Dream Theme, redux.

Version 2.0 for your viewing pleasure. I've made a few changes, if you can't tell. The background, for instance, is much darker, but still brown. Oh, and the text. I'm wondering if I should stick to one or two fonts would be better, or if three is fine. I think I need to do something with the thought bubble. I will consider this. Obviously, this isn't the last step. I have until Tuesday to figure this out. And then I have to figure out how to print this on paper that I don't have the correct profile for and that I'm not entirely sure is sealed for printing. Ah well, experiments will need to happen.

Can't get enough of that robot feeling.

I'm only slightly obsessed with this piece. Here's a third version of it!

Dream Theme

This is a project which I'm doing for my Digital Printmaking class. The theme that the entire class decided on (after 20 minutes of shout out things and 3 votes - no really, three. Trés. San. III.) was "dreams." This, of course, is a fairly broad, wiggly word that has a couple of connotations. Unlike, oh I don't know, "invisible." No, seriously, that's what someone shouted out for a theme. "Invisible." *SIGH*

So, after we'd settled on a fairly easy to do theme, I let my brain chug away at it for a few days. I didn't actually do any concept sketches, because frankly I'm lazy. I know that concept sketches are quite essential to art in any form, and that they are analogous to showing your work in algebra, but I'm just lazy. I'm working on that, though.

I think my first draft is a good shot and I like the direction that it's going. I want the background to be busier, but I'll have to play around in Photoshop Effects to get the feel that I want.

This was created by sketching over two images I grabbed from Google (an image of the lungs and an image of an arm from da Vinci's notebooks) in Photoshop using just a plain old oval brush. I then opened the .jpgs in Illustrator and turned the sketches into Live Paints and expanded them. Don't worry if you don't understand what I just said, I'm not even sure that I do.

After I turned my pixels into vectors, I played around with the colors of the arm (of which I'd created a reflected copy using magic alone) and the lungs. During this exploration, I decided on a pastel palette for the image. I think the softer colors work better for the "dreamy" quality I'm going for. I might play around with opacity and layering. Ooooo.

I added the thought bubble in Illustrator and colored it a really light blue, which is hard to tell on the brownish red background. Again, I think I'm going to play around with the background to give the piece more energy or something like that.

Tell me what you think!

edit: Just an extra note, the dimwits in my class decided that we should be restricted to a 2.5" x 3.5" space while working on this project. Thus the smallness of the image - any bigger and you'd see my pixels. I, personally, would have loved to do this as a postcard (3.5" x 5" according to Wikipedia). Ah well.

Spouting random ideas.

I'll probably have some sketches or thumbnails of these ideas ready in the next couple of days, but I thought I'd jump the gun a bit and spew forth some ideas I have generated for the first/second project for my Digital Printmaking class (hereafter known only as GID40). I say first/second, because the first real project for GID40 is to create and print a test strip. This test strip is basically so that you know that your printer is printing the colors you've chosen in whatever software you've chosen to use correctly. There's some deal with profiles and how they're different from paper to paper and printer to printer, but it's all very technical and not fun at all.

So, some of the ideas I've brainstormed (in class, of course) for the projects I'll have to do for this class are pretty simple, and easy to pull off. Maybe not the most original of themes, but the theme doesn't have to be original, but the work itself should be. I'm also thinking about incorporating text into these images, since I'm also taking a Typography class (I may have mentioned this, but I wasn't paying attention).

A brief list of ideas for themes/content as follows (including a brief description of what I'm talking about)

• Things in Unusual Places: This would basically be me juxtaposing two unrelated objects, one of which would probably be a landscape or landscape-esque (ie, a place). An example would be a hillside with a close-up of an ant's head rising over the horizon, or a picture of a tree with a watermelon hanging from it's branches. It's quirky and not terribly symbolically laden, which is what I do best.

• Visuals + Text: This could be pulled off at least two different ways that I can see: A) Text collaged with images or B) Text becoming an object. I think, visually, B would be more interesting, and I wouldn't necessarily want to something clichéd like have the word "face" be used to create an image of a face.

