Concept Board: Textures

So for our next project we have to create concept boards with visual research that conveys a certain concept or idea. With my growling stomach in mind, i turned to food to find some interesting textures for my board.


Mmm shrimp crackers! They have tons of tiny pockets of air inside them, which gives the cracker a very porous texture, and makes them crackle when they hit your tongue!

 
 This crunchy looking treat is called Khanom La, it is a dessert from southern Thailand.
Here's a video i foud of a street vendor making Khanom La:
it is very interesting to watch the ingredients change from a liquid, to a spider-webby quality to a compacted state. i also find it very calming watching people make food!

 Moving on from porous and crunchy textured food, here's some foods with a more rugged terrain:

 With Halloween just around the corner, what goes better together than pumpkins and candy? Both of these foods have such a robust and lively texture it really gives both the pumpkin and the rock candy a life of their own.












light and fluffy! the pudding ambrosia both have a whipped, airy and light weighted feel to them~

Shinichi Maruyama- Water Sculpting

I found pictures of this artist's work on Tumblr the other day, Here is a video of some of his first series of sculptures, named Kusho- which translates to "writing in the sky". Maruyama's work is inspired by his lifelong love of calligraphy.

Kusho- 2006

Maruyama at work

Jamie Hewlett

"I haven't reached the point where I think I'm good at [being an artist]. That's the drive. I know that it's in me to be really good at it, and i think Ive come close a few times... But i don't usually look at things I've completed and feel content. Which then mean the next thing you start you go right into it with that attitude that this time i'm going to get it right."
 

 (From top to bottom: Art for the Opera Monkey: Journey to the West, Tank Girl and Booga, Noseferatu, Animation of 2D)


Jamie Hewlett has held the most inspiration over me by far as an artist. I was captivated by his character designs for Gorillaz and his work for Tank Girl. If it weren't for Hewlett, I dont think I would have such a strong desire to create characters of my own, and to study art. This quote is so great because to hear from my favorite illustrator- that he thinks his work isn't perfect gives me a whole new respect for him. I'm at a point in my work when i am seeing of need for improvement, and to hear my idol share that sentiment makes me confident that everything will keep getting better. 

Homework Chapter 5,8,11: PART 2

The Pink Choice Part 2 (Ongoing) 2/9- Maika Elan, 2012

This beautiful photograph most obviously shows symmetrical balance upon a vertical axis, the bathing pose is repeated across the photograph.The two men both hold a stance in which their hips and tops of their heads line up in a horizontal placement. Also the laundry that hangs along the wall facing the spectator is aligned horizontally. This piece is very focused on horizontal planes, which create registers that balance the piece very well.There are some very interesting negative shapes that occur in the photo as a result from the contrast of their illuminated skin against the shadowy floor. The perspective of this washroom is of two point perspective, as both the left and the right wall converge into 2 separate points on the wall facing us viewers. This photograph is shot with a Naturalist perspective. Everything in the photograph is as how it would appear had us viewers been present in the washroom. A common tool for creating distortion in photography is the use of detachable lenses such as the "Fish Eye Lense".

Big Daddy Ed Roth

"Whenever I looked at that drawing," Roth said, "I felt I was looking, for the first time, at reality—my reality. The world that my parents, teachers, and responsible type people all around me belonged to wasn't my world. Why did I have to be like them, live like them? I didn't. And Rat Fink helped me realize that."


I love this quote from the Big Daddy.  I think everyone can relate to his feelings of escapism- when I was growing up the world was really quite boring so I'd submerge myself into my drawings and create places and people much more fantastic than the ones I had around me.
 I think it's important to keep that childlike spirit in all you make, so that when someone looks at it they are completely absorbed. To me- that's when you know you've created a successful piece. 

 I liked drawing monsters just like Ed- here's a Mushroom Monster i made back in 2007!

Homework Chapter 5,8,11: PART 1

Chapter 5/8: Balance/ shape and Volume:

• Describe the difference between balance and imbalanced work? 
• Balance typically leaves an observer feel more comfortable, whereas imbalance leads to a sense of unease
• 2.          What is horizontal and vertical placement?
•  The positioning of an element in design to create balance or imbalance
• 3.          What is symmetrical balance, and give an art historical example?
•  Shapes are repeated in the same positions on either side of a vertical axis. Many tile patterns found in Ottoman architecture contain symmetry in their design.
• 4.          How can asymmetrical balance be achieved with value/color/ shape and texture?
•  When creating an imbalance of color and value, black against white, a smaller dark object has the same balance as a larger and lighter element. A small textured figure can balance a larger and untextured shape.
• 5.          What is radial balance?
•  When all elements of a design radiate or circle out from a common central point.
• 6.          Give a good example of a piece of artwork?
•  Circle Limit IV, Heaven and Hell- Mc Escher 
• 7.          What is a shape and how does it differ from volume and mass?
•  A shape is an enclosed space. The same shape can encompass many different mass and volumes, wheras those two principles remain constant
• 8.          What is the difference between naturalism and distortion in art and design?
•  Naturalism depicts the subject as it would appear to the naked eye. Distortion provides a view of the subject that is not present in nature.
• Define abstraction: How is your fire and water panel abstract? What concepts are informing your work on this project?
•  My fire and water panel is abstract because it is representing the theme in a form that is not too literal. I am trying to depict a concept of sensation and tranformation. 

Chapter 8: Shape and volume: 



           Define these terms in art:

• 1.       Non-objective
•  art that is not representational
• 2.          Curvilinear
•  art that is represented by a curved line
• 3.          Rectilinear
•  art formed by straight lines
• 4.          Positive and negative shapes
•  Positive space is the subjective shapes in a design, the negative shapes are what appear around the elements of the design

Chapter 10:

• 1.          List three ways to depict illusion of depth
•  Size, Overlapping, Vertical Location
• 2.          What is one point perspective?
•  When a single point is placed on the horizon line and all the lines at right angles to the plain of the canvas converge toward that point
• 3.          Two point perspective?
•  all edges recede to two points on the horizon line
• 4.          What is an isometric projection?
•  three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and the angles between any two of them are 120 degrees
• 5.          What is equivocal space? Find an example
•  when the order of planes in a design are not made clear to the spectator. 
• Illustruations by Noma Bar 
• http://www.boredpanda.com/negative-space-illustrations-noma-bar/