I know that Stan mentioned about seeing works from the past, to give a boost of energy and inspiration to push into the new projects. I can honestly say my experience as artist attending Georgia State has been fruitful and has been a blessing. As you can see, here were some drawings I did in the past before coming to GSU. They were more illustrative, the kind of "I know what to draw, and how it should already look like". As I took Drawing II with Paul Rodecker (I can never thank him enough), my intellect and observation grew and pushed further than what I could imagine. I just continue to seek more lines in being loose and gestural. I just could not control my appetite for gestural lines, as you can see in my recent sketches.
This drawing was done for Life Drawing as an assignment. I worked on it for 31 hours (kept track by writing the amount of hours on the drawing). It was worked on newsprint with charcoal pencils. I wanted to study my left hand in different positions, seeing hands are not easy to do. Again, my experience at GSU has really shaped my life as being an artist. For the first time, I actually had a real conversation with my drawing. I say this, because I did not start this as a six foot long drawing. I started with one sheet, and after four to nine hours, I heard the paper say that it needed to grow. So I added tape, and continued to draw. It spoke again, and I honored its' request to add another sheet. And I continued working on it.
I have not touched it for a long time. But I am sure we will have loads to talk about things.
Believe it or not, I drew the sketch of my right hand with my left hand. I mostly draw with my right hand; however, to push my drawing intellect and to challenge myself, I draw with my left from time to time. This challenges my right side of my brain (seeing my left side is used by my right hand), and it keeps me humble to continue pushing my drawing abilities.
I mostly draw in a cartoonish style, but I want to try and draw more realistic this year. At least try to capture more of life, and get a better understanding of the human anatomy. Because I know, the better I know the subject, the better my drawings will look. That goes for design too.
I hope you were inspired by my drawings and my stops I made on my artistic journey. I am still pushing forward.
For this assignment, it has been requested for me to post my past works for both art and design. While I have posted my GRD 3000 assignments on this blog, I am glad to showcase them once more. If you view the previous posts, each project has commentary, explaining my concept and focus for the project. So feel free to take a look.
Now, I am not just a person who is discovering and learning graphic design. I am also a cartoonist, and an inspired draftsman:
The comic above I was commissioned to draw for my friend's website, called JOE! She provided the writing while I did the illustration and coloring for her.
I have some more illustrations to scan in, I will do a part two to this assignment very soon..
I have not had Starbucks in the past few days, and I am in dire need to get some soon! LOL But seriously I need some Starbucks. The lack of it is starting to come up in my work and YouTube watching:
I know that Election Day has passed, but I did not have the chance to view this commercial from Starbucks when it first came out. The font used for the animation was interesting, especially when "inconvenient" was having a struggle with "When it was". You can feel the pushing and the weight between both forces. I also liked how the words would come on beat with the melody of the music. That is always a treat for me (played drums for years). Another thing that is interesting are the words that are being bigger than others, as a way to put more emphasis on them. Like "VOTE", "COMMUNITY", "WORLD", and "CARE", just to name a few examples.
The other reason why I like the type is it's green. Green is my favorite color, and sadly, not many designers know how to do green justice. Seriously, not many green t-shirts are tasteful. Anyways, thought I shared what I found interesting as I continue to learn and analyze graphic design.
Oh, and here's a type sketch I did for my typography class:
Again, I really need some Starbucks. And I am going to push this image further a bit. Or at least try again with more direction and exploring.
The assignment is to choose the five best logos and the five worst. The ones on top are the best, and the ones on the bottom, to me, are the worst. I will explain why I think the top logos are the best:
1. CNN: The line going through the letters C N N resembles a cable. The cable comes through the C and goes in different directions, connecting in those locations, and continues through the N. Instead of having ending the line with a stroke, the line (cable) continues like applied line. Continuing to connect to whatever location possible. 2. Finding Nemo: Pixar does a wonderful job with their type for their movie projects. You can get a sense and feel for the movie, and what the movie is about. Finding Nemo is no exception. I know that this movie represents a fish story, with the fish being used as the counter for the "o". And seeing the main character is a small fish, it works perfectly. Also, the type is in all caps and using bold. This tells me that the type represents someone looking for a lost individual. You would not whisper or talk at a normal volume if you have lost a child or someone. You would scream with all your might. And Pixar's Finding Nemo does just that. 3. Jumpman (Air Jordan): Sure, Michael Jordan's logo was based on how dynamic he could fly in the air for a layup or a dunk. Over time in his NBA career, he has not been able to jump as high like his youthful years. That still does not mean he does not rise or soar in other avenues: His Jordan Brand business continues to produce great works for people to purchase the shoes and clothes. He is still respected as a basketball player and as a hard worker. So while the Jumpman logo represented the past, it also represents the present respectively. 4. Best Buy: The use of the tag for Best Buy's logo was dead on. We always see a "sale" tag at stores when there are discounts or deals. Especially in bright colors to attract our attention. It is also interesting that the tag is position at an angle, in order to capture our attention. The bold and uppercase letters help grab our attention as well. 5. Boomerang: I like how the image of the boomerang is in motion, as well as with the boomerang looking like a "B" too. The bottom part of the "B" showing that motion, along with the direction of the boomerang. I enjoy motion within a capture shot. Also, the type is to bring a certain nostalgia, as it represents cartoons and animation of the past. The tagline is great too: "Boomerang, it's all coming back to you!" For me, this concept was well thought out.
