The lectures this week so far have been good. We had another faces lecture on Monday morning with Phil, which consisted of the more sinister side of photography, including portraits of the dead (and soon to be dead). Phil also included a very riveting picture of Osama Bin Laden rodgering George Bush, which I have put aside for the personal collection.
I haven't uploaded many sketches or images of my work recently as I am on mobile internet in my student house. I will upload some sketches this weekend.
I'm progressing in Maya quite well. I am following tutorials off of the internet to work my way through the tools of the software, so that hopefully when Alan starts to explain these tools in more detail I can understand them better. I also have a few ideas for my Portraits, I have decided on my final piece, and will be working on the prepatory pieces over the next week or so.
As for our theory classes, the whole thing remains unexplained and a bit strange, but that may have just been my hangover. We'll seeon Thursday I suppose.
As a lot of people have posted, yesterday we had our introduction to the software we'll be using throughout the course. Photoshop, Illustrator and Maya. Alan explained Maya very well which made it much more accesible for me to play around with. I have the software on my home computer and I am looking forward to exploring it in my own time as well as in the Friday lectures.
As we received a brief for our first unit , Anatomy yesterday, I thought I'd better give it a read through and see what I can look at before our lectures begin. The introduction to the brief mentions Rembrandt as an artist known for his self portraits, as well as his painting. I have read some on the artist and understand why I think he has been mentioned so early on in our course.
Rembrandt is a 17th Century Dutch artist who is well-known for his portraits, etchings and paintings. After looking at some of his work I instantly recognised a few of his biblical paintings, which I have now learned are in the Italian style of 'Chiaroscuro', which means light-dark. You can see this style in the painting below, which is biblical painting entitled 'The Feast of Belshazzar: The Writing on the Wall".
The website below described him:
"Rembrandt was one of the greatest draftsmen in the history of art. Because he usually regarded his drawings the way a novelist regards the ideas he jots down in his journal"This is why I think he is associated with our unit. His skill to create rough drawingsand sketches which can then be refined and selected from later will be something that we will have to try and use over the next few years to plan and design our projects .
After looking at Rembrandt's rough pieces, I attempted to mimic some of his work to see how long each drawing would take, as well as seeing how little detail I could get away with, whilst making the drawing resemble a human. I would like to continue to use his style with rough drawing and hope I can build on it in the future.
You can see more of this style of drawing by Rembrandt, as well as his etchings and paintings through the link below.
Rembrandt Art
Rembrandt is a 17th Century Dutch artist who is well-known for his portraits, etchings and paintings. After looking at some of his work I instantly recognised a few of his biblical paintings, which I have now learned are in the Italian style of 'Chiaroscuro', which means light-dark. You can see this style in the painting below, which is biblical painting entitled 'The Feast of Belshazzar: The Writing on the Wall".
The website below described him:
"Rembrandt was one of the greatest draftsmen in the history of art. Because he usually regarded his drawings the way a novelist regards the ideas he jots down in his journal"This is why I think he is associated with our unit. His skill to create rough drawingsand sketches which can then be refined and selected from later will be something that we will have to try and use over the next few years to plan and design our projects .
After looking at Rembrandt's rough pieces, I attempted to mimic some of his work to see how long each drawing would take, as well as seeing how little detail I could get away with, whilst making the drawing resemble a human. I would like to continue to use his style with rough drawing and hope I can build on it in the future.
You can see more of this style of drawing by Rembrandt, as well as his etchings and paintings through the link below.
Rembrandt Art
The first week (Although the lectures and inductions have been quite sparse) has been really informative about what is in-store for us in the first year. Yesterday's introduction lectures with Phil , Alan and the graduates allowed us to see how much work we really have to do, and what we're hoping to eventually produce. The social afterwards at the bar was also good, not only for the free beer (Which was really appreciated) but also as it gave us a chance to get some more Info outof the graduates.
A few of us spoke to some of the third years and the graduates, who were more than happy to give us some tips (Mainly to do with how to survive the workload) but also pointed us towards some short-animations that we will find useful. One of which was 'This way up', a animation about two undertakers. It is available to watch through the BBC website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A43425308
It has been a informative and fun week. I have a feeling that next week is where the real work with begin..
A few of us spoke to some of the third years and the graduates, who were more than happy to give us some tips (Mainly to do with how to survive the workload) but also pointed us towards some short-animations that we will find useful. One of which was 'This way up', a animation about two undertakers. It is available to watch through the BBC website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A43425308
It has been a informative and fun week. I have a feeling that next week is where the real work with begin..
I've been working on my larger sketches over the last few days, and I think they turned out well. I would of liked the objects from the provided sheets to be more noticeable in each of the sketches, but my ideas are inspired by them none the less.
