Pauly Cvikevich

The home stretch.

2009-11-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well the home stretch of this term in school is here. Got two more weeks! Im pretty psyched for thanksgiving, gong to bend, party and chill out. I been illustrating these book covers for class, my hands, eyes, and brain hurt. Im getting this feeling that my work is under par. Eh i guess thats how everyone feels, or i hope so. soo ya last night was an interesting one. We all went out to the bar for Lil calebs b day. which is funny cuz it was his 18th, but if ya knew the kid you would understand. Some how we wind up (mind you this is a group of like 6 of us) going to this dudes hotel. He was at a kiss concert earlier. This dude was something out of a movie, teeth grinding, paranoid as hell and just psyched to bring us all back to his hotel room. We went there (or at least me) with the intentions of more beer. Well the dude had no beer but a barrage of drugs. I dont fuck with that shit so i passed on the cool drugs this guy was offering out. Me and some homies sat in the bathroom chiefed some cigs and laughed at the situation at hand. some how we made it about an hour before shit started getting weird, dude was asking for serious drugs, asking for our phone numbers, and getting way to psyched on just talking. Some weird shit was coming out of this dudes mouth. We can probably assume it was drugs talking. We came out on top though because we were alive. Turns out the dude was here on business. Really makes me wonder what kind of business this guy was associated with. I dont ask questions though. Im assuming hes a salesman. Either way the dude was a kook. We dip and darlene gave the dude her real number, she thought he would call the fake one at the hotel and the dude would get pissed.

I guess where im getting at is saying yes to stupid journeys and trips is not always the worst thing. Got to kick it with my friends, laugh our asses off about this dude, and just chill.

In other news i think my internet is good enough to upload a few pictures i been working on..

Laters,

Pauly

printing, making, and stressing.

2009-11-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

I often forget that i have a serious temper. Since i have moved to oregon i have suppressed my levels of stress significantly. Butttt every once in a while, like when a werwolf sees a full moon, i shift into seriuose anger. I laugh it off, haha, and think to myself how funny the world is. Its easier that way, maybe that is growing up. Who knows. Any way, i been busting my ass working for school, taking lots of time to do my work, and just try to make stuff that dosn't suck. (however it usually does). Hours in front of the computer, hours drawing, and hours being stressed. Usually this always produces some pretty cool stuff. Today i finally finished this show and tell poster i was doing for school. After getting my ideas straight and producing my final piece it was time to print. I shoot to the school (not to early) and go to print. Well the lady says they are close to being out of the paper i wanted to print on. I was like thats cool cuz your not out of paper, so boom! I'm dialed. We throw my document up on her computer (the lady was a jem, nice as hell.) and shits going haywire. The document is taking forever to load, not my day. So i take my time to go through the document peep the problem try making it smaller. Doesn't work. she puts some other girls work up on the computer to print it. Her flash drive crashes the computer not once but twice, in the process of the computer taking a shit, the printer bangs out two f'd up pieces of paper. Great the count went from like 5 pieces of paper or so to 3. We finally figure out to try another computer, lol. well now there are 4 people in front of me or so trying to print the same size paper as i needed to. This is no ones fault but mine. I got fed up and as steam came out of my ears i decided to get the hell outa there haha. I went to clean copy to go get my stuff printed. Let me tell you never in my life have i wasted 15 dollars as bad as i did here. So u can picture the out come. 15 dollars and a shitty shitty print of my poster later, i said fuck it ill go to kinkos. I called them first so i wouldn't freak out in the store. Lady said it could be done by 830. RAD im thinking to myself, i win... well when i got there to drop it off she said the printer was broken all day and it wont be done till tomorrow. mind you there are a thousand other kinkos, but!, i went there cuz the lady said she could have it done. Im not sure what kind of attempt this was to get money to the store, but it was a crappy one. However, i needed it printed. so I'm praying before 11 tonight it'll be done, or imma have to wake up at like 6 to get this shit.

And this is just another day in my life. Due tomorrow is also a bunch of thumbnail sketches for this book-cover project we have to do. Which i am psyched about, and nervouse about at the same time. To bad my printing experience could not have gone a bit smoother i would be on top of the world right now. But I'm here writing a blog smoking cigs. HAhh. Well here is my final poster and some sketches I'm doing for my next assignment. Trying to get the ball rolling!

Ill leave people off with a "you all better watch"...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, its on hulu go there see it.

Im sure a ton of people have already seen this movie, or at least read the book,(im always outdated with this shit), Its amazing, cant stop watching it. Its probably the best movie i have ever had the pleasure to watch.

Laters

Pauly

P.S. no pictures cuz my internet is sucking real bad right now. But peep my flickr if you wanna see what i was talking about.

ahh sunday haha.

2009-11-15T23:20:00.000-08:00

Well obviously i havent posted in two days. been on my weekly bender of partying and good times. it felt really nice to not do any work for 2 days, i think i really needed that. Was getting cabin feaver, and my eyes were bleeding from being on the computer for extended periods of time. me and some buddies went and rode some eugene ramps today, then some skate parks, ate burrito boy, and just lived the life. It was rad. Especially after a full night sleep on one of theos fancy tempurpedic mattresses. Im psyched for a new week, and new challenges in school, even though they are going to stress me the fuck out. Thats fine though, just another day in the life. I need to also start looking for new places to life cuz im not trying to live downtown anymore. Im over it. Living alone, in a shoe box apartment sucks. it has its ups, but there are more downs involved. Trying to register for classes this week, chill, then off to bend to spend thanksgiving with the only thing close to family i have, my buddy joe i grew up with, and big dan. o boy its goint to be rad. Hmmm feel like a blog should have some witty interesting stuff on it... Well not this time haha. Ill be chillen.

Laters,

Pauly

Ahh friday.

2009-11-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

Finally the day is here... well for most. i got lots ahead of me. but im going to enjoy my friday and do something away from the computer. Maybe a drink? who knows where the night is taking me. but.. keep posted for the dream sequence deal i got going on, imma start that probably monday. thinking it may be pretty neattooo.

Laters

Pauly

dream sequence project.

2009-11-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

So im sure this has been done so many times through out the history humans, and curiousity. But i been having these dreams lately that are so amazing, and i want to illustrate them. Each dream ive had for the past few days i made a little log. Kinda like main points in the dream that i can never forget. I wanna dive into my sleep and document what i can remember. I feel like this is going to be an ongoing project that may take some time. i am really buisy with school so its gunna be hard to juggle. im hopeing some shitty weather keeps me in the house.

I been super stressed lately and almost had a full blown meltdown this am. which is fine, but it seems like i am becomeing less and less sane humanbeing in the mornings. I loose shit, my heads in the clouds and its really getting me stressed. haha.

I been working my ass off in school, and i still feel like i produce the work that a 4th grader could do. But i guess im going to keep on trucking, and just play around. I been trying to think less of school in general, and not let it get me so stressed out. Why should being on the computer for 10 hrs a day be stressful? i mean im going to be probly on the cocmputer more and more as time goes on. so i have to figure out how to keep sane. Maybe a break for a drink? maybe 2? but i tend to go way past that too. I fell this is a very easy way to have a bit of an alcohol abuse problem, ahh fuckit i drink too much anyways.

