Get it up

Things that inspire me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgXzPfAxjo
http://www.wimp.com/cheetosportrait/

Is it my body

Love is strong

Body language

Today we drew from a model, trying to emulate an abstract expressionist style. This drawing technique involved a lot of creating and destroying, drawing different poses over one another and cutting them up for this final composition:

Signed, sealed, delivered

Some fill spoons full of coffee

Surprise, surprise

Watching the detectives

Another secret day...

Feeling stronger every day

Useful bit of research: apparently the Haitian flag says "Unity Creates Strength" in French on it, which is totally relevant. I just have to find a way to relate this a little more to the Red Cross/the University of Maryland.

But it just might be a lunatic...

Post for today hidden for now to preserve a secret.

The big country

Land of hope and glory

Have you ever seen the rain

Help!

Project planning:
Designing a poster to solicit donations for the Red Cross for either Haiti or Chile's earthquake disaster relief.

Research:
Existing posters for Haiti:


The third one is just weird. I like the feel of the last one though, and the directness of the message. I think the second one is just kind of too abstract, and there's really no reason to try to be tricky with this cause.

Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs

Some favorite doodles...

Nothing but flowers

I really don't like this.

Write me a letter

Dead flowers

Today I worked on collaging in a cubist style, using textured elements to stand in for detail.

Taking care of business

Someday this groundwire assignment might actually end. But today, I'm doing their business card and envelope design.

Bicycle race

Sweet thing

Quality shoe

Searchin' so long

Life is a clue in the crossword

Project planning: Design Scrapbook

I'm working on a compilation of examples of different design components for my elements of design class with Professor Buck-Coleman. We're supposed to make a sort of scrapbook with examples from printed material that demonstrate concepts like Roman serif fonts, color bars, and things like saddle stitches.

Because the theme of the assignment is a "design scavenger hunt," I want to play off of the word game idea and organize the information sort of like a crossword puzzle. I think I'll actually try to find an existing book of crossword puzzles that I can affix the found objects to, and then frame the examples with grids linked to clues, like you would in a puzzle. I'm thinking the cover will have a printed grid with handwritten lettering (or a printed computer-generated font that looks like hand lettering), as if I'm filling in the puzzle, and I'll try to include some blank grids or grids that are filled out by hand within the body of the book.

I went to the lecture by campus printing services yesterday and started collecting samples, and while I'm at home today I want to look and see if maybe Jenna has a puzzle book I could add to, because I think the most daunting part of this project is the binding.

Going mobile

I was really trying to speed up with this drawing. I have yet to finish a piece during the 2 and a half hour class time, and I know drawing can be quicker than that. I was truly going for synthetic cubism thing here, even if it was interpreted as a failure to follow instructions, haha. I tried to emphasize the diagonals and create depth with line, making it less about the object and more about the line, with repeatable gestures that required me to move around, and use my body, not just my wrist or hand. I think the most recognizably cubist element I achieved was the visual hierarchy moving the eye toward the center and fading out of focus toward the edges.


The aspect of this experience I enjoyed the most was definitely the fact that this style permits research of the form through light line. I hate being forced to prematurely commit to proportions that I'm unsure of, and slowly building value after an indecisive series of lighter guesses at the actual shape allowed me to move much more freely, which in turn made my marks less mechanical, more gestural.

You're the inspiration

Today I attended a logotyping workshop where we practiced drawing a custom typeface by hand. The idea was to adapt an existing style of type to express a particular persona, and I chose Jenna, so I tried to make it a little cute and bright, with big rounded counterspaces and decorative serifs. I still based it on a sophisticated Didone, though; she did get an A on her math test today after all.

I was kind of surprised how much I missed Illustrator. That program's been so frustrating for me, but I think I'm gradually getting the hang of it, and being able to move bezier points after you draw a form is just an invaluable tool for this sort of thing that you really can't get with pencil and paper. It's just going to be neater. Speaking of neater, I think the best tip I learned at the typeface workshop was the general principle that the fewer bezier points you have, the stronger your form. This seems like it could be useful outside of type design, too, and gives me some focus in what skills I should hone in the program (manipulating handles).

I was also influenced by the lecture to do some research on the Gestalt Principles--psychologically based theories of visual perception developed in Germany in the 1920s. They are similarity, continuation, closure, proximity, and figure/ground. This seems like it'll be a useful vocabulary for a while, and I'm going to try to keep it in mind as I continue working on the Groundwire identity.

Sweet child of mine

Beating around the bush

Here Comes The Sun

Juke box hero

More speakers, more perspectives.

Beneath, between, and behind

I think the solution to this design problem is somewhere between the angular techno look of the first and the whimsical femininity of the second.

See me, feel me

Analytic cubism sought to explode a given object's form by simultaneously viewing it from different points. I think that although this abstraction results in an image that is more about the shapes, movements, and lines than the actual subject matter being referenced, it ironically presents a truer, more honest representation than any one limited view could provide.

In drawing, and in life, truth is hard to find in the balance between the ignorance of one opinion and the cacophony of disagreement. Too many points of view makes things more confusing, but often constructively, and even necessarily so.


Today I drew some speakers with this in mind. The product is essentially nonobjective. With a little context, though, and close examination, a viewer can see much more about these objects than they would be able to if I'd only drawn the back of them, for instance. Besides, I think the variety of textures this rendering provides gives the whole composition a complex, soothing harmony.

Psycho daisies

Every little thing

Starting to render it in Illustrator:

19th nervous breakdown

I'm so tired

I'm only sleeping

She's like a rainbow

Ice skaters rendered in oil pastel in the style of the fauves.

Powerman

Latest Groundwire logo, rendered on Illustrator:

Penny for your thoughts

"Modern conditions and trends of thought demand modern art for their expression."
--William Merritt Chase, 1920

It's an appealing idea that new modes of artistic expression come about not out of an individual artist's personal style, or because of a fashionable aesthetic at the time, but because they were necessary to demonstrate the ideas that they were used for. I hope, as an artist, that styles of visual art move forward as definitively as fields of science, and that they have the potential to advance the pursuit of truth and improve society as much as medicine or technology, in their own way.

Shades of grey

This kind of drawing is so different from painting and watercolor and sculpture because you slowly build tone, instead of just being able to slap on a layer at full value. It reminds me of blending crayons in elementary school, actually. The more time you take and the lighter you press with every layer, the smoother it turns out. Today I finally took my time patiently blending in the eagle's wings, but now it looks like I've got another case of the slows.

Don't fear the reaper

Big boss man

Scaled up to 18x24", and in a softer graphite (6B):

What do you get for pretending the danger's not real

Fly like an eagle

Working on a study for the eagle and goat piece. I'm still not sure what medium the final's going to be, so I'm just studying forms and composition, and practicing rendering with a dry sketch. The patron didn't specify a medium, just "whatever you think would look the most epic," so I'm thinking a black and white piece might work best, maybe ultimately in charcoal to give it more contrast. I have more experience with graphite and I think it's easier and neater to work with, but a big charcoal drawing could be a good learning experience.

Hold on loosely

Reference pictures for my latest commissioned work.

Two young lovers with nothing better to do

Still working on the groundwire logotype. Not really because I think it's getting anywhere without any coaching, but just because we're snowed in.

One bourbon, one scotch, one beer

Don't stand so close to me

I finished and cropped my third post-impressionist mark-making experiment. The subject matter is the head of a shop vac, but depiction is even less important to me here than usual. My primary goal is to create a rhythm through a digest of varied surface textures.

I like this part the best. I think the variety of mark sizes and speeds starts to give it that van Gogh feel.