Shark Thing

Typography Silhoettes

For the Z I decided to invert the shadows,  mostly as the letter overlapped with the side and I didn't want to crop if possible

Silhoettes creating using masking in photoshop of the examples of typography I found in and around derry. In making the Silhoettes the shapes of the letters becomes clearer, looking much more like its own font.

In doing this I can see possibilities for the letters, in particular the Z. Other letters where they were found in markings on the ground are also interesting, especially when the detail is can be seen even in the shadow. this means that even though the letter forms are more clearly visible, there are still touches that make them stand out from other fonts and lettering that can be found.

Wine Glass

Lego Brick

 More fun with 3D Max, this time I made a lego brick.

This exercise used some more techniques that are new to me, that will be very useful in the future. For the brick I used exact measurements that linked with the programs grid, making the drawing and measuring of the object that much easier.

To start with the simple shapes were created, this time using the snap tool to keep it in line with the grid. The cylinders were linked with the block using a Boolean. This could also be used to hollow out the block, subtracting one object from another.

Sketch Book part 2

Some more sketches from last semester, mostly experimenting with tone or different objects that I have found out and about, whatever caught my interest at the time.


Colour pencil detail of folds in clothes, using several shades of brown and yellow to add greater depth to the image. I love this way of working, as blending several tones together like that is a simple way of really bringing a picture to life, while essentially keeping the same method of working as before.

A step up from fold in clothes was paper, which I screwed up and drew from life. The colour picture was done in oil pastel, and took a lot of rough scribbling before I was able to find the folds and refine them. I love the sharpness of the creases there, and the depth of the shadow.

One thing I like to be able to do when possible is a study of an object using different viewpoints and materials. Two of my favourite mediums are ink pen and colour pencil, as I find that I can get different types of great detail with these, and they complement each other well.

 These last images are details of bones from a stag skeleton I found in some forest behind my house. Although the skeleton was whole, I decided to pick a few pieces, and the leg bone and vertebra were the mopst recognisable.

They also worked well together as the shapes and textures are so different.

 

Sketch Book

Thought I would show some samples from last semesters sketchbook, as it seems that my focus will be on digital drawing and concept sketches for the forseeable future, and less on traditional still life and other drawing.  While in this case we were required to focus on quick sketches, it is the the detailed illustrations that I enjoy doing the most, as it allows me to get lost in the drawing and really focus on the detail.

My cat Indy, with charcoal, details in pen.

For many of these sketches I chose charcoal and chalk pastels, as ot only are these mediums I need practise in, but they also forced me to work quickly, as this is what they are best suited for.

For animals in particular who are constantly moving, getting a quick charcoal sketch is very useful.

Indy again, this time with pencil.

 After animal studies I decided to focus on the human body, in particular hands and feet, which are notoriously difficult and which I needed practice on.

I loved the effect that fine line pens had in showing the tendons of the feet

While I worked from observation and from my own feet, these sketches are from drawings in a book, as it seemed the easiest way to teach myself directly about the structure and flexibility of feet without worrying about the difficulty of drawing from life.





These hands were more an experiment with colour than anything. I used the method of switching between the same 4 colour every 10 seconds, only building the form of the hands after I had got the basic colours on.

This is an interesting way of working, and helpful im making me loosen up as normally my drawing is very tight and conrolled. In the original there is more red and green visible than seen here, though that is just the quality of the upload.

With these hands I was experimenting with the strengths of the different materials used, emphasising the form, movement and folds of the hands, and also with light and shade.

Hand manikin, in blue biro and black fine liner

I found this hand manikin, intended to help artists draw the hand, was a good way of combining my interest in hand joints with the details of drawing woodgrain, and smooth man made objects. In this way it is a mixture of natural and artificial elements, which interests me.

As I used blue and purple chalk pastel, I had to  sacrifice detail for tone

I also enjoy working on eyes, as I feel that in portraits in particular these the most important part - the window to the soul. If there is something wrong with the eyes, the whole picture will look wrong.

However unlike most other features such as hands, it is often very difficult to tell what is wrong with an eye, it could be the angle, the size of the pupils or a subtle difference in the highlights.

The only way I can really get used to seeing this is with practice, focusing particularly on the detailed folds around the eyes, and on drawing from unusual angles.

More 3D

 Still messing around with the features of 3D max, this time using control points to manipulate a box into a unique shape. More a chance to get used to the controls and possiblilities than a serious attempt at creating an object, here are a few random stages from along the way


At first the focus was on rounding the object, getting rid of the right angles and any evidence that it was once a box. With the front and sides extended it srted to look like a spaceship, which seems to be the default shape when messing around like this - everything ends up looking like a shaceship.



