Class Website

www.campstmarys.com

I did the ponding article!

Portrait Project (Revised)

Added more shadows and improved columns.

Portrait Project

Original Photo

Vectorized Illustration

Portrait Project Self-Assessment

This project is a vector image tracing of a photo. The original photo is of me at my grandparent’s house wearing a suit. I used Adobe Illustrator 3 to produce this digital drawing. I chose this photo because it was an excellent photo of me and had simple lines, backgrounds, and colors. This allowed me to create a very good vector duplication of the photo.

The main theme of this illustration centers on me. I am in the most detail and in the center of the illustration. The main reason for creating this illustration is because of a class assignment.

I began the project by outlining my body. I then started outlining various details and created new layers. For example, I outlined my coat and created a new layer. Once all the general outlines were completed I created more detailed layers. For example, once I outlined my face and placed it in a layer I created a new layer for the eyes. All these layers allowed me greater control in creating and modifying the details in the illustration. Once these details were created I started to add in color. Once my body was mostly done I worked on the background. The background was in much less detail then the body, mostly because it was not the focus of the illustration and also because there was not much detail in the background.

I think I did a good job with my work habits. I think I was able to stay on task with only minor distractions. I was able to complete my assignment on time.

I think I did a good job on this project. I like how parts of the body and the background turned out. I like out the shirt and the pants turned out. The paneling on the left side of the background turned out very well. I achieved the paneling by placing black 25% transparent strips in order to create the illusion of separate panels. I also like how the shadows turned out. I achieved the shadow effect by tracing the shadows on the original photo and filling them with black and setting them to be 25% transparent. This allowed them to look dark but still allow the back layers to show through.

A few of the problems I had were on the more unique shapes of the body. I had a lot of difficulty creating realistic fingers as well as realistic parts of the face. I also had a difficulty with the glass of the door. I tried various things in order to create realistic glass. I finally just settled on creating a shaded 25% transparent black layer in order to give the illusion of transparency and reflection. If I had more time I would have attempted to create something interesting behind the transparency layers. I could have also added detail to the transparency layer, possibly something like a stained glass effect.

Since vector images are made up of mostly lines I believe that lines made up a large part of this project. Of course, color was important as well. The choice of color allowed for good perspective, such as on the coat and the door, and attempted to give the illusion of more than 2 dimensions.

I think that I did a good job on this project. I believe that while there are some minor things that could be fixed, that I did pretty well. I believe that a good grade would be a B+ or an A-.

Artist Review 2

This art review covers the artist Angelo Plessas and the art work entitled “ObjectRelatedTheory.com (2011)”. This is a piece of digital media art that is expressed as a website. The is an interesting piece of art because it is interactive at the user level. Rather than a set piece of art, it is more of an engine or generator for the user to create pieces of art.

When the website is opened there is initially a blank page with a single colorful circle in the middle. The circle will grow until it takes up the entire screen. However, if the mouse cursor moves over any part of the circle it breaks into two circles and continues to grow. Each circle has a different pattern of colors and shapes within it. Moving the cursor continuously over the webpage causes a buildup of colorful circles. This results in a colorful and creative picture. One additional interesting feature of the website is that there is physics enable. This means that when the balls spawn they can bounce and perform realistic motion. This greatly adds to the immersion and reusability of the art program.

This art piece has an excellent use of color and geometry. The transparency of the circles allow for great color combinations as the circles stack on top of each other. The randomness also adds to the appeal because no two situations are the same.

Overall, I believe that this is an excellent work of art. It in itself is a great work of art. The fact that the website can generate more artwork also adds a great deal of value.

Vector Images

Before vectoring and coloring

After vectoring and coloring

Final project ideas

For the class' final project we are creating an informational website about the college. The website will be about the many traditions and customs the college has. My topic is ponding. My idea is that my webpage will similar to wikipedia article. I have photos of people being ponded and articles from various sources detailing the tradition.

Revised Remix Project

Remix Project

The theme of this remix project is technology combined with agriculture. It is sort of the literal application of the term “server farm”. I have always been fascinated with computer components. If you look closely at motherboards they can be easily seen as miniature cities with all the chips and capacitors. So I decided to put a spin on that thought. Instead of making a city using computer components, why not create a rural area using computer components.

