The end is here...

Computer Art has been one of the most challenging classes I have ever taken here at Otterbein. Looking back I feel like I have grown a lot since week one of this class. I did not know anything about Illustrator and knew very little about Photoshop, and now after 10 weeks, I feel like I have a firm grasp of both programs. This has really been a great class and experience for me. Although some of the projects made me go outside of my comfort zone and really challenged me, I am so glad that they did. I think I have grown visually as an artist and a person. I am so happy that I decided to take this class. 

Thanks to Steven for putting up with my shenanigans, and not giving up on me even though I did not know anything and was really annoying. I surprised myself with this class and what I was able to take away from it. I know that I will be able to use the knowledge and skills that I learned in this class in future jobs and for the rest of my life.

As my final post, I want to say that it has been a privilege blogging for those of you who looked at this for the past few weeks. Thanks for tuning in. This is Kate signing off. 

changes...

If there is one thing I hate it is a slow computer. So of course as I am trying to change my series project, I run into a very, very slow computer. It is so frustrating! Changes are going okay. It seems that not all of the Macs in the lab have the same fonts, so every time I open my documents, all of my fonts shift. It is getting a little ridiculous. I am so tired of moving fonts that I could scream! The series are changing slowly but surely. I am a little disappointed because I shifted the heart so much in the LOVE picture that it looks even more lopsided than before. But I can't figure out how to make it look right, so I am not very happy with it. My abstract interview came out good. I am happy with the changes, and I think they helped the overall piece. 

Of course something always has to go wrong with me and I inadvertently lost Stewie, my playing card. I checked every single computer in the lab as well as all of my memory sticks and nothing. I have no idea where he is. It is like he just got up and was like screw you kate and left the computer. I am lucky that there wasn't much to change in the first place, so I hope that Steven will be understanding of this and not hold it against me!

Now all I can do is hope that Steven likes all of my changes and the pictures enough to give me a good grade! I guess we will wait and find out together!

finishing up

So the grade was not very good for my last project. I was a little sad because I spent so much time on the series and really liked the way that they turned out, but oh well. This weekend I am going on to fix my series and hoping that a better grade will turn up overall. Aside from my series, I am also going to fix my abstract interview piece. There are a few details that I need to change, so hopefully the piece will look better once those are made. I will keep you posted with how the changes are going!

benjamin franklin

So this is a random post. Laura was eating a cracker jack box and you know what the prize was?? A benjamin franklin paper thing. it seems as if frito-lay has decided that inserting real prizes into the cracker jack box is unsafe for children. I mean I guess having metal things rolling around with your food could be a health concern, however, I don't think that having paper prizes is the way to go. But who am I to reign on the frito lay parade. I am just a poor college student looking for a life. 

I am still working on finishing up my projects and finishing my blogs. i hope that these blogs are still kinda interesting. Sorry if they aren't!  

critique went well

So the critique for this project went well. I think that Steven was relatively happy with the outcome and what I have produced. Hopefully my grade reflects the amount of time that I put into this project! The other projects blew me away. I could not believe that some of them were actually done by students in this class. Some that stuck out for me were the live pokemon ones, the disney princess scene ones and the dogs with the sunglasses. I also liked the video game ones, because I love Sega and wish that I did not give mine away at a church garage sale. Oh well, enough of the past. Now we are all working on fixing up our other projects. I do not have that much to fix, which I am grateful for because I am super tired. Job well done everyone!  

Series is complete

Alright so my blog is a little out of whack, but that is my fault because I am a loser. Anyway, my series is complete! I am really happy with how they turned out. I definitely accomplished what I wanted to and I personally think they look great! These are the other two pieces from the series. I am way happy with them and think that they look cool. I am happy with the symbols that I incorporated into the pieces. They add a lot to the pictures. Although these were way more time consuming than I originally planned, I think that they are well worth it!

one done!

Okay so after playing a bit with the text and everything, I realized that making a picture like that might be too time constraining for me. So i have decided to try something new but in the same spirit of the hope picture. 