 Having done this I decided to actively try and make a spaceship, with mixed results.

At this stage I was still working with 3x3x3 points, which was very limiting. The way I had manipulated them at the beginning meant that at this point there were only a few movable points at the back of the object, meaning there was only so much more the shape could be adjusted.

 It was around this time I started to realise that the shape resembled a kind of stylised shark, perhaps a tiger shark, particularly around the front end.
I increased the number of control points and tried to extend the back into some kind of tail. Again I was only marginally successful.

While the shape ended up vaguely shark like, I was still unable to form a successful tail fin

At the end I am reasonably pleased with the results, and definitely gained some useful knowledge about manual moulding of a object. I will definitely some back to this shape as I learn more about what I am doing.

Lego Head Model

Still practising with 3ds max, I am working on making objects from scratch, modelling them to fit my needs. This lego head was created to exact proportions, and I found it was a handy way of getting used to using exact calculations, and combining several shapes to make a new object.

This screenshot of 3ds max shows the 4 viewpoints and
mesh that help with the 3d modelling process

The head was created using three seperate, simple shapes, fit to the dimentions found here:

http://snively.blogspot.com/
Once I had the basics figured I found it a faily easy process, and I am happy with the results so far so hopefully the body wont be too much of a challenge.


There is potential for even the simple skills needed to make this object, and hopefully it wont be long before I can tackle larger and more complicated projects. In the mean time I'll finish the body.

Human Model Tutorial

Lately I've been spending time practising with 3D program Autodesk 3ds Max, trying to increase my knowledge of the program and become at ease with using it. One of the excerises designed to help me with this is the customisation of a human manakin, from a standard template to a personalised figure

 The figure on the left here is the standard female template, while the one on the right has been altered to my proportions, from a few key measurments taken.



 While I feel the result is a little rough round the edges, it was a good learning experience for me, as I found myself coming to grips with the basics of the program fairly quickly, and retaining that knowledge to use in my own way rather than just following the tutorial.

Typography In Unexpected Places

While researching the uses of type in our lives, i also collected photos of examples where natural or unintentional lettering can be found. I am not sure whether the ease of finding such objects is because we are so used to reading text that we see it everywhere, or whether the letters we have settled on simply re-occur numerous times in nature.

Many of the objects seen here are again very common, some featuring lettering shapes more obvious than others

As I was unsure about the clarity of the colour versions in terms of seeing the text, I included a two tone sepia version. In some cases this makes the images clearer, and also helps to tie the different photos together as one piece.

Typography In Everyday Life

As research into different types and uses of typography, I took photos of existing examples and collaged them together.
I found it interesting not only how many varieties of type there were, but also how many of these letters are in plain view, and yet we have become so accustomed to being surrounded by type in our day to day lives that we rarely notice it anymore

Many of these examples of lettering were found in and around the campus, on anything from roads and cars to lifts

Messing With Adobe

Spent some time getting used to Abobe Indesign editing the design of my last post and messing around with tthe asthetics. It is an interesting experiment for me, especially as a way of learning to focus on the design potential in typography alone, without having to add new images or even colour.

To coin a phrase

We've all heard the phrase 'to coin a phrase', but what does it actually mean?

'To coin a phrase' is actually an idiom, or expression used to describe the creation of a new figure of speech. The person who first used this expression or description is the one who coined it.
While this was the original defintion of the phrase it is now rarely used in this way, and is instead used ironically before a cliched or overused staement, meaning instead 'as one might say'. Used in this way its purpose is to draw attention to the cliche, or even as an admission that you know it is a cliche and you're using it anyway.

While there is no record of the person that coined the phrase 'to coin a phrase',  the earliest use of it is from an american newspaper in 1848, it has been widely used sinse the mid 20th century. The name comes from the method of creating coins, during which they are 'coined', or created by stamping the metal with a die. The word coin itself was originally derived fron the early 14th century meaning of coin, which meant wedge, and was used to describe the wedge shaped dies used in the creation of money. The metal blanks which were 'coined' by the dies later took their name.

The phrase later became associated with language, and the coining of words was used to refer to linguistic inventions. Spakespeare referred to the coining of language in Coriolanus

"So shall my Lungs Coine words till their decay."  

Interestingly, while most phrases come into popular usage by chance, there are still people who actively try and get phrases coined, as in this blog: http://coinaphrase.blogspot.com/

 

It begins

Ok, blog is officially up and running, from now on my dumping ground for all thoughts and things arty, aswell as some uni coursework of course. Letsa go!