Research Assessment #9
Date: February 17, 2017 Subject: My Final Product MLA citation: Rosa Nanini, Luiz Fernando. What fruit to paint. 2017. Pencil. Sketches, Frisco, TX. These are simple sketches to my final painting Assessment: Research Assessment #9 I need to paint one hundred paintings of the same object for my final product. I did not know exactly what I wanted to paint so I used this research assessment as a way to help me discern exactly what I will paint for my piece. Because I desired to foster creativity, I planned to paint something simple. I decided a fruit would be best, but I did not know which fruit to paint. My research was based upon my opinions on drawing certain fruits and my conclusion on which fruit I should paint. I began by drawing a banana. I found it has an incredibly interesting shape to draw, but its distinct shape makes it difficult to use creatively. I imagine it would test my creativity, but I need to paint one hundred paintings; I have no time to contemplate unique ways to portray a banana. From there I decided to draw an apple. I found it quite intriguing. The way the colors can differentiate in an apple is very appealing. The shape also makes it easy to come up with creative ideas. I honestly see no problems in painting one hundred apples. The lime is also an a great fruit to paint. Its texture and colors are unique, while its shape is simple, and like the apple, could easily be used creatively. I disliked the grapes. One can tell by my drawings alone that I grew lazy after each grape I drew. It just takes too much time to paint grapes, and the shape of the clusters, like the banana, is difficult to draw in a creative way. The pineapple, similarly, is not a good fruit to paint. Although the colors are interesting and the shape can be used creatively, it takes far too long to draw it and the shape would look much better in bigger paintings. Overall, I prefered the apple. The lime is similar to it, but its texture is not as enjoyable to paint as the colors of the apple. The apple’s shape is easy to work with, and I already have many ideas to paint it with. I am glad I drew these fruits. I simply had no idea what to paint. I was just going to paint the first thing that came to mind, but by doing this research I was able to get a much better idea of what I should paint and how. In short, it gives me direction. Now that I have picked the apple, I can begin thinking of how to paint it and begin doing so. The best part is that I am finally getting to do what I have been looking forward to do the whole year: paint. I feel like I am finally thinking like an artist. As I drew these fruits and wrote about them, I began to develop my skills in discerning what to paint, which really is surprising. I feel encouraged to paint like this more often because it will give me more direction in my future painting. This research has also allowed me to gain a better grasp of what I want to do in final product. I now know what to paint and why. It will make all my future efforts in my final product easier. The next logical step would be begin writing down most, if not all, of the paintings I will create. Although I might change things as I paint these images, it is important to write down exactly what I will paint. Not only does it make the workload seem smaller, but it helps me paint more effectively. When writing down my ideas I plan to put them in groups because it will help give the whole piece more unity, other than all of the painting being paintings of an apple. In reality, deciding on what object to paint is the first step to begin painting, and the next, as I have stated, is to formulate a plan in how I will create the piece and my final product. Ms. Vernon has taught me how important planning is when doing something so ambitious. She explained it makes everything move faster, and it makes the overall work feel more gratifying. Of course, Ms. Vernon also stressed the importance of not constraining myself to a list of things to paint. The list will be a rough guide, not a step-by-step cookbook to creating my final product. Although it may seem menial, without the research and my decision to paint the apple, the list would be impossible to create. It is also important to not that despite all the direction this research gives me, I still have to decide what to paint using the apple. I cannot simply paint the same painting one hundred times. I need to be creative, but how? I am not sure yet, but I plan to separate the paintings between themes and style. For example, twenty-five of them could be realistic paintings. Each from different angles and maybe positioned in different ways with different backgrounds. The painting process is exciting, but daunting. Planning in this way helps me prepare for the future, which is something I would have never imagined doing before this course.
