Why Am I Here? A Process Book documenting why I cried no less than 6 times this semester
Jeni Kubiak ART130 Professor Katie Ries Spring Semester 2017
“I’m a music major. I have no idea when I’ll use any of this.” -Jeni Kubiak, 2017
Table of Contents D. School.....................................03 Dot/Line......................................05 Lettering.....................................07 Dataviz........................................10 Object Iteration...........................12 Designer Presentation.................18
D. School
The D. School project was the first project assigned to us as a class, and was designed to show us that our first drafts didn’t have to be amazing. We were asked to quickly come up with ideas (no matter how crazy or unrealistic) to a problem our partner had, and get the gist of our ideas down without focusing on the details.
I liked this process because it made me think on my toes, but it’s also what I disliked about it. Art for me has always been a relaxing thing that I can just do at whatever pace I wanted to and draw whatever I wanted to.
While it wasn’t necessarily the most difficult thing I’ve done, the ideas my partner and I had were more abstract than the others at our table, making it a bit harder to draw for me. What surprised me was how fast I could actually think of these drawings and then get them onto paper. I’m definitely more contemplative, so solving a problem quickly was very different for me.
I might just apply this method whenever I encounter a problem that doesn’t seem to have a clear fix. Perhaps I could think of more “out there” answers, and those could lead to actual solutions. I theoretically could share this with anyone, but I’d probably end up keeping it personal or between close friends. I’m used to showing unfinished work to a peer, as I’ll often show my other friend (who is also an artist) pieces I’m drawing to help me see the drawing from a different perspective.
Showing these quick little doodles to a relative stranger was a bit odd at first, but it didn’t feel as weird as it may have been for others. As stated before, I dislike working quickly. A lot. But this wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Knowing that the others at my table were in the same situation helped because I knew I wasn’t the only one getting a little stressed over the time crunch.
Dot/Line
This particular project focused on the themes of gestalt and how to effectively use them in context. To me, gestalt is taking the small pieces you have and creating a whole out of them, even if it’s just a fleeting glance of the whole. In the case of this project, it was taking the very few resources we had and making a complex idea that could be gathered in just a glance. We were asked to represent abstract concepts using just dots and lines. Above are some of my initial thumbnail sketches (in this case, the sketches for the concept of “oppression�) that were key in helping me understand what concepts I wanted to get across and how I wanted to do so.
It wasn’t necessarily hard to represent my ideas, but it was hard to represent them in a unique way. With how many times this project has been done, it was hard to come up with a unique idea, but that’s a challenge I wanted to take on. It was also hard to present the idea in a way so as it wouldn’t get mixed up with another word we had the option to do. For example, I was always worried that my “freedom” piece (left) would get mistaken for “rejection”.
This project changed my idea of abstraction slightly, but the general idea is the same for me. While I had a decent amount of respect for abstract artists, prior to this I was just a bit...indifferent on the subject. Now I have a deeper respect for these artists because I now know how much work goes into creating an abstract piece.
This project changed my idea of abstraction slightly, but the general idea is the same for me. While I had a decent amount of respect for abstract artists, prior to this I was just a bit...indifferent on the subject. Now I have a deeper respect for these artists because I now know how much work goes into creating an abstract piece.
Lettering
This project asked us to take a word from a provided list and find ways to represent it by drawing the letters by hand. It challenged us to work with various font types, as well as how font can affect the way we read words. For example, a serifed font tends to hold a different conotation than a sanserif font. Bold lettering also holds a different meaning than cursive, and so on. This was an interesting project overall, and one I would most likely pursue in the future.
I would like to think that the strength of my finished pieces is their form, as I did my best to try and carry a meaning more through that than I did the content by itself. I believe that a clever use of form can hold a lot of meaning. I tried this in one of my finished pieces, where I had the word “lift” done in an even sanserif font, but manipulated the form (in my case, flipping the “f” and connecting the lines of the “f” and the “t”) to emphasize the content.
This particular piece is one I am quite fond of, and really enjoy how it turned out. In this particular area, I don’t find myself to be necessarily creative. If not apparent by the layout of this book as a whole, I enjoy things that are neat, tidy, and organized. I find that I had difficulty thinking “outside of the box”, but I feel this piece shows that I did indeed make some progress in that area. The top photo is my original rough draft, while the bottom is the completed piece. I kept going with my “what if...” thoughts, and I am happy with the completed work. I would though, like to continue to refine the techniques I use to achieve a clear, bold script, especially through ink. The look of a clean, bold font is very appealing to me and I would love to refine that. I would also like to refine the way I do cursive lettering to make it look smoother.
In the end, I’m not sure which is stronger to be completely honest – my ideas or my execution. I feel like my ideas are good, but they could be a lot better. I could think out of the box more, and get more creative. I feel like my execution is the same way. I’m not a perfectionist to the extent that this assignment had called for, which made it harder for me than I had anticipated. I tried very hard to make my execution clean and precise, but I still have a long way to go.
Dataviz This project centered around gathering data on a topic that was interesting to us and creating an infographic to demonstrate what we had gathered. The main goal was to learn about creating a visual hierarchy and how that plays a role in how we determine the importance of information. In my data visualization project, I chose to gather data on those most affected by Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which I have suffered from from a very young age. I attempted to create a visual hierarchy through the size of my text, as that’s what I’ve found catches my attention the most. . I feel the first thing people see when they look at a poster or other piece of art with text is the largest text that’s on the page. It demands your attention.