• Opposites: This is the one that appeals to me the most, even a bit more than Things in Unusual Places. I think I would enjoy doing something like this more because it would engage me on a more cerebral level (ie, I'd be using my brains). Let me transcribe my poorly scribbled notes on this: "Maybe combine with Visual + Text: Visual one thing, Text the opposite of that, vice versa. Eg, picture of candle w/ word "dark" incorporated Ground w/ text "sky" or "up" > Can be a good series." And I'm sure that if I thought hard enough I'd be able to work in Things in Unusual Places.

I think I'm most partial to Opposites because it's simple. It wouldn't take more than half an hour with a thesaurus to get a good list of words to use for the theme. And I really like thesaurii.

Hm... looking over I see more inspiration and, surprisingly, it comes in book format. The book in question is "NASA: Visions of Space," and it's basically a picture book of awesomeness. The pictures are various images taken by NASA telescopes (I assume many of them from Hubble, glorious glorious Hubble) and would work great for Things in Unusual Places. And it feeds into the overwhelming need that I have to incorporate space and astronomical images into most of my body of work (I don't often do it, which is why you all haven't seen this desire reflected in what I've shown you).

See, now that idea of incorporating spacey images has merged with my fascination of the human body. Which is a good thing, because ideas are great. It's the follow through that I'm a little wishy-washy on.

So, yes, I will contemplate the mysteries of the universe and attempt to transcribe them on flattened wood pulp. Then, I will take a photo image of this flattened wood pulp, digitizing it onto my computer via my camera device and upload it onto the Intertubes while hanging from my Interwebs. And it will be a glorious adventure for us all.

If anyone has any other ideas they think I should monkey around with, feel free to tell them to me. I'm not shy about taking other people's ideas and running with them.

*SIGH*

Spring break is over.

This means two things: 1) no more playing in the sunshine for several months; and 2) more pretty images to post for your viewing pleasure, as I'm taking two classes which should invigorate my creative juices. Typography, with a teacher that I've had in two other classes and absolutely adore, and Digital Printmaking, with a teacher I've never heard of (which isn't surprising since I don't really pay attention to those sorts of things).

I'm actually really looking forward to this quarter; I'm hoping to get a few portfolio worthy pieces out of my printmaking class. I'm not expecting to get a lot of sleep, though, as I'll be spending approximately 10 hours on homework per week per class (math tells me that equals about 30 hours a week in homework alone) and working 30 hours a week so that I don't have to be some sort of bum on the streets.

This summer, however, will be the summer of great things. I'll be applying for real colleges (I think they call them 'universities'), spending some time in Oregon, and maybe even learning me some HTML. Ok, the HTML learning isn't really that impressive, but it means that I will be one step closer to have a website of my art, rather than just a blog. Not that there's anything wrong with a blog, of course.

Robot v Ant

I like this version a lot more that I liked the one that I turned in for my class. It's much simpler and cleaner. A bit darker, too; the bright colors were irritating me a bit. So, please, let me know what I did right and what I did wrong, and feel free to leave some delicious cake when you do.

As an aside, if it weren't so gosh-durned beautiful outside these days, I'd be much more productive inside. Ah, well, I guess I'll just have to drag the ol' pen and sketchbook out into the verdant wild with me.

ETA: I'm considering the grass... I think I might add a stroke to it. It doesn't fit well with the other elements in the composition.

Well, I'm done for tonight anyway. Maybe tomorrow.

Clouds, clouds, more clouds.

This is one of the projects which I'll be working on over the next few weeks. It's really easy, and I'm pretty sure a monkey could do it. A monkey that understands Photoshop, that is. I'm only an ape that understands Photoshop. I don't even have a prehensile tail, how lame is that?

So I'm not 100% sure what this image will be used for, really. The guy I'm working with is this artsy guy that comes into my work, and he sort of explained what he's trying to do, and I got a vague impression that he was trying to do something good. Well, I also got the vague impression that he just really wants to make a name for himself and make a bit of cash, but whatever, that's his prerogative. I just offered up my skills and knowledge of Photoshop, and while this was fairly tedious, it isn't the worst thing I've ever had to do.

I think I'll take a break, though, and fix my Robot v Ant image. I really want to fix that - it's been driving me nuts thinking about it.