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Research Assessment #8
Date: November 18th, 2016 Subject: Branding in Art MLA citation: Gallery, Agora. "6 Things You Can Do To Promote Your Art - Agora Advice Blog." Agora Advice Blog. Agora Gallery, ______25 Aug. 2016. Web. 18 Nov. 2016. Assessment: Research Assessment #8 In an effort to continue pursuing my Original Work, I looked further into branding. This time I found an article, “6 Things You Can Do To Promote Your Art - Agora Advice Blog” that focused deeply on basic steps of advertisement. They really reinforced what I already know, and I believe they will be useful guidelines when building my plan (for the original work). I also looked in a few different blogs from certain artists. It seems sharing my story and personality is the best way to gain the attention of an audience. Overall the message I am receiving is that my artwork and my brand should be a reflection of me, my struggles, my victories, and my thoughts. The first main focus of these 6 steps was building a presence and reputation. To do so building a website with active interaction is the first step to gaining people’s attention. In tandem with this I need to put my work, my portfolio, in the website. My blog should be centered on my art, but may fluctuate into other aspects in my life that influence my artwork. I found this quite refreshing and challenging. Putting my work out there encourages me to keep working and improving, while blogging about my work consistently also challenges me to be active online and, again, to keep painting. I want to try implementing this to my own ISM website if my final project has anything to do with consistent painting. Another main focus that encourages painting is to put my name out there. There are quite a few ways to do this, each work fairly well together. The first is to join art competitions and galleries. These will encourage me to paint more often and to improve based on the criticism I receive. The next method is networking; like any other job I need to be readily available to go out to art galleries, join organizations, and join community events to introduce myself to the the art community around me. I also need to talk to those I make contact with and build a relationship. This one is challenging. To join any of these so that I can build AND maintain relationships is, to say the least, daunting. However it will encourage me to reach out and to take action. I believe this will be incredibly beneficial in building up my social skills and training me to reach out to people. I feel like a large aspect to be successful in building a brand is being active. I need to consistently work with my community and contacts so that they remember me. Hopefully be remember me, they might be encouraged to buy my artwork. I must keep one thing in mind, something that has a tendency to slip off my mind. My focus is not to sell artwork, when branding, it's to sell myself. My brand and I need to be part of people’s lives. The only way to do this is to dedicate myself to building everything in my life towards my art. I feel as that is a good step in my Original Work plan, everything should lead back to my art, my passion. Research Assessment #7
Date: November 15th, 2016 Subject: Branding in Art MLA citation: Horejs, Jason. "Cultivating Your Brand as an Artist." Red Dot Blog. Xanadu Gallery, 10 Nov. _______ _____2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016. Assessment: Research Assessment #7 For this research assessment I wanted to start researching for my Original Work: a plan to brand myself. I want to look into this so that I may better prepare myself to become an artist. I know the main drive for art should be my passion; by having a plan that can guarantee some direction to follow my passion I enable myself to focus more on my work. I want to ensure I will be able to pay the bills as an artist, so I need to be prepared to do everything I can to get my name out in the world. I stumbled into an article titled, “Cultivating Your Brand as an Artist,” which encouraged me to look into branding in further detail. It specified the basics and the type of mindset I need for advertising. The main focus that I gathered from the article was that I should focus on myself when branding, rather than on my art. My brand should be focused on my aspirations, style, and personality. The goal is to have people buy a product not because it looks good, but because I made it. This is quite encouraging, I am a person who is very focused on building a unique identity that stands apart from others, so this would not be too much of a stretch. To do this I would need to focus on developing a style and branding myself accordingly. Thinking about it I can relate my style to the previously researched impressionism. I would love to focus on building this semi-realistic style that stands apart from other artworks. Of course I need to really narrow down on what kind of artist I am, so that will be a focus of mine throughout ISM and the rest of my life. Another focus on the article was building a relationships with customers. This quickly relates to my experience with Howard Kelley, who stressed the importance of building a connection with employers. To ensure a steady income I need to make sure I have an audience, so