Final Image

IMPACT!

Here are some of my sketches for IMPACT! any feedback i could get would be great- im going to buckle down and do this all day tomorrow and wonder what you guys like about each. Ive already narrowed down the idea to near completion (i know i like the trex front and center- i feel it really captures the whole idea for him to be the focal point). My target audience is little kids (particularly boys, or the little boy inside us all) i would hope to just overwhelm his brain with the collision of basicly every genre that little boys love (dinosaurs, knights, ninjas, spaceships, pirates, guns, explosions). The thing im not quite set on is final composition.































(this last ones really just doodles)

For Class Presentation

Dont worry about reading through this or anything- Ill talk these pictures through during class for my presentation.

More of the City

These are some more pics of the city in SketchUp- I would like in class to take you on a bit of a digital "tour" of the city- but may not be feasible. There is an interesting dynamic between the documenting of all art and the original piece (the main idea behind this work) which i feel is especially prominent in a work like this that exists not only in a different form from its docmentation but exists in an entirely different plane of reality.

Final Print maybe????

City II

It has since evolved some but here is my city as of end of class today-

Goddam Peasants

Making all these houses for the poorer denizens of my city has lead me to appreciate more the point of view of kings and emperors---peasants suck. All these needy little digital people can right fuck off..

City Building!

My Slums are coming along swimmingly
I wonder if they aren't slummish enough

Google Sketch-UP: First Shot at City Making

Landscape

Final Image for Infinite Print

This isnt for digital printmaking specifcly but it is something i did digitally in a style i like a bunch- i had been trying to find a style to do digital work that was more than emulation of an analog method, and while my last idea was more unique in that aspect i still think there is something really cool about how these "painting" works out

Printtttttttttttttt

Thoughts specific to this next work:
What makes a print exist in a form that transcends its distribution?
What would a non-artist consider interesting about a print they themselves finalize?
How can the "printer" be involved and invested in the print?
What function of art does this distribution method most support?
How can I keep this all in mind and make something that still looks cool?

The Screenprint

Well here is where my screenprint currently stands. I went into critique with much less confidence for it as compared to my digital print which I thought had come out well. I realize that 14 colors may have simply been too much for me to handle, but I did get 8 printed (but I only showed this one which has 7 because the 8th color was just so bad I tossed it)

There is something so very cool about work that has missing elements to it but still feels resolved. And while the work does look kindof cool the way it is now, I want to try and get the last 7 colors printed. With no time specification I think it is entirely possible, and perhaps I could print even more colors on top of the original 14 if I feel the urge!

Infinite Print

Much like a digital printing process circumvents a number of limitations imposed by traditional analog methods, an infinite print would theoretically change the very nature of the printing processes' end result. Whereas prints in the commerical sphere have value based around their print run, the idea of creating a series with no upper limit in many ways completely discards the notions of uniqueness and originality that paintings posses and prints somewhat diminish. Like printmaking functions to expand a work's sphere of influence by making it more accessible, an infinite print should completely blow that notion out of the water. But in order for an infinite print to have expanded existence, it must actually be printed! So in essence the challenge is; what work would someone be willing to print?

Final Digital Work

My final image to be printed digitally. The screenprint will be it broken down into individual colors.

Two More Sketches

Two technique sketches

I am trying to find a technique I like for working digitally (with a tablet)
I want a style that is unique to the digital relm; something that is more than just emulating some analog process.

Dogs are like people: Often the prettier you are the dumber you also are

In doing research about the Westminster dog show, I came across an interesting argument that makes perfect sense. For thousands of years as dogs were becoming domesticated, they were bred to be smart, to have strength and good instincts. But as dogs started to become bred for looks instead of brains, they have become dumber and dumber. And it makes sense, these dogs exist outside the natural order of evolution; in the wild the dumb dogs would die before they got a chance to reproduce. These dumb dogs have less personality and are harder to train, which seems a bit counter-productive to the objective of the show.

So heres something to think about: don't humans have the same problem? Intellectuals are less likely to reproduce, passing on their genius genes. The crazy nerdy guy may have gotten a 780 math SAT but he will often have more trouble reproducing, while the ditsy girl who drops out of school may have a half dozen kids before she turns 30. Scientists do believe that with every generation humans are becoming dumber and dumber.

