Using a little bit of Buchanan!

This last project I was required to use the style of a local mixed media artist, Luke Miller Buchanan. In this piece I took photographs of things around the front of Peace College's campus. I cut, and distorted the images in a way that it would make the scene have visual hic-ups. I then painted these images together into one piece.

My version of David Hockney's style....

For this project I was required to choose a painter and research his/her composition and style. The painter I chose was David Hockney. It was difficult to chose a style from Hockney because he had so many to choose from! I really liked how some of his work was on multiple canvases so I decided to use that trait in my piece. He also paints things realistically, which is also another trait of his that I used. To add my own personal touch to this piece, I decided to create the objects in this still life with a random color palette. I used colors that you would not normally see on some of these objects.

Dirty Messy Painting

So this painting is based off of a quote that I found that states "When will our conscious grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?" I was required to make this painting "messy" so I decided to use a lot of different techniques to create this piece. I cut and glued pictures to the ground to help lay a foundation. I decided to give the dirt and grass a texture to it, so I used cold wax as a medium. I wanted to make the dirt dark and messy to represent the "human misery" and the grenades represent the violence of "human misery" but also represent the bulbs of the flowers that are growing. The flowers are representing humans "preventing" the "human misery" symbolizing peace. To include the quote in the piece, I chose to scratch it in with a screw. The large image catches the viewers attention, but I put the quote on small so it would draw the viewer in to look closely at the detail.

Painting Class...

In painting class we just finished up our "5 Object Still Life" project. The goals to this project were to pay attention the lightness and darkness, and to how light is shown on 3D figures. A constraint to this project was out palette. The limited palette we used only consisted of black and white oil paints. The support we used was paper with a gesso ground. While I worked on this piece I learned that light creates different types of edges. For example....light that shows on top of the cube-shaped figure will not bend around the side of the figure, it creates a hard edge where there is an instant contrast in the shade. Light that gradually gets further away from the light source creates a soft edge, meaning the lightness and darkness blends together. The soft edge can be seen in this piece where the shadows fade away and blend in with the light. Final improvements that I made on my last revision were to make the shadows darker as they got closer to the objects. This makes the overall portrait look more realistic, as if they are actually sitting on the table rather than floating.

Index, about me, and portfolio pages

New desk calendar cover....

Please comment!! I think I've been looking at this calendar for too long to decide if it looks good or not!!

new home page....

So I've worked on my home page some....I'm still thinking of how I want my portfolio pages to look so there is more to come!

wireframes

Portfolio site content

I have a feeling that I am going to be changing my mind a lot as I build my portfolio site. Right now the basic content I want to include in it is:

About Me info: This will include things that I enjoy doing, my favorite things to design, my interest, personality, etc. I want the viewer to get an idea of, not only what kind of designer I am, but also what kind of person I am.

My Work: This basically my portfolio. Like I said earlier I am going to be changing my mind a lot probably and this is going to be one of those areas that will change a lot throughout my process. I'm not sure how I want to organize all of my work. If I had more work experience I would separate things according to what Job I did them under or maybe organize them in a time period (yearly, monthly, etc.).....BUT seeing how I do not have that much work experience I believe I am just going to have all of my work in one large group. I will be sure to design this page in a way that it will make the viewer want to click on things to see and learn more about each piece.

Resume: This kind of explains itself. I just want to include my resume for any curious viewer to see. I also want to include a printable version so that anyone interested in hiring me may have a hard copy for themselves as well.

Contact Me: Under this I will of course have my email since it will be the best way to reach me. I also will include my blogger URL so that they may see what I am currently working on or interesting things that I may be blogging about. I am also thinking about including my facebook because it also something that I constantly on and it would be a great way to reach me.
So as of right now I believe my site map will look like this, but as I said I will change my mind a lot so there is no telling what the finished product will be!!

Portfolio sites! .....Finally!!!

So before we started to plan and design our own portfolio site, we had to do some research. Our assignment was to find 3 successful and 3 unsuccessful portfolio sites and explain why we believe they are successful or unsuccessful.....

