Art Event 2

Post -Apocalyptic Boston in The Last of Us

For my second art event I attended the Video Game Gala of Doom, excited to see what possible creations my fellow St. Mary's students threw together. As an avid video gamer, I have always held great interest in the many genres and concepts created by others. For me, I see them as more than a mashing of buttons and flashing colors, many share incredible worlds and story arcs that are unable to be expressed/replicated in film or literature. For example in the recent game The Last of Us, audiences are thrown into a post-apocalyptic east coast. With a majority of the population ravaged by infection, players must make their way through the beautifully desolate ruins of a time long lost, navigating toppled skyscrapers and making life saving decisions in order to survive.

While I wasn't expecting a full scale three dimensional experience from any of the student projects, I was pleasantly surprised to see many witty and relatable concepts taken from real world simulation. For example, in Natty Boh Hunt, players must navigate areas of St. Mary's campus collecting beer cans and becoming more and more intoxicated. Photographs of the Greens townhouses make up the backdrop while a blurred screen and lack of gravity help simulate being drunk. The results are a fun and very unique take on a goofy St. Mary's tradition for Easter. Despite lacking some artistic talent, I enjoyed re-living the experience and give props to the creator for imagination.

Another game that held interesting qualities was Iron Dusk. Set in a beautifully composed ancient world, Iron Dusk tells the story of a man avenging the recent peril of his beloved village. The various colors are what make the experience memorable, bleak browns, grays, and blues are used to set the tone of the story while large sentry towers give the environment a rustic feel.  

With the development of Kick-starter and Steam, it has now been easier than ever for amateur developers to  fund and publish their works. After viewing the Video Game Gala of Doom, I hope its creators continue to create interactive worlds of imagination.

Art Event 1

For my art event I chose to explore the recent student SMP exhibit held in the Boyden Gallery of St. Mary's College. Upon arrival I was pleased to see a wide array of art- each of which held excellent quality and imagination.

One of the first exhibits I saw was by Kristin Seymour who chose to express her love for turtles

Terrapin Textures
Kristin Seymour

(terrapins to be exact) in multiple creative fashions. One of the three recreations of her pet terrapin was crafted out of a rough textured wood and hung vertically on the wall. I like the choice of a more natural looking wood (compared to that of a sanded pine appearance) because it compliments nature. It was also impressive how she formed the pieces into a very intricate shell. 

The next display she worked on was made of layered glass with individual printed sections of the terrapin, giving the work a highly detailed three dimensional effect. While her wood piece reflects nature, I feel the glass creation was a more scientific approach that helped the two coexist. 

Her final creation, and my personal favorite, was a huge 70 x 45 inch painting broken down into individual sections of paper titled Terrapin Textures (as seen right). What I like about this art piece is it captures the natural flowing detail of a shell broken into sections, and while the symmetry of nature is never perfect, it still holds beautiful detail. I also like that she chose brown acrylic paint, resembling old Japanese ink on paper.

Collaged ThoughtsShannon Rafferty
 

Other notable exhibits included Shannon Raffery's Collaged Thoughts. The collection, like Kristin Seymour's, contained a wide spectrum of art styles- showing off their diverse creative abilities. I enjoyed her mixes of bright reds, oranges, and blues to keep the paintings lively against the white wall. Maybe I like her style because it reminds me of my own fathers work?

Collaged ThoughtsShannon Rafferty 

Incredible Art Concept

Johnny Depp Vector Portrait- Finally finished

Johnny Depp Vector- UPDATE #2

Finished both ears with relative ease. Beginning to work on the
darkest sections of the eye.

Filled in the shaded sections of the eye socket and brow.
Both eyes in total took me over three hours.

I decided the lighter sections of the face were simply too
distracting because of the bright shade of red. Toned that
down, detailed the forehead, and made the eyebrows "pop"
a little more with black instead of maroon. Also finished Neck. 

Finished the face, now mapping out hair and coat sections in
black. Chose a blue background because it complements the red.

Project 2- Vector Portait

For project number 2, our challenge was to find a portrait of a selected individual and recreate them through vector art (for more on what exactly vector art is and what it looks like, check my previous blog post on Mel Marcelo). After selecting various portraits ranging from Mike Tyson to Bill Murray I resided on a graphite sketch of Johnny Depp as seen on the left.

Not only is his visual composition both strikingly attractive, it conveys a bit of instability and madness- giving the photo more depth compared to that of a casual smile.  

Once I had begun working on the piece through Adobe Illustrator CS6, I mapped out large portions of his face, neck, and ears with the pen tool.

Now the pen tool is honestly an animal in itself (in a bad way). To trace the edges of Mr. Depp's face for example, one must zoom deep into the pixilated edges of his finely crafted features and trace, millimeter by millimeter, till a section is covered. Once that is accomplished, I filled in the area with color. The following steps can be seen bellow with the following pictures...

After outlining the largest features I proceeded to fill the areas with
different skin tones to give depth. I then began to work the upper lip.

At this point I am adding even more layers of skin tone depth, tracing
the shadows of his cheek, nose and jaw.

