Illustrator Pen Tool Review

This is my pen tool practice. I used images of seagulls to practice because of the complexity of the wings and the curves to really show off my skill and knowledge of the pen tool.

Eventscape

A couple weeks ago we took part in another Shazaam assignment. This time working with a company called Eventscape who work in making large architectural sculptures and buildings. Our assignment- to create a visually appealing, cost effective, simplistic sculpture for our school. This project took us weeks to complete until we came to a final product. These are the steps we took into making out final design.

First we thought of possible locations to put the sculpture (areas with nothing in them or have no visual interest) in the end we all chose site C (west of the parking lot) and decided to design models that would fit all the criteria to meet site C's needs (picnicking area, trees, next to field, next to sidewalk, etc).

Then we designed models individually. Everyone came up with their own unique idea, and we repeatedly came up with new designs daily. Some of our models we had to rip apart to see if we can change or have new inspirational thoughts of how the piece would look. Everyday we were given more and more restrictions to make us understand that we had to look at the realistic point of view and create a model that would fit our budget.

In the end we chose a ribbon like object that twisted and flowed. I however created my own final piece- the Explosive Chair!

My idea was to create a metallic base with long metal rods shooting out at the end (like an explosion) and on each rod would be "shards" of flat metal (these would act as the chairs) This piece met all the criteria to be a made piece, but the material was out of our budget unfortunately. I came up with this piece thinking of a chair that can have multiple seating areas, yet still be able to see people in all directions. I like this design out of all my designs because it is simplistic and modern. This piece gave me inspiration to create more different designs and sculptures!

Duality Portrait

First let me explain the assignment. We had to express our personality in 2 contrasting ways, but however, somehow unified- such as good and bad. Then we had to take our idea and express in an medium as long as it truly expressed your idea in the best way. ( such as being sad, you use water colour, to show droopy and messy lines, etc)

In my duality portrait I express my 2 personality traits of being unique, and being persuaded easily. I myself think I'm unique. Well I know everyones unique in their own way, but we all seem to follow the same rules, same "acceptable" traits that make us normal in society. I try not to be like society, what's the point of being everyone else? However, I'm easily persuaded, i want to be unique, however people around me influence to be like them, dress like them, act like them, just so I can fit in without being judged.

So I expressed these 2 traits with acrylic on canvas, with a really ugly looking man with society in the background. Don't get it? let me explain...

 Society is in the background, notice how they all look the same, only with minor differences (such as height and width) because everyone wants to be the same, or copy other people. This is what makes them gray and bland, because they don't try to be interesting, just accepted. I am the weird orange guy in the foreground, unique, different, stands out in many ways compared to society. However, being unique is being ugly, you are looked at differently with disgusted faces, people think you're weird, different, strange, etc.. Thats why the orange guy is ugly, because being different isn't good, its bad, and society tries to make you be like them, when they eye you down in disgust. Thats when my other personality trait comes in- being persuaded easily. The green tree on my head represents my brain, notice how branches of the tree are attached to people f society, since I am easily persuaded, I actually listen to society and try to be like them so I'm accepted, so I absorb information from them into my brain, so I can learn to be the same, and not unique. This where my 2 traits clash; I want to be unique, special, I want to stand out, however, I have the fear of being judged, so I want to be like society and everyone else at the same time.

Well that is my duality portrait, hope you like it! :)

Chuck Close

This is one of my favourite artists, a modern painter named Chuck Close creates large canvases of people faces in the most precise detail. This style is known as hyperrealism, an art style which resembles a high-resolution photo with extremely small brush strokes (or other media) Chuck Close's pieces are found in many art museums and galleries around the world.

"Big Self-Portrait"

1967-1968

This is my favourite piece by him, known as the "Big Self-Portrait" this is obviously a large image with Chuck on it. This is acrylic on canvas, and as you can tell its extremely detailed. This piece as been in a number of art galleries, such as the Target gallery and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. There are no visible brush strokes there is a wide range of shade. This piece is effective and visually appealing because its overwhelming to know that this piece is created by acrylic paint with extreme attention to detail.

