#and there's some graphic design classes but they all require at least 4 studio art classes first and I am TERRIBLE at physical art

[six-improbable-things]

Spring break is next week, and holy fucking shit I'm so ready for that. I was just home the other weekend, but I'm so burnt out on school I already need another break. I have NO IDEA how I'm gonna make it through March and April without literally losing my mind.

And to make things worse, I have to somehow come up with 7 more credits next year in order to graduate, but I've already take all my required classes (I'm 99% sure), and everything else I'd want to take either had a zillion pre-reqs or overlaps with one of my classes I actually need to take.

[fineartsjournal]

213341 Art Studio IIIA ⋆ Week 3 - Crit Week and the Eternal Sleepiness

With group members Olivia, Bella and Stevee in attendance, we headed around the available gallery spaces for a little window shopping:

Eugene is our mentor, and we had a productive conversation with him.

ⓈⒾⓍ ⓇⓊⓁⒺⓈ ⒻⓄⓇ ⓂⒶⓀⒾⓃⒼ

(according to Richard Reddaway)

You should make it with your skills and knowledge, and with the materials and processes familiar to you.

It must interact with your body, made so that it can be worn, held, stood on, or something similar.

It may not be functional, apart from the function art has.

You should be imaginative in your design, even fantastical. What you make must be abstract, it must not represent anything already existing in the world.

Perhaps it will evoke something that has yet-to-be-seen.

Yet you and I can see the world through this thing - therefore it may have eye holes, and these must be two of circular and between 45mm (1 3/4") in diameter, and spaced 65mm (2 1/2") apart.

It's also worth acknowledging the sound-based side of Richard's works. Not because I'm drawing influence from them at the moment, but they sure do look cool.

Meanwhile with the group, we were all busy getting a grasp on the dimensions and requirements of eachother's works.

For such talks, we have a groupchat on Instagram, which is especially useful, as we've still not all been present in a room at the same time.

For my little Age of Empires project, I overhauled the Pop Concrète Bandcamp page I used last semester, now decked out with pixellated snippets taken from the in-game graphics.

I miss playing this game until I remember how frustrating and obtuse the in-game mechanics can be. With Age of Empires being classed as a real-time strategy game, I chose to swap the words around and name this project:

Time Isn't Real Strategy - a tongue-in-cheek observation on rose-tinted hindsight. Emotional past perception can't be trusted.

With this presentation being a small-scale catch-up on process more than anything, I kept a small scope, only making two songs total.

Audio was sampled from YouTube and compiled straight into Audacity. I even took a 'sword fighting' sound effect and combined it with the drums; which I sampled from Kirk Lightsey And Rudolph Johnson With The All Stars' Habiba.

Using audacity, I adjusted all the audio to be in the same tempo, and from there, I hooked up the SP-202. Recording had to be timed to EXACTLY the right intervals in order to loop properly; with plenty trial and error.

Mixing was tricky. Amplifying audio brought warmth and punch to the drum beats, but would create loud 'pops' that needed to be ironed out. I was only able to do this following the presentation.

The song was also in mono, to which I added a little stereo reverb so that it'd better fill the eardrums.

After a light dusting in extra in-game sound effects, it was finished.

Presentation, although discussed with Emma, was an afterthought. I added a QR code to the Bandcamp site, rehashed the 'sound player' graphic I used for the Pop Concrète stickers, as well as placing another screenshot from the game; choosing something that had a variety of in-game objects to jog the memory.

Come presentation day, I chucked the print onto a plinth and let the critique group go ham, interacting much how they did with Pop Concrète.

I should also add the Bandcamp link too, so you can listen for yourself!

CRITIQUE TIME, BABY.

People scanned in their own time. Had to step in and give a warning about the unmastered volume 'pops'. Couple heads bopping, some feet tapping.

Needed to be more inviting, QR codes "always look sketchy". At least with the QR code on a brick, it was silly enough that you don't take the risk seriously. On a piece of paper, "...anyone could do that"; "...feel like my bank account will be stolen..."

Different types of links... email? Stream? Non-labeled QR codes in a gallery setting? Generational divide in listening? Focus on breaking down barriers of suspicion.

Everyone was playing the music off their phones - but the intention was not to create cacophony this time - Gallery listening vs. personal listening -Listen to it in the gallery, download to listen later? Is your audience an individual on their own timeline or is it a group of people passing your work?

"Make it available to all, [so that] everyone can get a piece of their work..." "Why are you in Fine Arts and not studying Music?" -> With my art and presentation, I can "...define the difference."

"Unlocked memory..." Didnt recognise the sounds, seems familiar; "something about that property is evocative..." Two people recognised the source material: "...didnt realise I knew Age of Empires, I just remembered [sound effect video from game] as a kid..."

Dissemination - I might lose some engagement from a plinth presentation. Relational Aesthetics by Nicola Boreau. Post-production: Contemporary art draws from either the "computer programmer" and the "DJ" - people that draw from existing material and reform/recombine it.

For today's edition of the Plunderphonical Chronicle, we jump forward before jumping back. In 2010, Chuck Person - alias of Daniel Lopatin - released Eccojams Vol. 1, coinciding with cryptic video releases on his channel Sunsetcorp.

Internet music afficionados may call Eccojams the foundation to vaporwave, a (sadly flash-in-the-pan) genre of plunderphonics, characterised by slowed, echo-y 1980s pop, usually playing in its entirely with little modification.

Eccojams itself was a little more 'swaggy' with it, repeatedly looping small lyric segments of popular songs to re-frame their message. On track "B4" for example, the line "...there's nobody here..." from Chris De Burgh's Lady In Red is looped over and over; creating a familiarly un-familiar atmosphere.

For an example, I created my own 'eccojam'.

I took Yesterday Once More by the Carpenters, looped the line "...all my best memories, come back clearly to me..." and soaked it in delay effects. Given the nostalgia theme of this semester's output so far, it's quite fitting:

Of course, when it comes to Eccojams and the wider output of the vaporwave genre, we once again must attest that-

The late Robert Earl Davis Jr. was from the Houston hip-hop scene, characterized in the late 1980s by a slower sound compared to other hip-hop genres at the time.

Going by DJ Screw, he took it even slower. The tools of the trade were a turntable and E-mu SP 1200: a 1986 sampler that I omitted from my sampler timeline, but holds just as much influence as the MPC. Admire its dated, exorbitantly-expensive beauty.

Performing these slowed mixes, the listener would have more time to sit and reflect on the lyrics, upon which DJ Screw would scratch and loop certain lines for further emphasis.

Consumption of Codeine - taken in the form of lean - was on the rise at the time, and the mellowing effect of the drug was a contributor to the sound... and appeal.

An example of this is 3 minutes into Inside Looking Out, where Screw's record scratches allow the lyrics a chance to breathe, placing emphasis on certain lines through their repetition.

We now call this genre Chopped and Screwed, the forbearer genre to all things vapor and ecco; which still continues today in honor of DJ Screw's passing by codeine overdose.

From one skull-album-cover to another, and back to 2011 with Daniel Lopatin's - going by Oneohtrix Point Never - album Replica.

There are few pieces of music that I have played more than Replica, in fact, my coming-across of Replica last year was what kickstarted my interest with plunderphonics as a whole; and what continues to drive the ethos of my works; from style to concept.

As an album, it's a beat-less, brooding and largely atmospheric collection of synth progressions; that either play on their own or - and most alluringly - accompany a sample.

Weingarten, Christopher (October 2011). "Download: Oneohtrix Point Never’s Buzzing 'Replica’“. The Village Voice.

How Lopatin samples on this album is most interesting. He entirely sources from 1980s-90s TV adverts, cutting them down to a small fragment, and letting it repeat; as synth swells gradually build up to accompany it.

"I like this idea that I’m not actually a musician and that, instead, I’m kind of like Indiana Jones — an adventurer who is looking for old things that are meaningful. So, like, we don’t tend to think of television commercials and ephemera like that..."

The sample-work is jarring, too. At points you're left with nothing but a fuzzy sample playing over and over - not even as a groovy loop, but as if midway through a sentence.

"I categorized the sounds a few different ways, mostly by theme. One strain of infomercial [which I called], "The Middle Class Lie," appealed to me the most. Those had products that were supposed to make you feel wealthier than you actually are..."

Samples were taken from an archive website called Videomercials, from where Lopatin would buy a DVD compilation and quickly skim through.

Some moments are emphasized. The song "Remember" repeats its name, itself taken from a McDonald's ad. Lopatin's works regularly dabble with memory; so take it as instruction.

Replica is fascinating because it's nowhere. An advert sells you a potential experience, and while it can evoke a bygone time, the memories aren't lived. Replica sonically leans in to this discomfort, cutting away the legibility of each sample until all that's left is distinctly unnatural mush.

[archteriorbd]

6 Skillsets That a 3D Visualizer Should Have

3D visualization is an equivalent for PC-produced symbolism, 3D delivering, 3D illustrations, and so on These expressions allude to the computerized strategy for building up some graphical substance material with the guide of the utilization of 3D innovation.

This better science has then ended up being a vogue in a definitive few years, and offices that utilization it to their advantage get a higher danger to beat their opposition. Current 3D visualization has progressed into genuine science, and it is presently the most conceivable option for offices that are looking to advance their computerized content.

Set forth plainly, 3D visualization endorses you to make top-class advanced substance material that current clients settle on when sorting out their buys. Accordingly, it plays out a basic situation in the domain of forefront undertaking and showcasing.

For what reason is this fundamental for a 3D visualizer?

Since these masters need to have a definite arrangement of capacities to precisely answer to the interest and supply alternatives that will make them incredibly serious.

Realizing how to utilize a product program like CAD is essentially one of a huge number a 3D visualizer wishes to help vivid 3D visualizations. They need abilities that will allow them to mix every masterfulness and specialized expertise.

We should perceive any reason why 3D visualization things these days and what capacities a 3D visualizer need to have nowadays.

The meaning of 3D visualization

Customary pictures used to be the significant ability to become noticeable substance material for promoting and publicizing. While pictures regardless have an unmistakable locale in the venture business, it has quietly offered a path to its advanced ascendant — 3D visualization.

This contemporary thought of the work of art requires specialized and innovative abilities. 3D visualizers utilize computerized hardware, for example, Cinema 4D, Maya, and Autodesk 3ds Max to make huge and vivid visualizations that can be utilized all through a few businesses.

A 3D visualizer takes almost the indistinguishable technique to their work as a picture taker. The two of them utilize the CAD reports from designers, or they make a 3D life-sized model of an item, and afterward, they set up advanced conditions, lights, and cameras to get the ideal effect and satisfy the customer's necessities.

3D visualization is entirely tantamount to photography, a few the main contrasts. The clearest one would be the level of adaptability that 3D visualizers have. One more noteworthy differentiation would be the phase of control. That aside, most promoting and publicizing and advertising you see these days are made with 3D visualization. For more information click here

At that point, there is an upward bump of noticeable substance material on the web. We really parcels stay in an obvious world. That is really because of the real 3D visualization innovative expertise affirms master craftsmen to make uncommonly photorealistic renderings rapidly.

Current and better-advanced gear empowers these craftsmen than altogether control each component of 3D visualization. Hence, 3D visualization is currently existing in observably a ton in every industry, going from style, drug, clinical, and engineering to auto, customer item, and others.

In this manner, the first and most fundamental component a 3D visualizer should perceive comprises of expertise about the basic elements of a 3D visualization:

● Photorealism

● Shadows and light

● The furnishings

● Flora and fauna

● People

How about we dive further into our work necessities for a 3D visualizer.

3D visualizer set of working responsibilities

The chief jobs and commitments for a 3D visualizer comprise the possibility to catch and deal with CAD. They need to furthermore be able to utilize insignificant portrayals to life-sized model and direct tasks and work with various 1/3 occasions cooperatively.

Contingent upon the organization, 3D visualizers are furthermore needed to work on a stroll through and delivering on visuals projects, advanced camera activity, lighting, finishing, opening up, and building 3D displaying.

Since there is a need for completely photorealistic pictures, 3D visualizers must have the possibility to make hugely photorealistic liveliness, display visuals, inside, and outside. They must be competent to utilize an assortment of renderers as well.

