Category: Education (Page 3 of 4)

So I have 3 Digital Art projects down.  The next one is moving a little bit outside the creative realm and more into the graphic design realm.  We need to create a retail package of some sort with the theme being something about self-improvement.  For this project we will need to use a container template, design the packaging to fit in the constraints of the template, print the template and design on cardstock, and then cut and build the package.  I’m not really looking forward to this as I know that graphic designers do some amazing and creative things, I’m not very good at it and I don’t particularly enjoy doing it.  I’m going to spend the next few days just coming up with a theme and then selecting my template to work with the theme.  Let’s hope I can come up with something good so I can maintain my grade in the class.

My last project was generally well received by my classmates when we did the discussion during the last class.  I was not particularly satisfied with it, but perhaps my eye is being more critical than theirs.  It isn’t a bad thing if I’m being more critical of it.  As far as I can see, that critical eye will help me create the best piece I can.  I’m anxious to receive the instructor’s critique about it.

Work continues on my other 2 research projects.  To be honest I didn’t get very far at all this weekend as far as those went as I pretty much just played Dragon Age: Origins when I was at home.  The good news is that I completed the game.  Now on to other matters.

I found out that I’ve completed the requirements for my AAS Management degree using the 2007-08 Academic Catalog.  I completed these requirements but for some stupid reason never applied for graduation.  That will be something I do this week in order to receive that degree at the end of the summer term here at the college.  As far as my other goal, that’s in a little bit of a nebulous state right now.  When I did some cross-comparisons of course numbers, I’m finding that the University of Houston does not have any corresponding numbers to some of the classes I’ve taken thus far (which really applies to my natural science and math credits).  There are also a couple of questions I have concerning courses already taken.  I plan to take a mini-term class in May in order to fulfill my Governmnet II requirement, but beyond that I’m going to need some guidance from the University on which direction I should go in the Fall semester.  My biggest problem is finding time to get down to the University of Houston (I live on the NW side of the Houston, the UH main campus is about 10 miles south of downtown) and then finding the right person to speak with.  I do know I need to get this figured out soon.

Right now I’m on a campus library computer as my English class did not meet tonight.  For the entire month of April we are doing presentations (for our research project) and nobody signed up for tonight (which is no wonder, it would have only given people ONE week to do a major research project).  So now I guess I will get off here and head home to spend some time with my wife and my dogs.  You all have a good evening and I’ll be back soon with another update.

PS – I can feel my muse starting to whisper in my ear again…  let’s see what she inspires me to do next.

My project is finally done!  I worked on it today thinking I only had a few adjustments to make and then after my evening classes I would spend an hour, maybe two, finishing it out, printing it, and enjoying my handiwork.  Here I am, four and a half hours later, finally pulling the print off my Epson.  This has definitely been a long journey.  Since it’s officially Thursday, I will now grace you with my latest Digital Art project, entitled “Evil Eye” (WARNING: Those who are sensitive to religion-based symbols and/or the occult may want to close this window now):

Click Image to Embiggen

This project went through three revisions before I finally settled on the concept.  Pulling together the elements was the simplest part.  Getting them to mesh in a believable way was the hard part.  I still think I can do better, but this is the first time I’ve really done anything like this.  Also, from what I’ve seen in many publications, I think my first try isn’t too bad.  There are definitely a lot of photo manipulation projects out there that are a lot more technically (as well as aesthetically) flawed than this one.

This is due in about six hours, so I really can’t afford to spend any more time trying to tweak it.  Apart from that, I definitely need to practice some more with my fine control and making selections with the selection tools in Photoshop (I ended up using a lot of layer masks and slices of different layers to get the arrangements correct).   Based on what I just accomplished (I think I spent a total of 20 hours working this particular project), I’m now a little nervous about the fourth project, which I’ll be receiving today.

Well, everyone, let me know what you think.  Do you like it?  Hate it?  Don’t really care either way?  Critiques of my work are always welcome.  As for me right now, though, I am going to try to get a couple of hours of sleep before heading to class (my rhythms have been off since DST kicked in and it’s only getting worse).  So, off to dreamland I go.  Goodnight, everyone.

Work continues apace on the Digital Art project.  I’m finding this experience frustrating as hell, but rewarding all the same.  I have the final planned element in place.  At this point, however, it’s going to be a matter of executing the steps to make it match my vision for the project.  I believe tomorrow is more lab time in the class (as the projects are due on 31 March 2011) so I will be able to consult my professor for any advice on muddling through this difficult part.  Wish me luck on that.

