Shazaam!

Yes, this is late, but better late than never?

A few weeks ago, guest artists came to class to help us with our Shazaam projects. The idea was to take pictures of our school, and bring the positive aspects of our school to the outside. By outside, I mean our pieces have been published to a local newspaper.

For mine, I really wanted to bring out all of the creativity of our school so that other people could see what a positive impact it has made on us.

 Much of my design are just mistakes that I liked. That's my favourite part of the design process: when I have an original idea that I am satisfied with, but I make a random error and I fall in love with it. For me it was the paint splatters.

I was playing around in illustrator and mistakenly copied and pasted it into Photoshop on the back wall; it looked almost as if  paint was splattered on the wall. I liked that idea because it gives he idea that with art at my school, we are limitless. Much of the time we are allowed to do almost whatever we want and we are given freedom to communicate our ideas through design.

I wanted to show that by having "knowledge and creativity" crawling through the halls. I did this with the paint splatters and colourful lines; I also represented the different kinds of art and resources we have with pictures of them or symbolizing them.

One thing I would change would be the fonts; it was a very last minute idea, and I feel like they do not match with my design.

Crystal River

I saw the most amazing thing the other day, it's called the Crystal River. The colours are the result of algae waste, and it creates these beautiful colours naturally.

The Crystal River

It's so wonderful how something like this could just happen, without the influence of humans. I love how vibrant the colours are, and it is impossible to not notice them.

At first I thought this was photoshopped, but it's real. The colours work together so well, especially the reds and blues. It almost looks natural, like it is normal.

(aq)

I posted the title as (aq) as a chemistry joke, although it's probably not funny, it means aqueous, which is the title of the series of images this blog is about : Aqueous II.

Corny jokes aside, when I saw these, I thought they had been photoshopped for sure, but they are actually pictures of paint being dropped in water.

This reminded me of a mushroom, then it reminded me of a plate; there is a very broad range of interpretations, but then I read what they actually are, and it made a lot  more sense.

There is a certain beauty to these. The artist may have had a specific meaning he was trying to communicate, but to me I see it as taking he picture for the sake of taking it. Sometimes we need that, but then we get inspired by something along the way.

These remind me of dance, which has become a big part of my life in the past few years. There's a flow to it that reminds me of ballet or lyrical (which, by the way, I am way to uncoordinated to even attempt).

The one that really reminded me of dance was this one:

There is something really dramatic about it, especially the yellow paint that is center right. The way it flows is very graceful and fluid. There's a transparency that looks like brushstrokes although it is not a painting.

I also love the colours. They are the three primary colours, but they are not meshed together to create a muddy colour; they contrast each other nicely, especially the yellow.

Eye Art

Hello!

Now, I'm not usually one for makeup, but when I saw this, my jaw dropped. This makeup artist uses eye-shadow to create famous scenes from Disney movies on eyelids. Here's the link.

What fascinated me most is the detail -- I have a hard enough time using three colours on my eyes, but to paint in a scene of a boat, or floating lamps is amazing. Here is a scene from Tangled:

What stands out to me most are the floating lamps  done as gold specks; it's really simple but effective. It's very subtle, but even the eyelashes are coloured indigo.

Another one of my favourites is the Aladdin one.

I love the blending on this; the colour choices on the right eye make it feel very warm, like a sunset, and on the left eye, the colours are cooler, making it feel like the sun has already set on that place. It creates a very broad field of view. 

When I saw these, I was very interested in them. I just wish there were images posted of what the eyes looked like when they were open; I feel like they would create an amazing effect. The amazing makeup artist is Katie Alves. Her work is amazing, and she doesn't just stop at eyes, there are paintings on lips as well.

Photography!

Hey! So the other day, I went out with a group of other students to try out the cameras to begin our photography unit. We posted the pictures on Payal's Blog, so just head over there to check out the pictures!

Edward Burtynsky

Happy Victoria Day!

In tech class this past week we have started our photography unit. To commence it, we watched a documentary on the famous photographer Edward Burtynsky.