that is what I will plan to build with my brand. I think this would not be too difficult for me; I love conversations and engaging in social events. To have a personal connection with those that buy my work would encourage me to improve drastically. So to build up an audience, I will work on figuring out social events I would synergise well with and practice networking with people. Throughout ISM I have received mainly positive feedback during social engagement, so I would love to continue practicing and bettering my social skills. This leads to ever looming theme of my ISM experience, passion. I need to cultivate my passion to succeed in this world. I need passion to consistently work on bettering myself and finding my style, aspirations, and identity. I need passion to engage in personal relationships with people about art. Most importantly, I need passion to work in a job such as art. I will work on creating my own unique brand, and to do that I will cultivate my ever-developing style and personality that makes me unique. Date: October 27, 2016
Subject: Painting Styles MLA citation: Marder, Lisa. "Art Styles Explained: From Realism to Abstract." About Home. Getty ______Images, 3 July 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. Assessment: Research Assessment #6 Since my last research assessment, I talked to Mr. Speice. He told me I needed to find topics I actually enjoyed to research. So I decided to look into something I am deeply curious about: the different styles of modern painting. If I want to be a painter I need to find what I enjoy and work with it; however learning an already established style makes learning more efficient and helps me find artists that also work on this style. This is not even limiting, there are hundreds of art styles to pick from, one is bound to resonate with me. While looking into these styles, I bumped into, “Art Styles Explained: From Realism to Abstract.” It only taught the basics, but it was enough to see which one I enjoy and from there I could research that specific style. The first thing that caught my eye when researching was Impressionism. I have always created quasi-realistic paintings. I just seem to be unable to reach realism. However, I do not see that as a negative quality. It is a sort of style, and it fits well into Impressionism. Impressionism is about a rough look that lets the viewer fill in what is “unsaid” in the painting. The rough look if the painting also reminds me of rough sketches I love to create. The rough, somewhat unpolished look has always been my favorite. Impressionism allows for some abstract elements that neglect detail in favor of letting the viewer determine it themselves. I find I enjoy this style a great deal and will look into it in the future. Another art style I enjoy is Painterly. I have always been in love with thick paint. It gives me the same feeling as the rough sketches, that I mentioned earlier, do. It simulates realism, yet allows for the liberty to show the paint as it spreads through the canvas. Although it does not fully resemble what I create at this point, it is what I strive to do. Working with thick paint has always been thrilling and distinct than anything else I create. It allows me to do two of my favorite things, mix colors and play around with light. Most of this is done with Oil Paint and Acrylic Paint, which take longer to dry than watercolor, meaning I can take the work at my own pace. I want to look into this art style in the future, and want to have an end goal to be able create painting I am proud of in the Painterly style. It seems I resonate incredibly well with Painterly and Impressionism. I love hard brush strokes and rough paintings. Both these types of paintings give me the liberty to paint as I wish, but also give me grounds to work from, unlike Photorealism and Abstract. They also fit into how I already work. So, because of that, for my next research assessment I will be looking into Impressionism. This lets me interview Concept Artists and continue learning more about traditional art. I want to continue narrowing down on my passion to figure out what my final project will be made from. Date: October 13, 2016
Subject: Digital Concept Art MLA citation: "What Is Concept Art?" Randbin. Web. 13 Oct. 2016. Assessment: Research Assessment #4 After completing my previous Research Assessment I concluded I wanted to look into something other than traditional art, which had been my focus for two consecutive assessments. At the time I was fairly unsure on what I wanted to look into, but since then I have had a couple of interviews and a relatively decent amount of time to think about my topic. This time has also led me to a conclusion: I love traditional art, and I know I can work well with it, but it is a quite dangerous and challenging career to follow. On the other hand, I know concept art intrigues me just as much and it is a much safer choice; however, it will challenge me to learn how to work with more digital mediums. I plan to pick between these fields. To do as such I need to have a fair amount of knowledge about both traditional and concept art. However, my interviews have only led me to finding many painters I can learn from, but not many concept artists. Therefore I must find a way to learn about concept art. Which