Unexplainable Stories

Song I'm listening to by Cloud Cult. I fell in love with them after listening to "Everybody Here is a Cloud." You should look them up.

Anyway, I wanted to show my other piece from my senior project.
This one is "Balance," and it another layered piece. First layer: splattered watercolor. Second: marker "picture frame." Third: Ebony pencil (a friend modeled for me). Fourth: marker balance.

I thought of this one as how my attempts to make things perfect just make them worse. Plus, I feel that the "person" in this piece believes they are balancing the picture (in the picture...), when really they are off balance themselves. However (as I explained before), you can interpret it however you want. I'm just giving my idea of what it's about. Honestly, I don't know the true meanings of each of my pieces, which I think makes them a little more interesting. ;)

So, I'm leaving tomorrow for AGS, so I most likely won't be able to post for a month (oh noes). Hopefully I'll have plenty of artwork to show you afterwards, though. So, goodbye all you lovely people (if there is actually anyone that reads my blog, if not, ttfn all you lovely imaginary people).

No Reservations

I'm such a nerd for the Travel Channel (Anthony Bourdain in particular). I can't help it! The sarcastic, alcoholic, smoking ass is so entertaining! Plus, this episode's on Jamaica.

Anyway, I thought I'd post another piece from my concentration pieces.

This piece is "Train of Thought," and is adapted from one of my sketchbook doodles. I used one of my fellow Advertising Design classmates as my model. I sketched him in ebony pencil, used sharpie for the train tracks, watercolor, and marker (the trains). All of this is on a recycled piece of mattboard.

Here is a closeup of the piece. Once again, I tried to focus on the elements and principles of design, especially color, line, repitition, and proportion. Also, I incorporated raised areas (the trains) to create layers.


I'm counting down the days 'til AGS!

the times, they are a'changin

Just reflecting on my past few years. How much I've changed since being in high school, and how much those around me have changed as well.

Anyway, here is one of my senior project pieces (my concentration pieces). I decided to start early on my senior project so that I could focus more on getting into the college I want (that is, when I decide where I want to go...), than trying to finish up what I need to graduate.

My senior project is a little hard to explain... Basically, it's the freedom of interpretation through concepts that are present in my life (such as my own characteristics and emotions). I had tossed around a few ideas for my senior project the past few years, but they all seemed to restrain me to a certain topic. I wanted the freedom to do whatever I want (after all, it is my project, and what better way to express myself).

My inspiration was when I was with one of my good friends. He asked me to draw him, and for the life in me, I could not get his head right. So, he told me to "replace it with something." I was really confused at first, until he started spouting out random things such as "goldfish bowl," "flower pot," "octopus," etc. Eventually, I chose a goldfish bowl for his head. And that is how my idea was born. Each piece of my project will contain (for all intents and purposes, I call it a character) a "character" that has no gender, ethnicity, or name, and "its" head is always replaced with something. The purpose of that is so anyone can project themselves into the picture and interpret whatever they want out of the piece. I give my viewers a witty name, and they determine what they see. I have my own interpretation of the piece, but I don't present it to the viewer. It gives not only me freedom, but freedom to the viewer as well.

Confused yet? Maybe you should just see a piece.

This one is called "Knowledge Vacuum." I interpreted it as my love of learning (sucking everything like a vacuum), but a friend of mine presented a different idea: a vacuum can be described as an absence of matter, so it can possibly be seen as the absence of knowledge. I wanted to focus on the elements and principles of design (what I have the most trouble with when creating a piece), with a clearly defined background, middle ground, and foreground. I used cardboard to create the different layers and to mount the piece on. In the foreground, I used pen and ink, focusing on the people in the picture (I took the picture in a classroom at my school). In the middle ground, I used conte for the next closest thing: the teacher. Lastly, in the background, I used pencil and ebony and focused even less on detail to give the illusion that you're actually looking at the scene. The vacuum is in color (my vacuum at home, that I had to draw from memory because I lost the first attempt), to bring attention to that area. As you can see, one of the students has the vacuum for a head, pertaining to my theme.

This was the first piece of my senior project, and I'm quite happy with the results. One of the parts of our project is to talk about an artist(s) that inspired us. The first thing I thought was, "Well how the heck am I going to do that? I pulled this idea out of my butt!" Well, another friend of mine happens to have a vast collection of art magazines (I'm so jealous of her). While skimming through them, I stumbled upon a wonderful artist by the name of Tom Haubrick. He works in mainly sepia or black and white, with some splashes of color in his pieces. Also, he has a reoccuring "character" throughout his pieces whose head is often replaced with a common item. I was thrilled when I looked at his work, and I now have an artist for inspiration. Huzzah!

School's Out For Summer!

Ah, how much I missed summer. Anyway, a week until AGS, so I'm starting to pack. It's kind of sad how I'm more excited about the Spiderman trashcan and bed sheets my mom got me than I am about the minifridge I'll have in my dorm. I guess after spending all those years trying to be an adult, all I want to be is a kid again.

So, this assignment earlier this year was to make a tattoo-style piece while incorporating a hand. I swear, I think my teacher designed this assignment specifically for me. I squeeled like a moron when she announced it, while everyone else complained how this project was perfect for me (I love designing tattoos and drawing hands). I used this wonderful opportunity to create a sort of social commentary on how we are so bound to technology. I used only pen and sharpie for this piece, focusing on an industrial look. The hand in the middle is robotic and holding an organic/mechanical heart. This was when I had my mohawk (or shortly after, I can't quite remember), so I added a mohawk into the design. I like how this turned out, although I'm thinking of redoing it and entering it into my portfolio for my senior project.