To create one’s own world in any of the arts takes courage.”
~ Georgia O’Keeffe (source)
A Lonely Porch, Comet, MT
I admire my students that continue to create and put themselves out there. It takes courage to face a group of individuals for critique. This summer I have a wonderful group. It is fun to teach when you see that they are engaged and eager to learn.
Even Thumper had goals.” ~ Michelle Goodman, Author, My So-Called Freelance Life
Crisp Winter Morning on Lake Superior
Really appreciate the simplicity of her statement. It is not preachy, nor any threats if you don’t have one but I can tell you from first-hand knowledge they help. They help to keep you on track and to evaluate your success. They can be evaluated, changed, or revised. In short, it is a way to design your life. Ah, that word again, design… To plan and to organize.
Transparency and layering have always been in play in the graphic arts … what makes them new again is their omnipresent accessibility through software.”
~ Ellen Lupton, Graphic Design—The New Basics, Princeton Architectural Press
Playing with the New Basics
Let the viewer stroll around within the picture,to force him to forget himself and so to become a part of the picture.”
~ Wassily Kandinsky
Dreams... Matching Reality with the Dream
Today, I am beginning to put together the layout and design course I will be teaching at MCTC. I think I found a terrific book, Ellen Lupton’s and Jennifer Cole Phillips text—Graphic Design the New Basics. I chose it because the authors focus on the language and concepts of design rather than software or making the giant leap as most graphic design text into page layout, type, or “reworking pop-culture vocabularies.” I am excited and energize and ready to return to the classroom soon. As I work on this course I look forward to reviewing many of the formal design structures presented in this book.
Transparency, tone, and value, important while creating art or while creating a life”. ~ Bill Hendricks
A Tribute to Grant Woods
I started with a photograph too dark for my taste but nice. I loved the reflection of the sun on the water but the weeds in the foreground were too dark. So I played. As I experimented, I realized that I was working with value/tone; so I pushed it and this mezzotint like image was the result.
In my design and drawing courses, I discuss color and value because most of my work is done for the web, color can be an issue due to the variety of color profiles out there. So I emphasize value instead of color. Lynda Weinman on Lynda(Dot)Com produced a video about color several years ago that I use frequently–Color Principles. The chapter on Value is terrific.
As I searched for a quote to bring home my point and came across an article that put an entirely different spin on this topic. The title is You’re a Human, Act Like It. Unless You’re OK with Being a Digital Marketing Failure by Andrew Hanelly. Seems the idea of transparency, tone, and value has as great of a meaning in another context.
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Dec | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | ||||||
Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” ~ Rumi
The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity.” ~ Ruby Dee
I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?” ~ John Lennon
