Silhouettes final project.

yeah so here are the final silhouettes. gouache on wood. 8x10 each. there will be some re-working done soon. i thank you in advance for any comments and critique.

Silhouettes!

Remember those few thumbnails from like five minutes ago? Well these are the larger worked out sketches of the one that i have chosen, oh and a color sketch of one of them. Completed illustrations comming soon.

Sillhouette thumbnails...

Here are just a few ideas: Brainstorming. Around 15 image and sillhouette juxtapositionings.

Still-Life Commentaries

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THEY ARE?

Dead Babies

Dictionary.com says "a·bor·tion –noun1.Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo orfetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.2.any of various surgical methods for terminating apregnancy, esp. during the first six months."
This is a pretty straight forward debate. Some people believe that it is wrong to end the life of an unborn child. They claim that it is murder and they make thier crudly draw picket signs and the march and impose their opinions on other people and make threats and wish eternal damnation on the poor helpless pro choice folk. Then there are the Pro choice hipsters. They're all "hey i do what i want with my body! I have the right to do as i please when i please as much as i please!" Then they go and make silly so-called independant movies like juno and just piss everyone off a little bit. My point is hey quit trying to make every one be what you are and be a little more understanding Mr. Pro life. And Mr. Pro Choice, that little embryo thing is living. Use the morning after pill or pull-out. Or better yet let it live and let it decide how worthless his life is when it hits eighteen. At this point if it figures out that it ought not be here it will commit suicide. Both sides of this debate far too often have attitudes that are abominations.

Planning

Facts

What?

Trouble!!!!!!!!!!!

Homelessness & Unemployment

It is a fact that the United States of America is the richest country in the world, yet it is not too much of a shock that in 2009 homelessness reached a record high, and worsened because government goals and their exclusion of their needs. According to the Department of Housing and urban Development, a homeless person is one who "lacks a fixed nighttime residence." They have also been identified as individuals who make a monthly income of $680/month. Recent economic events have put much of a damper on many people's lifestyles. People's excessive lifestyles; that is. so, many found them selves well overwhelmed. So while it is most's tendency to blame government and big business its often wise to look to one's own lack of resourcefulness. Simplifying one's life does not, as many may believe, mean living with out. Unemployment does not have to result in homelessness. The ever growing gap in wealth distribution does not mean that any one is less than worthy of happy lives. This may feel like a rant or ramble of sorts and it just may be, but it does not change the fact that there needs to be a re-evaluation of standards.

Homelessness

Growing Homelessness In America

Preventing Homelessness

Hand Mind Cordination

Its an argument that has existed since the beginging of humankind's art making. Or at the least a contrasting opinion that has long been pondered. And that is what is more important when it comes to art making; craft-the time, skill, and attention given to a work with the workers own hands or content- what is being said with in the work, what is being communicated with the subject. Everyone expresses their feelings on this. Entire schools base entire philosophies around what they feel to be more of a focus. Artists even base their entire careers upon how they feel in this regards.

Personally i feel and know that it is possible to find a fair balance between the two. Duchamp's "Fountain" made it clear that art does not necessarily need to be of the artist's hand to carry the ideas clearly. Then there are sequential narrators such as Chris Ware, whose work appears to be almost mechanical. But craft or lack there of can always lend itself to the content or intent of the entire piece can it not? The work of the mind and that of the hands work......hand in hand....(boooo) Either way they need each other.

Film Adaptations

The past few years have been good for comics and graphic novels. The growing interest and the ever expanding variation of style makes for excellent entertainment. New things are being tried, so new possibilities are being acknowledged. We've come to see that comics are not just the newspaper funnies or super hero oriented, but can have actual developed stories that are more relate able and for more mature audiences. From stories like Scott Pilgrim by Brian Lee O'Malley to David Mazuchelli's Asterios Polyp there is a huge spectrum of story and character that any person can cling to.

So most recently, of course, many graphic novels have been adapted into film. Movies like Kick-Ass, which seems to be more or less of a good marketing plan, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World have proved that comic style lends itself well to the film medium. Then there are movies like Ghost World and American Splendor. These express beautifully the seriousness and the strong character development that is a possibility. So great things can take place with graphic novels and film. Fight Club is no longer the adaptation standard.

Top 10 Adaptations

Comic Book Movies

Scott Pilgrim

Im OFF THAT

Keep On NOOKIN'

The death of the book is a result of the eReaders. Music is one thing whose format gradually grew to be more and more portable. However, no one will neglect the power that listening to a 12" record has. This isn't exactly over hyped nostalgia, but it is an attention to detail and quality that in recent times has been somewhat pushed to the back burner. The mp3 format has speed up music production, yes, so there is more music more rapidly and that is a great thing but at what expense? We loose sound quality, detail, and the overall experience of the album.

Most recently there is another medium that is in danger of loosing its tangibility; books. The eReader, which included devices like Barnes & Noble's Nook, Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad takes digital files like .epub's and .pdf's and makes it possible to read your favorite books on the go. But again i ask, at what art forms expense? Sure, i see the benefit. "oh no i don't want to carry all of these books with me to read on the beach in Cozumel. Whatever will i do?" Yes you can carry an unseemly amount of digital books out and about. That is cool, however it was never a problem before. Also i believe there is an art in a tangible book that can never be replaced. Sure enough you may receive cover art along with your file, but you are with out the entire book design. The way the pages literally feel as you turn a page and crack a spine is an experience that can not be digitized.

There are things though that i like about the eReader phenomenon; textbooks and comic books. No one enjoys carrying around ten 20lbs anatomy books, with an eReader, it make life a little easier. The second is with comics. There has been an extreme growth in comic book interest in the past couple of years in comics, and the format and experimentation has been pushed further and further. I see interesting things happening in the future between animation and graphic novels. One thing that may not be able to be conveyed in a single panel as still image, can easily be animated within an eReader. Look forward to interactive on a whole 'nother level.

Kindle, Nook and Other eReaders to Take off in 2010

Among E-Readers Competition Heats Up

Will E-Readers Kill Comics

Plagiarism and The Electronic Generation

Now is a time where practically all of the world's information is literally sitting right in front of us on our laptops and in our phones. Often the information is even too much, so weeding through it all is definitely most difficult. However when the right information is found what is it that students in most recent times are do with it? Many point out that due to increased ease of access the boundaries that surround what is another's are becoming almost indistinguishable. Once upon a time copying directly from a book was clearly theft and even far more difficult. Today the simple copy and paste aspect makes the use of another's intellectual property far too easy.

But the bottom line is; rules are rules. "The central issue is not that students are becoming intellectual criminals, but that we have to make sure that as things change, the guidelines for proper crediting of sources of information are drilled into people's heads." says MSU-Billings English Professor Deborah Schaffer. For too long teachers have been trying to instill the proper process of writing and citing sources. But the increasing information makes it unclear to students that online information is not public and not common knowledge. So, with the use of programs like "turn it in" and with strong effort of the instructor, plagiarism will soon grow to be taken far more seriously.