Im excited about this dream illustration log im going to do.

maybe colabo with someone, that would be pretty rad.

Any takers? haha

heres a pic of this t shirt project im doing for school.

and on that note, im off to spanish class,

Laters.

Pauly.

Birthday resolutions.

2009-11-09T23:47:00.000-08:00

Well its been awhile. This blog was intended for school and well the class has been over for almost a year now. Time has been going by pretty fast these days. Anyways, It was recently my birthday and now since im legally alowed to drink, and mayne looked at as more of an adult (which is bulshit) i figure i start blogging more. i have no care in the world if anyone reads this. If people do, thats rad. But ill for sure be updating way more.

Im currently enrolled in a graphic design program at the wonderfull Portland State University. first off let me give props to all the teachers that work there. They are more then just professors, they are rad people.

Im stressed though, and feel like even though there are a ton of people that do way more then me on a daily basis, i cant keep up. I guess im immature. Im just trying to figure out what the hell it means to be a graphic designer. I have all these awesome ideas, and they just get blocked by something and i cant figure it out.

I think one of the biggest things that limits my abilities is the fact that i stress about the quality of my work. see i have to submit a portfolio by spring term of 2010. And the work has to be good. but what the fuck! what is good? i dont even know. its probly all just immature feelings and they need to chill. Problems in life are created by only one person in life, and that is one's self. if its not good enough im screwed i suppose.. so every little thing i do i over analyze, and loose a lot of what my initial intentions were.

I suppose this is a rant but i just wanted to get it the hell out of my head.

Peep this blog more for sick stuff, like local art, interviews, whatever. im just trying to promote life. Partying, chillen, being productive, being unproductive, whatever!.

Laters.

Paul C.

zine

2009-07-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

So yaya im on my way to starting the production of my zine, i was gunna do it before i took art 200 but im killing two birds with one stone here. im almost in my preliminary stages to start getting this shit together. im gunna interview my first artist tonight, shoot photos and get shit crackin, defiantly expect to see some shit up on this site here and there. laterss

hiyee

2009-07-06T00:20:00.000-07:00

im sure no one ever looks at this, so its like bloggin to myslef. kind of like a journal or diary. ehh anyways, the fourth was amazing, we got loose partyed a bunch, walked way to far, saw fireworks, kicked it with people randomly from school, wild time. Today i felt like crap of coarse, i sat around and thought about my stress levels, and the lack of motivation i have. maybe it will all turn around. i will find out in 2 more weeks. but so far im really homesick, and miss the east coast, and i miss living in salem, and eugene, and i just need a dang break. Its not goin to happen which sucks, but o well. I guess thats growing up? getting sick from stress shit like that, yaa adult! psyche! im out class in like no hours trying to sleep for a quick sec.

Laters

Pauly

charcoal?

2009-07-01T01:14:00.000-07:00

so i been messing with charcoal and drawing and whatnot, and decided to qickly try to draw a picture of my dog. uhh it came out pretty crappy i think but its kinda cool haha. its just fun to work with new drawing mediums. and eventually i will score a good drawing of my pup.

i never really had to much drawing experience, dunno. just doodling and stuff, but i wanna try to gett better, and i guess practice makes perfect. ill just keep at it, and between my drawing class and my art 200 class i will have a zine by august, a bit later than expected. i think it will turn out pretty good. im going to get the ball rolling pretty soon here within the next week.

tryin to quit smoking, and chill with the partying, so ill probly just draw instead haha.

Later,

night,

Pauly

back to school

2009-06-28T00:52:00.000-07:00

well its seemed like a really fast week break, probably because it was only a week. after taking 18 credits this spring i figured it would be just a fabulous idea to take 12 over the summer. 8 credits are studio art classes, 4 is an online art history class. two of the classes are only 4 weeks. At first i figured 4 week classes would be rad, ohh boy was i wrong. everything is hard and sped up so it sucks.

Something cool on a good note, i checked out last thursday, it was probably one of the most rad events i have ever been to. all walks of life piled into north east portland, on alberta street to showcase and sell art, music, food, drinks, everything. there were so many weirdo'S but who isnt weird?

Either way i had a smile on my face at all times, and a drink in my hand. so it was pretty bad ass. this zine i wanted to do will be getting done, but im killing two birds with one stone. it will be my final project for my art 200 class as well as my own little thing. Im gunna try to make a bunch of them and just hand them out. i think it will work out pretty well.

anyways im having a night to myself to let my body recuperate from the 2 week party bender i have been on.

And on that note

night night,

Pauly.

doozie

2009-06-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

its been a doozie lots of partying, and thats about it, falling on bikes. getting clips for the new building the underground. ill be way more on it once school starts agin. got trips and stuff to roach. but ya. radicall lets party some time no?

hit me uppp

wowzerrss finally done with school

2009-06-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

So its been a long ass 10 weeks of my life. and i am tring to enjoy my short ass 2 week break before i start summer classes. Woppie. not. anyway. the next few days are going to be filled with partying and irresponsibility, after that i am going to start this zine idea i have going on and get started with some personal projects. So keep lookin at the blog, cool shit will always be posted, maybe with the exception of this post haha. Ya so crap if any one is tryin to booze it and have a good time dont hesitate to leave a comment up on my blog haha. shit... ok

well im out to punish my body

for the next few days and

have a good time.

Lots of bikes, drinks, and good times.

laterrss pauly.

a few photoshop tutorials

2009-06-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

So its been a buisy last week of school. I havent had much time to do tutorials however i squeezed in two. There will be way more to come this week, just need a night of rest. So here are the two i did.

The mesurment log was pretty interesting. It talked about the mesurements between objects in a picture. it was a bit confusing.

This tutorial was really interesting and pretty cool. you can make an object a smart object then paste and change the object. but the original object never changes. So you can have an original image and not worry loosing it.

ayeee finally done.

2009-06-02T01:29:00.000-07:00

So a few trips to art media today were defiantly worth it. I decided to really shop around i just got some basic shit and it wound up being like 50 bucks which i though sucked a lot. However, i started working and had already planned my book set up out. For the first time in my life everything went according to plan. There are a few things i am a bit unhappy with. and things i am super pumped on. Among things im not psyched on are:

i purposely didn't fully cover the front and back cover, i left a tiny boarder of black, but its a bit uneven which sucks.

and secondly my book opens but not with as much ease. However, i think it still works super good. Peep some of these pics.

The first one is me after like a million hours of working on this book.

final product in the works

2009-06-01T23:47:00.001-07:00

its been about 4 hours now but im so stoked on how my book is turning out. i think its going to be pretty legit, wait for the final product in about an hour

so summer time is here!!!

2009-05-31T23:19:00.000-07:00

soooo you know what im not alone here, this is for everyone that busts their asses live it up! haha. taking 18 credits and 12 of those are studio art classes is tough, taking spanish and taking a sophomore crap class is rough, but for all the rough stressful shit that happens there is good. I have awesome teachers, and i couldnt be more happy, i got a rad little dog, and good ass friends. this weekend was full of drinking and real talks. livin it up and just Chilen. i have this balcony deal shown below. seems like it would be pretty grimy, but throw a rug and some homies in the mix and party time. my apartments are pretty ratty, located on 12th and alder. However, everyone that lives here is so f'in rad, no one will ever complain about anything. on any-given night some one else is being way to loud. I know im going on tangents, but hey im excited and got a few sessions in me haha. Just playing with a crap point and shoot digi cam. showing the people who look at my blog (who are probably few) whats up. slept out here every night, why sleep inside? thats way to easy. plus the parking garage goes right to my back window. this could potentially be sketchy as the day is long, but its so convenient. so screw it! good spiritts, friends and beer. class all summer but it will rule really hard. just loving life and kickin it. expect a zine coming in july if i can get my shit together, its going to be real.

signing out,

Pauly!

