Another fun discussion project in Art Direction class was a simple cropping activity with the 4th panel being a manipulation in Photoshop. This was showing how you can change the meaning of a photo with some very simple changes.
It did not matter which photo, so I dipped into a joyful moment last summer. My fellow students seemed to like it.
For the final in our Packaging class we were to choose a product and create a brand and packaging around it.
I was so crazy busy that I could not throw myself into it as I wished. My product choice was more a decision of what I had available for all the work it was going to encompass in the coming weeks. This particular class had a weekly final due date that landed on Tues., which was the same as my Illustration class that went 6-10 (after work), so I was late every week on the 4th deliverable. Very frustrating.
I chose to go with tea (because I have about 50+ different types of tea.) With all the research and photography we had to do of products, I knew I could not get to a store. This worked perfect.
First step was to perform research and document the findings. Thankfully, unlike most ground classes, we created a book, but did not have to print it due to the fast pace of the class.
Note: all but 3 photos are my own.
The logo was based off of an idea for English tea and leaning on the concepts of history, longevity, and class. Research showed that tea is rich in history and wealth. Wars were fought over it (our own rebellion during the Boston Tea Party is only one instance.) In England, high tea is actually a meal and not confined to the upper class, but I liked the sound of it and went with it. In this case, my main priority was to get the project completed. We were doing each phase in the matter of hours (usually it was due the night I was working on it.) I really was not focused on this project.
Art Direction was an online class that spanned 5.5 weeks. We covered a lot of ground and fast; however, the work was not extremely exciting to show, from my perspective.
One activity was that we were given headlines and told to create an ad from only that starting point. My teacher really liked my solutions.
Funny… I don’t think of myself as having even the slightest bent towards advertising.
The focus of this class was centered around spending our time crafting one illustration. It was an amazing experience in practicing patience, as well as pushing through doubt and the anxieties of “I am not good enough to pull this off.”
About halfway through it, I was struggling with the nuances of the painting, yet loving every minute of it. I was also still hanging onto the belief that I could never be a portrait artist. And as I looked at it, I knew the face was not right. It did not look at all like my brother, the face was all wrong, the proportions of the guitar and boots were off. It was driving me nuts.
Notice the white areas around the steps and boots. These are where I took sandpaper and removed most of the paint and started over, more than once. I was also using an exacto knife around edges and to sharpen some areas. I know it is not possible, but I felt like I removed more paint than I put on!
This is the artist’s angst and I was feeling it all. It felt hopeless as far as catching my vision, but I was learning new painting techniques, and for that I was happy. Sort of a ying yang thing going on… loving it and hating it at the same time.
To me it almost looked more like my brother, Stephen, at this point. He has a rounded face, whereas my brother, Ron, has a more oval visage. So I kept seeing Stephen here, (and it was not that I mind seeing him, do not take me wrong, dear family, but it was not my intention to be painting him at this point), so frustration and artistic despair were mounting.
Stay tuned! It changes once again as the quarter progresses…
The funny thing is, I love to look at the packaging designs I see everywhere. It is fascinating to see beautifully rendered package solutions. However, I have discovered that I do not find it at all interesting to try to solve that problem by myself. Working on a team, I think it could be fun, but alone, nope. Not my thing.
But I did it for the class.
Flat version of the label
The assignment was to create a continuous design on a cylinder for a fictitious product. I chose coconut palm sugar. In this short, but fast paced class, I did not have the time to hand paint it, which is what I really wanted to do. We also had to create a solution in very short order. I have never worked so fast in my life. Which is not my style.
At the end of February Artisan , a creative staffing firm I had been trying to meet up with, sent me (sight unseen) to an interview with one of their clients. The next day I was offered a job! This was after hitting the job hunting trail for the previous 4-6 weeks and, while I spoke to a lot of consulting and staffing firms, nothing had happened. So needless to say, my head was spinning at how fast life can change.
Since I am reporting this 4 weeks later, I can say that I am thoroughly enjoying the job. It is challenging, the project is huge, and it landed on the top of 2 online design classes and 2 ground. That made it super challenging.
In addition, our group is introducing a new way of presenting the information technology group’s activities to the entire organization, and also a new way of doing business to over 10,000 employees across the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Those of you who know me know that my two favorite things are communicating and organizing. Next, I absolutely love startups or newly forming companies or groups. This company is huge and has multiple companies within it; yet it mimics a newly forming company since they are beginning to pull these silo groups under the umbrella holding company and introducing a more corporate attitude to how they do business.
I was hired by a newly formed information technology group to work as a coordinator with the marketing department to brand the group and create the communications portion of their projects. The first initiative is a rollout of Office 2007 to their entire organization. The second is a 2 year rollout of brand new computers (as well as the attending peripherals such as printers, scanners, etc.) across the organization. That is 10k computers to locations all across the US, Canada, and Mexico. It is a huge initiative. I find it exciting.
Change. I thrive on change. And while the older I get the more I question that concept (and almost long for at least some routine), I find I still love the thrill. Also, if any of you remember, it was the fear of routine that sent me on this wild college ride in the first place!
