short update

the company finally agreed to refund the silk photo paper, so i've sent it back & am keeping my fingers crossed for the money to be credited.

as well, i've ordered what i now hope to be the CORRECT silk fabric and that will be getting in within a week, i believe. next, i'll be traveling up to Ashland to print on this stuff, so i'm hoping it works!

gaahhh!!!!

unfortunately this silk paper turned out to be a type of photo paper. i will be calling the sales person who sold it to me tomorrow & trying to send it back.

in the meantime, i have been searching for alternatives. i have sent out several emails to different places requesting information about their silk mediums and asking for samples and quotes. hopefully i will have more information soon about what company/fabric type i decide to go with.

no matter what, these images ARE going to get printed over break, if i have anything to say about it!!

good news!

paper arrived today! the silk looks fine, but it's hard to tell what it'll really be like since it's paper-backed. it came with instructions and gloves, so hopefully this will work out nicely once i get to printing on it.

i'll be coming in this weekend to start printing, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that the printer & paper work together without any mishaps!

really cool stuff

Mario Sanchez Nevado's work...

check it out at: http://aegis-strife.net/

the printing saga continues...

GRRR. i went to check to see if the silk was in this afternoon; obviously it wasn't. i called the company, Digital Art Supplies, and they told me that the silk paper was backordered longer than expected. originally, i was told it would be in to the company a few days after i first ordered it (last monday) and then would be shipped out to me (meaning it should've been here this wednesday at the latest.)

because of shipping/ordering overloads over the holiday break, the paper is just now at Digital Art Supplies and is currently being shipped out to me. this means it'll get here by wednesday (the day of our final- yikes.)

Jessica has kindly agreed to come in over Christmas break & help me get started printing on the silk paper. i have set a date next weekend to come up and try the paper out & hopefully get everything all finished up. (unfortunately this means i'll only have the projected images on-screen for the critique, and i hope to have the real ones ready 1st thing next semester.)

gas to feed the engine...

a little bit of inspirational poetry taken from one of my favorites- Longfellow's A Psalm of Life:

let us, then, be up and doing,
with a heart for any fate;
still achieving, still pursuing,
LEARN TO LABOUR AND TO WAIT.

still no silk...

the silk hasn't come in yet. hopefully it will be in soon- i plan on coming in this weekend to get all the images done.

question... please comment(!): when is our final? is it wednesday for sure?? ...i have it down as weds. from 4-6.

one more cool thing over break...

more inspiring stuff- some pretty nifty graphics.....

THX's 'Amazing Life'... check it out: http://www.thx.com/cinema/trailers.html

politically inspired inspiration

an inspirational discovery over break:

Will.I.Am's "It's a New Day"

i went to sleep last night, tired from the fight
i’ve been fightin’ for tomorrow all my life.
i woke up this mornin’
feelin’ brand new-
cause the dreams that I’ve been dreamin’
have finally came true.

it’s a new day.

if you and i made it this far, well then hey-
we can make it all the way.
and they said no we can’t..
and we said yes we can.
remember: it’s you and me, together.

it’s time for unity-
for us and we..
that’s you and me, together.

HOPE for CHANGE. check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7y4IDeKjqk

printing updates

I just realized I hadn't posted about the printing saga-- so here it is:

• The samples my prospective printer sent me were not only NOT my images (rather they were generic pictures), but they arrived with unexpectedly high estimates for the cost of printing the final, large images. (They were supposed to send me small tests of my work, and the price estimates given to me went up significantly from what was posted on their website.)
• After talking with Jessica about different media and printing options, I finally decided printing on silk would probably work best for my concept & images. (I will be playing around with display methods next semester. I am considering hanging the pieces close to the gallery walls to give them some opaque background to set the image off. But, they will be suspended from the ceiling far enough away from the wall in order for them to have some freedom of movement, or flow, as people walk past them.) For the remainder of this semester, then, getting these images printed will be the goal!
• After some confusion & hassles on the internet and phone with different companies/places about their printing silk products, I ordered a roll of paper-backed silk (the paper comes off... it's just to help with printing) from a place online. It was pretty darn expensive, but not nearly as much as it would've been to get all the images printed from the 1st place. (I will be printing the images myself on this silk paper once it comes in. The estimated arrival time is sometime mid-next week.)
• For now I am praying that: (1) the printer will work... and will take this silk ok! (2) the images will look decent ...or preferably more than decent... on the silk medium, and (3) the silk will come in time for me to print all these images without going insane in the process!

