Bits ‘n Pixels
Robert Kresse
Savannah Sunset
“My instructor even pointed out that his favorite element was the silhouette of the giraffe.”
Line Drawings “I chose to create sketches of these particular items because each of them are the same, in that they possess all the same functions, but they each have their own distinct shapes and features.”
Shapeshift
“Our instructor told us what to create using these features thus this picture should be similar to everyone else’s, and if it seems unusual, I’m not at fault.”
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Table of Contents
2- Savannah Sunset 4-Hold the Onions 6- Shapeshift 8- Maggot Chow 10- Head and Heels 12- How It’s Done 18-Value Studies 24-Bird Variants 30-Autogragh 32- Line Drawings 36- Robertmobile 38-Shame
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Savannah Sunset This one, I believe, is the best of the bunch. My instructor even pointed out that his favorite element was the silhouette of the giraffe. What This piece is, essentially, a giraffe and an equally-tall tree being framed against a golden red sunset. I created this using the gradient tool on Adobe Illustrator, to give it the illusion of a darkening sky. I also created a pair of dark green ellipses to make hills, and I made the sky out of a big orange rectangle. The tree and the giraffe were done with the pen function. There are not really any little details one could notice in this work, since it’s two objects and a sunset. It’s simple, yet robust.
“My instructor even pointed out that his favorite element was the silhouette of the giraffe.�
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Hold The Onions This one, I think, turned out the best, given that people actually managed to recognize what it was right off the bat, and that I had a wider array of colors to choose from. However, the original version of the piece was criticized for an inconstant value in color, and didn’t have anything that indicated that it wasn’t seemingly floating in midair. It was for this reason that I recreated the piece, introducing a cutting board into the work to give it an indictation that it isn’t just floating. Anyway, I created the backgrounds for these pieces by writing my signature a bunch of times in various brush sizes and shades of grey. One detail in the sandwich picture one might take notice of is how the ham on the sandwich is just a big blue blotch with curves drawn about it to resemble folds. They should also note how the bread is a mere green smudge with a smaller light green smudge on top, to give it the illusion of a third dimension. Finally, they could notice how the lower piece of lettuce is slightly lighter than the higher one.
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“The original version of the piece was criticized for an inconstant value in color, and didn’t have anything that indicated that it wasn’t seemingly floating in midair.”
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Shapeshift This piece was created as an experiment to test creating lines, rectangles, ellipses, and gradients in Adobe Illustrator. Our instructor told us what to create using these features, thus this picture should be similar to everyone else’s, and if it seems unusual, I’m not at fault. This was never intended as an assignment, but I will say that the first detail one should notice is the giant cup, the second is the grandfather clock, and the third is the door. I made this by sketching out the scene and the objects using lines and shapes, then filling them in with color.
“Our instructor told us what to create using these features thus this picture should be similar to everyone else’s, and if it seems unusual, I’m not at fault.”
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Maggot Chow This is supposed to be a steak. I titled it as such due to its blue color, which may suggest that the meat is moldy and rotten, making it ideal food for maggots. The problem here was that no one could tell what it was because it lacked any distinguishing features that suggest a juicy cut of meat.
“I titled it as such due to its blue color, which may suggest that the meat is moldy and rotten, making it ideal food for maggots.�
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“In case you can’t tell, these two objects are supposed to be a shoe (viewed from the back) and a baseball cap, as the title would suggest.”
Head and Heels
In case you can’t tell, these two objects are supposed to be a shoe (viewed from the back) and a baseball cap, as the title would suggest. My instructor and my peers were unsure of what these objects were, and thought them to be a can, or perhaps a box. The main issue in telling what they are might have something to do with how the shades of blue I used faded in with each other too much.
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HOW it’s Done
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An Analysis of My Method
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When I first started out creating art for this
class, it was rather difficult. I had hardly ever used a styus and a pad when creating “true” artwork, and my work often came out somewhat sloppy. They did, however, receive appraisal from my instuctor and my peers.I created pieces by using Adobe Illustrator and the aformentioned pad and stylus. We would use the pen tool when we did works, and lines were made when I place a point anywhere I wanted to on the pallette. I could add color by selecting what hues I wanted to use, and selected “apply color”. We later moved on to creating pieces without he stylus, but it wasn’t all that different.