A portion of the basic capacities include:

● Excellent composed and verbal discussion abilities

● Professional honesty of the least demanding level

● Ability to work together with various group people and be proactive on-request

● Organizational abilities

● Multitasking abilities and unreasonable phase of responsiveness to tight cutoff times

● Ability to deal with more than one tasks

● Being aware of the best in class sketch patterns

● Creative reasoning

● Autonomous work and stepping up

● Being genuinely adaptable, a profitable, present-day with great critical thinking abilities

● Being educated

● Dedication to personal growth, advancement, and learning

● Exceptional interest in detail

In light of this, how about we cowl positive capacities that each 3D visualizer should have in their armory.

1. Amazing insightful abilities

Besides the evident preparation and programming program taking care of, a 3D visualizer must have exquisite scientific abilities.

For what reason is this significant?

Basically, because of the reality, they will be needed to utilize the plans conveyed via the client to create pictures. Accordingly, 3D visualizers need to have spectacular logical capacities to verify they don't leave out any little print and necessities made with the guide of the customer.

A craftsman should also make a qualification between liveliness, displaying, delivering, 3D visualizations, impacts, and designs.

2. Information about various businesses

Since 3D visualization is quite wished today, a 3D visualizer needs to have in any event a basic comprehension of various businesses, the progressing patterns, norms, etc. It can help them to find some work a decent arrangement extra without any problem.

All the more significantly, the additional you appreciate and work with various enterprises, the higher data and extra significant ability you have. That is how you will be fit for current the most progressive choices and assume open air the container.

3. Lights and shadows

The higher the mastery you have about lights and shadows, the higher the impacts you produce. The interest for the most photorealistic 3D visualizations is developing as time passes.

On the off chance that you see how to play with shadows and lights, you have some distance higher probabilities of working in the undertaking based on your personal preference. As indicated by most 3D visualization experts, the ability to expertly control these two elements is especially pursued all through various ventures.

4. The ability to utilize more than one computerized hardware and programming

There is a lot of interesting programming program gear that 3D visualizers use. The most utilized ones are CAD, Blender, Photoshop, Corona, and 3ds Max. On the off chance that you are essentially a novice, we support starting with Blender. It's the most proper gadget for amateurs.

On the distinctive hand, it is also an attractive longing if you are a specialist, as it's open-source 3D programming. All things considered, pay interest if you decide to utilize Blender as this present program's biggest disadvantage is exceptionally confined interoperability with CAD programming.

SketchUp is moreover an extremely popular gadget among 3D visualizers. All the more significantly, it has all the basic things included; it is lower estimated and exceptionally viable.

5. Remarkable verbal trade abilities

This goes for really a ton for every individual who wishes to end up being appropriately at what they do, notwithstanding, it, specifically, goes for 3D visualizers. So parcels depend upon the right correspondence. Since a 3D visualizer is needed to work with now not exclusively their gathering people, notwithstanding, various studios and 1/3 occasions also, discussion and conversational capabilities are an absolute necessity.

We previously began the meaning of insightful capabilities in expressions of understanding of the customer's prerequisites. Since 3D visualization is utilized all through numerous one-of-a-kind ventures, a 3D visualizer must be in a situation to keep a fine discussion with all staff worried about an undertaking.

Each man or lady stressed will have their thoughts, necessities, interests, and concerns. A 3D visualizer must be effective in talking these musings into a huge absolute that will bring about the necessary item.

In a particularly confounded workspace, discernibly a lot of the entire accomplishment of an assignment depends upon the capacity to impart. Add diverse delicate capabilities, for example, collaboration, persistence, critical thinking, and you have a predominant blend.

6. Imagination and Artistic abilities

3D visualizations are shockingly imaginative. 3D visualization requires a craftsman to be somewhat profitable and inventive, as pleasantly as imaginative. It's ceaselessly about developing something new, something this is nevertheless concealed.

If you can make top-class 3D visualizations, you have significantly higher probabilities of transforming into a present-day 3D visualizer. Hence, you should be exceptionally creative with regards to innovative abilities; a specialist should be in a situation to attract straightforward portrayals to current their thoughts.

Utilizing innovative ability is essentially one aspect of the coin, notwithstanding, being in a situation to draw something yourself can exclusively add to your stockpile of abilities.

Conclusion

While every one of these capacities sounds like they are actually hard to obtain and accomplish, the sum is reasonable if you have the legitimate thought for it. Everything begins with straightforward arrangements and schooling.

If need any architectural help or any architecture service. Visit our site 👉architectural 3d visualization

[selfskate56-blog]

How Anime Characters are Made?

I think it is usually important and fascinating to find out the fundamental factors with the environment that we most fancy, and one associated with the most critical concerns is: how is anime made? For me, especially recently, this is a burning up question and I ended up doing some detailed homework. For the sake connected with other anime fans with the same question, My spouse and i thought about sharing the results. So if anyone want the bullets to be able to fire again the up coming time you get trapped upward in a conversation concerning the merits of cartoons, or you want a new way to watch anime, I hope this article is helpful to you. In this last year possibly even, my own growing interest in this side of points seriously opened my eyes to be able to the natural talent, art work, appreciation, and splendor found in Japanese animation. This content will focus on anime-TV development, but the same basic course of action is applicable to motion pictures together with OVA. That stated, there can be many variations among studios plus individual productions.

https://www1.kissanime.li/Ani/Bleach/ The approach of building an anime is difficult, with many steps and periods. That graphic from the AIC English web site is the good image image involving what My spouse and i will explore: The cartoons manufacturing course of action. Preproduction: This process is determined by that promotes an concept together with who supports that, they are often animation studios, together with vendors, although numerous animes can be manga modifications or gentle novels, around which case upfront building costs (including costs). displayed on television stations). This production company (eg Aniplex) gathers employees, sponsors, and looks at advertisements in addition to merchandise. While a lot of persons describe the studios since cheap, only about half of the budget is often the cartoons studio, the relaxation is given to by presents and other contributing firms. Streaming costs will be surprisingly high, according to the cat blogger of approximately 60 million yen regarding an night time schedule throughout 5-7 posts for a good 52-episode set. You may see why anime is definitely an expensive business. For case in point, Total Metal Alchemist, which had the space upon Saturday from 6: 00 p. meters., had the total budget regarding 5 hundred million yen (before extra costs). When the central staff is arranged, they will meet and plan their particular anime, work on sequence structure (how the cartoons will play in each instance and throughout the series), and select much larger personnel, such as character or perhaps mecha designers.. One of the most critical workers is the director. To help understand the role involving film fans, you can consider of them since the administrators of a movie, yet instead of dealing having the stars, they package with the animators who make the characters within the movie. Their participation is usually attending appointments and building decisions to manage often the anime's schedule, budget, and level of quality. After the primary panoramic classes, models happen to be created (character, pieza, outfits, etc. ). Versions happen to be obviously a great important factor inside developing a good cartoons. Character designers are tasked with simplifying manga or example of this designs to turn out to be ideal for animation or, with regards to a good original anime, in order to make a innovative character arranged based on director / maker types. https://www1.kissanime.li/Anime/Death-Note/ Character developers frequently proceed to suggest animation company directors on movement fixes, which in turn must be made for you to stay near their personality models (in which event they are typically credited as animation representative with regard to the series). Once the tale and drawings will be attracted, the first show is managed. production: Often the first step is in order to write down thier script for the episode. Following a synopsis hcg diet plan plans for that episodes, the particular entire sets are usually published, possibly by anyone intended for the entire series, or perhaps simply by several different internet writers based on the facial lines of the script's standard boss (staff credit: structure from the Serie). The scenarios will be analyzed simply by typically the overseer, the suppliers, in addition to possibly because of the author regarding the original function ahead of it is completed (after 3 as well as 4 paintings, often). The episode representative, supervised by way of the CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, takes this backbone of the tv show and has in order to plan precisely how it will certainly truly look on tv screen. Even though the representative offers the last word plus participates in production group meetings, the episode director has the most involvement inside the development of often the show. kiss anime This stage can be expressed as a storyboard (a visual scenario), in addition to the storyboard marks often the beginning of actual toon manufacturing. to draw:

Usually the script is created by way of this director, which signifies that an tv show is really that director's eye-sight. But generally, especially around the television cartoons, separate storyboarders are used to attract them. This is definitely because the pieces of software normally take around several weeks to make a normal length television anime event. Artwork meetings and development gatherings are held using the episode director, series director, as well as others about this specific episode. The cases happen to be drawn on A-4 papers (in general) and even contain most of the critical pads of an anime: lower numbers, acting professional moves, camera movements, such since zoom or perhaps pan, discussion (taken from stage) together with the period of each one picture (or cut). ) throughout terms of seconds and even support frames (which we may make clear later). Because typically the number of drawings available for an episode is frequently determined for the cause associated with budget management, this number of casings is also carefully considered within the storyboard. The circumstances are definitely more or less drawn and are also genuinely the key for you to determining how an cartoons may play. The clippings send to the single photo via the camera, and a average television cartoons instance will generally include all around 300 discounts. More slashes don't necessarily mean a new better good quality event, but will generally suggest more work for the home / writer. Cases connected with storyboards from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. Cartoons stories have 5 columns. From left to best suited: the cut number, the looks, the action, the dialog, and last but not least the runtime (in time and frames). Types are drawn nearly because they are managed by other designers in the next production step. aspects: Much less well known is often the set up process, which scars very early artsy production. Around simple terms, model growth refers to the setting on the cylinders to get used in the lower and the background technique that is required, offering typically the certain model of precisely what the final photograph will look like. Discounts happen to be made the identical size like the movement report plus include mobile phone location information, accurate information of video camera movement, and other options. Within cooperation with the director and maybe the producers, the lead computer animators draw models (or often employees are credited especially with type drawings), and the pictures are named where this heroes / characters is going to be found and how a cut can adhere to... to be framed. The basic structure of the background skill (for instance, a shrub here, the hill there) is drawn, plus the factors in the storyboard are indicated inside the design to assist describe the cut. Often many stages of the particular script could be expressed around a single drawing, provided that it's not too confusing. The pv cells are shaded around warm colors, the backdrops are usually dark in cool shades. Once approved by means of the home, these design templates are copied and converted in to the qualifications department (receiving originals) in addition to key animators. The artwork director and assistants work on painting the background is effective good model's rough sketches, while the rest of the particular production process continues in the same time. Presently the shape of each and every cut is decided: the opportunities of the characters, typically the setup, what they may do and how this photograph will be caught (camera angle, zoom and even panorama). Nevertheless one involving the most expressive together with vital parts of the production continues to be: animation.

[runicmagitek]

Hello there! Thank you for taking the time to read this. I've long been an admirer of your work. I was wondering if you had any advice on writing? Especially for someone just new to writing? Or, like, in regards to outlining stories?

Why can’t I give hugs through the internet why. Thank you so much for such sweet words and I apologize for the wait. I spent the past couple of days concocting some writing advice for you and it turned into a thing. Hope it’s worth the wait!

I want to preface this: below is my writing process. It works for me. It may not work for all writers and I highly encourage others to figure out what does work for them. It took me several years to come to this conclusion, so don’t be discouraged if everything doesn’t click for you. Writing takes time to develop and we all learn and create differently. Try things out and see if it’s beneficial.

Also, while I know you asked specifically for writing and outlining tips for beginners, I am including editing tips. A lot of people might view writing and editing in a different light, but I believe that they go hand-in-hand; getting used to editing will help you become a better writer and vice versa. I know countless people who bang out stories and then let the drafts collect dust, because editing is daunting.

Lastly, a massive shout-out to my partner-in-crime, beta reader, and braintwin—Amie @wingsyouburn . She helped contribute to and refine this and is also a brilliant writer and has helped me become the writer I am today. Endless thanks to you, bb!

On that note, let’s jump right into this.

OUTLINING

I can’t write without some vague idea of where I’m going. It’s like having a map with you on a road trip; you might deviate from your route along the way due to pit stops or traffic or simply wanting to go the scenic route, but you at least know where your end goal is. And it can vary depending on what you’re writing. If I have a oneshot idea, maybe I jot down a sentence or two about the plot, usually with a “problem” and then a “conclusion”. For example: Character A is doubting herself and decides to vent to Character B, who offers comfort and kisses. Sometimes I jot these down if I have an idea hits me at work or in line at a café. You can always refer back to it later on. Filling in the blanks of said outline is where the fun of writing comes in!

