Playing around with my new toys. :)
Friday, 21 November 2008
Sunday, 28 September 2008
mr omega
Since my last post I can say I've been working on a few projects and have also got myself a part-time job. Projects include photo manipulation for a local band, starting writing a short novel , helping a friend with film concepts and finishing off a video "Mr Omega".
Have a watch.
Oh, and before you comment. Take in mind that it's a fool around video and we didn't actually take any of it seriously apart from production. In addition to making the video, we actually tried to film it with the track playing, however, the lyrics and the intense beat was too classy for us to keep a straight face and steady camera.
Enjoy.
Have a watch.
Oh, and before you comment. Take in mind that it's a fool around video and we didn't actually take any of it seriously apart from production. In addition to making the video, we actually tried to film it with the track playing, however, the lyrics and the intense beat was too classy for us to keep a straight face and steady camera.
Enjoy.
Monday, 23 June 2008
final outcomes / pre-degree exhibition
Well, here are my course' finals for those of you who are interested. Yeah, I did try to make them as fancy as I could as well as attempting to create a dystopian atmosphere with the shots, but as always I'm getting bored of my work and now starting to consider a new approach to my art. I'll try and keep this updated if I come across anything new I enjoy.
If you're one of those who are even vaguely interested in my work or wondering what the meaning behind them is, or the influences I derived my ideas from and how I generally came to the conclusion of these pieces, then read on (only if you have plenty of time on your hands and bored enough to read).
Warning: lots of words
For my project I have decided to portray a section of a journey, chosen using random methodology. My main influences were Oliver Kugler, a contemporary illustrator who used illustration to portray his travels, the Boyle family who chose their locations using a random sampling method and the concept of psychogeography.
Oliver Kugler used illustration to document the environment and the landmarks which he passed, as if he were recording his journey in a visual diary. The Boyle family used maps and darts to choose the locations for their work; they threw darts onto a world map to select a country and then proceeded to use this same method on maps of an increasingly small scale until they could pin point a specific place, which would then be used as the location for their work. I was inspired by these ideas of random choosing and documenting journeys and so decided to use similar techniques in my own work, using a dice to choose my path.
The reason I have decided to use a dice as part of my method of random selection was because of a novel called ‘The Dice Man’ by George Cocksfoot (who goes by the pen name Luke Rhinehart) in 1971. The novel tells a story of a psychiatrist who feels unfulfilled in life and so starts making life decisions by throwing a dice, this lead to controversial issues such as murder, rape and sexual experimentation. The book was banned in several countries, presumably to stop anyone from being influenced by this idea.
Whilst doing more research in order to develop my ideas further, I came across the concept of psychogeography which is defined as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.” by Guy Debord in 1955. A simpler way of explaining it would be that “it includes just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.” (Joseph Hart). It was this that secured my intention to base my piece upon taking a journey using a method of random selection to choose my destinations.
Since I am going to be using chance as a method for deciding upon my destinations I am likely to end up in unfamiliar areas of which I have no previous experience or memories. This means that I will perceive the locations differently from that of a person who frequently passes the same areas in everyday life. This is contrary to a French philosophy known as a Dérive (or a ‘drift‘). Simply put, a Dérive is ‘an aimless walk, probably through city streets, that follows the whim of the moment‘. To elaborate upon this, the idea is that people explore their environment (‘psychogeography’) without preconception in order to understand their location and so their existence. However, unlike my chosen method (where I will be randomly selecting locations I have never before visited), it was proposed by French philosopher and situationist Guy Debord that we should instead be revisiting and exploring the urban spaces that we pass on our everyday routes, but to try looking at them in an entirely different way.
I am intrigued by the idea of having no control over the direction of my journey as I believe this will result in an unpredictable outcome. If I were to choose during my journey, for example, even on an unconscious level, the outcome could be vastly different as I would be selecting the areas I preferred. Guy Debord believed that the reason our cities are ‘so thoroughly unpleasant’ was because they ‘ignored their emotional impact on people, or indeed tried to control people through their every day design’. By using a dice to decide my route I will be avoiding this effect, resulting in my desired outcome of depicting a random uncontrolled journey.
Having chance as the main element of my approach to this project I can relate my idea to surreal art. Surreal art is when objects with completely different backgrounds, or functions, or with no similarity, are presented together without any relation towards one another giving the impression that the objects were picked by chance. Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí tend to use dreams as an influence for creating surrealistic art, hence why his work appear ‘dream like’. An example of one such surreal compositions would be of a tiger getting devoured by a goldfish which is jumping out of a pomegranate (this piece composed by Salvador Dalí in 1944, is known as ‘Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening‘).