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“I had hardly ever used a styus and a pad when creating “true” artwork, and my work often came out somewhat sloppy.”
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When I complete a work, it is detrimemtal of me to examine it for three elements: Craft, Concept, and Composition. Craft entatails what I did to make the piece, Concept is what the piece is of, and Compsoiton is what details I intend for pepole to see.
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Value Studies
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“I created these pieces as you see here to give them a sort of a look reminiscent of poster art from the 50's and 60's. This is best reflected, I think, in the shoe image. It almost looks like something from a detective film of the time.�
For my third week of Computer Graphics, I was tapped to do several "Value Studies", a process by which one focuses on the light and shadow of an object and sketches it based on what they see.
I created these pieces as you see here to give them a sort of a look reminiscent of poster art from the 50's and 60's. This is best reflected, I think, in the shoe image. It almost looks like something from a detective film of the time.
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Focusing on the book sketch, I feel that the first detail that should come to one's attention should be how the cover is slightly ajar, and thus, the front of the book is shrouded in darkness, which makes it seem three-dimensional. The second detail to notice should be the small spot of light on the corner of the cover, which would seem to suggest that the maker has a keen eye for pointing out small things such as this. The final detail should probably be how the edges are outlined with light grey, which too suggest a keen eye for details.
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Bird Variants “At first, I wanted to trace the landscape of a sunny beach with a palm tree and the ocean in view, but my instructor informed me that it would have to replicate all of the ripples and waves in the water- a prospect I did not relish.�
Feathers I was tapped to begin construction on a illustration traced from an image on the internet. At first, I wanted to trace the landscape of a sunny beach with a palm tree and the ocean in view, but my instructor informed me that it would have to replicate all of the ripples and waves in the water- a prospect I did not relish. So I settled upon an image of a bird in front of a chain-link fence with a cactus off to the side. What I did to build up this piece is creating each element (the fence, the bird, etc.) in layers so that they would not conflict with each other
and risk having to redo a part of it. The first detail people ought to notice should be, of course, the bird, considering it is the focal point of the picture. The second detail should be the fence, which is situated in such a way that it looks almost exactly like one would in real life( which should be expected, considering this is was traced from an image). The third and final detail should be how the grass is made up of individual black lines on a green canvas, as I have explained above.
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Bird Variations
I created 10 variations of the piece, but I was told to present the 3 versions that I thought were the best ones. Beginning with this one, I created it by filling in the areas with black, white, and grey, using white on the central figure (the bird) to distinguish it from the background, and to make sure that it is the first detail that viewers of the piece take notice of. As for minor details, however, the first one that viewers should notice should be the chain-link pattern in the upper left corner; the second one is the grey blades of grass that stick out against the black background; and the third is the grey outline around the log, which gives it a suggestion of light and shadow. Absurd Hue Bird
I had a lot of fun with this one, choosing a wild array of colors to radically alter the visual palette of the original version. With this, I have a feeling that the bird is definitely what is going to catch viewer's eyes at first glance, since it is the most vividly-colored of any of the objects in the image, with lots of blues, reds, and greens, which are always eye-catching. What I did here in terms of choosing colors was to select colors that did not go together, to make it seem as fantastic and eyecatching as possible. Silhouette of a Fowl
The first minor detail notice is how the grass is a solid pink, to emphasize the abstractness; the second one is the stark contrast between the colors of the original, and this one; and the third one is how the bird's legs are two different colors, to, again, emphasize the abstractness.
“I created 10 variations of the piece, but I was told to present the 3 versions that I thought were the best ones�
Carved Turkey
The final one I did depicts the images as it would look if it were carved in a pumpkin as a Jack-O-Lantern. I that feel this one is the most innovative variation I've made for this project if only that it is the most different from any other piece I have created for this course. There isn't a whole lot to say about detail in this one, but one thing I will point out is that I've added a few lines to connect individual pieces within the yellow section to the outer orange section, to make it look at least a smidgen realistic.