The film Manufactured Landscapes, is a documentary of how Burtynsky photographs his main subjects, which are manufactured landscapes. I found the film very interesting because it demonstrates the effort he puts in to taking these magnificent photos. It gives us a very real idea of where all of the materials we use come from, and the damage it does on not only the environment, but peoples' living conditions in other countries such as China. Although it was a bit slow at times, especially in the beginning, I can tell that it is purposeful in order to catch our attention again, and to show the scale of such industries. At the start of the film, there is a long stretch of video for several minutes of the camera travelling through a factory that makes irons. As mentioned before, it shows us how large the factory is, and how many people there are. The other thing that impacted the film hugely were the sounds in the background. They were very subtle, but they were enough to make someone feel inspired, scared, disgusted, etc. If the sounds were absent, there would be something missing from the film.

I've researched his work, and the picture on the left is the one I recognize the most. At first I thought it was just another beautiful picture. Once I read about it I was shocked; I thought that this disgustingly tainted water was from somewhere else in the world, but it is from Sudbury, Ontario in 1996.

I like how Burtynsky takes all of the environmental problems we fight so hard to push to the back of our minds and shoves them in our faces once again so we cannot help but acknowledge them.

The second picture os of the massive oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico a year ago. Looking at the images, it's easy to imagine just how huge these landscapes are. Without the pictures acting as visual guides, if we had only heard about the oil spill, the effect wouldn't be the same.

All in all, I really like Burtynsky's work and the impact it makes.

Leonid Afremov

There are many times that a painting will catch my eye, but only once in a while will I stop to stare at a painting just to take in the beauty of it. I was on StumbleUpon (yet again), and happened upon the artist Leonid Afremov. What I thought was especially unique was his use of the palette knife. I've always wanted to, but never had the opportunity to use oil paint as my medium, so oil paintings fascinate me.

Towards Love

The effect the palette knife makes fascinates me, because even though there are fairly large blocks of colour, when looked at from a distance, it all comes together.

With the palette knife, it's easy to create the effect of water, so many of Afremov's paintings have to do with rain or water bodies. The reflection on the ground feels real although you can tell it is a painting.

I like these pieces because they have such a gentle and serene feel to them. The vibrant colours often create the illusion of a sunset.

That's about all I have to say; after seeing these I know I want to experiment with oil paints and palette knives.

Rain of Fire

Have a nice Wednesday! And you can check out the rest of the paintings HERE.

Art Inspired Food!

Happy Easter!

I don't really celebrate, but I am grateful for the long weekend! We were also blessed with the gorgeous day. I didn't really take advantage of it as much as I should have, as chemistry homework was calling me. I did keep the window open though.

In other wordsm I found this nifty cake on the internet! (Yes I just said nifty). It's inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night. I love how someone decided to incorporate a famous painting into a dessert. Even thought it's only icing, you can tell that the artist/cook incorporated the brushstrokes on the surface of the cake.

I like it because it is something different and three dimensional. It is not just a paining that has been remade on a flat cake, but this is all around the cake on three different levels.

And that's all for now; I made myself hungry just in time for dinner. I will try to blog again this weekend, as I'm behind on my weekly postings.

Have a lovely weekend!

Chair Design - Book Chair

For our most recent art assignment, we were asked to design chairs that exuded our personality. For myself, whenever I sit down I want something comfortable that I could curl up in to read a book or watch t.v.... or just sleep.

Model

I designed my chair to resemble a book. Of course, this is only the model and not the actual chair. We used foam core to make the chairs, and I used paper as well as the upholstery.

I feel like this exudes my personality because it is a book. The word hold many meanings to me, not just that it means reading. I feel like books symbolize knowledge, wisdom, understanding, creativity and free thought. I hope to have at least some of these qualities.

I want it to be very comfortable, because I like comfort and simplicity. I was also debating to have to surface have words on it, but I thought against it because this way it felt like blank pages of a journal. I was surprised at myself for not having done something more technical or geometrical, but I am happier with this than I would have been with a scientific chair.

Orthographic Drawing

The chairs are supposed to be works of art. I feel like my chair is a piece of art. The difference between the curvy and straight lines create contrast. The varied levels of my chair make light and shadow. I feel like the texture on the chair is visible by the paper acting as what I want to be the microfiber. The colours I would want for the chair are just plain white for the seating part, and a customizable solid colour for the back. The colours would be bright or black to create contrast with the white.

