Tuesday 24 November 2009

Film - Metropolis

After watching Metropolis i can understand why its been often referred to be the greatest science-fiction films ever made. The set design was immaculate. This was a real work of art. Fritz Lang was able to produce and bring to life a world that has lasted throughout the ages. Even today, with all the powerful visual effects afforded by CGI technology, Metropolis still has the ability to impress its audience with its stunning visuals with dramatic light and composition and camera angles.

Life Drawing 5


First Drawing

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Second Drawing

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Third Drawing

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Fourth Drawing

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Film - The Cabinet of Dr Caligari



The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was the first modern Horror Film and it influence a number of contemporary productions. After watching this film I found it to be really far fetched and rather weird. The start of the film was rather hard to get into as it is a silent film it didn't capture my attention straight away. For a horror it wasn't really that scary but i have to say, for the time the film was made the set design was immaculate. The lighting composition was very thought out and fit the scenes perfectly.




2nd Assignment- Unit 2 - SPACE - RCGA1003

For this assignment i got folder 6 which was about the book written by Conan Doyle The Lost World. Giving more thought for this assignment, I'm quite looking forward to producing concept art for this project. I think this one will be good.

My Final Portrait

Maya - Desk Scene

Maya - Poker Chips






Finally I got this poker chip tutorial done.

Maya - Glass Bottle With Label

Maya - Common Materials

Clay, Glass, Plastic and Silver



Gold, Chrome, Glow and Hidden Glow

Lost Inside Myself






Another Idea - Dark Identity



I tried to sum up my life in this picture as it portrays the essence of how my life has been up to date. Its suppose to portray the struggle I've had to overcome and the blood lost from close family members as my mum passed away 2 years ago which sent me down a dark downward spiral of emotions to which is why in the picture i symbolised that to with a roller coaster on the wall.

Monday 23 November 2009

3rd Idea For Work - Vector Artwork




Maya - Robot Animation



I got this finished finally. The animation was alright but im waiting until we go into depth on the animation side of Maya.

Maya - Rocket Animation



I finished my first animation. Initially i thought it was gonna be a lot harder but it wasn't too bad but I'm glad I now know the basic guideline on how to animate in Maya.

Maya - Lighting - Stylistic Lighting


Morning




Day


Night



Horror



Sci-Fi



Fire

Maya - Lighting Tutorials

1-Point Lighting



1-Point Lighting



2-Point Lighting



3-Point Lighting

2nd Idea For Work - Skull X-ray



I got this idea just the other day it's my skull showing through my face some what like a x-ray. This idea basically came from my girlfriend as she always telling me she can see through my lies and my bullshit. Which had me thinking what if she really could???
Sometimes i think she may have super powers or i wonder if I'm just that predictable.... But it's hard being in a relationship as sometimes sometimes i feel boxed into situations and end up forcing myself to do things i don't want to simply out of obligation to the relationship. But this is was my interpretation of that situation.

Sunday 15 November 2009

The Picture of Dorian Gray



The original 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' was a really good watch. I think the film had a beautiful play on words and had me thinking immensely on my own character. As the character Lord Henry ranted on about how impressionable youth are as he bombarded Dorian with a convincing argument which made him give into Lord Henry's mind games and questionable theory's on life. He put a lot of peer pressure on Dorian to stay daring and engage a meaningful life as Lord Henry said

"Youth is the one thing worth having. What the gods give to you they quickly take away. Time is jealous of you Mr Gray don't squander the days. Live let nothing be lost upon you, be afraid of nothing, there is such a little time your youth will last and you can never get it back. as we grow older our memories are haunted by the exquisit temptations we hadn't the courage to yield to. The world is yours for a season. It would be tragic if you realised to late."

This made me feel as if he was a man realising his mortality and wishing to live his life through Dorian as he urged him to explore and indulge in as many aspects of life there is to offer before he reaches his old age and he settles down.

I thought that was the turning point in the film. Watching this film brought up a lot of concepts to structure my work around.

1st Idea for work

My first idea came from looking at Gerhard Richter, Betty, 1988 photo and how the portrait seems how there could be a deeper meaning in the portraiture. As pictures capture moments in time this picture made me think specifically on how the girl is turning her head and shifting her identity away from the camera like something was coming for her. Even her body structure in that picture, it makes you think what was goin through her mind at the time. I took this kind of portraiture and applied it into my own life




This picture is suppose to be of me standing in front of the mirror and i turned the reflection so its turning its back on myself. i came up with this idea because there was alot of questions you a can ask while looking at it. Why is the man in the mirror afraid to look back at me? Is he ashamed? Disgusted? Upset?