I also tried to create a sense of balance by arranging my text in a sort of pyramid shape, with small text on the top and large text on the bottom. I was attempting to direct the reader’s eye downward to the most important element (that Generalized Anxiety Disorder is often diagnosed at just 11 years old) through using our natural instinct of reading top to bottom. I wanted it to be balanced as well, which was harder than I expected. I also learned that it’s important to remember even the tiniest details when you’re arranging a poster or piece like this.
I kept forgetting that us western readers read top to bottom, left to right. Because I didn’t arrange my information correctly, it was difficult to follow where to read next because I was essentially asking the viewer to forgo their old reading styles to attempt and understand mine. In regards to my choice of color palette, it was both difficult and easy to use color. It was easy on the computer, as I could test colors in real time and adjust easily. It was difficult to translate this to paper though, as many times what appeared on my computer screen didn’t look as good or even looked completely different that the original color I was seeing on my computer screen.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder Generalized Anxiety Disorder is characterized by a constant fear or worry over everyday matters or activities where the person is normally in control. Some common topics include seemingly simple tasks such as interacting with others, a fear of judgement, a lack of control, and a sense that one is not “good enough”. The most affected age range is persons aged 30-59. Source: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/any-anxiety-disorder-among-adults.shtml
Women are 60% more likely to be diagnosed than men
The average age of onset is only 11 years old!
You’re not alone! Sources: http://bit.ly/2dbiyev , http://bit.ly/2c2HdQ0
Object Iteration Blind and Modified Contours
This project began with us creating both blind and modified contours of the object or animal we had chosen to focus on for our project. Blind contours involved us staring only at a reference photo of the object and drawing the outline without looking at our paper, while modified contours allowed us to make glances at the paper. These were incredibly difficult for me, as I like to work by making small strokes in a sketch-like manner, and this way of drawing was the complete opposite. The end results were interesting though, as they demonstrated to me how to grasp the shapes and lines of the object as a whole without worrying about the small details.
Stylized drawings We were also asked to draw our object in either a certain style or take inspiration from another artist’s style. I chose to draw in the styles of Flash Tattoo art and after the artist Paul Klee. I found these to be more difficult than I originally thought. It was hard at times to pick out the distinguishing factors of each style and then blend it with my own.
Type Collages and Geometric Iterations Through this project, I learned much more about the common white tailed deer, especially how they are typically depicted if others are trying to draw them. I also learned how to break an animal down into general shapes to aid in drawing. For example, for the geometric iteration I noticed that deer tend to have very square-shaped bodies and legs that seem a bit thin when compared to the rest of the body. I also learned more about the species in general, and how they are differentiated from other types of deer.
I found the most difficult media to work with were the collage-type images, such as the type collage and the geometric collage I ended up doing. I am not quite sure why, but gluing seems to be something I struggle with. No matter how careful I am, I still end up getting glue everywhere. They were also a challenge because I had to find the distinctive features of does and fawns to help create a shape that appeared more like a deer and not say, a horse. It is easy when drawing to get the general shape of deer and add details to give it more deer-like traits, but capturing the silhouette was more of a challenge than I had anticipated.
This project also required the heavy use of photoshop, which I had never used prior to this. I learned that photoshop is, overall, easier than it seems. Once I was shown where certain editing affects were and how to use them, they were incredibly useful and made the project overall cleaner and easier to accomplish.
This program would be incredibly helpful in the future, especially if I were to get a job that required me to bring in presentations and physical images that appeared clean and professional. To be completely honest, if I were to just be given photoshop with no help whatsoever, it may be more difficult as it can be hard at times to find the right tool you need to achieve a desired effect. The learning curve would be steep, but I feel it would be worth it.
If I were to do this project for a whole year, I would love to be able to make more detailed 3D depictions. I’m not very well-versed in 3D media, such as sculpture, and I would love to be able to explore that much more. I would also love to be able to explore how deer are used in folklore, as well as the “darker side” of deer, if you will. What I mean by this are the problems that white tailed deer face, such as overpopulation, hunting, et cetera.
Artist Presentations For our final project of the year, we were asked to do a presentation on an artist whose work we enjoyed and thought was interesting. I chose the manga and animation artist, Osamu Tezuka. I was drawn to my designer because I love anime and manga, and he was the founder of the aesthetic that is still used today.
He was able to give Japan a distinct form of media that is now considered distinctly Japanese in style, even over here in the West. Even if people don’t know Osamu or his original work, many know that the style used in anime/manga came from Japan. We were asked to create a pechakucha style powerpoint presentation to give in front of our classmates.
I am not a fan of actually presenting things to anyone, even my classmates. I don’t get nervous, but I know that my brain and how I form sentences isn’t conducive to presenting. Even with a script, my brain tends to want to either jump from topic to topic, cut sentences short, or insert ideas as they come into my head. My body is good at presenting, but my brain isn’t.
Photograph cites https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/54/AstroBoyVolume1. jpg/200px-AstroBoyVolume1.jpg http://www.kimbawlion.com/kimbawlion/kimba1966movie.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Black_Jack_manga_vol_1.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5suNQMxJ8iw/TDcW2HNn6zI/AAAAAAAAALg/ CScsebJXJWY/s1600/6a01347effc208860b0137a599cf0c860d-500pi.gif