So… yes, I thrive on change. Although I seriously thought it was going to kill me with 2 online design courses and 2 ground classes going on at the same time as a new and very challenging consulting job, somehow I survived and am now looking forward to being able to concentrate on the job.
Our first “warm up” project in Packaging Design was to rework a candy bar (in 1 afternoon!) I chose the Heath bar and went with the concept of an old English Inn sign and a desaturated English countryside picture (because it is English Toffee.) I chose to wrap the design around the 3D aspect of this bar… the image below would be how it would look if you took it off the bar and laid it flat.
This was excruciatingly tedious, but I like the outcome!
Here is the general look of the front when it is wrapped:
The one class that is doing the most personal good is Advanced Illustration. Jacob opted to give us an oil painting project for the first 6-7 weeks and I lost myself in it.
Currently the class project is not finished, but I am gaining so much from it that I am not willing to rush the process. I am trying all sorts of new techniques and exploring my paradigms – only that I might break them. It is a painful, yet thrilling prospect!
Project: A poster for a musical band or singer.
My Choice: Fernando Ortega
Jacob pushed me to stick with my own style and work within it so that I am not fighting the issue of “style”. I can play with style once I master the art.
He taught this class on a very individual basis (a philosophy I wholeheartedly embrace), working with the needs of each student. We, as his students, are soaking up the experience he has garnered through years at various universities around the country. I don’t know about the others, but I feel very blessed when I get a teacher like that and I just want to be a sponge!
We identified my particular need to be to get back into my creative groove… to feel it… to allow it to flow. Jacob explained that he did not want me fighting “style” as I was learning a new technique and finding my comfort zone. I consciously placed my training into his experienced artist’s hands and went into a free-fall. Like going backwards off a building and trusting the ropes to catch you.
I ended up choosing a simple visual of a guitar player. Fernando is a gospel-folk singer and I once saw him on stage in Muncie. He sat on a stool strumming his guitar and talking with us on an almost personal level. I loved it.
My brother, Ron, was a willing model (I am very grateful to my family!!!), and after a couple of photo shoots, I found the right pose that pleased both Jacob and I.
Jacob then had us prep a masonite board (18×24) with gesso and paint a background wash in raw umber.
At one point I realized (and was told by Jacob) that I had a section out of perspective. The trick was to look at it in a mirror and immediately the gaffe was obvious. I then discovered that sandpaper can do interesting things to the underpainting… so I began playing with that as well as scratching off paint with my pallet knife. Who knows what is going to happen by the time this is finished! It became fun to see what could be produced with that technique.
Painting is the one place that is all my own. It is personal and private and I have found that place once again. It has been a bit scary because I can sometimes lose myself in its vast loneliness… but then I find myself once again, in a space so full and persistent it can be overwhelming. I am once again walking those hallowed halls of my inner being that belongs to only myself and my God. It is intense.
Sometimes I pause at the threshold and can go no further for fear of what is there, then I realize that fear is not an option I want to entertain. I gird up my courage and take that step, overcoming my own trepidation and embracing a willingness to lose myself. I can only enter if there is a willingness to allow something bigger than my left brain to consume me and to trust that it won’t annihilate me in the process.
It is not a place of comfort, nor of ease, as boundaries are stretched and perceptions challenged; yet within that space there is a comfort beyond explaining. The world disappears and I am somewhere raw and open, in a space where there is no hiding. An honest place.
Biology was interesting, easy, and uneventful and since it was online, it ended in 5.5 weeks. The class consisted of discussion questions and writing short reports. However, I did get to use my own photography on most of the reports! When I wrote about ecosystems, I chose the Florida mangroves and shared photos from last summer. When writing about drugs, I chose Benadryl and took my own photos from my wide arsenal of Benadryl. When talking about a mammal, I chose a sea lion and used a photo I took of my nephew at the zoo (when he was watching a sea lion).
And when it was time to talk about the skeletal system, I used my own work from my Life Drawing sketchbook.
I did get a chance to draw some quick illustrations on Photoshop of various cells. Nothing exciting as I was just trying to get it done, but that was interesting.
The first 5.5 weeks of the quarter gave me my first break in over 2 years. I have 2 ground classes (Illustration and a basic Business class) and one easy online (Biology). They all kept me busy but the intense creative pressure was eased.
This sudden relief was like opening the floodgates to my life that had been sucked out of me and it came rushing in like a tsunami, overwhelmingly and consuming! The next thing I knew I could not get enough of job hunting activities, reading business books, and cooking! Yes, cooking! And I am loving it.
I discovered a gluten free blogger (The Gluten-Free Goddess) who has the most delightful way of combining flavors and making every meal feel delectably adventurous and exotic. Charlotte joined my foray into this foreign land and together we were cooking up 2-3 new recipes a week. Suddenly gluten free has become the most enjoyable eating experience I have ever known.
Add to that my love of photography and of adventure sharing and I have had a very active Facebook photobook! Is this my new blog topic once school is over? Maybe.
Flexing My Wings 