Forgot to Post Signature and Line Drawing :O

Advertisement Project

Ever since I visited Baltimore I have noticed that the Natty Bo sign is colorless, which I found unusual for a logo.  For this project I add the main 3 bright colors (red, yellow, and blue) and I put in bolded bright colored text.  I also found that adding a border really focuses your attention in on the logo.

Winsor McCay

An American cartoonist and animator, Winsor McCay was a revolutionary cartoonist who inspired many famous cartoonists such as Walt Disney.  He was born in 1871 in Spring Lake, Michigan where he started drawing at an early age.  He originally went to business college, but then moved to Chicago in order to study at an art institute, however, he found that he couldn't afford it and went straight into work in printing. He produced wood cuts for circus, theatrical, and World War I propaganda posters.  He then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to produce art for Kohl and Middleton's Dime Museum.  In 1903 he began drawing cartoons the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Many of Winsor's cartoons and animations were based off of poems or dreams. I watched two of his most famous animations Little Nemo, created in 1911, and Gertie the Dinosaur, created in 1914.  In these films he portrays himself first as the cartoonist and then he presents a challenge such as creating a 4000 page animation or controlling the animated dinosaur. It becomes humorous as things start to become chaotic because the challenge is too much for him.  He then regains his composure in the end and conquers his challenge and goes above and beyond what the viewer expected him to do.

Seeing these films gives the illusion of a time machine and really gives you insight into why Walt Disney's first animations were so wacky. I was really interested in the dream like cartoon Winsor created in Little Nemo.  His use of perspective really made the cartoon come alive and I was surprised he was able to portray that so accurately in his cartoon. He portrayed the surreal aspect of a dream also very well because the cartoon gives a sense of slight confusion followed by interest in what might happen next. The way the dream proceeded from a clown like figure on a blank piece of paper to a colorful scene with a couple climbing into a dragons mouth carriage was a very good build up.  I really liked how his characters, although silent, truly had their own wacky personalities that they portrayed through their body language and actions. His characters were fun, energetic, but in a way slightly insane which really brought the whole concept of the dream back together.

Project 2 Progress

I have completed most of the general shading in the face; however, I do have a lot more work to do in the details. I also need to crop my image on photoshop or learn how to adjust my work board.  I found putting in eyelashes to be a challenge because the lines come out blocky. To solve this I either have to simplify the details or find a different tool to use.

Frog... Secret Agent, Music Piece

The song starts out with a deep dull blocky base, which flows into the plucking. The plucking starts out organized but over the course of the song it begins to echo and warp.  The quirky accordion melody then strings in with a fluid motion. The lower notes are thicker sounding and the high notes are thinner. The accordion then adds a choppier on top of the existing one. The thin sound of the violin wisps in like the wind, but it makes its appearance strong. In the end, the violin becomes more chaotic and repetitive breaking up the beautiful sound. The xylophone comes in soft and cool as a contrast to the rest of the piece.  The plucking then comes back in warping in to eerie chaos ending the piece on a very different note.

Portraits

Sonya Rapoport

Sonya is an American conceptual and digital artist who is best known for her computer- assisted interactive installations and web-based work. She attended many colleges, but her passion has been focused both art and technology.  Her variety of interests began with the human figure in abstracted form in 1940 and in 1950 moved toward an abstract expressionist and watercolor. In the 1960's she experimented with bringing in a science aspect by incorporating scientific illustrations, graphs, and three dimensional abstract expressionist constructions. In the 1970's she began to use electronic media to start work on interdisciplinary and cultural studies. In the 1980's and 1990's her projects became large scale and very complex. They had very specific messages and were exhibited often in many stages.

"The Transgenic Bagel is a parody on the recombinant gene splicing theme. The genetic formula of a desired trait is engineered and impregnated into a bagel which serves as the transgenic (gene transfer) vehicle. The bagel physically resembles a plasmid, a circular DNA molecule which contains the genetic information. A section of this loop can be excised and another portion of the DNA inserted." This piece is well thought out and the more you look at it, the more of the parody you see. For example, the snakes   intertwined in the tree are shaped like reproductive organs (penis and uterus) which contribute to irony of the situation because the organs are out there, yet the characters in the image seem to prefer the indirect method of reproduction (eating a bagel).   It is interesting however that she really does do her research when it comes to the science aspect of her art.  The bagel plasmid, for example, does include adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine in the way the are supposed to be placed. Also, mentioning Watson and Crick, the co-discoverers of DNA, helps the viewer identify what aspect of genetics she is attacking. 

The Transgenic Bagel Explanation

I am not a fan of Sonya's work mostly because I do not find it initially visually appealing. Her concept behind her work is what makes it interesting to me, but not the work itself. For example, this image is pixelated and the text is in all different colors that don't fit in to any color scheme.  I also find it difficult to understand her work without a thorough explanation and background on the subject. I do, however, still admire the fact that she is poking fun at science because it is a very serious subject that doesn't always adhere to human reasoning.