12 techniques

So the color wheel was pretty easy, although if I'm going to be paying attention to detail, I best start stickin' to them there lines.  It is a basic art class, so I look at the color wheel painting as being a warm up.  On to bigger and better things now.  Our next assignment was a easy break down of 12 common techniques for painting.

quick breakdown, and some links for resources if it's been 12+ years for you too ;)

water into water - aka watercolor-"ish"

dry brush

scratch and rub through - dark on light and vice versa

bleed blending - one color from dark  to light

blending for volume

splatter & Dripping

non-brush manipulation - "oh some pretty friendly little trees over here"

block out or masking - if you've painted a room, you've essentially done this

multiple color load - "just dip n spread" ....I'm keepin it PG, are you?

and Texture, or "lifting"

Gotta love Google and Wiki

Boo!  I know.....No finger painting on this list.  I'm not sure how I did it, but I also mixed up the numbers in the boxes and went out of order for the assignment. No biggie tho.  This was a pretty simple project, and I'v come to realize I'm diggin' water coloring.  After the layout, we were assigned out 1st project...or maybe 3rd....hmmm, it's kept me busy for the past 4 classes, so yeah the 1st project.  I'll talk about that and show my progress in a few days.

My art kit is also getting to be a pain to lug around in a big mesh psuedo-portfolio carrier, so I'm shopping for a condensed carrying case.  Accessorizing!!!  I'm running out of white paint already too.  This new venture is costing more too, but well worth it.

Intro to Typefaces

So speaking of Typography, I'm actually really interested and excited about this course.  For the past 2 years I have been looking at fonts and changing the font on my android phone.  It's interesting what fonts are pretty basic or general on all cellphones.  It's sad manufacturers dont let people change their system font as they see fit. My current font on my phone is called Torq, which you can view above.  I like it, it's pretty legible on a cellphone.  We had to bring in print outs of 3 fonts we liked, or disliked into class tonight.  The other ones I'm going to discuss are Scriptina, and one called "Joy like sunshine through my window pane", uhhhmmm sure, whatev.  hahaha, I kid, typeface has feelings!!!

cancer rant ( TYPOGRAPHY animation )

The other class I'm taking this semester to kick off my interest in graphic design is Typography. Which is very important, but I honestly never paid too much attention to it. But, if I'm going to be getting into graphic user interfaces and design for websites and operating systems for mobile devices this is gonna be key. This was a fun, yet sad, video showing all types of typefaces and its usage.

My Color Wheel

So this is my first time working with paint in over 12 years!! It was pretty basic, we just had to make the color wheel. I remember when my teacher was explaining why complimentary colors affect us. The way he explained it was pretty interesting, stating that the cones in our eyes cause our brains to have a natural reaction when 2 colors are combined and they kinda "get excited", causing our eyes to naturally become drawn to them. Purple was the most difficult to make, thank god he included a tube of purple paint in the art kit. In addition to the color wheel, we made additional rows showing additional affects. Row 1 is just your basic grayscale from black to white. Row 2 is a value scale, which is basically choosing a color and adding black/white to it to add shading or tint. The 3rd row is an intensity scale, which is where we choose complimentary colors on opposite sides and adding the other color to intensify the 1st color, and as you get closer to middle....it creates brown.....complimentaries always make brown. Fun stuff, and I didn't get that much paint on me. Woot!

Realization

     All day long I sit at a cubicle for a very large cell phone company helping our customers with technical support over the phone. At times it can be very stressful, although any job in customer service is going to cause stress, right?  The benefits are great, my co-workers are really nice people. The money is good enough for what I'v learned & accomplished so far in my life, but bad enough to make me want to accomplish & learn more.
     I help people use their cellphones, USB modems, and PDAs.  I resolve their technical issues, whether it be device/user error, a network issue, or just sending them a replacement phone.  Weaving between the phone lines, you can hear the enthusiasm/stress/cheer/ in my voice.  I'm a pretty optimistic guy and it shows in my every day life and actions.
     But, it's pretty straight forward life now, or at least it seems.  So I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to go back to school for Visual Communications:Graphic Designing.  Big whoop your thinkin?  I chuckled to myself as I typed it and realized how common this career path is.  I'm 31 years old and have not taken an art class since high school.  I was a computers/business major in college.
     This blog is about me switching from a "left-side" brain frame of mind. Things like processing things in a logical and sequential order to a "right-side" mind frame. Like creativity, being more visual and processing things intuitively and random.  Should be fun for all of us.