I'm behind on my blog, and it is partially because of the self portrait assignment. I had never attempted a self portrait before, and I hated the idea of it. I had a grand idea combining many techniques and several styles. I probably worked 10 to 12 hours on my first design, and I liked various aspects of it, but in the I just was not happy with it. I started anew, and in about 2 1/2 hours, I had a finished design I didn't mind showing others. This goes to show that sometimes the simpler designs just work better.
At the risk of sounding like a complete tech geek, there is nothing quite like a brand new computer. A completely clean, uncorrupted, ultra fast machine. A core two quad processor, 6 gig of ram, 640mb hard drive, 7.1 audio. Not a fingerprint on the 21.5" HD monitor, not a single letter worn out on the keyboard. It has taken four hours to transfer everything for the old machine, and I don't even have the graphics programs loaded, but right now I am in heaven.
This weeks assignment was to create a facebook ad. This was a very interesting project. Trying to combine a meaningful message and an image in such a small format was not something I had tried before. I plan on attempting others just for the experience.
I have never been a huge Star Wars fan. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movies...once each, but my son has watched every movie and every episode of the animated series at least a dozen times. I wanted to find out what made this such a great story, so I interviewed him about it.
Kevin: “You’ve watched Star Wars like, at least a half a dozen, a dozen times each…”
Troy: “Yeah”
Kevin: “Why?”
Troy: “It’s a good movie, it’s pretty entertaining.”
Kevin: “What makes it such a good movie?”
Troy: “It’s just, uh it’s really action-ey…I’m not sure.”
Kevin: “What about the story line?”
Troy: “Um, well, there are these people that break off from the old republic and form the CIS and the republic has these guys called Jedi who are fighting them, but they don’t have any army so then the Karmenian, these people, give them an army of clones and they fight the droids and end up beating them. And then the republic turns into the empire, and goes bad and the rebellion starts and the main bad guy Darth Vader has a son who’s with the rebellion and ends up beating the empire.
Kevin: “So what about that story makes it so interesting?”
Troy: “It’s just a great process, I think, because it goes, it’s so unordinary.”
Kevin: “What is so unordinary about it? The fact that it’s in the future?”
Troy: “Well it’s in the past, but it has more advanced everything than now; like the weapons and vehicles, and it’s just there is so much stuff that you wouldn’t even think about.”
Kevin: “So that leads me to another question I had: What technology from the movies would you like to have today?”
Troy: “It would just be so cool to have, and like it would make the battles so much…it would help the battles because when you fight, when you fight, like the sides, it would help, because you can’t really…um now it is a lot of numbers game, but in Star Wars a lot of times the under dogs win because they have a lot better people. The lasers and light sabers make it so that you don’t have to…it’s not only about numbers. It’s more about strategy and skill. You watch the war movies, and you know pretty much all of the movies are about the same, and then you go to this totally different; there’s nothing like it type of thing, and when there is nothing like it, it makes it really interesting and good.
There’s only 10,000 Jedi. It sounds like a lot, but in the movies, there’s…they fight all over the galaxy so each one, what makes them so powerful is they use the force and they use a light saber which can deflect laser blasts. There so powerful, but there’s not too many of them. There’s not enough to fight the entire droid army which has hundreds of thousands of droids. The droids are the main bad guys, and I like the Jedi because they’re cool and the droids, they’re stupid pretty much.”
Kevin: “So what makes the Jedi cool?”
Troy: “Well they’re just so smart, and they do things that you wouldn’t normally think about like picking their troopers up and moving them to places using the force. And they’re just so awesome I think.”
I recently had to write a 5 minute speech for a communication class. I decided to do my speech on digital art. Specifically, I addressed digital art in comparison to traditional art. The main point of my speech was that to create any art, one must have a good understanding of form, figure, shadow, and design. These, and other basics, are essential to creating good art regardless of the medium. One section that truly summed up my feelings was “No matter how it is created, all art requires skill, dedication, and talent. No amount of software in the world can create art without the artist. Talent cannot be achieved by plugging in a power cord.” This being said, how close do you think we, as a society, are to accepting digitally created images as art in the same way we do traditional images?
A recent project was to be based on something I was passionate about. My little brother is back from his fourth tour in Iraq, and will soon be leaving for his second tour in Afghanistan. For this reason I wanted to focus on support for our troops. I had envisioned a mellow poster to highlight the sacrifice our soldiers make. In preparation of this project, I asked my brother to send me some pictures that meant a lot to him. Once I received these, my whole design changed. These were not images of weary soldiers, harsh conditions, or sacrifice. These were images of the troops and villagers happy about what was being accomplished. While the main stream news groups will focus on our “occupying military”, and the conflict that continues with a few extremist groups, these pictures show who we are fighting for.
It's apparent that I'm still a rookie, because I made a rookie mistake. A friend I hadn't seen in about 12 years emailed me about working on his logo. He is getting married and wanted a couple swing dancing. I asked all the typical questions, and received vague or no answers. Instead of pushing for better answers, I figured I know what he'll like. I came up with a design I thought was perfect. Instead of sending him a copy of the sketch, I just ran with it and did a final version. I sent the finished file to him, a got the reply "It's a great start, but...". After 4 or 5 hours of work, he wanted me to enlarge the hat, add a suit jacket, and completely redesign the pose to have the male throwing the female into the air. I've learned my reason. This time he's getting a pencil sketch.
