ARTC 1353 - Character

Monday night in Computer Illustration, we were to create a cartoon character using the pen tool and incorporate a pattern into our design. This is what I decided to make. I know it isn't the most amazing piece of art out there, but I'm really quite proud of how it turned out. It took a lot of work to create him using the  pen tool but I feel like I'm getting better the more I practice.

We're also to supposed to be working on a self portrait for our midterm project. After coming to the realization that there really aren't many pictures of me after the wedding, I decided to just use one of my wedding pictures. Below is the picture that I'm going to be using.

The goal of this exercise is to use the pen tool to draw over your picture and create a posterized/Warhol-esque type of picture. I really didn't do too much last week (even though I really should have) but I've been working a lot on it this week. I think I'm about halfway done, I have the main parts of my picture covered, I'm now working on some of the finer details. I also haven't decided on a color scheme... Since its going to be more pop-art than photograph, I think I'm going to deviate from the natural colors, but I haven't decided what my color scheme will be yet. So far, this is the picture I've been able to create. 

ARTS 1311 - Value

This week's assignment has been all about Value and how it is used to create depth and the illusion of a three dimensional object. The first image we made was simply boxes that showed off the gray scale, so I didn't really feel the need to include it with my other images. The first two images we were tasked with creating images and then making them look three dimensional (a square into a cube, for example). In the first image, we were also to include a circle showing where the "light source" would be coming from. The next two images were a bit more fun.We were to take a picture that covered color spectrum and create an image solely out of value (and add in a background, of course). The final image we were to take an image and create two different moods with the use of value. 

Google Glass: Innovative or Invasive?

In class tonight, we started talking about Google Glass. If you haven't heard much about it, its a pretty interesting and innovative idea.

But, is it innovative or is it invasive?

How much of a threat is it to a person's privacy? Should Google be able to have access to us living in our life as well as all of the other data they have access to? When Google already has access to our search history, pictures, videos and lords knows what else, do we really want to give them access to even more? And how safe is all of this data going to be? How much of our personal information will Google be able to sell off to advertisers?

But most importantly, would you be willing to wear them? Would you be willing to spend roughly $1,500 for them?

I can't speak for everyone, and I surely wouldn't want that responsibility, but I think that these could be really amazing. As most of you can already tell, I live much of my life online. I don't have many qualms about posting where I am through foursquare, telling people what I'm thinking at a given moment via twitter, going into detail about topics on here, posting pictures on Instagram, and even posting videos (however rarely) on Youtube. To me, using Glass isn't a huge leap from using your everyday smartphone (although it is a much more advanced product).

While privacy is a concern for me, I don't think I'm as worried as other people around the web are. Google isn't forcing you to use or purchase Glass, so how much information you share is still up to you. What they can do with that information is what scares me a little. How safe will my information be? What will Google be able to do with the information they have? What should Google be able to access from my life? If I'm sharing a personal video meant only to be seen by one recipient, will there be rules about if Google can access it? What can Google do with the videos that I create? Who will Google be able to sell my information to?

There are a lot of unknowns about what Google will be able to do with the information they are gathering from the users of Glass. There are also a lot of laws and regulations being discussed in order to answer all of these questions (as well as so many others that I haven't even thought to ask) and it will be interesting to see how our legislators try to appease the potential buyers as well as Google.

Although, I know I wont be buying them not only do to the cost, but I think they're very unattractive. So hopefully they're doing some work with designers to make them fashionable.

Whirlwind weekends are actually kinda nice

This past weekend has been insanely busy. Since Austin's birthday was Friday, we spent a lot of time going out and spending time with his parents and actually doing stuff. Maybe it wasn't that busy, but for someone that's recently become quite a homebody, it was.

Friday night, we went out with his dad to Max's Wine Dive. If you haven't been there, you should definitely go. The food was amazing although I was pretty disappointed with the service. How can you be a wine anything and yet your servers can't tell you anything about the wine list? They didn't know prices or even if there were certain wines on the list. I do think that they are actively trying to improve because they know the service is sub-par. After dinner, I actually sent them a tweet in regards to the service and how I was disappointed. Much to my surprise, they actually responded and we had a "twitter-sation" about what I felt like they needed to improve on. It was nice to see that they actually wanted to know what was wrong and how they could fix it. Even though I was disappointed with the service, I really appreciated them coming back to me and trying to figure out what they could do better next.

Saturday after five hours of dance and a nap, I took Austin to see Lucero. We've both been fans of Lucero for a long time, and it is great to see them getting the notoriety they deserve. They're an amazing band and one of the bands that I will always go see if they're in town, no matter where they are playing. I was a bit disappointed with Trees, though. While it is great that Lucero can sell out a 600-person club, it really sucks when the club oversells the concert by about 150. By the end of the night it was way too packed and uncomfortable. Maybe the next time they come through town they'll go somewhere like the Granada where the wont crowd start leaving halfway through their set because they can't stand to be in the club any longer.

I really enjoyed the opening act, J Charles and the Trainrobbers and was interested to hear that they're going to be opening for American Aquarium when they come through town in a few weeks. Prior to this show, I'd never heard of J Charles and the Trainrobbers so I really didn't care about the opening band. But once they started playing... They're amazing. Not only is their music great, but they also put on a great show. Too many opening acts really neglect that aspect, their music may be decent but they don't know how to put on a show and get the audience interested in them. I really think they will work well with American Aquarium, that should be a great show.

Sunday, Austin and I went to our first Stars game of the season.Even though they ended up losing, it was still a lot of fun and we both enjoyed being back at the AAC for hockey. I think I'd really forgotten how much I love being at the game and the atmosphere there. Since it was an almost sold-out game, the energy in the stadium was great. As for the game itself, well... I think its time for Raycroft to sit out and/or head down to the AHL to get his confidence back up. I've also noticed that the defense really takes for granted Kari and let a lot of shots through that Kari can save but Bachman can't. They need to be able to step up their game when KAri is out (like he currently is). And what happened to all of our goal scorers? I feel like Benn and Erikson and Jagr have been all but invisible lately. While I'm thrilled that the fourth line is producing, why does it seem like that is the only line producing? The Stars were lazy and sloppy through the first period, amazing during the second, and played like shit for the third. A little consistency would be nice...

I guess I should really stop before I start ranting too much about the Stars...

All in all, this was a great, albeit busy, weekend. Sometimes its nice to have your schedule shaken up. I've really gotten into the habit of dance and homework on Saturday and homework and cleaning on Sunday and I really haven't been as social as I probably should be. It was nice to be able to go out all weekend (but I'm really looking forward to a much quieter weekend this week).

ARTS 1311 - Shape

This week's assignment seemed to be much easier for me. Whatever confusion I had of last week's has passed and I was able to simply read the assignments and get them done. And I actually was able to get them done earlier than I had expected to! Always a plus. This week we focused on shape and how it creates the image. The first two examples were fairly basic, create a solid shape with no internal details and create an image that uses negative space to enhance it. The third one was probably my favorite, we were to create an image using text. I chose to use an image I had of a BJ from American Aquarium, and create a guitar with the lyrics to "Burn. Flicker. Die."