Parchment drawing

This isn't my final for my Drawing course but it IS what was just turned in and graded last and I forgot to put it up here! Basically I did a study where I textured/tinted my own paper and used a calligraphy pen to do this squid drawing with subsequent studies etc. 

The making of the parchment like paper wasn't really all that difficult! I looked up several different methods of tinting my paper and wound up using this one. Basically all you do is crumple up your paper, flatten it out again, heat up some water and put a couple tea bags in it and let it sit. Then you put the paper in a pan and pour the hot tea over it until the paper is lightly covered, you can use the tea bags to make certain areas darker than others as well by rubbing the teabag and squeezing it over those spots, slide the pan in the oven on low heat, and wait for most of the tea to evaporate. You can blot at it a bit as well. After that you take the pan out, let it dry, and tadaaa!!! The one thing was that the surface completely changed after the tinting so drawing on it was definitely an experience! The paper didn't absorb as much ink, because go figure the paper had already absorbed a whole lot of tea! All in all though I think the end result was pretty neat and it was a really fun drawing to do. 

The First Final!!!

I have officially completed my Digital tools and Concepts coursework! I am going to post my video here partially to show what I've been doing but also to get a couple extra credit points!

Okay, this video didn't take long to put together but it took a hell of a long time to set up! Basically I had to sketch out each frame, which adds up to over 100 frames, then tape the page to the wall and take at least 2 or 3 video clips of each frame to ensure I got a good shot. The sketching part probably took the longest because during that time I had to come up with a simple story to tell in less than 2 minutes. But once I had the concept down and the sketches done it was just a matter of uploading all of the video clips to imovie (I had to borrow a mac computer) and then import all of the clips, choose the ones I wanted to keep, and insert the music.

Honestly I think that the process it took to figure out how to save this film in a format that was usable took longer than the process of actually uploading the video and getting it all in working order! Anyways I hope you enjoy the first final of finals season. One down Four to go!!

The End of a Chapter

Yes the end of the semester is rapidly approaching! And so I am prompted to reflect on how this semester has benefited  me as my last "assigned" blog post. My digital course is by far the most different of all the courses I am taking. It is also the course that pushed me farthest out of my comfort zone! But in today's rapidly computerized society digital art is becoming more and more prevalent and is becoming a valuable tool for my trade as an Illustrator. I have always found digital art amazing, but a little impersonal. I like being able to feel my materials and physically make the markings on paper. However, this course has shed some light on the subject of digital art for me. While I still prefer traditional media I have to say that there is way more that you can do with the computer today than I ever really thought!

Originally I always thought of computer animation when I thought of anything artistically inclined with graphics. I never thought about drawing and painting on the computer, at least not in a professional manner. And I never thought that Photoshop could be used for anything truly college level class related! I had only ever really heard about Photoshop through friends who liked to play around and make their pictures all goofy. This class really expanded my point of view on digital art. Looking at other artists works and seeing how many different ways you can go about approaching mark making and creativity through computerized means, it really gave me a new found respect for digital artists.You can make art that looks just like traditional media art, you can enhance pictures you've taken of your work, there are a million different things you can do!

My favorite program would have to be Illustrator mostly because I can mimic water color with it and I feel more like I'm actually creating something new than I do when using Photoshop etc. I feel like Photoshop is more of a collage making program. All be it a very professional collage making program but it is still collage making none the less! Illustrator feels more like the artists program to me. I felt so much more in my element than in any of the other projects, it was less like I was trying to learn a new language and more like I was getting to speak my own language for a change! There were some elements that I didn't like however. After learning how to use Photoshop in a basic form first I got slightly confused in Illustrator. The fact that you can't do any photo cropping in Illustrator. You can re size the image but so far I haven't figured out if there is any cropping function at all. It's one big learning process anyways!

I am looking forward to my next digital courses and the challenges that they are going to present. I will be keeping up this blog as well! I can't say that I am fully comfortable using my computer as a means to express my creativity just yet...but I'm learning! Slowly but surely. Hopefully as time goes on and I learn more this will become a valuable tool in my Illustrators arsenal!

My final projects are all being finished this week and will be posted as they are finished! If not right away I will catch up the blog at the end of the semester after I've gone into the traditional coma that is required to recover from finals week!

