Week 15

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/scribble/10640536

SCRIBD.COM

http://www.scribd.com/doc/30659680/Magazine-42610

Special Edition - Sr. Solina Hicks

Sr. Solina Hicks is a great woman who has done great things for not only art lovers everywhere but especially for St. Xavier University. She, single handedly, created the art department many years back. Her strong will to live has lead her to live into her 90s. At her art exhibit a few weeks back, I was lucky enough to witness her humorous and intelligent self as she told the audience about her past and her love of art.
I chose this art piece of a winter scene because it stood out to me the second i walked into the exhibit. Not only that, it stuck with me through out the entire presentation. I spoke with a few other Sisters of Mercy who also agreed with me. Using thick paint brush strokes Sr. Solina created a winter scene that is recreated every winter here in Chicago. Her different hues gave the snow life in a way. The thick brush strokes showed the texture of the snow. The tree that she painted shoes how the leaves have all fallen and now the branches hold the thick cold snow. The brownish colors in the background and on the sides of the tree show how the snow falls and melts, making it look so real. And the brighter shades of white show the fresh snow that has fallen.

Special Edition Blog- Museum Part 2

Configuration, 1952
Jean (Hans) Arp
Oil on wood

I found this art piece to be especially beautiful. It grabbed my eye right away because of the colors. A deep blue and a deep yellow (reminded me of the University of Michigan). The position of the yellow raised wood piece looks to me like a flower. At first sight, one might not see a flower, but i did. The colors contrasted one another beautifully.
Configuration was put together with two pieces of wood. The back piece of wood was painted with a deep blue oil paint. The raised piece of wood, which i see as the actual configuration of the piece, was carved out and painted with a deep yellow before being placed and attached to the background.
This is a modern art piece. The modern wing is my favorite of all in the Art Institute of Chicago. It may possilby be because of my generation, but i found it to be much more interesting. Although i find it astonishing that they have discovered art pieces that are sooo old, i am much more inclined to modern art. The advances are so defined and unique in some ways. The bright colors and different techniques are so bold in the modern wing, it really makes it fun to look at.

WEEK 14

The first page of context the reader will come across in my magazine is the table of contents. I added a simple blue border around my text. The magazine is divided into 4 parts, two of which is my artwork and 2 from two other students.

This is the back cover of my magazine. I chose a black background with a bright light blue border, which coinsides with colors on the cover of the magazine. I chose and placed this photo of myself because i thought it was silly and fun and reminded me of the good times I had back in the day. I also liked that the reader can see the author in a sweet pair of shades, which gives insight as to why i would have chosen that collection (SHADE).

I created a dedication to my Aunt Mar because she has been a huge help in giving me a good college education. This will show here that her time and money were not wasted. I also wanted to dedicate it to her to show her how appreciative i am. I used a white 12 pt. times new roman font to keep it clear and concise.

Week 13

This is the cover of my magazine. I have chosen to focus on my favorite illustration from all semester. I placed the image on to an 8.5 X 11 page and fit it proportionately. The title of my magazine is "Scribble" I chose that as my title because it describes a form of art that one may not think is a masterpiece. BUt hontestly some of my favorite personal artworks have only takes short amount of minutes to create. I chose to give the reader a preview of the two featured artists, with a description. And also computer graphics is a featured because that is the style in which all were created.

Craft, Concept and Compostion

For this page I created a yellow background spread. I then placed two eyeglass illustrations that i had previously created. Both illustrations are bright and reminded me of different generations in time. Elton John is famously known for his choice of eye wear. Knowing this, i did some research and found a quote from the man himself. I copied and pasted the quote and played around with the size, font and direction. I also did the same thing with page 4 and used lyrics from the hit song, "I wear my sunglasses at night." (which is something i become accustomed to.)

The background is used to catch the readers eye, pun intended. It liks when u see a yellow car driving down the street, ya cant help but stare.

Week 12

Craft:

This week i spent a lot of time adding other artists' work to my magazine. I chose Erica Bartley's and Andy Zarycki's work to feature.

Concept:

I thought all three of our focuses were different, giving a wide variety for readers.

Composition:

I got Erica and Andy's work off of the professors harddrive and copied them to my own folder. I created more pages for my magazine and began to produce the rest. I spent a lot of time rearranging my articles to fit with the featured artists.

Erica's art had a color scheme of red yellow/orange and black. So i used different colors like so for my page numbers and and the added borders, which i put around the quotes i used of hers.

