Nagle - 4th Marking Period Blog Post

My inspiration for my final marking period is to try to express how I felt mentally after injuring myself. I felt trapped in my own body, unable to do the things I used to be able to do. Therefore, I am creating two pieces to embody that trapped feeling.
My first piece is of a character meditating with chains on her wrists and ankles. This creates irony in my piece but I also feel as if it is more jarring, and is closer to how I felt. Here's the preliminary sketch:

The second piece is of a girl in fetal position made out of decaying silver. To me it symbolizes the rusting or the ruining of someone who used to be great (AKA the injury of an athlete). Here's the sketch:

In the first piece, I am painting with a triad of red-purple, yellow-green, and orange inks. I am also using silver and gold watercolors. For the second, I am using black ink for the "decay" and silver watercolors. If I do end up lining them, I am using my Pentel brush pen or my micro-liners.

Nagle & Bomboy - Artist Statements

Traditional Art:

The observations you make become your assumptions. However, not everything can be seen with the naked eye, for a person could be suffering mentally or hiding under their clothes.

I used my artwork senior year to explore concept art, character creation, and to take a critical view on an issue that has impacted me: perceptions on physical injury.

My interest in concept art and character creation stems from my love for games, especially the development of characters throughout them. I am majoring in game design at UCF, and these two categories could be my preferred job in the future. Therefore, my Astrological Signs series was created to explore my creativity and produce what I saw the signs as when using their globally accepted characteristics. I tried getting the characteristics across by focusing on color meaning and the animal associated.

The theme of assumptions in my artwork cropped up when I sprained my ankle this year and got kidney stones for the first time, after having surgery for a torn ACL a year before. I noticed that, when people could physically see my brace, they would make sure not to bump into me in the halls or not force me to do physical activity. However, once the visible brace was off, assumptions turned on and any “special” treatment went out the window. Why must decency be labelled as special treatment? I want to get this idea of mental or physical incapabilities across in my art by carefully thinking about the figure-ground relationship or the figure’s position in the composition. A detailed and crazy figure will usually have a more blank background, resulting in a clean look that I like. I believe it adds a power or a clinical quality to my work and, depending on what the background is, adds a level of light or heaviness.

My inspiration to pursue the arts and these themes, therefore, come from my love of games and my experiences with physical incapabilities, a tough situation for an athlete. I want to express the statement that the absence of my brace is not an invitation for mistreatment because there are still invisible chains.


Digital Art:

Video games always seem to be the source of disappointment from adults: “Stop playing games and do your homework!” says your mom. “Finish your projects instead of rotting your brain playing video games in your basement,” says your teacher.

“People who play games in their parents’ basement must be ugly, sad, and stupid.”

“Video games make children violent and isolate them socially.”

“Only boys can play video games; if a girl plays, they must be masculine or ugly.”

Hearing all these accusations, while games in my life have only led to happiness and bonding, made me decide to defend games, find the benefits in gaming, and dispel the falsities. This decision put me on the path for a game design major and` explore the abilities and positives gaming can provide.

To further the aspirations mentioned in the previous art statement, I also explore the digital art world. The character creation, instead of being shown through Astrological Signs, is shown in Sprites. I used Photoshop to create “sprites,” otherwise known as the art of video game characters, for the games I have worked on throughout high school (used Game Maker and Unity). The individual game I worked on was designed to teach people about assumptions and self-esteem, while the group game explores entertainment and challenges typical gender roles. I see games as a way to teach; whether it be societal lessons, a simulator for doctors, a game for special children to understand concepts they can’t grasp while others can, and so many more possibilities, games can be valuable if made correctly.

My digital portfolio classes were mainly focused on game design, character creation, and concept art; however, I fell in love with the digital arts from modeling and animation in Blender. Being able to create anything you can think of in a 3D space was exciting, and then turning those modeled objects into an animation that could tell a story only with movements made me realize that this is what I wanted to do.

My goal is to create experiences people will enjoy and not forget; games have meaning in my life and I want to create something that will make a positive impact in someone else’s. We only have one short and insignificant life. Why not spend it being happy, enjoying it, and doing what you love?

Bomboy - Using Optical Illusions to Become a Better Digital Artist

I read an article on optical illusions and the author kept making the point that our brains, after seeing a 2D piece of art, isn't looking at that object in reality; instead, you're looking at something that generates visual signals that are similar to what our brains associate with the actual object. Art is, therefore, an illusion.
What can we learn from optical illusions?
First, the brain uses an "autocomplete" function that can either fill in something that isn't there and we expect, or show us something that we know from reality. This suggests that drawing, and each line, isn't what your drawing, but just reminds you of something. I'll provide an example to emphasize this thought:

See this image? Tell me what it is. If you answered "oh, it's a house," you're wrong. Same with "it's a drawing of a house." No, instead, it is pencil on a piece of paper. It is not a house. You can't live in it, it isn't 3D, etc. It's just lines on a page that remind you of a house.
This concept was introduced to me in 11th grade IB English, and it fascinated me to also find something similar in an article.
Knowing that the autocomplete function is an ability, it is suggested to draw from general to specific. The first lines will remind you of something, and you can continue from there, making the drawing more precise to the real thing (however, as discussed before, it is never the real thing (talk about postmodernism)).
Second, brightness brings form. We use light to determine depth and whether or not an object is 3D. That is why a more realistic cube has shaded in sides--it is the emulation of light and realism. Therefore, a suggestion while drawing is to assign a light source.
Third, brightness is relative. Again, here is a picture to show what I mean:

The squares in the middle of both images are actually the same color. It is the differing amount of light around them that make us perceive them as different colors. Knowing this helps with contrast in your images (do not just have the extremes of black and white--have colors in between).
These are just some of the ways understanding optical illusions can help you MAKE a viewer see exactly what they want you want them to see. There are many other types of illusions, but these are the beginnings.

Bomboy - Schedule 5/1-5/5

Monday - Sprites
Tuesday - Sprites
Wednesday - Sprites
Thursday - Sprites
Friday - PROM

Bomboy - Marching Band Choreography Software

Ever wondered how marching bands generated the pages upon pages of choreography for their shows? For smaller scale bands, a director hand writes it all, but for college bands of hundreds of people? Well, here comes the power of computers.
There is an applet called SilverDrill (it's free) that can be used, or for more professional-level drill design, you can buy Field Artist.
Field Artist uses 3D animation to simulate drill the designer has created. They can customize the field, add customized props, put the exact number of each instrument/guard, and even watch the animated "marchers" to the show's music. This is very important for marching bands, drill teams, indoor percussion, and drum and bugle corps.
On Field Artist's website, there is a video that highlights and shows the features of the program:

My whole thesis for college is the way in which games or animations can help benefit mankind, and a whole discussion was on the use of simulation games. Field Artist is a realistic use of simulation to benefit some aspect of mankind--the music programs.