My aim is to depict an imaginative interpretation based upon my perception of an area that I was not previously aware of. I want to create an expressive, and possibly an exaggerated, version of how I see the urban landscape. By using photographic textures and recreated textures on Photoshop CS3 I will amalgamate everything I see that has the visual potential to construct a piece which will express my interpretation of the environments within my photography. The appearance I am aiming for is an industrial, run down look, leaning slightly towards a dystopian landscape.
An example of an established illustrator who has produced pieces to portray a corrupt society within a dystopian environment is Viktor Antonov. He is a concept illustrator who has designed for ‘Half-Life 2’ (a revolutionary game renowned for its complex story-line and powerful environmental designs), and for the animated feature film ‘Renaissance‘, as well as the matte painting for the sci-fi series ‘Skyland‘. He holds a transportation design degree from Art Centre College of Design and has over 10 years of experience in the entertainment industry as a matte painter, conceptual designer, art director and production manager.
Like myself, Antonov uses Photoshop as a traditional 2D compositing tool and uses the minimum amount of tools to get the desired results. Naturalist and realist painters of the 19th century were a big influence in his work, he believed that ’the stories they told in their paintings were more important than the medium and flashy brushwork’. He also derived much of his inspiration from photographers such as Lewis Hine and Robert Frank who showed that in a successful photo the stuff you leave out of the picture is just as important as the things in the frame. The reason I am interested in Antonov’s work, particularly for ‘Half-Life 2’ (which Antonov says is the most ambitious and difficult project that he’d ever worked on, because the Valve team was briefed by Gabe Newell simply to create “the best game ever“), because I appreciate how he has combined fantastical atmosphere and realism in his environmental design work and his way of portraying a corrupt society within his digital architecture. I can relate this to my desired outcome, despite the fact that my work will be done using a different technique, because the basic ideas expressed in our work are similar.
The artist who influenced my style, or at least the visual aesthetics I aim for, is Russell Mills, because his work is very expressive through his use of explosive imagery and paint techniques. He uses a combination of traditional and digital art, layered upon each other to create a new aesthetically pleasing art piece, which I think looks greatly successful. It is his way of developing and combining his pieces using such diverse techniques that has encouraged me to manipulate photographic imagery and layer different visuals together in my own work to achieve a similar high standard.
Based upon my research into the styles and techniques used by the artists I have mentioned, as well as the concepts and ideas behind the work they have created, I am going to create a sequence of prints which will portray a journey (that has been lead by the roll of a dice) in a digital medium. Using Photoshop as my compositing tool, I will manipulate a selection of photographs using a diverse range of textures to express my perception of the urban environment; exaggerating the dull, industrial feel of, and encourage people to think differently about, areas which would generally have no impact upon the people who pass them by in real every day life.
If you're one of those who are even vaguely interested in my work or wondering what the meaning behind them is, or the influences I derived my ideas from and how I generally came to the conclusion of these pieces, then read on (only if you have plenty of time on your hands and bored enough to read).
Warning: lots of words
For my project I have decided to portray a section of a journey, chosen using random methodology. My main influences were Oliver Kugler, a contemporary illustrator who used illustration to portray his travels, the Boyle family who chose their locations using a random sampling method and the concept of psychogeography.
Oliver Kugler used illustration to document the environment and the landmarks which he passed, as if he were recording his journey in a visual diary. The Boyle family used maps and darts to choose the locations for their work; they threw darts onto a world map to select a country and then proceeded to use this same method on maps of an increasingly small scale until they could pin point a specific place, which would then be used as the location for their work. I was inspired by these ideas of random choosing and documenting journeys and so decided to use similar techniques in my own work, using a dice to choose my path.
The reason I have decided to use a dice as part of my method of random selection was because of a novel called ‘The Dice Man’ by George Cocksfoot (who goes by the pen name Luke Rhinehart) in 1971. The novel tells a story of a psychiatrist who feels unfulfilled in life and so starts making life decisions by throwing a dice, this lead to controversial issues such as murder, rape and sexual experimentation. The book was banned in several countries, presumably to stop anyone from being influenced by this idea.
Whilst doing more research in order to develop my ideas further, I came across the concept of psychogeography which is defined as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.” by Guy Debord in 1955. A simpler way of explaining it would be that “it includes just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.” (Joseph Hart). It was this that secured my intention to base my piece upon taking a journey using a method of random selection to choose my destinations.