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Extinct Birds Shown here are bird variations that I did, but as I went trough them, I felt that these ones were not fit to be presented in the three presented variants. Greenbeak
What this one, essentally, is the bird changed green. It is similar to the rainbow bird above, but I felt that it wasn’t as eyecatching. I created the piece by selecting each individual section of the bird and changing their color to a different shade of blue or green. Scrambled Egg-Layer
I felt that this one was too confusing and surreal to make the cut. I also thought that it was a bit slapdash. What this is, at its core, is the various element of the bird strewn about the picture and enlarged. The main focal point, I feel should be the bird’s eye, the second one should be the white and blue blotches in front of the bird, and the third one should be the squiggly lines. Where’s My Line? This one is essentially the orignal piece without any lines or shading. I made it the way it is by selecting certain parts of the image and deleteing them.
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Autograph Here we have another experimenal picture my instructor had my class do. We were learning how to use the pen tool in Adobe Illusrator, and we did so by writing our signiture multiple times with various brush sizes.The first detail that I want people to notice is what I perseve to be the largest signature in the imahe, which is right in the center in red. The second detail is the non-cursive vartion of my name that is simply my name’s intitals. The final detail I want pepole to take note of is the little smiley face that I put in for the sake of artsyness.
“We were learning how to use the pen tool in Adobe Illusrator, and we did so by writing our signiture multiple times with various brush sizes.�
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Abstract, aren’t they? These were created with Adobe Illustrator with a digital pen and a drawing tablet.Our instructor advises us to do hand exercises before drawing by writing our signatures using the program. As for the drawing process, it was achieved by drawing various lines so that they took the desired shape of a particular object, bearing in mind to keep count of how many lines were making up the object. Double J (Juice Jug) Pom Pom
I chose to create sketches of these particular items because each of them are the same, in that they possess all the same functions, but they each have their own distinct shapes and features. I drew them in the manner you see, with a great deal of squiggles and crisscrossed lines, to give it a style reminiscent of illustrators like Shel Silverstein and Jules Feiffer.
What one viewing these pieces should see first is how, in the case of the coke bottle, there is no actual outline of the bottle; the spiraling rings give the impression of the bottle’s shape. Another detail one ought to notice is how much more squat the Pom bottle is than an actual one; this is becasue I deliberately exaggerated its roundness. One final thing one should notice is the irregular squiggle on the handle of the watering can. This was to give the piece a very abstract quality.
The New Coke (Bottle)
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I'll Have A Tall One
“I chose to create sketches of these particular items because each of them are the same, in that they possess all the same functions, but they each have their own distinct shapes and features.”
Kresse 38 Robertmobile Though this might be poorly crafted,this one was my favorite one to create, since I've always had a thing for crafting fantastic modes of conveyance. What this is, obviously, is a car that is likely the likes of which no one has seen before.I think I owe a lot to Ted Giesel (alias Dr. Seuss) in terms of design. As I did with the other pieces, I made this out of various layers so that it would be easy to alter or remove any details, unwanted or otherwise. I added colors by using the fill option when drawing lines. This was a tad troublesome at times, but it worked out all right. The first detail I want people to notice is the goldfish hood ornament. It would likely clue people in that the piece was inspired by Dr.Seuss, given that the fish looks like one of the fish from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Next, people should notice the flag on the antenna. That was made using a special function on the color selection.Finally, People should notice how the windshield is the same shape and color as the grate on the front of the car.
“What this is, obviously, is a car that is likely the likes of which no one has seen before.I think I owe a lot to Ted Giesel (alias Dr. Seuss) in terms of design.�
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Shame These two works are ones that I would rather forget about, and that I regret that I made. Hearkening back to an art blog I did in my first year of college, I created a superhero: Bucky the Cross-eyed laser clown. He means well, but he isn't too smart, and, being cross-eyed, his eye lasers often do more damage than whatever the villain did. The reason that he looks so crude is that I was just getting started with using lines and elipeses in my work. I made him out of various shapes using the ellipse, pen, and line segment functions.When I showed this to my instructor, he said that I should change the color of his lasers to a color other than pink, since that blends too much with his red hair. The soccer ball was meant to be part of my value study pieces, but I had trouble trying to replicate it from the third dimention, and as a result, it came out as a badly-drawn ball. It is for this reason I chose not to present it.
Clown For the Count
“Hearkening back to an art blog I did in my first year of college, I created a superhero: Bucky the Cross-eyed laser clown. He means well, but he isn’t too smart, and, being crosseyed, his eye lasers often do more damage than whatever the villain did.”
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Out of Play
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