Special Edition Blog: Art Institute Visit

Picture of me.

Picture of you.

Example of best craft.

Still Life, 1625-30

Pieter Claesz

Craft

This painting is oil on panel and displays an accurate degree of proportions, lighting, and realism. The way the light reflects off of the metal kettle and plates is striking and really give a feel of texture. Texture is also emphasized with all of the food items, including the breads, fruits, the pie, as well as, the tablecloth. All edges are crisp but it does not appear to be drawn as it suits the baroque style.

Concept

The concept is simply a still life to present skill in the craft.

Composition

The lemons and limes stand out against the dark plate which stands out against the white tablecloth. The center of the front is where the eye is directed to first, but since it is a still life, composition may not be stressed and therefore subjective.

Example of best concept.

The Death of the Poet Walter Rheiner, 1925

Conrad Felixmuller

Craft

This painting is oil on canvas. It does not portray realism and many brushstrokes are evident as it is an expressionist piece.

Concept

The concept is very personal to the artist as it depicts one of his friends commiting suiside by jumping from a window. This era of art was remenicent of the aftermath of World War I and much depression erupted in many works of artists effected by the war.

Composition

The poet's face and hands stand out, and the face is by far was the viewer is attracted too, which might have been the artist's intention. The man's suit blends in with the city scape.

Example of best compisition.

Woman at Her Toilette, 1875-80

Berthe Morisot

Craft

This painting is oil on canvas. It is an impressionist piece and so the paint is really lathered on. Most fine edges are non existant.

Concept

This painting was done during the height of the Industrial Revolution in France and could be a sign of the times for the wealthy and also a representation of the artist herself.

Compostion

Although many edges are blurred and the woman's dress nearly blends in with the background, the viewer's eye cannot help but be attracted to the small, bright earing which the woman dons, created by a dollup of paint.

Week 10: Radio Final Draft

Craft

This time around, I redid the "buildings." Instead of drawing squares and leaving them transparent, I decided to draw them opaque. I used the rectagle tool and drew perfect retangles this time for crispness. All other details were also drawn in via the retangle tool, the elipse tool, and the line tool. The lines that formed various speakers on the radios were aligned with the align tool after a single line was copied for congruent lengths. The concentric circles for the speakers were relatively done the same way by varying sizes and then aligning them horizontally and verticly. For the most part the speakers made up of elipses and lines were copied and resized and recolored to be reused for other radios for the sake of efficiency. The instruments were drawn in with the rectangle tool and the line tool. The rocket ship was resized to be larger. In addtion, it had the radio station's frequency added on as insignia through the text tool. Some of the smoke was cropped out and some of the outlines were removed to compensate for the larger rocket. The giant speaker was also drawn in with the pen tool this time. The background gradient recieved a third color was was altered somewhat.

Concept

The concept this time was to draw attraction to the detail of the skyline as was originally intened and to make the rocket more noticable. The concept that represents "the escape from ordinary radio" here is a rocket ship, representing the escape, blasting off, leaving the ordinary radios making up a skyline, and tren traveling to extradordinary radio made up of giant speakers with soundwaves in space. This takes two things that are typically known to be ordinary and extraordinary and illustrates them as radio. The skyline made up of the old radios is the everyday, whereas the planet, made up of a giant speaker with soundwaves, to look like a planet with rings is the out of this world.

Composition

The detail of the building draws the viewer's attention first. The rocket is much more visable and it now has information to let you know what it is. The background has black added in to convey that this is a space scene and it helps to show off the rocket better. The first thing noticed is the skyline becasue it is cluttered with detail. The rocket then draws the eye up into the space scene. It reads from the ordinary to escape to extraordinary.

Week 9: Radio First Draft

Craft

After scanning in the drawing, I started by using the pen tool to create the box shapes of the buildings, then I made another box over some of the "buildings" where the radio display would be. I then subtracted the top box from the bottom box to create an opening using the pathfinder tool. The display instruments were drawn in with the line tool, using the shift key for straightness. The rocket was drawn with the pen tool, and smoke's outline was drawn with the pencil tool, and then filled in with an area made by the pen tool. The soundwaves were drawn with the pen tool and have a stroke on them, as does the rocket. The buildings were made to be transparent to let the drawing detail through. The background was drawn with the pen tool, avoiding the buildings since they are transparent, and also avoiding the giant speaker because I felt that illustrating it would take away from its understanding that it is a speaker. The background color was produced with a two color gradient.