After further detailing his facial features, I was pleased to see the face was
FINALLY beginning to take shape. I was also not a fan of the skin tone
approach so I went for a more wild, yet more appropriate red based color scheme.
Still a ton of work to go! Updates will come shortly.

 

   

Mel Marcelo- Vector Artist

Jim Morrison

Digital art has given birth to many various forms of design in recent years- as seen through my last blog artist Georg Nees, the "father" of digital art. It's even more incredible to compare and see the progression of technology through imagination- thanks to the availability of adobe illustrator and paint shop applications for your home computer. My current in class project, known as vector art, has been one of the greatest challenges I've faced artistically due to its high level of skill and patience. Essentially one must trace a given portrait of facial depth, map out sections in which the features differ, and then apply transitioning tones layer by layer till the face is recreated through an animated format. 

The artist I have chosen to represent is Mel Marcelo, an aspiring vector master currently residing in San Diego California. Born in the Philippines, Marcelo moved state side during high school and studied at University of California San Diego till 1992. That was all I could find during my Google search and had to reside mostly on his obnoxious Facebook, consisting of thousands of selfies at various concerts with people half his age. 

With that aside, Marcelo is nothing short of epic- creating almost effortless replicas of portraits, some even holding a parallel realism to the real thing. Of his simpler, but still powerful pieces, he recreates music legend Jim Morrison through a classic pop art style. Dominate shades of red, white, grey, and black are used to show off his chiseled and clean features. I find this piece appealing because I take pride in modern works of simplicity, a success similar to that of stencil art. Other vectors revolve largely around pop, and electronic music artists such as Tiesto, as seen bellow. While he uses much diversity through his vector works, this one in particular caught my eye due to it's resemblance towards 1970's, 1980's film posters- which inspired me as a film major.  

For more on Mel Marcelo, check out his flickr for dozens more.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melmarcelo/

     

       

Working with Adobe Illustrator

Over the weekend I was inspired by one of Kanye West song's Diamonds From Sierra Leone at a highlight marker dance party. Regardless of if your a fan of his music or not, its worth a listen along with the music video- which shows the (over dramatic and partially true) side of diamond collecting.

Diamonds From Sierra Lenone- Kanye West

Portraits

Corrupt Collage Final Piece

Georg Nees, the "Father" of Computer Art

When one thinks 1960's, many things come to mind. Jimi Hendrix and the classic rock movement, Ford producing the first fully customizable and revolutionary mustang, the civil rights movement in the United States, the list goes on and on. But what if I were to tell you it was also the birth of digital art and programming?

Cube Disarray Georg Nees 1965

George Nees, a German born honorary professor was one of the main pioneers towards computer and digital art. Hired at Siemens in 1965, Nees used primitive machines and manually overrode commands by creating his own codes and intervening incomplete production. In the reading, his piece Cube Disarray caught my eye because of both its simplicity and its downward spiral to chaos.

Between his occupation as a computer programmer and various photos, I find Nees to be an interesting individual due to his conservative and non stereotypical artist personality.

Plastik 1 1965

Georg Nees Himself

Photoshop is a blast

"Corrupt Collage" UPDATE

Photo Glitching and Wayne Bryan

While the category of "collage" is vast and numerous, digital art has only increased the interest among artists young and old. Striving to push the known boundaries, technology and social media connected these inspired individuals to warp natural form into objective beauty. One of the many formats in which this is accomplished is by photo glitching, or scrambling the written code of digital images. Because the basic file 'DNA' is rearranged, the finally product is a birth defective, yet accidentally fascinating mosaic.

Untitled- Dylan Cope himself

For example, the following photo on the left was recreated through text edit and rearranging html coding.

Anyway, after witnessing the power of text edit and its unorthodox outcomes, glitched photos have served as a fun and entertaining source of inspiration, due mostly through unknown outcomes and endless selection of photos. Because of this, I have chosen to alter various photos of life and advertisement into one, unpredictable collage; aiming to reflect upon the sheer power and no limit potential the digital world holds.

One of the inspirations for this piece comes from renown media artist Wayne Bryan. A local artist living in Alexandria Virginia, Wayne holds a diverse portfolio of incredibly intricate work. He studied at University of South Florida in Tampa before becoming inspired by advertising and pop culture work through media. His works have received multiple awards along with being displayed in studios as far as Beijing.

My personal favorite collection on his Saatchi Online profile would most likely be "P/D3 Glitch Collage Studies"work. Not only are these images powerful in which they overwhelm viewers in random detail and sparse color, they also feel oddly connected and organized- a feeling I hope my final project will release.

The Unreasonable Man

The visual power of the reds and blacks are evident along with the rounded molecules.

Natural Selection Doesn't Play Fair

A more accurate depiction of what I plan to create but far less detailed.
I like to imagine this as one large code or puzzle.

 The eternal Return of the Unique Event

Possibly the most mesmerizing and beautiful despite the absence of color.
A personal favorite.

   Website Profile and other works:

http://www.saatchionline.com/art-collection/Assemblage-Collage/P-D3-Glitch-Collage-Studies/338049/33815/view

Photoshop Edits

Random chicken (After)

(Before)

Mushroom (After)

(Before)

ZR-1 (After)

(Before)

Shelby Fastback After

Before

10 Experimental Scans