Blast From The Past

How To Make A Pinhole Camera

To make a pinhole camera you must first spray the inside of a tin can completely black so that it is not reflective and it is light proof. When that is done you must drill a hole into a side of the can, then cut out a circle of tin foil and carefully create a tiny hole using a pin or a tack and tape it with electrical tape in front of the hole you drilled. when this is done put a piece of electrical tape over the tiny hole you just made, making your tin light tight. The last step is to cut a piece of photographic paper that fits inside your tin can but does not block the hole, then but the lid on and you have your own pinhole camera.
I learned how to do this on a trip to gallery 44 in grade 9. To take the actual photo you must go outside and set up the camera to face the image we wanted to take a photo of. Then take the electrical tape off of the small hole in the tin foil on the can (aperture) to expose the photographic paper to light, by doing this photographic paper takes a negative picture of the image you placed it to take because the photographic paper picks up the sunlight and takes the image. This process takes about one minute and thirty seconds or less depending on the size of your hole in the tin foil.
To develop the photos you must properly develop them in a dark room. Place the photos in the series of three chemicals. Then put them to dry and when they were done, WALLAH, you end up with your own negative pinhole picture.

Personal Inspiration

Pixel Portrait

This piece is titled Digital Avatar. The applications used to create this piece were Photo Booth and Adobe Illustrator (CS2).Photo Booth was used to take a picture of myself to use as reference, and Illustrator was used to create the actual piece. I feel that this piece was important show to the world because I feel as though it best portrays my ability to learn new skills in a short period of time and use these skills effectively to create great art. The only thing I would change about this piece is the use of the burning tool as a shading mechanism, which I feel didn`t positively benefit the piece. I am particularly happy with this piece because of the way it turned out. I exceedingly like the way my avatar portrays me and I feel as though it actually looks like me, which is why I like it so much, because I accomplished the purpose of assignment. Which was to create a digital pixel representation of yourself. The only aspect of this assignment that I found difficult was matching the actual colors of my face to the colors of my pixel portrait. However once I learned a quick way to extract the same colors from my image and put them onto my pixel portrait I found it easy to complete the assignment, which I found very satisfying.

Shazaam T-shirt Design

Personal Inspiration


This piece is titled Wrongful Separation. The applications that I used to create this design were Adobe Photoshop (CS2), and Adobe Illustrator (CS2). Photoshop was used to create certain affects (filters) on the original photographs, they were then brought into Illustrator where I adjusted certain characteristics of the edited images and laid out my design elements on the page. I believe that this good because it is a good representation of my skill growth from last year to now. I feel as though this piece portrays how much my computer skills have developed since last year because the quality of this piece is far better than anything I believe I could create. I feel that because it looks like something I couldn’t produce it deserves to be recognized because it exceeded all my expectations. It also demonstrates my growth in my Photoshop abilities and my improvement in my Illustrator talents. What I really like about this piece is the bold levels of brightness and contrast and the use of negative space, which I feel is an impactful element and adds more depth to my concept. The only thing I would change about this piece is the missing handcuffs. I would add the handcuffs because it was one of the elements that really strengthened my concept. Unfortunately I was unable to do so because I didn’t have the ability or resources to add it to my piece. I had to overcome a lot of difficulties and challenges in order to finish this piece. I found it difficult to create and position the image of my head in such a way that not only looked good but was purposeful as well. In the end I was able to do so in such a way that made me extremely happy with the end result which was satisfying due to the amount of effort it took to get it to look the way I wanted it to.

Typography

The title of this piece is Hyperbole. The application used to create this piece was Adobe Illustrator (CS2). I think that this piece is amazing because it demonstrates my developed skills in Illustrator and my ability to manipulate words and letters in a meaningful and successful way. The main reason I am fond of this piece is because of the way it describes the word not only in the definition, but in the design of it. It allows you to piece together the main definition of the word without knowing the actual definition. Essentially I really like this piece because it meets my personal expectations as well as the expectations of the assignment. If I could change one thing about this piece, I would change the outline color of the text. I would change it from red to a much more vibrant and eye catching color. The thing that I found most about this project was getting started. It was hard for me to come up with a design that described the word in the look of it and not the definition. However with some help from my teacher I was able to create a good piece that I am very proud of.