That's all folks-- please keep your fingers crossed for me that this all works out! :-) I hope you're all enjoying a great Thanksgiving break!!

final FINAL (2)...??

final FINAL... ??

last one...done!!

let me know what you think of these images, please! any changes to make?? speak now or forever hold your peace.. :)

another one finished...

this one's finally finished.. whew!

edited image; a different style:

tried something a little different w/ this one... yay or nay?

time is of the essence...

i've decided that we should add 6 more hours to each day. (3 for working, and 3 for sleeping.) i think this would solve the world's problems and everyone would stop fighting wars and all would be in peace & harmony.
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still no word from the printer guy about how long it will take to get my full-sized images done. also no estimate on price yet. hopefully he'll get back to me soon on that.
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plan for now:
-wait for the silk tests to get in
-finish these images up by adding all the details... (hoping to have most/all done by critique Monday!)

something in the background...hopefully ties in with the other images?

print tests

i finally decided on a place to get my images printed, and i've sent them a couple tests to print on a silk material. i will have to wait about a week before he sends me the tests, however, because he has to get another roll of silk sent in. hopefully the tests will arrive sooner than later so i can get some final images printed for the end of the semester.

depending on how well these turn out, i would like to get them printed in a very large format, so we'll see how many i can manage time-wise and money-wise to get done by the end here!

in the meantime i am working on getting the fine details drawn into the other images.

here's one relatively-finished piece... can i get some feedback on whether or not i should incorporate patterns into the background?? thanks!

work in progress

new images

Subcomic Strips

(ideas)...

Artist Statement (mid-term draft)

My art and my thesis focus on the illustration of the human psyche. As Webster’s defines it, the psyche is (in classical mythology), “a personification of the soul,” or in more modern terms, “the actuating cause of an individual life.”

I begin by creating highly detailed linoleum relief prints that resemble thought process. These “ruminations” are collections of designs that are drawn and carved in a rather free association-like way. They represent images or synapses of the subconscious mind. Printed on handmade, delicate Japanese washi paper helps emphasize their weightless and changing nature. The beeswax encaustic coating gives the prints a closer connection to thought process by giving them a translucent yet foggy quality.

Secondly, I work from these prints, as well as from scanned-in drawings and digital stylus drawings to create “intimate spaces”— highly detailed digital portraits. These portraits are originally taken from photographs which are then blocked out into simple colors. The drawings are added on top of the flat color to represent thought process and what might be going on ‘underneath’ the skin shell of a person’s psyche. Layers of texture and color are then added to complete the image and add depth to the overall composition. These “intimate spaces” are meant to invite the viewer to take a closer look at this human’s inner workings.

The prints and digital images are hung from the ceiling in an attempt to suspend them in a moment, just as a thought ‘floats’ or passes through our mind. This also allows light to flow through the prints and images, giving the work a living, glowing quality by allowing brightness to shine into lighter parts of the translucent material. This display method also creates a larger space for the viewer to see the piece and allows the subconscious representation to be seen in a variety of ways. Again, this emphasizes the complexity of the human psyche. My work as a whole is meant to encourage viewers to challenge their previous conceptions about the workings of the human mind.

cool high-speed photographs!

Stefan
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Martin Waugh

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Boris Bos
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SEE MORE IMAGES: click here

working on some ideas...

so the stylus thing is interesting. it takes awhile to get the drawings in, but i like the types of linework i'm gettting.

i'm afraid i need to work bigger, though. the drawings need to, in general, be larger (or it won't look like anything in the final, huge print.)

so i'm considering working back into the portrait 'cut-outs' by scanning in actual drawings rather than drawing by stylus on the computer. maybe i could print out a mock-up and draw onto a transparency so the designs will fit the portrait proportionally.

in any case, i'm still going to work with the stylus a little more (for the moment, at least.) this is the progress i've made so far with one of the portraits:

two images... both IN PROGRESS.

too crazy? i'm planning on working back in to lighten things up. ideas/suggestions?
next image- this is just starting off, and i want to try using the stylus to work/draw back into it w/ patterning.

no image.. (GASP!) ..but an idea:

i want to try using the stylus as a drawing medium for my digital portraits. this would allow me to get the same kinds of effects as in my printmaking work, but it would be a unique pattern/representation of thought process. AND i think i could get pretty detailed with the linework in this way of working.

i want to attempt to 'draw in' patterns on top of my portrait photos & drawings... and then see what works best!

thoughts?

MORE Inspiration from Others' Suggestions...

GUSTAVE KLIMT

Inspiration from Others' Suggestions...

STINA PRESSON

Scientific Inspiration

2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn14805-science-visualised

String Vibrations, Andrew Davidhazy

Visualizing the Bible, Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild

Polymazing, Ye Jin Eun and Douglas B. Weibel

Mad Hatter's Tea, Colleen Champ and Dennis Kunkel

so i let the piece have it!

craziness.. yay or nay?

inspiration for flat imagery..

"Winter Wonderland" by Jeremy Somers
http://www.itsartdammit.com/

Graffiti Art by Eduardo Bertone
http://www.bertoneeduardo.com/

it's funny how they tell you, "you can be anything."

i need some feedback please!!

i plan to play around with the whites of the print designs to help push/pull the figure to make it less flat.

• are the different styles good, or do i need to pick patterns from the same print, perhaps?
• is the figure position good?
• do i need to abstract the figure more or make it look more realistic?
• background-- more, less, dark-light gradient, or does there need to be something there?

PLEASE give me your ideas!! thanks!

slightly interesting notions

sometimes i think combining ideas & art is like sticking ice cubes on the sun.

argh.

why is it always so difficult to get started? it has to be the right environment, or inspiration just leaves me.. & all my work amounts to is just frustration and anxiousness.

portrait inspiration: Anne Leibovitz