Blog 08

At the beginning of the semester I had a basic understanding of digital art. Over the summer I really started working with my tablet in paint tool sai. And even though the pieces I made were pretty good I didn't use all of the tools available to me. In my favorite digital portrait (of Chanyeol) that I did over the summer I only used about 2 tools and 6 layers. However, I might start using more tools based on what I learned from other programs.

I've worked in photo shop before in high school where we did similar projects. We would have one project where we used images from the internet and another where we had to provide our own. However, this time around I learned a lot more about photo shop as I worked. I learned more about the different filters and effects as well as alternative ways to crop something.

Another program I learned how to use was adobe illustrator. I didn't have many issues with that project because it's similar to photo shop and wasn't too difficult to work with. After this course I will definitely continue to make digital art. I haven't tried painting in photo shop yet but that's also a possibility along with many of the other art programs that are out there.    

Classmate Interview: Cassidy Cregan

For this blog post I decided to interview my friend, Cassidy. She is also a freshman with an art major at Towson. Cassidy draws her inspiration primarily from the artwork of others that surrounds her on a day to day basis. This could be the work of a peer or even something that was learned in class. In addition to this she is also inspired by the shapes that different objects make.

The subjects and concepts of her work also vary. Usually her work is based on her observations, whether it's a still life or just a quick study. However sometimes her work will take a more stylized or slightly abstracted appearance.

She is mainly a traditional artist so her process is fairly simple. She first figures out the basic shape and forms of whatever she is drawing. Next she sketches it out and then outlines it with ink. Finally she either colors or shades it after erasing the extra pencil.

Cassidy with an ink drawing

Alice X. Zhang

One artist that I really admire is Alice X. Zhang. I found her work on deviantart but I also watch for her artwork on tumblr as well.

       One reason why I really love this artist is the way she uses color. I also really like how she uses geometric shapes into her artwork-especially in this piece with how she incorporated it into the hair. The blues and greens work nicely into the reds and yellows through some purple tones. Even though the piece of clothing around her neck and shoulders is white I really like how she added value to it with different colors. 

         The texture of the regular hair pieces contrast nicely with the geometric shapes towards the end of the hair. I like how this gives the realistic portrait an abstract and almost cubist feeling. I really like the effect that is created with the light specks around the portrait. I think that the artist could have added more detail in the eyes but having them dark is a nice effect as well. 

       This piece might be my favorite by this artist. It's a portrait Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor. I'm not really a fan of Doctor who but I love this image. Just like in the previous image I really love how she uses color in this image. She seems to mainly use a pallet of blues and greens and purples that fade into reds and very light yellows. 

       The geometric shapes are also in this image. However instead of being incorporated into the hair, they're used in the background. Because of this the image isn't as abstract as the other one.The shapes do however, work well with her characteristic light spots and the color scheme- almost making the whole image have a fantastical quality to it.   

     This piece is another fanart by Zhang. However this time it's of Irene from the Sherlock television series. Unlike her other two pieces this color scheme is very dark with its deep reds and navy blues. The woman in the portrait also has a serious expression that compliments the intense colors. 

     Although this image is very different from her other two it still shares her characteristic geometric shapes and textures. This time she used the shapes in almost everything- including the skin. Although the shapes are used in the skin the image is much less abstract than the others as well. The dark color scheme is also contrasted by the very light blues that are found in her clothes, eyes, and hair highlights. 

  

Blog 3: Art Event

For my 3D Process class we were required to go to the opening night for the art exhibit by the Korean artist Kwang Young Chun. The pieces in this exhibit were large scale and made with Korean mulberry paper. In the photographs of these images the pieces appeared to have craters. However in person you can see that they're actually flat. The artist achieved this allusion through special dyes and values. These pieces were very interesting and I plan on going back to the exhibit to view the pieces again.

 http://www.towson.edu/asianarts/events/index.asp

Blog 2: My Artwork

I've always loved using people as the subject of my artwork, although until this passing summer I didn't draw realistically. So recently I've been focusing on drawing and painting portraits so I can eventually draw realistic faces without a reference. This specific picture was originally drawn in my sketchbook. I ended up liking it so much I took a picture of it and painted over it in Paint Tool Sai using my tablet. The reference I used for this was a screen cap from a music video. 

I did this piece in the beginning of my senior year. My concept for the piece was people getting their ideas through their dreams. So it would "Take Root" and grow into something else. I painted the picture in watercolors and I hot glued sticks from my backyard and fake leaves onto it. On the leaves I wrote different words like "grow" and "creation".

   

This was the most recent thing I have done. I wanted to try to do a portrait in watercolor since my tablet isn't working anymore. One I saw this picture I really wanted to paint it because of the different colors and angles in it. My reference for this was a fan-taken photo at a concert.  

Blog Intentions

I made this blog to share my own artwork and that of others in a more professional environment. I usually post my artwork to other sites on the internet, like Deviantart or Tumblr. However I feel this blog will be a more serious approach to getting my name out there. I may post my older art or even works that are still in progress. Either way, this blog will be an outlet for me to branch out as an artist.

I hope to use this blog to find other art related blogs as well. I personally get artistic inspiration from looking at the artwork of others- no matter what the medium. They could inspire something completely irrelevant as well. Often I get motivated to make something after seeing a piece that is really done well. If I see a digitally painted portrait online I'll usually want to work on a portrait of my own.