Tomorrow I’ll be speaking with an advisor on assessing my academic status as well as trying to craft a plan to get into the University of Houston’s Bachelor’s of Fine Arts program.  I’m quite certain I’ve completed the requirements for an AAS Management degree.  I say that because as of a couple years ago I had.  I, however, never applied for graduation so therefore I can’t guarantee the program catalog for that degree is still valid.  I was going to attempt to enter the Physical Therapist Assistant program, but after 3 classes (all pre-requisites, so no guarantees I would get in anyway as I don’t think my A&P grades would have been up to snuff) I decided that it just wasn’t for me.  Photography is calling me and that is where I want to concentrate my life’s work.  But I digress…

Speaking of school, this is gearing up to be a heck of a final exam season.  Coming up I have, aside from 2 more major Digital Art projects, a presentation, an audio tour (with accompanying research paper), a major research project for English (with its own 30 minute presentation), 2 more exams, and final exams in all 3 classes.  Of course, I have to find time to work and do all the other living stuff.  I’m just wondering how I’m going to get through this at the BFA level hehe.  This definitely isn’t proving to be one of my more fun semesters, but I’ll get through it.  As they say, sleep is overrated…

And with that, it’s nearly 1 am here in Houston, TX, so now I will try to go grab some of that fabled sleep and get my butt up on time for Digital Art class in the morning.  Goodnight, everyone.

I have to begin by apologizing for the lack of updates.  I got busy the past few weeks with various work and school-related things.  Earlier this week I woke up with a fever, which was really bad because I had 2 exams scheduled that day.  I only hope the essays I wrote on them were coherent enough to at least earn me an ‘E’ for effort.  The fever broke the next day, thankfully…  I just wish it would have never occured in the first place.

But I digress.  I completed my poster project for my Digital Art course.  I’m pretty proud of it, especially given the amount of work I put in regarding the concept, composition, and making sure each figure cut was the best it could be.  A lot of the last factor depends on fine control with the pen tablet I use, and I think I’m developing that fine control rather nicely, although I do have a long way to go.  I guess I could ask a surgeon how they keep up their manual dexterity, but I’ll leave that for another time.  Without further ado, here is “Charisma:”

Click image to see full size

I came up with the concept while working on my lab projects one night and a song by the same name came up in my iTunes mix.  A high level of charisma, as anyone with an original thought knows, is almost always an undesirable trait in a leader.  Yet, people fall for their words and eventually pay a terrible price before waking up.  Only one leader mentioned in that poster has been considered great, and two of them have yet to be judged.  The message here is to dig beneath the surface and think for yourself.

With that, I will now take my leave of you and try to recover some more.  I’m still quite congested and it’s not a good thing for me right now.  I have a big day planned tomorrow (first stop: Blue Man Group!) so I need to get all the rest I can.  Take care, everybody.

I showed my final project to the rest of the class yesterday.  A lot of people seemed to like it for its creativity and use of garish colors.  I was actually quite surprised to see how many people weren’t even half done with their projects on the due date.  I think the instructor is going to accept them late because of the inclement weather and resulting closure of the campus on 2 different occasions (thereby cutting off some from use of the open lab computers), but since I was done I can’t say I’m too worried about it.

The 3 courses I’m taking this semester are definitely taking up a lot of time outside the class.  You all know about the Digital Art course.  The Art History professor just dropped 2 major assignments on us (an audio tour and a scavenger hunt) that need to be started soon along with a 500 word essay that will be due next week.  I’ve been writing about one paper a week in my English course (why didn’t I take this class sooner when I had a smaller course load and less responsibility?).

But I have been shooting.  Below are the new additions to my gallery.  Let me know what you think.

Clicking on any of the above images will take you to my gallery, which is now starting to populate.  Soon I hope to have a splash page.

Have a good night, everyone!

The project is nearing completion in the creative phase.  Soon I will be in cleanup phase.  Here is how it looks as of about 3 minutes ago:

Click Image to Enlarge

I have some fine detail lines to finish up, then I need to fine a way to neatly paint in the field markers.  I may also go in and darken some colors in the shade areas in order to make it look a little more painterly.  Once that is done I can do the cleanup work like filling in missed spots and cleaning up some of the more messy lines.  I have a few titles kicking around in my head, but nothing set in stone.  I do know it will have something to do with the Smurfs.

Well, anyway, what do you all think so far?

This class is proving to be pretty fun.  I don’t particulary enjoy going through the lessons in the book, but I know that they will help me get more familiar and comfortable using the 5 gazillion tools that are available in Photoshop.  Last week I was given my first project for the class.  The project is to take a photo (can be digital or print), make it black and white if needed, and then to hand color the photo.  The instructor (someone for whom I have a great deal of respect) does not want us to color it like the original.  She wants us to get creative with the colors and to not be afraid to use some of the more funky brushes that are found in Photoshop.

I must admit it took longer than I thought it would to find a photograph to use, but in the end I selected one of my own:

Click the photo to enlarge.

I took this photo last summer at Minnesota Vikings Training Camp in Mankato, MN.  I thought this might make a good starting point since it has some detail, but is not so detailed as to require pixel-by-pixel coloring to get a good result.  I’ve been working on this since about Friday for about 2 hours each day.  It’s definitely taking longer than I thought it would, but it’s coming along very nicely.  I’ll share with you all once I have the final coloring done.

Yesterday I began the next step in my evolution. My Digital Art course began yesterday and today my Art History I and Composition II courses begin. I’m looking forward to the art courses as well as the composition course. The composition course, aside from being a requirement, will definitely help hone my critical thinking skills as well as my writing. I have to admit that I’m a little ambivalent about Art History I. I suppose it will help give me a sense of where the collective art world has come from and where it can go, but frankly I found art history utterly boring in high school. Hopefully the instructor can find a way to make it exciting and challenging on a deeper level than just looking at ancient scultpures honoring the sacred feminine.