I'm thinking about what could of inspired me over the last few days. Yesterday I spent mainly in the pub (Where a 'Deal or No Deal' machine took about £5 in change off me over the space of an hour, Noel Edmonds has such a trust-worthy face) I did however last night, start reading the book 'Dambusters' by Max Arthur. It describes the full Dambuster's raid of 1943 from the written records of the soldiers involved.
I will post some more sketches from my sketchbook later today.
I'm thinking about what could of inspired me over the last few days. Yesterday I spent mainly in the pub (Where a 'Deal or No Deal' machine took about £5 in change off me over the space of an hour, Noel Edmonds has such a trust-worthy face) I did however last night, start reading the book 'Dambusters' by Max Arthur. It describes the full Dambuster's raid of 1943 from the written records of the soldiers involved.
I will post some more sketches from my sketchbook later today.
As I'm on the last stint before the start of the course, I thought it would be only right to up my post count on my blog. I'm working on my larger pieces now (A little worried that they are a little too uniform, there are no tentacles or Terry Pratchett-like events, but hopefully they should be OK)
Between doing my sketches (and going to the pub, but lets ignore that) I've watched a few films in the last week, one of which was this:
The first film I watched this week was Kelly's Heroes. In my opinion, this was one of Clint Eastwood's best films, however the main reason I watched it again is because of Donald Sutherland's role as the alcoholic hippy tank driver - "Oddball". The film was released in 1970. The main plot is based around a storage of gold in a bank in France, which is being "secretly" guarded by the Germans. It is not that secret, as a group of US soldiers, led by Clint Eastwood or 'Pvt Kelly' know about it and plan to steal it . These soldiers go against orders to capture the gold for themselves, drafting in various help along the way.
I've included a link to the best scene below. Where Eastwood, Sutherland and their sergeant have a western high-noon style stand-off with a fully armed German tiger tank. Well worth a watch. The hippy 70s soundtrack to this film is also great. After watching Inglourious Basterds a couple of weeks ago, I immeadiately picked up on the music in the film being very similar at points, after a quick check, turned out it shared a composer with Kelly's Heroes.
Tiger Tank Showdown
Between doing my sketches (and going to the pub, but lets ignore that) I've watched a few films in the last week, one of which was this:
The first film I watched this week was Kelly's Heroes. In my opinion, this was one of Clint Eastwood's best films, however the main reason I watched it again is because of Donald Sutherland's role as the alcoholic hippy tank driver - "Oddball". The film was released in 1970. The main plot is based around a storage of gold in a bank in France, which is being "secretly" guarded by the Germans. It is not that secret, as a group of US soldiers, led by Clint Eastwood or 'Pvt Kelly' know about it and plan to steal it . These soldiers go against orders to capture the gold for themselves, drafting in various help along the way.
I've included a link to the best scene below. Where Eastwood, Sutherland and their sergeant have a western high-noon style stand-off with a fully armed German tiger tank. Well worth a watch. The hippy 70s soundtrack to this film is also great. After watching Inglourious Basterds a couple of weeks ago, I immeadiately picked up on the music in the film being very similar at points, after a quick check, turned out it shared a composer with Kelly's Heroes.
Tiger Tank Showdown
I found this piece on CG-Society forums, which I normally browse. The image is below (Click for large version)
I really like the atmosphere of this render. It reminds me of the game Bioshock, mixed with Spongebob Squarepants (Sure, two different things) The image has a really dirty-underwater feel to things, and I like the way the creator uses the view distance to make the surrounding water murky outside of the building.
This was created by a guy named Stephan Brisson, along with two others who work for a Digital Enviroment Studio called Meduza Arts (http://meduzarts.com/) The studio have worked on a lot of different projects including Sin City, Sky Captain and the World of Tommorow and last, and certainly least that Chihuahua movie.
The website has more work by the company, which is also worth looking at.
I really like the atmosphere of this render. It reminds me of the game Bioshock, mixed with Spongebob Squarepants (Sure, two different things) The image has a really dirty-underwater feel to things, and I like the way the creator uses the view distance to make the surrounding water murky outside of the building.
This was created by a guy named Stephan Brisson, along with two others who work for a Digital Enviroment Studio called Meduza Arts (http://meduzarts.com/) The studio have worked on a lot of different projects including Sin City, Sky Captain and the World of Tommorow and last, and certainly least that Chihuahua movie.
The website has more work by the company, which is also worth looking at.
The sketches below were mainly based on where I was over the last couples of weeks, I was on the coast of Cornwall. The tank? Well, theres not many tanks in Cornwall I must say, but I have also been reading the book : Andrew Roberts - "Storm of War" which ingrained the image of tanks in my head.
I have just come back from holiday, so I haven't been able to post for a while. I have recently completed a few more draft drawings for my project. I am now working on the larger more refined copies. I have posted some more sketches below:
