Reflection

For my last blog post, I believe it would be suiting to blog about computers class itself.  Overall, I really enjoyed it.  Illustrator really irritated me at first because I had never used it before, photoshop seemed to come right back to me after a little bit of time with it.  My absolute favorite was the silkscreen project, even though it wasn't really computers. 
After I scheduled my courses for next year, I found out the print making class I wanted was full.  I emailed the head of the printmaking at Tyler to see if there were any extra spots, he informed me the teacher who regularly teaches it (my wonderful computers teacher)  is leaving Tyler this year so he doesn't know who the teacher will be.  I was very upset!  My computers teacher is very nice and I wanted to take more classes with her.  I always hear that I am very lucky to have had her as a teacher.  I completely agree.  Overall, computers class was a wonderful experience and I will take a lot away from it.

Revamped Scanner Face

For my scanner face, I decided that I did not like the colors I had used in it before.  I also fixed up the hand because it didn't look like it was touching my face before.

Environment

For my environment I decided to mimic what I do everday in Philly, go for a bike ride.  I took a picture of a bike from my favorite Cinelli magazine then gave it a background out of some photos I have taken.

Silkscreen

For our silkscreen project we first had to design an image on the computer.  It was somehow supposed to relate to repetition or speed in some way.  I designed an image of Glenn Danzig in photoshop and originally had the text "I want your skull" underneath.  This is because I listen to the song "skulls" everyday, and often actually will put it on repeat.  I am happy with the result even though the text had to be removed.  I especially liked the one where I layered it ontop of itself with different inks- that gave it an almost 3-D effect.  I enjoyed the result of using hot pink ink to depict a scary looking skeleton man.  Overall, it made me want to sign up for a print making class next semester.

Retrogression

Due to the fact that I have no completed anything lately that I find to be very interesting/ lectures have repeatedly been about registration, I will post about my first completed 3-D project.  The project was to make an inflatable (a closed sculpture out of sheet plastic that is inflated by a constant stream of air).  Our inflatable has to convey collision.  Me and my friend Bonnie made a frankenduck.  Innocence meets violence.  She had previous knowledge or ironing plastic so after we both cut out the pieces she started ironing them together.  I was in charge of duct tape decals.  First was the basics, make it look like a rubber duck.  Wings, check; one big adorable eye, check;bubbles, check.  This is where the project became specialized.  Half of the duck was to be made satanic.  Bleeding upsidedowncross eye, check; pentagram on wing, check; severed head, check; fang, check.  We inflated our evil ducky and well satanic or not, it couldn't have been more adorable.

Punk Rawk

For my 2-D project I had to make a collage that mimicked a pattern of behavior.  When I get stressed, I go to concerts and go into mosh pits.  The project is 4ft by 5ft, the background is a large ink drawing of a concert I attended.  I printed other photos of concerts I went to onto transparent paper then laid them down in a radiating pattern.  The second part of the assignment was to take a photo of it in the environment it belonged to, aka a concert.  First I went to my friends  house show and attempted to take a picture, this ended with a collage torn all around the edges.  The show was too small and too rough for the assignment.  I duct taped a black boarder around to make up for the damage and brought it to another concert, which was much more spacious.  This proved to be a much more fitting venue for the assignment, despite the poor lighting and very dark images produced.

Future

Today was a lecture about advising and next year and FINALLY being able to pick classes.  When I had my portfolio review the lady told me I would be a painting major, possibly printmaking.  Not to be argumentative or disagreeable but my major interest has always been glass.  I absolutely love everything about being in a glass studio so I have decided I want to get into a glass, sculpture and metal class, the exact opposite of my predicted future.  Besides glass, I have never worked with 3-D before, but that has been the only foundations class I found interesting.

Photoshop Painting

I scanned in my ink wash, duplicated the layer, then added a filter to one.  Decreased opacity of the filtered one then liquefied the background.  I then went in with a paint brush and increased the white highlights as well as adding a transparent dark blue and green highlights to add color to the piece.

The Monster

In the 3-D Olympics, my sub-team (Sam, Josh& Austin) were assigned to make a kinetic puppet that required at least three people to move.  We had an hour and were supplied with wood, cardboard, tape and whatever we had brought.  My team quickly decided to make a monster....that ate me.  We had Josh and Austin each make a claw and arm while Sam and I made the large head.  The monster turned out amazingly for an hours worth of work.  We won the competition and were rewarded with a crappy wood-slotted trophy that is sitting on my desk.  It had clearly been spray-painted moments before it was awarded to us, but either way it was worth it because our puppet kicked ass.  I wish I had photos of it...

Using illustrator, I had to make a layout of my room.  Our dorm isn't anything special, it is actually very bare when you can't see all of the junk we have plastered all over the walls.  It is however home, so we love it!