That is why its my favourite piece- extreme attention to detail. I can't deny that paintings with large globs splattered everywhere isn't nice, but I'm more into detail. Chuck Close really expresses it through his paintings, Because some of his pieces take years to do, and to know he has the patience to do them all gives me inspiration. I'm never really patient when it comes to art, I usually rush things, but I'm trying to be patient, because the final product would be worth it in the end, Chuck Close proves that.

Here are some other paintings by Chuck Close

  

Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs

This Classic Disney movie was created in 1937, and this was awhile back ago. At that time they didnt have all the fancy computers and technology that we have today, and animation back then was a pain in the butt.  Snow White is a special movie because it is the first animated feature film in America, not only that but it was also the first cel-animated movie featured in FULL colour. This movie was also the first to be produced by Walt Disney himself, so this movie is more special than it seems.

At this time, Walt Disney wasnt the large amazing thing that little children screamed for, at that time it was small, and the animators were amateur newspaper comic artists. Ater lots of training they got to work of the animation of Snow White. Like i said before, technology wasn't the same as back then, the movie was created not by a computer program, however through a process called Rotoscoping. Rotoscoping is a animation technique where the artist traces over live-action film movement... frame by frame. Yeah thats right, every single movement was drawn frame by frame. Nowadays, computers pretty much do everything, with programs like Flash, even 6 year olds can do a simple animation. But yeah, since everything was done frame by frame, ALOT of animators were needed to create different scenes, draw backgrounds, colour, music, etc. etc... So obviously this movie took longer than animated movies nowadays would take. Here is a classic example of rotoscoping, by a very familiar classic cartoon character.

This film was released in 1933, 4 years before Snow White was released. And considering that Snow White is in full colour there was a large uproar of excitment to see cartoons in colour. After Snow White, many other Disney movies were in colour, slowly rasing the popularity and vale of Disney.

Snow White is currently known as one of the most classic Disney movies ever, and has one of the Disne princesses too.

Photography

Yesterday, our group went out to take pictures of different compositions. The cameras we used had shutter speeds and F apertures, so we needed to know how to change the ISO so the images would turn out. Underexposing an image would make it dark, this is because not enough light reached the film to create an image. Overexposing would make the image too bright, too much light would make the image white (the film was exposed too long, or the surroundings are too bright, such as a sunny day). By changing the shutter speeds and apertures correctly, the images can turn out beautifully, and understanding how to use the camera, you can use many helpful techniques to really make your images look professional (panning and blur)

Unfortunately, since this was our first day with the cameras, our images didn't turn out as we wanted them too. When we went out to shoot, we took pictures of the same object to test out what different f apertures and shutter speeds would create.

shutter speed: 1/200 F number 22

This image came out clear (no blur) however is slightly underexposed

shutter speed: 1/50 F number 18

Now the image is too bright, it was over exposed

shutter speed: 1/200 F number 22

Image is way underexposed

shutter speed: 1/50 F number 36

This image came out perfectly (in my opinion) it is slightly bright though

Edward Burtynsky

We watched a film about a photographer named Edward Burtynsky. This amazing photographer went around the world to highly industrialized cities to take pictures of manutfactured landscapes.

Burtynsky is focusing on this theme to show the people how our idea of landscapes is changing, from lush and dense forest greens, to repetitive and depressing smog of todays technology. He shows through his photos how the industries are affecting our environment in a beautiful way. The documentary showed us cities in China which had workers amoung workers doing repetitive tasks over and over to create products for us (clothing irons), while other areas of the world showed what happens to the products when they are thrown out.

This documentary was amazing in representing the current modern world of today, showing the pros and cons. Made us (the students) rethink our lives, and how lucky we are, because other places are suffering, either having to work in a boring job for years doing the same task over and over, or having to live in a city of garbage, where the smog is so dense you cant see very far in the fog.

Burtynsky had to endure these awful surroundings to take these photos for his gallery. I think that he is an amazing photographer because even the landscapes he visited were horrid and depressing, he made them look beautiful, he must be pretty awesome to make oil spills, and coal mines look beautiful.

Edward Burtynsky Highway #1, Los Angeles, California, USA 2003 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery & Hasted Hunt Kraeutler New York

Edward Burtynsky Recycling #2, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2001 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery & Hasted Hunt Kraeutler New York

Edward Burtynsky Oil Fields #22, Cold Lake Production Project, Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada 2001 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery & Hasted Hunt Kraeutler New York