build-a-bear font…eww.

here is the image and font of build-a-bear.  again, i recognize and understand that it is a business marketed toward kids…but give the kids some credit and give the mature adults a break and change this font!  and i plan to (or at least try.)

final project ideas

the guidelines for our final project are undefined yet so that makes basically everything an option…which is good and bad.  as an artist, i enjoy the freedom of choosing whatever i want to make, however i want to make, for reasons of my own, and to create something new (what i feel art is all about anyway.)  but as a student i need to be told what to do-i don’t want to do things wrong.  this then creates a problem for me.  i have ideas but nothing that i really NEED to express at this current time.  my artwork comes to me in an idea, festers in my head for about 3 months until it final takes control of my body and makes me release it.  when i don’t have that urge and am being forced to make something valid and useful for my own work…it makes me feel i am cheating my own philosophy on art or at least speeding up my process way too fast.  either way, i know that this is a class and as a teacher i know art must have projects and i have to get over my little issue so here are some things i am tossing around:  the female figure (again), guns, and faces.

typography sketches

there are so many silly logos and poorly chosen fonts out there that i really don’t know which one to either try and improve or make fun of.  children’s cereal is hilarious to me as to the lengths marketing agencies go to in making their cereal fun!  but i suppose that is just all part of the game.  i am tempted to create something for american airlines…just because it is there and because after they changed logo’s 30+ years ago (and with the original designer claiming it is so perfect it doesn’t need to be touched) that i would enjoy doing something with that purely out of spite but there is a company out there that i feel REALLY needs to change something about their font and that is build-a-bear.  now i am sure that there is some story behing why they chose this weak, scratchy, unfinished looking font but i think it looks terrible.  but perhaps some kid wrote down build-a-bear on paper and the ceo loved it or the ceo tried to make a childlike font on paper and just ran with it…either way i get an upset stomach when i look at it and especially when i notice ALL their wording is in this font.  so this is my mission…to play with build-a-bear font.  pictures to follow.

typography example

exciting times…learning font tools and tricks.  i like my example.  it makes me smile.

more examples

here are some more examples of my first day of experimentation with photoshop.  i just chose objects that relate to me.  the tractor influence is for my son, carter, who wants to be one when he grows up.  the fish on the beach image is a result of me just getting back from vacation and the hand and ball is just me playing around.

 

 

In class project 7/22

 

so as i stated in my previous blog (blog…that’s fun to say) i had an idea as to where i wanted to take my idea and concept.  the hardest part is trying to get my image to where i want it to be as a finished project because of my lack of knowledge of the medium i am using.  and my silly computer crashed twice, and eventually wouldn’t let me re-open my image to continue working with all my layers i created so we had to condense my layers and just work from there.  ugh. i am upset because although it basically looks exactly how i wanted it to look from my idea yesterday, it is not as tight or “technical” as i am sure someone more skilled could get it and because of the ribbon. and there is a HUGE problem with the ribbon because my layers were flattened…those were my favorite befor the crash happened-which is why i am bitter.  in fact, the original reflection and ribbon is overlapping the woman in the mirror now and i am completely missing the end ribbon that is supposed to be dripping off the side.  oh well, my point came across and i guess if i really wanted to i could now do it all over again, probably even quicker too with all the tricks i learned today.

 

 

i look pretty. but i feel fat.

 

here are the originals:

 

sketches of ideas for 1st in class project

my theme/concept for this initial project has changed many times.  but the more i change, the more i narrow my idea.  the concept is (which was literally different 5 minutes ago…but was very similar to) the “perfect” body and the pursuit of for females in our society.  our society projects and explicitly targets females about diets, of sex sells, of tiny waists, of big breasts.  this is seen through toys (such as barbie), cartoons (such as the little mermaid), and reality tv (such as deal or no deal) and don’t even get me started on music.  even a vast majority of female nudes portrayed throughout art history are seen as “ideal” or “beautiful.”  so i wish to convey through my art that perhaps these females are “beautiful” on the outside but feel “ugly” on the inside for succumbing to  society’s demands.  now i am not denying that the female body is beautiful and obviously not all people/females feel this way i assume some do on the inside but i truly do feel it is “ugly” and sad how much marketing and demand is directed toward keeping females beautiful just to exploit them more to future generations.  

so here is my quick verbal sketch of the project.  i am going to take velaquez’s “the toilet of venus”-which is seen as slightly provocative as the model (who is portrayed as venus) almost seems to be enjoying either looking at herself or being watched in the mirror.  now the goddess of love we would assume is beautiful so in a way this image is crafted very well but just to express my opinion i am going to place an image of lucian freud’s in the mirror…and that image will be quite the opposite of the venus body.

testing, testing

test of the blogabilty.  playing with sharks and photoshop…day 1: morning session

grrrrr.