Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Flikr: Where Did the 'E' Go?

Well anyways...I have officially created my very own flikr account. I will periodically post pictures from life drawing as well as other random photos as exciting experiences come along. Here is the link for my account- http://www.flickr.com/photos/solliedesign/. Check it out!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Attack of the 50 Foot Hand

"Hand from Above" by Chris O'Shea. What a great concept. Maybe if we had more art like this American's would quit being lazy and walk everywhere...and watch out for the monster hand.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Library Signs: Adding a little more visual interest to the UW-Stout Library

These are not the most amazing thing that anyone has seen but it is definitely an upgrade from the original signs we have had for many years previous. The signs are attached to the side of the monitor with instruction on how to log on, print, and log out. I only spent about 20 minutes designing them. No one ever read the signs before (computers were always logged in or not shutdown) so I thought to make it blatantly obvious I would make the How To (for dummies) really large.

The original signs for the last 3 years or so


These are the signs I created

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Learning New Things Every-Other Day

One of my first posts pertained to the subject of being over-excited to take life drawing. Well now we find ourselves at the halfway point and boy-o-girl has it gone too fast. The question is- What have I learned so far this semester? My answer to that would be a great deal of little tricks and an eye for the human form. When the class had first started I had been working on my sketching skills and drawing characters here and there everyday in my sketchbook but did not have a true understanding of many things.
Now that I have been in Life Drawing for half a semester my understanding of the figure has changed. Now when I look at people walking on the street I try to find their rib cage and where there pelvic bones would be. Creepy I totally understand but hang in there with me. The hips and shoulder angles point to the foot that supports our weight when standing so I seem to pay much more attention of how the upper and lower parts of the body interact with each other. So when people are standing I figure out what leg is supporting their body.
My 'life' drawing skills have gotten much better as you will be able to see from my sketches posted on my blog or my flikr account . At first I had a problem with creating the torso and rib cage far too large. After practicing in class, outside of class, and watching the tutorial video I found that it is almost a square for the most part. Adding that to my knowledge has greatly increased the quality and proportions of my drawings.
We have also spent much time working with the hip and pelvic bones which have become another reference point. The more reference points and markers we add the easier if seems to create drawing that look much more correct than previously.
The major thing that I could work on would be to give my drawings a less geometric stylistic feel to them. This is great for the mood I am going for in my outside work but when drawing from life I may miss some of the smaller details when the drawing is more geometric. I really enjoy graffiti and street art and that is part of where it comes from as well as just giving my stuff a different stylistic feel.
One of the things I do well is keep my drawings clean and to the point. I do not like to keep stray lines on my page. For lots of my inked drawings there are only as many lines as needed and no extra. When drawing I like to have everything clean and that is one of the reasons I use graphite rather than charcoal sticks. My marks get bolder with my level of sureness on the lines and shapes. Throughout the semester I have seen myself becoming more sure of the lines I lay down and not as much second guessing.
Before the end of the semester I want to have a much better understanding of the muscles on the surface of the skin and why they appear that way which will come from studying the mannequin. I also want to get a sharper eye for negative space when there is not a picture border around the subject at hand. My drawings from picture seem to be much more precise but who's aren't? So I would like to improve my overall drawing ability but now have an understanding of why certain things look the way they do. The last thing that I would love to learn would be the bone and skull structure but that seems to be a figure drawing two subject so I guess I may just have to sign up for that class.
I understand that this class is a life drawing class but I think that it may be a good idea to give us a little more outside homework such as draw a picture of a person and add all the tricks we know as well as the structure underneath? Just a thought. This is the one class I would not mind homework for.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Eye Popping Fun (just in time for Halloween)

This is absolutely unbelievable! I wish that I could pop my eyes out of their sockets...well then again maybe not but it definitely makes for a great Halloween costume/mask.

A Brazilian man (above) that can do this trick as well. She is not the only one.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Monday, October 12, 2009

Comb-on-Over


Here was a piece I worked on this weekend. It was sketched out first and then inked with a Micron pen. I want to color it in Photoshop sometime once if get a few minutes. I was looking at fashion photography and came across this guy with the most amazing comb-over ever!

Life Drawing 10.09.09

I am happy with how this weeks sketches have turned out. The last few weeks have been a little 'sketchy' and not too accurate. I understand that the sketches below are not perfect either but they have gotten much better in just the last few weeks.

Once we started adding the sternum everything started to fill out much better. It has become much easier to to visualize where the back bends and where the hips come in. I think that once we add the hips to the mix everything will just keep getting more accurate as well as everything else we learn. The more items we learn about and add the more benchmarks and checks we have.

Lately I have been sketching everyday (usually during math class and before bed) and will post them sometime soon.

1 minute sketches

2 minute sketches

25 minute sketch

25 minute sketch

Sunday, October 11, 2009

My Man Crush

Here it is ladies and gents! My biggest man-crush in the whole world...well yah. Mr. Michael Buble! He is fantastic! Well anyways...here is his new video. I went to Walmart this past Friday to grab his new cd the day it came out and somehow left with groceries and apple cider and no cd. On the way home I almost cried in agony after noticing my forgetfulness. Well later that night I went back to Wallies-world and picked up the cd I have been waiting far too long for. It has been almost 2 years since his last release. At a later date I will have to write a little review of the album but for now here is a music video to go along with the single for the album 'Crazy Love'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJmKkU5POA

Friday, October 9, 2009

This Is How We Learned the Muscles

I found these pictures while surfing the web today! Maybe this is what we should do for our final in life drawing?

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

My Final Design for GD2 SollieDesign Identity

This project had many ups and downs. I changed my resume design over 20 times and my logo went from graffiti look to 3D design to a geometric and simple initials. The color combination I chose was simple but bright and very contrasting to the white background. I am a sucker for my white space and when things get too cluttered it gives me a headache so I stayed simple for the most part. Mr. Jesse Lindhorst can attest to always going with pastel colors and a shade of tan. I told myself that there was to be no pastels in sight and stuck to it.

My old logo seemed to have too many things going on. So I decided to clean it up and get straight to the point- 'SD'. Brand identity is all about how recognizable the mark is. So here is what you have after two weeks of second guessing and frustrations but a product I am happy with.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

SollieDesign Logo

Hopefully the Final


30 versions later I end up going back to basically what I had a week ago.