Reflections

Dystopian Dream

I had a Dream

Alas it was more of a nightmare, it was just the large German Green buildings.

A quick doodle, inspired by 'The Fountainhead'

Another by the ending of 'Whisky Galore' with a lot of Artistic licence 

Just doodling, a large victorian guard house, maybe..... 

The Brandon Estate at Camberwell maybe some peoples idea of a Modernist Dystopia, for me it's a case of poor social engineering (you know who you are) and construction techniques. Celebrated with a Henry Moore.

Its nice to get lost in a bit of scribbling, don't you think...

Hand or Computer?

That is the Question


So a complete re-think on the design in general, got a bit lost in the detail.... 


No change there then.


So after the crit (some really good work from the rest of the group!!)


A comment was made may be i should do more hand drawn stuff.


So started a couple of sketches out of (my head), showed Robert, who reminded me that employers like computer stuff...so back to rendering in P/S etc




Looking down on the dock


Looking down from the upper public platform to the working dock. Industry is part of the landscape and part of the context of North Woolwich


Ink pen, coloured pencils, a bit of PS for shadow.

Photoshop 

Containers, ship texture etc. Though other textures and materials were hard to find from this angle. Seems to work ok.

Ship in dock from the River

Sky and Shadow P/S, the rest as above.

Photoshop etc.

Pleased with the reflection, grudge style on the ship, etc. A lot of improvement possible, but must get on.....

A bit of what you like

Urban Noise Crit


Well after working hard on this it seemed to be appreciated, even if it was probably a bit safe on the idea front.




General Points from Robert And Benz


These are the points that are general to all of us.


1) Short, sharp and snappy. Keep on subject don't try and cover it all.


2) More ambitious!!!!


3) Before and after, make it clear.


4) More sketch up for massing, as in buildings etc.


5) Image and Annotation otherwise a slide waisted.


6) No PDF. Use Powerpoint (or equivalent) carful with film.




Personal Crit


1) Could be more contemporary


2) Lighting was lame


3) More adventurous


All very fair points, so more pushing the envelope, so to speak.




Urban Noise Video 1 Minute (watch in HD/full screen for best effect)




Well it seemed to cause a bit of amusement near the end, not sure why, so answers please or is my Asperger's cutting in?
A bit romantic and poetic thanks to Vaughn William's 'Lark Ascending' (but not 
the obvious bit) going into a lovely minor key.


Always felt it had too many slides and the first few were a bit messy, generally needs tightening up and a bit more of a radical proposal.

A bit muddy on the lighting, and also a bit too many dark spots, has an East German Border feel about it. 

Worked hard on this one to try and get the sunrise through the tree, really not that easy, half blinded myself getting photos of similar sunsets. The important thing is the silhouette effect. The tree opposite should be much darker and the lens flare not quite right. More birds, though Mr Fox i like. Slowly getting atmosphere even if its not that subtle at present.

Dappled light and distance seem to work well. Plus grumpy teenagers out with Mum (much rather be on my Nintendo). pleased with the grass, trees improving.

Now a week of AutoCAD.

My least favourite programme, but found out today (thanks Paul) that files can still be converted to Bryce, but you have to convert to 3Dmax from AutoCAD.

Another 100 hours of my life gone i suspect.

Got a test copy of V-Ray, may give it a go as Photo realism is the in thing.

Thats it......

Winging It

Is defiantly not good for you!


Well our group (group two Green Cranes) got away with blue murder today. Tom and Benz were very generous with their marks for us. Well done to Lisa, Jimmy and Ben, also all who contributed to the hashed together presentation.
Some of the other presentations were very slick and deserved the high marks that they got, particularly liked the model of Andy's group, the graphics of the Isle of Dogs group and the Piano concept of Joey and the crowd. Well done to all, plenty to plagiarise sorry, be inspired by.


So we have now divided some of the work out to peoples strengths ( read comfort zones). The plan being that we all place our work on Dans mobile me account and then put together a slick, stunning and well thought out presentation.


A couple of sequential sketches.