Even for my drabbles, I will write very brief sentences of what I imagine would happen. It helps me stay concise and stick to that main point instead of meandering.

For longer pieces, I try to write out each scene I want to include. Some people I know do this by writing on notecards. I used to make a bullet list, but now I use Scrivener to map outlines. With a bullet list, you can do it like this:

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

It doesn’t need to be extremely thorough. Just get those ideas out of your head and onto paper. You can always go back and switch up the order later and if you don’t entirely know what would happen in a scene, but for example, you know the end result? You can easily write something like, “a bunch of shit hits the fan and then the gang run off into the sunset.” Maybe when you start writing, you’ll have a better idea of what shit hitting the fan includes. And when you do figure it out, go back to your outline and make a bullet under that particular scene with the details. I’ve done this plenty of times. Hell, I have an outline for a 200k story I did where the last 1/3 of the outline just never happened in my draft. A better idea came along and I went with that. And that’s ok!

Your outline is there to help you and not hurt you. It’s flexible and bare minimum, when you’re done with a story, you can look back on it and see how much you’ve evolved since your initial idea.

WRITING

Consume art. Read. Read some more. Keep reading. Watch a movie. Go to a museum. Take a walk at the park. Listen to music. So many things inspire people and the tiniest instances can spark an idea for a story. Always be open to them. Figure out what you love and what you don’t. Consume both of those. Inspiration can come even from genres we don’t particularly like. Don’t be afraid of something new. When I was in art school, we were required to take non-major studio classes. I ended up in a weaving class, filled with other textile students when all I ever knew was graphic design. I learned a tremendous amount in that semester to carry over into my graphic design work and I’m sure my peers learned a lot from me, too. That concept carries over into so many creative fields. Embrace that.

Also, if you’re the type that benefits from reading books about writing, here are some A+ resources:

On Writing by Stephen King

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

Take care of yourself first. This tip simultaneously has nothing and everything to do with writing. For me, I have a handful of health issues. I work a full-time job. I have a ton of other hobbies that eat up my time. Before I write, I need to make sure I’m doing well before I even bother to sit in front of my laptop. I can’t be overly stressed out or in pain or distracted. Sometimes you need to calm down and relax and not write. I can’t focus otherwise and the few times I did write when I clearly shouldn’t have? It was evident in my writing and thus triple the amount of editing work. I know it’s stressful not being able to write. Trust me… I’ve been there numerous times. But I believe that in the long run, you’ll be happier with yourself and your writing if you learn to treat yourself with respect and not beat yourself up when you’re unable to write every waking minute.

Set times to write and then do it. Some people might have inspiration strike them and that’s the only time they write. Yes, that can be helpful, but there’s also something to be said about developing a schedule and sticking to it, even if you’re not motivated. So you’ve done everything mentioned above: your tummy’s full, no one is around to bother you, you got a delicious cup of something beside you, it’s your favorite weather outside, and you’re in your favorite chair. But you’re staring at your monitor and just… uuuuuugh you don’t feel motivated. You know what? Fuck it. Just write. Write something. Anything. 75% of my writing was done out of the sheer willpower. Write! Even if it’s a page, so what?! That’s a page more than what you initially started out with! Squeezing in some scribbles on your lunch break every day can add up by the end of the week. Those 30 minute sessions are suddenly 2 ½ hours!

Again during my art school days, I would be up until 4am trying to do 40 posters in time for the morning’s critique and I’d be on those last 3 poster designs and I was tired with no inspiration and ran out of fucks at 11pm, but I pushed through. You know what? My teachers and peers alike loved those 3 designs I did at fuck-this-shit o’clock. I’m serious. Every single time.

Start writing and never look back. This is your time to write. Not to edit, not to try and craft the perfect sentence Of All Time. You’re writing. You are word vomiting whatever nonsense is in your head. It’s a first draft. It’s going to be messy. It’s probably going to be shit. Who the hell cares? That doesn’t mean you or your writing is shit. Everybody, even the most seasoned writer, doesn’t write a perfect first draft and you can’t fix what isn’t written. So write, write, write! Smack your inner editor each time it tells you to go back and edit a paragraph. Disable your wifi if you think you’ll get distracted. For me, I put on some quiet, ambient music to drown out the world and go into Scrivener’s full-screen mode. I highly recommend checking libraries in your area if you want some quiet time. The librarians are also way more than happy to show you where designated quiet/study areas are if you’re not sure.

Write what YOU want to write about. Don’t write something just because it’s popular and that’s what everyone else is doing. Do it for yourself first and foremost. It doesn’t need to be for everyone, but let it be for you. It will show tremendously in your writing if you’re excited about a thing. Likewise, it’s beyond evident if you’re bored with a scene in your story. Write about what excites you and I promise your writing will display that excitement. On the same note, if you’re stuck on a scene and just don’t know what to do with it, move along. Maybe that scene isn’t needed. Skip to the next, more interesting thing. Write the story you want to read.

Incorporate your experiences. The expression “write what you know” gets tossed around with the assumption that people will go, “Ooooooh, yeah that makes sense.” Think on all your life experiences and draw upon them. You may not be the commanding officer of a prestigious military, but maybe you’ve been in a group project in school where someone needed to step up as leader in order to get shit done in time for the oral presentation. Remember your emotions during times of struggle, elation, anger, and sadness. Channel it into your writing.  

Write in chronological order. Some people have mastered the art of writing that one middle scene they’re super stoked about or writing random scenes out of time and then stitching it together later. I am not one of those people. For a beginner, it might be less daunting to write everything in chronological order. That way you can build up things like character development/growth and tension and so forth in a natural way via passing time. If you start writing a scene where the main pairing finally kiss, but don’t write the ten chapters leading up to that, it’s a lot more difficult to flesh out all that tension in one scene when you hadn’t written it yet. I’m also of the opinion that it’s better to write all the things before that One Scene you’re giddy about; it can speed up the writing process because you want to arrive at that One Scene, so hey, anything to motivate you, ya know?

EDITING

After I wrote my first novel draft after years of not writing, I had this massive feeling of, “…shit, now what?” For every single guide to editing, there’s a hundred more for writing. Editing is an extremely personal process. It took me over two years before I became comfortable with editing my own work. Let’s be honest – it’s terrifying. And I wish there was a more concise guide about it when I first started, so hopefully this helps.

I edit in rounds. My first round involves just reading, no editing. I keep a journal to take notes, mostly plot, characterization, redundancies, and cuts/additions I’d want to make. My second round combs through it to fix those bigger problems along with any glaring grammar/spelling errors and mild line edits. I will send it to a beta to read after that for additional commentary/suggestions. My third round addresses all of that on top of hardcore line edits—I want every damn sentence to be the best version of that sentence ever. One more time it goes back to the beta to nitpick the hell out of it. And my last round is spent reading what I wrote out loud. If my tongue trips over anything, I change it. Apply some spit and polish, give it some lunch and a backpack, and then off to AO3 it goes to make some new friends.

Maybe you edit in less or more rounds. Maybe you have more rounds of sending content to beta readers. Maybe you need to rewrite the whole thing three times before it ever sees a beta reader. Do what feels good to you. Only you will be able to figure it out and you won’t know until you try. I promise once you get your feet wet and test it out, you’ll feel more confident about your writing over time.

Here are some more specific tips that no one ever bothered to tell me until after the fact. These might be overwhelming for a beginner, so don’t feel the need to master these immediately. Take it one step at a time and try them when you are comfortable doing so.

Walk away from it. After finishing a first draft, let it sit. Go do something else and forget about your draft. For oneshots, I’ll go back to it after a week. For longer pieces, anywhere between 2-4 weeks. Returning to a draft with rested eyes and a fresh mind will only benefit you in the editing process. You’re still two inches away from your work when you finish the first draft. Walk away from it, come back, and then you can see more, whether it be the strong points or the holes.

Describe what is happening, not how something looks/sounds/feels. I’m sure you’ve heard of “show, don’t tell.” First off, fuck that noise when writing the first draft. Tell to your heart’s content if it means getting it on the damn page. Second off, sometimes telling can be helpful. That’s up to you to decide if it’s beneficial or harmful to your story. I typically go about “show, don’t tell” in the editing phase. Now most people will give this advice and not further explain. So here’s an example:

She was mad at him for once again not doing the dishes.

That’s not a terrible sentence. Though it to make it pack more oomph, take a step back and think. When you’re mad, what do you do? Are you clenching your jaw? Are you grumbling to yourself? Is a headache forming? And when you imagine dishes not done, what does that look like to you? Is it flies swarming around a sink? Is it overflowing from the sink? Is the sponge sitting in five day old water and reeking of mold? Is there a broken dish on the floor because a cat decided to knock it off from the stack of twenty uncleaned dishes? With that in mind, the sentence can possibly be rewritten like this:

Countless plates and silverware wobbled on one another, each encrusted with a previous night’s dinner. She drew a breath, balled up her fists, and glared at him. “Really? I gave you one job.”

Find your descriptions that are comprised of the character feeling or seeing or hearing something and reword them. Breathe life into your words. Make them paintings. I know, it’s not easy. It might even break your brain a little (mine did when I first gave this a serious go), but it will make you think differently and your writing can only grow from that.

Rephrase weaker words. I once had this assignment back in high school where we were given a hundred sentences, each one with “get” in the mix, and we had to rewrite all of them with a unique word replacing “get”. Find words like “get” and forms of “to be” and replace them with stronger words. Something like he got out of bed can turn into he rose out of bed or he jumped out of bed or he slumped out of bed. It rids the sentence of something weak and is more descriptive of what’s going on.

Another thing to look out for are verbs ending in “-ing”. She started walking over or she was walking on over aren’t as direct as she walked over. Trimming out instances like this help make the action more immediate instead of feeling like it’s going or starting or beginning to happen. Just let it happen!

Adverbs are another instance that people will suggest to cut out. They’re at least easy to find (most end in –ly) and when you do spot them, ask yourself this: is there a better word to sum up what I’m trying to express? Something like she said quietly can be she whispered or she murmured or she mumbled. Or something like they ran quickly can be they rushed or they sprinted or they booked it. These all can help get a better idea of what is going on. Plus it can help strengthen your vocabulary by searching for more ideal words!

If your vocab is shaky or you just can’t pinpoint something better, here’s a resource I use all the time. Just remember: always double check the definition of the word to make sure it fits instead of spinning the thesaurus wheel and picking at random.

Lastly, don’t feel the need to go on a witch hunt to purge your story of all of these things. Sometimes it’s best to keep that use of “to be” or that adverb, because there isn’t something better to convey what you’re describing or it distorts the flow of the narrative. And that’s completely okay. It takes time to figure this out.

Cut out redundancies. I tend to overwrite in my first drafts. Editing is where I bust out my figurative chainsaw and kill the extra nonsense. Is there a phrase you keep using over and over? Kill it. Is there a section you read that just bores you to tears? Kill it. Is there a sentence that is proceeded by a paragraph that rephrases that exact sentiment four times? Kill it. Is the process of something we as human beings understand, like opening a door, a three-sentence-long affair? Kill it.

I love poetics in stories and sometimes it can get out of hand. The more concise you are in your delivery, the clearer of a picture you will paint for the readers and the smoother the overall pacing will be.

Never delete. So with all of that in mind, please, for the love of tea and chocolate, never ever delete your work. Doesn’t matter if it’s a conversion from a first to second draft or if you end up hating it, don’t delete it. You never know if you’ll return to it five years down the road or you need to refer back to something from your initial draft when you’re on your third wave of revisions. I keep a folder dedicated to all of my writing on my laptop, which is also backed up to Dropbox. In Scrivener, you can take snapshots of your work for each new draft you start and can always revert back to older snapshots. There’s also an actual editing mode in it, but I believe it’s exclusive to Mac OS. Or if you’re using something simple like Word or Google Docs, make new documents and title them based off of your drafts. Another thing to consider is making a document strictly for lines you love but weren’t able to include in the final version. Don’t get rid of them – keep them. Maybe you revisit it and find a new story for it to fit in or perhaps that lovely line of yours sparks a new story to write. You won’t know if you delete your work.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Make writer friends. Writing is a solitary activity (well, not unless a pet decides to keep you company, but anyways). Having friends who are also writers or even enthusiastic about writing are a blessing. Bounce ideas off of them or vent to them when you hit a brick wall. Maybe said friends will turn into beta readers when you wish to cross that road. My recent writer friends are people I chatted with on comments with fics, either my own works or their stories. You don’t need to be friends with an entire fandom; find those you resonate with. I’m sure they’ll love gushing about things as much as you do.

