Final: History of Contemporary Lamp working

Paintings/Drawings by Patty

Even though this is my graphic design blog, I decided to put some of my oil paintings and pencil and charcoal drawings. All of them have been created while I have been attending BCC. I figured it would be cool to put them on here.

This was a Birds of Prey comic book cover from 2010. I took the image and blew it up 18x24 and painted it with oils. 

This was a painting i had done in class, and it covered up another painting. Mad props to this model; as her hands were turning blue for about 3 days doing this pose. This painting was given to a friend.  :)

This is the most recent figurative oil painting I have done. It was a model I've drawn many times before, and I did enjoy painting her for the first time. I purposefully left the background unfinished to bring more attention to her form.

This is probably my favorite drawing from my advanced drawing class. It's charcoal on drawing paper, unfinished, with doodles in the corner.

This was a pencil drawing I did in advanced drawing from a model. He was a decent model, and I really like how this one came out. It was in the student show last year.

This is a hungry shark. rawr. It's oils on illustration board and it was my illustration final. I likey!

This was my painting final on a 30 x 40 canvas. Transcending Realism was the theme. Rainbowss!

Edited Image for History Poster

This is an image for my history poster I took while watching my boss blow glass one day. I thought his kiln would be a good image to present basic materials and equipment needed for such a business. Also, on an ironic note, the temperature of the kiln just happened to be 420 degrees at the time I took this picture. LoL.

Image for History Poster

This is a picture I took and put through photoshop. I took it while watching my boss Tommy Lynch piece together and awesome blue and green dichroic (sparkly) tube. I put it through a filter and I think it will be an awesome addition to my History of Contemporary Lamp working poster. I used a film grain filter to achieve the picture quality, and highlighted the colors in the tube to bring it out more.

Dog Lover Commemorative Stamp Layout - Final

Dog Lover Stamp Digital Thumbnail

This is as far as I've gotten so far with m stamp. I decided to create a digital painting based on a photograph than an actual painting (which I do all the time). I still have to design the entire background with lots of colors and natural imagery, but I really like the way that it's coming out so far. As I continue to work in photoshop I become more knowledgable about the software, which is something I haven't really experienced before.

Second Round Thumbnails - Dog Lovers Commemorative Stamp

-For these thumbnails, I took my favorite images from my first round of thumbnails and developed them a little more thoroughly with color. I attempted to color them in an art nouveau style, which really brings character and life to the images, and I really enjoy the results. When I start working on my illustration I think I'll try to paint it with watercolors and possibly bold dark lines from marker of something similar. The hardest part of this project thus far is choosing the image out of these three that I like the most. Any suggestions or opinions are appreciated!

Step 4 - Concept Thumbnails

For my design, I chose to do a "Dog Lovers" commemorative stamp. All of these thumbnails were sketched from pictures I had on my camera and my phone of the three most important pups in my life. Jeff and Anya are my two pups who I love dearly, and Bob is the cocker Spaniel who was my best friend throughout my childhood and lives with my mom. I tried to sketch them in an "Art Nouveau" style by making the lines extra flowy and I hope in my next round of thumbnails to further present the art nouveau style with use of color (probably colored pencils or something of the sort).

Step 3 - Art Nouveau Movement Stamp Examples

- The three stamps below were designed in the Art Nouveau style, which was most popular with designers, painters, and architects between 1890-1910.- The term "Art Nouveau" or "New Art" is a French term used in the 19th century to describe the then modern response to academic art, which combined both Neoclassic and Romantic styles.
-Art Nouveau styles were inspired by natural structures and forms. There are hardly any straight lines (besides a border perhaps and obviously architecture) in an Art Nouveau inspired designs, which is what made it stand out to me amongst all the other movements.

- The stamps above are good examples of Art Nouveau inspired designs. Each illustrates in a different way the natural curves of living things.
- They all are similarly simple designs with bold lines. I myself am an animal lover, but I also wanted to show a colorful expression of human form, so I included the woman with the flower as well.

Stamp 3, Step 2 - Art Nouveau

For this stamp I chose a stamp created from an original painting named "Le Rubis" from 1900. The artist was Alphons Mucha, a Franch painter during that time period. It's a U.S. stamp that costs 44 cents. The stamp was posted for sale on the Imagina Zazzle blog for sale in November of 2010. The bright colors immediately attract the eye to the petals of the Christmas poinsettias. It seems like the painting was edited in photo shop for reprint-ability on color lithograph. It has a vertical layout, but can look good from all angles. The large blossom towards the top is leading the hierarchical arrangement, then the eye travels down it's stem to the secondary and tertiary points (the other blossoms), where it then travels through the greenish negative space back to the top. It's an asymmetrical design, and gives the illusion of depth through the overlapping flowers.

