Cave Paintings | 35,000 Years Ago!

HISTORY PODCAST #1

What are cave paintings?
Beautiful, detailed and colorful representations found on the inside of cave walls and ceilings

Name several common themes found in cave paintings?
Large animals such as bison, horses, deer, tracings of human hands, and abstract patterns

How were these paintings created (tools, pigments)?
The paints were made from mixing water, plant juice, animal blood, soil, charcoal, and hematite (a form of iron oxide); brushed were made by putting together sticks, small stones, leaves, and animal hair

What is the most famous cave painting site? When was it discovered and by whom?
Post an example of cave painting(s) from this cave.
Lascaux, France in 1940 by four teenage boys

Why did this cave have to be closed? What was done to satisfy public curiosity?
1963, the paintings were being damaged by the carbon dioxide emitted by the visitors; to satisfy public interest, the French government created Lascaux II, a man-made replica next to the original

Post an example of cave painting(s) from Altamira cave.

In Altamira cave, why do most of the paintings have a red hue?
The red clay in the soil, probably used in the paintings

Who discovered this site? How old are the paintings confirmed to be?
Discovered by Marceline Sanz De Sautuola and his daughter, Maria; confirmed to be nearly 19,000 years old

What is the oldest known cave painting site? When was it discovered and by whom?
Post an example of cave painting(s) from this cave.
Chauvet-Point Arc, discovered in 1994 by three speleogists Eliette Brunell Deschamps, Christian Hillaire, and Jean-Marie Chauvet


What was different about the painting techniques at this site?
Walls were scraped clear of debris, and a 3D effect was created by etching around the edges

What is "speleology"?
The study of cave paintings and the mechanics of them (how they were made, utensils, etc.)

What three reasons do archeologists and historians believe prehistoric man created cave paintings?

1. To tell a story or recount an event that already happened,

2. As an instructional visual aid to help teach about hunting techniques, or

3. Created for magical or religious reasons that if an image of a desired event were painted it might come true

Assignment 13: Research and inspiration!

RESEARCH:

What is exquisite corpse (rotating corpse)? A method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled; a collaboration

Where did this style originate? It began in the 1920s with a game called "Consequences", beginning with words that shifted towards a more visual approach.

Who? Surrealists developed this visual method; surrealism was an art movement that aimed towards working with the creative mind, almost fantasy

INSPIRATION:

Style? Silly, modern, or serious

This Stephen Kroninger spread has a silly, young feel to it, and the use of collaging is very nice. It would be cool for each part of the body to be made from other various parts.

I like the clean, intense, and modern feel that this illustration has. It contains a lot of contrast while keeping the picture neat.

This illustration, though it isn't a person, is very similar to the style that I would like to use. Though, it may be more difficult to do on a computer.

That's all for now, folks!!

The Creative Process!

*A series of steps repeated every time a designer creates something*

Why is the creative process important?

1. Improves consistency

2. Ability to plan and time your work (time management)

3. Raise the quality of work

4. Communicate more effectively and in a more professional manner

The steps:

• Research- The more you know, the easier the project will be!; research the client and the competition; online, magazines, music, and the world around you... get inspired!
• Brainstorming/Inspiration- "Striving to be unique and innovative while still following the current trends ensures a fresh and creative approach." Coming up with adjectives to describe the project is also helpful for brainstorming; good questions to ask:

-What kind of message am I trying to communicate?

-Who is my audience (young, old, trendy, etc)?

-What am I trying to tell them?

-What kind of color and/or style will work with this audience?

• Sketching- Thumbnails, thumbnails, and more thumbnails!; sketch to get your thoughts out and to work through ideas; consider placement of your elements, you colors, typefaces, imagery, what is it of
• Execution- Implement your ideas. Combine type and imagery into a well developed composition; utilize design principles and visual organization guidelines to help. Try techniques, explore possible options, and analyze the outcome. If you get stuck, walk away and clear your head; if the piece does not look how you imagined, or isn't working, try another idea.
• Critique and Revise- Take a step back (literally) and look at your design with an objective eye. Make sure the design effectively conveys the message to the intended audience; if it doesn't, go back and tweak the composition until it does.

Photo Composition!

Snapshot v. Photograph-

• Snapshot: a quick shot, often spontaneous, taken to record a moment in time
• Photograph: an image taken with care and thought

Rules of Composition-

1. Rule of thirds: imaginary lines drawn dividing the frame of your camera into thirds, both horizontally and vertically; subject placed where the lines intersect; horizon line at the top or bottom of the horizontal divider; can fill entire frame for closeup
2. Leading lines: use the lines created within the foreground or background of the composition to lead the viewer's eye through the photo/to a focal point
3. Point of View: changing the way your subject is perceived by changing the camera position; to make something look tall, compose the shot so that the camera is looking upwards, and vice versa
4. Simplicity: keep background simple and clear of clutter; mood and effectiveness of a photo can be altered by what is in the background; chaotic composition will cause the viewer to look away

Semester Reflection!

Well, is it really already (almost) the end of the semester? Time flies, doesn't it? No bother in being upset about it, though. Let us now reflect on my half-completed journey through Intro to Graphics and Design!

The class began with clueless, but excited, teenagers ready to gain some knowledge (like in Mr. Ray's class)!

-We began with Illustrator CS5 and played around with lots of fun vector graphic variations. Assignment one (vector graphic icons) was all about simplifying something, such as photography, a salon, and a bakery, as I designed. This was to be completed using the shape tool, might I add! No pen tool just yet.

-That came in during assignment two (texture grids), where we had just used the elements of design and were using them in a project! This is where we learned all about utilizing the pen tool. We also learned about the ever-important clipping mask! My completed 3x3 grid was Design of the Week, might I add. (Though one of my squares is lacking a background on my blog, oops...)