And if you ever converse with someone who acts above you and everyone else in regards to writing? Fuck ‘em. They are not and never will be worth your time or anyone else’s.

Keep writing. Like any form of art, writing’s a craft and it will only improve the more you devote time to it. There’s always room for growth. Be humble. Accept change. Allow yourself to learn. I guarantee you that your writing will change for the better in the span of a year if you keep at it. Don’t worry about it being perfect or if it’s telling the “same story” someone else has written—you haven’t written your version of it. You haven’t added your personal touches and experiences and insights to it. Think of how many times Romeo and Juliet has been done in storytelling. People eat it up. To use the cake analogy, you might feel like you’re bringing another cake to the party when there’s already one, but others look at it and go, “FUCK YEAH TWO CAKES!” Lastly, I’ll leave you with a quote from the eternally badass Carrie Fisher, “Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.”

You got this, anon. I believe in you.

[chelsea-gilbert]

Examples of Good Packaging (22nd November 2019) 

1. The packaging for these premium eggs was designed by freelancer Azul Prado, who lives in Argentina and focuses mainly on graphic design, packaging and branding. I found this project on Behance, and was immediately intrigued by the way the design allows the egg boxes to be stacked. Unlike standard egg box designs, the shape of each end of the box means that when stacked, they can interlock with neighbouring stacks of boxes and makes sure there is less of a risk of them falling and being broken. This design element will also mean that in terms of marketing, when customers are specifically looking to buy this brand of eggs, it should be fairly easy for them to find, due to their unique appearance when held in bulk in stores. 

Not only this, but the colour scheme of natural and neutral colours, to me, gives me indications that this product could be free range or at least produced with the animals needs in mind. This is further enhanced by how this designer has chosen to present the eggs surrounded by what looks like natural material, where you would expect to find eggs before they are taken to be sold. By doing this, the designer has also reduced the need for any other man made material to hold the eggs in place, making this packaging more environmentally friendly and sustainable. 

(Link to Behnace page https://www.behance.net/gallery/3039135/Egg-Pack) 

2. This packaging, I also found on Behance, designed by Gen Design Studio (Gen Design Studio merged with Tekzenit Inc. and is also known as Tekzenit Creative Services in the USA) which was founded in 2005 and is a Braga, Portugal, headquartered creative services firm supporting small, medium and enterprise level clients. 

In terms of how successful this packaging is based on their use of sustainable/environmentally friendly materials, I am unsure, as I could not find out what was used to produce this packaging. However, in the description, it was stated that the focus for the brand was to communicate to customers their care for bees and the environment, so I can only speculate that this was considered when choosing the most appropriate materials and manufacturing methods. 

It was simply the aesthetic of this packaging which has driven me to class it as good packaging, as if I were looking to purchase a product of this category, the unusual outer packaging would draw my attention to this brand instantly. The fact that the jar of honey is also being put inside what looks like a carton means that it is unlike the standard packaging where honey is just sold in jars. 

The distinctive band of colour at the top of each different flavour, also ensures that customers can work out which flavour is which very easily, so if it is a returning customer then selecting the desired flavour can be done very quickly and there is no confusion whatsoever. As all the chosen colours are also very bright, it means the brand as a whole would be easy to locate when on the shelf next to other brands of honey. 

By using a slightly translucent material for the outer packaging, it means that the natural warm colour of the honey contained in the jar can still be seen through not only one layer of packaging, but two. This effect allows the customer to see a hint of the product they are buying, but still hides a lot of the design of the jar inside. This could be considered as bad packaging, as some customers would want to fully see the item they are purchasing and could be driven away by how they are unable to with this brand. However, some customers (I would be in this category) would find this intriguing and buy the product simply for the mystery of what is inside. I personally love the aesthetic of the outer packaging and would buy the product just so that I could also see what the brand has done with the inner packaging too. 

The translucent material also indicates a more luxurious product, perhaps I think this due to how translucent materials are used less commonly than transparent or opaque ones. Translucent packaging is something that works for a small number of products, but in this case, it works well. It allows for the product to be partially visible, whilst also ensuring that the important information such as the brand name, logo, ingredients list etc. are clearly visible and are what the customer will focus on after being drawn in initially by the packaging. 

(Link to Behance page https://www.behance.net/gallery/34367571/packaging-branding-Zee) 

3. Lush Cosmetics focuses a lot on promoting their brand as an environmentally friendly one, so it is important that as well as their products being manufactured from sustainable materials, their packaging must follow this ethos as well. 

A lot of the products from lush, can be bought without the need for any packaging, but this particular product requires it. The entire pot and lid are made from recycled polypropylene which is also able to be recycled again after use. Not only this, but they use their packaging to ensure that customers are aware that if they return the empty pots after use, they will be rewarded, therefore encouraging consumers to waste less. Their packaging also features several mentions of which material was used, who personally made the product, how you can recycle or dispose of the packaging etc. By using the packaging to inform the customer of all this, it will allow the customer to trust the brand, as they feel in the loop. 

As for the aesthetic of the packaging, I like how they’ve only used black, white and green. Obviously, the colour green emphasises their focus on the environment but I also think that the use of black as the main colour makes their products look high quality. By also not having much imagery and keeping a simple colour scheme, it strips the design back to basics and this, to me, shows how their brand uses mainly natural products and doesn’t add unnecessary artificial elements. I also like how they’ve chosen to use a script typeface for the larger text, as it helps to emphasise that this product is handmade, which may be an important factor that the customer considers when buying this product. 

(Link to the Lush website https://uk.lush.com/article/our-environmental-policy)

4. I really like this design for lightbulb packaging by CS Electrical company based in Belarus. The branding of this company is inspired by diagrams and circuits from scientific experiments. The idea for the branding of these particular products was based on the firefly, which then led to the brand using a variety of other insects for different shaped bulbs. 

Design and Art Direction: Angelina Pischikova Packaging Contents: Light bulb Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paper

I think that what initially caught my eye with this packaging was how they have decided to incorporate the actual product and combine it with the imagery printed onto the box. Usually with lightbulb packaging, you either get a box which doesn’t allow you to see the actual lightbulb, and just has an image of it printed onto the packaging or you are able to see the lightbulb but the rest of the packaging then remains very plain and simple. In this case, you get to see the product that you’re purchasing, as well as having an interesting design on the packaging. 

By choosing to use a different insect design for each type of lightbulb, it will actually make it easier for customers to recall which lightbulb they require. I think that if all the packaging was the same, it would be difficult for a returning customer to immediately spot which lightbulb they need to buy. By doing this, it means that the customer can very easily and quickly decide which product they need, and eliminates any confusion or frustration that could inhibit them from buying it. Not only this, but by having their only imagery as insects, it gives the impression that perhaps these lightbulbs are better for the environment than other brands might be, simply by incorporating nature into the imagery. 

I also really like the choice of colour scheme for this brand. The dark navy, white and bronze colour scheme, to me, gives this brand a high quality feel. A lot of the time when using a metallic sort of colour within a design, it can make it look tacky and cheap. However, by only using small amounts of bronze to highlight important type, it actually improves the appearance of the packaging. The use of a lot of white and dark navy means that the imagery of the packaging stands out really obviously, due to the colours being so contrasting. 

Finally, they have decided to use a sans serif typeface for the largest type on the packaging which is the product number and another way to identify which lightbulb is in each packaging. By using sans serif, it gives the packaging a modern, fresh feel and in my opinion this would make me think that the lightbulbs will be more successful than other brands, as they would have been manufactured using the latest technologies and processes to ensure that the product is as sustainable and efficient as it can be. 

5. Beehive Honey Squares was a cereal packaging designed by Graphic Designer, Lacy Kuhn who completed a Bachelor of Arts in Design at Washington University. The brand name of this cereal is based on Utah’s state nickname (The Beehive State) 

The unique shape for this cereal box is interesting, as it means that this cereal packaging would definitely stand out from the competition by contradicting the more standard cuboid cereal boxes that almost every other brand of cereal use. Immediately by doing this, when sitting on the shelves amongst the competition, this product will stand out, due to being a completely different shape to everything else. The aim for packaging in this area is definitely to be noticed before other brands, and by creating a unique packaging design, it ensures that this is possible. 

I think that what is quite clever with the design of this packaging, is how it could be targeting such a wide range of consumers. The simplistic colour scheme and imagery means that it is a very sophisticated design which could appeal to older customers. However, the use of bright yellow as the background would make it stand out to a younger audience too, and incorporating the cereal being eaten by the bear on the front is quite playful. This along with the addition of the type ‘prize inside’ which would make younger customers want to buy it means that the target audience is very broad and therefore maximises the potential sales of this product. 

All of the imagery used is natural, having the beehive, bees, bear etc. which gives the product itself a more natural appearance. To me, by doing this, the product is portrayed as less processed and therefore more healthy than other options. The natural imagery also makes me think that the brand is concerned with ensuring that their product as well as the packaging for the product, must be as environmentally friendly as possible. This is further emphasised by the packaging being mainly made up of card which can be easily recycled and is one of the less toxic materials that could be chosen when packaging food. However, there is a small amount of transparent plastic used, in order to show the product to the customers. Although this could be seen as a negative, by allowing the customer a view of what the packaging contains, it will make them more likely to purchase it, as they are aware exactly what they are getting for their money. 

(http://www.logo-designer.co/concept-branding-and-packaging-for-beehive-honey-squares/) 

[hsfcfoundation2018-blog]

PATHWAY BRIEF - UNFAMILIAR

BTEC Assignment Brief Qualification BTEC Foundation Diploma in Art and Design

Unit number and title

Unit 4 – Information and Interpretation in Art and Design Unit 5 – Personal Experimental Studies in Art and Design Unit 6 – Extended Media Development in Art and Design e Learning aim(s) (For NQF only) QCF Assignment title RESPONDING TO THE UNFAMILIAR Assessor Viv Higgins Issue date 19/11/18 Hand in deadline   3/12/18

Vocational Scenario or Context Having completed and passed the Exploratory phase of the course, in which you focused on aspects of the research required to create of a body of work by considering starting work through ‘Responding through Media’, ‘Responding to Artists’ and ‘Responding to Place’ developing this into an exploratory, experimental body of work, you are now moving on to phase 2- the Pathway section. You will begin by choosing 2 of the briefs offered and producing work that helps you to explore your interests in a more personal way. There are options to choose art, design, film or photography as a Pathway that will guide you towards the eventual choices for next year. Within the work you will need to fulfil the assessment criteria for Units 4,5 and 6. Further details of requirements are outlined within each brief.

Artists generate ideas using a variety of approaches. For example, working directly with materials can provide the original stimulus for making work or a theme might provide a starting point. Studying the work of other artists can also be the motivation for new work.

This project requires you to explore a new way of gaining inspiration and generating ideas. You are encouraged to challenge any existing preconceptions you have about what you decide to make work about. Look upon the brief as an opportunity to test out new techniques, combine disciplines and rethink the approaches and skills you have.

You are required to identify and individually research new themes and ideas in order to develop a body of work and present a final outcome, or outcomes in your chosen specialist Pathway area.

Assessment of the project will be based on a display of your work in your studio space. Being able to contextualise your work alongside contemporary themes is encouraged by the vast majority of creative employers and universities.

You are encouraged to keep an open mind as to how different techniques and materials could influence your work.

Task 1

Initial Concept / Ideas / Research

You will begin by looking outside the discipline of Art to find your inspiration through experiencing the unfamiliar. The first part of this project is not about producing finished work, it is about immersing yourself, researching / discovering things you know little or nothing about and gathering some material to work with. The possibilities are endless.

