Artist Research

Edgar J. Brown
    My first artist that I found for my research project was Edgar J. Brown.  I searched for artists for created sports images and came across Brown.  I am a big sports fan and wanted to explore different ways that sports are portrayed through art.  I came across Edgar J. Brown's paintings and I think he does a good job showing emphasis through painting.  One specific painting of Muhammad Ali shows a great illustration of what I was saying, the main emphasis is on the bright red in Ali's gloves punching forward.  The brightness of the red in the gloves shows what Ali was all about.  Another great painting of Brown's is of UFC star Randy Couture.  The color in the painting is dull, aside from the blood Couture draws from one of his punches.  I think that the main focus of Brown's paintings are the emphasis he uses with color to draw the viewer into a certain part of the piece. I think that the way that Brown incorporates emphasis with color would be a fun art project to work on for myself.  The color that he chooses to bring out the brightest is important with drawing the viewers eyes towards to main focus.

Andy Warhol
   The next artists that I chose to research was Andy Warhol.  Andy Warhol changed art with his unique drawings and use of color.  Some of his famous artworks include "The Soup Can," and paintings that incorporated such celebrities as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.  Warhol attended Carnegie Melon and studied fine arts.  Warhol attributes his love for art at a young age to the fact that he came down with chorea as a result of scarlet fever.  Warhol was bed ridden and found himself exploring drawing and collecting pictures of celebrities.  While at Carnegie Melon, a friend of Warhol's inspired him to further explore his art technique of "pop art."  Such examples of his "pop art" are his paintings of Marilyn Monroe and pink and black knives.  Warhol's paintings have been modernized and you can now find clothes and different forms that have the famous Campbell's soup cans utilizing unique colors.  I am not sure how I could incorporate Warhol's ideas into my own art, mainly just copying his idea with Marilyn Monroe and the different colors.

Pablo Picasso
   Another artist I looked into was Picasso.  Picasso is one of the most famous artists that someone would think about, along with Van Gogh and Michelangelo.  Picasso was born in 1881 in Spain, where his father was a professor of art, so unlike other artists, Picasso had art "in his blood."  Picasso took many trips to Paris during his younger years and studied the impressionists.  Picasso, at about 30 years old, relocated to Paris, where he remained all of his life.  It is said that Picasso's art can be broken into time frames.  Early in his career, he embarked on the "Blue Period," where the colors and forms that he painted were melancholy and flat of form.  Next, Picasso had the "Rose Period," which was similar to the previous period, only a little more romantic in color.  Picasso also further explored an idea of "Cubism," and then collage art work.  He even found himself drawing themes about women and children, and sculpting.  It is said that Picasso's affect on modern art is "immeasurable."  

Midterm Review

During the first half of the fall 2010 semester, I can easily say that Visual Thinking has been my most enjoyable class this semester.  Going into the semester I was worried about taking my required art credit, being that I had never taken an art class before and wasn't familiar with the course.  To start, I enjoyed that Professor Friebele understood that each student was in the class for different reasons, some people were art majors and some students were fulfilling a gen-ed.  Having that be understood, along with the understanding that there were differing levels of art skills in the class, has made the whole process easier to think about and do. 

One of the main parts of the class that I have enjoyed is the atmosphere in the classroom.  I have found it very easy to speak out in class and voice my opinion on readings and artwork that we have looked at.  Everyone in class is very accepting of other people's opinions and never criticizing.  I also think that the general concept of an art class yields a great class environment.  Since I have never taken an art class before I didn't know that in class, it doesn't have to be about being right or wrong, its more about how you feel and what you see/interpret.

My favorite project thus far in class was when we played around with photo-shop while listening to music.  I had never messed with photo-shop and had always heard good things about the program.  I enjoyed playing with the program, as I see it being something that I could utilize in my work field of business or economics.  With regards to a project we turned in, I have enjoyed my animation I am currently finishing up.  For the project I decided to take pictures of my roommate juggling a soccer ball and work them into i-movie for a 25 second animation.  I think that i-movie is a fun program to use and I am happy that I went out of my comfort zone to explore it during this current project.

I would like to continue to explore the technological aspect of the class.  I feel that the use of technology, as I have said before, will benefit me in my career path.  Using the different programs available in the computer lab is a good way for me to figure out the basics of some programs that I may need to know.  My older brother, who got his Bachelor's degree from UMD, said his biggest regret of college was not learning more computer science/technology stuff.  He is finding in his marketing job, that he needs to know how to use computer programs to make flyers and presentations.  I know that I see myself in a similar job, and want to be ahead of the curve with my knowledge of programs that hopefully will benefit me.

Overall, I have enjoyed the assignments and the class structure that we have had in Art 105: Visual Thinking.  I look forward to the remainder of the semester and maybe even another art class in the future!

 

This past week in Visual Thinking class, I really enjoyed making my collage and seeing the collage's that other students prepared.  When I prepared my collage, I looked at multiple nude model drawings that I had from our nude model session and chose to pick just two of the drawings and base my collage off of those drawings.  I began looking through magazines and thinking about the direction I could venture off to with my collage and started to see alot of faces stick out to me.  I realized that in my drawings, I had not drawn faces, and collaging faces around my drawings could add a different aspect.  I was able to find an immense amount of faces, from the Mona Lisa to Dolly Parton, all of which were able to alter the way that I viewed my model drawings.  I discovered that the pictures were able to add to the drawings of the model and change how the each person viewed the drawings, depending on the face you placed on top of the body.  I enjoyed looking at other people's collage's as well, especially the collage that imitaded the drawing we previously looked at, "the girl walking down the stairs."  I thought that piece was very well prepared and the flow of time was very obvious.
Our next project, the postcard project is giving me alot of grief.  I know the direction I want to go with the project but am having trouble putting my thoughts on paper and explaining them in an art form.
The Scott McCloud reading that was assigned was able to explain the phenomenon of comics in a fun way.  Esxplaining comics by utilizing a comic strip helped to really explain the points that were being made.  The incorporation of the visual aspect added to my personal ability to understand what was being portrayed by McCloud.  McCloud's arguement about how our perception of sound changes comics, and changes length, made alot of sense to me.  When a pictured is seen without captions, it looks still, but the addition of captions and words, adds a dimension that makes it seem as though the picture is moving.  This to me seems like one of the major reasons that comics illustrate a progression in time.  Another important aspect of comics is the "breaks" between images.  This aspect leads to a flow from one image to another, making the comic strip move through time.  McCloud's illustration of this is obvious with his showing of the different shapes and sizes and progressions that comic's use.

Questions:
How have comics grown over time, which aspects that McCloud presents are the newest?

Why are comics more succesful then flip books, when they are so similar.

For research, I decided to look at the Futurists.  We have been talking about the futurists alot and I wanted to learn more. One underlying thing about Futurism is that it seemed to want to instill a change in society, and I think, from reading that it did.  It made people open up to the art piece and look at the piece as a whole, in order to understand.  Sometimes, as I found while looking at the art in class, you can't see what the piece is meant to be until you see the title.  Futurism actually originated in Literature, and was one of our earliest form of abstract.  Futurism did and still does help to open minds to the overall meaning that a piece of art may encompass.