Laters

lightssss

kinda a big deal

mo curled up in what looks like a copy pasted blanket

tyler and mo just wrapped in a blanket. way to many bags of beer cans haha.

Finally some time for tutorials

2009-05-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

So its been hectic these past few weeks and tutorials have been at a minumum, but with classes winding down and projects getting finished i can finally bust some shit out!

So at first i was pretty not psyched on the "you suck at photoshop" tutorials, however the past few i watched were really good and really helpful. Kind of heartwarming. so here are some screen caps are what i watched, and the one i did was really good. it was using paths to make a selection and make a mask, or delete out the background.

So this is my version of the selecting using the paths. I really was happy with what i accomplished, this makes it really easy to delete out the background and keep the background of the other layer.

This was a pretty simple tutorial, kinda a fun one. It just explained how to use the liquify filter, you could potentially make some one look fat or bloated. Haha its pretty funny. there is more you could do with it i suppose, either way its good.

This tutorial also was very helpful. I enjoyed working with the patch tool, and the healing tool. It is nice if you ever wanna cover anything up, or like fix something. In this case the dude was fixing some wrinkles and blemishes. it was pretty good.

This tutorial once again haha, was good. It makes it so you dont have to select an image with the wand tool for hours. using the color range to select makes complex images such as the mesh lacing in the hamock easy and possible to delete the background.

This tutorial i sware ive done before, but i redid it. It just uses the clone tool to hide that bag in the background. It was ok, short and kinda helpful.

Youtube.com

You suck at photoshop.

Check them out!

They have a playlist for them and its legit.

Laters

Hand made images take way longer than you think.... 2

2009-05-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

Here are the last five images. Check my FLICKR to see these images in order and not all thrown about my blog.

This one is mixed media. I took a computer genenerated image and a hand made and put them together. I think it came out really cool for two reasons. One it adds an awesome texture to the picture and secondly they line up really well. In the original hand made image everything was backwards because of the xerox transfer. I really liked how it was backwards, it gave it a photo negative feel. I also liked how when it was mirrored in photoshop how cool it looked too.

I started attempting to make an image out of solely hand drawn type. i started to realize i dont really have any recognizable shapes to do this. So ultimatly i had to add some detail so people can realate the images back to my original one. just played around im kinda into it either way.

This image is once again a combination of the image about with the origina image. The type image is just really opaque and does not show all the way through, i really like the effects.

This is a xerox transfer on this cool paper i got at art media. its kinda this shiny weird textured paper, again the print looks really cool in person, i think that it lost some of its hand done feel when it went through the scanner.

This one is a marker sketch, i did one with a marker earlyer where i just totaly blackened in the dark area on an already printed image. this one i did from once again tracing some of the main shapes and going from there.

For my book i am going to keep all my hand made stuff hand made. I want there to be a obvious difference in computer generated art, and hand made generated art. I really like the feel of work that is not "perfect" i mean there is a time and a place to make things perfect and neat, and have a good out come. For me when it comes to hand made stuff the errors in the work are the things that are the most cool. I am not compromising craft and overall appearance of my book. Im just saying for the actual images, i want to keep them hand done. So the only reason i scanned them into the computer was to colabo some with a photoshop document, and to show you guys.

kk laters,

Paul

Hand made images take way longer than you think....

2009-05-28T06:50:00.001-07:00

So its 645 am, but don't worry i have not been up all night, i got to bed at 2 haha. and got a few hours of sleep. pretty much just making different hand manipulated images. I kinda had it hard for-myself because in the beginning of the project we were told to get an object/image that would be easy to like select, repeat, and take a part, i took a whole photo, so ahhh, but its been good. so here are my final hand drawn images.

This first one is my interpurtation of an ink stipple. i pretty much just dotted it up and made my image, i tried t make it as best as i could, but dotting the paper with a pen really takes longer than you think. i like the way this one came out because even though its chaotic you can kind of still tell what it is, and when you see it next to the original you will totally understand what it is.

So when i was at art media on like thursday after class i found this really really awsome paper, it had an awsome texture and was really transparent. After i found out we could do xerox copies i snagged the paper and the xerox marker and just went t town. Again its so faint but i really like the way it came out, almost looks stenciled on.

This image started as an idea to lightly scratch my image into this cool paper i had. after that i was going to put another piece of paper over it and lightly shade the paper, then like the image would come through, forgot what thats called. Anyways obviously it didnt work. i had a protractor and just started scratching the hell out of all the black space. my original idea was to not use ink, and just see the image through the smooth paper, and rough scratched paper. it was starting to not work, and it took me too long to give up on, so i decided to just throw some india ink based pit pen on it and i think it worked out better.

So i was striving to finish my last 10 handmade images and i forgot i didnt even do a pencil based image. i wanted to make this look as real as possible so i basically traced over my picture. i was sick of striving to draw a half assed picture. So i decided to just trace main outlines than go from there. I enjoyed doing it, and it kinda looks crappy when i scanned it, i think its just the pencil and the texture of the paper.

This one was made during my block of not knowing what to do. I think i had two images left. i wanted to add colored marker with the xerox copy. i didnt want to draw out my image again, i was frustrated. i scribbled some colors that i thought were cool and xerox copied right over. i was not so frustrated when this was done, i kinda liked it.

owie! and some work haha

2009-05-26T01:20:00.000-07:00

well fuck way to start the summer off pretty sure i destroyed my knee. im trying to get an mri but school is in the last two weeks so it might be a bit of a ball up. o well, got my dog, my computer and my health well kinda... so try to stay positive. we been filming a lot for my buddys video, and let me tell you its going to rule.

That had nothing to do with art 120 sorry, but this does.

So i finished my first 5 of my hand manipulated images, i know we are suposed to have 25 images for my class tomrrow, but its just physically impossible, im not a happy camper... haha. ok any way these were rad, and it will be easy to do the rest of them in class, i need this zerox copy pen thing, and i couldnt get it at art media on friday, well because im an idiot and forgot really. so anyways here they are....

The first one is my attempt at a pen sketch, i think it came out pretty cool. pen is a cool way to sketch cuz when u mess up you either have to start over or work around it, it almost reminds me of giving some one a tattoo minus the starting over part. i found this really cool paper at art media, and ya i just cut it to 7.5 by 7 inches and sketched away from the picture i was looking at on my computer.

I bet you are all wondering what this one is... well you have to put it to the light, which makes it impossible for you computer go'ers to see at this time. but trust me it looks super cool. i was cutting out all the bright light areas and keeping the dark shadows. So im done cutting these areas out and i was going to put some paper behind it cuz the very white less detailed areas looked really cool and popy. I held the image up to the light and saw that the shadows come through the paper, and that it looks soooo cool. not to mention the paper i printed on was super super interesting and cool as well.