Use at least 2 of the following methods to experience unfamiliar things. Record your experiences / research / ideas in your journal. 1. Research a subject you know nothing about. Choose from the list or find your own subject: Horses  /  Judaism  /  French culture  /  Astrophysics /   Classical Architecture /  Pagan rituals   /   Communism  /    Poetry         Japanese cinema     /      Securities trading    /      Geriatric care     The Cosmological argument    /  Greek tragedy      /      Punk   /    Tea dances  /  Scandals    /    Tree reproduction   /    Hurling   /   Audio cassettes     /    Antique dealing     /     Veganism   / The Big Bang Theory  /   Japanese packaging design  /    Gender dysphoria   2. Visit a new environment. Choose from the list or find your own place: Southall    /    Highgate   /   Canvey Island   /     Tilbury docks Brixton   /   Primrose Hill     /     Billingsgate Fish market     /    A golf course  / 3. Explore a museum. Choose one of the following or find your own: The Jewish museum - The Wellcome Collection - The Horniman Museum -  The Huntarian Museum - John Soane Museum  -  Dennis severs House  -  The Geffrye Museum -  Freud museum - Museum of brands packaging and advertising  - Grants Museum - Sir John Soane’s Museum - The Foundling Museum - The Museum of London - Leighton House Museum - The Museum of Childhood http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/londons-most-unusual-museums/ 4. Attend an event. Some ideas below or find one of your own: Attend a talk (check for  free talks): https://interestingtalks.in/London/ Go to a free classical  music concert  (check for free lunchtime concerts) https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whats-on/ Watch a foreign or  independent film: https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere/whats-on/ https://www.ica.art/films 5. Try a new experience. Choose one of the following or think of your own idea: Take on the role of somebody else /  Adopt a persona.             Read a newspaper article Listen to a radio  programme. https://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4 Use this online resource: http://www.openculture.com/ Try a new practical activity. Learn how to……cook  something, dismantle something etc. Form an opinion on an issue – produce a reasoned argument to back it up (research). Attend a religious ceremony / service etc. Meet somebody (be careful!) Ask somebody to teach you a  new skill eg fishing. Attend a class in college, eg Politics,  Geology, Spanish etc.

Checklist of evidence required Documentation of your investigations and discoveries from completing 2 of the above research tasks into the unfamiliar. This should be clearly recorded in your journal in appropriate forms – written / visual eg sketches, film clips, photographs etc.

Reflective comments on your research / experiences in journal. Criteria covered by this task: Unit/Criteria reference To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to: Unit 4 P4 Use appropriate information to support the creative development of personal work. Unit 5 P5 Prioritise own work and meet deadlines

Task 2

Contextual Research, Material Experimentation and Idea Development Researching and referencing the work of artists should play a key part in helping you to develop your own ideas for this project. Research the work of at least 3 artists to help generate ideas for your work. These artists should connect in some way with your own work. This can be through ideas, techniques, materials / media they use or the subjects they explore. These are all artists that work with the idea of unfamiliarity. You might find these useful but you should also source your own artists. Nikki  S Lee: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/kwgwdn/who-is-v8n9 James  Bridle: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/james-bridle-seamless-transitions CindySherman: https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/cindysherman/ Martin  Parr: https://www.martinparr.com/ Gillian  Wearing: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/13779 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36WUgFMDY-M Pipilotti  Rist: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/video/2011/oct/05/artist-pipilotti-rist-eyeball-massage-video Louis  Theroux: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27lyko_louis-theroux-s-weird-weekends-gangsta-rap_lifestyle

Research the work of your 3 chosen artists and record / respond to these in your journals. You should analyse their work and reflect upon how their ideas or use of materials / techniques influences your own idea development

Checklist of evidence required Documentation of research into relevant artists in journal to include analysis and personal response to artists’ work. Criteria covered by this task: Unit/Criteria reference To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to: Unit 4 P1 Research historical, cultural and contemporary practice. Unit 4 P2 Review diverse approaches in contemporary practice.

Task 3

. Material Experimentation and Idea Development

Produce practical experiments in response to your findings / unfamiliar experiences. These responses can take any form depending on your chosen Pathway discipline eg Moving Image, Photography, Graphics,  Print, Sculpture, Performance etc. Your creative experimentation should  consist of at least 3 - 4 test pieces, ongoing experimentation and alternative  solutions. The expectation is a full body of work that really reflects 2 weeks working full time on the project. Your findings, thoughts, creative processes and reflections on your own practice and influences should be recorded at every stage in your journal. Record your own work and places you visit to gather ideas. Record  film work with stills or links to storage sites e.g. youtube. Collect  items from locations if appropriate. Obtain feedback on your work regularly from tutors and attend the small group critiques as well as organising your own critiques with peers. Record this feedback and dialogue in your journals. . Jot down your thoughts / ideas as they come to you. Have your journal on you all the time.  Continuously reflect on the work you produce and how this develops.

Your work should take influence from the artists you have studied in task 2 and you should articulate these links clearly in your journal.

As your work progresses, you should do further research into relevant artists and sources to support the development of your ideas and use of materials / processes.

Checklist of evidence required Journals A body of work that includes items such as maquettes, test pieces, models, samples etc…that reflects the range of media, processes and techniques you have been interested in.  

Criteria covered by this task: Unit/Criteria reference To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to: Unit 4 P3 Make reference to historical, cultural and contemporary practice when developing own work. Unit 4 P4 Use appropriate information to support the creative development of personal work. Unit 4 P5 Produce targeted research in the development of personal work.

Unit 5 P1 Unit 5 P2 Unit 5 P4 Unit 6 P1 Unit 6 P2 Unit 6 P4 Unit 6 P5

Explore materials, processes and techniques safely. Record experimental outcomes. Research materials, techniques and processes. Research and select appropriate media. Utilise selected media development of own work. Use selected media to explore and express a creative intention Use an extended range of media, techniques and processes safely

Task 4

Produce and Present Final Outcome(s) Professionally.  

Present a final outcome in a display environment and give a short presentation to the group. Consider all relevant installation, framing, mounting and hanging techniques.

Prepare a short script to accompany a short presentation to your peers. Rehearse your presentation, correcting timings and grammar. You could record your presentation in advance or have it displayed in a video or power point should you feel this is appropriate.

Evaluate and reflect upon your work regularly as you progress through the stages of development and also at the end of the project.

Checklist of evidence required A body of work that includes items such as maquettes, test pieces, models, samples etc…that reflects the range of media, processes and techniques you have been interested in.

Work appropriately displayed and documented in an exhibition environment

Presentation observed by tutor. Criteria covered by this task: Unit/Criteria reference To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to: Unit 5 P3 Evaluate creative intentions Unit 6 P3 Produce outcomes which confirm and extend own ideas. Unit 6 P6 Use media, techniques and processes to a professional level Unit 6 P7 Analyse and reflect on progress of ideas, experimental work and technical processes.

Sources of information to support you with this Assignment Relevant websites to begin your research https://www.lensculture.com/ http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/ http://flavorwire.com/399191/50-great-works-of-video-art-that-you-can-watch-online/view-all   http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06pyw3w/storyville-20152016-8-orion-the-man-who-would-be-king http://www.timeout.com/london/art/top-10-photography-exhibitions-in-london http://www.timeout.com/london/art http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/ http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/exhibition (not all in London but  still useful for artists).

Other assessment materials attached to this Assignment Brief Pathway stage criteria marksheet.

Notes

Tips on researching

Good use of Primary and secondary research are vital in this stage. Explore a range of ideas before you pursue one in particular.

Research and collect imagery from as many sources as possible, books, newspapers, magazines, television, podcasts, internet, exhibitions visits in order to get your ideas going. Don’t accept or agree with all that you read, try to form a broad ‘overall’ view

Record initial ideas by sketching, taking photos – document everything!

Record / bookmark / save to favourites websites you visit.

Photocopy sections of articles and keep an ongoing bibliography of books / periodicals you have looked at in a word document.

Use your studio wall and sketchbook to display this research.

Use other people are a resource!  Discussing your research and ideas with peers, family, friends and tutors may help you to develop ideas or point you towards other resources.

[chekatpromotions-blog]

An Interview with an Artist-Dawn Boyer, Ph.D. by Candace M.

1. What is your name?

Dawn D.  Boyer, Ph.D.

2. Are you married?  If so, how long have you been married?

Yes, I am married to a wonderful man, James (Jim) M. Stallings.  We met April 2nd, 2005, and have just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this last January 6th, 2017.  

3. Do you have children and if so how many?

 I have one biological daughter and two step-daughters, and one fur-baby cat.

4. When did you first become interested in drawing?

 When I was five years old, I started scribbling with a pencil and piece of paper (my mom put that sketch in my baby book). Since then I have not stopped drawing, creating, painting, sketching, sewing, weaving, constructing all forms and types of creative fine art.

5. How did your first beginning drawing propel you to continue with your artwork?

 I am a ‘Type A’ workaholic (my husband calls me “Robot”).  I cannot be still, so my hands must be continuously engaged in something; whether I am drawing, tearing and folding paper for my mixed media paper artwork baskets, or 3-D constructions, crocheting Afghans for family, or sketching and then inking pen-and-ink drawings of historic buildings and old barns, I cannot sit still, so my hands must be continuously engaged in something. I am also a writer and have been journaling my life for 48 years.  

6. What type of training have you had in the art field?

 I have a formal degree – a Bachelor of Fine Art in Graphic Design and Illustrative Art from Radford University in Radford, VA (1985).  I can’t say I learned much about the ‘fine art’ process from this degree; most of the creative art I do now is self-taught.

7. What was the best part of your art education?

 I liked the idea of creating graphic design, but my heart and passion were more into creative fine arts.  At the time I received my degree, the art community was still using ‘press-on lettering,’ and I missed the computer-generated design training I wished I could have achieved today (PhotoShop, etc.).  I did appreciate the multiple drawing classes I had in the program.  I thoroughly disliked the art history classes where we were required to memorize artwork, artist’s, period styles, and dates.

8. Have you attended school for any other types of training and if so, what was it for?

I have not.  I do watch YouTube videos and just started the ‘how-to’ series on Lynda.com (free subscription with a professional paid level on LinkedIn) on how to use the Adobe Creative Cloud (PhotoShop, InDesign, Illustrator) and hope to at least get through that series in the next year.

9. What type of art design most interests you?

I am more interested in taking art types and methodologies (versus design styles) and trying to create and discover more creative ways of using those.  For instance, there are paper crafting methods of Origami, Bubble-Gum Wrapper chain making, football folding, weaving, and quilling, where I use all these methods to create three-dimensional artwork such as weaving the paper chains to create baskets, or using the woven paper strips and ‘footballs’ (those triangular pieces of paper one folded in high school to pass notes or ‘play football’ in the cafeteria when one was bored).  Using these folded paper forms, I create Owls, Peacocks, lizards, wolves, and buffalos in art pieces that build up from the two-dimensional paper to a 3-D form that imitates the real-life form of the creature I am illustrating.

 ++++++++

Dawn, I would love to see your work that you do sometime. This just seems really interesting.

https://www.behance.net/DawnBoyer

https://www.pinterest.com/dawnboyer/dawns-art-projects/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/DawnBoyerArtist/photos/

See embedded pictures at the end of this document for more of the 3-d Type of art pieces

++++++++

10. What have been your most proud moments in your art achievements?

I am proud of the series of books I have drawn and published.  I self-publish, and have branded myself as the originator and illustrator of the Fairy Houses and Fairy Doors (series).  I just published my 134th book last week – the newest topic for this coloring book was Fantastic Flora and Fauna – with illustrations of animals in settings full of flowers and/or woodland scenes.

11. Tell me something about your unique style of art that is different from other artists?

I don’t like sticking with one type of artwork. I get bored relatively quickly then move on to another type of artwork, as the mood hits me. What is funny – while I have illustrated over 40 coloring books – I ‘suck’ at coloring myself.  My artistic forte is drawing pen-and-ink (black line) illustrations.  