Andy's art was varied with different colors. but i really enjoyed his accidental dark red that was shown during critique time so chose that. i thought it went well with the color of the rim and with the VANISHED photo.

Week 11

Craft: This week i decided i wanted to separate my different articles of the magazine. I wanted each to have its own style in a way. Each articles background and color scheme is one in its own.

Composition:

The eye glass portion of the magazine has a yellow background that was made from a rectangle and then sent to the back. The shoes portion of the magazine was done the same way, but using a gray background.

ConceptL

The purpose of the different color backgrounds was to accent the style i saw in each collection. I thought it was an organizational way to separate different pieces.

Week 10 Learned from the Critique

From the critique I learned a lot of beficial information. From the second i hung it up in front of everyone, i knew i hated it. There were too many photos on my first pages that i didnt like. The text caused issues with empty space. My numbers on the pages looked terrible to me, needed to be much smaller. My solo sunglass illustration should be much smaller and placed in between text.
I also learned from the critique that everyone's idea of a creative magazine spread is different, i can't please everyone, but at least i can learned from their perspectives.
I plan on moving illustrations around, creating new text boxes, and working on my titles and page numbers.

Special Edition Blog -Shoes

My final illustration from our first project turned out much better than the previous drafts. It took some time and effort but in the end I found it to be much more pleasing to the eye.

Craft, Concept & Composition

Using Adobe Illustrator, I created a tabloid sized illustration and inserted my original photograph. The photograph concisted of a black and white floral background, with red high heels placed on top.

I positioned the shoes in a certain way to show off the leopard print and gold buckles, I also positioned them to shoe off important parts of the background to shoe that it is a flower.

After placing my objects just so, i began to trace my illustration. Using the pen tool i traced the entire rectangle and filled it in with black. I made it invisible and continued on to trace the white base of my flower, which took up 90% of the page. Then i continued on and created shades of gray and black to fill in details on the flower.

Once the flower was completed i moved on to the most time consuming piece of my illustration. I traced the whole outside shape of thebottome shoe and then did the same with the second shoe. Both were filled in with red. The details were next to be completed, starting with the heals. I chose to use a beige color with a texure to shoe the rugged-ness. The shading of the shoe was next, which i was a gradient of red, dark red and white. There was also a bright white glare that came from the lights in the room that also needed to be shown. For that i created new shapes and new graients within them, mostly with ahite and light reds.

The insides of shoes were even more time consuming. the sole of the shoes were a goldish color that also needed a gradient between gold, white and brown. The leopard print was made using the pen tool as well, just recreating the different shapes and using shades of brown, gold and black. And lastly, the gold buckles were made with the pen tool and gold and white shading.

The point of my illustration was to show of a shoe that i found to be a typical “girly-girl” shoe. There are even songs that talk about a girl’s red high heels. I found the floral background to fit in with my “girly” them. The leopard print also added a fad that is common among girls.

"Unfinished Painting"
After creating such an elaborate illustration, i recreated it using a totally different style. The color scale used was nothing like the original. And the brush library as well. For this illustration, i learned how to use new tools, such as appearance, graphic style, and libraries.

Craft:

For this illustration, i used different tools from the brush library which created thick and light brush strokes. I used earth tone colors, which i found to be soft and flowing.

Composition:

I didnt really compose the earth tone colors in any such away. I just played around with the tools until i found something i really liked.

Concept:

With this being the first alternative illustration, i spent quite a bit of time just playing around with the newly learned tools. When it got to a certain point, i decided i wanted to continue and make it look like a painting. The earth tone colors are something that would be included at a painting in my own home, which was what brought me to choose them. The thick brush strokes caught my eye because it made the illustration look like something i could have possibly painted.

Special Edition Blog-Museum Part 1

John Philip Simpson

The Captive Slave, 1827

This is an oil painting on a canvas. The background is grayish-brown. The prisoner he painted is wearing a deep redish-orange cloak, or clothing. From the looks of the man depicted in this painting, the audience can see sadness and can tell that this man is being held captive. It is like he is looking up to God asking for help. He is seated and placed in shackles which can be seen on the bottom right, giving not much leeway for his hands to move.

The colors used show sadness and darkness. The deep colors give a scary appearance. The artists thick brush strokes were used in the right places to show shadows. The darkness wear the clothing folds over makes it so realistic. The bright colors used to show the glow on his face can either be seen as lightness from God or even to show sweat. The sweat depicts the man as a hardworking slave, putting up with gruesome treatments.