Concept

The concept was to allow some of the drawing to be shown through to help maintain the understanding of what some of the objects were. The concept that represents "the escape from ordinary radio" here is a rocket ship, representing the escape, blasting off, leaving the ordinary radios making up a skyline, and then traveling to extraordinary radio made up of giant speakers with soundwaves in space. This takes two things that are typically known to be ordinary and extraordinary and illustrates them as radio. The skyline made up of the old radios is the everydary, whereas the planet, made up of a giant speaker with soundwaves, to look like a planet with rings, is the out of this world.

Composition

I think in this composition, the viewer is attracted to the white smoke in the middle and the clarity of the buildings is lost. The sketch of the giant speaker looks odd against the colored background.

Week 8: Concept Drawings

Craft

Pencil on paper.

Concept

The concept behind this drawing that depicts "the escape from ordinary radio" shows a rather generic and old radio to represent the ordinary radio. The jail cell doorway is opened to represent the "escape" and the whimsical radiowaves, notes, and radiotower that are showing escaping form the cell represent the depiction of extraordinary radio.

Composition

The compositon is arragned so that the ordinary radio is the first thing noticed and that is achieved by the detail of the knobs and speaker. The concentric circles of the knobs and general closeness of the ordinary radio to the viewer grab the attention first. Then the sharp angle of the radio and the jail doors lead the viewer the "escape" and finally the radiowaves that emit from the cell lead the viewer to the rest of the extraordinary radio above.

Craft

Pencil on paper.

Concept

The concept that represents "the escape from ordinary radio" here is a rocket ship, representing the escape, blasting off, leaving the ordinary radios making up a skyline, and then traveling to extraordinary radio made up of giant speakers with soundwave in space. This takes two things that are typically known to be ordinary and extradordinary and illustrates them as radio. The skyline made up of the old radios it the everyday, whereas the planet, made up of a giant speaker with soundwaves, to look like a planet with rings, is the out of this world.

Composition

The first thing noticed is the skyline because it is cluttered with detail. The rocket then draws the eye up into the space scene. It reads from ordinary to escape to extraordinary.

Craft

Pencil on paper.

Concept

The concept for "the escape from ordinary radio" here is escaping form the claws of the ordinary radio towers via a lifeline in the form of headphones from the extraordinary radio.

Composition

It puts the viewer in first person, and the ordinary radio towers are noticed first then the arm and then the headphones.

Week 7: Shoe Recolor Final Draft

Craft

The one thing that I changed was the glare effect on the top and side of the shoe. Instead of having it painted on, I opted to make them shapes with the pen tool, but then used a gradient. The gradient was set to a radial gradient because I did not want to have an area of intense white that was up against the dark laces and overall color of the side of the shoe. The gradient was set to solid, opaque white at the center to completely transparent at the outside. This time around, I included it on the laces. Some problems I faced were that the pen tool created really choppy edges again, and I think that the shoe lost some form because of it. The gradients were all arranged differently to try and capture the shape of the part that it was highlighting but overall they do not harmonize with one another.

Concept

It is an illustration of my shoes, that is it.

Composition

This time arround I think that the background shoe is lost because the glare on the laces distract the eye too much. In fact the eye is lead right to the glare's contrast, specifically with the laces. The form of the image is lost, and it looks less than a shoe. I am dissatisfied with how it turned out.

Week 6: Shoe First Draft

Craft

As before, most shapes and areas were created using only the pen tool to create a solid, enclosed path. The colors were added exclusively with the eye dropper tool from the actual photo. The biggest difference here is the addition of the glare effect on the top and side of the foreground shoe. Those were achieved in a different manner, with the brush tool. The glare was literally painted on to avoid a choppy shape that was resulting with the pen tool. I was trying to achieve some three-dimensionality with the glare effect, esspecially on the side of the shoe where there were a few monments of detail emphasized by it.

Concept

The concept is still the same, an illustration of my shoes.

Composition

The shoe in the foreground grabs the viewers attention becuase of the high contrast between the glare and the darker surfaces of the shoe. The eyes then move to the background shoe because it is intense with color. Also the position of the shoe points away from the picture plane and draws the viewers attention to the back.