Blog 5: Reflections

1. I think a significant accomplishment looking at my midterm and final would be making a meaningful art piece. I don't think I've ever got as much emotion out of anything I've made since high school out of my artworks in general. I built on a piece's meaning as I go, so by the time I'm done I've put in more meaning and messages than I started out with because something caught my attention, or an online picture search went a different direction, which I'm perfectly fine with. It lead to pleasant surprises

2 Generally, extracting and clipping images using a magic wand or the cutout tools as used in quiz 2. Or using the clipping mask like in quiz 4, which I had a difficult time on.. Before I took the class, I usually hand extract images using the eraser tool. I ended up using both in the final (cutting out images in the gray/black death image and the end-of-the-world red image, subtle use of clipping mask in the end of the world image). I'm not exactly a master at clipping masks, but I have been able to make it neater.

3.  I was able to make a more meaningful work in the final over the midterm. Other than show of technique, I just was able to show deeper meaning in the final than the midterm in choice of images and choice of techniques. Each image from the final and the midterm went together, as I wanted to keep the same big idea and same themes, but I executed them differently, as scenes that are happening in time rather than just a collection of meaningful pictures and symbols. In the "death picture", it shows someone dying at some time in their life, willingly or not, in a dead forest with skulls, inspired by a story and a photo of a skull in the Aokigahara forest, while the "end of the world" picture was inspired by watching different sci-fi, end-all scenario anime in my lifetime that has an image or symbolism much like what I made.

Blog Assignment 4

The big idea I’m trying to illustrate in my work is time. I used death, destruction and the end as themes and keywords while I was working on pieces on the midterm, but I wanted to ease out of death, but still use it. Another theme I want to add is “impermanence”, which is a theme used often in Japanese art, one of my lifelong inspirations. I also want to use “the end” in different ways, such as the end of a particular phase of life and the loss of innocence. I would like to achieve this by mixing my previous ideas with the new ones abstractly. I never really design these compositions with any media in particular in mind, but if anything they would be used for a band’s posters and flyers, or a magazine illustration.

This music video has inspired me, with the melancholy tone of the song and the visuals -- the video shows destruction, death, and represents the end of innocence -- growing up, an aspect of time. In general, the macabre-ish style of Gorillaz inspires me. Two of their most recent videos show a dark cloaked figure that solidifies my image of the grim reaper (not to mention their use of scythes throughout the early years, the eerie studio they lived in and the graveyard outside of their gates)

http://www.timburton.com/
Another inspiration is Tim Burton. I've been in love with his whimsical asymmetrical style for nearly a decade, as an artist and a director. It's difficult to show one picture or video to show his work, but it's mainly been Corpse Bride, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow and a little bit of Edward Scissorhands, for his interpretation of death and the afterlife, not to mention the dark imagery of dark figures and skulls.

Macross Flashback 2012 OVA

I still want to use my "end of time, end of world" scenario, so I would say that a big influence in general is Japanese animation from 1970s-1980s, particularly Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Space Battleship Yamato, Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 and Aim for the Top! Gunbuster. Each one deals with the prospect of death and the possibility of  total annihilation of the human race. It was a popular genre in Japanese animation that was a commentary on World War II and the use of the atomic bomb without explicitly talking about a taboo subject.

Blog Assignment 3

Javier Miranda/burlesk101

This artist appeals to me because of the use of macabre imagery, and uses some of the same visuals I use in my Big Idea. I believe that the artist's big idea is time also, but also death. I find the use of clockwork (especially in the second one) in both these pieces to be very inspiring, but I wonder about the use of the particular imagery, in the second one especially. I would want to take a cue from the second picture's composition for the final project. It's simplistic, but everything in the image blends so well together - which I want to work on more, instead of simply playing with opacity. The texture on the first one would be something I would want to use too.

http://burlesk101.deviantart.com/ 

LuckyWolf/Brittney Hamilton

This artist has a different big idea, but it still fits with my theme of death and the end. The (deliberate) macabre in these images appeal to me for my themes, but also because the styles (especially the second one) remind me of music videos of one of my favorite British bands, so it would be interesting to incorporate the style into my final project. The first image appealed to me because of the use of the Grim Reaper, which I had been using as a recurring image I never thought of actually using photographs or words in my works, so I may try incorporating them into the project.

http://luckywolf-13.deviantart.com/

Blog assignment 2: photoshop tutorial.

http://www.worth1000.com/tutorials/161596/digital-wizardry-photo-aging-making-new-photos-look-old

Here's the photo I started with:

 I saturated the photo, but kept some color in there instead of making it all black and white. I intend it to be an aged photo, but not from the 1920s (it's more from 2009-2059, but without a digital camera)

 In this step I made layers of white and brownish-yellow on top and set opacity to very low (white at 2%, yellow at 17%) to give the photo an aged quality. I also added in a white frame around the photo to look like a photo paper

 

Then, I duplicated the saturated layer and added 7.34% gaussian noise and grain

 For the last step, I rendered light effects. I made the photo overexposed and darkened the corners a bit.

I deviated from the tutorial a lot. The tutorial called for scanned or custom brush scratches and stains for the photo. I want the photo to be an example of someone taking care of a photo over 50 years, a photo of a favorite film or music star.

Blog assignment 1: Digital Artist

Surreal Digital Artist Marlon Macatuno "CyberAsero" of Manilla, Philippines. 

Macatuno specializes in photo manipulation using CS3, 3D Studio Max, After Effects, and Illustrator. His photo manipulations use various stock photos posted on deviantART.com.

 

This photo manipulation is called "The Separate Lives" and it's apparent what it refers to in the picture. A man and women are separated by a deep chasm. Possibly they are a couple that had a wedge driven between them and they live in their separate little worlds. The bed on her side and the sofa on his side shows what's comically or seriously shown as a consequence of an argument between the man and women; the women takes the bed and the man has no choice but to take the sofa. The photo on his side may indicate a mistress, as she does not look like the girl in the foreground -- some men can have entirely different households separate from their legal household. Crows, or possibly ravens, as seen in the background, are usually seen as bad omens referring to death and bad fortune, likewise with the color black, a prominent color in the composition. The black and grays of the manipulation give a feeling of dreariness and dread.

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According to Macatuno's profile, his favorite movie is The Count of Monte Cristo. The title of this particular work is "Monte Cristo", and based on a knowledge of the original novel or the movie, that the manipulation is referring to Edmond Dantes. The old photograph in the frame is could be taken as an image of a young successful Dantes before his imprisonment. The scratched stone wall is a prison cell at Château d'If, where Dantes is imprisoned. The words on the lower right "God will give me justice" refers to his wronged imprisonment and his eventual chance to exact his revenge on the men that wrongfully imprisoned him. The hooded figure is the Count of Monte Cristo, merely a shadow of Edmond Dantes.

sources:
http://cyberasero.deviantart.com/
http://artistsofphotoshop.com/2010/09/marlon-macatuno/