Digital Avatar Tutorial

This quick little tutorial will explain to you how to create a digital avatar of yourself using Adobe Illustrator. The first thing needed to create your avatar is a photo of yourself, preferably one with a close up of your face. Once you have selected a photograph you must open it in Illustrator. Once you have opened it in Illlustrator there are a series of steps that must be taken in order to complete this task.
1. After image has been opened in Illustrator rename that layer as "background" and lock it.

2.Create a new layer "outline" and using the pen tool outline all the physical aspects of your
face. (eg: lips, eyes, hair, pupils ect.) Make sure that your "background" layer is visible.

3.Once you have completed your outlines create a new layer "color" and fill in the colors of
your face within the outlines that you previously created. To get the exact colors you can
use the extract tool (looks like a dropper) and it will select the colors from your actual
image.

4.Once you have completed all theses steps merge you layers and then label it "digital
avatar". You can then save your project for the web and upload it anywhere you want
people to see it (facebook).

This is how mine turned out. Hoped you enjoyed this brief tutorial and I hope that yours turned out well.

New Official World Cup Soccer Ball

There has been a lot of complaints about the introduction of the new official soccer ball for the world cup. People have been saying that the new ball will affect the players and the way the game is played. Many however feel as though this new ball is a good thing because it is an improvement from the other.
I however would like to discuss the design of this new ball and why I think it is better then the old one. The new ball is much better than the previous one because of its simply outstanding design. This new ball has three main focal points that have been intertwined with multiple colors. I feel as though this design is better because of its simplicity and and overall element layout. The ball doesn't have too many things on it which I feel makes it more attractive, it also is layed out in such a way that it fits the rule of 3's. Which is a safe and smart way to make something look extremely appealing.
The old ball however, has a decent design, but it is not as ethetically pleasing as the new one. The old ball has a distinct characteristic, which is the unique foot like shape which is rotated and repeated multiple times on the surface of the ball. I feel as though this was a weak design choice because it is not really appealing in my opnion and the layout of the elements on the ball don't seem to have any sort of meaning behind it's placements. All and all I think that the new ball is far better then the previous ball, design wise and that it should be welcomed into the soccer community.

Digital Self Portrait

The title of this piece of work is called Inner Expression. I find this title appropriate because I was trying to portray how I felt and how I view myself personally. The application that I used to create this digital self portrait was adobe illustrator. I choose to use illustrator as opposed to Photoshop because illustrator allowed me to have full control over what I wanted to do with it. My digital file of my illustration contains a variety of layers which all contain a key part of the overall piece (i.e. body, easel, canvas ECT.).
The art style that I choose to do my self portrait in is fauvism. I choose this style because of its use of bright and bold colors and quick brush strokes which I feel is a direct portrayal of my personality. The fauvist style is known for its use of quick brush strokes and bright colors. Usually the object being painted is done in a solid base color with two other bright colors to serve as highlights and lowlights. The main point of the fauvist style is to use bright and powerful colors to portray a mood in an unrealistic way.
I felt that fauvism would be the best style to do my portrait in because I believe that it best portrays my personality. My self portrait is a photo of me sitting on a stool done in the fauvist style, while painting a picture of myself on a canvas in a realistic style. I decided to put myself on the stool in the fauvist style because that is the side of me that everyone sees. My bright energetic and loud personality which tends to come off as a bit much, which is exactly like the fauvist style. For the main parts of my body I used warmer tone colors as the base colors because I feel as though even though I am a very loud and energetic person I am also very welcoming and inviting. This is why I chose red and orange for the base colors because they have a warm and welcoming feel to them. However for the other parts of my body I chose brighter and more energetic colors to show that I am filled with energy that fills up my entire body. The reason that I am painting myself which is in a realistic style is because that is the side of me that no gets to see. The painting of me in a realistic style shows how I feel on the inside but it also shows how I isolate my true self from everyone else as a way of protecting myself. Essentially my energetic and loud personality serves as a barrier to block people from seeing the real me. My self portrait has a plain white background because it shows that behind my personality and my real self there is nothing there, and without my personality there to make me stand out I just blend in with everyone else. The main reason why I have a very expressive personality is because I don’t like being like everyone else, so I use my personality to distance myself from everyone else.
Although I find that my final product is aesthetically pleasing, it does have some mistakes that could be fixed. The main mistake that I made was adding to many anchor points while using the pen tool which made my final product turn out too rough and jagged. The edges did not turn out as smooth as I wish they could have. I also feel as though some of my shadows were wrongly placed which made some of the parts of my clothing look wrong.
Throughout the entire design process I had to overcome many challenges such as not being able to find out which colors would work better as highlights and which colors would work better as lowlights. I also had to import my background a second time because it got deleted. This caused me to re due two of my main layers. However the most satisfying part of this project was seeing the final product. Seeing it all come together made me feel as though I accomplished what I was trying to do.

