Visual Concepts

Color vs Colorless

2008-04-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of black and white photography. Not only i think of it as more classy than color photography but it also has taught me about contrast and helped me develop more patience in the darkroom. I thought I was a huge fan of color photography when I first started just because I was more attracted to the fade colors and the intensity created by playing with color, but little did I know that I was soon going to be seduced by Cindy Sherman's work. That's when I fell hard for black and white photography and basically decided that photography was what I wanted to do.
But really what makes black and white better than color? Or color better than black and white? I think its a personal choice on how you want to display your subject. But the emotion of black and whites is undeniable but that doesn't mean color is missing it.
I think its a fair tie.

Color Twirl

2008-02-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

I've done many color wheels before, once in high school and in my first year of college back home. They're never fun, very tedious and I have serious problems with being clean and perfect. It was pretty automatic for me to mix colors right, even though I'm very used to wasting a lot of paint and mixing with my brush. But this time I was a tad cleaner, even if you can't tell and I'm kinda proud.

I actually enjoyed it, even though I went trough a whole ordeal with finding the paints since I used Amanda's for this project. It was nice to do it with paint instead of Prismacolor pencils, I hated to have to sharpen my pencils every 20 minutes.
But overall it was an ok project, I got to refresh my color technique (even though I know I'm far from being done with it) and finally grab a brush after such a long time.

The Colors Man! The Colors!

2008-02-25T06:43:00.000-08:00

Our first assignment for our class we had to go out into the world and find colors. My group figuring out that everybody was heading for the nearest Safeway, decided to head out to the party store. I found myself a tad confused with the true meaning of colors, if there is one. The color red was the most popular there, raging from Valentine's day cards, hearts, USA flags and devil stuff. It was also popular in the "Chinese" decorations section. Pointing the obvious red is a very popular color. Red I can't help but associate with the red chakra point in our bodies, this one represents our sexual organs. Red has often been used as the color of passion and can also be related to fire (fire+passion= hot passionate something?), then I wonder how is this related to the USA flag? I should research that more.

I also found the most disturbing image ever. I hate Spic and Span, for some reason I find it a bit degrading. I've been called a Spic and even the whole thing Spic and Span( you know being puertorican). And I've always wondered, maybe I'm overanalyzing this, but the bottles for this product have very bright, tropical colors, some that obviously latinos are going to like, feel attracted to and remind them of happy times home. Maybe they are bright orange, yellow and purple because they want us to feel the need to buy it and clean. I think I'm rambling but hey I might be right. For osme reason Spic and Span is not sold in Puerto Rico or Mexico (that I know of).

It's value....again!

2007-11-01T09:02:00.001-07:00

Sincerely I am sick of making these value scales! I've been doing them since my first art class in the 8th grade and if someone told you they get easier as you keep making them...they lied! When I was starting to draw my value scale I thought "hey! easy as pie, done it before" but after I drew my shape and started to bet busy I noticed how out of shape I was. When I started to make my composition it was a hell lot of more fun and of course I was more loose and was able to play around with my values. And here are my results!

PatternpatternpatternpatternpatternpatternpatterN

2007-11-01T08:52:00.002-07:00

I tried to look for the definition of pattern on google but to my surprise I only found crappy definitions such as " a decorative design, as for wallpaper, china, or textile fabrics, etc." This may be true, a pattern is a decorative design but I'm surprised the dictionary site didn't have a more artistic definition to it? I don't know I just felt like their definition was weak.
I had the opportunity to do this project twice, not that fun. The first time it was actually on time, but to my avail I didn't save it right on my usb port. Meaning I had to do it again. The second time it was a whole lot easier because I had a little bit more experience with the program (illustrator) and of course I was finally paying attention to instructions which I didn't do much before. It was a fdun project, even though it was a little tricky and tedious.

Positive and Negatives...Gestalt too.

2007-10-25T14:30:00.001-07:00

I was browsing around and I found a picture of what is known as Gestalt. It is a woman overall but if you look closer two of them can be seen. At a simple glance you'll see an old woman (an old hag if you please) and if you can focus a little bit more you'll see a young woman about to turn, all in the same image, pretty cool huh? Its all a psychological game, it's how two shapes can be hidden in one. These were given to us when we were kids. So I'm familiar with it.

Mirrors

2007-10-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

Standing in the freezing cold, holding a pink mirror, I observed my facial imperfections and in a corner I could see Ian's face smiling at me. I smiled back and continued to move forward sticking my tongue out and making retarded faces misshaping my face. I couldn't help but think of my childhood when my friends and I would sit around in each other's mom's cars making these same faces and laughing. I thought of my family. My dad used to make faces all the time, when we were driving or just talking about stuff, my dad was a clown like that. This all made me even more homesick that I already am. I felt happy being silly like that and having someone doing the same thing to me. It made me feel accompanied, less alone, as in sharing a moment with someone. But thinking about it now, thank god this only lasted a minute or so. Cause this too reminded me of times when my older brother would make me feel stupid or immature about saying some things, he would make that face imitating me. This kind of ruined the experience for me, it turned a little annoying. But overall I enjoyed it. It brought back memories.

Lines and Shapes

2007-09-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Which of the images a,b,c, or d are lines?

-I think a, b and d are lines.

Which of the images a,b,c, or d are shapes?

-C is a shape.

What makes a line?

-A pencil or a pen or whatever tool you want to use and its done when you put its down on paper and draws without picking up the tool.

What makes a shape?

-A shape is made when lines connect and trap space.

critique assignment.

2007-09-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

On the first image I chose, I see a naked woman holding roses accompanied by two other ladies in the picture. There is an imaginary triangle connecting all of them. The naked woman is the one closest to the expectator so it seems she's the most important in the picture. There are two other two women, one slightly bigger than the other. The smallest one is kneeling and she's not even showing her face, yet she's looking for something, maybe something the main woman needs. To her right is a woman bigger than her but not bigger than the main woman inthe picture, she seems to be asking the servant for something the naked woman needs. The painting has a very classical look the kind hanging in a lot of museums. It gives a feeling of what perfection should "look like".

This painting doesn't attract much of my attention, it's like I've seen it a million times before and sincerely it bores me a bit. I do find it curious that the servant girl seems to be considered so low she's not even allowed to show her frontside.

The second painting I chose seems to have a certain kind of "not-really-in-order" order ...I dont think that makes sense. I see a white background with a lot of black squares in different sizes, they kind of are in a row. In the upper side of the painting I see smaller squares that due to their different sizes suggest a little bit of a 3-d effect. In the lower middle part of the painting there are bigger squares and a bit more rectangular. In the bottom of the painting there are some colorful squares kind of breaking the pattern of white and black. This painting seeems to be shapping something with the squares and it suggests a breaking the pattern kind of theme. It makes my eyes travel a bit and try and find out it the squares really are shaping something.

I don't like it that much but I do like break of pattern going on in the bottom of the painting. But thinking about it it's almost like music, like beats breaking from a small pattern to a louder more aggresive one maybe unto a colorful cheery one.