This is my ransom image. Basically the typographical theme of my image is one way, maybe because of the one way sign on the pillar, who knows. i like the idea i guess. and i just played with some like ransom style lettering and cutting out a few things. i found this paper once again at art media that has like gold beads on it and threw it behind the areas that were cut out. However, this is not permanent, i have not yet bonded the paper together. im not sure how much i like it, i might just try to print on this paper alone because its really really cool.

For this image i wanted to make a super high contrast-y image but not computer generated. I just printed the image got my radical faber castell blackening pen out and just went over the areas that had little information and were already dark. The pen is awesome p.s. a recommendation by my teacher kate. Which is a good recommendation i must add. Ya and i did a super high contrast-y computer generated image, but to do it by hand makes it way more interesting and way more fun. i think that it will look cool next to the computer generate image to show what you could do by hand, and on the computer.

Ahh save the best for last.... Ya so not to bring up high school again, but when i was in my high school photo class we did a unit on manipulating our images by hand after they were printed. Sepia toning and some other really rad toxic stuff. Well my one buddy luis just threw his image in some tea for a while and it looked super super sick. Well i tried to do that with my image, right after it printed i realized that when you print out of a printer there is ink. hmmm, and wow, smart conclusion right? yupperss ya so i just decided to bathe it in some warm tea any ways, right away the ink started running, but not fadeing totally, and it started to look really awesome, so i just went with it and im glad i did, because i think it worked kinda well.

Ok ya so there are my five hand manipulated images, check back soon for more

Real soon,

Laters....

Pauly

3 more images, making a total of 15 computer manipulated images!

2009-05-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here are my other three pictures, my hands hurt from typing so check my flickr to see my process. Sorry i know im back and forth between flickr and this blog, could potentially get a bit confusing so.....

FLICKR

title with my picture

2009-05-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

So for one of the manipulations of our picture. I decided to lable my image one way, bassed on the one way sign in the image. i just played around with font, opacity, etc. kept it simple there will be more complex ones to come.

Last round

2009-05-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

Ok so even though i lost my original image and started over the quad tone and the solarized image are almost identical to the ones i posted last night, so i think its pointless to repost them, if you really wanna see them peep my FLICKR.

Ok so this one i just really overexposed, working in the darkroom this happens all the time. The reason i love this one is because the amount of grain that the overexposing gave it. playing with levels and exposure in photoshop is sweet. and it yields a cool final product. Like i said before im kinda psyched on my image because its contrast in the first place, so to really bump it up, and play with it is super sick. got one more i need to do, so wait for yet another post haha.

Later,

pauly

Next Three images

2009-05-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

The next three images are equally as cool as the first three haha (at least i think so). Anyways, the first one i went to the levels option and just bumped up the levels like crazy. I though it was cool because some how it added some color to the image. This image is a score because there is a lot of contrast to begin with, so playing with the levels and the curves and stuff really come out well. What i like the most is these all look like they could potentially be manipulated in the darkroom, not just photoshop, with the exception of the second image.

The second image i went kinda nuts, i would labeled this as a happy disaster. I played with the color replace option in photo shop, and really messed with the channels as well. i deleated them all and one stayed and labeled itself magenta. thats when played with the replace the color option eyedroped part of my photo filled it in with this red.

The next photo i thought was one of the betters. It really looks like there is a textured background on the photo, all i did was play with equalize option in adjustments. i dunno why but it just looks like it was a scratched crap negative that got all screwed up, and with failure there is beauty, so this one was really kinda cool for me.

Start from scratch.

2009-05-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

So leave it to me to totally F up my project. i basically did what i was hopeing not to do and saved over my original. At this time last night i had four images done. well fuck it. For the past 4 hours i been just playing with photoshop and re-doing my images. we need to have 10 done by tomorrow so far i have 9. ill post them in intervals of 3 and discuss them so here we gooooo.

The first image i just played with contrast and levels, i pretty much just decided to screw around and realized that it really looked like a stencil. So there ya go, a stencil haha. I htink im going to pursue this into an actual stencil, and have a computer print of it as well.

The next image i am pretty pumped on. We were given the option to play around pretty much, and i decided to scan in some rice on cling wrap. the cling wrap was to not get rice everywhere, but it wound up making this radical texture. it just wasn't there and i decided to play with it more, so i used the gradient map tool and boom a sick ass image came out, im pretty pumped on this one.

The final image for this series of three was a compilation of a quad-toned image and a halftoned image. I just messed around with the halftone filter. it was kinda boring and i wanted some color to it, so i used my quad tone i made before. pretty sweeeett

my pup

2009-05-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

Whoever said small dogs cant learn tricks?

Ahhh this is to divert me from my photoshop project. about 5 months ago i was blessed with this rad little dog. My buddys mom got it from some dude as an attempt to win over her love for chirstmas. i supose it was a good idea, but the lady could not handle a puppy especially a little chiuwawa. so she said i could have it. Ever since we just been livin the life. His name is mo, he is 1/2 chiuwawa and 1/4 pug and 1/4 weiner dog. all though i have my doubts about this combo. hes down. no leash, he follows me while i ride my bike. i am defiantly getting sick of everyone and their mother asking me if its my dog while we are roasting around town. o well though skrew um. either way here is a shot of him at the trails with my friends boston terrier emmit. any given day im either maxin out, doin school work, or riding bikes with the mut. yaaaaa i guess what made me think of this all is i just taught him to roll over haha which i thought was kinda rad.

Photo Treatment project

2009-05-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

The next two images are pretty cool I think. One of the processes given to us was to duotone the image. Basically you turn the image to grayscale, then play with the duotone filter. i was playing with it and realized that you could tritone and quadtone an image. I chose to go all out and quadtone it haha. what i thought was rad about this one was that it looked like a stained image. Sepia toned. We used to play with staining images with tea bags, it came out super cool, and this really reminded me of this. you can expect that i will do something like this manually as well, something with staining. But anyway here is my sepia toned image, again its my version not some stock photoshop filter.

And to cap off my night of photoshop here is my deconstructed version of my image. Its still in the process. I just played with the selection tools, clone stamp tool, and manually cloaning things. So i just took a pillar and repeated it, tried to make it look realistic as possible. i took the holes in the celling and manually cloned them so there was no more holes yesaaaaa!. the last thing i did was cloned the ground to cover up the light spot in the lower left hand corner. This image can be played with so much more, so expect a final version soon. for now here this one is.

Also peep the flickr, and my classes flickr group to see what me and my fellow students are cooking up in our photoshop photo treatment madness project!

Late pauly,

expect zine coming out in july or august too, this is gunna be a wholeeeee different post, and may yield a whole other blog. For now its secrete.

Photo Treatment project part 1

2009-05-19T22:18:00.001-07:00

Ok so earlyer in my blog i talked about the project we were given for my art 120 class. to sum it up we take one image and do 30 diffrent treatments to the photo. Pretty much half computer bassed and half hand bassed. I chose this image to work with. Basically the contrast in it is

Perfect to work with. There is so many things i am going to do to the image. And guess what!?? i have already done three different treatments. I am going to talk about all my treatments in pretty good detail because i think process is important. This is not a project about using photoshop filters! but making our own renditions.