I found the frameworks from the first part of the museum to be extremely breathtaking. I had asked if they were orginal, some were and some were not. For this one in particular, i found the gold to be beautiful and worked perfectly with the colors used by the artist, John Philip Simpson.

Week 9

Craft:

For our magazine project, I used the Adobe InDesign program. I opened it and created a new document. I chose a letter sized portrait. For the page length, i chose 25 so i will be able to add to the magazine document. The first page I left blank because i wanted the first page to start on the left side and be incorporated with the second page, to introduce my style of art, Sou-Si POP.

On every idd numbered page, i created a black triangle. In the triangular shape, at the top left corner, the reader will the page number in a bright, flourescent color.

I then created 2 boxes on the first page, one for the title and one for my first photo. The first rectangular box also consists of a text box for my title. The title of my spread is SHADES which is pretty self explanatory. I then created the second box and "placed' and "proportionally fit" my photo. On the second page i created a large rectangle to fill the entire page. Then i "placed" and "proportionally fit" my style title image to show the reader the kind of art they will be focusing on.

On the third and fourth pages, the reader will find the artists favorite illustration and text containing important information about it. I created the page number illustration once again, this time with the number 3. I then created a rectangle and "placed" and "proportionally fit" my favorite illustration, "Eye Spy." I then created a few text boxes to place the information containing craft, composition and concept.

Composition:

I composed the start of my magazine spread using Adobe InDesign, using 25 pages. To insert, or place, pictures and texts i made rectangles and used the place and fit proportionally options. For texts i would click the red X at the bottom right to show more of my texts. I also used the rectangle option to create my triangles and used the white arrow to make them triangles and then insert a 60 point number using a bright color.

Concept:

I wanted my spread to show what kind of artist I am and what kind of style i use. So naturally a black with bright colors were used. I used a magazine from class, "BAIL," as my inspiration as to why i wanted a two page introduction, instead of one.

Week 8

Craft

To make my illustration, I used Adobe Illustrator. I opened the program and started with a new document, using the letter size 8.5 x 11. I wanted the orientation of the paper to be portrait for the to coinside with the position of the sunglasses portrayed in my illustration.

I began by using that Bamboo pen and pad tool. I chose to use the rounded rectangle tool and carefully created about nince different rectangles that would piece my illustration of sunglasses together. The actual eye piece that one can see out of was made up of two rectangles and connected by another. Each ear piece was created using two different rectangles as well. And lastly, the nose pieces were created with two more rectangles.

I used a 1 point, splash stroke tool for the majority of my piece. After carefully creating each rectangle to fit the correct dimensions that i wanted, i then pieced the shapes together. The eye piece was originally placed toward the front, but i wanted to show all aspects of the sunglasses so eventually i sent it to the back. The original fill of the sunglasses was a hot pink that i found in the "kids" brush library. I copied the illustration and then pasted it and chose a new color, which turned out to be green, blue and yellow. I scattered the illustrations all aroung the 8.5 x 11 page and came up with my final illustration. I rotated the different sunglasses in different directions. Toward the end i began to move pieces around and put one colored eye pieces with another colored ear pieces, just to mix things up a bit.

Composition:

I composed my illustration using the Bamboo pen and pad provided to us. It took a little time getting used to but eventually i came to like the tools. After I became comfortable using the Bamboo I began to play around using different shapes to form my object.

At first when i started the illustration i wanted it to be straight forward and real. So i worked hard trying to get the rectangles just how i wanted them. In later illustrations i began to think outside of the box. But for this specific illustration the shape and colors to be just so. I wanted the audience to be able to tell what it was that i was illustrating and i wanted the bright colors to show my style.

Craft:

My style for my illustrations took some time to find. I did not really think about it at all before working on the different illustrations. I just began testing different colors, shapes, sizes, etc. to see what i liked. I tried different backgrounds and different ideas. But for each illustration i kept coming back to bright colors and dark backgrounds.

My style is called "SOU-SI POP." I took the idea of the place it was created in, the south side of chicago, and the idea of how the colors POP out from the page.

The splash brush strokes are another big part of my style. I like the idea of the illustration looking painted. Like i did in previous illustrations, i used the brush library and found different brush strokes that add a little something. Lines are all fine and dandy but i find myself always using thick brush strokes, that are dark or light.

Week 6

"Unfinished Painting"

Craft:

For this illustration, i used different tools from the brush library which created thick and light brush strokes. I used earth tone colors, which i found to be soft and flowing.