My favorite topic to draw on is historic architecture from the restored district of Colonial Williamsburg, in Williamsburg, VA. My parents started taking the family to visit there 54 years ago, and I have been visiting no less than once a year since.  What I recently figured out is that all those pen-and-ink illustrations of the architecture I have been creating for years could make a fantastic coloring book for adults, so created one book of my drawings. I am now working on several other books of gray scale coloring books of the same topic.  My second favorite drawing topic is old barns in a state of decay or collapsing old homes or grist mills.  Those seem to have an untold story that creates character into the drawings I create.  

 Dawn, I have to agree with you about old places. They do have a story to tell, and many books have been written that involve these old buildings.

I spent about two years figuring out how to weave the bubble-gum chain wrappers into woven baskets.  First I had to figure out how to create the chains from something other than gum wrappers (to keep my teeth cavity free), so I discovered magazine pages make awesome and pretty durable folding pieces.

I have sewn over 40 quilts in my lifetime and used to sew all my own clothing before my daughter was born.  I have probably crocheted over 100 afghans – I visit the thrift shops regularly for inexpensive yarn packages, sort the colors into groups, then crochet simple squares with single- and double-crochet stitch.

I have painted murals on walls and painted eggs (blown-out) with nail polish to create beautiful Christmas tree ornaments. I love upcycling furniture, also.  I will take a solid wood piece of thrift store or a curb-side rescue and strip the finish, then re-stain it in patterns, swirls, or creative ways (not paint, wood stain only), to create some amazing pieces.  Sometimes I will use stain to ‘paint’ a picture – I painted to two wolves howling at the moon on top of the inexpensive wine & glass stand I purchased for $10.  

12.  Can you relate something humorous to your adventures in the art world? Please share that with us.

When I first started my formal art degree at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Art Foundation program, they had ‘life study drawing classes’ which, as a naïve 18-year old, I had no idea what that meant. I walked into class first day, put up my easel, got my paper ready, charcoal stick out, then looked around the corner of the easel to see a naked man posing in the middle of the room.  In my astonishment, I immediately blurted out, “Is he NAKED?  Talk about embarrassing!

13. What is the something you would like to see changed in the art world?

I would like to see art galleries stop charging the artists so MUCH to display and sell the artist’s work.  While I perfectly understand that the gallery has to make a profit and has overhead expenses, also, instituting a 45-55% commission on the art work means the artist has to jack up their price by 100% or more to get what they originally want to make as revenue on the art piece. This makes it expensive for the common man to find quality art work they can afford in galleries.  

I do love that social media and the Internet has changed the game for selling artwork – I constantly build a presence for each of my illustrations in my coloring books by posting Works in Progress (WIP) and get my fans excited and ramped up to purchase the book when it is released.  I see other coloring book artists doing the same.  

14. I am sure you have had many challenges in your life, what has been your greatest challenge and how did you get through it?

 I have several challenges I have had to overcome and I am working on overcoming:

I have always wanted a dedicated art studio with lots of space to work on large pieces of art work and several projects at once.  I established one in the den of my last house, then we promptly put it up for sale, and I had to pack everything. When we moved to the current house, I spent thousands on getting the garage fixed up for an official art studio, then we found out we had to sell this house and move again, so essentially, my ‘art studio’ became a small light table bumped up against the hearth in my living room (about six square fee).  I am now back to juggling my drawing surfaces on my lap while sitting on the sofa and finding a space at a small table.  When I permanently move in with my mom, I will be working on creating a full-scale art studio in her sun-room.

15. Where do you see your art taking you in the future?

I cannot wait to reach what my husband and I call, Phase III, which is (after kids grow up and get out on their own) where he and I will start being more creative with art projects, home building (retirement house and 40 acres), and to be able to afford more art tools (like a plasma cutting CNC machine that cuts metals, or a wood routing machine one can program designs into so as to cut huge wooden planks).  

16. How many books do you have published?  How many adult coloring books?

 I have published at least 134 books in total, 114 are on Amazon now, and of those at least 40 ‘Big Kids Coloring Books’ (series name).  Interested readers who want to see the listing of most of my published books on Amazon can find the listing at my author’s page: https://www.amazon.com/author/dawnboyer

17. What is a good quote that you find has helped you through many situations in your life?

 My father had two quips I have always sworn by: 

He would ask my sister and I: “What’s the most important thing?”

And we would always answer: “Family.”

Then he would ask us: “Why?”

And we would answer: “Because they will never let you down.”

When I got stressed about something – money, boyfriends, work, etc. …

Dad would ask: “Well, what’s the worst that could happen about this issue?” I would answer: (with all the worst case scenarios)

Then he would ask: “Can you die from it?” I would answer; “Of course not!”

Then he would respond, “Then it’s not a problem.”

18. I see that you have interviewed other artists.  Is this your first time being interviewed?

This is my second time being interviewed as an artist.  It’s quite flattering to think that someone ‘out there’ is interested in my way of thinking or art style or artwork. I am usually ferociously private about the methods and manners in which I create my artwork – I don’t like sharing anything with others until it’s finished.  Over the last four years, I have learned to adapt to being ‘social’ about my artwork, and overcome someone physically looking over my shoulder (husband) while I work, but also to share works-in-progress (WIP) as I draw, and have even started asking my fans what they would like to see in my illustrations (e.g., cats, dragons, hippos, tarsier monkeys).  I am adding my coloring street team’s cats in my current illustrations as they share their photos of their fur-babies in poses I can use in my next coloring book.

19. What types of artists have you interviewed?

One artist was a ‘beach’ artist originally from Hawaii who focused on waves, and tropical motifs; another artist was a clay sculptress who created huge clay creatures for the garden and welded metal tools and everyday utensils with other found objects to create small, humorous pieces; and the third creates large, hauntingly beautiful pictures of women, using pan pastels as a medium.

20. Where was your most favorite place to interview an artist?

The interviews with these artists were conducted via email by sending them the interview questions, allowing them to be able to answer the questions at their own convenience in their own home or studio on their schedule.

21. Where can your books and PDFs be found?

My paperback books can be purchased from my author’s page listing:

https://www.amazon.com/author/dawnboyer

I also sell Fine Art Prints of some of my pen and ink illustrations at Fine Art America: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/dawn-boyer.html

I sell page packs of my coloring books on Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/DawnDBoyer

22. Do you have any advice that you would give an aspiring artist just starting out in the adult coloring world?

For gosh sakes – the best advice I can provide is to BRAND yourself and do NOT ignore marketing, branding, and advertising methods – which most artists totally suck at. 

Use social media to post your works in progress to build interest – and not just one platform. If you don't have accounts yet for the following: Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, Behance and Fine Art America, LinkedIn for networking with other artists and PayPal to accept payments; create them, figure them out, and use them.  ASK others how they use them, and don’t be an idiot and use them ONLY for advertising. You must create a ‘relationship’ with your fans and followers. Provide interesting tidbits to your posts and followers versus constantly blasting them with ‘buy my art’ ads.

23. If you could go anywhere and color, where would that be?

It’s more a mindset ‘place’ I want to visit versus a physical place.  My absolute favorite place to be is sitting at a comfortable table with loads of arm and elbow space, with all my necessary media within arms-reach, and be ‘in the mood’ to do my artwork.  A NetFlix movie or series would be playing on a TV screen in front of me, where I can look up occasionally to see what is happening on the screen. If my husband is in the room, also, that’s a bonus (he would likely be working on his computer on homework or website building).  

3-D Owl, Lizard, Peacock, and Seahorse all created from recycled magazine pages and using paper-folding techniques.

Folded paper sculpture in the works

My current ‘art studio’ created from an old sewing machine table with a LED light plugged into space with a clear Plexiglass cover to use as a light table and drawing table.

My $10 wine rack, with the two wolves barking at the moon.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE COURAGE OF MONEY

What is an incubator? This picture is unrealistic in several respects. Standard, schmandard; the whole industry is only a few months in. Many are underfunded. Your contribution may be indirect. When someone buys shares in a company is a function of the interest other VCs show in it. Some might say it's part of science, but it's not when the speakers have no experience presenting, and they're a source of contacts and advice can be more important than the initial idea that we're going to make a million dollars. That is, how they'll make money, if only to get this one to act. Seem confident.1 They also spend a little money on a freelance graphic designer. In the original sense of the word, Bill Gates is in the same language as the underlying operating system—meaning C and C: Perl, Python, and even then was afflicted by the structural problems I've described above.

This includes gratuitous clip art. How do you tell? With so much at stake, VCs can't resist micromanaging you. Empirically, the way to get software written faster was to use a more fluid medium like pencil or ink wash or oil paint. A painting is never finished, you just yell into the next room. We'll have precise comparisons, but not if you're working on technology. If he goes on vacation for even a week, a whole week's backlog of shit accumulates. In high school I made money by mowing lawns and scooping ice cream. The way to deal with uncertainty is to analyze it into components.2 Until you have some performance to measure. There are other 19 year olds who are 12 inside.

Now the group is looking for more money: they want enough to last for a year or a hundred, but how clean the path to the finished program looks in it, and the macro is itself ten lines of code every time you use it, and an additional argument to use when I do: that being mean makes you stupid.3 This kind of expert witness can add credibility, even if they're supposed to be created and might be created unequally. One solution to this problem, but there are aspects of it that are unenviable.4 Once you stop looking at them to fuss with something on your computer, their minds drift off to the errands they have to run later. If users can get through a test drive successfully, they'll like the product. But the problem the patent pledge does fix may be more serious than the problem of what to do once you've thought of it in these terms, but in startups the curve is startlingly steep. This essay is derived from talks at the 2007 Startup School and the Berkeley CSUA. The word startup dates from the 1960s, but what happens in one is very similar to the venture-backed trading voyages of the Middle Ages. Also they find they now worry obsessively about the status of their server. What you need to add. You might think that people decide to buy something, and if I didn't—to decide which is better. And since the ability and desire to create it vary from person to person in an audience are disproportionately the more brutish sort, just as low notes travel through walls better than high ones.

But the best way to do really big things seems to be c, that people will assume, correctly or not as a credential in its own right. They could take everyone and keep just the good ones. Nearly everyone who works is satisfying some kind of expensive infrastructure, or hire highly paid salesmen. There have been famous instances of collaboration in the arts, but I bet users will start to want this in most applications once they realize it's possible. But again, the only way to say whether he should be classified as a friend or angel. Can something people have spent thousands of years studying really be a waste of time? The same angels who tried to screw us also let us do an end-run around Windows, and deliver it that way, you tend to be suspicious of rich people. If IBM hadn't made this mistake, Microsoft would still have meant a lot of work, or possibly even knowing about it. You do tend to get a good job, is a language that people don't learn Python because it will get them a job; they learn it because they could reproduce bugs instead of just hearing vague second-hand reports about them.

You can use the cram schools to show you where most of the risk out of starting a startup and you fall asleep in the middle of Antarctica, where there is nothing to buy, it wouldn't matter how much money you had. The solution societies find, as they should have, Microsoft would still have meant a lot of mean people out there, there are just two classes: a warrior aristocracy, and the default answer is failure, because that investment would be easier to do that with a handful of people than you would in conversation. How do you get bought? What if it's too hard? You have to imagine being two people. For a while it annoyed me to hear myself described as some kind of server/desktop hybrid, where the center of gravity had shifted by then that one found people confident enough to treat Aristotle's work as a catalog of features. It seems only about 1 in 10 startups succeeds. People who think the labor movement was the creation of heroic union organizers have a problem to have your work tangled together with a large number of high-paying union job. But if you're merely unsure whether you're up to this challenge? And not just because they'd be a lot more work. At Viaweb we got our first $10,000 of seed money from our friend Julian, but he was sufficiently rich that it's hard to imagine now, but was among the poorest, or in one where I was the richest, but much worse off than I am now, but few were in 1998.

Making a new search engine, but lately when using Google search I've found myself nostalgic for the old days, you could, in effect, is leaks in a seal. They'll make sure that suing them is expensive and takes a long time. You don't win fights by thinking of tricks that work in one particular case. Those characters you type are a complete, finished, product in one long touchdown pass. We should be clear that we are never likely to have accurate comparisons of the relative power of programming languages might be the percentage of people who know this best are the very ones trying to get tenure in any field you must not do is try to imitate the swagger of more experienced founders.5 You're worrying about construction delays at your London office instead of the broken air conditioner in your studio apartment. The way to get experience if you're 21 is to start from the other end, and offer programmers more parallelizable Lego blocks to build programs out of the wrong concepts. A meeting commonly blows at least half the startups we funded this summer present to investors.6 You could help the poor become more productive—for example, by going to work for them.

