KevlarPaperclips: January 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

Thursday, January 27, 2011

One of the most memorable experiences I have had was back when I was a biology major in Humboldt State University. My oceanography/biology class went out on a research project on one of the university's research boats. As we went out, the weather became increasingly bad causing extremely large waves to start coming in our direction.

It was a really exciting experience being out on the boat in the ocean and it was also fairly scary with the bad weather. To make it even worse, the research boat had an open back for the equipment being used. So if you did not know what you were doing, you could easily fall off the back of the boat after a big wave hit or the wind pushed you. The entire experience was a combination of different sensations from the atmosphere of the ocean to the fearing for your life every time a huge wave rocked the boat in random direction.

Another memorable experience is from playing the game F.E.A.R. The game is extremely well made and really immerses you in the story. The game gives you a real sense of suspense and can get pretty scary at times. It really played with your mind. The suspense and scary moments really stuck with me even after playing the game.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

just testing some animated dingbats

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Art 348, Proj2 Reflective Essay

I don't really have a "Micky Mouse". I have never had a one specific character I cared about more than any other. My "Micky Mouse" would be a combination of different characters. If I had to narrow it down, It would be a combination of Ren and Stimpy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Brian from Family Guy.

I usually like characters that are different and odd and do strange things. I also seem to like talking dogs. I'm not sure what's up with that. I just never really had that one specific character or show that I stuck to and followed forever. I kind of moved around enjoying different things at different times.

Silhouette Revisions

Most of my revisions were cleaning up the image and making it sharper and more detailed. The original images looked a little too messy. The top right image had its pose changed slightly to make it look less "bloby". The images improved with the more sharp and detailed revisions.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Character Studies

Art 353, Proj2 Reflective Essay

This image is a good example of the use of color to give an illusion of depth. The foreground contains a large amount of warmer colors while the objects closer to the mid-ground and background contain cooler colors the closer they get to the background.The objects in the foreground also contain far more detail than the mid-ground and background, with the background containing very little detail. The buildings also become progressively larger as they get closer to the foreground to give a feeling of scale.

The main way this image creates an illusion of scale and depth is in the use of the huge structure along side a number of smaller ruined structures or a large landscape. The image has a very strong feeling of depth using a strong contrast between the foreground, mid-ground, and background. The structures become harder to see as they get farther into the mid-ground and background.

The objects in the foreground also contain warmer colors as the objects farther back contain more cool colors the farther back they are. Although the entire image contains mostly cool colors giving it a cold feeling. The objects closer to the foreground also contain much more detail than the objects farther back.

This image gives an illusion of scale and contrast by showing a large structure in the foreground and having the structures farther behind shrinking in size as they move towards the background. The structures also become far less detailed as they move to the background while the structure in the foreground has significant detail.

Art 353, Proj2

Before

After

Art 351, Dingbat Collages Reflective Essay

The process of making the collages feels different. Moving around instances of already made objects feels more free and spontaneous. It also made me view instances of an object in a different way then when i was creating it. This opened me up to a lot more experimentation. It felt like there was a lot less barriers or limits to what could be created.

I did not think of altering the document size while creating the collages, but if i had thought of that I would have experimented with that some. The process really diminishes literal thinking about the objects and what you are creating.

Art 351, Dingbat Collages

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Art353 Blockville, Reflective Essay

When I started looking for images to work with, I tried to find good video game concept art. As I was looking, I also found some interesting photographs of skyscrapers and moved on from there. Starting with very basic shapes like we did in this project is a good technique to form something before getting too detailed. It is a good technique to begin with that I will use often.

The pieces did not always come out exactly as I might have wanted because of the lighting. If I had the time, I would most likely go back and change the lighting to make the images look better. I decided a piece was finished when I was pleased with the look and decided it looked similar enough to the image it was based off of.

Art 351, Dingbats. Finished

Finished layout of my dingbats.

Art 351, Dingbats. Reflective Essay

I came up with the theme of character designs before I began drawing. I began using my references to help me at first, but then moved on to create different drawings. Flash has some features I like. It creates very smooth lines. Although it sometimes does this when you do not want a completely smooth line. But, in all, it is fun to use.

I switched back and forth between line drawing and silhouette like drawing to see what different things I could create using each technique. Both forms of drawing come out well and I do not prefer one or the other while using Flash. The ability to quickly create symbols out of the drawings helps a lot. I did revise some of my drawings after, but I mostly used the original drawing.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Art 348, silhouettes. Reflective Essay

I found the silhouettes project very interesting. I had never worked with silhouettes before so it was new for me and a little difficult at first. I was not sure where to start so I just jumped into it. I did not use any characters I had previously created, so I had to start from scratch. At first I just created whatever came to my mind, but I later began drawing mostly strange and alien creatures.

Creating the silhouettes really helped me with how to best position a character to get the most out of one image working with the negative space around the character. I found it was best to draw most of the characters from a side or angled view. A front view just did not show enough or explain the character enough most of the time. I will definitely use silhouette work more in the future. It helps with the original creation of a character and to get a good idea of the space and scale before you have to work out any details. It also helps with the creative process before I am completely sure what it is I am trying to make.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Art 351, Dingbats

Some of my Dingbats for my first Art 351 assignment. I'll update as i go.

art353 project 1 Maya renders

Art 353, Project 1: Reference Material

Untitled
Daniel Dociu
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/media/concept-art/

MAXXI Art Museum
Paolo Ferrarini
http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2009/11/24/

Untitled
Patrick Beckers
http://www.ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/weblog.php?/weblog/2006/06/22/

Skyscraper Buildings Financial District Toronto City Ontario
Rolf Hicker
http://www.hickerphoto.com/skyscraper-buildings-financial-district-toronto-city-ontario-36583-pictures.htm