Sep 14, 2014

Keys

So Jeff Sangali and Dela Longfish came to give us our first assigment. We were to design a good/evil key, its box, and its contents. I received evil.











Sep 6, 2014

DLP

Nathan

Guy Davis
Saul Bass
Will Eisner
Charles Burns
Windsor McKay

Aug 31, 2014

116 Artists Research

Joseph Cornell

  • American artist and sculptor
  • One of the pioneers of assemblage
  • Influenced by Surrealists
  • Avant-garde experimental filmmaker
  • Collaborated with filmmakers Rudy Burckhardt, Stan Brakhage, and Larry Jordan
  • Possessed orginal drawing's from Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince
  • The exiled Saint-Exupery's wife, consuelo, was similarly an artist and sculptor.
  • Compared to Kurt Schwitters for his ability to create poetry from the commonplace.
  • Though unlike Schwitters, he was not fascinated by the discarded but by fragments of once beautiful and precious objects found in bookshops and thrift stores.
  • Boxes relied on the Surrealist use of irrational juxtaposition, and on the evocation of nostalgia for appeal.
  • Never regarded himself as a Surrealist. Though admired the work and technique of Surrealists like Max Ernst and Rene Magritte.
  • Heavily influenced by the American Transcendentalists, Hollywood starlets (to whom he sent boxes he had dedicated to them), French Symbolists such as Stephane Mallarme and Gerard de Nerval, and dancers of the 19th century ballet such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Cerrito.
  • Corenll's 1936 found-film montage Rose Hobart was made from splicing together existing film stock.
    • Premiered at Julien Levy Gallery in December 1936 during the first Surrealist exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in NY.
    • Salvador Dali was outraged at his movie cause he just had the same idea of applying collage techniques to film.
    • After the screening, remarked to Cornell that he should stick to making boxes and stop making films.
    • Traumatized, shy, retiring Cornell showed his films rarely thereafter.
  • Boxed assemblages created from found objects.
  • Shadow boxes, usually with a glass pane in front.
  • Arranged various fragments of photographs or Victorian objects in a way that combines the sterness of Constructivism with the fantasy of Surrealism.
Medici Slot Machine
http://www.boxofjars.com/vol1archive/Surrealism/jcni_08.jpg
  • Interactive and meant to be handled.

  • Soap Bubble Sets
    https://www.google.com/search?q=cornell+soap+bubble+sets&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=E3gDVLWSM6O1iwLTyoGYCA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75

    Pink Palace
    https://www.google.com/search?q=cornell+soap+bubble+sets&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=E3gDVLWSM6O1iwLTyoGYCA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=cornell+pink+palace&tbm=isch

    Hotel
    https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75

    Observatory
    https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+observatory&tbm=isch


    Space Object
    https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+space+object+boxes&tbm=isch

    Aviary
    https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+aviary&tbm=isch

    BFA

    Competitive professional

    • Complete all work. No half work.
    • No late work. Server work included.
    • Follow work parameters.
    • Participate in class discussions.
    • Make changes. All critique is to be taken seriously even if you don't agree.
    • You may not be critiqued but apply critiques that peers received.
    • There are no office hours to make up for late work.
    • Sit up front.
    • Clean social media.
    • Blogspot with portfolio and resume.
    • Don't hug guests. Their job is to fool you into thinking you're friends when you're not.
    My Name is
    • 1 min or less introducing you as a professional.
    • Live action or animated
    • Title screen. Ending screen.
    • May help others.
    • Say, "My name is..."
      • Clear and interesting
      • Art sophistication. Visual acuity
      • No bathroom humor.
      • Professional sound. No background noise.
      • Compressed as QT H-264 11:59 Thurs, Sep 4
      • File name NguyenAnh
      • Make sure it uploads.
    Competencies
    • Show a clear narrative story with artwork
    • Generate multiple ideas quickly
    • Gather and use appropriate research
    • Finish and polished work
    • Accept notes and make changes
      • Apply changes from peers to yourselves.
    • Discuss work intelligently.
      • No "I don't know"
    • Work collaboratively
    • No sharpie on CDs. Label. Sans Serif. Arial Helvetica
    Forms
    • Fill forms completely
    • If you admit weakness, ask to work on it. Don't ask to improve strength.
    Interview
    • Bring sketchbook
    • Don't have empty pages in your portfolio book.
    • Have traditional in the back of your artwork.
    Art in the Title



    Jeff Sangali Dela Longfish

    Gradient in the back.