Ink

As the "artistic" one of my friends I have always been the one designated to design there tattoos.  Yesterday was no different when I had a new assignment at hand, doodling something up for my brother while zoning out during art history.  For once in my life 2-D had provided me with something useful! I was very pleased with myself as I played with the principles of design and color while sketching it up.  Never would I have thought that drawing up ink for my friends would be such a breeze after a little bit of thought.  Instead of tweaking for hours and hours I was able to use my knowledge and layout my design no time at all.  I'm very excited that I found a much more effective way to draw tattoos.

Why painting is not the major for me

Everything that has happened today has taught me I should NOT become a painter.  First it started at lecture, where the speaker, although interesting, was practically speaking another language.  The examples he showed as "beginner" work, were way better than anything I could think of creating.  I have never worked with paints before besides one color wheel and one oil painting I did in 12th grade.  My school always stuck to dry forms of medium, because they are not as easily wasted by negligent children.  Then came to my critique in 2-D where I was blown away by some of the acrylic game boards I saw.  I have never been very good at craft or painting beautifully straight lines no matter how hard I try-although I will probably never gain a career in painting, I do hope to practice with it more and improve my skills.

Typography

Words are evil

Me and typography definitely don't mesh well.  This is probably because I have never used illustrator before so I was left at the mercy of my minimal knowledge.  The thing I love about computer programs is once you learn something, it is a breeze.  You can think of a design and just create it, instead of searching for ten minutes to deduce where that damn type button was again.  For my first typography outside of class (phrase) I decided to create a bird, which has a very simple shape to it.  From there I chose a raven because I have always had an affinity for them.  From that choice stemmed the desire to use the classic raven-related phrase "nevermore".  Due to the fact that the text was not directly obvious (ex. the word raven) I decided to keep it readable and proceeded to create an outline by typing nevermore repeatedly.  Next, for my pattern design, no letters were as geometric as I was wanting to work with so I played with scale and position of //'s.  I then created created a landscape scene of a moon over mountain, but I guess I overloaded my computer because the entire program shut down without saving, which shifted my inspiration to my next idea (the angry face).  Finally, I let my music be my muse and as I was listening to metal, I recreated the classic ram-headed pentagram.  This one is a tad silly so I decided to play with using different symbols and letters to create it.  Overall, I feel I learned a lot and if I ever had to redo this assignment, it wouldn't take as freakishly long as it did.

Education

Today's lecture taught me, that I have no interest in becoming a teacher.  I was debating about it for a long time but the extra time I would have to devote to it is not worth it in my eyes.  A art history minor, however, is something I would deem helpful to have.  I am trying to get out of college as quickly as possible to avoid obtaining more debt than necessary.  The knowledge about the different majors I find personally, much more interesting than the lectures of last semester.  These actually pertain more to me and my interests and will hopefully make a hard decision in declaring a major easier.

Photo Pairing

The top image is from a show I attended in the basement of the first Unitarian Church, the bottom is a sketch mimicking  graffiti that I observed on the Broad Street Ministry church.  I believe the two should be paired because due to the lighting in the top photo, it appears she is having a epiphany.  There is also a connection because the two were located at a church.

These two images are paired for humerus aspects.  The one on the left was a poster plastered all down Broad Street while the one on the right is a sticker I found on a pole.  The man on the right would be a very awkward one night affair due to the fact that he seems preoccupied with his balloon.  I also liked the contrast from the bold colors to a thin sketch.

These two belong together because they have the same theme.  The one on the left is graffiti of someone expressing concern about another mentally moving on, while the train depicts physically moving on.

Study Abroad

At lecture, the ability to study across seas was discussed.  Today Rome was mentioned in particular, I do wish to study abroad but Rome holds no extreme interest for me.  It was however helpful to learn about how to apply and the costs involved.  It made me think about my options because I am not sure of what I wish to major in and that sometimes causes conflicts.  I will hopefully one day study abroad because the overall experience seems like one I would enjoy.  Although this particular lecture did not specifically pertain to me, the information is good to have.

Photo Trip

My experience taking photos was very bizarre.  My bike messenger friend and I went biking around the city taking photos of places he used to live and various other places that are nostalgic to him.  Sadly, I dropped my camera destroying it as well as the photos it held.  So tonight, in the freezing cold I decided I wanted to take pictures of various graffiti art located around the city because I personally believe that is one of the most beautiful aspects of Philadelphia.  I also focused on my other love, bikes.  I always inspect every bike I pass anyways but this time I captured it in photo form.  For my found objects, most things I came across were nasty trash but a few things held artistic purpose (ex. a ticket stub outside of the Kimmel Center).  I really enjoyed this experience because although people stared at me like a freak as I stood taking a picture of a vandalized trash can, I got to take the time to analyze art that is normally overlooked.