The problem with art history

Alright. I am a good student. I work my butt off for each of my classes. But for some ungodly reason I can't seem to keep awake in my art history class!!! I don't know why! My professor is hysterical so I know that isn't the problem. But the lights are so dim and I've just eaten lunch and I don't know what else to do! So I sit here and sketch and try desperately hard to stay the hell awake!
Today I actually had to get up and go get candy just to give myself that little bit of sugar rush to stay awake :/ I feel like a terrible student. Maybe I have a weird form of art history triggered narcolepsy....

 
Yup that is how I feel!! Anyways, it's gotten worse now that finals are upon us and I can't help but want to sleep all the time! My finals will wind up on here as well as the last projects I've done! I have a couple things to show you all like my foray into sculpture and my Squid project! This semester has been a wild ride but it isn't over yet! It's time for some crazy finals! Two weeks left let the madness begin!

Digital Self Portrait Numero Dos!

I have to say this was definitely my favorite project so far! It was so much like regular watercolor painting! I love how you can actually make something like this on the computer I think it's amazing. This portrait is my final self portrait for the Digital course I am taking, we just completed a web page as well and are now on the last project of the semester. Which would happen to be video...can't say I feel completely confident about that one! But I guess as long as I can avoid filming MYSELF then it should all be good! I don't ever know what to do when I'm on camera so usually I revert to being an immense dork!

Anywhoodles I have reached the finals portion of the semester and final projects are being announced! I figured I should put them up here, seeing as this is my record of my art career and all. In my drawing course our final project is to do one last self portrait but this time full scale. He wants it to be near life size or larger, from head to toe, and with a background that is convincing as far as making the figure have a solid space behind it etc. As for 3D I have an assemblage project for my final which I already have a few ideas for, a research paper for my writing course and last but not least an exam in Art History. Then my semester is done!

I realize I had dissappeared off the face of the earth for a little while but I am going to be catching up the blog with my projects as of late, including one done with a calligraphy pen, and get back to writing at least once or twice a week =) I am a busy bee!

Anyways the next post will probably be about the sculpture I've been working on and the wonders of vermiculite, for now I have some writing to do. Until next time!

Partner in Crime

I've discovered in the past year or so that becoming an art major means so much more than just dedicating all of your time into honing your artistic talents. More so than any other major I think that becoming an art major means entering into a family of people just as crazy and outside the box as you are! My friend Kaitlin Dorsey is a perfect example of this. I have known Kaitlin for about a year now and she has become my closest friend in the art world, she is as I stated in the title of this post my partner in crime! We both went through a very similar transition, me from a biology major and her from nursing, into the art world and have been close friends ever since.

Her art process reveals a lot about who she is as an individual. When discussing this with her she said "My art process usually starts with whatever my mood is or whatever event is going on in my life. Whether it's a breakup or school or a certain interest I might have at the time. Whatever I'm feeling, my art usually reflects it." To simplify it even more, when she is feeling happy she tends to draw lighter images but when she is feeling upset or angry her drawings could gravitate anywhere from skulls and hearts to dislocated eyeballs! Her bubbly and eclectic personality practically     jumps out at you from her art work regardless, it doesn't matter if the mood is sad or happy or angry. She effectively carries across that mood to the audience in all of her artwork while at the same time giving it a little twist that is uniquely her own. 

While painting, with oil paints in particular, seems to be the bane of her existence she has an intense love of toned paper, texture, and color pencil. These three are combined frequently in her work. While paint is not very easily controlled in her opinion, she handles her colored pencil drawings masterfully. Lately she has been experimenting with illustration board by scoring it, with objects such as a staple remover, and then drawing on it with colored pencils and other materials. Her innovation, both in materials and purely in the ideas that she comes up with, is most definitely inspiring and I can't wait to see what she does as a graphic design major. 
She has most certainly hit the ground running!

A day in the life of MOI!

A day in the life of meee, Wednesday 7th 2012! My life is crazy and hectic and I love every minute, even those minutes where all I wanna do is curl up in a ball and avoid all my work and sleep! The assignment this time was to create a photo montage that follows one day in your life. This particular day was one of my busiest days of the week! I had Drawing Observation and Invention, Digital Tools and Concepts, a meeting with my 3D professor, Art History, and then a visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art! Throughout the day I took pictures of my friends and the things that I saw and ate and wrote in, and that is what this montage is all about.