This Week, Dude

This week went by really fast, but its because I've been so busy.  In the last 48 hours, I've spent 24 of them on campus - either in class, doing homework, or painting the new banner for a fundraiser for the ECM (the building west of the oread).  Its been a little stressful, because I have an Art History test on monday and plenty of homework over the weekend.  I've also gotten little amounts of sleep because of how much work I've had to do - I've had to get up early as hell in order to fit it all into my day...

It was nice finishing project three and handing in our projects, but I don't want to move on yet!  We're already fully engulfed in project 4, and I am currently working on the color exercises due Monday on the server.  Thursday's lecture in 315 was a little confusing because its sometimes hard to distinguish what's ACTUALLY due for next class and what is just an exercise or a point the lecturer is making.  It also doesn't help that my laptop ___ing sucks and isn't very portable, has a virus, and needs new sticks of RAM before I can get Adobe Creative Suite.

Despite all of this frustration, I've been getting all of my work done on the school's computers.  Thanks, KU.  After thursdays class I was completely confused, but I stayed after and worked with Margie on my designs and found out EXACTLY what I need to do for monday.  It was hard to come up with questions while we were working on it in class because I don't have a macbook, and couldn't set up my illustrator document and pick my colors like everyone else... but now that I've got my .ai document it all makes sense.

happy times
-caleb

Thursday's Class

Yesterday in class we started the first explorations of project 4 (Typography).  Margie was gone so Chris guided us throughout the few hours.  Basically we cut out our words/letters/paper and tried brainstorming some ideas about typography and using the 6 inch square to convey our verbs.  We spent about an hour and a half and most of us got a solid 6-10 ideas finished for the critique that followed.  At first, my word was a little difficult to come up with ideas for (capture), but the more we work on it the easier it is to find different ways to convey the meaning.  This definitely requires a lot of creativity and pushing yourself to find more ways to think outside of the box with the restrictions we have.  I have a bunch of scraps now and I might have to print off some more 'capture' sheets to finish the 20 'sketches'. 

My process notebook for project 3 is going well so far.  Its about 100x better than it used to be.  I need to type up some of my reflections about the project and other things that are required for the notebook.  As for the poster for the project, I've already printed mine out so its nice to not have to worry about it.

I'm in a good mood (its the weekend), and I feel like Kenny Powers right now, which is not a bad thing.

peace
-caleb

CAPTURE

Today in class we posted our rough drafts of our grids for Project 3.  I thought it was interesting seeing all the razors and staplers etc.  What I had today wasn't quite finished, and now I've revised many of my parameters and touched some of them up with color, placed them on the grid and experimented with the positioning.  I think I have my final version now which has an interesting composition overall while still following the guidelines of the project.

For Project 4:
I've chosen the word CAPTURE... defined as

1. to take by force or stratagem; take prisoner; seize: The police captured the burglar.

2. to gain control of or exert influence over: an ad that captured our attention; a TV show that captured 30% of the prime-time audience.

3. to take possession of, as in a game or contest: to capture a pawn in chess.

4. to represent or record in lasting form: The movie succeeded in capturing the atmosphere of Berlin in the 1930s.

Now I need to get the rest of the materials for Thursday's Class.

peace
-caleb

Continuing

Today was a great day to be a design student... atleast I thought.  It was just a relaxed day, and I got to go to the lab and work on some more things in illustrator.  I'm already getting used to some of the keyboard shortcuts and being able to manipulate things exactly how I want (like in photoshop).  Right now I'm making each parameter in its own 6x6'' .ai document and then I'll put it all together in the end.  It's a lot of documents but Chris told me to do it this way. 

I took the color quiz, and I found it tough to just pick colors off of your own instincts instead of thinking about it too much.  Anyway, I got some funny results:

Your Existing Situation

"Needs extra attention and must feel he is very important to those around him. If he doesn't think he is being spoiled enough, he may shut himself off from others."

My advising appointment is scheduled for Thurs. Nov 4th at noon.  It was basically the only spot open, so I'll have to go during our BDS studio time.  I need to start thinking of some possibilities for a minor.

This Happened

Today we brought in a handful of refined sketches to be put onto the computer and illustrated/refined even more.  I've started with my "cut and paste", "painterly", and "non-traditional" parameters in illustrator.  I've been working on getting a solid gestural sketch that Margie likes - and I think it will be a hassle trying to re-illustrate a gestural (with very loose, sketchy lines) sketch in illustrator... assuming we're supposed to?

Regardless, I think it'll be fun to see everyone's sketches in completely different styles laid out on a grid.  Also, the typography should be interesting.

Let's Put Our Sketches on the Wall

Yesterday was an interesting day in our Think and Make class.  We covered the entire wall of the room with sketches of hand tools.  These weren't just pencil sketches, no.  They were

gestural
painterly
graphical
circles/triangles/squares
photocopier
twig paintings
one line drawings
hand tool functions
textural
take two from this list and put them together
sketches of what our hand tool does to other things
drawings of adjectives (yep, its possible)
extreme abstractions
drawings on kleenex?
typographic

Out of these sixteen categories, we must make cuts until we find our best sketch of each, then we'll put them together to make our dream team. 

Seriously though, I'm excited to refine my sketches, scan them, and start working in illustrator.  I thought it was cool going through everyone's sketches and putting our check marks on the favorites... I wasn't surprised at which ones got check marks for me, but its nice to have other opinions as always.  So today, I'm gonna finish the sketch refinements and get them scanned.  I have

more sketches left.

peace
-caleb (and if you know who that is in the picture, you're awesome)

Thursday

Yesterday in class we began four new sketching parameters for the Design as Communication project.  These are the last four parameters (specific meaning, extreme abstraction,  another surface, and typographic).  I am finished with 'specific meaning' and about done with 'another surface'.  The new surface one is intriguing so far because I tried some watercolor on paper towels the way it dried was interesting.  I plan on working on the rest of the sketches this weekend so I can relax a little.

We are also starting to use the pen tool/illustrator so I'm excited for that.  I'm already pretty familiar with illustrating with the pen tool and making the curves I want, so I'm excited to expand my skills even more.

peace
-caleb