    Thumbnails
    • 25 a day at least
    • Detailed

    Exploratory
    • Shaded

    Final
    • Full-body. Painted. With shaded heads.
    • If only shaded. Many.
    Whimsical does not mean lazy. Just about the same amount of work as rendered.

    Push what they ask for.

    Interesting reference provides interesting work. But fit the assignment while doing so.
    10 lighting comps a day.
    3 days to design and color a city. Use Maya.

    Don't do other team member's work. Do more but don't do theirs. It's counter productive.

    Scott Campbell

    Character sheet. Show inside of mouth. Under the feet. Hair details.

    Directors usually determine how loose you can be. If they have an art background, you can be looser since they can visualize it.

    1. Thinking
    Approach first without reference. 50 at least.

    2. Ideations
    Reference research. 50. Don't worry about style.

    3. Comps
    Tell a story. Non art directors may need color.

    4 Finals
    Painted and colored. but the story-telling and the design has to work first.

    Storyboarders. Know your perspective and layout.

    Know your deadline.

    Have a visual hierarchy.

    No angel and demons.

    Boil things down to a key-purpose. Not necessarily a key-shape.

    Patterns can be interesting.

    Beat expectations.

    The handle could be inserted instead of the toothed part.

    Character for scale.



    Friday, August 12

    DON'T

    • Ignore directions
      • The art director is under stress from higher powers and so it would do well to follow direction.
      • Staple on the correct side.
    • Forego test prints. May be too light/too dark.
    DO
    • Email professionals to show that hunger to learn.
    Brainstorming
    • Four hours right after assignment.

    Drawing
    • Show other angles. Top if people need it to understand things such as how many feet an object has.
    • Draw while it's fresh in your mind.
    • 4 colors. 9 ideations.
    • Correct ellipse
    • SPEED. Need to be fast.
    • Gray behind ideation to give them substance. Color is better.
    • Draw loose. Lighten. Draw loose again. Tighten where story needs to be.

    Rendering
    • Have brushes for different materials.
    • VALUE
    • Don't have line in the work.
    • Color ideations.
    • Do color studies.
    • Details
    • Some soft corners and some hard. Erase for hard and to have edge contrast.
    • Light object with key light. Not just ambient.
    • Have a gray background. A dark one takes away from things.
    • Have material change.
      • Bronze has a darker core shadow.
      • Steel or opal is nice.
    • Have cast shadows. No floating. Follow the ground plane.
      • Don't collide shadow with other objects.
    • BG
      • How does Apple photograph their products?
    VFX
    • Gesture it.

    Maya
    • Don't render with the shadows black.

    Animated
    • Have on animation on one page so that it could be sent to the animators for reference.

    Layout
    • Focal point. Some bigger thumbs than other.


    Printing

    • Cardstock may be harder to staple.
    • Gloss makes it harder to read.

    Aug 27, 2014

    Generations Project

    What it is. What's before that? What's before THAT?

    Informational. Non-fiction.

    Six parts
    • Keep the parts smaller since the combination will be larger.
    • Different artists
      • Realism Painterly
      • Graphic/Logo
      • Film Noir
      • Papercraft
      • CD
      • Words
    • Different media
      • CD
      • Paper
      • Watercolor
      • Oil
      • Charcoal
      • Wood
    • Have a sense of place as well as a sense of persona
    • Closeup. Landscape. Graphic
    Make cliches fresh.

    116

    Tuesday, August 26

    Basics of Communications

    Illustration

    • Freelance/Independent
      • In not working for a company, an illustrator is allowed to keep the rights to their work.
      • They are merely sell the right to reproduce their work.
      • Also helps to serve those with short attention span since the projects are varied.
    • Self-starting
      • Inner drive
      • Initiative
    • Comfortable with living in a modern world in which not having a job is almost sinful.
      • Can I afford to bee self-employed.
      • May have to take on other non-artistic jobs before I build a reputation and people come to me.
    Don't worry about the artistic peer's opinion. It is the everyday audience that an artist is working to impress.