The digital art course is the one that piques my interest the most.  For all of my post-processing work I use Adobe Lightroom 3, which I find gives better results and finer control than Apple Aperture.  I tried using Photoshop CS2 to do RAW processing, but found it to be incredibly lacking in terms of control and output.  It eventually got to the point where I used CS2 for 3 purposes:  TWAIN capture, correction of scratches and dust spots from film scans, and as a vehicle for making prints with my Epson R2880.  I pretty much taught myself how to do these things (and a few more), which I count as a small victory.  Photoshop is a very large, very powerful, and not very user-friendly monolithic program that can be daunting when one is exposed to it for the first time.  Tips and tricks from various websites have helped here and there, but I’m thinking that in order to unlock its true power I’m going to need a structured setting.  Now that I have a copy of Photoshop CS5 (thank you, education discount!!) I can couple that with the course and truly create some good stuff.  The fact that this is a requirment for a BFA Photography doesn’t bother me in the least.

In the next month or so I hope to sit down with an advisor and hammer out a plan of attack in order to apply for the BFA Photography program at the University of Houston.  Entrance to the program is competitive but I still need these courses (along with a few others) in order to apply.  Of course, between my dental issue and my current bout with kidney stones I hope I can find an opportunity soon.  Also, this will give me plenty of time to really beef up my portfolio.

Well, I must get back to work…  have fun everybody.

I knew I wanted to include at least one picture of one of my dogs in my final project once the vision of direction became clear.  I was originally going to do them all in digital (since material waste isn’t a factor) but since I had exhausted my ideas with 35mm I decided to see if I could luck out on finishing the roll.  As luck would have it, I did get some really good photos with my 35mm film camera, but of course, I had to decide which one would make the final cut.  It was by no means an easy task.

I really liked this picture of Ozzy, my Beagle, but it seemed there was something not quite right with this one.  The colors were good and the soft focus gave him a smooth look (Beagles tend to have small but apparent wrinkles on their snouts and jowls, which is one of the reasons they have such powerful noses).  It finally hit me that the reflections of light in his eyes were what threw the entire photo off.  The reflections give him an otherworldly look that to left me feeling a little less than comfortable.  So, this shot went out the window.  I was kinda disappointed as this was my first choice upon inspecting the negatives prior to scanning.

I liked this picture first and foremost for the composition.  It isn’t your conventional animal portrait.  Both dogs are looking in the same general direction and Sharon (the German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix) is looking forward with intent while Angela (the black German Shepherd) is trying to figure out what’s going on.  The biggest problem I encountered with this one was a matter of depth-of-field, with Angela not being fully in focus.  There was also the problem with the Newton rings on Angela (that’s a downside to using flatbed scanners for film).  Try as I might, I just could fully eliminate the rings.

I pity Ozzy sometimes when the ladies gang up on him.  This picture stopped a good bit of the action but there was just enough motion blur to give me a sense of the intensity of their play.  Compositionally this isn’t a bad shot and you can get a sense of Ozzy’s frustration by his expression and his baring of teeth.  Ultimately, though, I decided I wanted to go a little less violent with my picture selection.  Otherwise, this one may have made it in as the selection for the 35mm film camera.

Three young dogs tend to move very fast in their wrestling matches.  This photo was actually a mistake on my part as I forgot to double check the settings when I went from aperture-priority mode to full manual mode (for some stupid reason I thought they would remain the same).  The result was a nice motion blur.  The motion blur hides the violence rather well, but in the end I just wasn’t feeling this one.  When I look at it now, I think there was just a little too much blur in the photo.

This was one of the finalists in my search for the picture to be included in the final.  I loved the look on Angela’s face when I took this photo.  It has the look of a puppy (she was just over a year old at the time it was taken) with curiosity yet trying to maintain her composure in case her curiosity turned out to be danger.  The rejection came from the composition.  Her right ear is cut off at the tip while the left ear remains whole.  Also, there’s a little piece of something in the upper right corner of the photo that I found distracting.  I supposed I could have cropped it out, but to be honest the cropping did not look much better than the original.  Otherwise, I loved the tonality and color balance in this photo.

As you may or may not recall, this was my selection for inclusion in the final project.  Angela manages to keep an air of dignity about her as she fights through the exhaustion of her previous running around.  Also, she continues to watch for danger even while obeying my command to sit.  Compositionally this is a very simple photo, which is something I continually strive to accomplish.  The grass is vivid yet subdued enough that it doesn’t compete for attention with the subject of the photo.  Plus, in my opinion, Angela is a beautiful example of a black German Shepherd with German bloodlines.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I’m happy to report that I received an ‘A’ on my final project.  I only received one ‘B’ the entire semester (on a minor assignment) so my final grade should be an ‘A’ as well.  This semester really helped me find my creative vision once again.  Hopefully this will soon translate into more art from me as well as a continuation of my evolution.  Thanks to all of you for your kind words about my work this past 16 weeks and I’ll be checking in again real soon.