The Crowing

Neverender

2005-12-07T15:02:00.000-05:00

Here we are, in the last days of the semester. I just finished the painting/organic color project during Tuesday's class. It came out alright. Like many of the things we covered in class, I have not had any formal practice in painting. After taking a look at my background in painting, or lack there of, I was happy with the result.
The mixing of color to emulate the numerous colors found in the leaf I painted was an interesting part of the assignement. With just three colors, I was able to create those needed to accuratly depict what I was looking at. I guess that was the most satisfying part. project.
After many errors and corrections, I managed to complete the On another note, I made only a few swatches while painting. This is not a lack of production, those were the colors of which I mixed the most. Here and there, I mixed a little black or white to a brush of color to get the right shade. These amounts were so minute that I felt that it would have been a waste to mixed up such an amount to fill a swatch. In these cases, I only used the paint that was on the brush, if that. The colors on the swatches were used, however they also provided a bases for a few other colors used in my painting.

Delirium Trigger

2005-12-07T14:45:00.000-05:00

This post is going to be quite lengthy because I have included my paper. I wrote the paper on the painting below. Enjoy!

Ingénue in the Coffee Shop

Just off the rotary in Bridgewater center, and beyond the counter in the Daily Grind is a little room where some local artists hang their works for the public to see. One particular work, created by an anonymous artist, is an oil and acrylic painting titled “Ingénue”.
The subject of the piece, Ingénue, is an arrangement of various shapes in paint. These shapes included anything from simple boxes and text to actual bottle-caps and plastic adhered to the canvas. The boxes tend to lie subtly in the background, mostly grouped in the top and bottom of the frame. In the middle are numerous round shapes that do not have a definite name. Like the boxes, some of these shapes are filled with a color, varying in hue. Others do not have a defined border and their color fades into each other, crossing different colors. There is a piece of text located in the upper portion of the frame that reads “genue”, a part of the title. The letters move upwards at an angle. The font is called “Broadway”. The name provides an accurate description of the font. It is reminiscent of a theatric style text. There is another piece of text in the lower portion of the frame. This is a quote that reads “A stranger sang a theme, from someone else’s dream, the leaves begin to fall, no one spoke at all” (Mono). The quote, more easily read, can be found in the caption on the wall to the right of the painting. A more striking feature of the painting are the inanimate objects that were attached to the canvas, then painted. There is a collection of bottle-caps located in the middle of the canvas. Just below them is a small mound of torn plastic covered in a yellow paint. Moving up the painting, there are two flowers that were adhered to the canvas and painted like the other objects. At the top of the painting is a curve of string that forms around the “genue” piece of text. All of the objects add various textures to the canvas.
The caption also reads that the painting was “inspired by music, this piece illustrates Memories or innocence and love”. After reading the caption, the content may surface a little easier in the viewer’s mind. Like music, the shapes and objects exist together in harmony, much like the sounds in songs or pieces. Each shape represents a definite sound or note. The more abstract/nameless shapes could symbolize mysterious notes or effects that enhance a rhythm or melody. The array of shapes depicts vivid feelings one gets from a number of musical genres. The more ornate or decorative shapes give a classical or orchestral feel, while the blocks hint at or more modern genre, such as rock and roll. The blending of colors and shapes in certain places illustrates a combination or evolution of older sounds into newer genres. The inclusion of real inanimate objects demonstrates the physical effects music can inflict on the human body. Whether the sounds call up distant memories, or simply put a smile on the listener’s face, music can have a profound effect. The objects materialize the visions on gets when they hear music. In addition to the musical content, the caption helps to explain the artist’s color choice. There is a dominance of warm colors, such as yellows, oranges, reds, and magentas. These colors are often seen as softer colors, which go with the artists aim to illustrate innocence. Love is generally associated with these colors, reds, pinks, and magentas. To cover the other side to love, the artist chose to include a few cool colors. Some shapes and spaces are filled with varying shades of blue-violet. This depicts the scattered cold points of a relationship; however the dominance of the warmer colors shows that these points are often overpowered by the warmer qualities of love.
The artist’s use of color, shape, and line started to give the painting an overall feeling of unity. In this painting, line, shape, and color go hand-in-hand. The colors composed the plethora of shapes across the canvas. At the same time, the colors compliment themselves and set the foundation for harmony. The color scheme of the painting had a dominance of warm color with patches of cooler colors. This choice of color was appropriate for the artist’s purpose, as well as establishing a mood to accompany the content. The difference in color between shapes creates several lines in the painting. For example, the three blocks of yellow, magenta, and orange establish three lines that draw the eye toward the piece of text that reads “genue”. Also, a combination of line and shape was used in the lower part of the painting. A set of blocks arranged in a step pattern pulls the eye up into the text and plastic. The painting began to acquire a feeling of unity through the artist’s use of color, shape, and line.
Aside from the more basic elements, the artist’s application of the principle of organization completed the unity of the painting. Repetition is evident in several areas on the canvas. It is very subtle, and does not take away from the painting’s composition. The group of bottle-caps in the middle of the canvas is one of the more obvious examples. Another is the arrangement of blocks in a step pattern at the bottom of the frame. The artist also alternated between a dark yellow and magenta to make the slight repetitive vibe a little more visible to the eye. The repetition in the piece does not dominate the over the other features. Variety in color and contrast brings a balance to the painting. Complimentary colors forming shapes dilutes the eye’s focus on the various repetitive subjects. Since many of the colors are compliments, yellow and purple for example, they add contrast. This play with variety and color was key in establishing balance to the work. The more technical balance was also achieved with this color interaction. The work has a slight sense of vertical balance. The shapes give the work a vertical balance with their arrangement, although they may have appeared completely random. This arrangement also gives the work good economy as well as balance. The painting does not appear to be cluttered with pointless shapes. As the eye moves around the canvas, everything seems to have an appropriate place in the painting. Combined with their use of color, shape, and line, the artist’s application of harmony, variety, balance, and economy gave the painting an overall feeling of unity.
Inspired by music, Ingénue’s warm colors, interesting textures, and unity, were very successful in portraying the artist’s purpose if illustrating innocence and love.