Stamp 2, Step 2- Modernist

This stamp wasn't one of the originals that I had found, but it really caught my attention when I first saw it. It's a modernist design with both symmetrical and asymmetrical elements. It was made in March, 1983, but design elements were adopted from modernist styles of the 1940's. It's a horizontal design with a thin border line around that accents the matching colors within. "Equality and dignity" is in a modern type, and the negative space in the design brings the eye around and under the rainbow birds, and into the type. There isn't a whole lot of illusion of depth in the piece other than the width of the hands, where one hand overlaps the lower bird.

Stamp 1, Step 2 - Post-Modernist

This is the first stamp I chose that really stuck out to me. It's a post-modernistic style, with which I guess I relate to the most in my own work. I also like the message it serves, however dismissed the idea is by the public. The element of scale is most prominent in this design, and the size of the hand,which is the central image, in comparison to the size of the "waste" reinforces the text on the side of the design. The colors immediately grab your attention, as with many post-modernist pieces.  The stamp was created in July of 2008, and was one of four similar stamps in the set.

and More Stamp Examples!

and some more stamp examples!!

Stamp Examples!

STAMPS!

Stamp Examples

These are all examples of stamps like I like design and concept of. I put them all together in photoshop to help me develop ideas of what I'd like to do to create my own commemorative stamp.

Fun with Photoshop!!

Today in class we were to pick some images from the internet and mess with them in photoshop. I had so much fun with this and learned quite a bit about photoshop and some basic tools that are commonly used within graphic design in photoshop.  FPS RUSSIA RULES!

'6 Words Design' Essay

Into to Graphic Design- Essay

Professor Groat

For this project we were to take six words having great importance to the world of design and put them into a design where the words look like what they describe.

     I tried my best in this design to conform to the rule of thirds and what that implies. The main points of interest in my design (Emphasis, contrast, etc.) are all located in areas broken up by the rule of thirds, to keep your eye moving around the piece, and not get caught in any particular area.

     Emphasis was the first word that I designed in photo shop, because of its visual importance. I made it huge and bold and put it in the top left third of the design, so the eye would have no place to go but there first.

     I carefully chose fonts for each word that I thought would suggest each individual word’s meaning. For ‘emphasis’ I chose all caps with a bold in your face font. For ‘flow’ I chose lowercase letters and a smooth, curvy font, and made a wave style with it so it could lead the eye around the entire page without attracting too much attention. For ‘balance’ I sketched up my own design, and with through much trouble and effort, I was able to create my idea in photo shop. For ‘contrast’ I made the font the same for all letters, but changed the size, shade, and space between letters to illustrate the contrast within. ‘Alignment’ was the easiest word to work on, after I found a very geometric font. I placed it sideways on the right-hand third of the page to almost border the design. ‘Repetition’ was another relatively easy word to manage, but became a nuisance in photo shop when it came to repeating the word throughout the whole middle third of the design.

     I think the viewer’s eye can move throughout the design quite easily, and goes from the primary focal point (emphasis) and moves to the second and tertiary points (contrast and the balance) quite easily, with the help of ‘flow’.

     I tried to vary the shapes and sizes of the words to add variation to the design, and it also helps the eye move freely throughout the piece. The sizes vary greatly, with ‘emphasis’ being quite large in relation to, say, ‘repetition’ which is quite minute and almost faded in the background.

     I feel my piece and a balanced sense of visual weight, and certain words overlap in the hope to get rid of any unwanted negative space.

     I placed certain words at different angles to not only make the piece more visually stimulating, but to help illustrate what the words describe. For example, I put ’alignment’ on the right side of the page running downwards to make vertical negative space that implies alignment. I also placed ‘flow’ in a swirly, repetitive line going through the whole page so the viewers’ eye never stays in the same place long.

     On a whole, I think my design applies to the rule of thirds, is visually appealing, and accurately portrays the definitions of the words within.

Graphic Design "6 Words" Project

"Balance" thumbnail

Illustration Blog

http://pattysillustrations.blogspot.com/

Hey check out my Illustration blog from last semester!! :)

Creating my designs in Photoshop

I used this practice to figure out how to create the images of the words how I wanted them to look, projected from photoshop. I will take these individual words and create my over design containing all 6 words that I created in photoshop.

Second Round of Thumbnails for Type Project

First Round Thumbnails- Word Designs

Shape Outline Thumbnails- First Round

Balance Thumbnails