Tuesday, May 3, 2011

My stop motion.  I think I started and gave up three times before I came to the conclusion that I just needed to do it.
When I've done videos in the past I've always worked to match things to the beat because I don't like background music, so once I started working with the music things went smoother.  Unfortunately my constantly tweaking the time isn't totally evident on YouTube.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

What could have been...


Ever since I came to art school and long before it, friends and family alike have told me that Hitler was a failed artist.  It would have been annoying after awhile if I wouldn't mind running a country or two.
So anyway.  I made Hitler the artist he could have been.
I added the beret, palette, paintbrush, gave me him a new hand to hold the paintbrush, 2.3 peace flags, and the dove.  The hand was the hardest part because the original hand had really dark shadows and it was hard to imitate them without making the hand look fake.  After awhile I just wanted to paint the hand myself.  Spent way too long looking for an easel but in the end I got to use the peace flags instead.  Softened the paintbrush and intensified the shadow under the palatte since class.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Composite Image!

I solemnly swear to always back up my work in the future five times over and to keep my thumb drive around my neck.  I nearly forgot, well I did but I went back within 5 minutes, my purse at the SAC at dinner tonight.  
BUT I did find it!  I went back yesterday and found it, well, asked for it and someone had turned it in.  That was really sweet.  I went back and quickly saved everything to my computer.  I would have uploaded it sooner to the blog but I wanted to add some tiny shadows in.

So that's my composite image!  I added the ax, two kids, all of the crows, the tire swing, and the tower in the background.  I guess it was kind of like six things, but I wanted more crows.  I think as far as difficulty, the crows were easiest because of how silhouetted they were they just fit with the tree, but I had to really tone the kids down especially the boy's blond hair because they were really shiny compared to the background and it looked unnatural.
...
I have the Brothers Grimm on my mind a lot...

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Pictures on the Web

Larry Lessig's talk was really interesting to hear because I've known about youtubers who've been fighting the removal of videos based on copyright for awhile, but I didn't really think of their videos as a revival of cultural creation.  I took a writing class last semester that dealt with popular culture, and it did talk about it though, and about how popular culture produces active participants who participate by creating, and they mentioned fan videos as one of the ways they didn't just read, but wrote, so I guess I did know it, I just never made the connection.  I'm not really sure if the situation has improved since his video although I know most users quote or mention copyright in their video description in an attempt to keep it from being removed.  It's interesting that he says kids have no respect for copyright now, but I think they actually know more about it, because of the removals.  They might not know the entire truth, because the information gets jarbled between users, but they know more about what they are allowed to do.  I know people haven't stopped making videos though.  They just upload their videos to other sites, I know AMV makers have multiple sites where they can upload their videos without them being removed as frequently as they are on Youtube.  So his last argument, about BMI, did kind of happen. 

About the other video, with the girl's picture ending up in a campaign in Austrailia...that's just upsetting.  To think that people could profit from someone's picture on the other side of the world, without them knowing, is frightening.  People shouldn't have to worry about then when they upload pictures to accounts that supposedly protect those rights.  Same with the GAP using the car picture, if they're going to profit from his picture, he should be getting some of the profits.  Sure it's weird to think that someone somewhere might be using a picture I took in a computer class for an assignment somewhere, but it's entirely different to think they'd be making money of it or pasting it all over Australia.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Text

So this was my first time actually using illustrator, well, past giving up in five minutes or something.



I originally was making a keyboard for the representative drawing, but after spending hours trying to make the keys recognizable but still legible, I was getting a headache so I stopped and switched to a polar bear. It was very frustrating. I didn't really want to layer the text, but thinking back I guess that's how I would have gotten the keys to be more solid so the letters and numbers on them would be recognizable. I think the extreme lenght but short width was making it hard as well to make it large and still fit on the screen...
I guess I just fiddled around with the abstract one. I like circles and emptiness in the center, and originally I was doing 'Loud' for my expressive, so distracting text manifested itself into both Xs.
The gradients in the circle gave me the idea for subtle veil that hushed had. It was probably my easiest and my favorite of all three.
As for the autobiography, I wanted to make it similar to a puzzle. I solved it because it looked nicer, and 'without' is crossed out, so I figure if I'm going to cheat, I'll bring you all down to my level and not even give you the chance to use your brains.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Cheeseburger?

Walking in Philadelphia is an adventure, even on campus, for someone from cookie cutter suburbia like myself.  Although in this weather anything over an hour gets pretty bitter what with the wind, slush, and cold temperature.  So with multiple layers of clothes and a Google map print-out, my friend Maddie and I left for center city.  We took the subway down as usual to get to Dick Blick's although we ended up inside city hall's courtyard when we exited which is currently under renovation.  If Maddie had listened to me though, we'd still be underground.  The courtyard had such a strong likeness to my memory of Munich's city hall's courtyard and of my senior trip this summer; I'm disappointed I haven't visited it sooner.  Not to mention the walkway screens covered in large murals.  I have a weak spot in my heart for murals, and I have never seen a city utilize them as much as Philly does.  I can hardly go a week without discovering a new one.
Apparently a good number of art students had already been down to Blick, because the cadmium yellow light slots in a majority of acrylic paint brands were empty.  I'm still not used to the perseverance of city people and wintry weather.  My sisters have gotten two snow days and a morning delay this week for hardly anything; to be fair, they aren't a five minute walk from school.  Maddie's wanted to visit Chinatown and since I am unable to remember the time I "apparently ate there" we walked on over.  Along the way, we saw a man hand a cheeseburger to a man sitting on the sidewalk.  That might have been the highlight of my day.
We wandered around the outskirts of Chinatown for quite awhile before realizing this and actually going in and not around.  Both of us were fairly cold at this point, and it wasn't much better anywhere we stopped.  Considering I spent all my money on supplies, the fragrant, warm smells of food were especially cruel.
We did manage to see the gates and some neat alleyways and fire escape ladders.  Also there was this barbie doll display.  Ken, or one of his friend's, was in a leotard and we had to stop and examine how many of the Disney dolls we could pick out.  I picked up numerous odd objects per my usual habits, and I found two especailly great things.  A 3 of diamonds card, exactly like the card I have in my deck, except beaten and dirty, I love cards.  I also found a green bead.  Which sounds silly, but in middle school someone in my neighborhood spilled these green beads everywhere so when my friend and I went on our adventures, we'd follow the green beads like breadcrumbs and pick them up as we went.
Our last little discovery before we left was a little memorial garden across from a red door with green and white surroundings.  Green bushes beside a little red bench sitting in snow looked and felt like winter, and the weather strongly supports it.  My toes are still cold.