And you don't generally know which of the startups in each batch would turn out to be a problem. A remarkable number of famous startups grew out of some need the founders had: Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google. If we wrote our software to run on the manager's schedule. It will take about a tenth as productive as another. Seems risky to you to start a startup with you, move where there are people who do. How can you tell if you're independent-minded enough to start a startup in college. By giving him something he wants in return. Now even the poorest Americans drive cars, and it is a tradeoff that you'd want to make money differently is to sell different things, and in particular that their parents didn't think were important. This, as we found, causes CEOs to take red-eyes. Which in fact it will usually be.7 We built the servers ourselves, from components—partly to save money, and partly to get exactly what we wanted.

How to start a startup now, because the company would go out of their own inner compass by establishing the principle that the most noble sort of theoretical knowledge: some that's useful in practical matters and some that isn't. You really only get one chance, because they made something people want. One of the VC firms says they want to invest millions in a company with a high probability of being moderately successful. No doubt it was a revelation to me how much less ideas mattered in speaking than writing. And while it must seem to anyone watching this world that startups are popping up like crazy, the number is small compared to the VCs who led the round, but Tim is a smart, determined, and hardworking man, but you won't even be that for long. The only point of buying one now is to advertise that you can get the best man for the job, but you're not expected to do more things in parallel, which is doing so well they could probably go faster. And you have leverage in the sense that your performance can be measured, he is not expected to devote your whole life with no hope of anything better, under the thumb of lords and priests you had to give all your surplus to and acknowledge as your masters. I realized recently that we may be able to flip ideas around in one's head: to see when two ideas don't fully cover the space of possibilities, or when one idea is the same as the root cause of variation in every other human skill.

Notes

Surely it's better to read an original book, bearing in mind that it's a bad idea was that the founders are willing to provide this service, this is mainly due to I.

I learned from this experiment is that the http requests are indistinguishable from dishonesty by the government, it could be made.

Because the title associate has gotten a bad idea was that there are few who can say I need to do it is the thesis of this policy may be enough to do it all at once is to tell them to act.

To be fair, the increasing complacency of managements. But it can have benevolent motives for being driven by money. Whereas the activation energy required. I say is being looked at the mercy of circumstances in the 1990s, except then people who are running on vapor, financially, and that he had once talked to a partner from someone they respect.

With a classic fixed sized round, or can launch during YC is how intently they listened.

If you walk into a great idea that people will give you money for. As the art itself gets more random, the number of spams that you should at least consider going into the subject of wealth for society. A round.

Within an hour just to go away.

Thanks to Hutch Fishman, Sam Altman, Patrick Collison, Josh Kopelman, Trevor Blackwell, Justin Kan, Dalton Caldwell, and Joe Gebbia for sparking my interest in this topic.

[mi5016natalielam]

Analysis

The purpose of this reflective essay is to discuss the skills and attributes I have for the animation industry and what I need to do in order to pursue my goal in the industry. I will also explain how the module helped me to explore the study of ethics and health and safety.

Firstly, I would like to talk about my skills and attributes. I have developed my own art style. I have tried to make the style to project the feeling of something childish and pure. I think that having a personal style makes me more competitive with other people. The style can help me build a reputation by being more memorable due to its uniqueness. I like using warm colours in my artworks, such as orange and coral pink. I believed that using warm colours can express a happy and energetic feeling to the audience. I created a character called Strange nose in 2014, which was used as inspiration for my logo. Strange nose is a boy who has orange hair, black eyes, and always a wide smile on his face. I have created a Facebook page for “Strange nose”, and attracted a good a number of people who showed appreciation towards my work. The vivid colours, whimsical art style and the patterns in my artwork create an interesting visual to the audiences and makes the work appear more dynamic.

Through this course, I have also found that I am a flexible person. I am willing to make changes to work in response to constructive criticism. I understood that working in the industry is completely different from studying in the university, and that I will be working with different teams and individuals. Customers ideas might change every day, I believe that I am able to take direction and have good communication with the customers. I have worked for Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department last year, and created an opening video for their opening ceremony. At the beginning of the project I introduced them to a storyboard with cute characters in it, and at the beginning, the clients seemed happy with the idea. However, midway through making the animation they have changed their minds, And I had to restart the animation. The final work was a lot simpler than what I originally planned, but the clients were satisfied. This was a precious opportunity for me to prove that I am able to respond to customers based on their opinions.

I always had passion for drawing since I was little. The very first animated movie I watched was One Hundred and One Dalmatians. I really loved the plot and the characters. I had always wondered how animation was created, and as I was getting older I got to research a bit on the process and was very amazed. I was impressed by how traditional hand-drawn animation was made frame by frame. 2D animation was what attracted me to study animation at Northumbria University. In my 1st year, I have created a 2D animation called Papillon for the module 'Introduction for motion graphic'. I was not interested in 3D animation until the second semester, I needed to create a 3D animation for the module 'Introduction for 3D animation'. I realised that creating 3D animation can be very enjoyable too. It felt really magical to be able to model a character or an object from scratch. I also found creating materials and textures interesting. I can adjust the brightness or roughness of the object, and make it look realistic. Which was very useful in another module, ‘Compositing for animation’. I gained knowledge on how to composite 2D and 3D objects with real-life footage. I was also given an opportunity to further develop my personal art style in this module. My career goal in the animation industry is to work on character design, concept art, advertising, and illustration. In order to become a concept artist, I would be required to create designs of characters, environment, and different assets in order to visualise the idea, which is very interesting to me. Darek Zabrocki is one of my favorite concept artist. He works for different companies like DreamWorks, FOX, and Sega. I admire how his works are able to capture the essence of the past, and also build a believable futuristic scene.

In addition, I have a passion for drawing illustrations. My continuous interest in illustrating helped me to develop my drawing skills, design skills and taught me about various things, including colour theory and how to project well my ideas into drawings. I think it is crucial for an illustrator to have an ability to tell a story with their artwork. In order to improve myself in illustrating, I thought of starting to draw comics. I love reading comic books, and I have a preference for physical copies of comics over the online versions. However, the usage of online comic books has been increasing in this decades due to environmental issues and the improvement of technology. Webtoon is a global digital comics service platform. It provides a space for artists all over the world to share their work, and has attracted a lot of readers as well as creators. I think I could start writing comics throughout my summer holiday, as it would help me improve my skills in scriptwriting, storytelling, and narrative writing. One of the advantages of online comics book is that it allows us to put sound effects and animation in it. As I have gotten more knowledgeable and experienced in creating animations and sound effects, I am excited to add some animation into the comics I create. I believe it would allow me to attract more followers and readers that will gain an appreciation for my work.

This module taught me that having followers and links within the industry will help me in finding a job after graduating. We were also encouraged to create an online presence, which is why I have created accounts on Linked in, Instagram, Vimeo, and Facebook. The pages should help me to create connections with people in our field and attract potential clients or employers. These create a great opportunity for me to promote myself for employment in the animation industry. This course also allowed us to meet people from the industry. I got a chance to listen and interact to different speakers every week sharing their experiences and the difficulties they faced in their journey. This allowed me to know better how the animation industry works. James Taylor was one of the guests who came. He is the co-founder of the Arcus studio and when he shared about how their studio works and I grew interested in working for them. Their studio focuses on 2D and motion design. Their works are mainly, really cute and I think that my art style would suit their studio. It would be easier for me to adjust and blend in. It would be great to have an opportunity at working in this company.

Unfortunately, I have found that it is hard for an international student like me to work in the United Kingdom due to the visa problems. A tier 4 visa, would only allow me to work for 20 hours maximum per week. I would need to earn at least thirty thousand pounds per year in order to work in the United Kingdom. There is a very small chance for new graduates to get that high of a salary. That is the reason why I would prefer working in Asian countries rather than European countries. I would not need to face the visa problems and any language barriers.

This module also has made me more aware of the health, ethics and safety in the workplace. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a very common illness among animators and illustrators. I got serious neck and back pain recently because I always sitting in front of the computer. I learnt that it is important to have time to exercise and avoid overtime work to prevent myself from getting ill. Mental health is really important too, artists usually express themselves only by art, and they get limited social interactions with people, and this is very unhealthy. To prevent from getting depressed, it is nice to have time to communicate with friends and family.

Furthermore, It is very important to understand ethics such as equality of gender, race, and sexuality. I have seen animations with bad character design which have made me feel uncomfortable. For example, ‘Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat’, the black people in the animation got big thick lips and were

made to look like monkeys, which is wrongful stereotyping of African-American people . I think that as an animation producer, we have got responsibilities to respect every person’s culture, beliefs, skin colour, and sexuality. ‘Class of 3000’ is a good example of how culture and race and current society could healthily intermingle together. There are different races and genders involved, characters are each talented in their own way and play an important role within their school band.

In conclusion, this module has taught me how to prepare my portfolio, showreel, and Cvs in order to get into a company in the future. It also made me realise and think about what I want to become in the animation industry. This let me focus on the content of my future work, so that I could better prepare more for the job. My awareness on health and ethics and safety also improved because of this module. I now definitely think more about ethical problems before making the animation and designing the character. Lastly, I learned to prevent myself from overworking, and allow some time to communicate more with friends in order to have a healthy lifestyle.

[maggievolkart]

NUA Game Design Test (unfinished)

Since I’m not doing Indie Dev I just decided to do this task out of pure interest to research and getting one more reason to discuss my favourite games.

Q1

List of my 20 favourite Games:

Transistor, Undertale, Oxenfree, The Letter(Horror Visual Novel), Persona 5, Danganronpa, Nier:Automata, Detention, Hunie Cam Studio, Bastion, Monument Valley, Bioshock Series, Mystic Messenger, Sonic Adventure, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Pacman- Adventures in Time, Cuphead, Resident Evil 7, Little Nightmare, Life is Strange

A. From one of the gmes on your list, pick a system from that game, that you consider an example of excellence in game design. Describe the playerinteraction, the mechanics and the value the system brings to the game.

 Persona 5

Persona 5 is a game that starts out well, and follows the first person life of the main Charecter, Akira or as he is referred to in the game ‘Joker.’ The game eases you in slowly, meaning that you dont expect too much at first. However, later in the game you find yourself emersed in the world of the subconscious. where you can explore peoples minds and enter their palaces. These are a reflection of their complex’s that they have in real life. What starts out as a fairly simple, charecter based anime game, suddenly transforms into a unique fantasy adventure. Leaving the player both completely unaware of what will happen next and interested in learning more about the other players and their inner, twisted desires.

 There are 2 major parts to it’s mechanics. In the world of the subconscience, you are Joker. A masked intruder and leader of the Phantom Thieves. You find yourself crawling through dungeons, fighting and beating monsters, knights and boss’s. While the other ‘real’ world that we know. He is simply living the life of a student trying to raise your relationship and character stats with people who may benefit you in certain ways. This system makes it feel as if you are living your second life- a true way of how rpg’s should work. This makes the games feel tangable to the player. As on the one hand, they might identify with the regular world ‘Akira’. Struggling to get by in class, struggling to make friends, and generally having to deal with all the issues that growing up causes. On the other hand, the player will identify with wanting a break from this monotonous reality. The idea that Akira can make it to this other world, defeat monsters, and be the leader of a powerful mind infiltration squad is something that we in this world can only dream of, I found that in playing Persona 5, this dream could be at least in some way, acted out. 

B. Pick a game that you consider having deeply satisfying long term goals for player, the longer the better. Describe the mechanics in detail and provide an analysis of why it is engaging to players.

 Horizon Zero Dawn

C. Pick a game that you consider good but has balance problems.Desribe and analyze a balance problem from the game and provide a solution.