Isometric Drawing

I would also add lines on the side of the chair to add the impression of pages in a book. This would make more organic lines to contrast with the straight ones.

My chair is just over a quarter of a meter high off the ground. If I were to sit on it, by feet would just dangle off of the ground. There is a storage area dedicated to books, but I suppose other items would fit as well. The seating area is very soft and comfortable; you would sink in if you were to sit in it.

Peter Callasen

Time for my weekly blog!  I haven't written about an artist yet, and I just found one now...

Peter Callasen is an artist who focuses on using white paper in many different, interesting and creative ways. He makes miniature sculptures using just white paper and glue!

I thought I would post some of my favourite works by him. He creates powerful images using only paper, but in such a skillful way. Most of his pieces are made from only acid free paper and glue! It's unbelievable how he creates sculptures with such intricate detail using those materials.

"Looking Back"
2006

It's interesting how he uses the cut out space in his paper to enhance his work. In this it is a shadow; I see it as someone who has passed looking back at his life, perhaps regretfully. I get the feeling he did not live as much as he wanted to.

"Erected Ruin"
2007

This next piece kind of reminds me of the first. It feels like an attempt at restoring an old monument. However, the shadow shows that it is not what it once was.

Anyways, have a good week everyone.

SketchUp!

Hey! So we have begun our furniture design unit in art. We are designing chairs that exude our personalities (mine is a book!) and today we tried to made 3D models in a program called SketchUp. Just so you know, we had about a half hour to do this, so it's pretty decent in my opinion! There are two chairs:

My Chair in SketchUp

The model on the right resembles my design more than the other one. I also tried to keep the scale the same as my design.

Romanticism Collage - Artist Statement

Happy Thursday!

Recently we just finished our Romanticism unit, so I'm posting the collage set that I made for it. My concept was on horrors of war; I focused on the political situation in North African and Middle Eastern countries, but mainly on Libya and Egypt. My thoughts were that as Egypt finally drove their dictator out, Libyans were starting to protest; the little peace that was left in Libya is leaving and there is peace at last in Egypt. The situation in Libya seems to be getting worse with each passing day, and I know foreign countries are trying to assist the country, but civilians are getting hurt and killed when it is probably avoidable.

Collage Representing Egypt

The first image is to represent Egypt; I mentioned before that just as peace was entering Egypt, it was leaving Libya. In here I show the ominous red sunset in Cairo being broken along with Mubarak's image. I incorporated the Twitter and Facebook icons because those social networking sites are one of the reasons the world got to know about the protests so suddenly. I found out almost immediately through Twitter.

The composition in this is diagonal; it could have been something else had the dove been elsewhere, but I placed it so the piece would have a diagonal composition. I also wanted the composition on the Libya collage to match the Egypt collage.

I really want the eye to go towards the dove, as it unifies the two pieces together as a set, and I believe it is the focal point of the piece. I was debating between the gold gift-wrap I happened upon in a magazine or just white paper; I'm very happy I went with the gold paper as it shimmers, and eyes will drift toward it automatically.

Collage Representing Libya

The second image is of the Libya collage; in this image the dove is shown leaving; when I began the project the crisis was just beginning. If I were to start it now I would keep the dove smaller and show very little of it leaving, as the condition of the country now is very tense.

It was in this image where I wanted to illustrate the horrors of war. I didn't want to show people getting hurt, because I feel like that may be the obvious thing to do. Instead I show a calm Libyan night breaking down, along with the map of Libya beginning to break with the peaceful night. The only images that are not dissolving are of Gadaffi's and his female soldiers. One thing I really wanted to incorporate wasbhis female bodyguards. Even in today's modern state of mind I found that surprising, but very interesting.

I did not want to show the dove breaking with the night and the map because first of all, it unifies my piece. Secondly, no matter what others believe I think there is still peace in many parts of the world, and the dove represents all places.