When does passion become obsession? I've always been interested in art. I used to envision working for Disney. I used to strive towards becoming a cartoonist, but I never had the overwhelming desire to excel at anything until I found computer graphics. The more I learn, the more I develop my skills, the stronger my desire to learn and develop becomes. This may be passion, this may be on the brink of obsession. But last night I was dreaming Of a current project, and actually made progress in my dream that I used in the waking world. Now I don't know if this qualifies as obsession, but I do know I need to lay of the pepperoni and swiss before bed.
The David Sedaris essay is a great demonstration in the variance between the written word and the spoken word. Not that I feel my comedic timing is any better, but the voice in my head reading the essay was more humorous then that of David himself. I felt almost let down by the video after having read the essay. I believe this is the same feeling most people get after their favorite book becomes a movie. The special effects found in Peter Jackson's movies were amazing. His ability to make the books come to life were greater than I could have thought possible. Regardless of his achievements, the images in my mind, the way I imagined the voices of each character, can never be fully realized by anyone else. This is the power of the written word. The ability to let every story become the reader's own.
A sound clip or video added to a blog can be a useful tool to convey a message especially if you truly wish to convey an emotion. In my opinion, the reading of the blog or transcript requires more of the reader, and is a better way to engage the end user. The problem with written word is that it relies on the interpretation of the reader. By this, the message can by skewed, and or missed all together.
I found myself faced with a serious delima while trying to complete a recent project. The project was to create web navigation buttons... A completely unique assignment. So almost to spite the instructor, I decided to try something different. I was tired of the Sci-fi and futuristic looks. I was sick of the grunge and elegent designs. Only something new would satisfy me. My nav bar was a version of hillbilly meets redneck with a splash of Bob Vila. So my delima centered around the question of ''is different for the sake of different ok"? While I would never want my name associated with a design like it, I can't say I was completely dissappointed with it. I could see a certain segment of the population wanting this style. So I say yes, different for the sake of different is ok. For no other reason then pesonal growth. So go out, and try mixing Martha Stewart with Jeff Foxworthy. Nascar and Tiffany's can be combined to make great design... Even if only in your own mind.
Recently an old friend contacted me about helping him with his logo. this got me thinking about how to place a value on art. I'm not talking about the moden art that is completely over priced, and may or may not actually be art. I'm talking about commercial art. I'm talking about a client hiring an artist to create or modify a design for use by a Comercial business.
I left the art department I used to work for because at 28,I was maxed out on the pay scale for any position in the dept. I loved the job, but I could not continue working at the same hourly rate for the next 40 years. I accepted a positsion in the quality department, and then the it dept. What makes these two positions more valuable then that of the graphic Artist? If corporate America places such low value on the job of an artist, how can I justify charging more than $13/hr for any freelance work I do?
I hate the human face. Not any face in particular, I hate every face. I love art. I love everything artistic. I used to think I had some talent when it came to crating art (see the Legion poster in my earlier post). Then, my computer graphics instructor assigned us a project creating a human face digitally. Mine looked like my children’s kindergarten finger-painting. You know, the first one they attempt that looks like a cross between the remains of a slaughter house, and an ink blot test.
When the project was assigned, I thought “cool, I have never attempted this before”. I like to be challenged when it comes to computer graphics, and I thought I would have a half way decent piece that I wouldn’t mind showing my 10 year old. If I showed him this piece, he would give me the look usually reserved for you teenage kids when you show up to the mall in much too reveling cut-off shorts and a Def Leopard T-shirt stained with mustard and motor oil.
Now, I could blame my results on the fact that I did not have a lot of time to work on the project. I could blame it on a lack of instruction. I could even blame it on my 6 year old computer badly needing an upgrade. The truth of the matter is, I have no skill with drawing people, especially on a computer. The plus side to all of this, besides self awareness, is that I had to do this project while my kids were still young enough that I can tell everyone they did it.
Pinkerton is one of the most undervalued web comics today. Mike has a great sense of humor that tends to show up in the short blog under every strip as well as in the comic itself. The comment section expands on any topic in the strip and/or blog, and usual veers off into left field and ends up in the loony bin, all the while bringing a smile to your face.
The second most under-appreciated web comic would have to be: Imagine This, by Lucas Turnbloom http://imaginethiscomic.com/
Like Pinkerton, Imagine This has developed a large group of devotees who make the comments section almost as much fun to read as the comic strip itself.
Sheldon, by Dave Kellett http://www.sheldoncomics.com/ is not quite as under valued. Dave manages to make a living with his web comic, but that has not hindered his ability to create quality material in the strip and in his blog.
Feel free to let me know what quality blogs I might be missing out on.
In order to complete an recent project, I had to research the movie "Legion". This is an upcoming survival horror flick in which God sends a legion of Angels to destroy earth. The trailer for this movie stirred within me some deep philosophical thoughts. Thoughts such as "Is humanity in such a state that God would be justified in destroying us?" "How would I fare in a fight against an Angel?" and "Who was lucky enough to impregnate Kate Walsh? But most importantly it got me thinking about "What would I do if the world was about to end?" I would love to say that I would pick up a shotgun and fight 'til the end, but I don't think that would happen. While I never reached an exact answer as to how I would handle the end of the world, I am pretty sure it would involve vodka, video games, Jell-O, and as many Hooters girls as my wife will allow.
I'm a very private person, so I don't know how well this blogging thing is going to work. I have a feeling most of my posts will be about random subjects that pop into my head, and are too bizarre to admit to anyone I actually know. Some might be posted simply for shock value, others might be posted only to meet the requirements of a tech writing class, but I doubt any of them will be truly intimate.