The three words that I decided to go with for my series are Love, hope and faith. Although all of these words go together generally, they each also pertain to my life. They are each important to me and represent a part of my life. Love goes along with the relationships that I have, including with my family and friends. I have always been taught to love one another equally, and love is a very powerful thing. As for faith, it is something that it close to me and something that I cling to. My family and I have been going to church all of my life. I have always been surrounded by religion and faith. Even if you aren't a religious person normally, having faith is something that everybody should have. Hope is a word that I am experiencing pretty prominently right now. As a college senior, there are now only days left before I will be unleashed into the 'real world.' I am scared out of my mind and don't know what is in store for me. However, I have hope that my life means something that I am meant to accomplish great things here. Hopefully this comes true! 

Alright, lets get back to the whole art thing. I really like the way that this first piece turned out. The letters are made up of words associated with each word and phrases or quotes that go along with each of the words. I am excited to be able to use some of the quotes that I love in this series. I am going to get to work on the other two. Hopefully they look as great as this one!

NEW IDEA!

Alright so this whole shadowbox thing is out the door and I am trying something new! I really wanted to use text in my pictures. It probably has something to do with my journalism and writing background, but nonetheless, it is something that i have always wanted to do. After breaking down in class, Steven suggested I go to deviant art.com to try and gain some inspiration. 

I found this picture on the website and I was immediately attracted to it. It is really neat and  aesthetically  pleasing. With this new found inspiration, hopefully I can produce something this awesome with text. I will keep you updated with how it is going!

this series project is giving me a hernia

So I thought that my idea for a shadowbox series would be a lot of fun and easy to do. However, after a few tries at it, it is turning out to be more tedious and awful than I imagined. None of my pictures looked right, and I am having difficulties putting them together in the right manner. I am not sure if this idea is going to be right for me. It is coming close to when it is due and I am  scared that I am not going to finish in time!

The final countdown...

The end of the school year is coming to an end. The final days of all my classes are coming faster than I can keep up. I am going to miss the snide remarks that Steven makes, especially the ones directed at me, because there are a lot. I am going to miss pretty eyes in my photography class. I am not going to miss being confused about everything in my SYE class and my other class is a wash. But this post is suppose to be about computer art, so here goes.

For our final project, we are suppose to do a series of three pictures and the subject matter is up to us. For classes like this, I usually do better when I have a little bit of direction, but just like the last two projects, I need to somehow find some creative energy to use. Even though my mind is starting to wash away with the rest of my college career, I did come up with an idea to pursue for this project. 

The idea came from a shadowbox picture that I had hanging in my room. It was a picture of florence, and there were three different pictures of florence layered on top of each other, to make it three dimensional. I decided to go off of this picture and do a series using some of my Europe pictures. i know that i have used my europe pictures before, but i think that this series could be really neat if i can figure out how to do it right. I am going to do one of london, paris and rome. I am really excited to see what i can come up with this. 

I will keep you posted about what I am doing and how this project is going.

Done...thank-goodness!

YES! I am finally done with this project. Even with my mini breakdown last class and my sprained ankle, I finished the project. It definitely took way more effort than I expected to get this done, but I am awkwardly happy with the way it turned out. I think the picture came together, and in Laura's words, "Stewie looks pimp." I totally agree!

now that this one is under my belt, i am off to start on the next project. hopefully this one goes better than the last one!!

project 5 is ruining my life!

So this whole project 5 thing is not going nearly as smoothly as I intended. I really thought that it was going to be easier using Illustrator, but I have slowly realized that I pretty much suck at Illustrator. My Stewie and his chair are looking as if a third grader was doing this project. As of right now, I am a little embarrassed about what it looks like! oh well, hopefully I will be able to fix it in time! 

project 5

This week we are working on another project. Instead of working in photoshop, now we have to use (or try to use) illustrator. It took me awhile to get through photoshop, and i am mad that we have to go to a new program now! Oh well, I will appreciate this later I suppose. Secretly, I feel like this is an evil trick Steven is playing on us and that he likes to see us quiver and cry during our projects. Whatever the reason, I guess we will never know.

