I had some fun with construction paper. All that graphic design knowledge coming into play right here.
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The assignment: Create a white still-life and using only shading techniques, (think of lines that you do make as edges) and use any material you like, though charcoal is quite handy.
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Credit to Alan Shapiro for this image that I will transform in Illustrator. And God for making beautiful birds.Adobe Illustrator class’ next assignment –color–
Step one: Create line drawing the old fashioned way (with a Sharpie).
Step Two and a Billion after that:
Create layer with the drawing and lock it. Over it, use pen tool and shapes tools to make the bird. Delete drawing. Get really confused about live paint and try to mend gaps in drawing. Use the color bucket to create colors and then select presets to color the bird with more “complementary” hues. Give up on trying to create line interest with the strokes due to all the layers of shapes that didn’t come through in the painting process. Abandon ship while it still looks okay. I am deathly afraid of deleting and saving and what else that the program does to mess with all the points, anchors and handles that are already on the darn thing. I can’t say this is the most simple thing to do, but I am sick of looking at a screen and I can’t figure out out to simplify this thing (this web of points, swoops, directions that are so intricately linked, though not visible in final view). Sigh. -
Approaching a project with different techniques is a surefire way to challenge yourself and get ideas. Here’s a kiwi rendered, color-blocked and drawn (with emphasis on interesting line quality– I could have done this better, but I like the nib perhaps too much at this point).
Assignment for this week: ”
Render & Stylize. Work with an Animal and make it into a symbol/icon. Use tracing paper, look at positive/negative space, distort, exaggerate, simplify, stylize, create a feeling of dimensionality to distill the essence of the subject chosen. Simplify your work, giving it grace and/or movement, You will acquire an Animal and an Industry through random Selection. You will need to create a stylized animal icon which is appropriate for your industry. While your final solution needs to be black, consider different media in your process; Xerox machine, marker on newsprint, charcoal, texture, scribbling. You will go through different iterations of tracing/exagerating/reducing as you continue to refine and stylize your animal. While your intermediate steps can be rough, your final comp needs to be crystal clear, black and white. You will need to show your initial sketch as well as the final iteration, on 2, 8.5” X 11” sheets of paper. Finished work due in next class.”
I have to figure out something “Zebra” and “Automotive.”
Here’s what I got so far.
Update: 10-27 Here’s a couple more. I really can’t get away from these striking stripes.
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By using Adobe Photoshop to clean up the scan of a handrawn Mr. Yoks, (make it pure black and white, refine the edges a bit) and running Adobe Illustrator CS5.1’s livetrace feature, taking that and setting (and locking) that as a guide for the pen tool, I created this super crisp drawing. I am constantly impressed with technology. I am impressed with how oblivious I was of this combination of features to make something truly sharp (what I see in my mind when I set out to make the drawings.) -
I directed this shoot for my new media photography assignment. My photographer was Erika Belanich. More from this series to come.
10-29– update:
I printed this on a photo printer. My final project for this module.
I slightly edited some of these, but I mostly like the raw untouched images.
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Here are the edited photographs from last week’s shoot with Canadian Mike. It turned out well. (I submitted an unedited version of mikewindow2 and the class didn’t say anything about it because there was some time management issues and we just needed to plow through the end of the critique.) I was very impressed with the other student’s work. They took advantage of glass’ transparent, yet reflective quality and captured ready-made collages, some with such beautiful touches like fallen autumn leaves that recede into a girl’s sweater or palm tree fronds that meld into a wild dark hairdo.
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Long past couple of days… not enough sleep, I suppose. Yesterday, I drew paper, crumpled paper. It was to get some practice looking at abstract shadows, making no assumptions on how it’s supposed to look. Exercises in seeing. One drawing was created using a paper stump dipped in charcoal dust and another was done when I used eraser bits on a charcoal covered page.
Today in New Media class, I learned the miracle-working powers of Adobe Lightroom and the magic of fancy expensive cameras. All the details are in that file, they just need some Blacks, or Light Refill or slide the toggle on the exposure scale. Check that histagram! It’s all a beautiful thing.
In a very Project Runway fashion, we came up with ideas for what black is (the theme is Black) and then we narrowed it down to 11 words (1 word per group) and now I have an “ink” inspired black-themed photograph due by next friday, and I have been assigned a partner with whom I can collaborate with… or not. I think I might. I have some great ideas that I would like to bounce off of someone.
