If this doesn't inspire you, what will?

Everyone wants a Porsche. Not everyone can afford one. Or so you think. This kid (link) took this:


and he turned it into this:

This guy's determination is truly inspiring to me and everyone else who's ever wanted something really REALLY badly.

Retail Me Not Tutorial

For this week's tutorial, i have provided the the link (in the image) to the RetailMeNot website. This is a website for anyone not looking to pay full price for items purchased online. There are coupons for many sites where you might want to save a little money: Dominos, Pizza Hut, Blurb, and Victoria's Secret are just a few examples. And they're always adding more coupons so check each time you go to buy something online and you might save a few dollars.

Picture Poet

Above is one of the spreads in the book i created for my final project in Digital Print Based Media.

Final Proposal and Inspiration

For my final project in Digital Print Based Media, i will be making a book that combines photography and poetry into a cohesive body.

The inspiration for my work comes from many seemingly random places. Shel Silverstein, for example, inspired me to start reading more poetry and, in turn, begin writing some of my own. My work, however, does not generally reflect that of Shel Silverstein. Enter Nancy Springer: Springer is the author of a novel titled "The Boy on a Black Horse." Within this book, Chav, one of the main characters, writes a poem that has no title:

"My life is made of midnight
The black horse of anger gallops closer
The moon in my sky is the color of death.
The stars a chips of broken glass.
In a black back ally at midnight.
And the stallion gallops in my chest,
The black horse of anger gallops.
The world will die under his iron tread,
And the moon in my sky is a cold dead eye
At midnight."

This poem has inspired several of my own poems as well as a few of my photographs. The darker nature of this poem influences many of my own pieces.

Are Video Games Inspirational?

Yes.
The graphics in Skyrim are absolutely astounding. For an Art Major emphasizing in Digital Media, there's not much cooler.


And here's a tutorial on making a character to get you started :)

The Final Cut

Here is the final version of my video to be used in the opera production.

My Latest Creation

For the "Opera Project," i am still in the process of working out the kinks. i changed my mind from using Flash to create the splashes of color to a PowerPoint slideshow of different types of phones and phone lines to a video recording of food coloring dripping systematically into a bucket of water. This last idea is the one i am staying with. However i don't yet have the video on my computer to post up here (nor am i entirely sure as to how i would post it) and therefore will only be able to post this image of some food coloring dripping in bottles that i found online. (And i will post the video just as soon as i can in class tomorrow)

click here to be taken to the image's source page.

The Inspiration Behind My Piece

This video showcases the music i listened to as i constructed my latest work of art. It was, in fact, required, but it inspired me none the less.

A Tutorial: Setting up a Tripod

For those of you who have trouble setting it up the right way...

Opera Project

For my scene in the "opera project," i am thinking of an abstract sort of stop motion using brightly colored shapes and splashes. i want to discuss the idea with the performers of the scene to get their input and ideas on how they'd like it to look, but there will probably be a lot of bright pink and neon orange in it.

this image relates to what i'm imagining on some level:source: http://www.queeky.com/remote/slide/800x800/119537/source.jpg

Poster Project

Poster Project

I have decided to make a poster for the upcoming performance by the Opera Workshop class at Tarleton State University. The reason i chose this event is that i will be helping design the set for one of the scenes and i feel that it is something worth advertising.

Below are three images of posters i have looked over in an attempt to find inspiration for my own piece.





In addition, i am adding a tutorial that someone trying to design a poster, but who isn't sure how to get certain effects might find interesting or helpful.

Vector Magazine Spread

This is the spread i designed for my celebrity's magazine article. Andre the Giant was known both as The Gentle Giant and as The 8th Wonder of the World. He was beloved as a wrestler, actor, and father, and is dearly missed by all who remember this wonderful man.

Lars van de Goor

Lars van de Goor is an amazing photographer who was a finalist in 2010 for the Hasselblad Masters Award. His images of nature scenes are absolutely phenomenal. He enhances the vibrancy and super saturates of nearly all his images, but he does so in a way to make them look like they're straight out of a fantasy novel. The trees and animals seem to sparkle with intensity, and each image draws you further in so you never want to go back to the real world. After looking at his images, even the most beautiful day seems cold and dreary. This is definitely an artist to look up to in the industry.

Magazine Layout Tutorial

How to Post a Picture into Your Blog

Here is a video explaining how to post a picture to your blog if you've been having trouble with this :)

Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan

Mondrian has been one of my favorite artists for as long as i can remember liking art. Probably since about the second grade. However, i realized just recently that i was only aware of his minimalistic abstract paintings, such as this one:


The image at the top, titled Gray Tree, was a 1912 experiment in cubism. This second image, titled Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow was done in 1930 and is what Mondrian eventually came to be known for.

I chose this artist for my week's inspiration because he is proof that you don't have to know exactly what you're going to do for the rest of your life when you're still at the beginning of it. He was nearly 50 when he started producing the grid-like paintings he would be known for. Art isn't about the destination, it's about the journey to that destination.

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Live Trace Tutorial

This is a great tutorial for using the Live Trace feature in Adobe Illustrator CS5 alongside Adobe Photoshop CS5.

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock is one of my favorite artists. His work speaks to me in such a way that is almost impossible to translate. This might be because my poetry is a sort of abstract expressionism as well, but it could be deeper even than that. His work seems to me to be both minimalistic and full at the same time because he only uses a few colors to convey his ideas, yet these colors are everywhere all at once overlapping and intertwining within each other.

Andre the Giant Vector Image

Here is the vector image i did of a celebrity. Andre the Giant is one of my all time favorite actors (and i suppose my favorite wrestler since he's the only one i ever cared to hear about). This is an image of him in his wrestling uniform while the text is a play on a line from the movie The Princess Bride when Fezzik (played by Andre the Giant) says he's on the brute squad and Miracle Max says, "you ARE the brute squad!"

Redesign of Vector Self Portrait

Upon further inspection of my previously posted vector portrait, i realized it looked retarded. so i redid some of the colors and now i feel like it looks much closer to reality.

Tower of Inspiration

While browsing the web for interesting or inspirational images, i ran across this one of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The site where i found this image is called weheartit.com. I really enjoy everything about this image. From the levels and vibrancy to the angle used to capture the Tower to the Tower itself as i spent three years studying the French language and a full semester researching this particular tower. Being such an icon, one might expect that the Eiffel Tower has been over shot and every possible combination of angles, f-stops, and varying levels of color/black&white ratios had been done already. Having never seen this angle of it before, the image reminds me that even overdone icons can be seen in a new light now and then.

Vector Self Portrait

Illustrator CS5 Vector Tutorial

Mini Logo Design