-Next, we learned ALL about color! We did some fun assignments, too! There was a small classwork assignment where we cut out photos with each of the color schemes (complementary, analogous, split-complementary, triadic, and monochromatic) and explain why we believed this way. The next assignment, assignment three, was to use the pen tool to create silhouettes of some objects to create an inner and outer circled color wheel! We used to CYK (cyan yellow magenta) sliders to manipulate the specific colors we needed for the fill of each silhouette and filled each with a color to match the inside one! There were many layers!

Then we had some fun...

With Adobe Photoshop CS5 (extended)!!!

-For assignment four, we continued with the same unit with color, but studied the work of the iconic Andy Warhol! Most famous for pop art, this fourth assignment was based on him. We used pictures that were darkened/saturated and painted in the color behind the black shadows of the photo~

-We then began studying image resolution, dpi, resizing images, and all that jazz, and created photo mosaics for assignment five! I absolutely love how everyone's turned out wonderfully, and it was nice. But super labor intensive! And we only got--what--two days? That really put the pressure on, and I barely finished mine on time! Plus, it took forever to save because of all the layers and images! :o (I was pushing it, anyways, finishing two minutes before the bell rang!)

Around here is where we studied the principles of design! There are some previous posts from November about the principles, as well as a new feature called layer masks!

-Stephen Kroninger, that lovely artist, was the next subject of study! He creates fantastic pieces using magazine cutouts and collages them to create another image (there is a post about that here)! He also has his own book titled "If I Crossed the Road...". Our next assignment, assignment six, was to create a picture of where we would go if we could cross the road! We learned about making a layer mask and using either the brush tool (black in foreground to hide; white in foreground to show) or the magic wand tool! It was very detailed, but a fun assignment that allowed creativity to explode! I mean, I went to Narnia where Justin Beaver resides, along with a banana-horned Mr. Tumnus wearing an Aslan t-shirt. Humor is tolerated, luckily! :-)

-Assignment seven used a layer mask, too! In this assignment we extended our layer mask and color editing knowledge to photoshop ourselves into a photo of our favorite celebrity! Now, that also meant we had to take a picture that resembled the already-there people, and make a layer mask to hide our own background. I photoshopped myself into a photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which was interesting. I felt like I was intruding on a very couple-y photo. I think I pulled it off, though. Maybe.

Next we learned about type using a Prezi presentation! Wheee! We learned all about the different kinds of type and the parts of type (like serif, ascender, descender, etc.). By typing up a word and changing it to outlines, we learned to create typography; the art of using words to make a picture.

- Assignment eight was all about that! In manipulating the letters and shape and size of a single word, we used a guide image to create a product with shadow and everything using LETTERS! Wow! It's very time-consuming, depending on the type of image, but it's rewarding and exciting!

Things that would be helpful change: Possibly a bit more time for some of our assignments! Maybe I'm just slow--wait, no. I already know that I'm slow-- but it's hard to keep up sometimes (with assignments, not blogs)! Plus, I can't download illustrator anymore for free, and I can only download photoshop for a 30-day trial, so things are getting tricky!

What I hope to learn next semester: I feel as though I have learned so much already! I am honestly not quite sure right now! Of course, I will be super excited for whatever comes next!

*All my assignments can be viewed on my Assignments page !

Happy holidays 2011, everyone! :-)

Review Week 17!

Who shot the serif?! [www.ilovetypography.com]

And what I learned... :-)

The serif may have originated in ancient Rome, where inscriptors would carve out whatever the writer wrote on the slab, including the brush strokes at the end of the letters. Though, they are not quite sure where the terminology 'serif' itself originated, the Chinese and Japanese translated definitions are related to legs or fish scales, respectively.

The two main types of serif are Adnate and Abrupt. Adnate serif have a more organic transition from the stem to the serif, usually with a curve. The Abrupt serif, as its name suggests, has a more defined transition; blocky and sharp.

Only a week and a half left before winter break! Two weeks before Christmas! Wow!

Review Week 16!

How many points are in an inch? How many points are in a pica?
There are 72 points/inch; 12 points/pica!

Of the seven classifications, which classification(s) would best work as body type? Why?
Sans Serif- this type has no serifs, which makes reading passages easier, and has uniform weight in its strokes

Identify the lowercase characters that have ascenders?
(extending above the waist line) b, d, f, h, i, j, k, l, and t

Identify the lowercase characters that have descenders?
(extending below the base line) g, j, p, q, and y

Classify the following typefaces and briefly explain why you believe it should be classified that way:

^ This typeface could be classified as Slab Serif or Egyptian because it has a uniform weight through the stroke and thick, square-shaped serifs.

This typeface could be classified as Script because of it's varying of thick and thin strokes, reminiscent of handwriting, and would work well as a heading, but not as body text.

This typeface could be classified as Decorative or Ornamental, as it has a distinctive design and would not be able to be classified as anything else. It would also work well as a header, not body text.

This typeface could be classified as Sans Serif, as it lacks serifs completely and has a very uniform weight in its strokes. It would work well as body text, as it is plain and easy to read.

This typeface could be classified as Blackletter because of it's very fancy, calligraphy-like strokes of various sizes, but it could also be classified as Decorative because of it's unique serifs.

This typeface could be classified as Old Style or Roman because it lacks a large contrast between thick and thin of its strokes and has wedge-shaped, angular serifs.

This typeface could be classified as Modern because of its sharp contrast between the thick and thin of the stroke and its thin, flatter serifs.

Happy December! :) Three more weeks?!