The First image is my solarized image. When i was in my photo class doing this manually was so sick. you pretty much took your photo out of the developer bath and ran it into white light, put it bak in the developer and it really brought out these crazy silvers!. Some chemistry terms may describe this better, but i dont know them so too bad.

Unfortunately we are not working in the dark room, but in photoshop, where honestly the possibilities are endless. So i was playing with the curves of my image (tones and whatnot) and made a smiley face haha, i turned it to gray scale and it looked just like a solarized image. Funny how mistakes can turn out to be success sometimes. Any way, this is what a solarized image looks like in real life, dont be fooled by the stock photoshop filter its crap.

Kate/Lynda.com tutorials

2009-05-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Finally photoshop tutorials that are rad, and teach me something. Ok first off this has everything to do with our new project that i blogged about a few posts ago. First off... yes we learned how to do duo tones, and half tones. This was really helpful because, well its two of the manipulations we have to do for our project. There is a lot of freedom with these and you can really do a lot.

The next tutorial once again was by my teacher kate, and it was about the extract filter tool. This one is cool because its like a paint brush and makes it a easy to delete the background of simple images. unfortunately, my image for my treatments is not so simple, but its gunna be rad.

The next tutorials is a very lengthy one, and a very helpful one. It is all about all the selection tools

in photoshop. Each one has a diffrent use, and works better for certain things. we learned about toleration

levels using the magic wand tool, and growing and similar selections.

we learned about refining the edges, and what how the magic wand actually works. This tutorial is really good

i think that my project has seriously been saved because of the tutorials we were given today in class! yess

So here is just something i was playing around with by selecting a post in my image and transforming it, and playing

with it.

The first one is the original, the second the one i played around with.

Photo shop tutorial

2009-05-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

Ahh u suck at photoshop tutorial 3.

I cant help but try these out. Ok pro's it teaches you how to use

the clone tool, and manually clone stuff. this is defiantly a pro.

Cons: its impossible to find an image as perfect as this guys to do this

tutorial with. so it makes it really hard.

Once again i dont wanna post up what i did in photoshop because it looks like crap

but i know what im doing which is another pro.

So check it out. you can probably do this with any image now that i think about that.

so i did! took a broken surfboard that image i found and fixed it! haha.

manulally cloned part of the board and manipulated it using things i already knew

in photoshop or just recently learned! yay. its not really that good now that i look at it

but its the thought that counts haha

Tutorials... Photoshop

2009-05-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

So i just did the "you suck at photoshop 2" tutorial. it was a really weird one about

like hiding a cat and putting in new carpet. after that adding a stain. it was ok but not that

good because it didint really explain much haha. but i figured it out anyway and did my own.

here is a screen cap of the intro of the video. its on youtube.com

check it out just type in you suck at photoshop.

Photo shop project art 120 !!!

2009-05-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

So for my art 120 class we have been given a really interesting project.

We are going to choose one picture and manipulate it 25 diffrent ways,

after this were are going to bind the pictures up and make a book.

The begining stages of this project are to choose 3 images that we have.

They have to be images we produced. Good thing i have a gang of photos.

So i chose 4 because i was torn on one. So here they are. Be sure to check back

for process, and ultimatly the final product!

Laters,

Pauly

Ahh some of these photos were not rotated right,

Check my FLICKR if u wanna see them the right way haha

MOREEEE photoshop tutorials.

2009-05-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

This tutorial was off of youtube. it was really funny, and pretty good.

Just go to youtube, type in you suck at photoshop, i did the first one.

It taught me how to use the skew and distort tool, play with some layer

filters. and i also combined it with using layer masks to combine images.

i just took a piece of graffitti and threw it up on a wall. pretty good tutorial

i think it was helpful to see what all the filters in the layer panels do, as well

as playing with masks. yaaaaa.

The first image is the guy leading the tutorials. he is trowing up his marriage

certificate on his window, gotta watch the video to understand haha.

Photo shop tutorials

2009-05-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

YUPPERSS for whatever reason photoshop tutorials are not as good

as the illustrator tutorials i have done.

Unfortunatly i could not complete this tutorial i just watched it.

I tryed but the images used were not free.

We had to buy them. So im not really into buying that for a tutorial.

this is not mine, and i was unable to create it.

however, it seemed helpful again, photoshop seems to really be about maskss.

and well they are in here haha.

it also teaches you how to select by using the channels layer which is good.

This is because it allows you to chose whatever rgb color channel you want.

you can duplicate it etc....

Its legit.

so if you wanna go but some pictures haha, go for it.

if not just watch it its a good tutorial. tutvid.com

Logo recreation

2009-05-14T09:16:00.001-07:00

Yikes this is my final for a project that we did a little bit ago...

It was a project that involved me and three others recreating some logos.

I got the I love NY logo by milton glaser.

This project was super fun. it got me better with the pen tool as well as layout.

Its funny to see how something so simple can really be so complex.

So here it is.

and sorry for the late post.

My process is also on my flickr.

Building Project finals

2009-05-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

WWowzerss. So i have been super super busy, so of corse i held off on printing this project.

Well i got home today at 6 and been working on it ever since. 10:15 rolls around time to run to kinkos down the street and print my shit out. The lady that was working said it would be eiser to print out as a pdf to some one else. So i ran back home. Saved as a pdf. Should have done this in the first place, like my teacher Kate always says. Stupid me. Ok well all done now and here are my finals. they look really good and im glad i spent some time on them. I am still behind in my tutorials, but o well i can make time for them. so drum roll please......................

Mask Tutorials.

2009-05-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

I remember a while back way back when, like 3 years ago my photo teacher did a one day computer tutorial. she taught us how to make doubble negitives with photoshop. Im not sure if this is the same way she taught us but it works. basically i just had two images made a layer mask and then you brush over the top image, this will either fade the image or bring it up.

The tutorial i watched was off of tutvid. The tutorial was about making layer masks. even though we have been doing this in class i wanted to like actually do a tutorial instead of just listing and try it out some more. so i did this one. it was pretty simple, but its nice to know what im doing. try it out.

tutvid.com.

And i just realized this picture really dosnt show much. but there is just a square and the guy explains how the mask will move about the picture if its liinked up. if not the mask will move, or just the image.

tshorts.net

2009-05-12T01:57:00.001-07:00

Every once in a while you will come across some one who is so fuckin talented its dumb.

well this person happens to be a good buddy of mine tyler short. please check his website tshorts.net . the work he does with a sharpie marker is unbelievable. we were just talking today about shit and how people just need to network, well he dosn't go to school as of now so im his PSU hook up. Just check it out.

He obviously can do anything you want, so just hit him up if u have questions or comments, or leave them on my page if u wanna.

work by tyler short.

tshorts.net

Building Project.

2009-05-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

So for all the people that are not in my art 120 class. We were introduced a project that was pretty rad. We got a few pictures of buildings and had to add new color and a graphic to one of the buildings. sweeet! Well at first we learned how to mask images, and do this assighment and we were also given photoshop documents with the masks already created. This was really cool!

Here are three color combonations and three diffrent graphics, and two diffrent views of the building.

Pleas check my flickr where i described these in detail!

Weekly tutorials, yes a bit behind.

2009-05-11T23:26:00.001-07:00

Ahhhh i have been so balled up with all my other classes.

which sucks because i really am kinda behind in my tutorials.