Now for the worst logos:
1. Okalahoma City Thunder: While this is the newest NBA team this season, the efforts on the logo was not good enough. This is the only NBA logo where the team's name is over the team's location. The only NBA logo. I also thought the type for "Thunder" did not represent thunder. Thunder is meant to be bold, big, powerful, demanding...that is not the case here with the type. The entire logo does not bring a strong concept on what thunder really is. Adding insult to injury, this logo feels more suited for the WNBA than the NBA. Sadly, the logos for the WNBA are better than this one. So it is a lose-lose situation, just like their standing record right now: 5-32 (as of January 10, 2009) 2. Atlanta Zoo: The yellow and red are too bright to view the entire logo. Both are primary colors, and they will attract attention immediately; however, it must be done to where one has more attention than the other. To me, I would desaturated the yellow a bit, just so the red letters stand out more. I might try a different shade of red too, after fixing the yellow. Now that I think of it (it did not come to me during class, until now), it looks like Pikachu from Pokemon. 3. Vancouver Grizzlies: I did not enjoy this NBA logo from the start of this franchise. A grizzly bear is not a small animal, and it is definitely hard to squish it. There is no breathing room between the animal and the type, and it is a problem. The "G" and the "S" in "Grizzlies" being used as fangs has been overdone. It is not original or unique for the franchise. Also, it looks more like an NHL logo than a NBA logo. Now, the "Vancouver" Grizzlies moved to Memphis, and their logo has changed.
Now that looks a whole lot better for the Grizzlies than the one from Vancouver.
4. Volvo: This is not the original or current Volvo logo design, but it was used for enviromental purposes. I may understand that purpose; however, the arrow positioned there reminds me of the male gender sign. If other consumers see that as well, that could be very offensive and discriminating. Which is why I believe this is a terrible logo design. 5. Antz: I admit, I am not a huge DreamWorks fan (GO PIXAR!!), but the type for Antz is the worst one DreamWorks ever conducted compared to the others. The concept for this one was not strong, and it does not really give an impression on what the movie is about. I could find the concept for DreamWorks' Shrek (quite obvious) or Over the Hedgetype wise. The only thing I could see is the "A" being taller, as it represents the tip of the ant hill. But that is all I see or notice. The rest of the direction really does not give a complement to the movie like it could have.
And that is my commentary on the best and worst logos.
I needed to create a poster for an event. I admit, I barely go to events (more focused on school), but I wanted to choose something that I know I would go to. I mostly go to bookstores and coffee shops, so I wanted to do something that would use those environments as the place for the event. So I chose spoken word. It was not easy to come up with the illustration, because I thought about showcasing different kinds of participants that would be involved. While I was deciding on how to bring them into the project, I actually sketched another way to make them all represented in one image: a mic and a mouth in front of it. That way, no one can say that it was a singer, a poet, a story teller, or even a musician. They just know that someone is front of a mic, ready to go. And it was much better for the message.
My inspiration for the illustration's lips was singer Corinne Bailey Rae. I enjoy her music, it makes me feel like I'm drinking coffee with cream. It was also her single, Like a Star, that inspired me to place some stars on the poster. When you are at the mic, you feel powerful, it is your time for attention. And there are stars out there.
For this project, I needed to redesign a book cover. My choice was The Great Gatsby, and chose this book because I did not enjoy it in high school. I wanted to challenge myself of working on something that have not been my taste at first glance. As I continued sketching and pushing the look, I had fun with this project. Al Hirschfeld as an inspiration for the illustrations worked in my opinion, seeing the setting is in New York. And Hirschfeld is well known for being a famous New Yorker caricature artist. He did a lot of illustrations on celebrities and high living. He dealt with a lot of ink drawings for his pieces, which is why I decided to go a black and white color scheme.
For the first image was my original intent. However, a voice told me to try making the back cover black. I decided to do so, and I found that it was definitely better.
After the critique was over, and meeting with others on how to make this design better, I went back to the project to push it further. This image you see here is not the final image, it is still a work in progress. I got rid of the white box in the back cover, and I made the font white. I also made the same font smaller, and tried to put it in a good place between the two characters. I am still not satisfied, so glad that this is still a work in progress. The front cover, I made the title bigger, and I got rid of the "picture frame" that was on the back wall. I will replace it and put it in a different spot. That will come later.
If anyone has any suggestions or advice, I am welcome to those.
I know it has been a long time since I have updated my blog. I truly apologize for the hiatus period. I will now take the time to bring you up to speed with my previous projects of GRD 3000. I will do them in separate posts, rather than do them all in one big post. So on to project no. 2!
The goal of this assignment was to take found images (that were not on the web), and use them conceptually to provide advertisements for a product. I did not want to choose any product, so I went with one of my favorite digital art companies: Wacom. Wacom works well with my passion for creativity. My focus and concept was to show that the Wacom tablet opened a variety of opportunities and possibilities for the user, whether it is photography, graphic design, illustration, cartooning, animation, etc. I wanted to showcase that in all the ads, the different possibilities present.
