Newest Cover Ideer

Drawrings Fo Muh Book

80s Dinos it is (DUH ;p)! 6 mock-up pages down (sans text...debating whether to use use it)! BOOYAKA!!!












New cover...still don't like it haha

Book Prepozalz

I have three main ideas for seperate books-each with different demensions:

Idea 1: A word-free, picture-heavy book of dinosaur-shaped pages. The dino template will be the same for each page, but how each dino is colored, patterned, or straight drawn will change. I want it to be big and graphic with a set color scheme of neon greens and pinks with lots of overly-saturated purple. This idea sounds like it would be crazy fun in execution and would most likely be fun to "read".

Idea 2: A conceptual book using text in an artistic sense while also retaining some legibility. In a sentance, this book will acheive to be "a legible abstraction of my cosciousness". I would want the format to be 8.5 x 11 and for each page to look like a graphic, well-thought-out poster. Very artsy. Very modernized. And pretencious? You bet!

Idea 3: This one would just be self-idulgence: a book of different dinosaurs dressed in 80's over-the-top fashion. This book would mix my 2 favorite interests (even if the latter is more a cosmetic interest). I've been obsessed with dinosaurs since I was a wee lad and 80s fashion is so awesomely bad that the irony of appreciating it years later is too fun too ignore. I'm thinking it will be smaller than the first two ideas and each page will include a little stanza (possibly rhyming to amp up the radness/sillyness?) about each bitchin' dino. Me thinks lines from 80s pop music may come into play? If I do pick this theme, know this: It will be colorful. It will be rediculous. It will be win.

I like all of these ideas and just need to commit to one...maybe I could get some fancy, official feedback from my instructors, yes?

New Post....ah.

Re-vamped Posters! BE AMAZED!!!

Posterized

For this assignment, I couldn't help myself-the idea of making an imaginary band poster made me so giddy I decided to do so for both posters. This was probably because creating 2-D art for musical artists is kind of sort of a small dream of mine, and this project allowed me to pretend I was in that normally unattainable position. To make up for this blatant rule violation, the result of my relentless addiction, I offer an extra (yes, extra!) poster. Please accept this third piece-my free gift to you-as compensation for falling off the wagon. Thank you.

Naturally, the band name I chose eludes to my musical heroes, who I had the honor of meeting recently (see previous post), Foals. I went with "Quadrupeds"-four-legged animal, plural, sans the cliche "The" before it equals an homage to a great indie/electro-funk band without directly ripping them off. The idea is that Quadrupeds is a three piece band and each of us (Ian Chachere, Jenny Kladzyk, and myself-totally wish this was reality) got to steal the spotlight for each poster.

I used the iconic imagery of a more famous hero of mine, Ziggy Stardust himself-the great David Bowie, to catch people's attention. I figured mimicking the cover of his "Heroes" album was an appropriate choice for the poster I'm depicted in. Jenny's picture was based off a Bowie tour poster that utilizes five flat colors and circle shapes, and Ian of course donned the famous lightning bolt across his mug.

These images differ from any I've done before because each poster required a photo shoot of sorts. Each modded photo required a model, specific location, specific pose and, the most difficult and time consuming aspect, complex make-up. All of the "war paint", as my uncle calls it, was done by yours truly. That part took a while, but was fun and something I had total control over. That's why the hardest shot to get wasn't of my friends and their intense make-up, but my own shot. I had no control over the camera angle or positioning of myself to match the unmatchable Bowie pose. We had to take five times more pictures for that poster than the other two to finally achieve a semi-correct pose. A photoshop tool I used more intensely than in any of my previous images in this class was the pen tool for Jenny's (third) poster. I carefully cut around sections of her photo to capture all the meticulous details in her face and especially her hair. Complicated selections like that are fun, but tedious. It took so long that I never got a chance to add text to the silly thing!

I plan on finishing up the third poster soon and in the mean time hope our next assignment is equally as fun and challenging!

Portraits/Alphabet Soup/Jesse Sucks at Photography

Self-Portrait:

Someone I Know (My "Hubby"):

The Others (FOALS!...and Jenny):


Since I'm a child of the digital age, I picked "QWErTY", the first row of the keyboard, as my Alphabet Soup letters:

This assignment was the most challenging so far. I've always known I'm a lousy photographer, but I tried not to let that thought set me up for failure or keep me from giving it my best shot. The process was tough, but I learned a lot about opening up to strangers and opening my eyes to the world outside my living room- even towards the world inside my living room-the world I tend to glaze over on a day-to-day basis.

My "other" picture was extremely exciting-I met my favorite band, Foals, when I visited Portland and asked if I could take their pictures. I didn't mention it was for an assignment because I was a little too star-struck to formulate many words. I only used one layer to effect the final "other" (or "others") photo. I wanted to add hand-written text to document the occasion in narrative form and tie all the portrait photos together cohesively. In contrast, the alphabet photos all have at least 3 adjustment layers each. I played around with the exposure, levels, hue, saturation, and contrast until the desired letters emerged the clearest. It didn't help that the only camera I own is the "Photograph" feature on my cell phone. The pictures it captures are of low quality, but I tried to make that work to my advantage by purposely amping up the grittiness of the pictures. I went for an over-exposed, warped motif that almost hurts to look at-kind of like staring at the sun.

As wonderful as it was to meet Foals, I'm glad this assignment is over with. After this enlightening journey I found out I'm at the same place I was before-I have no affinity for photography, and frankly, I stink at it.