The one i have done so far was how to get a true white background, and

how to color a charecter i made.

I did not get to shading yet because Ward's tutorial we watched in class was real long, and i plan on doing it in two parts.

This tutorials was really good because it taught us how to work with layers, and color in photoshop, the most important thing is how to get true whites. This can also really help when live tracing in illustrator!

Peep the tutorial on our art 120 blog. (http://gdpsu.typepad.com/120/)

"The Beauty of Light"

2009-05-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

I am reading over my process for this series that i wrote a few years ago. its pretty funny. Any way. I found something that really stuck out to me. and i quote myself haha... The photographs play around with the most basic concepts of photography, Light.

These pictures were taken while i was out to dinner one night with my family. I had my camera and saw this super rad spot to just shoot some photos. it was around christmas of 05'. So i just got out my camera and shot. Had a tripod too which made all these possible.

All my photos were developed myself. And this is the reason why every photo i have taken and developed means so much. When i was in high school we had the best dark room ever. What is weird is that thats the only thing the school really invested in, and there were like no kids in the photography program. funny. Well anyway there is just something so peaceful about being able to have total control of what you produce. Your not dropping your photos off to some one else to let them do the work for you. Everything is you. and this is why photography in general is special to me.

Peep the flickr if

you wanna see more.

COMING SOON!

2009-05-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Soo even though i don't have time, i am making some to post my photographs.

The first two series are entitled the Beauty of Light, and painted room.

My photos are all mounted, however they are years old and need some touching up.

There is some dust so i am going to clean them up.

So check back later tonight to check them out. They will also be up on my flickr.

Later,

Paul

Art 118 project and tutorials

2009-05-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

So after spending an hour in powells and looking through some books for inspiration i decided to start playing with this project for my art 118 class. kinda weird and hard anyways i came across two tutorials that let me come up with some really cool stuff, and taught me a shit ton about making clipping masks and compound paths. probably gibberish to some basically just lets me paste type on shapes cut stuff out, create letters out of letters. got some pictures. and the tutorials i found on google. This one

taught me to put a picture behind text. then make it so the picture shows up in the text. ultimately this taught me to do what i planned to do, which was put text inside of my type. so it ruled in a nut shell. the other one

taught me how to manipulate text by turning it into outlines and then playing with counters, and the letter itself. Both tutorials extensively taught me how to play with the alignment pallet, and the multiple pathfinder tools that exists. Its just another step for me its nice to be able to manipulate type, and create a design out of a simple letter.

Other than that my dog has fleas, I'm up way to late, and on that note,

have a good night,

Paul

Sometimes Cool shit happens at random

2009-04-30T00:43:00.001-07:00

Well i was just doing some weekly tutorials. this time an easy one compared to my last few. However, it was an important one none the less. Tutvid is the SPOT! this tutorial was about brushes and swirls. The important thing is the brush part. For whatever reason i totally forgot that adobe illustrator is an ILLUSTRATION program. DUHHHHH right? well lots of class and lots of other shit going on makes one forget. Im so baffled about what graphic art really is. it seems like a compilation of so many mediums all smashed together into one big awesome form of art, where the possibilities are endless. This is where my point comes into play... Illustration is not only done with the pen tool! haha. and tonight i realized that. i made a rad brush and it looked like this crazy bunny character i always try to draw. so with some tweaking and some cool brushes i made a rad little character. plus some tutorial awesome-ness. So while this slow ass, crap wireless Internet, that sounded so appealing at first when i got this apartment is loading ill do some more rambling... This tutorial showed me how to create and tweak my own brush. but it also taught me basic things that i overlooked. like pasting in front stuff like that. control c -- control f. pretty neat haha. i also learned about some little hot keys that rule. what merging stuff does. expanding appearances, to change colors in a brush so its not a solid color, stuff like that. i also browsed over a few other tutorials but they were far less appealing. Seriously go to tutvid do all the tutorials! its really taught me a shit load about this program. bummed that were done with it for this class i want to learn everything there is to know about illustrator! i looked over a few others but did not have time to do them all. Tutvid tutorials are pretty in-depth, and take way longer than just pen tooling over a tennis ball or something. I bust my ass to just tutorial it up. but i much rather spend two hours on a tutorial worth a shit then just read over some rocker ass dudes tutorials on youtube. so there is my ramble. peep my work, and presentations tomorrow yayyyy. oh and the bunny i made was made all with brushes,except the teeth are pen tooled haha.

oh and check out this tutorial as well, i looked over it in class, and again at home but didnt do it. it didnt really seem worth it, but it gave some more pen tool pointers, and how to do some gradent work. kinda ok. either way learned some new stuff. tutvid.com again.

and I'm not gunna lie, i kinda said it before in this post. I think its good to look at tutorials and just read them and whatnot, but following along and doing the tutorials makes it worth it. check tutvids. mess around. even if the tutorial doesnt really seem like your getting anything to crazy out of it you still get some basics. Every tutorial i learn new hot keys, little pointers on stuff that i may or may not use. However, the info is all there, and there is nothing wrong with learning new stuff! haha

"Just doin what I do" lifestyles of the poor and haggard

2009-04-28T01:22:00.000-07:00

So life for me is hektic for a few reasons, and this is not a sob post about why people should give a crap, because frankly, there are people that do wayy more than me. Anyways, school all week, 3 studio art classes art 117 art 118 art 120, spanish 201 and another weird PSU required corse. Fortunately all these classes are rad as hell so its all gravy. I ride bmx and like to shred jumps in the woods. Me and my buddys have been doing this for years some more than others. I have met people from around the country, and around the world. All because we share a common interest, and love. (Riding bikes is about 95% of the reason i ended up in Oregon) We build these elaborate set ups in the woods. Jumps! Tons of them, thousands of man hours go into these spots, and usually get plowed. Some stay for years and years, some are world renowned some suck. But as far as trails go the east coast where i grew up till i was 18 and the northwest is the spots to be!. Its our zen and no one gets it. We dont really go to the skate park often, all though thats fun, we rather be in the woods with a bmx bike, a six pack and some shovels compiling this massive dirt jumps just so we can ride for the few months it doesn't suck out. Here are a few shots of my local trails back in NY, and the jumps here in good ol' Oregon..... and keep posted to see video sales and shit for the people who dedicate their free time to building jumps, and just being underground. We dont do it for the money, all though some do have some big sponsors which is rad. We just Dig and ride jumps for the pure love. To feel that weightless moment in the air, where ur flying 20 or 30 feet far and 15 feet in the air is like nothing else in the world. Along with this come injury and sometimes, unfortunately worse. Ive seen the biggest names be crumbled to nothing all because of one crash, but u know what, if those dudes could get back on a bike, they wouldnt think for a second about passing up the offer. We sighed up for it, so until that day comes keep doing what your doing and lovin it. So what im really getting at is we are sculptors of dirt and masters at fun haha. that was lame. But really we just are doing what were doing. and lovin every minute of it. so my point is, when im not bustin my ass during the week, you can catche me dippin into the woods, livin the life, and riding some bikes.

The finish product of the box tutorial, and some flames added

2009-04-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

Once again this tutorial kind of followed up on making masks, what they do.