Cuphead

A lot of people were very excited by the game Cuphead. The game had a very fresh, original idea of recreating old styled 2D, arcade games but made for the 21st century gamer, with better graphics and harder levels. In my opinion, it is good to be able to experience this level difficulty of the game, as it makes the game more enjoyable and satisfying when you do complete a level. However, in the same time, this requires the player to already be a high level gamer to be able to complete the levels due to the hard difficulty to proceed, would deter your regular gamer away. Moreover, there are no checkpoints within the levels, meaning if you were just about to kill the final boss after half an hour of button mashing, sweat inducing, heart pounding boss fighting, and get killed. You have to relive the entire traumatic experience over again, which even for your well seasoned gamer will be enough to permanately rage quit. 

Moreover, there is a more slight issue with the charecter designs. As when you play 2 player, both players look very similar. This can be very distracting for both players and could compound to your likely rage quitting of the game. 

Despite this; many enjoyed the games old fashioned, 1930′s styled aesthetic, and the inclusion of boss battles harkened back to the ‘golden age of videogames’ where for many of the older players, was a sense of nostalgia in going to the arcade to play games with their friends. 

Q2.  In game development it is important to try to find different ways of using game systems and assets to create different experiences for the player without needing new underlying mechanics or assets. In an action adventure  game, outline several different ways to reuse a given level to provide different gameplay experiences without changing the level’s core geometry.

 The earlier mentioned game persona 5 has unchangeble core geometry eversince you pass your first Palace (Dungeon). The battle consists of turn-based battle (a similar, more popular example of this would be Pokemon). Battle actions provided by physical attacks using short and long weapons, magical attacks, ablity to use an items, guard. Most of your Enemies in the beginning of the game have their strong and weak point. If you attack your enemy with a power they are strong to, they have the power to resist. On the other hand if you hit their weakness, you will greatly damage their HP, which will knock them off and give you a +1 turn. This system works  on characters in the game as well  giving your enemies another chance to strike so beware of your weaknesses.

This kind of system has lots of different ways to defeat an enemy, making it hard to be easily bored, even when the majority of the core within the levels is the same.

(I reapeat I just did this test for fun) I did Concept Art Tests. Unanswered questions:

Q3. Imagine a simpla RTS game where you have 5 possible unit types, and 4 statistics that can be attached to them.

Q4.You are working on an onine open-world survival RPG and you’ve been tasked with designing the envoronmental hazzards the players must overcome. You’ve been given the following guidelines.

 The game must encourage players to rely on each without guaranteeing anyone’s integrity.

 The paticipatory experiences that emerge between players when interacting with your PvE systems should be the defining aspect of the game

Provide a design draft of the PvE system.

Sourses:

Persona 5 image : https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qt2Cz9R5_j8/maxresdefault.jpg

P-Studio (2016) Persona 5 [Videogame] JP: AtlusNA: Atlus USAPAL: Deep Silver

StudioMDHR (2017) Cuphead [Videogame] StudioMDHR

[myipscrapbook]

Mark Dion: The Moral of the Story is... Cold Calling

What an incredible day. 

In Summary: 

Had a great morning in IP with Franc, Sophia, D, and I, about where our projects are at. Received great inspiration regarding displays and novelty museums. 

Had a great Sci Fi class in which I confirmed my Book-Flower project, which I won’t get into right now, but I’m happy about. 

And then the Mark Dion event:

It’s 12:01 AM, and I’ve just got back from the Mark Dion dinner. I am so grateful that Sophia and Franc encouraged me to seek it out. Definitely one of the most memorable nights of my time here. It wasn’t simply a dinner, it was a dinner party. It was maybe 12 or 13 people total, but everyone there was there for a reason, and everyone was lovely and interesting and connected in some way. 

One big surprise was that Scott Hockney was there as well! He was a previous Stamps Speaker, another favorite. His work is really also about finding/creating wonder in the overlooked. Turns out Scott Hockney is close friends with Mark Dion! 

Another was that Mark Dion’s collaborator and friend Amanda Krugliak was there; She’s also the head of the institute of humanities. Her face is very familiar to me, simply because she has introduced more than a few Stamps speakers over the years. Although my face was not familiar to her, of course. 

Chrisstina Hamilton really made an effort to make me feel comfortable. I felt very intimidated at first. I didn’t know anyone personally, and was the only undergrad in the room. When we arrived at The Earle, we went downstairs to a private room, and sat around a table that was, in Chrisstina’s opinion, just a bit too wide. Conversation started immediately; many people were familiar with each other. After we had ordered food, she clinked her glass and suggested we start introducing ourselves, and made note that I, as the lone IP student, would be required to also give a 3 sentence summary of my IP project. No pressure. When it got around to me I said, “For my IP project, I want to create a situation that makes people appreciate the wonder in the mundane.” This got a good reaction; Chrisstina told me to repeat it. “So, to do so, I’d like to take something incredibly ordinary, in this case, the Michigan Blue Bus, (Some confused faces in the crowd–– I clarify what those are) and document and observe as much as I can from it, and turn it into some kind of exhibit, an archive of the Bus.” They liked it so much they gave me more than the 3-sentence limit to elaborate... I explained my background with the Time Capsule project– how I got involved simply by emailing the team and asking to help out, and learning that the team was purely engineers and in need of some academic diversity. I talked about Kristin Hass’s class, about how time capsules tend to suck, which Mark agreed with, and our Bicentennial Party. After I finished my introduction, I felt like I’d earned my place at the table. I was in good company. These people think in similar ways. 

There were so many coincidences this night. Seated next to me was Bryn, the GSI of the studio section I go to on Tuesday-Thursdays. Bryn had recognized me, and we realized that this was the reason. Now that we’re introduced, and she’s become familiar with what I’m working on, she said she’d be glad to stop by my studio to help out and have conversations!

Bryn and I also had a great conversation about life after graduation. Bryn spent three years between undergrad and grad school living in Toronto, and working part time at a restaurant to pay her bills, and spending the rest of her time putting herself out there, applying to grants, residencies, making art. She assured me that it IS possible, and to not let the inevitable “What job are you at?” questions discourage you from your goals. She also said that what kept her going was having moved to Toronto WITH a fellow student from her undergrad. Having her friend to bounce ideas off of and talk about art made the work feel less isolating. I told her this made me think of my brother; we’re on the same wavelength and I know I’ll have him to lean on throughout my life and career. I hope one day we work together, or that at least we are both doing good work. 

I didn’t get the chance to ask Mark Dion many questions, although I did ask him the one that mattered most to me: 

“In your work, you collaborate with so many different people, sewage treatment workers, botanists, architects... How do you do it? ...What I like about this University is that I can’t walk 5 minutes without bumping into someone who’s an expert on something. I’m afraid that when I graduate, all that will fall away.”

His response: Cold call people. Dion talked about an artist & friend who had wanted to make deep geological cores of governors island, in different shapes. And this artist just started calling up people who make geological cores. And got one no. Then another no, but with extra information: “You know, there’s only one company in the country that can do the kind of work you want to accomplish.” The artist calls that company, and they say “Absolutely.” And in 3 phone calls the artist found the people for the job. So the moral of the story is, there’s a world of experts at your fingertips all the time. You just need to reach out. Some of them will even be eager to help. 

Later this same night, Chrisstina came over to me and made sure I was feeling alright, and I mentioned that I was grateful for being there, and was thinking about how it will never happen again. And Chrisstina said, well, every moment will never happen again! I mentioned my conversation with Mark, and another woman pointed out that this was exactly what I had done to get involved with the Time Capsule; I reached out. Simple as that. Chrisstina said, That’s the takeaway of the night! 

Thinking back on my 4 years, this might be the takeaway of my whole education. Many of my projects started because I initiated collaborations with professors, historians, student teams and organizations. 

The Penny Stamps Lecture Series has sent so many incredible people in our direction. I have had opportunities to ask questions to artists I never would have otherwise. I’ve had an unforgettable back and forth with Vik Muniz about the future of media. I’ve asked Christo why he likes the color orange so much. (I was corrected: it’s saffron, not orange!) I’ve seen egotists like Karim Rashid and Julian Schnabel, and wonderists(?) like Dan Goods and Fred Gelli. I’ve seen and spoken with humble artists like David O’Reilly and recently Keiji Ashizawa, both of whom are great speakers, in my opinion. I’ve sat down with Joe Sacco the day after his lecture for a lunch talk, and listened to others pick his mind. I’ve seen Grammy Award Winning™ John Luther Adams, (he likes to introduce himself this way, you see,) and the same night heard his piece Become Ocean performed by full orchestra. I’ve seen graphic narrative icon Alison Bechdel, and had asked her at her book signing if having her life story turned into a book and then a musical has made it feel less real, or more real? And she looked me in my eyes and told me, with intense consideration, that she had been thinking about this question a lot. And that the answer was More Real. 

And tonight, I not only met Mark Dion, but Scott Hockney! At the end of the night, Scott was surprised to have learned that I had seen his lecture last year! I told him that his was amongst the few most grounded lectures I had seen in the series, and I meant that. He said that what I said earlier that night, about creating wonder out of the mundane, is something that he thinks about a lot. 

At the beginning of the night, the table was having a conversation about the value of dinner parties– how they are occasions designed for the sake of connecting with people in a substantial way. 

I am of the opinion that the Stamps Lecture series has been one big long dinner party. So I am very grateful to Penny Stamps for picking up the check. 

PS: I met more cool people:

1. I met another GSI, Carolyn Gennari, who also knows American Culture professor Kristin Hass, and how badass she is. Carolyn was an BFA undergrad and is currently studying Museum Studies. I’ll be sure to let Kristin know I met her. 

2. Sitting at the corner, I spoke with a woman whose name I forget. She works at her own letterpress company in Detroit. I had told her that she needs to check out Robin Sloan’s book Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore. Not more than 5 minutes later, Jennifer Friess, Assistant Curator of Photography at the UMMA, seated on the other side of the woman, asks her if she’s heard of Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore. And I just said, WAIT. And explained that I had JUST recommended that. And we had a moment. Jennifer and her husband have been reading the book together and have been loving it, and they’re almost done. And I told her that Robin Sloan came to campus only 2 weeks ago!! Which made her happy and upset at the same time. And that Robin Sloan has just put out a second book! “Is this real?” “Yes, the book is new!” “No, I mean this conversation!!” “OH.”

We continued to geek out over Robin Sloan, prime numbers, metafiction, AI singing, the merits of audiobooks, and other things that fall under the umbrella of Robin Sloan and general nerdiness. I promised to send her links to everything we’d talked about, which I will. 

3. I barely spoke with her, but I met the upcoming new director of the UMMA. What I really admire about her is that she expressed her interest in what the future of museums are in a time when less and less people are enrolling in humanities studies like Art History. She is asking the right questions. I believe they’ll require unusual answers. 

4. I officially met Prof. David Chung, who I’ll see tomorrow for a meeting related to screening videos in the Michigan Theater for IP. He gave me a valid critique of my Bus Archive idea: It’s too Michigan centric. I’ve gotten this critique before, in regards to my comics in the Michigan Daily. My response to this has always been, well, this is my audience, and this is the place that I’m in and responding to. Similar to how Mark Dion has to respond to the places that he works in before he knows what he’ll make. Chung is of the mindset that I should aim to make my work more general, or rather, to remember that my work is not about BUSSES, it’s about FAMILIARITY and OBSERVATION. This, this is a good critique and I let him know that. This was the similar issue with the Ant Travel Guide. It began to be about ANTS and not about, well, FAMILIARITY and OBSERVATION. That being said, Bryn suggested that maybe the Ant Travel Guide is worth returning to as an idea; she liked that better than the Bus idea. I admitted to the fact that the Bus is arbitrary; it’s a stand-in for an ordinary part of our routine. But perhaps I should give more thought to what specifically my project will be. I’ve asked the big questions; now I’ve got to make sure I nail these smaller questions down. 

5. I mentioned that I met Scott Hockney earlier, but he told me as we said goodbyes that I am free to get in contact with him!!! He was a great person to talk to. The friendship Amanda, Scott and Mark have is pretty great, and Chrisstina is kind of everyone’s friend in the best way possible. 

6. Chrisstina asked me to go home and write up a testimonial about this night, which is what I am doing and just about finished doing now. She told me to write something tonight, sleep, and with a clear head send a clean short version to her, for the sake of Penny Stamps, who is apparently not feeling super well right now, and would appreciate hearing about how grateful I am for this event. 

Good night... It’s 1:50AM and I have class tomorrow...