Recycled Air

2005-11-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

This blurg entry should cover all of my work since the last entry. As you can see, I enjoy stating the obvious. It begins with the sketch of the bottles. I am not pleased with the way mine came out. I did not focus enough on the negative space, which would have enhanced the presence of the bottles. Instead, the bottles sort of faded into the background. Speaking of the blurkground, I should have restricted the frame to a small area outside the bottles. The large background almost overpowers the positive space. I have never had any formal instruction in shading, but I thought it could have been wurse.

Moving on, I completed the eraser drawing next. Three words, giant - charcoal - mess. I am not saying I did not like the assignment. It was very messy. I still liked it though. To begin my usual critique of tearing my work apart, the cookies needed to be bigger. It seems so simple: bigger cookies = better. I know, I know, "good work, Eric". Well they did. I also would have added more Cheezits if had not eaten the entire box before starting the project.

Next, on the chopping blurck, the eggs. I re-drew this one. The first one was lame, but this one was better. I needed to make my darks darker and my lighter greys, just a wee-bit lighter. It was an improvement from the first one. It had some composition, as apposed to a group of possessed eggs, floating in a shadowy abyss.

Finally, the color wheel. I was satisified with my wheel. I thought it was going to be harder than it really was. It turned out to be mixing colurs, not chemistry. I don't like chemistry. I tried a few times to get a good picture of the wheel, but I couldn't get the light right. When the peice doesn't fit in my scanner, I panic and fall down. When I woke up, I tried the digital camera methlurd.

That's it. I'm still recovering from Thanksgiving...and the mega-super-awesome-fantastic- crazy-earsplitting-bouncing-fabulous-awe inspiring- exasperating- fun a diddle-concert that I attended the day before. Hooray for 311!!!. "Day Turk Ur Jurbs!"

Transatlanticism

2005-11-09T19:33:00.000-05:00

Okidoki, I haven't updated my blurg in a while. Here's a few attempts at some caligraphy. I was experimenting with using markers and tagging my name. I have never actually tagged anything before, but I found it pretty entertaining. So, here's a few ideas I did on the bristol paper.

I almost forgot, here's my photo montage. I liked the classes suggestions...mostly the penguin idea. Thanks Alix. I thing it looks alot better. I also moved the far bar on the legless hangglider's craft over to the left a little. This eliminated the tangent lines it formed with the border. The clouds with shaved down to an outline. The detail distracted the eye too much, they needed to be stopped. Finally, the water/forest at the bottom of the frame. It's actually a treeline. I added some pine-tree tops to make it appear more "forestish". I feel that overall, my montage came out much better than the original.