Since I am going to be using chance as a method for deciding upon my destinations I am likely to end up in unfamiliar areas of which I have no previous experience or memories. This means that I will perceive the locations differently from that of a person who frequently passes the same areas in everyday life. This is contrary to a French philosophy known as a Dérive (or a ‘drift‘). Simply put, a Dérive is ‘an aimless walk, probably through city streets, that follows the whim of the moment‘. To elaborate upon this, the idea is that people explore their environment (‘psychogeography’) without preconception in order to understand their location and so their existence. However, unlike my chosen method (where I will be randomly selecting locations I have never before visited), it was proposed by French philosopher and situationist Guy Debord that we should instead be revisiting and exploring the urban spaces that we pass on our everyday routes, but to try looking at them in an entirely different way.
I am intrigued by the idea of having no control over the direction of my journey as I believe this will result in an unpredictable outcome. If I were to choose during my journey, for example, even on an unconscious level, the outcome could be vastly different as I would be selecting the areas I preferred. Guy Debord believed that the reason our cities are ‘so thoroughly unpleasant’ was because they ‘ignored their emotional impact on people, or indeed tried to control people through their every day design’. By using a dice to decide my route I will be avoiding this effect, resulting in my desired outcome of depicting a random uncontrolled journey.
Having chance as the main element of my approach to this project I can relate my idea to surreal art. Surreal art is when objects with completely different backgrounds, or functions, or with no similarity, are presented together without any relation towards one another giving the impression that the objects were picked by chance. Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí tend to use dreams as an influence for creating surrealistic art, hence why his work appear ‘dream like’. An example of one such surreal compositions would be of a tiger getting devoured by a goldfish which is jumping out of a pomegranate (this piece composed by Salvador Dalí in 1944, is known as ‘Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening‘).
My aim is to depict an imaginative interpretation based upon my perception of an area that I was not previously aware of. I want to create an expressive, and possibly an exaggerated, version of how I see the urban landscape. By using photographic textures and recreated textures on Photoshop CS3 I will amalgamate everything I see that has the visual potential to construct a piece which will express my interpretation of the environments within my photography. The appearance I am aiming for is an industrial, run down look, leaning slightly towards a dystopian landscape.
An example of an established illustrator who has produced pieces to portray a corrupt society within a dystopian environment is Viktor Antonov. He is a concept illustrator who has designed for ‘Half-Life 2’ (a revolutionary game renowned for its complex story-line and powerful environmental designs), and for the animated feature film ‘Renaissance‘, as well as the matte painting for the sci-fi series ‘Skyland‘. He holds a transportation design degree from Art Centre College of Design and has over 10 years of experience in the entertainment industry as a matte painter, conceptual designer, art director and production manager.
Like myself, Antonov uses Photoshop as a traditional 2D compositing tool and uses the minimum amount of tools to get the desired results. Naturalist and realist painters of the 19th century were a big influence in his work, he believed that ’the stories they told in their paintings were more important than the medium and flashy brushwork’. He also derived much of his inspiration from photographers such as Lewis Hine and Robert Frank who showed that in a successful photo the stuff you leave out of the picture is just as important as the things in the frame. The reason I am interested in Antonov’s work, particularly for ‘Half-Life 2’ (which Antonov says is the most ambitious and difficult project that he’d ever worked on, because the Valve team was briefed by Gabe Newell simply to create “the best game ever“), because I appreciate how he has combined fantastical atmosphere and realism in his environmental design work and his way of portraying a corrupt society within his digital architecture. I can relate this to my desired outcome, despite the fact that my work will be done using a different technique, because the basic ideas expressed in our work are similar.
The artist who influenced my style, or at least the visual aesthetics I aim for, is Russell Mills, because his work is very expressive through his use of explosive imagery and paint techniques. He uses a combination of traditional and digital art, layered upon each other to create a new aesthetically pleasing art piece, which I think looks greatly successful. It is his way of developing and combining his pieces using such diverse techniques that has encouraged me to manipulate photographic imagery and layer different visuals together in my own work to achieve a similar high standard.
Based upon my research into the styles and techniques used by the artists I have mentioned, as well as the concepts and ideas behind the work they have created, I am going to create a sequence of prints which will portray a journey (that has been lead by the roll of a dice) in a digital medium. Using Photoshop as my compositing tool, I will manipulate a selection of photographs using a diverse range of textures to express my perception of the urban environment; exaggerating the dull, industrial feel of, and encourage people to think differently about, areas which would generally have no impact upon the people who pass them by in real every day life.
Friday, 13 June 2008
Sunday, 18 May 2008
back to blog
It's been a while since I've wanted to write something down on here. Alot has been up and I'm generally not too much in a mood to be listing everything on here... I really should get in the hang of it, but... I'm so bloody lazy. Well I'll top you up on the latest news. Rachel (my gorgeous girlfriend) is finally back. Back from South Africa and shes looking stunning. Been spending the last fews days with her ever since I met her at Heathrow Airport and it's been just like it used to be... perfect. It's great to have that bit of happiness back in my life.
