Photomontage

            I ended up doing a photomontage of the sky. I took the pictures one night when I saw some clouds near my house, and the sun was poking through the clouds. I took quite a few photos, but the time from the first photo taken to the last photo taken wasn’t very long due to how rapidly the clouds moved away. I also incorporated a small part of a tree down at the bottom to help make the image more engaging.

            I decided to do clouds after I tried a number of different things for my focal point. I tried my shoes, a growing pepper, a rotting tomato, a leaf that was drying up, and shadows. But none of these turned out. Either the process was too fast and didn’t have much change, like the leaf, or the process was too slow, like the tomato and pepper. As for the shadows and shoes, they just didn’t turn out period. So when I was outside one night, I looked up and saw the clouds and decided to try a photomontage of them. While clouds may have been done before, each piece is different and unique. My photomontage of clouds has some clouds with a small amount of sun piercing through them that lights them up just a little bit. To my surprise I only got a few photos with a good amount of sunlight. After those few photos the sky wasn’t as bright, but there was enough light to take some more photos. I then finished with a blank sky.

            I wasn’t in the beginning, as into this project as what I would have liked to be, or what I am normally. However, once I was able to capture images that I knew would turn out the way I wanted them to, I was fully engaged. I went through many trials and errors with this project, but in the end I am happy with the result and enjoyed it very much.

20 Artists under 20

Here is 20 photographers from flickr who are under 20. Very creative, innovative and imaginative photos.

https://www.flickr.com/20under20

Art, Technology and Cirque

Here is a video of Cirque du Soleil using art, design and technology in one of their shows. The idea is of an interactive stage that involves projections that Cirque put into one of their shows. The projection designer had to capture video and images in nature and also design a few of the images for projections for the stage. The stage responds with how the artists in the show move across it. The video is in French but has English subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b52qSNfJkQU

Safewalls

After I read about color schemes I thought about Cirque du Soleil, which is what I normally think about, and I remembered about a project that Cirque put on in 2011 called Safewalls. The Safewalls project took certain shows of Cirque du Soleil in certain cities and at certain times, and made that particular show the subject for selected artworks that would be created by local artists of that city. The artists were able to see the show for inspiration, but had total creative freedom. The artists then created poster sized artworks that would be printed and sold. After reading the color chapter I remembered one of the poster designs that had an analogous color scheme, which is pictured below. I then went and looked at more of the posters and found that many of the posters used recognizable color schemes.

 The above piece has a triadic color scheme of red, yellow and blue which helps create unity, but there are also orange and violet shapes which creates some variety for the piece.

The above piece uses a triadic color scheme also of red, yellow and blue.

The above piece has a monochromatic color scheme.

Value

This post relates to my previous post entitled "Color Schemes," which has the three images that use different color schemes. Not only does hue play a part in how different each piece looks and how certain objects stand out or don't, but value also plays a role in this. The middle image's shapes overall stand out not only because of hue, but also because of the difference in the background value and that of the shapes.

 

Color Schemes

I enjoy looking at pieces of art that are the exact same, but use different color schemes. Each color scheme is unique and different even though some of them share the same colors in certain sets that are chosen (pg. 49). It is interesting to see how a piece in an artwork will be hidden when using one color scheme, but will jump out when using a different color scheme. This can be seen in the pictures below. The shapes in the second picture stand out more individually compared to that of the first and third image. The difference is because the first and third images use colors that resemble one another, with the first one being monochromatic and the third one being analogous. The second image has colors that are completely different from each other, with it being a complementary color scheme. Shapes stand out more in this piece against the background compared to the other two where the shapes sometimes get lost.

Self-Portrait

This is my self-portrait. My self-portrait displays some of the things that I am passionate about. The big top that is shown is a photo that I took in 2010 when I went to see a Cirque du Soleil show in Seattle. I am a fan of Cirque du Soleil, and it is a huge part of who I am. Part of my face is integrated into the big top. I split my face up to show how much Cirque du Soleil is a part of my life. I wanted to show that it is almost like the big top and I are one, or that I am a part of the big top itself. In the background is the sky, but hidden in the sky is a background of tress. This shows the passion that I have for nature and how the natural world should be preserved. The other half of my face is in the sky and is centered inside a ring. The rings represent all forms of juggling. I am centered in the ring and in the sky to show how connected I am to nature and to juggling.

Shape and Shading

Shading a shape can certainly make a shape come to life. The way a shape is shaded can make a difference in how it is seen by the viewer. The cover of The Penguin Pool Murder is a good example of how shading can make an impact (Pg. 11). The cover seems to be flowing with movement and motion, for the piece has repeated shapes and shading throughout. While shading can make a shape appear three-dimensional, it sometimes isn’t needed to make an impact or to make an image stand out. When I first saw the cover I thought of the 1920 era. Here is another piece done by the same artist, John Jinks.