Jen's Digital Arts

Narrative Project: Rapunzel

2010-04-07T20:22:00.001-07:00

I used images from Disney movies to create my characters, with Prince Eric (The Little Mermaid) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast). In the last slide, Belle's head is combined with Ariel's body, and Eric's outfit is changed to match what he wore in the other two. I used photoshop to make these changes, then imported them into illustrator and used a live trace to get them into vector format (I had to change the trace settings to get most of them to show up). I then grouped all the objects into a live paint group and colored away to get that coloring book/comic book feel.

Exquisite Corpse Activity

2010-04-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

CD Cover

2010-03-08T00:35:00.000-08:00

Ch. 14

2010-03-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

Chapter 13

2010-02-24T11:26:00.001-08:00

Chapter 10

2010-02-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

Draft 3 of Social Commentary Poster

2010-02-08T21:53:00.001-08:00

Areas of "otherness" I wanted to represent:

Sexual orientation

Race/Sexual orientation

Gender/Sexual orientation

Gender/profession

Race/religion

Okay, so I changed the text to all hand-drawn. I think it gives it a little something different, but I can't put a finger on it. I think "FREE" definitely needs to stay as is though. I've added another "poster child" as well, which brings me to four. I also changed the barcode at the bottom as per Ben's suggestion.... Subtle, but I like it.

2010-02-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

Chapter 9 Exercises:

Chapter 8 Exercises

2010-02-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

Exercises 1-6:

Chapter 7 Exercises

2010-02-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

Exercises 1-4:

Social Commentary Poster- Draft 2

2010-02-04T00:22:00.000-08:00

The main problem I had with the poster on the first draft was the text at the top. Helvetica really didn't match the mood I wanted to convey. The piece is very expressive, and honestly a little rough (intentionally). The "Land of the Free" saying is not intended to describe what's going on; it's more placed there just for irony's sake. Since it it not sending its own message, I decided to put most of the text in a Futura font (matches the lettering on the signs in the collage). For the "FREE" text, I drew this out in pen in a sketchbook, then scanned it in.
It was also suggested that I handle this almost as a series, switching out the main characters in order to represent a variety of oppressed groups that my poster recognizes. In my second draft, I decided to portray the gay community as the victim. The rest of the process remained virtually the same. Throughout next week I will be adding in different characters to change it up a bit.

Chapter 6 Exercises

2010-02-02T21:55:00.001-08:00

Exercise 1:

Exercises 2-5:

Chapter 5 Exercises

2010-02-02T21:44:00.000-08:00

Exercise 1:

Exercise 2:

Exercise 3:

Exercise 4:

"Majority Rules."

2010-02-01T23:48:00.000-08:00

(Before viewing: My visual goal was to have a lot going on, so keep that in mind when you look at it.)

The social issue I decided to address in my project was civil rights-- both past and present. I've taken images from the opposition to women's suffrage, pro-segregation groups, as well as religious fanatics that are now opposing the marriage and gender equality movement. The theme I wanted to convey was that these groups were headed and driven by the "majority" of America. Equal treatment under the law was not granted to these people by the government; instead, their rights were largely subjected to popular vote, which allowed to narrow-minded majority to oppress the minority for some time. I hope to argue through this piece that the civil rights of any person should always be protected under the law and not be abused by those that outnumber them.

I went for a more grunge-type look to tackle the weighty subject matter. I chose the particular flag image because it was reminiscent of blood/injury (maybe think Faith Ringgold's The Flag is Bleeding?). The old typewriter font went along with the grunge look, but I decided to stray into Helvetica for "FREE" merely for contrast's sake. I haven't decided if I will be keeping it this way yet.
Here's a version using only Helvetica font:

I included the woman at the center as a victim of such oppression. I withdrew her more from the bleeding flag, but she still has the suggestion that she has been hurt by the actions of those around her. The other figures are in grayscale mostly to suggest their narrow mindedness. I wasn't sure how to create that feeling visually, but them lacking color seemed an appropriate way to go about it.

Technique:

I started by finding the images I wanted to use for the background. I found it here, and ended up adding more stripes to the flag by selecting the bottom 3-4 red stripes, creating a new layer via copy and dragging down in place below the original. I merged the layers and cleaned up where they met using the clone stamp tool on about 60% opacity.

After that, I did a Google image search for the woman at the central position. When I found it, her back was cut off right below the shoulders, and her left shoulder was virtually nonexistent. I solved this problem by using the clone stamp tool at 100% opacity to sample sections of the skin on her back. Once I had expanded the area covered by her back, I went back over some of the rougher areas with the healing brush tool to smooth out some of the transitions.

After cutting out the rest of the activist images, changing the saturation to zero, and arranging them in the piece, I duplicated the flag layer and dragged it on top of all the activist layers. I wanted the flag design to be overlayed upon them, so in default blending mode, I selected color overlay (at 80% opacity). This gave the effect seen here. I then duplicated the flag again for use with the central woman. I wanted her effect to be a little subtler so I had to use a separate instance of the flag. I did this by making a clipping mask of the flag over the woman. I then used the color overlay option again, but this time reduced it to 40% opacity.

Feedback is appreciated.

Chapter 4: Type on the Grid

2010-01-25T12:37:00.001-08:00

Exercises 1-6

Chapter 3: Symmetry and Gestalt

2010-01-25T11:59:00.001-08:00

Exercises 2-7

Exercise 3

2010-01-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

Exercise 3: Creating a dynamic composition

Self-Portrait

2010-01-15T22:37:00.000-08:00

So I was going for something a little Chuck Close-esque, so I limited my use of shapes to squares/rectangles only.

Technique: After choosing a photo, I imported it into Illustrator, then used a live trace to simplify it to vector format (I changed it to a grayscale trace using 4 colors for this project) and locked the layer. After that, I constructed a grid on a separate layer using equally sized rectangles/squares to cover the page (These had no fill or stroke). I then used the live paint tool to color the shapes on the grid according to the picture below it. Each of the squares was then outlined using a different color. It was a pretty straightforward process... But just time consuming.

I've added some screen shots that show a little bit of the work process I used (zoomed in).

Comments/constructive criticism are always welcome.

After applying the live trace to the photograph, I took a screenshot of the guide photograph. Here, it is in vector format.

After making the square/rectangle grid over the guide photo, I colored it in shades of bright pink (darkest where the gray was darkest, and so on), only using four shades total. Coloring the smaller rectangles/squares between the larger ones gave the effect that I was using more colors than I actually did, which was helpful given the limited palette.

The meticulous part of the process arose mainly because of the small shapes I decided to work with. If my math is correct, there are approximately 25,220 rectangles, 12,610 large(r) squares, and 12,610 smaller squares at the corners of each larger square.

First Post

2010-01-11T12:07:00.000-08:00

Rule #26: Be creative.