The first part of creating the design consisted of finding or creating a background. At first I wanted to use a premade background. However, I had trouble finding one that was the correct size and was able to fit my theme and work well with my objects. Therefore, I decided to make a background. I used wind tools and Gaussian blur tools to make the grass. I then used the render cloud tool to make the clouds for the sky. I used the gradient tool to attempt to make a realistic horizon. I created the soil using a mask over the grass to reveal the soil underneath.

After creating the background I needed to create the main focus of the project. I placed pictures of RAM cards, a motherboard, and a hard drive disc to create the “crops” of the farm. This looked good but there was still a lot of empty space. Therefore I decided to add a tractor. I used a photo of a flash drive stick and placed CDs as wheels and batteries as accessories. After that I added a clump of computer mice to make a forest or tree image. I still had more space to fill so I used an image of a power supply to make a barn. I also used a heat sink to try and depict a farmhouse.

This project was a good test of my skills so far. It was difficult to correctly shape the images in order to create the correct perspective. Unless you did it the right way and used the right tools then the image would come out misshaped and ugly looking. This is where the bulk of my time working on this project went. I also had some difficulty integrating the objects. Even now they still seem like separate objects cut and pasted on the canvas rather than parts of a bigger picture. Part of this may be due to perspective issues but some of it may be due to the choice of objects and the placement.

I feel like my work habits were good. I feel like a better understanding of photoshop and art theory in general would have allowed me to work more efficiently and create a better piece of art. Since this project was a great learning experience I expect that any similar projects should be easier.

In review of this artwork I believe that I only partially completed my goals. I was able to complete the assignment; however, I do not think that the artwork looks particularly good. The perspectives seem off and the objects seem a little out of place. There also seems to be a lot of empty space between the objects and this makes the artwork seem empty. I am also not sure if my theme and meanings of the objects are being communicated clearly. I believe that the tractor looks like a tractor, however many of the other works do not look like what they should. The motherboard, RAM, and HDD do not seem to convey the notion that they are supposed to be crops. Nor does the power supply and heat sink manage to convey that they are supposed to be farm buildings. I believe that the mice trees could go either way. So may see that they are supposed to be trees while others may not.

I feel that, while I put a lot of work into this project, the outcome could have been better and did not really do justice to what I envisioned I was going to create. However since this is my first project I will try not to be too hard on myself. I believe that a grade of B- or C+ would be good representation of the quality of the work and the amount of time invested in this project.

Artist Review 1

This art review covers the artist Krist Wood and the art work entitled “Inivichrys (2011)”. This a piece of digital media art with a science fiction theme. From my browsing of her website I can see that she is not new to digital media art and has made many pieces, however this is one of the few works of art featuring space.

The first photo in this piece shows a view from what appears to be a space station or ship. The object that is the focus of this piece seems to be a manmade object projecting the Earth’s surface. I believe that it may be a space elevator. Surrounding the base of the object is a mass of clouds obscuring the Earth’s surface and drawing the eye’s focus towards the object. The second photograph is a close-up of the base of the object. The third picture shows what appears to be a space station anchoring the object and may be where the view of the first picture is from.

This piece uses excellent use of color, especially in the last picture. The lenses flare in the last picture also adds to the color. The author also does a great job at incorporating the many colors into the picture in a realistic way. The horizon of the first picture shows a great comparison of the colorful world and the empty black space. The clouds in the second picture are arranged in such a way that you can almost see them swirling around the object and is a good way to show the chaotic nature of the world.

Overall, I believe that this an interesting piece. It shows a great juxtaposition of nature and technology that really adds to the picture.

Photograph Restoration

Before After

Before

After

Random Scanned Objects

Here are some random scanned objects for the remix project.

Pixel Art

My pixel art

Possible Ideas for Collaborative Final Project

A wiki for St. Mary's College of Maryland. It would be a place to record the history and traditions of the college, students, and the surrounding environment.

A fake news site possibly similar to The Onion.

A fictitious wiki site such as Uncyclopedia.

A tourism website for a fictitious place similar to San Serriffe.

A website to display all of the digital art created either for this class or by other students at the college.

Purpose of Blog

This the the blog for my Introduction to Digital Media class (ART 214) at St. Mary's College of Maryland for the Summer 2011 session. This blog will be used to post completed homework assignments and projects. The blog will also contain posts about digital media artists and reviews critiquing their work.

Main Class Blog
http://summerdigital.blogspot.com/