Anyway, enough of my babble. For this project, we were asked to design a fictitious playing card. We were not allowed to use real people, so I decided to use Stewie from Family Guy as my subject. I think Stewie is one of the best and most interesting characters on television, and so using him on a playing card seemed like a good idea. I found this picture during a typical Google search, and was ecstatic that it was of him as a king. I thought it would be perfect to use for my King playing card.

I will keep you posted about how I am doing and how Illustrator is making me mad!

done!

I am finally done with this project! Although I wish we would have had one more day to really make our pictures spotless, I am really happy with how it turned out. I definitely had to go outside of my comfort zone on this project, and come up with a composition that is totally different than what I would ever do.  I surprised myself with this project and think that it turned out better than I expected. I hope Billy likes it as much as I do!

2nd installment of abstract interview

Although I was initially really nervous about putting together this project, I am now really excited for the outcome. I finally came up with a concept that I want to portray and found a model to pose for me. My friend Bryan was awesome and said that he would be my bodiless man. For his body, I am putting an echidna in the cage, which is a spiky anteater and one of Billy's favorite animals. Apparently Sonic the hedgehog was an echidna and that is where Billy learned of the animal. Instead of the cane and the hat that are being held in the picture, I decided to have Bryan hold a video game controller in one hand to represent Billy's love for video games and have a sketchbook in the other hand to represent his love for drawing. I hope that this project turns out like I am imagining it will!! 

abstract interview

This was by the far the hardest project that I have ever had to do. the idea behind the project was that each of us in the class was paired with someone else and we had to make a composition that defined them without using words or faces. I was paired with billy, which was definitely scary at first because our artistic styles are so different. He loves to draw and likes abstract things. He is also into comic books and illustrations. I was terrified to start this project because I am not that great of a drawer and I have no skills when it comes to illustration.

After hours of just staring at my computer screen, I finally came up with a concept that I want to try and pursue. Billy said that he is into abstract artists like Magritte, and so I found an image that I want to use and manipulate for this project.  I know that it seems a little awkward, but I think it will all come together in the end. 

 

third project complete!!

So it has been quite a while since I updated my blog, but here goes. I finished my professor portrait project and i think it turned out great. i was able to incorporate professor stichweh's interests and his love for photography in one picture, and i really like the outcome. i hope he likes it too!! i am glad that i added everything that i wanted to. i think the tripod definitely adds to the picture, and i am super excited for it.

professor project update

I am still working on my professor portrait assignment, but let me fill you in on the details of what I am doing. I decided to use Professor Stichweh as my central figure. For those of you that don't know, he is the photography professor here at Otterbein. He taught my beginning photography class and also my immediate photography class. He really instilled in me a passion for taking pictures and for all things photography. 

So since he is the photography professor here, he obviously loves everything about pictures and cameras, so that was the major concept of the whole design. Basically, I took a few pictures of professor Stichweh in different scenarios, and went from there. I wanted to incorporate the camera and his fasciation and love for black and white landscapes, so that is what I used as the background to my picture. I used one of the pictures that I took during his class as the background of the piece. 

In order to relay his love for taking pictures, I took a picture of my camera and cut out the lens. I then took a picture that I cut out of Professor Stichweh holding a camera, and placed that image inside of the lens. I think it looks pretty cool. Steven said that the image was looking a little flat, so he suggested that I use a filter that distorts the image to make it look inverted, so that it actually looked as if it could be in the lens. 

I really like the piece right now. Hopefully I don't mess anything up before the end of the class period!

Third project

Our third project of the quarter is to design a caricature of a professor or staff member here at Otterbein. 

A lot of people came to mind when I thought about who I wanted to do. I started doing a bunch of thumbnails to see what I could do with the professors and staff members I chose. 

This project will definitely be interesting! Hopefully I can portray the personality of whomever I choose to do!

QUOTE!

So I forgot to give credit to the author of the quote on my project! The author's name is Pat Conroy. Thanks Pat for your awesome words!!

Self-Portrait Project FINISHED!!!!