is why I decided that I would research concept art for this assessment. I wanted to begin my research with the basics of concept art, but for some reason I struggled to find good articles about concept art. The one I managed to find that had the information I was looking for was “What is Concept Art.” When reading it, I realized there existed different types of concept art. It makes sense. Artist tend to have varying skills, but they tend to specialize in a specific topic. Some are better at designing characters, others environments, and some objects and vehicles. Usually these topics are what they prefer to create, which realistically would be where they spend most of their time creating. I want to find what I want to specialize in concept. I figured out, through the article, I would be interested in creating environmental and character concept art. What they had that others lacked was freedom. Creating objects and vehicles, they are grounded specialities in the sense the artist is bound by the world, the environment, and character concepts artists create. I love history and the niche of personalities, environments, and events of history. I believe that would be valuable in concept art in the sense it could help me create “realistic art.” By that I mean art that is believable to the audience for whom it is meant. An artist can create anything, but if they are creating something meant for an audience, they would want the creation to be believable to said audience. Knowing history and having lived in diverse places would help me create those believable environments and characters. The information was not only encouraging, but also motivating because the job seems to fit into something I would thoroughly enjoy. It also seems like something more stable and grounded than painting; however, admittedly I am not very experienced in digital art, which is the majority of the art created in concept art. This means I would have to cross that challenging barrier and try to learn digital art. Knowing this I plan to look further into Concept Art, by researching it as part of my research assessment, and Traditional Art, by learning from professionals during interviews. I already have plenty of painters to interviews, so I will try to find some articles detailing Concept Art. I also plan to talk to one of my teachers to see if I can find a Concept Artist one of her students used as a mentor a few years ago. As the year progresses I know I need to pick my final topic. I am having a thrilling time learning about the different types of art and their intricacies, but if I do not pick a topic soon I will be in a tough spot. How can I create a final product without knowing what the topic it is based upon even is? At the beginning of the year I was overwhelmingly anxious about what to do and how, but now I am still anxious, but also excited and motivated to pursue my passion. To do that I need to first: increase my knowledge of both traditional and concept art, then second: pick between one of them, and lastly, learn to adapt to each of their challenges I previously mentioned. Date: October 13, 2016
Subject: Digital Concept Art MLA citation: Yu, Donglu. "How to Become a Better Concept Artist." Creative Bloq., 1 July 2016. Web. 21 ______Oct. 2016. Assessment: Research Assessment #5 For this research assessment I wanted to focus more on the work concept artists do and how I could fit into that. I was more curious on how concept artists worked with other teams in a production. I managed to find an article that detailed just that. The article’s focus on how concept artists should work with a team was insightful. I tried applying certain aspects of what I can do and what should be done in concept art, and I found that I could work well in concept art. I love the pre-production phase of projects. Having been at my Church group, Rebel, we work similarly in projects for the Church. Due to that I have great experience in working with teams. I also figured out that concept art has many similar intricacies and techniques of those in traditional art. The only real challenge I saw in working on concept art would be learning to work with digital art. It would take practice, but I would definitely be willing to work on improving that skill. Concept art seems like something I would fit in well with; the more I research about it, the more inclined I am to continue learning about it. Once I began reading the article, the first thing I noticed were the similar principles of concept art and traditional art. Both focus on color, lighting, cultural/artistic influences, and techniques used to create the art. It seems concept art, in inherently just art, so it would be bound by the same rules as traditional paintings and drawings. However concept art focuses more on the thematics of the topic they are basing the art from. They focus more on history, culture, and realism. It is much less about the viewer’s interpretation and much more on how the piece helps the production team visualise their product. In that aspect concept art is similar to storyboarding. Both focus heavily on pre-production and help the production team see what the final product should look like. Both also involve direct communication between the director and artist. However, concept art seems to have communication