Digital Art Projects
Digital arts is a great class. Almost everyday, even if I am in a bad mood or if I am tired and not in the mood for anything, digital arts is always a class that I look forward to because of the ability to be creative and discover new things. We use the essential tool of Adobe Photo Shop CS4 in digital media class, but we aren't always on the computers. Although I love the days that we get to work on the computers in Photo Shop with the tools and making crazy cool pictures, I would have to say my favorite days are the days we go outside the park and we just draw. We get to use Ms. Roxy's fancy pencils and pastels. I especially like these days because it has always been a secret passion of mine to be a artist and these days when I actually get a few tips and draw something worth looking at it makes me feel like a completely legitimate artist.
Collaborative Project: Sculpture
For this project we were supposed to visually represent something we had taken away from the dystopia and utopias we had been learning about in Humanities. In Humanities my final project was a story I had written, and so my art work that went along with my paper was something that directly related to my story.
The bottom layer represents all of the things we validate ourselves with, everything we tell ourselves we are to make ourselves feel better. Then the top layer shows the two main characters of my story breaking through all of the egocentric expectations and touching, sybolizing the connection they have that brigdes their vastly different worlds. The female character (the red wire hand) comes from a high class family where she is pressured to be perfect and be involved in the community as well as school and sports so she has something to "qualify" herself with. The male character (the black plaster hand) comes from a social class of dog fighting and violence where the only hope for him to ever get better is through bloodshed. They connect and both realize that all humans come from the same place and we all go back to the same place so why did everyone care so much about being the best or being perfect, when in the end they were all the same.
On a more personal level, my piece of art represents how I have been trying to be the best in the sports I play, the top in my class, involved in the community...basically I have been trying to be perfect but I never feel like it is enough. I think that the reason for this is because I have not been taking time for myself and I haven't taken time to accept who I am and realize that I am perfect just they way I am. Through this project I learned that if we are always forcing ourselves to be better but we never take time to decompress and relax, no matter what we are doing it is never going to feel like enough.
Project Reflection:I feel like during this project I was really ambitious and really motivated. This whole year we had been focusing strongly on the computer and working in Photoshop. When we had the freedom to work on something other than a poster, I took up the opportunity. If I was going to do this project again, I think I would do a lot of things the same, although as always, there is room for improvement. Something I would have liked to have done before I started this project was figure out clearly how I was going to cast the plaster hand (the black hand). The whole casting process was a little messy because I had to get help from a college helper who had the materials I needed, but that meant that I couldn't work on it on my own. On top of that the whole process took more than one class period and so that was difficult as well. Time management. Those two words are my arch enemies! Just kidding. But on a more serious note I am really not the best at managing my time, and this project really proved it. I thought that the whole thing would be easy and so many times during class I found myself not doing anything and that really was not a smart choice because I should have been working. I took my project home two days before exhibition and all I had done was the wooden base. That night I put everything on the sculpture and then the next day I painted the plaster hand and attached it to the top layer. Obviously my time during class could have been used better than staring into space.
***Special thanks to Arron Blue and Tanner Smith for helping me with the hand casting!***
The bottom layer represents all of the things we validate ourselves with, everything we tell ourselves we are to make ourselves feel better. Then the top layer shows the two main characters of my story breaking through all of the egocentric expectations and touching, sybolizing the connection they have that brigdes their vastly different worlds. The female character (the red wire hand) comes from a high class family where she is pressured to be perfect and be involved in the community as well as school and sports so she has something to "qualify" herself with. The male character (the black plaster hand) comes from a social class of dog fighting and violence where the only hope for him to ever get better is through bloodshed. They connect and both realize that all humans come from the same place and we all go back to the same place so why did everyone care so much about being the best or being perfect, when in the end they were all the same.
On a more personal level, my piece of art represents how I have been trying to be the best in the sports I play, the top in my class, involved in the community...basically I have been trying to be perfect but I never feel like it is enough. I think that the reason for this is because I have not been taking time for myself and I haven't taken time to accept who I am and realize that I am perfect just they way I am. Through this project I learned that if we are always forcing ourselves to be better but we never take time to decompress and relax, no matter what we are doing it is never going to feel like enough.