Other news?
Some other time. But for now, here's a piece of graphic work for you guys to enjoy.
Other news?
Some other time. But for now, here's a piece of graphic work for you guys to enjoy.
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
further update
Having a hectic time right now with portfolio work and shit (still can't believe that Uni might just be around the corner) and trying to think of some new ideas for my latest project, I've gone completely brain dead for the last few weeks and confused with alot of things. I guess everyone goes through that phase huh. However, I've had many great nights out! And I have just completed a new piece on my own accord.
Originally started as one promotoional piece for this very site but then I thought I'd make use of some other photos me and some mates took during a studio photography session.
Self-Promotional Work (First Piece)
And heres the set of three
Originally started as one promotoional piece for this very site but then I thought I'd make use of some other photos me and some mates took during a studio photography session.
Self-Promotional Work (First Piece)
And heres the set of three
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
an update
Ok so Rachel has left for South Africa and has been away for over a week now. I've just come back from Venice which basically took away my half-term, can't figure out if it was worth it, but I do know I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have done.
Tired right now so I won't be getting into detail about my half-term in this post... maybe some other time. After getting back I've just been trying out a few things with recent and old pieces of work, none of which I can say are finished except this one here.
First digital painting to be made.
Reference: Squall, Final Fantasy VIII
Tired right now so I won't be getting into detail about my half-term in this post... maybe some other time. After getting back I've just been trying out a few things with recent and old pieces of work, none of which I can say are finished except this one here.
First digital painting to be made.
Reference: Squall, Final Fantasy VIII
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
chromatic fantasy
Finally! I've actually finished a good piece before the deadline, I'm pleased as fuck. But as I know myself I'll probably wake up tomorrow morning hating every bit of it, so while I'm still chuft I thought I'd make a post for it :).
Chromatic Fantasy is the title I've given for this outcome, mainly because I personally think it sounds cool, and secondly, the piece is of a fantasy (or at least an event of a fantasy-like atmosphere) obviously. I call it the Chromatic Fantasy cuz' I like the irony of the title that's there to represent the mono-chrome piece with very little colour.
Ah... since I'm too tired to be writing anything else about it, heres my statement of intent, or project brief.
Fractured Fairy Tales
In accordance to the ‘Fractured Fairy tales’ theme chosen for my pathway project, I will illustrate a fantasy scene which involves modern objects, or partial areas, in a concept piece. My aim is to convey what originally constituted the typical fairytale, before being progressively modified and adapted to become suitable for the younger generation of today. To achieve this, I will create concepts of fantasy within the modern world using everyday features as the scenario, but I will create a much darker and more mysterious atmosphere. It will be based upon a quest as this is most often the central theme running throughout both original fairytales and the recent updated versions.
Influences, Research, Sources and Ideas
To portray my ideas I am going to elucidate a scene from a traditional story that will be shown through a modern reality, produced across a set of three pieces. Each piece will include a number of objects that symbolise quest items, as these are key elements in most fairy tales. Examples of such items include: stairs, keys and doors to hidden passage ways, all of which are to be illustrated within an urban environment. Having already watched ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and ‘The Company of Wolves’, I have been influenced by the idea of having reality and fantasy alongside each other, which is where my fairy tale situation taking place in a half modern environment derives from. Other influences of fantasy concepts are from the works of Viktor Antonov, Kristin Oftedal who uses a series of techniques I take interest in and the location designs from ‘Final Fantasy VIII‘, an extraordinary game with many great designs (again having fantasy in a real life environment), based on a believable logical world presumably set in a parallel universe.
Techniques, Processes and Media
I intend to use photography and observational drawing to create a series of imagery that will depict a fairy tale-like story. I will use location and aspects of modern life to represent objects that can be considered as quest items. I will use a selection of mixed media - pencil, digital colours and cropped subjects from photographs. My technique will be applying colours or tone to scanned drawings and placing them aside cropped imagery. Some editing alterations will be made on each element to bring all aspects together. The resulting image or images I am aiming to produce will have a taste of uncertainty of what’s going on, with the intention of creating a mysterious atmosphere, although character (body) expression or certain objects will confirm the situation, I am considering captions for each piece to show narrative but this will depend on the end result.