with other people as well, the lighting, modeling, level design (in video games), and animation teams. This information is incredibly encouraging. I have had experience with storyboarding in Animation. I believe the process of designing the background, characters, and events could translate well into concept art. In animation I also worked with a teammate, admittedly only one. However, I have worked in teams with my Church group, Rebel. We design posters, advertise multimedia event. I always enjoyed working with others, bouncing off ideas is one of the most enjoyable experiences. So when it comes to teamwork, I also think the transition would be smooth. The fact that I have worked a fair amount with traditional art, its principles and techniques, would also smooth the transition. Sadly I do not have much experience with digital art, so I will focus on studying its differences from traditional art in the future. This article was thoroughly insightful and it reassure me that I can follow my passions and do well. I believe the job is more secure than traditional art, and it seems to fit well with me. I feel as though many of my traditional art skills will translate well into concept art, which would ease the transition, if I so chose to follow on concept art. For the future I will continue researching Concept art and I might try to get some interviews with concept artists as well. I do plan to look into concept art and freelance. I am getting the impression concept art can be like freelance, so I want to see if those thoughts are true. I am only getting more excited about picking my topic, and if it were concept art, then my project would definitely be something to do with learning more digital art. Luiz Rosa Nanini
Mr. Speice ISM 16 September 2016 Subject: Support for Artists Citations: Lent, Shawn, Michael Feldman, Talia Gibas, and Louise Geraghty. "The State: A Friend Indeed to Artist in _______Need?” Createquity. Createquity, 8 July 2016. Web. 16 Sept. 2016 Research Assessment # 3 While looking on the website I used for my last research, I came across an article that piqued my interest. It was mainly focused on different countries’ ways of dealing with traditional artists. Based on the belief that as the world becomes increasingly globalised, it is important to learn about the job’s status in the rest of the world. The article itself talked about the difference between more socialist countries’ sponsorship of art, and America’s more indirect support of artist. It mainly wanted to show the positives and negatives to both sides. I mainly want to focus on what they said differentiated America’s art field from the rest of the world. Which is, that the art field is not supported by the government, unlike some other countries, but, like any other field, are left to balance the consumers’ demands. Annoyingly, the information is not new to me, the last article I researched spoke of the dangers of the art world. It already had led me to establish the idea of a backup plan. It did, though, give it a more solid reasoning: as the job has a large disparity between high and low wages, and only a minority reaches the high end, it makes sense to have another job or find a more secure job in art like concept art or animation. Although, preferably, I would like to use this information during interviews. Professional’s opinions of the subject would bring a more grounded approach than what the article provided. The article is not like most articles I have researched Createquity, the group responsible for the article, seems to focus much less on the numbers, but on what the information means to them and the art field. Which is interesting, the more thought provoking article makes it easier to formulate my own opinion on the subject and reveals some of the art field’s atmosphere. The article helped me visualise a broad view of the challenges and advantages artists in America face. It motivated me to look more into articles about how different artists survive in the field, but it failed to provide enough new information. It did state other countries’s relationships with artists, which was new, but it did not provide new information about the United States’s relationships with artists. This, ironically encouraged me to add a new interview question: “I was reading an article that made a point about America not providing as much support to artist, do you believe this is true, why?” I think I am going to move on from traditional art-related articles. Although I am still overflowing with questions, I believe some can be answered during my interviews. I definitely will go back to traditional art and concept art in the future, but for now I plan to move on to graphic design because I still have not researched the topic. I am curious to see how these articles will impact my interviews and how future articles will impact future interviews. Luiz Rosa Nanini