Overall this project not only taught me a lot about design and meaningful layout, it also taught me a lot about myself as a person. It showed me how people view me only as result of how I view myself. Essentially I learned that my personality is the way it is because I want people to see me that way instead of my true self.

Artistic Inspiration

Photorealism


This morning I was browsing the web when I cam across an artist, who's works were, in my opinion, were not only powerful but extremely beautiful as well. His name is Darrell Hunt, he started painting photorealistic paintings in 1995 and still continues to bless the artistic community with his work to this day. In 2004 several of his pieces was selected to be put in the London art fair, which not only is an amazing achievement but a good opportunity for him to be represented in the United Kingdom. As an African American artist, he feels as though his art can be used to connect everyone one together, no matter their ethnicity.


One of my favorite pieces by him is "Chinatown". This painting is of a city street in Chinatown. I really like this piece because of its composition and outstanding realistic components. The composition of this painting is simplistic yet attractive because the elements on the canvas are layed out in such a way, that it looks as though you are standing upon that very street.

Essentially I found this artist extremely inspiring because of his ability to capture the essence and feel of a landscape on a canvas as if it were an actual photograph. Which I feel is not only an amazing artistic technique to acquire but a beautiful skill to have as a human being as well.

How To Make Your Very Own Lightsaber

This video is a personal favorite which is why I have decided to share it with you. This video will explain how to create a lightsaber prop for personal use. However after you make your lightsaber you can use gimp, Photoshop or illustrator to create and image of yourself that actually looks like an actual JEDI!
After you have created the prop you can then take a picture of your self holding it, in a Jedi position. Then in order to make it look like and actual Jedi photograph you must follow a series of steps. To do this in gimp follow this tutorial.
I wanted to show you you how to do this because I believe that everyone should become Jedi's however because that is impossible you will have to settle for this. I personally really enjoyed the entire creative process from making the actual prop to the digital image.
This is just a fun thing to occupy yourself with for several hours and I HOPE YOU ENJOY.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.

Perfect Food Sign

The other day I noticed that pizza pizza has an extremely well design food sign. It immediately attracted my attention for a couple reasons. The first reason why I was immediately attracted was because of their choice of font. The bold and smooth font reminds me of the product that they are selling "pizza" and the yellow edgy font on top only draws my eye in more.

The second reason why I was immediately drawn to this sign was because of the color. Orange was used in this sign which is the best possible marketing idea to draw in consumers for your food business. This is because the color orange stimulates the part of your brain that tells your body that you are hungry. Therefore by making your sign orange it is more likely that people will be drawn towards your establishment.

Overall I believe that the design of this pizza pizza sign is not only attractive but a smart business decision as well.

Which Pepsi Do You Prefer?

The other day I walked into a store to buy a Pepsi. To my surprise I realized that there were several selections of Pepsi cans with various Pepsi designs. One in particular caught my attention. It was simplistic eye catching and overall appealing.
This got me thinking about the other Pepsi designs and why they didn't stand out as much. I think that it is because the other designs had too much going on. Not to say that they are bad designs but I think that the designs of the other cans are too busy and just draw my eyes all over the can instead of focusing it on a major point. Essentially I think that the other cans are too much work for the eyes which makes it less appealing to the consumer.
The Pepsi design that caught my immediate attention was the one in the top right hand corner. The way they use strong, clean contrasting colors with bold and crisp line automatically draws my eyes to that can. Even though there are other designs that are esthetically pleasing I don't believe any are as well designed as that one.
The second design that caught my attention was the one in the bottom row in the center. This design caught my attention simply because of its simplicity. It has an elegant and clean feel to it and the lighter shade of blue just makes it stand out from the other Pepsi cans. Overall these two are my favorite Pepsi designs and I feel as though that the Pepsi company really knows how to draw the attention of their consumer.