Project Reflection:I feel like during this project I was really ambitious and really motivated. This whole year we had been focusing strongly on the computer and working in Photoshop. When we had the freedom to work on something other than a poster, I took up the opportunity. If I was going to do this project again, I think I would do a lot of things the same, although as always, there is room for improvement. Something I would have liked to have done before I started this project was figure out clearly how I was going to cast the plaster hand (the black hand). The whole casting process was a little messy because I had to get help from a college helper who had the materials I needed, but that meant that I couldn't work on it on my own. On top of that the whole process took more than one class period and so that was difficult as well. Time management. Those two words are my arch enemies! Just kidding. But on a more serious note I am really not the best at managing my time, and this project really proved it. I thought that the whole thing would be easy and so many times during class I found myself not doing anything and that really was not a smart choice because I should have been working. I took my project home two days before exhibition and all I had done was the wooden base. That night I put everything on the sculpture and then the next day I painted the plaster hand and attached it to the top layer. Obviously my time during class could have been used better than staring into space.
***Special thanks to Arron Blue and Tanner Smith for helping me with the hand casting!***
The Domestication of the Dog
_Something that blew my mind was the whole domestication of the dog part of the lecture. Throughout our lecture time and our whole week learning about prehistoric art, I have felt really connected and interested in all of it. Overall this unit has really changed they way I think about "cavemen" and their lifestyles. One thing that has really impacted me is the mesolithic-time-period's one large achievement; the domestication of the dog. This was something that we only briefly touched on which gives me more reason to look into it further. I think that I was really interested in this topic and decided to base my animation off of it because I absolutely adore dogs and I happen to have two. Knowing that dogs/ wolves were domesticated in the mesolithic time period way back when has really given me something to chew on, just pondering how the humans were clever enough to do that at such an early date. My view of the "caveman" has been somewhat twisted and I see them as stupid but the fact that they domesticated my best friend, my dog, is a huge accomplishment which makes me think differently about the prehistoric people. Obviously the whole progression of the dog and how the variety available came to be will be something I look forward to researching.
During this project I really learned a lot about Adobe Flash; mainly that it is a frustrating program to work with. During the beginning of the project I was still just making short scenes to get ahold of the program and I was not sure of myself at all. I would constantly be asking questions and waiting to make sure I was doing it right, or when I made a mistake that I could have fixed, I would wait for "official" help from Roxy. As I got better I applied my experimenting to my project and now, at the end of the project, I feel confident enough to help others with their problems.
My favorite part of Adobe Flash would definitely be discovering new things. As broad as that sounds, when I first made a motion tween, or a shape tween or used the bone tool, I got really excited at my accomplishment and that was what made the difficulty all worth it.
In the future I can clearly see myself using Flash in another project. When I first started thinking about when I would ever use these skills again, I immediately jumped to biology. I can totally see myself making an animation in the future of the process of a frogs life, or something along those lines. To think that I could use what I have learned in this unit and apply it somewhere else is really exciting and I think I will take advantage of the tools and opportunity to use Flash again.
During this project I really learned a lot about Adobe Flash; mainly that it is a frustrating program to work with. During the beginning of the project I was still just making short scenes to get ahold of the program and I was not sure of myself at all. I would constantly be asking questions and waiting to make sure I was doing it right, or when I made a mistake that I could have fixed, I would wait for "official" help from Roxy. As I got better I applied my experimenting to my project and now, at the end of the project, I feel confident enough to help others with their problems.
My favorite part of Adobe Flash would definitely be discovering new things. As broad as that sounds, when I first made a motion tween, or a shape tween or used the bone tool, I got really excited at my accomplishment and that was what made the difficulty all worth it.
In the future I can clearly see myself using Flash in another project. When I first started thinking about when I would ever use these skills again, I immediately jumped to biology. I can totally see myself making an animation in the future of the process of a frogs life, or something along those lines. To think that I could use what I have learned in this unit and apply it somewhere else is really exciting and I think I will take advantage of the tools and opportunity to use Flash again.
Ancient Art History
To start the new semester, we kicked off with art history. We took a week to make our lecture books and only lectured one day during that week. Throughout the past two years that this project had been going on, the feedback that Roxy had gotten lead her to teaching us to make a book for notes that is separate than our sketch books. The first day of lecture was really fun and enjoyable because Roxy dressed up like Pebbles from the Flintstones and then we got to put red pigment on our faces and act out some of the things covered in the lecture. We covered things such as twisted perspectives in art as well as strange cultures and early towns like Catal Hoyuk.