A 300 year in the future (yep we still wear Jeans so my time traveller friend tells me, and they re-named the Snickers Bar back to a Marathon, so all is not lost for humanity) picture of a flooded London, with high rises losing their lower floor, but in tact as they were designed with that in mind (thanks Ambica). Also floating houses that move with the tide. Not very pleased with this one a bit rushed thus the distant buildings look a bit naff. Generally looks photoshopped thus the effect of belief is lost.

Much happier with this one. Set for the more recent history by the edge of the River Lee. Maybe some better refection of the sky in the water and more dappled atmospheric light, but it seems to work in a, Jekyll painterly manner'

Friday another  1 min silent presentation, particularly difficult for the likes of Jimmy, Ben, Dan and I (who says women are the talkers).

Curry, Bed and digging tomorrow at Hadlow......Nice.

In Art I am out of Context

Or that at least how it feels


Normally I don't comment on class crits, but this is an exception to the rule.
Why? Well sometimes one is overawed with wise and insightful advice and this was one of those occasions, for me at least.


As someone who loves Modernist/Constructionist art (though no expert, just get it) I have always been a bit suspicious of Post-modern art even though generally I like it. The point that I always struggle with is the allegory bit.
Connecting art with place, context, history etc. Surely must be better than the isolated modernist piece that relies on just being, were ever its placed.
I suppose ignorance always leads to suspicion (on my part ) so listening and taking extensive notes was a huge help to get somewhere to understanding this side of the art world.
I am very aware of the Emperors New clothes syndrome and like anybody else i don't want to sucked in and mugged. I don't want to be separate and exclusive from people, and the people we serve as designers/artists, otherwise its pointless and at worst vain.


Though the whole 'space' and 'place' difference is where its at for me, as jogging peoples memory or getting them to see a space as a place and thus valuing it, is the reason for our occupation....'its about people.....stupid'. How we do it depends on all the other factors of context (but there are occasions were we create the context for others to follow, like the modernists) and in my opinion the God of context should be a small g.


On a personal note (like the above was somebody else's opinion) the crit on my work was spot on and really didn't think about the message being too simple and thus once solved (like a crossword puzzle in a daily paper) the piece would be ignored. So a bit more depth from my side of the gene pool, unlike the rest of my classmates who generally had thought through their work to a more in depth state with questions still to ask.


My conclusion its about the end user and their interaction on daily basis for my Car Park in the dullest of Suburbia.


As a sign off point the lecturers have a depth of knowledge that comes from actually creating such works with all the wrestling of justification and doubt that goes with the territory, as well as being well read. To be able to bounce back such wise words can only come from the deep pool of experience.

Pencil, with iconic Google pin as destination

Thin from the side and tilting back took look as if it landed like an arrow.

Quick bit of PS

Its' Just a Minute'

But not with Nicholas Parsons


Edited the original, cut the music (outch) to a minute if i had more time i would've edited out the middle as the ending is good. Sorry Mr Brubeck.


The video has a more snappy feel if a bit rushed in places , anyway next time.

As Changeable as the Wind

Theme Project , silent (well almost) presentation
Well rather jumped upon finding out that we had only one minute to present, (rather than the assumed 3) so my 2 min video was lost in is minor glory. Also no sound on the machine (so i will endevor to upload some drivers so that we can all have sound if not bring a lap top in and play them simultaneously, as your lap top does the sound and the picture on the TV)


Other point to remember are, all MAC users save to mpeg-4, not a quick time movie as it won't play(as Jimmy tried too).


Video 
Well rather rushed so the idea was not executed properly but with a bit more time would've refined it. The pace was set by the music and thus that i was annoyed that i could not play the whole 2 minutes. Admittedly we were the guinea pigs. So next vid will be more refined i hope. 


Full screen button next to 'Vimeo' press while playing 

I love Photoshop......

Kiss, Kiss, Kiss


Sad i know but I am always amazed what can be done with photoshop and just 'playing', not following any instructions 

Any way a couple of bits Photo's played with and as usual i seem to love the Atmosphere that can be created, even though its a bit dark....

Original

A silhouette of cranes

A bit more moody

The sunset on another age

You can smell the thick tar like smoke

Enough i hear you cry, your Favourite and why???

Now back to work!!!!