Your First Website

Have you ever had the desire to create your very own web page? This short tutorial will show you how to get started on your very own website.
To create a website there are a variety of programs that can be used, for this tutorial I will be showing you how to get started with Adobe Dreamweaver. To create a website with the Dreamweaver program you start by creating a new file, this will then open a window where you can preview your website and edit your html code. The first step to starting off your website is adding a title, this can be done by adding text in a title tag. To add content to your site you can use a variety of codes. Html codes can be used to add things such as tables, drop down lists, lists, text, links and much more. Within these tags you can then add content such as text or pictures. To add text to your website create a paragraph tag within the body tag. Then type, This is my first website. After saving you can then preview you website in a browser and " This is my first website" will appear and a blank page. If you have done this correctly then, congratulations on starting your very first website.
To find out more interesting codes or just a list of html codes you can use to better your site go to W3schools, it is a site that is extremely useful for beginner web designers.

Getting Started With Flash

Ever wanted to create a motion tween animation with flash? This brief tutorial will show you exactly how to get started with flash. To get started you need to know what a motion tween is. A motion tween is simply the tweening of a symbol that starts in one location and ends in another. In flash all that is required for a motion tween is the beginning and end position of your symbol.
The first step to creating a motion tween is creating an object (eg: a circle) on the stage. You then have to convert that object into a symbol. This can be done by right clicking the object or selecting convert to symbol in the options menu. The next step is, to create a timeline, this will determine how long your motion tween will be. To create a timeline you need to insert 2 key frames (F6) in different places on the timeline (eg: at 0 seconds and at .6 seconds). The next step is, select your first key frame and place your symbol into it, then in your second key frame you can copy and paste your symbol into that frame and move it into a different position. Finally by right clicking your timeline you will be able to select "create motion tween" this will highlight that section blue. This then converts that segment of you timeline into a motion tween. What you should see is your object moving from one area of the screen to another.
For a more advanced a detailed tutorial of motion tweens with flash, check this out.

I have recently discovered a pair of young talented artists who are also husband and wife. Aj and Melelina LaGasse are both self taught artists who, only in 2000, started showing their art work to the world. Many of their paintings range in style and medium however each individual artist manages to put their own twist on every piece they do.

Melelina's art style has been called "outsider art" as well as " raw art" and "folk art". She is known for her abstract paintings which are filled with lively and bright colors as well as a variety of brush techniques. All of her paintings cover the canvas completely, leaving no negative space. To this day Melelina continues to "broaden her pallet" by exploring other art styles such as art deco, cubism, abstract and contemporary.

Aj is also an extremely powerful artist who's works range from impressionism to realism and surrealism. Aj always tries to portray the joy and happiness of life through his artwork. He believes that by surrounding yourself with positive energy and colorful environments, you artwork will portray the positive part of you in your art. He is known for his variety of colorful and expressive sunset paintings.

Both of the artist only paint landscapes and outdoor scenes. this is so because they feel as though nature heps them portray their mood onto the canvas. Both of them make a living of selling their paintings online. Over 1300 of their paintings can be found on 5 different continents. Even though they sell the majority of their work, a lot of their work has been donated to a variety of charities and galleries.

Here are some of their pieces........enjoy.

Good Vs Bad Websites

A good website is shown by its use of the 10 effective principals of web design. An example of a good website is lockerz.com. Lockerz.com is a good site because it is simplistic, easy to navigate and grabs the users attention. The navigation bar on lockerz is effective because it only has 5 main section headings that are also in a variety of bright and bold colors. This is effective because it is not only simple but due to the colors and how they contrast with the background the site, they capture the users attention near the top left side of the page, which is one of the first places that the user looks at when first entering the site. Another factor that proves that this is a good site is the fact that when first entering the site the layout is aesthetically pleasing and it doesn't have a lot of text to read. Instead it captures the users attention with the use of pictures and videos. This makes the user more interested in the site and more likely to stay and see what the site is about. Another reason why this site is so effective is the layout. All of the important information is in the top hand corner and near he left side and center of the page. The layout format follows an "F" pattern an because of this, the user is can quickly scan over the site and see all of their information that they want you to see. Overall, what makes lockerz a good site is it's simplistic and effective layout, contrasting colors and simple background and its' use of clear text which essentially draws the user into the site, because it doesn't require the user to think upon entering.

