The Art Institute

Adventures in Art Classes

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Life Drawing – Skeletons?

First homework assignment was to draw the skeletal system.  And they call this “Life” drawing? After obsessing over the first drawing and getting totally lost in a rib cage (seriously! on the second one I ended up numbering them as I went), the other 4 went suprisingly fast.  Not my preferred drawing subject, and it definately made me glad I was not in the medical field; however, it was interesting learning. 

There was a sort of macabre fascination at first, especially since I put the teeth in the initial skeleton and then had him grinning at me for several laborious hours.  That was off-putting, to put it mildly. (I almost gave him a name, it became so personal!)  However, after the first couple of hours were over, I forgot about my leering subject and became engrossed in the wonder of God’s great design.  Amazing and truly beyond words. I love the works of His hands.  The psalm kept running through my head, “we are fearfully and wonderfully made.”    (Psalm 139:14)

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Funny (not!) how I bombed the test on the bone names we were to memorize.  My head didn’t come back from lunch that day!  I even forgot to label the ribs. I saw the spot for it and thought “that one is easy” then forgot to fill it in.  I am blaming it on the sinus migraine! This week I was battling it every day and it really makes me scatterbrained. Embarrassingly so!

[Note:  Psalm 139:14 declares, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” The context of this verse is the incredible nature of our physical bodies. The human body is the most complex and unique organism in the world, and that complexity and uniqueness speaks volumes about the mind of its Creator. Every aspect of the body, down to the tiniest microscopic cell, reveals that it is fearfully and wonderfully made. From gotquestions.org]

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Whoa… bad design… bad!

Sorry… just had to put this on here!  For the online classes students always give an introduction of themselves to be posted by Tuesday of that first week.  Tuesday came and I puttered around getting life taken care of when lo and behold I approach my normally simple first post only to realize the teacher also wanted us to illustrate it in Photoshop, demonstrating what we know. 

What I know? I avoid Photoshop like a plague from … well… where plagues come from!   In addition, a project and discussion question were both due on Wed. and I had just filled that day full of classes.  So basically… it was all due on Tuesday.

I am including the disaster to show the progress I make over the next 5 weeks, because it can only get better!!! Oh… this went along with text introducing myself. 

No critiques, please.  I know it is a bomb, but on the other hand, the teacher will hopefully feel fantastic about his teaching ability when my final project looks 200% better! (That was my purpose all along… I promise!)

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Mondays can turn on you!

This quarter, the first quarter of my new identity of Graphic Designer, started out slow… for about 4 hours.  Monday class was a pleasure just to walk into… there sat some of my favorite students with one of the top design teachers leading it.  I was planning to only take 2 ground classes and 2 online this quarter, so things were looking very easy and manageable.

However, after class Rachel and I bumped into Brad and Devon…then we 4 get to talking and decide we need to descend upon our teacher to get our assignments she still had from 2 quarters ago…and while in the teacher’s lounge, other teachers were popping in and out of our little chaotic group giving us old projects they had (these are often placed on the hallway walls for a quarter or more.)  Then lo and behold Jacob Dobson asked if I was in one of his Life Drawing classes (a class I dearly need but was waiting for him to teach.  I had been told he wasn’t teaching it.)

That is how things happen… fast and furious sometimes.  Next thing you know I have added another ground class onto Wed. and my schedule is crammed!  I dropped the online that would start in 6 weeks, but for the 1st 5.5 weeks it will feel like taking 5 classes.  Then it will ease up and only be the 3 ground courses.  But the initial workload through October is a bit staggering.

So… new schedule:

  1. Monday afternoon Corporate Communications (Beth is always a delight as a teacher, no matter the topic, and being the social person I am…there are some cool fellow students in there and that makes me happy.)
  2. Wednesday afternoon Life Drawing with a fantastic artist and instructor, Jacob Dopson.  Funny thing… Beth (see #1 above) is auditing the class!  That is very fun!
  3. Wednesday night is Design Layout (InDesign software and a fundamental design course.)
  4. Online 5.5 weeks – an advanced Photoshop class. 

The teachers this quarter are steller.  I will have to do a brag sheet on each of them and link to their  websites.  After the first Wed. night I came home with my head about to explode and the sure feeling that there is a lot to learn this quarter!  Now to apply myself! >>>back to homework…

From my favorite lolcats site…

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Feast of the Hunters’ Moon

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My greatest inspiration for painting comes from nature and life around me. My greatest inspiration for living comes from sharing life with “my kids”.  Mix the two and you have a winning combination, in my book.

The Saturday before classes would start up heralded a favorite outdoor Fall activity and this time my sister and her kids joined me. The Feast of the Hunters’ Moon on the Wabash river near Lafayette, Indiana, is a family activity that is very interactive for all age levels.  For the kids, it was a living history lesson and will be counted for one of their homeschool trips.  For me it was a delightful opportunity to experience the world once again through their eyes. 

As for the camera work… well, it was difficult to do with one hand being gripped so tightly by a 6 year old, but I managed to get Nathanael to let go a few times in order to get some shots.

Click here to learn more about this annual activity.

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Fall Break – the zoo (again!)

The zoo is a favorite Indy destination of mine and I hope you enjoy it too since I will be going there a lot with my membership.  This time, Rachel Leigh joined me and we spent a day downtown before before classes start up on Monday.

However… we hit the zoo early and found that there were few visitors and the animals were up and about!  There is always something different to see no matter when you go, but during the week early before lunch has to be one of the best times for catching the animals and avoiding the crowds!

So if you enjoy zoo photos…here are a few for you. 