Successful sites:

1. I thought 4/20 Creative was a successful site because of its simplicity. I like a site where I can see pieces or hints of the designer's work and if it looks interesting to me then I can click on it to view the entire piece. When you click on the small thumbnails of their work, a description/ explanation also comes up with the piece. I like being informed about the designer's work. The site starts out by showing all of the work (including branding, web, print, etc.), but if you choose to look at just web, or just print, then they give you the option of only viewing what you want to look at.


2. Karen Craig, from Fuzzy Bug Studios, LLC, has a really cute site! I like the illustration she uses on the site. I really love how easy it is to navigate! The contact navigation is defiantly my favorite...I like how she shows the icon and when you roll over the link the word appears. I also like how she only lets the viewer focus on four pieces of work at a time. I think I could create a site like this....its simple and fun to look at at the same time.

3. Sara Cumings' site has a really different feel and style that I like. Most portfolio sites do not have much scrolling, but I like how this site does. She shows pieces of her work, and when you click on them, it shows the what the piece is and allows the viewer to comment on her work. I like how her portfolio work has the same style and design as her site does. You can really tell what her style is and I'm hoping my portfolio site will accomplish this.

Unsuccessful sites:

1. David Kerr Design is a portfolio site that is too cluttered in my opinion. There is too much going on. I don't like the flashy animation that is on the main page. I feel like there are too many places for me to go to....I don't know where to start! I also don't like how the work is displayed. I like the small pieces that it shows but I don't like how if you roller over the work that it shows the larger image at the same time.....its a neat affect but I believe because there is so much work on that page that it seems kind of cluttered.

2. This Chimp Champ Design site scared me!! The first thing that I noticed was the overwhelming background. The monkeys look mean and that take my attention away from the rest of the site. I cant concentrate on their work. To top off the pattern crisis...they put another overwhelming pattern on top of the monkey heads!!! That's just too much for my eyes!! If I don't like how the site looks at first glance then I'm not going to want to continue looking through the site.

3. Danaher Design could definitely do something better with their portfolio site. I don't like how I can't be interactive with this site....their work is pretty much a slide show. The design of it is not very eye-catching either. It needs to represent their work, or should at least be designed well. This site is just not, in my opinion, an ideal portfolio site.

more secondary pages

new secondary pages

Here are 2 of my edited secondary pages.....I still think there could be more done to them.

so its starting to come to me!!!

I've had some huge designer blockage tonight....but some ideas finally started coming to me on how to make my home page a little more fun to look at. I believe this is an improvement from what I had.....I haven't posted my secondary pages yet because they still need some work. Hopefully I'll get some helpful feedback tomorrow in class to help make my site even better!

Leave-Behind....

We've been working on our leave-behinds in Senior Seminar. Our second critique is on Thursday. At our first crit, I really was not completely happy with the mock-up I had. I want to have something unique and fun to look at and touch.....what I had was not. A better idea struck me last night!! I really wanted to have something small, and I already had an idea of what I wanted my business card to look like. I also like the idea I heard during our first critique of an accordion fold. So I decided to combine all of those ideas! Here is what the layout of it will look like when its completely unfolded....
After folding it in half the long-ways.....and then folding the rest of it accordion style, it will look like this on the front......
The front will look like what I want my business cards to look like. The rest of the piece will have pieces of some of my work to show off different things I have done. This also goes with what my resume looks look so I am really happy with this new idea! :)

Luke Miller Buchanan

For my other client, I had to create promotional pieces and advertisements for NC photographer Luke Miller Buchanan. I created a postcard that could me mailed or used as a e-vite. I also created a poster to post around campus.

(front of postcard)
(back of postcard)(poster)

Finally finishedddd!!!....i think haha

This is the poster I have been working on for the Admissions Office. My job was to create a poster on the given topic of Commencement to represent the traditions we have here at Peace College. I felt the best was to do this was to show how the traditions have been kept or changed through all of the years by using a time line. What do you think?

first 2 secondary pages

I'm not sure if I completely like these. I feel like I could do more to them to make them more unique....I'm just not sure what to do to them.

edited homepage....

Versions of homepage....

Wireframes.....round 2!

What do you think?