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Xtranormal.com Animation
Because we were going to jump into an animation project to demonstrate our knowledge of ancient art history, Roxy had us use an online program called xtranormal.com to make a very rough animation. One of the things that is frustrating about this program is that you can't make your characters walk around. Basically, you have a very limited amount of control over your characters which makes it hard for you to do anything you want with your character. Roxy told us she created a project for us on this program because then we would be thankful when we got to use Adobe Flash for animations.
My short video is about two people, who secretly are in love, and they are trapped in a burning paper box. They know that they are going to be dead soon and so in the desperation of the situation they share their true feelings for each other. |
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Different Effects on Text
For this project we learned how to make different looking text in Adobe Photo Shop. This project was really fun because we got to learn new tools in Photo Shop and also learned how to make funky text for posters and future projects. Over all I feel that I did a good job on this project and I personally feel that my text looks almost like a pro.
The graphic text is basically just making your text have an image in the lettering. Although you could do the same effect by putting text on your image and then erasing, with the eraser tool, around the lettering and then remove the text, there is an easier way to do this. Thankfully, for this image we were taught a simply way to do it using very few steps. The gel text is not as simple as the graphic text, unfortunately, but the long and complex steps paid off and created an awesome effect on the text, essentially making it look squishy....like gel. The transparent text is something that you might see on posters or projects of mine later on in the future. I really enjoyed doing the transparent text because first you have your text and as you follow the not-so-easy steps, VOILA, and you have clear text. |
Teacher/Animal Project
Description of the Project:
The teacher animal poster project was one of our first large projects in Photo Shop. This project was to get us using tools in the program and working with all the tools to create one unified piece of art. We had to cut out the face of a teacher and then feather the edges and paste it onto a different object. With many layers and many retries and much frustration I came out of that project with the final piece you see to right and a better understanding of Photo Shop. Why did you like this project? I liked this project because we could experiment with the copious amount of tools in Photo Shop and also create a funny looking image of the teacher of our choice. Because this project was fairly open and we were permitted to choose the teacher and the backgrounds and such, I liked that we could just come into class and get right to work! Why do you think you were successful at this project? I feel that I was successful in this project because I used my time in class to get things done during class. I did not come in after school, or before school to work on my poster, but I feel that because I managed my time wisely in class, time outside of school was unnecessary. Another reason I was successful on this particular project was because I tried to limit the amount of extra images. I feel that if I had tried to add too many other images into my project it would have begun to look more Photo Shopped then I wanted it. (The UFO was actually added at the end of the project after the poster was turned in and graded.) What would you recommend to an incoming freshmen before starting this project? Loveliest incoming freshmen, I would just like to tell you that there is no need to stress out about anything, but this project in particular. Through out this project Roxy is often not available to help because there are so many students that need advice. Never fret though, because there is time when you can go in during her office hours (before school or after school) and get some one on one help with your project. Also, even though Roxy is not able to help you, you can speak with other students that may know how to do what you are attempting and more than likely they will be glad to help you out. If you were going to do this project again, what Adobe Photo Shop skill would you really push yourself on? (Image Quality, Layout, Refinement, etc???) If I was to do this project again I feel that I would push myself to refine the whole image. I feel that I was finished with my project really fast and I would have pushed myself more to learn new tools. Just by looking on the internet (http://naldzgraphics.net/tutorials/55-useful-text-effect-tutorials-in-photoshop/) you can find many new things to try in Photo Shop along with the how-to videos that we can access. Another way I feel I could have really pushed myself to refine and improve the quality of the image would be to take on a more challenging task such as pasting the face of a teacher onto an animal body and trying to correctly recreate the texture of the fur, fins, or feathers. |
Citations from slideshow:
http://ruralart.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/wc-warren-complements.jpg --complementary image (orange)
http://springbean.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/hibiscus1.gif -- analogous image (hibiscus) http://stampersquest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/monochromatic-color-scheme.jpg --monochromatic (purple flower) http://www.personal.psu.edu/jun3/blogs/202d/2502174940_f4793fb618.jpg --monochromatic (purple paint picker) http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium/1-cool-color-william-bray.jpg --cool colors (rocks in river) http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/images/Color/wpe4.jpg -- warm colors (silhouette of tree against sunset) |
Color Theory
One of the largest parts of art is that your colors blend well and either contrast each other or flow with each other. There are three main ways to categorize color schemes in art as well as three main ways to label the different shades of color that you get when you mix colors. First off, there are analogous colors, monochromatic colors and complementary colors.