So if you're dumb don't have kids- you'll be saving humanity.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4283328/Pedigree-dogs-are-becoming-stupid-as-we-breed-them-for-looks-not-brains.html

Alright this is really quite a cool thing

A Sketch

Here is a sketch I made for this project- just an idea i thought was cool.

http://www.identifive.com/

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/

this is an awesome little site with a great display of really really bad photoshop work- check it out

How cool would a dinosaur show be?

A heck of a lot cooler than a dog show.

why not?

Some thoughts of mine from last week

Even though in my opinion every piece of art should stand by its own merit without any need for explanation, I do feel that the process and discourse can be invaluable to express for the artists growth and just incase anyone is interested. I heard once (cant remember exactly where) an analogy that made a point that if a comedian tells a joke but noone laughs, he can explain it and people might say, "yea thats funny i guess" but he still didnt tell the joke well to begin with! This is a big reason why I cant stand a lot of the crap that gets shoved out there these days and takes shelter as "contemporary art" which seems to protect it. Seems to me noone wants to call these artists on their bullshit because that would make them "uncultured" and "closeminded" hey I argue that any artist who puts art out there has to be willing to humble accept criticism, and they shouldnt need to write a book to explain a single work they have in some gallery.

Anyways- so heres what im thinking about working with. The westminster dog show to me is an odd thing. As kids we would argue "my dog is cooler than your dog" and "my dog could beat up your dog" just like how we totally saw a laprachaun this morning on the way to school. This dog show seems to me like the ultimate evolution of that mindset, adults trying to beat eachother out on what may be the most trivial competition ever televised. These people put their dogs out to show off, but its not really about the dogs its about the trainers and owners, and absolutely everyone knows it. So why even keep up the charade? These people are crazy, parading around their pets who they have trained to amuse people. But on the other hand, these people love what they do and they aren't hurting anybody (except maybe the pride of the dogs) so I guess it could be a lot worse. True these people have passion and I bet if you bumped into one in public they would be perfect nice people, but Im still unnerved by it all.

It seems to me this whole event is a bastardization of what having a pet is really about. Why can't a seeing eye dog win an award for giving his life to help a disabled person keep up in our busy world? Why can't a nineteen year old collie get credit for being the last thing keeping an old man company long after his wife and friends have passed away? Why can't a police dog be awarded for putting its life on the line in a situation too dangerous for a human? Why cant a kid from the farm bring in his puppy and win an award for the pure amount of unconditional love he has for his best friend in the world?

HDR! This photo is a lie because no camera could expose in such a way that it captures the detail in the sky equally to the trees. This is a composite of multiple images (same scene but different exposures) and it creates this range of contrast that could not exist otherwise.

Why should manipulation be limited exclusively to photography? Any sort of portraiture work is a manipulation, casting the person in a more interesting light and focusing on more recognizable features is how they create an image people can relate to. They need to fib about the lighting and color to make something more interesting to look at, and even the simple things like style and media reflect on the image, manipulating it and changing its meaning from being a simple representation of a specific person. I could go on and on about this but wont- I will probably do my own work for this project along these lines, afterall all illustrative work is some sort of fabrication right from the bat.

I found this picture a long while back and was interested in the cartoon to rendering transformation, it significantly changes not only the character's appearance, but with what degree of seriousness you take him. When He has this human face he becomes both more accessible and yet more distant because of his apparent deformity. He's not so funny when he's real.

This was big in the news when it happened- and I was proud to be able to spot the photoshopping in a split second. I know its Iran, but are they really that bad at this stuff? Only 3 missiles worked, one they photoshopped in so they would't feel embarrassed.

Manipulation doesn't need to be negative. Here we have Obama, the decision of his pose, his clothing, and the background are all manipulations. And I'm not convinced this wasn't shot in front of a green screen- how high up does he need to be to have an almost level view with the top of the dome?

Riding off my last example. one could argue that the decision of what to include in an image is itself the most basic of manipulations. Photojournalism depends on pictures like this one; Im not a Hillary fan but I know this face is not one she makes very often. Its still scary...

Heres another one- this picture was pre-photoshop, but even before digital work, photos have been subject to manipulation manually.

Images of Manipulation

This one is rather obvious to see the manipulation so I think it is a nice starting point. This was created as a mock advertisment. But even without the photoshopping of Ronald McDonald, the original statue "David" has an interesting history of manipulation. His head and hands were both chosen to be sculpted larger than is accurate. Michelangelo definitely knew how to scupt, but he knew the statue was intended to be seen from far below, so he exaggerated the features to make them more visable.

First Project

The first project starts today- Manipulation