How to add some really cool effects just with simple stuff.

tutvid.com tutorial.

this is what i produced!

its pretty much the same stuff the guy on tutvid has.

Making Cards, and holeyyy tutuorialss!

2009-04-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Ok well school since 8 get out at 5. run to art media get a ton of diffrent papers, and its time to experiment! after a lot of paper jams, and a few more quick dashes to art media i compleated my five cards. ill take pictures of 2 cuz even though i used 4 types of paper. i think these are the two most succesful, and pretty interesting.

one is a wild like thin mixed paper deal, with some wird like gold blotches on it, the

other is a matt heavyer toothed paper. its not white kinda off whiteish.

Next is my tutorials, and wow i spent really long on them.

The first one im not going to post a pic because it was worthless. it was a pen tool exercise. i was looking for like an advanced pen tool exercise, instead i found this one!

and here is my final product

I am not sure when i am going to have to make a box like this however!

I learned so much from this tutorial it was wild! it took about an hour and a half.

but i learned about how to mess with layers way more! gradients, and grouping, ungrouping the list goes on. How to make masks, what these masks do. There is so much to this box i didn't even think it was going to be this intense.

I will probably have to look over it again and again because there was sooo much information.

but this was the best one i have done yet! it was really fun. and my final product pretty much is a exact replica of the guy on tutvids.com. mine is the one in this post.

I strongly recommend people to do this one because everything u learn in the process can help u out way more just with basic illustrator things. i wish i could do my geoff mcfetridge card after watching this vid just because the stuff i learned about layers and shadows and stuff.

wooo.

Reflecting on my Geoff McFetridge Card

2009-04-21T09:05:00.001-07:00

This project was really important because i started to really play with illustrator.

I began to create work based on sketches and research. i really enjoyed having to

figure out what my artist did, and how he did it, and try to incorporate this into a final product.

I was really pumped because this project made something I'm doing for 118 much easyer. and the other

way around. I think its cool how the whole class put out some really good work, and I'm excited to do more

with this program as well as look more into this artist.

Weekly Tutorials

2009-04-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

For this weeks tutorial i did the live trace tutorial on tutvid.com.

It was really helpful because the dude explained how to tweak the settings so we did not just have a stock box deal. I had to dl this folder with two pictures, wich was available on the site. It helped me a lot even though i didnt use it for my card/ geoff mcfetrdige project, i deffinatly am using it for my art 118 class. The tutorial was about i think like 30 min. it was well worth it. it really made it all make sense, not to mention kate also gave a demo on this in class. doubble wammy.!

Photos in The mail!

2009-04-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

I have been back and forth from oregon to new york for the past few years. and over the moves i have sent my photos back and forth. well finally i got my stuff sent to me. When i was a senior in high school i took an amazing senior experience art thing. I chose to spend the year shooting and developing photos around a theme. I chose to take photos that made people feel as if they were dream like, and overall just odd stuff. We decided that surrealism was not a good name for the photos i shot and they were just there own thing really. i have all these photos mounted set up in series and like ready to go to a show haha. i want to start posting them on this blog and my flickr and possibly get my work out there. i mean why not right? i have not shot a photo in 3 years im not sure why i suppose i went thorough a block where i just had no ambitions. well now i am really eager to just explore everything and i want to get my stuff back in action. so this is my first step. please look back soon, i will be posting a series every few days, and explaining them and talking about what the hell i was thinking when i took the photos and whatnot. so check back!

woahh My card

2009-04-16T01:59:00.000-07:00

"Like ive done you know so many diffrent kinds of yeti/ big foot graphics.

and you can really reduce them to almost

nothing, or to be like a detailed drawing. i try to draw

people in by using recognizable images or shapes or whatever then twisting it or playing

with perception."

Live Trace and Our First Project

2009-04-14T01:33:00.000-07:00

well i got the wrong software for my printer scanner deal some while back. so guess for now I dont have a scanner. So i just took a sketch and then just live traced it from a picture in photo booth. Im not sure what or even if it has anything to do with the next project. but i may use some ideas and elaborate. this is the first stages of anything, more so the first stages of using illustrator.

SHIT INTERNET UPLOAD THE PICTURES WHEN IT DOES NOT SUCK.

sorry......

Artist of Choice

2009-04-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

I chose to study and get inspired by Geoff McFetridge. How can i start? well his work is awesome. Its really really inspiring

to me on a personal level.

I ride bmx bikes and its not only my passion but kinda a big chunk of my life.

I grew up around that culture, of being the reject to society because some sport i chose to do

that broke the confines of traditional sports or whatever.

"Geoff McFetridge is a graphic designer and visual artist based in Los Angeles" stolen from this site check it out. here is a few pieces of his work.

We watched a rad video in class on him as well.

i defiantly have a pretty creeper mustache, a bit inspired by him as well.

so i suppose im going to just really get into his work, and try to make this greeting card work.

i have a few ideas and sketched a few things. I cant import them cuz my scanner is messed up, so ill probably just do it in class tomorrow morning.

wordd

night night

just got cs4 designer suite!

2009-04-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

F'in pumped bloggin from my phone. Buisy as hell. Will post my designer of choice and info about him tonigh. Moms in town and have way too many classes check back tonightttt!

Final Four Type Designs!

2009-04-10T13:09:00.001-07:00

This is the revised E design. Once again its size 72. The font is "stencil font"

I really wanted to make use the negative space to create interesting movements.

I think its much more successful than my first design.

This is a revision of my original design. It was really poorly aligned at first so i decided to really switch it up. i took the parts that lined up the best and simplified the design. i like the feel that you get sort of like brick work.

This is the revised number 2 design. Font size 72 and the font is

Imprint MT Shadow. i spaced the 2's out better and switched up the alignment

a bit. Its not so repetitive, but still a pattern.

This is the original design i made with the font bickham script pro.

Size 72 and capital J. There is something about script that is traditional and beautiful.

I think its really awesome to make a pattern out of such a beautiful font and attempt to make it just as appealing if not more in the end. i think this is a successful one because there is so much going on. there are similar patterns and ones that vary, which personally makes the pattern less boring and does not take away from the composition of it.

heart tutorial

2009-04-08T18:37:00.001-07:00

for whatever reason my heart tutorial screen shot didnt show up so here it is!!

Weekly Tutorials

2009-04-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

So this week i found some time after class and earlier today to do some awesome tutorials. The one I was really pumped on was this one i found on google videos. Its about a half hour long tutorial on the pen tool. and all though i am far from knowing much about the pen tool, i can say after this tutorial i know the basics pretty well. you can find it on youtube. Adobe illustrator pen tool tutorial. I really recommend it, unless you are already a master with the pen. The one tutorial i did not find so helpful was the one on the 120 site, the vectortuts tutorial. I think its cuz there was no audio or video. I personally think it is much easier to work with someone rather then just be taught by reading.

Another good tutorial i found was again a pen tool one off google. its pretty long but pretty

awesome and very helpful. Pretty good! go try it here.

Two others i did were the slicing and cutting tool gallery and the crop tool tutorials. They were pretty informative. the crop tool i already was aware of due to other programs with a crop tool. the slicing and cutting tool was interesting, the possibilities are really opening up for me with all these tutorials. Pretty excited to start using them with some of my own work...