A Favor House Atlantic

2005-10-20T14:08:00.000-04:00

This is my caligraphy assigment. After writing my name so many times on the Bristol paper, I picked out this form of it for the project. It took a few tries to get it right. I made a final copy with one of the pens that we got in class. I cut out the text and mounted it on a slightly larger peice of Bristol paper. Before the glued it to the peice, I painted a few shades of blues onto the surface. I thought it made the overall appearance more interesting by adding some color.

Applied Science

2005-10-18T14:06:00.000-04:00

This is the final version of the last project we completed in class. The second image is the photo that I used as a base for my project. The picture is one of my favorite band 311. They rock my socks. During a song called "Applied Science", there is huge drum solo that encorporates the enitre band. While the drummer is playing, the rest of band plays along of gong basses and cymbals. It is simply amazing to see live. While I'm on the subject, only 35 more days until the 311 show in Lowell Jaime!!!
I decided to scan my basic outline onto my computer and play with photoshop. The results were interesting. My favorite was this one. I inverted the image, creating a negative effect, then adjusted the brightness/contrast. Finally, I ran a few filters on the image to see what looked good. This, I think, was an "ocean ripple" effect. I had to change the settings on the filter a little to get the desired effect. The size of the image on this page does not do it justice, in my opinion. The link below goes to an enlarged version.

PHOTO!!!

-Bailey

"Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV..."

2005-10-11T21:15:00.000-04:00

* “Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV…” CD Cover by Christopher Shy

1. Shy achieved wholeness in several ways. There was a good balance between the subjects and negative space. There were three defined subject, a character, two angels, and a winged guillotine. Shy also placed the subjects on a hill to ground them and ad stability. The image had good economy. Numerous pointless images did not clutter the plane and take away from the work. Shy also used proportions to establish a realistic scale. The scale also added to the content of the image. He did this by placing the two angels next to the guillotine to emphasize the shear size of it in comparison to the subject in the foreground.

2. I liked Shy’s use of economy to establish very dark content. He included only a few subjects, which proved to be very effective. There was a large guillotine and a subject looking up at it, implying its demise. In addition to the subject, Shy used a simple color scheme of grays and browns. This aided to emphasizing the content of the work.

3. My own quest for wholeness in life? I guess the reason I liked the economy of the work is because of my preference of organization. Other than that, I just really liked the work. I did not really make any connections to a spiritual quest.

4. The principle that I am drawn to the most is proportion. The works that I like the most have realistic balance and scale. It is just a part of my taste for certain pieces of art. I like many works that apply realism, as well as many more works that are impressionist but the scale is not distorted.

2113

2005-10-11T15:35:00.000-04:00

A work that was on the wall at the Art Gallery that caught my interest was Wright's "Kill Daddy". I found it a little humorous. The subject was a small horse looking away into the picture frame with its head tilted aggressively toward the ground. The negative space within the frame was a deep red, implying anger or madness. It was appropriate for the position of the subject and the title of the work.
The work used one subject, a horse, to convey much meaning. I liked how the plane was not cluttered with other objects or horses. I was forced to filter through the unnecessary positive space to find content from the work. It demonstrated good economy. Also, the lighting had a positive effect on the content and subject of the work. The light was centered and to the top. This gave depth to the work as well as a direction for the subject's sight.
Overall, the works in the gallery were not simply about fantasy or horses. They questioned one's sexualltiy and gender. This was apparent in George's works where there were several switches in gender.

- Bailey

Jude Law And A Semester Abroad

2005-10-05T12:18:00.000-04:00

This is my favorite picture that I have taken. I was in Wales visiting an old Cathedral and the ruins of a bishop's palace. The archs in the background are parts of what is left of the palace. I really like this picture. The depth of field, in my opinion, was perfect. It left the flowers in focus, while bluring the background. There were many lines to follow, but I don't see the image as "busy". I also enjoy the color of the flowers. The pinks and greens on a mostly grey background emphasized the flowers' color. Overall, I found the image pleasing to the eye.

Junesong Provision

2005-09-29T22:10:00.000-04:00

This is it so far. I have some work to do, but that was to be expected. To start, I went with the plain black template. I chose the black because, (surprise), I liked it the most out of the selection. It just appealled to me. As for the title, (and probably every future entry title), it is merely a song name. It's part of my system. I have not completely figured out how to edit the code on the template yet. When I get a better idea of how, I will try to change a few things. Maybe add a line here, or a border there. Who knows? Once I get the hang of using the blogger system, I'm sure the appearance will improve.

- Bailey