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.