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We also visited the Eiteljorg once again… they have added 2 new exhibits, one which is by Robert Griffing, (an Art Institute of Pittsburg graduate!  I take my online classes through that facility.) When here with the kids last week, we went through these a bit too quickly so I wanted to return. Rachel and I had a lot of fun critiquing the 2010 paintings on exhibit and examining the history behind Robert’s paintings.

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2010 Fall Break

I kicked off my break a little early with a trip to the Eiteljorg Museum with my sister and niece and nephew.  The kids had a wonderful time and so did I.  It is such fun to introduce children to new experiences!  I think I get more out of it than they as I relive the newness through their eyes and fresh minds.

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Sat. night we had a girls night out at my favorite restaurant, The Eagles Nest. We consumed a delectable repast (roast duck for me!)  We watched the sunset upon the city and enjoyed the pleasure of the harmonious blending of live piano, laughter, and pleasant conversation.

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What I learned in quarter 5…

NOTE:  We ended this quarter with a very unusual Harvest Moon that comes around once in a rare 20+ years.  I kept running outside to see it’s beauty (and to see if I could photograph it.)  I even stayed up until 11:09 just to see the moon riding high with  Jupiter nestled close by in the deep folds of the night like a diamond on black velvet.  It was stunning.

So, just what DID I learn this quarter?  As I made this list, I began to wonder why can’t learning be fun, easy, and painless?  This quarter wasn’t as bad as the previous 4, but it had some tough moments!  Here are my insights in random order:

  • If you are not in the zone, then don’t bother coding.
  • CSS can be a beautiful thing…or it can be really, really ugly.
  • Adobe Flash is clugy, difficult, and scary because it can crash without warning.  But it is pretty and when it works, and it is fun.
  • Pain and coding are synonymous… get used to it.
  • I get some sort of twisted thrill out of clean code, properly commented, doing what it is supposed to do.
  • I can read code now!  Wow!  I mean, that is really, really wonderful and I am sure it will come in useful. Somewhere. I think. But I am not going to worry about that right now.
  • Hanging with the programmers and computer geeks (sorry Brad… not trying to put you in a box!) is really fun… you get the opportunity to learn about all sorts of new technologies and are introduced to breathtaking sites that they discover in their travels around the internet! I am definately going to miss that as I slide into the graphic design world next quarter.  😦 sad.
  • Breathtaking sites… they are beautiful yet intimidating to a novice designer/programmer.
  • Coding has an intriguing aspect, but I really am an artist / designer – that is my thrill and I missed it this quarter since I was constrained to design only what I could then turn around and code.
  • Taking 2 ground and 2 online classes is smart.  I am doing it again next quarter.

Additions by Charlotte:

  • If your roomie is doing her coding finals, it is a good time to take a vacation.
  • Earbuds are great investments.
  • Finals: get ready for the 3 “ings”:  crying, sighing, denying
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Electronic Design Final

This was an amazing online class!  Fellow students were fully engaged and the instructor actually taught us (and seemed to enjoy it!)  He stands out as one of my best online instructors and has raised the bar for any future instructors!

Remember, for this class we have a single client.  Mine is Squangles, my own business in which I have partnered with poet, Charlotte Franck, to create unique children’s designs on furniture.

Requirements:

  • Demonstrate typographical hierarchy and best practices 
  • Marketing:  display a giveaway
  • 4 pages
  • use a grid
  • and a few other incidentals (font choice is from a previous week’s discussion, a well as the logo)

I also chose this one because in all my tallying of the various polls and feedback, 1 and 3 tied.  However, the teacher chose #2 and I decided to go with that and see what I could do with my least favorite of the 3 designs.  It gives my business a very different feel than I originally was thinking, but I ended up loving it.  Tell me what you think!

Now I am really wanting to code the thing in Flash!  Crazy!  Aaarrgghhhh… I think there is more of a geek in me than I want to admit!

There is one thing I would change if I ever take it “live” – I would add my illustrations to each page.  That would kick it up a notch, I think.  Black and white outline, or maybe my puppy… something simple yet “me”.

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A Flash Portfolio

This quarter was all about coding and designing websites!  Made for a very technical quarter, which was an odd experience after a year concentrating on design.  I have been learning a lot of software, but coding somehow made me feel like I was back in business college or working on one of my jobs! 

I actually enjoyed using Flash once I spent time with the tutorials.  It is easier than html/css, but can be just as frustrating when you can’t find that dilatory “.” or “,”!  It can also do some weird and wacky things with no explanation and there were horror stories of Flash projects not working or crashing.  That makes the heart drop!  I was saving extra copies all over the place!

Here is my final portfolio site (remember… again, it was about hitting the requirements and creating as little pain for myself as possible.  Also… I don’t like transitions too well, so I did not use them.)

Oh…by the way, there is an “Easter egg” in this… meaning a hidden link.  Can you find it?

Click here for the working site!

The home page... and go from there!

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Electronic Design Web Prework

What is with this quarter?  It’s another website final, but this time it is only designing (as opposed to coding.)  In week 5 we did the prework and 3 mockups and week 6 we will be choosing the final design and completing 3 sub pages.  Here are my thumbnails for the homepage as well as 3 of my favorite layouts.  Now that I think about it, the layouts were probably supposed to all be in the same colors, but I had fun playing around with ideas and different color schemes.

I am not sure which is my favorite!  The red circles are the 3 I chose to use in my mockups.

Thumbnails of 10 different layouts

Option 1 would have clickable photos that enlarge and have a description

Option 2 - lots of color and large scrolling images

Option 3 - a bit more soft / classy