Composition:

I didnt really compose the earth tone colors in any such away. I just played around with the tools until i found something i really liked.

Concept:

With this being the first alternative illustration, i spent quite a bit of time just playing around with the newly learned tools. When it got to a certain point, i decided i wanted to continue and make it look like a painting. The earth tone colors are something that would be included at a painting in my own home, which was what brought me to choose them. The thick brush strokes caught my eye because it made the illustration look like something i could have possibly painted.

"Backwards"

Craft:

For this illustration, all i did was switch the colors of the two objects. The prints from the shoes were moved to the flower and the colors of the flower were then used on the shoes.

Composition:

I composed this illustration doing the opposite, referring to the colors. That is the only difference.

Concept:

The whole point of this illustration was to convert the colors of the two different objects, shoes and flower. The colors of the shoe, red, black and goldish tones, were shifted to the flower and vice versa. The purpose was to keep the photo looking like original, but at the same time making it totally different.

"Neon Lights"

Craft:

In this illustration, i used bright colors and different brush strokes to change what is visualized. The colors were found in the kids library. The brush strokes used were a neon background.

Composition:

The objects were give a neon border to stand out from the background. The details in the flower were given neon lights as were the details in the shoes.

Concept:

The purpose of this illustration was to do something drastic. Nothing in this illustration relates to the original, other than the shapes of the original items captured. This illustration kind of reminds my of one of the signs you see in a window that is lit up at night.

Week 5

Craft:

I was quite disappointed with my illustration for the pervious blog, Week 4, so i actually started all over from scratch and improved quote a bit(my own opinion). This week I spent more time and really took my time on the coloring and shading. It has not been one of my strongest points but i think i did much better this time around. I focused on areas and used the gradient tool to accent the light.

Composition:

Placing the gradient areas in the right spot and angled the right way was difficult and i may not have done the greatest job. But i do think the illustration has gotten better. Now maybe the patterns could be accented a little more.

Concept:

This time around the concept is still the same way, shoes and flowers, are some girls favorites.

Week 4

Craft:

In order to make my illlustration of 'Mr Red High Heels' I used the program Adobe Illustrator. The size used for the illustration was Tabloid and i chose to do it on a landscape. Using the pen tool, i traced the entire photo. After each shape was traced i used the fill stroke, and gradient tools to add color and shading.

Composition:

The Convert Anchor Point tool really helped me in touching up my illustration. It allowed me to used curves for the shoes and for different points on the floral background.

Concept:

The point of my illustration was to put two girly objects together. Obviously one had to a shoe and the other, a flower, i thought went well. The leopard pattern in the shoe was also a key part. Leopard prints, red high heels and flowers have been very popular in female fashion for a long time.

Week 3

MY RED HIGH HEELS

Craft-
I was thinking of different places to place my red high heels where they normally would not be. A tanning bed was one of those places. I placed the shoes at the head of the bed and turn the tanning bed on to show the effect of the bright lights. One shoe is standing straight up and the other fallen over to show the different patterns on the shoes.

Concept-
The photo is supposed to show an odd place for shoes to be. No one wears shoes in a tanning bed, therefor it is one of the utmost craziest places to find shoes.

Composition-
I shot photographs of the shoes with the tanning bed fully open, half way open and then closed. I found the best shot with the shoes at the head with the bed closed because the lights did not take over the photo, just added an accent.

Week 2

Craft- I set my nephews first pair of "shoes," which could also be considered slippers, on top of a white comforter. I took the photo at a birds eye view.

Composition- I filled the frame with only the shoes on a comforter because i think the white pillow-like background shows a softness which goes along with these shoes.

Concept- This photo is soft and memorable. Being a key person in my nephew's life, things like his first pair of shoes is cute and important.

Craft- I set the camera on a timer and then set it on a table about 5 feet in front me. Then i posed in a small space in my house, with one leg up. The lights were bright and the timing was perfect.


Composition- I chose this frame because it captured all of the aspects i wanted, the shoes and some legs. I did not want a full body shot because i thought it would take away from the shoes and this frame did just what i expected.


Concept- This photo shows confidence and attitude.

Week 1

Name: Nora Cusack

Age: 21

Major: Criminal Justice

Favorite Team/Player: Chicago White Sox/Paul Konerko

Chicago Blackhawks/Patrick Sharp

Hometown: Beverly, Southside

About me: This is my first year at SXU. I transferred in from Western Illinois University. I graduated high school from Mother McAuley. I am the youngest of five children. I have a nephew, Jack, who is awesome.