Weekend Skavenger Hunt........ Artist 5

2009-04-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

The next artist and the last one I looked at was Tim Biskup and I was pretty drawn into his work. I cant get the picture up on my blog for whatever reason but the link above will take you right to the piece i am talking about. This piece appealed to me for two reasons. One because of of its beauty, and the second because it relates to a project i have due for my intro to communications class (118). We are making pieces using simple geometric pieces, squares, rectangles etc. This guy makes all these shapes relate to a painting of a skull. He calls his piece "Doom loop # 1". Its a rad picture because the colors are so warm and inviting and you really have to stare at the painting for a while to figure out what it is. To be totally honest it may not be a skull, but it really looks like one, and the title gives the viewer a hint.

I think that being able to make such a complex painting out of such simple shapes is amazing. It is not only really difficult, it takes a lot of thought and really good execution. I am really impressed by all of this guys work, but this one really stood out to me. I think that everyone should take a long hard work at more of Tim's work because it is really, really good!

Weekend Skavenger Hunt........ Artist 4

2009-04-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

The next artist I chose to talk about is Banksy. Banksy for the people who don't know is an amazing street artist with a identity that is still to be found out. He has done amazing stencil work around the world and the whole time under a hidden identity. His work has extremely strong political meaning, and you will never find an image with out a tremendous amount of meaning behind it. This piece was found on a news web site called dailymail with the title "Graffiti artist Banksy strikes again - in Bethlehem". The guys art is so jaw dropping I don't know where to start. This image is probably one of my favorites. Its a little girl patting down a solider in Bethlehem. During all these holy wars that are going on in the area Banksy finds time to make a political statement that is not only shocking with its meaning but the image as a whole. Stencil work is amazing and he is nothing short of the master. (at least i think so) The solider is so much larger than the little girl, however this little girl still has all the power. The solider is disarmed and helpless, and for once seems to feel a bit vulnerable, much like the little girl would if this was the other way around. I think that this image is so successful because of where it was placed, and the meaning behind it. Please look at some more of Banksy's work, its so amazing and needs to bee seen and understood. This art form is extremely appealing to me. Street art takes skill and guts. Not everyone is willing to risk getting arrested to make a statement, Banksy is.

Weekend Skavenger Hunt........ Artist 3

2009-04-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

The next artist I found while looking around the poppy talk blog. His name is Matt Furie. This work is so awesome for so many reasons. His work is not only comical, but when u really start looking at it you realize how rad his work is. His drawings have so much texture to them it really draws your eye to his work. I found this image really interesting because it immediately caught my eye. One bike has a piggish monster on it, while the other has a human body and monster head. I cannot get over the colors used. they once again are pretty simple but really pop out and bring the viewer into the piece. the two bikes one red and one purple are the most interesting to versions of the colors I think i really ever seen. Almost a bit muted, but still very vibrant. Its pretty awesome. I love how the monster creature on the right is just gawking at the guy on the right. And once again I cannot stress it enough the texture he put on the monster is so detailed and awesome but u still feel that its a cartoon-ish character. This piece really works for me because the detail put in it makes the image so much more interesting but does not distract the viewer from the other aspects of the image. Its gives me a sense of street art. This would be awesome if it was blown up on some side of a building somewhere. check out his site its defiantly worth it.

Weekend Skavenger Hunt........ Artist 2

2009-04-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

The next artist is once again from the grain edit site. His name is Frank Chimero, and his work is once again nothing short of amazing. The picture I Chose was so appealing to me. Again because of its simplicity, but this time there was more. The message in this is pretty cool. "Says hope spreads peace". Obviously the only thing that's spelt out is "hope spreads" but the next image is a peace sign and a dove. The colors are really interesting to me. They are these muted yellow, and a muted teal color, or blue-ish color. I really like the flame on the match and how the piece is not the same size on both images. It is almost like a dip tick image you would see in photography. The simplicity of the hand a and the book of matches should not be overlooked however because there is a lot to the images. The shapes are really interesting because they are obvious, but simplified to a way where the detail does not take a way form the meaning of the image. I encourage you to read franks interview on this website, its really good and sheds some light on the designer behind all the work.

Weekend Skavenger Hunt........ Artist 1

2009-04-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

What i really love about design... Well I have always been super hyped on photography and street art. When i had the opportunity to get into graphic design I jumped on the opportunity. I love messing with computer programs and incorporating art forms from all walks of life into one. So to me this is design, it can be super simple or extremely complex.

I came across this artist by the name of Adrian Johnson on the grain edit web site. His work is super awesome and really shows how simple or complex a design could be. Out of all the images I chose this one, well i guess "these ones". each of these really interests me because of their simplicity. Very simple shapes are all combine to make awesome designs. The cloud is my favorite because of the colors. For whatever reason simplicity really intrigues me. there is blue and red, pretty simple right? well to me it seems much more complex. After reading his interview on the website it further proves that sometimes the simple things have way more meaning than most people think. I enjoy how some of the images he uses text and others are left to be more self explanatory. Design to me is making something simple, such as geometric shapes, or illustrations into something more complex. I think that Adrian Johnson does a really good job at proving this.

Illustrator Video Tutorial Madness

2009-03-31T21:35:00.001-07:00

So I got the e-mail from kate about some online tutorials for illustrator and was really excited. Went about my day and gave my buddy john a call. John runs his own screenprinting buisness in the town i grew up in on long Island, NY. He told me how he would go to barns and noble and just read a chapter a night about illustartor so he could learn how to use it. It immediatly inspired me to do the same, except I prefere to use the internet.

I checked out the first subsections of the multiple tutorials provided on

the site given to us. I checked out "why use illustrator" and "what are vectors". First off i want to say that i can already understand the program way more than in class today. I think that these online explanations and tutorials are awesome. I'm not really here to blog about what was on these tutorials, because I'm sure you could listen and figure it out for yourselves. however i thought it was really important how much different photoshop and illustrator are. the difference between vectors and pixel bassed images are profound. (this can be seen below)

So overall these two 4 minute tutorials have really enlightened me about what a vector is, and the difference between photoshop images and illustrator images. I'm super psyched to learn everything I can about these two programs, and really use not only my teacher as a resource, but students and other artists about these programs.

I know these are not really interesting blogs, however once I get started creating things should get a bit more interesting.

First blog Art 120

2009-03-31T12:47:00.000-07:00

So I guess this is my blog. From here on out I will keep the audience i may or may not have updated with my current work.

My computer experience is pretty limited. When i was a sophomore and junior in high school i was really into learning new programs, however i would get frustrated really quickly and give up. I played around with photo shop, Flash and adobe premiere. The video editing program i excelled in the most, the others got frustrating so i just put them to the side. Recently i have been messing around with final cut pro, and imovie. I know these are video based editing programs, but i feel as if i have some experience in them.

I am really excited to learn all I can about graphic design, the programs, the process, and see if I can excel in all aspects of the classes I'm taking. More specifically I'm excited to learn how to work with photoshop and illustrator (art 120).

Don't really read to many magazines, books that i have to for school. But there are some good online blogs I read up on. superbmx.com/lotekbrand.com and that's all I can think about as of now.

Favorite websites are twitter is pretty cool, myspace, facebooks, the regulars haha.

O so I will be posting up work that is in progress. I will also attempt to explain the processes I go through as the term unfolds.