So after two tedious weeks of trying to figure out photoshop, my self-portrait project is finally complete. I am very happy with the way it turned out. 

I think that it encompasses my personality very well in the fact that it showcases my love for travel and photography as well as my love of the written word. This is one of my favorite quotes because it reminds me so much of my experiences traveling. 

However, this was not the way I always envisioned the piece looking in my head. Initially I had a lot of other ideas swarming around but adding other interests of my life in the final piece like pictures of my family and music that I love. However, I decided to focus on one area of my life that is really important and that has proved to be one of the most influential portions of my life and that is my love for travel.

I hope that my love for photography and my love for travel shines through when others look at it! We will begin working on our next project ASAP, so I will keep you informed!! 

almost done

So I think that I am almost done with my self-portrait project. I have changed my idea slightly from the thumbnail I posted, but overall it still demonstrates the same important parts of my life. I really like the way that it all came together. It was definitely not how I originally thought that I would do this project, but I am very pleased with the direction that it took!

progress

I am sorry that I am not a very good blogger. I always forget to keep updating my stuff. So here goes the updating process. I am still working on my self-portrait project. Here is the thumbnail version for what I am doing. Obviously my drawing skills are not that great, but let me explain what I am thinking about doing. The borders are made up of film strips from pictures I took while I studied abroad last year. There are pictures from England, Paris and Italy. Then there is a picture of me inside the frame that is going to be washed out. I am thinking about including a quote around my head about traveling. This self-portrait project does not contain every single portion of my life, but it contains a lot of what I love. I love to travel and experience new cultures which is why I am including so many pictures of foreign places. The film strips also represent my love for photography. I also love quotes and the feelings that they make readers generate. There are definitely other parts of my life that are important to me too like my family and friends, but I am really happy with this concept. Hopefully it will turn out!

Artist portrait assignment

This week we are working on our artist portrait assignment. It is hard trying to put all your favorite things together in one piece. Although I am unsure about how all of my features are going to fit together, I know that there are definitely things that I want to include in my final composition. 

My love for travel is something that I definitely want to include. My study abroad experience in Brighton, England, really changed my perspective on life and what I want to do with my future. As a result of the impact it had on my life, I am hoping to include some of my favorite pictures from my time in Europe. 

Another really important part of my life is my family. I am very close to my siblings and parents and wanted to include them in my composition as well. As a triplet, my brother and sister have been a part of my life from the very beginning. We are all very close and have an awesome relationship which I wanted to include. 

If anybody were to describe me aside from my love for my family and traveling, they would say that I have a weird  fascination with entertainment. I love everything about movies, music and books. I thought about including some words onto my composition as well, either a favorite quote or a line that I really enjoy from a movie or song. 

Once I figure out everything, I will let you know!

First project!

For our first assignment, we were asked to create a logotype for ourselves that we could include in all of our pieces. My creative juices were not exactly flowing during the beginning of this process. Trying to come up with an individual seal is a difficult thing. 

The hardest part for me was trying to figure out what combination of my initials I wanted to use. My initials spell KEG, as in a large vat of beer. I knew I probably could come up with a few cool combinations for those three letters, but I really did not want to be associated as a large container of alcohol. So instead, with the help of my professor, came up with this logotype. I liked the fluidity of it and how it looks like brushstrokes. I think the combination works well and I am very happy with how it turned out.

When put on the spot, it is hard for all of my creative juices to immediately flow. I am glad that this logotype came together. Before this assignment, I never thought about having a logotype to put on my pieces. I always just signed my name and hoped that I did not screw that up! But I am glad that we had to this assignment, and I like the idea of using this on all of my pieces from here on out. I am sure down the road, I will change it into something different, but for now, it is just what I like. It is simple and cool. 

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and welcome to my newly developed blog. My name is Katelyn Glaser and I am a senior at Otterbein College with majors in journalism and public relations and minors in art and speech communications. The purpose of this blog is to showcase examples of the work I create in my Computer Art class this quarter. I will be updating the site weekly to include new pieces and artist statements. I definitely encourage any feedback and hope that you will visit again soon!