Concentration Proposal

I forgot to do this last night, terribly sorry about that.

My idea for a subject for my concentration is top hats. I'd like to play with the idea of sophistication with an edgey twist (for lack of a better term). I liked the direction I went in with my pattern piece and I'd like to go further there. I think I'm going to work with mixed media but I haven't made a real decision as far as that goes yet. I'll think further on it, but at least I have an idea of what I want to do now.

End proposal.

Edit: I narrowed down my concentration a little and found slightly better wording for what I'm trying to do. What I want to do is create a whimsical contrast between sophistication and... craziness for which I still have no good word. Top hats are my chosen symbol of sophistication, that's what they represent to me... plus I just LOVE top hats. I want to use a lot of color in my pieces so I decided to go with colored pencils for my main medium, but I'll probably mix some digital media and other things like acrylics or mixed media in there.

Does this idea make any sense to anyone? I get it, but I'm having trouble explaining it to other people... Anyway, that's what I want to do for my concentration so now I have a more focused idea of what I'm doing.

Chapter 12: Movement and Rythm

Taking a break from contemplating my painting. I don't really know where to start there... finished my pattern picture though, I like how it turned out. I might post it later.

Anyway, chapter 12. Lots of new vocabulary words! I'll have to take a closer look at this chapter later on when I'll remember more of it. A piece I liked was Residential Window by John Forbes and Jean Rosen on page 240. It had both movement and an interesting kind of rythm to keep the viewer's eye moving. It had a "flowing rythm" which I think I like the best out of all the types described. I also really loved the color in this piece.

Another I liked was Untitled Film Still #65 by Cindy Sherman on page 236 (pictured right). I loved the composition of this. It had great leading lines and contrast, with the focal point on the edge of the paper. It was very interesting to look at and led the eye around the image.

Chapter 7: Balance

Another weird chapter for me. Balance makes perfect sense when you see it visually, but when trying to describe things like asymmetrical balance, it is difficult to do so with words. The only thing I really got out of this chapter was approximate balance which was a term I was not familiar with before. Symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial balance were things I was already well aware of before reading this chapter. Balance-wise I liked The Zen Priest Choka by Nonomura Sotatsu on page 151. It made sense here that asymmetrical balance was created by using negative space. It's not so much my favorite piece, but looking at it makes it easier to understand asymmetrical balance.

Sorry, this blog is a little short, but the chapter and images were pretty self-explanatory.

Chapter 2: Shape and Form

This chapter was pretty cool. There wasn't a lot I already knew, but it helped me connect things such as weight and light to shape. The static and dynamic part was also helpful, I hadn't applied the specific terms to imagery before, strange as that sounds.

Some images I liked were The Sky's the Limit by Michael Hayden on page 47. This might be because I'd seen the terminal myself but the shape of it give the illusion of movement even if there isn't any. I really enjoyed staring up that ceiling while walking through this, I remember wishing I'd had a camera with me. The lights, shapes and textures combine to make a very dynamic image.

Another image I liked was An Exclamation Mark by Kumi Yamashita on page 49. I thought it was a unique way to create shape using light; a novelty idea. I also like the fact that it uses two similiar shapes to create very different meanings.

I found these dresses by Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren on accident while trying to catch up with my favorite TV show. I find them really cool and thought provoking in terms of shape. I thought I didn't think of people being the shape of their dresses until the shape was changed. When I looked at them, it looked like the people were oddly shaped and not so much the dresses.
Haha, just thought I'd blog about something since I haven't had any readings in a while.

Oh and as cool as it is, that dress at the top reminds me of swiss cheese. XD

STUFF

For my portrait assignment, Jordyn/Getsurei gave me permission to use her photo of her brother as a base for the drawing. I love her photography so I'm really excited to work with one of her photos. I think I want to do something with his sunglasses, like reflect something colorful in them...

Finished my pattern piece FINALLY. I'll post more about it later once I'm sure I'm not going to do anything else to it. I also finished my social commentary but I have to say that I absolutely hate it so I might do it over again.

Emphasis Ch9

Emphasis Ch 9

So I didn't really like this chapter. It seemed like all the images were SO simple. I wondered if the only way to have emphasis was to only have a couple elements to a piece. You can't have emphasis without a piece being complex? I dunno, the point just didn't really get across to me. I was more confused by this than anything because to me, contrast and emphasis go together and I didn't really get that here. Anyway, I liked Muriel Castanis's Daphne on page 188 (a few of her sculptures are pictured above). I like how the emphasis is put on the draping of the clothing and to show figure. I thought it was interesting how the person wearing the clothes was actually left out entirely. Still not sure about the whole emphasis thing, but I thought it was an interesting and unique sculpture.

Cut Paper Project

So this is my cut paper project. The assignment was to create an image that dealt with either opposites or one thing that leads to another. I chose to use the religious symbols of the snake and the dove. I really like the way this one came out, especially the dove's wings.

Exploring Visual Design- Intro, Contrast Ch9, and Unity Ch8

Intro

I'm just going to talk about the chapter and how I felt about it here, as no one piece really stood out to me. I was a bit surprised that this intro focused on fine arts as well as design. The class being split, there really is a fine line between the divisions of AP design and AP drawing. It almost makes me think I took the easy way out when I chose design (haha not really). But honestly, design is mainly what I want to work on. Reading this chapter made me a bit more eager to start working and observing.

Contrast Ch 9

On page 182 I liked Masami Teraoka's piece Video Rental II. I didn't think anything of it until I read the title. Then I looked closer and actually laughed at the contrast between the subject matter. I had thought it to be a traditional Japanese piece but was really surprised to see a video camera in the picture. The contrast here is in the subject and not so much the style. It made the picture very humorous as described in the caption. I looked at some of the artist's other work and found a lot of this contrasting subject matter.

Another picture I liked was Undercover Cleo by Loudvik Akopyan on page 185. This one has more of a contrast in style. The subject matter, the two people in the foreground are very sharp and in focus, like a picture taken with a low depth of field. Even their expressions are very sharp. Each fold in the clothing has deep shadows. The rest is somewhat blurry, or foggy. There is still detail, but it is a little hazy and doesn't grab the attention like the focal point does. It is really an enjoyable image to look at. I don't think it would be as interesting if the whole picture had been focused and detailed, so I think it has a great use of contrast.

Unity Ch 8

Unity and contrast are a bit difficult to distinguish when you look at one right after the other. I was glad for the dominant and subordinate definitions, they made things a bit less confusing. Anyway, I like Edgar Degas's picture, Madame Camus on page 160. I like that the artist used color to create unity and value to create contrast. It's monochromatic I think, but you can get the feeling of more colors. Like a red light is being cast on the image. Maybe the reason this strikes me is because I struggle with monochromatic paintings.

Wayne Thiebaud Assignment

First blog entry and I just finished my Wayne Thiebaud assignment. I'm not very happy with it, I'm a bit rusty with oils and it was definitely rushed. I do like the composition however, I think I accomplished the assignment as far as the style goes. The photograph's not very good, so it does look a little better than it does here thankfully. I had some issues with the liquin, I could never get the right amount. It was always too much or not enough. Blah blah blah. Still kinda working on this, I need to add more layers of color.