A bad website can be characterized by its overall ability to keep the user on the site. An example of a bad website is wow.com. This is a bad website because it doesn't have a navigation bar so it makes it extremely hard to find other things on the website. Another reason why this site is not a good one is the fact that it is too simple. There is not enough information on the actual site to draw a users attention to it. This site also has a poor layout. The colors used are all dark and non-welcoming, also when first entering the site there is no way to tell what the site is about. Another factor that makes this site a bad site is that there is to much small text. This shows that it is a bad site because a lot of text is not going to draw a user into the site. Overall, the fact that this site to simplistic and lacks details which would be helpful to the user, makes it a bad site.

Henri Matisse

Born 1869 was one of the leaders of Les Fauves movement.

In 1890, He studied under Bouguereau at the Academic Julian.

Henri Matisse's work is of the fauves style for two major reasons. the main reason is because he was one of the founders and leaders of the fauvist style. He also is known for his powerful brush strokes and exaggerated use of color.
I think that he is the best artist that illustrates the Fauves style because he is the most well rounded. He is able to use powerful strong brush strokes and dramtic colors with out the painting being overpowering. He has the perfect balance between color, brush strokes and overall technique.



Andre Derain

Andre Derain, as well as Matisse was also one of the founders and leaders of the fauvist style.

He is one of the more significant artist who practiced this style because his paintings had everything. He was known for his drastic brush strokes and dramatic colors however he was known more for his landscapes in this style.

Fauvism

Les Fauves (French for the wild beast) refers to how wild and strong the brush strokes were in these paintings in the early 19th century.

This style's main focus was on strong powerful brush strokes and powerful color. This style began around the 1900's however this style only lasted only lasted a couple of years, and it only had three major exhibitions.

Fauvism to artist meant using extremely intense colors in a unnatural way.

The fauvist movement was a group of artist who painted landscapes or people in wild colours and distorted brush strokes. For the purpose of expressing an object in a new non realistic way. It was a new form of expressionism.

This style was only popular for a short period of time because many artist thought that it was too dramatic for that time period.

This style started in the early 19th and was over by 1910.

There were many significant artist in this time period. Henri Matisse and Andre Derain were two of the really significant artist of this time period. Maurice De Vlaminck was also one of the really significant artist of this time period.

History Of Typography

Before type people would print either by chiseling, brushing or writing via pen or pencil. The history and development of typography started with early printers (people who could write), who essentially were typographers.
The first independent typographer was Claude Garamond, Claude was the first to make a variety of type available to printers. Garamond's type was based on Griffo, a roman font. The development of typography was a long process, and there were many times when the progression of typography was almost non-existent. One of the weakest periods for type development was between the 16th and 17th century. At this time many newsprints, fliers, and advertisments contained muxes of size fonts and styles on a single page.
Moveable type was invented in Europe around 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. Although the invention of moveable typography was an undertaking, no one knows exactly how long it took. Moveable typography was done with the casting of each individual letter, symbol and punctuation. This meant that they all had to be individually cut into steel by hand. After each letter symbol and punctuation was cut they could then be assembled and re-assmbled to create various words.

El Anatsui was born in Anyako in 1944. he is one of the world’s best sculptors as well as professors and had done outstanding work across the world. His recent project that he has been working on is his acclaimed cloth series. He has made large cloth/blanket using bottle tops and has designed many of these blankets to resemble traditional African woven blanket designs. These art pieces are representative of mosaics and are really amazing.

He uses metal bottle caps as his medium to portray that metal doesn’t have to always be rigid and hard but it can be portrayed as a soft and pliable material. This with the right manipulation can be show as something completely outstanding. El Anatsui’s art tends to be on the larger scale which only emphasizes the detail and dedication he has towards his passion.

His message to the world is to portray the ignorance and in a way blindness of the way people act and the actions that they make. To emphasize all these barriers and boundaries of society. With his help and his art we can only start to break down these walls. This is consistently shown throughout his work. His art also shows the importance of usign material from your own surrondings and that there needs to be amovement of change, and that he has taken the first step with his art.

I personally connect with not only his work but his message because I agree with it. I truly believe that we need to take a step to better the planet instead of destroy it. Which is why I not only support his message but I also want to do something about and be apart of that change. The first steps starts with my participation ROM project. I believe that art is not just something you look or do. I believe that it is something you feel and that you grasp which is why I feel that art should be emotional, mental and physical.

Above are pictures of his work and a picture of the artist himself El Anatsui.