An analogous color scheme includes colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, like the hibiscus in the slide show. For example, if you had a picture of a dark blue vase with violet flowers and red-violet back ground then you would have an analogous color scheme because those three colors are next to each other on the color wheel and all flow together. When making a piece of art like this you must be sure not to add green to that mix of blue violet and red-violet because although green is next to blue, it does not blend with violet or red-violet. The next color scheme is monochromatic colors. This means that the shade stays the same, but the contrast and saturation changes. So you can have an image with all blues and it may look like different shades but in reality it could all be the same shade with just altered saturation and contrasts, similar to the violet color in the slide show. The last color scheme is complementary colors. This is when you mix colors opposite each other on the color wheel to make a nicely contrasting piece of art. In fact, many sports teams such as the Lakers and the Broncos have uniforms with a complementary color scheme. In a piece of art there can also be warm colors and cool colors. Warm colors basically make you feel happy, calm, and essentially warm and are composed of the colors ranging in the red blues and orange yellows. The cool colors are consisting of colors ranging through out blues and green-ish yellows. These color schemes cause the feeling of almost a sadness and quietness. As I mentioned earlier that are also three main ways to label the color that you mix. There are primary colors, secondary colors and tertiary colors. The primary colors are red, blue and yellow and those three colors cannot be created out of any of the other colors. When you mix the primary colors you get the secondary colors of green, orange and violet. By mixing the primary colors and secondary colors you then create tertiary colors, red-violet, blue-violet, yellow-orange, red-orange, yellow-green and blue-green. |
Understanding Light
There are four main types of light that can be applied and taken into consideration while out shooting photography. Through this video we learned about all the types of light, what is best to shoot in, how to alter your images if the lighting isn't what you want and how to shoot types of action photography.
Hard light is a single light source that appears to be small, as well as being directly on the subject. The sun is a prime example of a hard light source which acts similar to a light bulb. When you have hard light, you get high contrasts in your pictures which makes for sharp, crisp, lines and hard shadows which reveal strong texture. Soft light comes from any large apparent surface area such as the sun shining through the clouds on an overcast day. The clouds become a large surface for the light. When shooting in soft light you get images with low contrast creating hardly any shadows, which can look dull. Reflected light is light that basically reflects. For example if you take an image with water and the light reflects then you have a picture with reflected light, which fills in the shadows as well as the dark photos. You can use a white piece of paper to lighten the image or even use a colored piece of paper to add a colored tint. Transmitted light is fairly simple. When you have an image and you can see the light source in the picture, that is considered transmitted light. Action photography is all about trying to capture action where a lot is going on. You can choose to use panning to take action photography or you can just take a regular picture. Panning is when you are close to the action and you use a slow shutter speed while following the action with the camera. The effect creates the back ground to appear blurred in the photo but the object stays still, giving the picture a sense of speed. One tip when taking panned action photography is to say low instead of looking on top of the subjects. Another way you can take action photography is by keeping the camera still so the object moves which also shows speed and motion within the image but it doesn't give the same effect of the panning technique. |
Tips and Tricks
*Sunrise and sunset are the times when it is best to take photography because you have the potential to have hard light, soft light, transmitted light, and reflected light in your picture. This hour before or after sunrise or sunset is known as the magical-golden hour when photography is the best.
*Large apertures are great for blurring out the background and small apertures are used for close-up shots. *5 key things you should remember for portraits are communication, choice of lens, aperture, and the location, keeping in mind the lighting. |
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Art Elements and Principles
For this project we were assigned a principle of art and an element of art within a group and we were to make posters with the definition of the element and principle along with an image demonstrating the particular element or principle.
Our group was assigned the principle of rhythm and the element of space. Rhythm: Rhythm can give your paintings and art pieces visual flow and creates a simulating overall sense of balance. On our poster we found a picture by Jackson Pollock, The Key, which is full of bright colors and sharp shapes which shows great rhythm. Space: The element of art which refers to the emptiness that is between, around, above, below and within objects. We used a picture of a man looking into space which shows space in the simplest way. Principle: The principles of are are used to combine the elements in a design to make the separate elements work together as one. Element: The elements of are are components used in a work of art to apply the principles of design theory resulting in meaningful layouts, well thought-out compositions, and effective advertisements. |
Animas High School 3206 North Main Avenue Durango, CO 81301 (970) 247-2474
My Contact Information: [email protected]
Updated on: 5.11.12
My Contact Information: [email protected]
Updated on: 5.11.12