple ideas for our book project. In the end we decided on youth and beauty vs. age and corruption. We brainstormed different "topics" and then we were to come back with compositions. For this, I ended up thinking I was going to chose photography as my form of medium, and began to brainstorm ideas while I looked through so of the photographs I had already taken. These are what I brought to class, but I wanted to explore some other topics as well. The compositions contain both beauty, corruption, and youth. They are all taken while on my trip to the Philippines.

- Oscar Wilde - part one

2008-11-25T08:34:00.002-08:00

After reading in class, Oscar Wilde's poem, we had a discussion about youth vs. age and which was considered beautiful. Based on the discussion, these are the two compositions I came up with.
With only one day between classes and the project just beginning, all I could think of was contrasting between youth and age. My thoughts were that both are beautiful and showing that was all I could think of.

- Oscar Wilde -

2008-11-25T08:34:00.001-08:00

Youth
by Oscar Wilde

'BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE MOST MARVELOUS YOUTH, AND YOUTH IS THE ONE THING WORTH HAVING.'

...Someday, when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines, and passion branded your lips with it hideous fire, you will feel it terribly. Now, wherever you go, you charm the world.

Will it always be so? ...You have a wonderfully beautiful face. Don't frown. You have.

And Beauty is a form of Genius -- is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.

You smile? Ah! when you have lost it you won't smile ... People say sometimes that Beauty is only superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible...Yes, the gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away.

You only have a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats.

Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses. You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly...

Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don't squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age.

Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing...A new Hedonism --that is what your century wants. You might be its visible symbol. With your personality there is nothing you could not do. The world belongs to you for a season...For there is such a little time that your youth will last -- such a little time.

The common hill-flowers wither, but they blossom again. The laburnum will be as yellow next June as it is now. In a month there will be purple stars on the clematis, and year after year the green night of its leaves will hold its purple stars. But we never get back our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty, becomes sluggish.

Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memories of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to. Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!'

- Oscar Wilde -

Poster

2008-11-25T08:30:00.001-08:00

Out of all of my compositions, I liked this one the most and would make it poster size. It has good movement, good use of white space, some depth to the background and doesn't have too much going on in it.

Five Color Composition

2008-11-18T09:07:00.001-08:00

For this composition I wanted to take a letter and have it cover the whole page. I used the letter K and the created some copies of it. I was still playing with creating depth and also playing with the white space. At the last minute I decided to add a D in behind the K, but only a while one, giving it more white space, I like how it added to the composition, because it is on top of some of the copies of K but under others. Over all I really like how this one turned out..and it is much less soupy.

With this one, I continued to play with white space. I used the letters D and B. They are the initials of both my husband and soon baby boy. So I thought it would be fun to play with and possible put up something in the babies room. The nice thing is that both letters have the same kind of movement, so its hard to tell where the B's are. I tried working with the white space, and background again. I feel that this one might have gotten a little soupy but not near as busy as my last set of compositions.

The final one I feel that I finally was getting somewhere with creating depth withing the background. I created this kind of spiral shape out of both letters and numbers and then changed the opacity on the layers farther back. The closer to the top, the more you are able to see them. I like how the colors work together, what the white space is doing and how the darker colors also create some distance. Its a little soupy and maybe if I would have made the piece smaller and in the corner, with the top left having more of just the background color and less going on, it would have been a better composition. I do however feel that these 3 compositions are some of my best work. I am a little sad that we will be moving on from here and had fun creating.

4 Color Compositions

2008-11-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

For my first composition I wanted to continue with the fall theme and incorporate my swirly's that I like so much. I like how playful this turned out although I wish I had a lighter blue. The weirls are suppose to be wind blowing around the leaves, so I feel that if I had used a lighter blue the colors would have worked better together.

Then I moved on to Illustrator. We were told to begin incorporating letters into our compositions as objects rather than thinking of them as letters. I really enjoyed using Illustrator, and playing with the color and compositions. In this one I used the initials to my name KD. Both lower and upper case, and began to connect them down and across the page. I also played witht the white space and creating depth. Its a good start but I dont think I have figured it out just yet.

This one was also done in Illustrator, and again I played with white space. I dont remeber what letters I used. I just picked ones that I liked the way the looked. I think the font I picked is playful but a wider one would have helped with the effect I was trying to go for. I tired making the font shaped bigger but once I got the width I liked, I lost a lot of the detail that I liked. So it was a challenge to find a happy medium. I dont think I quite found it. But its a work in progress.

One of the things we talked about in class was to not let my compositions get too "soupy". These defiantly have a lot going on in them, and the background is kind of lost. This is something to keep in mind with my next compositions.

Three Color Compositions

2008-10-08T14:32:00.001-07:00

After last class, I felt like I got a better understanding of what I wanted, and how to balance the figure ground. Also, Luke had mentioned that if you were to turn off one layer of the composition, meaning one color, and were to only look at one layer at a time, each individual color would be able to work as a separate composition, and that then together the composition should work as well. I took those things in mind, and tired to consider them as I created my first composition. Out of the three compositions, this is by far my favorite. I feel it is balanced, and the different curves with the bold lines work well together. I also tried to create a little dimension by having some part be over the bold lines and others underneath it. I'm not sure how that turned out, but I am very satisfied with this piece and excited to try doing something similar with 4 colors.

This Composition, I was thinking about fall, and the leaves. I'm not sure if it works. I wanted the leaves to not be perfect, but I wanted them to look more like they were blowing. I'm not sure I that ended up happening.

And this last one, I used primary colors, and just made it really quickly. I also don't really like it. But I think it works better then the second one. I think I like things that are more curvy then box like.

2 Color Compositions

2008-10-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

For the 2 color compositions, I decided to think about why I was a graphic design major and what I wanted to do with the knowledge I gained. One of those things is to offer invitations announcements. This top one is a theme that I am really drawn to, the curly parts anyways. After I finished that, I thought, I needed to add something else, but I wasn't quite sure what. I knew if I was making this for someone it would have text on it, so that's were the weird line pattern came from. I feel I got carried away , and added things that didn't really fit, and didn't know when to stop. If I could remove somethings, I think I would enjoy this composition more.

This Composition, I tried to be more free with, but it just became a pattern, and didn't really look at the page as a whole. Sometimes, if I don't pay attention, then I forget about important things like figure ground.

This Composition, I tried to create energy with the lines, and dots off the lines, and added another aspect to the page with the larger circles. I again forgot about the figure ground, and fell that this could become something if I paid more attend to the background, and how I place things.

One Color Composition

2008-10-08T14:09:00.001-07:00

My first composition, I wasn't sure were to start, so since it was in black and white (or one color) I went back to what I had learned in my 2 design class. We did something similar to this is class and I liked the technique. Its hard when your not given very many guidelines. I spent the most time on this composition, and liked the way it turned out.

The second I did the same technique, but when for a larger scale, I was trying to use sharper lines, and balance the black and white, but I think I ended up leaving more white then black.

This third one, I tried to do something completely different, and so I freehand my signature (First initial and last name K DON) and placed it on the bottom of the page. I liked that this one has more movement in it, but again I left a lot of white background, and feel it would work better with all the extra white space cropped off, and some of the green going off the top of the page and coming back on.

Breaking Ground

2008-09-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

This blog is the start of my art....Well I mean my art online. I will post some older stuff, and keep up with more current art. Mainly from my ART 118 class. So I can look back and see my progress. My foundation is soon to come!