I mentioned before that this piece has a diagonal composition; in this one as well if the dove was placed differently there would be a completely different composition. This one is different than the first because there is a lot more negative space in it, showing how blackness is taking over.

The last thing to mention is my colour choice. I chose black for the Libyan collage and white for the Egyptian collage. I was really debating the black and white choice, because in my culture and religion, white is a mourning colour, while black is considered ominous. I still went with white for the Egypt collage because it is still bright, and brings contrast and light into the piece. Another reason is that they were and probably are still mourning for those killed and injured during riots and protests.

I was very unsure of this project when we began it, but I really started to appreciate how professional and artistic collages can be near the end.

Peacock Feathers

A friend of mine gifted me with a few peacock feathers recently; I've always liked these feathers, but haven't physically seen them for years. Pictures are fun to look at, but it's only in person when you can appreciate their true beauty.

The colours are so vibrant; it's hard to beilieve that the metallic lines are just a genetic trait. It's amazing how something that stunning was created.

I love how the colours work so well together; looking at my feathers I know I want to do a peice with that colour scheme. They really make any dull colour look beautiful, for example my living room colour is beige, but the feathers give it a nice pickup and it directs attention towards them.

Anyways, I thought I would do a quick post on this, so it wouldn't drift from my mind.

Have a good St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Tutorial - The Golden Ratio in Illustrator

Hmmm... I think it's time for a tutorial; I haven't done one of those yet.

*Googles for tutorials*

*FOUND ONE*

Okay, so this is actually a video, but I thought I'd try it out myself too as I'm writing this, so I will upload snapshots of my process.

Here's the tutorial. I actually was unable to post the video on the blog, so I apologize for the inconvenience.

Step one:
Macs: Illustrator Menu > Preferences > Guides & Grids
PC: Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grids

Make sure all of the settings look something like this (The bright green doesn't have to be there, just pay attention to the measurements):





Another thing is to make sure to go View > Snap to Grid and switch it so it's on. (This keeps the ratio of everything the same).


Step two:
Select the rectangle tool, and click one time where two of the main thicker grid lines meet. Here is where you can choose your preferred measurements. The measurements should be 5 x 5, and the lines will follow the main grids.









Step three:

  Once you have your perfect square, click on your ruler at the side, if it isn't showing, View > Show Rulers or ctrl + R. Drag the guide line to the middle of the square.










Step 4:
The next step is to select the ellipse tool, and point your mouse to where the guide and your square meet. Before making the circle, hold option or alt and shift; now drag the circle until the top corners of the square meet the circle. The point of this circle is to determine where and what size the next rectangle is going to be so it fits with the golden ratio.






Step 5:

 The new rectangle is going to be the same height as the previous one; click and drag the rectangle until it reaches the end of the circle. The new rectangle is in proportion with the square by a factor of five (which is, according to the video the golden proportion.)

Also, we don't need the circle anymore; feel free to delete it at this point. (Save your work though!)

Step 6:

 We now have the proper proportions done:) Now, inside of the rectangle you just made, hold down shift and draw a square from the top point of where the two rectangles intercept so that is touches the edges of the rectangle.







Step 7:

 We keep going with the squares...







Step 8:

 This is the last with the squares.








Step 9:

Select the arc tool  and drag your mouse to the bottom left corner of your square; press shift before drawing your arc towards the top right corner of your square. If you drew your ratios properly, it should snap right into place.

Keep going with the arc; you may have to start at different corners.


The end product should look something like this:

I saw this tutorial and was interested because we looked at the golden ratio in art class; I wanted to find out more about it, and I thought that this tutorial would help me to get a better understanding of it, and it did. I now better understand the proportions of the golden ratio, and will try to incorporate it into my pieces now.






Night all!

Cool Website, March Break and Other Happenings

When I say Happy Friday today, I actually mean it... It's the beginning of March Break finally! (Well it'll probably be Happy Saturday by the time I post this.)

So I thought this was a really fun website. All you basically do is draw, but there is something there that kind of webs the lines in a way to create value in a graphical drawing. I found it really interesting because it's a great way to think of creative drawings and projects; just by scribbling you can begin to imagine shapes forming in the doodles if you keep shading and going over lines.

