Design in photos and paint

This week’s assignment in Design class was actually three items when it was all said and done.  You will see them below.  Two I did using photography and the third is a painting.  The assignment was this, create a microcosm in collage format.  Then translate that to black and white and as many shades of grey as you like.  We were also permitted to use one color if we chose.  First I made the collage.  I used many photos I had of birds, particularly owls, and then combined those with a picture of my older child.  A representation of part of that child’s world.  I made a black and white version and a color version to help me make the decision regarding the use of color in the final painting.  Here are the two collages:

Collage in color

 

Collage in Black and White

I used Aperture, CollageIt, and Photomatix when creating these.  CollageIt was a free app that I found at the App Store.  Using that I was able to combine the photos I had in mind from Aperture.  It is a pretty straightforward app.  If you are looking for a free, basic, app, it is those things, and it was very helpful for this project.  Then I made three version of the collage to put in Photomatix.  That was helpful in accenting the texture in the collage.  I created a color version and black and white, then put both back into Aperture for some final tweaking.

I decided that I liked the black and white version better.  I also decided that I wanted the final painting to be vertical instead of horizontal.  I used black white and five shades of grey.  Here is the painting:

Final painting

So, what do you think?  Have a favorite? question or comment?  leave them below in the comment section.

Cheers!

 

Masters Painting Reduced

For those of you who follow my blog regularly you know that in my design class we have been working on study of a Masters painting.  In my case it is the Milkmaid by Vermeer.  This week I did a 5×5 painting:

painted, scanned, and converted to jpeg

The idea behind this assignment is to reduce it to its shapes.  So, if you are familiar with the original painting, you can see that a lot of detail has been lost.  if you are interested in seeing the line drawing and a copy of the original, I linked in a previous blog here.

Photographing Art

A project that I am working on is photographing three paintings that my friend and local St. Louis artist, Amy Adams, has painted for a soon to be open restaurant.

My job is to photograph the paintings in the most realistic color possible.  Amy will be using these photos for her own personal use as well as promotional materials.

All three were shot using a tripod and a custom white balance.  While these are ready for web use, I might have some more work to do in getting them ready to be made into prints.

Cheers!

 

A sketch for Design

This week in Design class we are working on the use of shapes and line in paintings.  Here is my sketch:

Sketch that has been scanned to a jpeg

Basically, what you are looking at is an interpretation of major shapes and lines in a painting.  Are you, by chance, able to identify the painting based on the sketch?  Let me know, leave a comment below, I’m curious to know what you think.

Here is the painting:

The Milkmaid or The Kitchen Maid by Vermeer dated to 1658-1661

Cheers!

 

 

Design in black and white now featuring grey

This week in design class we were working on a painting.  Here it is:

painting, scanned, saved as a jpeg

It’s a portrait! go ahead, you knew that so roll your eyes, I’ll wait.

So, yes, a portrait on a grid.  Five values here; black, white, and three grey in between.  It was a bit of a paint by numbers project.  The original image was a photo that was in black and white.  The painting is 8×10, seen here placed on a grid that was made up of 1×1 squares.  One 4×4 section on the painting was allowed to have two lines, the rest just one.  The result is what you see.

Cheers!