Saturday 14 November 2009

Maya - Electric Fan



This tutorial was kind a nerve racking because considering im using a Maya on a mac this tutorial needed me to use the pivots to duplicate the fans inside the cage, and to do this you would need the insert key and mac's don't have one which had me scratching my head for a while but i found the equivalent shortcut sequence for it on my laptop so after that it was smooth sailing.

Maya - Toaster



This wasn't my first attempt at doing this tutorial. I messed up the first time around building the base of the toaster and the bevel and extrude but i got around it after asking my class mate benga how he did his. But it came out kind of good at the end of it

Maya - Magnifying Glass



My maya on my laptop has been acting up for a while and the render wasn't working properly but the tutorial was easy to follow and i got through it eventually.



Life Drawing 2

I really think the second session of my life drawing experience was alot better then my first week. I learned alot more about proportion in drawings, plus I'm kind of getting used to using the whole page of the paper and drawing standing up.

First Drawing
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Second Drawing

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Essay Question

I was giving more thought to the essay i need to write for this assignment and i came across a couple books while researching the history of photography and how identity is portrayed. I've learned alot about the way how technology has changed the thought process behind alot of the new age art work and the passion for the art form has disintegrated some what, so I'm going to focus on how technology & modernism changed identity.


21st century Portrait Artists - Francoise Nielly

I came across this artist called Francoise Nielly from France. I think her work is beautifully depicted and Ive found myself really captivated with her artwork. I wanna take her idea of large colourful brush strokes and bring it into my own portraiture to paint the mood in the picture.
But Francoise Nielly's work is really mind blowing so check out her work

http://www.francoise-nielly.com/

Thursday 12 November 2009

Research info on self portraits

I came across this website filled with information on self portraits and its history, i came across a couple artists I've never heard of before and there is alot of insight into the physiological theory behind portraits.

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~ivy/selfportrait/intro.html

Since the fifteenth century and the advent of the mirror artists have modeled for themselves in their own works of art. Whether it is an in-depth exploration of the artist’s own psyche or simply because as a model, the artist is clearly the cheapest and most available. Whatever the reason, nearly every artist, in every medium from painters to sculptors have attempted this exploration of self.



Jean Fouquet. Self-Portrait, 1450.



Monday 9 November 2009

My first life drawing class was very informative in the aspect of drawing techniques, and how to structure the body in proportion. it was my first life drawing experience ever but i thought over the course of the lesson i got used to drawing and freely making marks on the page without rubbing out lines.


First Drawing
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Second Drawing
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Third Drawing
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Fourth Drawing
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First Maya experience - Pair of dice


At first I was really anxious about learning maya, I've had the software for quite sometime but this was the first time I've ever used it. The initial outlook on the software to me seemed very intimidating as there where so many buttons. But alan broke down a step by step guide on how to build the this dice. After finishing this tutorial i can see my views on the software where premature and with time ill be able to build more impressive 3d images. But i feel this was a good start.

Inspiring artists - Frida Kahlo

With looking over Frida Kahlo's self portraits i have become enchanted with her metaphorical way of recreating her anguish and pain into her paintings, and how she pushed the barriers of people's adaptation of her life.

This painting
The Broken Column, done in 1944, has always been one of my favorites as it depicts her pain harnessed and poured onto canvas how she felt after her car accident that left her with irreparable spinal injuries. The Column itself, which is broken, shows one of the sources of her pain, the nails in her body tries to explain to the viewers the unbearable pain she was enduring, along with the tears in Frida's eyes.


I wanna be able to show my own life through my artwork with such clarity and honesty

Sunday 8 November 2009

Inspiring artists - Rembrant

Whilst looking for initial guidelines on how self-portraiture is depicted i came across this picture that Rembrandt painted of himself. Rembrandt - Self-Portrait at Twenty Two

As the picture was just a technical exercise of lighting and not an actual depiction of him, i still cant help but be drawn towards how the image feels. An how you can portray monumental components of your character. It could be as simple as the structure of ones face, to the position you place yourself in a portrait. Even taking out key facial features can speak on how your mindset and emotions are at that time and shown through portraiture . This is something i need to look further into and try recreate a meaningful expression through my own artwork.

Tuesday 3 November 2009

1st Assignment- Unit 1 - ANATOMY - RCGA1002

My first impressions of the brief was that it was rather intimate as it was on self-portraits and identity. It took me a while to get to grips with working on my own image and identity as it meant me digging deep into my own character and to project how i would like to portray myself but still stay honest to the essence of my own personality.