    Illustration is story. People have to understand it.

    Be unique.
    • Know it before you do it.
    • You may start out clueless and find your way as well as long as you put thought into it.
      • Don't go with the first idea. Stay clueless and be open to changes.
    • There is more originality in stupid ideas.
    • Good ideas have a sort of sameness.
    Chaos theory gave way to the Newtonian model of the universe.


    Creation =/= Selection

    Creation
    • Making of the elements
    Selection
    • Designing and composing of existing elements to make something new
    Wasting talents
    • Creating something already made. Reinventing the wheel.
      • A child clinking on a toy xylophone is more emotional than a professional adult lip syncing.

    Unsatisfactory
    • Always wanting more better tools. Nothing wrong with an old-fashioned pencil.
    • Seeing something better, you're inspired. Therefore instead of looking at something online of another artist, look at life.
      • Draw life.
      • Draw dreams.
      • Draw confusion.
    Have a frame. No vignettes.

    Triangle
    • Pictures
      • Too many of them but it speaks to everyone.
      • What it looks like
      • Engages the eye
      • The illusion of light
      • Offers credibility
    • Icons
      • No emotional connection but it's easy to recognize. Only speaks to a select few.
      • What it means
      • Engages the brain
      • The illusion of space. The brain is a space traveler.
      • Offers memorability
    • Media
      • Could put off an audience such as the use of actual body parts or use of such mediums such as money could have people question its credibility and take the attention away from the piece itself.
      • What it is
      • Engages the body
      • The illusion of form
    Seeing
    • Is not believing. Once you believe something is lost, it's difficult to see it.
    • Thinking you're seeing something is more of a projection.

    Read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics
    Watch ZERO THEOREM



    Thursday, August 28

    Have a human personality to your work.

    The escape pod was NASA's version of the diving bell

    Even the dead expect permission if you are to use their face.

    If you are using reference, try to have more than 30% difference.



    Tue, September 2

    It's not about who made it. It's about the character made.

    • Don't be concerned with the art style and think about the character.
    • Don't let talent be arrogant and focus on showing off style. Rather work on the content.
    • There is always a human standard so don't worry about art standard. The chalk drawings lost style because we all worked on it but they're appealing since they all spoke to us about humanity.
    • Taking a break will bring about another personality and inspire so that may get you out of a rut.



    Thur, September 4

    Presentational work - Gives eye contact to viewer. Usually close up. Western.
    Representational - No one is aware they're being looked at. Usually the audience is pulled back. Eastern. Rude to stare.

    Have your generations bits be different sizes. Similar sizes conflict with where the eye should go unless that's part of the idea.

    Include texts.
    Hand lettering is unique now. Artists are aware of what makes good typography so we should use it.
    Everyone has digital fonts so it's not as unique.

    Barron loves linework. Thicker line makes the artwork seems smaller. Thinner lines makes it seem bigger. Similar to resolution.

    If there is clarity, there is usually no subtlety. Sometimes a slow read can be good. Clarity sometimes lacks enthusiasm.

    If an artwork is iconic, craftsmen has to be bullet proof.

    Watch Stag at Sharky's.

    Jasper Johns. America Flag Painting.

    Inuits have three masks in their dance. They show audience members only one of the masks so everyone has a different experience.

    H.R. Giger uses 2 airbrushes. Opaque white and opaque black. The broken strings of shapes in the airbrush is what provides his style. He is about form.

    Dieter Roth

    Ben Shahn

    Joel Peter Witkin

    John Brown Painting
    http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFile%3AJohn_Brown_Painting.JPG&h=0&w=0&tbnid=as9Rp5Yknw8zQM&zoom=1&tbnh=172&tbnw=294&docid=ngQmhX_J6FcuHM&tbm=isch&ei=K8ILVOLQNcOBiwLDrYHYDQ&ved=0CAIQsCUoAA