The Art Institute

Adventures in Art Classes

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Painting – Anachromatic

2nd painting was learning the “fat” over “lean” technique using gray scale. I found it very difficult to manage in the claustrophobic classroom space using the black and white items on a table. I am so used to painting with great lighting, in my own comfortable space, and with whatever time is needed that I simply couldn’t concentrate.

We blocked in the values, let it dry a week, then painted a thicker layer over that (fat over lean). The final touch was to paint in the details.

I just couldn’t get into it and finally brought it (and the shells) home to finish. By then I was “over it”, so I don’t feel this is a finished piece. I met the requirements and received an A, but don’t expect to see much of this piece in the future. The canvas will be better served by my painting over the top of it, if I may say so myself. (And yes, I am disappointed. I was hoping this would be more fun than it was.)

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Helvetica

Helvetica is a typeface that is used everywhere; however, have you ever thought about the history behind why signage looks so clean and crisp? Or where it originated? No? Well why not? A good way to learn about it is to watch the movie. Yes, there is a whole movie devoted to Helvetica. We watched it in our Adv. Typography class, wrote a paper on it, then created DVD cases using only the Helvetica font and our body copy.

The project did not enamor me at all, sorry to say. However, I loved (!!!) the movie and it gave me a lot to think about in my new career direction. If you watch the documentary then you might recognize that one case is Swiss style design (very crisp, clean, and no frills). The second (colorful, more expressive) one is “Swiss with a twist”.

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The “dull” work of a Graphic Artist

A graphic designer sometimes dips into the same work I have done for years as a technical writer in the corporate setting. Organizing complex information for ease of understanding and use is one of those skills demanded by both careers paths. The following form was an exercise given to us by our teacher. We each had to organize 3 pages of information into a form that would be easy to use utilizing the InDesign software.

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Highlights of my life in an infographic

Instructions were to create an infographic poster of our life. That was overwhelming, so I opted to simplify the info and physically paint the background, pushing for an Art Nouveau style.

I featured both the events and the people most influential in my life and inscribed it at the bottom:

His hand guides the brush that makes up the many colors on my journey to the woman He sees me to be. His heart shares the precious souls who make that journey worthwhile.

Project was docked a letter grade because of one misspelling. Sigh. I have since figured out how to turn on auto-spell check in InDesign. Adobe is not quite as intuitive as the Microsoft Suite with simple (obvious) things like that, so you have to do the thinking for it. If you don’t, it will trip you up.

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Final Cat Project Touchpoints

Having settled on a logo, I began to develop the brand for the the Rescue Me cat rescue center (a fictitious “zoo” homework project for Media Design that I have used to brainstorm ideas for a local cat rescue group that is in need of a logo and new website.)  It was a lot of fun!

Itsy Bitsy and Mitsy... my 3 iconic cats

As a part of the project we had to take the logo and develop the brand across 7 touchpoints.

A touchpoint is anything that is seen by others and is meant to represent the brand.  A couple of examples would be the front of the building or a map that is handed out at a zoo etc.

Click on the presentation link below to see all the touchpoints, which includes a van, a membership card, a website with 4 pages, and an event poster, as well as the two examples above:

garvin_final_presentation

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Library Assignment

Library assignments always involve research and references and we get one in every class. Once in a while we get to do something creative with our writing. This example is for Media Design. We researched 3 different creative jobs, wrote about them, and then put the information into a 2 page magazine layout. This was then mounted and turned in.

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Symbolic Logo

Week 5 of the online Design History course we were studying cross-cultural symbols. As an activity we were to create a logo for a company that shipped freight internationally. I am not yet proficient with whipping a logo out in just an hour or two, but I see this as more practice. The idea was to use symbols that would be understood across cultures and language barriers. I was going for shipping over sea, air, and land. We were to do 3 thumbnails and then create a logo from one of them.

Now that I look at it, I see that I sort of morphed it into something new. Still got an A (he is not grading creativity… just understanding of the concepts we are studying.)

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Painting – Expressionism

Joy Comes in the Morning
Joy Comes in the Morning

Sheri Garvin

11×14

oil on canvas

Expressionism showed up in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was an avant-garde movement that was reacting against the academic standards that were current at that time (naturalism and impressionism among others) and was more about the emotion than about the literal replication of the physical world.

For our first exercise in Painting class, the entire group was given the same layout of abstract lines on the canvas and told to simply paint what we see or feel in those lines for the next several hours. We were to get a feel for the water soluable oils and how they react to each other, the brushes, the water, and the canvas. It was amazing what showed up in our diverse group! Everything from beautiful abstract geometry to soft illusions to bunnies crying black tears to a duck with antlers. That being so, mine was the only one that came out choppy and looking like this!

This is a definite and radical departure from my own personal style, but that is what college is all about, right? I felt like exploring an expressive style, even though I did not get as bold as the Expressionists tended to get with their colors and lines. (Hey… baby steps!) I would like to learn to paint in different styles and this seemed like a good time to try it.

As this painting developed under my brush, the title and feeling presented itself. I was not searching for it, it just came, and that was a beautiful experience. It was fun. I still have not figured out my personal reaction to it… but I don’t have to. It just is. And right now it is hanging on our wall.

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Cat Logos Galore – 3

Final step with a logo is to narrow it down to the one you wish to use and then perform a color study.

I know there are “cuter” logos amongst my collection, but I chose this one because of the opportunity for growth that it holds. It is simple, clean, basic in form, and gives me options for playing off of the tail, as you will see in my final post. It can also grow with the business no matter if they take on dogs (which they sometimes do) or any products they might sell. The RM stands for Rescue Me, the organization I am working with. I chose to continue using that name to simplify what I was doing for classwork.

From that point we do a color study…

And finally, the finished product shown in the chosen colors, the pantone colors identified, and shown in a 1″ size to demonstrate how it would be seen at that smaller size.