It's also nice to just draw whatever you feel like. I'm staring to look for a lot more websites like this and silk (previous post), where you can create your own work in a new way and get inspiration from it.

On another note, I have a week off of school! Not to make it sound bad, but all of the assignments I have are CyberArts related; no English or Chem. Then again they are interesting assignments that I will probably enjoy:)

I'll probably try to post every other day on here to catch up to my missing blog posts, because as I've probably mentioned already, old habbits die hard and I'm terrible at blogging:S

Ha! There's still two minutes still Saturday!

Have a good weekend/break everyone!

Silk

Happy Saturday!

I really do need to catch up on my blog posts :S

I actually found this a while ago and thought it was really cool. It's a website called silk where you click and drag your mouse in the designated area, and the "Silk" will travel with the wind to create designs.  It was created by a Computer Science and Lingusitics student.

I liked it because it was so random. (Yes I was stumbling again). You just need to make a really simple line and it will grow whichever way you want it to.

THIS is the silk I made, and THIS is the silk website.

Anyways, I find it interesting how you have little control of how the silk moves, nor do you have control of the colours it makes. You really have to experiment with the program for the best results, and some really neat ones are posted on the website, and you can watch the replays.

The one that I made that I posted is the one that I liked best out of all of the ones that I tried. I realized it was the best because it was so simple. As most things, simplicity wins.

I'm out, Enjoy your weekend:)

Croppings - First Art Assignment

Original Cropping

This is the original cropping that I cut out. We all cropped these from giant group pictures everyone contributed to.

I know they weren't supposed to be a set shape, but I chose mine because it looked like a sun, but then when I cropped it, it actually looked more like a flower. I chose it because I liked the L - Shape composition in it.

Large Painting

As much as I desperately long for precision and control, I thoroghly enjoyed the big painting. It forced me to be quick and not worry about the small details. I really like the thick brush strokes in this, especially the green line. At first it was really thin, as I didn't want it too thick, but I really think it works, as the yellow, orange and red also have thick lines, but still thicker than green so they're different. I also like how in some places you can see the thick texture of the paint, although it doesn't show as well on the picture.

Small Painting

I'm really proud of how I did the brush strokes in this, especially in the yellow. Although there was less value I the yellow, when the painting is viewed in person and up close, I think the brush strokes make up for it. I had a similar problem with the green line on the smaller painting as I did with the big painting. I did the same thing and made the line bigger. The main issue was that my thin brush just wouldn't hold enough paint to drag it down the canvas all the way, as it wouldn't hold enough paint.

In some ways I liked the big painting better, but in some ways I liked the small more. I liked the small one because I had more control, but in the big one I also liked that I had to really make my brushstrokes purposeful and quick. It's hard to choose a favourite, but I do know I like the paintings better than the pastel, which is not posted on the blog.

This assignment was a great way to start off the new semester, and I really enjoyed it, especially the painting.

Video on Trial

Happy Thursday!

Our next tech project is to make a music video, so I'm gonna do a quick post about good and bad music videos.

The first video is what I consider a good music video. It's actually made my a YouTube star, and it's one of his first music videos. I really liked it because it was funny and had an interesting story line.

Dave Days - What Does it Take

My favourite part is when the boyfriend's friends jump on the stage but the cast mates begin fighting them with fake swords.

Something I would consider a bad music video are Taylor Swift Music videos. I like some of her songs, but honestly, who wants to watch her lying on her bed singing like her life ended for three minutes? Heres an example:

Movie Trailer Project - I am Number Four

Happy Thursday!

This is my first year three project for tech. We had to change the mood of a movie trailer by adding music, soundeffects and voiceovers.

I worked on the movie trailer for I am Number Four. It's about an alien who has been sent to earth with eight others to help restore the planet. The first three have been destroyed, and John is Number Four; they can only be killed in sequence, so he is next. It's an action movie, with a little bit of romance. I decided to play up the romance a bit, but made it into a tragedy.