Mr. Speice ISM 10 September 2016 Subject: Starving Artist Citation: Lent, Shawn, Louise Geraghty, Michael Feldman, Talia Gibas, and Ian David Moss. "Who Can Afford to Be A _____Starving Artist? Createquity." Createquity. N.p., 14 June 2016. Web. 12 Sept. 2016. Research Assessment #2 This week I decided to follow one of the extremes in my choices for topics. (Traditional Art, Concept Art, and Graphic Design) I went with traditional art. It took no time for me to find an interesting article, which asked the question I have always had in my mind, why does the “starving artist” exists. I began reading and was surprised to see the authors wanted to spark thought more than anything else. They were not planning on convincing the readers of anything, but wanted to get readers to think about the topic. They began by stating that the world does not need artist, but artist need the world- Well, artist need workers in other professions, but those workers do not need artists. In a way it makes sense, the world needs construction workers, farmers, government officials, but it does not really need any artists. They do not provide any tangible benefit to the world, yet I believe it is just as important as any profession to our society. Like the internet, art benefits our society. It provokes thought, reflects culture, and are a mode of expression much needed in our world. The authors seem to agree with me. They next mention what artists really benefit society, they say it is those who benefit others by attracting audiences and winning the experts’ praise, or if they add to society. In that sense I think they are ruling out those that only create art for the art market. Which makes sense- to thrive in any job a person must work because they are passionate about what they do, not for the money. Their third main point is that artist tend to be those in the higher social status are more likely to become artists. This surprised me. I have an advantage over someone with less money because I can formulate a backup plan and I have more resources to create art with. I am glad to learn this because it helps to know that I am not alone in my hesitancy to take on the job. ISM thankfully will help me decide. Another mention the authors made was that artists tend to have other jobs and degrees incase their original plan does not pan out as they hoped. Mainly because in art, the discrepancy between those payed the most and the least is overwhelmingly large. This is interesting because most artists do not have degrees, but those that do are more economically stable. This encourages my plan to get a fine arts degree, but also frightens me to know I could fail terribly in attempting to follow my passion. Overall, seeing that my fears are not paranoia, but a real problem, is quite reassuring. I still hope to find answers in how the successful artists achieve their success, but for now I am very anxious to learn if my passion is going to be a hinderance or a strength. Luiz Rosa Nanini
Mr. Spiece ISM 4 September 2016 Citation: "Concept Artist Career." MyMajors. N.p., 13 Dec. 2015. Web. 04 Sept. 2016. ______Subject: Concept Art Research Assignment #1- Concept/Storyboard Artist Since I am looking into a variety of topics relating to art: traditional artist, graphic designer, storyboard artist, and even animation, I cannot research all of my topic. That is why I am hoping to find a medium between my choices, something that is not too hard to look into. Traditional art and graphic design are the two extremes of my spectrum of choices, so I am decided to look into storyboarding and concept design. I began by looking at the basics, storyboard and concept artists seem to work in relatively the same field, Multimedia Artists, because they work with both technology and traditional art. They both work to create the basic outline of the project, characters, story, and scenery, as well as, and this is mainly storyboard artists, helping establish the animation and personality for each character in the project. This information looks great, I love working with traditional art, but I know being a traditional artist is not a very stable job. These two jobs will allow me to use traditional art in tandem with programs like photoshop and flash. Also the fact that these jobs are very project based and involve working directly with a team seems great. I have worked in team-based-projects with my church group and I have always enjoyed working with other people. I was surprised, though, that the average salary that was around $65,000. From what I had gathered in the past, I had expected the salary would be around $50,000. Overall, I feel as though this information only makes me feel more comfortable about exploring the field, but, discouragingly, it seems difficult to find new information about the subject. After looking into the main idea of the job I looked at education, and it seems a Bachelor's Degree is the expected education. From painting, and animation, there is a wide variety of majors people have gotten the job with. This affirms my choice of getting a Fine Arts Degree. It is a flexible degree that I know can get me just about any of the options I am open to, so this information, again, only makes me more eager to look into these jobs. As much as this information encourages me to look into these job, mainly because they seem to fit perfectly into what I want, a stable career that will enable me to follow my passion and work with a team, I am discouraged in that I haven’t really found too much new information. I look forward to further explore the fine details of these two similar fields, especially concept art, and will definitely use the information I gathered to help me in researching my mentors. |