Method of Evaluation
I will evaluate my work thoroughly stating pros and cons, enhancing or developing experimental practice and giving reasons for the methods I will use. To ensure my ideas are illustrated and portrayed correctly I will carry out a small survey, using a questionnaire, asking people to comment on what is being viewed and which known fairytale the illustrations may relate to. Also, I will be asking friends (alongside self-criticism) to comment on any flaws in my work so that I can come up with alternative designs, but remain close to what I intend to illustrate.
+first.jpg)
+second.jpg)
+last.jpg)
Chromatic Fantasy is the title I've given for this outcome, mainly because I personally think it sounds cool, and secondly, the piece is of a fantasy (or at least an event of a fantasy-like atmosphere) obviously. I call it the Chromatic Fantasy cuz' I like the irony of the title that's there to represent the mono-chrome piece with very little colour.
Ah... since I'm too tired to be writing anything else about it, heres my statement of intent, or project brief.
Fractured Fairy Tales
In accordance to the ‘Fractured Fairy tales’ theme chosen for my pathway project, I will illustrate a fantasy scene which involves modern objects, or partial areas, in a concept piece. My aim is to convey what originally constituted the typical fairytale, before being progressively modified and adapted to become suitable for the younger generation of today. To achieve this, I will create concepts of fantasy within the modern world using everyday features as the scenario, but I will create a much darker and more mysterious atmosphere. It will be based upon a quest as this is most often the central theme running throughout both original fairytales and the recent updated versions.
Influences, Research, Sources and Ideas
To portray my ideas I am going to elucidate a scene from a traditional story that will be shown through a modern reality, produced across a set of three pieces. Each piece will include a number of objects that symbolise quest items, as these are key elements in most fairy tales. Examples of such items include: stairs, keys and doors to hidden passage ways, all of which are to be illustrated within an urban environment. Having already watched ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and ‘The Company of Wolves’, I have been influenced by the idea of having reality and fantasy alongside each other, which is where my fairy tale situation taking place in a half modern environment derives from. Other influences of fantasy concepts are from the works of Viktor Antonov, Kristin Oftedal who uses a series of techniques I take interest in and the location designs from ‘Final Fantasy VIII‘, an extraordinary game with many great designs (again having fantasy in a real life environment), based on a believable logical world presumably set in a parallel universe.
Techniques, Processes and Media
I intend to use photography and observational drawing to create a series of imagery that will depict a fairy tale-like story. I will use location and aspects of modern life to represent objects that can be considered as quest items. I will use a selection of mixed media - pencil, digital colours and cropped subjects from photographs. My technique will be applying colours or tone to scanned drawings and placing them aside cropped imagery. Some editing alterations will be made on each element to bring all aspects together. The resulting image or images I am aiming to produce will have a taste of uncertainty of what’s going on, with the intention of creating a mysterious atmosphere, although character (body) expression or certain objects will confirm the situation, I am considering captions for each piece to show narrative but this will depend on the end result.
Method of Evaluation
I will evaluate my work thoroughly stating pros and cons, enhancing or developing experimental practice and giving reasons for the methods I will use. To ensure my ideas are illustrated and portrayed correctly I will carry out a small survey, using a questionnaire, asking people to comment on what is being viewed and which known fairytale the illustrations may relate to. Also, I will be asking friends (alongside self-criticism) to comment on any flaws in my work so that I can come up with alternative designs, but remain close to what I intend to illustrate.
+first.jpg)
+second.jpg)
+last.jpg)
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
reach your goals?
Straight out of boredom. Sat in front of a screen drinking coffee, I made this.
It's tacky but w'hey, I made use of a very badly drawn figure I did on Corel Painter.
It's tacky but w'hey, I made use of a very badly drawn figure I did on Corel Painter.
Merged many photographs & scanned paint splatters +
Drew the figure in Corel Painter (Reference: Photograph of Adnan Kamenica xd) +
Contrast, Levels, Curves, Rubbing out crap bits and what not +
Contemplated what to have typed on the piece. Reach your goals? that'll do.
Sunday, 3 February 2008
rballam
Here is a piece where I have experimented a process never tried before and found the result satisfying, hopefully this technique will be used in many more future work.
I used a photo of my wonderful girlfriend to produce this piece. :)
Equipment
3b pencil
Photoshop CS
I used a photo of my wonderful girlfriend to produce this piece. :)
Equipment
3b pencil
Photoshop CS
Thursday, 17 January 2008
very first blog spot
So here I am, creating a blogspot because I've had the urge for some time to keep a live journal. Why? Well... since it is our nature to take immediate responce from first impressions and how we judge on personality by appearance, I will take the time to write about myself for people to read. Thinking about my plans, ideas and my general path to University make me wonder about life and social awareness, so from now on, this will be (hopefully) a continuously updating journal of self expression and other stuff.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
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