These are the three trailers/ interviews I used for footage:

Here's my version/remake on the trailer:



In my version, it appears as though the female lead, Sarah, does not trust him. Slowly they begin to like each other more but she is still cautious. Close to the climax John says, "You aren't safe here." He's brought danger to her and they need to be careful. The last few clips of the trailer show them running and Sarah is taken away. She falls off a cliff. John is then devastated he could not do anything and jumps. As the veiwer, you aren't sure if they actually die... so watch the movie to find out:). But it actually doesn't exist. So watch the actual I am Number Four.

In the words of Tigger, TTFN!

Paint Sound Sculptures

Paint sound sculpture, click for more

Now playing: Marry You - Bruno Mars
Now reading: The Red Pyramid - Rick Riordan

I thought that might be a good way to start off my blog posts. I saw this and thought it was really interesting. For a printer advertisement, Canon used these paint sound sculptures in their commercial.

I actually stumbled upon this (using stumbleupon) and it caught my attention immediately.

The way this was done was by wrapping a membrane around a speaker, and dropping a few paint drops on the membrane. When the speaker was turned on the paint would bounce up and down.

My mind was blown when I read this. It's such a cool and creative piece, and a great idea for a commercial. If you want to see how it was done, here's the video:


Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

I really love the colours. They're so vibrant and dramatic.  I imagine it would have been difficult and fun to do at the same time, as they needed to take the picture at exactly the right moment.

That's all for this week. Have a good long weekend:)

Garageband Tutorial and Other Happenings

Hello hello,

Happy Friday! Well kind of happy, it's been a long week, especially the past two days. I was also supposed to do this tutorial about a week ago, but me being me I procrastinated, so I'll be doing two posts today. Sound fun? Kay good:)

So this is the tutorial I found, for iMovie. In class we're currently working on a movie trailer project. We have to edit a movie trailer in a way that the mood of the trailer is changed. For example editing a romance so it is perceived as a horror film. I'll write more about it when I post my finished project up.

For now I thought I'd share this tutorial on iMovie that I found. It was actually my first time using iMovie, and thinking back I should have watched a tutorial before starting, as it would have made this project easier. I managed though and now I know the progam quite well.

This is a good video that shows beginners where everything is and the basic ins and outs. I'd reccomend it to anyone who is new to the program and woud like to try it out.

Me!

Hello!

This is my first post in the new semester, and I'll be writing about myself, starting with how I joined CyberArts.

When I was in grade eight and applying for high school, I wasn't sure that I would make it into the program, and I didn't audition. When I was in grade nine, I heard about the opportunity to join the program for year two. I auditioned and I fortunately was accepted into the program without taking the first year of CyberArts.

I really enjoy the program and I'm excited about the new semester for year three. Last year in tech I really enjoyed the typography and the self portrait, although the portrait took much longer than it should have to finish. I liked the HTML portion, and we made a website to show our portfolios.

I feel I'm open to many styles of art. Some days I really like bright and fun pieces, but sometimes I lean towards darker styles. I think it really depends on my mood.

Programs I'm familiar with are Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop; I've worked with things like Flash and Dreamweaver before, but only a few times.

Things I like doing outside of school are acting (although recently I haven't auditioned for anything because school has been so demanding), dancing, reading and drawing. My favourite subjects at school are  biology, chemistry (I think, I have it this semester, so I'll see if I really like it), physics and CyberArts. I usually like school but it can be overwhelming at times. Another thing I really love is food.

There is so much variety of food that it's hard to list. I like almost anything my mom or grandma makes, so I love Indian food. It's very flavourful and different. I could eat pasta every day if I had to, especially with lots of vegetables and spicy sauce. I like pizza, especially my mom's, and like the pasta, with many vegetables in it.

I really enjoy shopping. I don't usually buy things, but I love window shopping. If I could, I would buy five pairs of shoes everyday. I would probably have a pair of shows for every outfit I own. The only downside is that I'm extremely clumsy and I can't walk in very high heels. One of the reasons I like winter is because the styles of clothing are just so much better. I love layering clothes with scarves and sweaters. Although I love clothes, I always prefer sweatpants of PJs. We were off for about a week between the end of exams and the start of semester two, and I wore jeans only once.

I think I wrote quite a bit; I hope you now know a bit about myself!