Color Trip

Color Trip

So far in the course we have discussed the color wheel (primary, secondary, and tertiary colors) and the relations colors have with one another.  We have also covered intensity ranging from prismatic to muted and chromatic grays.  And finally, we have discussed common color schemes (triad, tetrad, complementary, split complementary, analogous, monochromatic, square, earth tones, warm/cool contrast, etc.)

For this project:

You will choose a country or destination of your liking to create a travel poster using an effective color scheme that you come up with yourself.   Each color scheme must use a variation of in intensity (a muted, chromatic gray, prismatic) in the composition.    Consider a place that might be your dream travel destination (Greece, Italy, Thailand, France, etc.)  Do a little research to find out what items might be unique to that location (including architecture, food, iconic buildings, agriculture, etc.) You might include images of these items in your composition. Please do not use words in your compositions. 

Sketchbook:  Create 4-6 sketches that will effectively convey to the viewer the country of destination that you have selected.  Carefully consider both an interesting and engaging design as well as effective combinations of color that you will be using to make your poster.

Create:  a 7x10” poster using shapes on Bristol board with Gouache.  Remember craftsmanship will be of great importance.  You are encouraged to use visual references.  You may google “travel poster” for inspiration, but the design needs to be something fresh and only yours (no reproductions).

Presentation:

You will present your work along with a short artist statement) about the work that you have created, discussing the subject matter and choices of colors you have made in the composition and why.   This one to two paragraph artist statement will count as one of your research papers.   

You will need to turn in a typed version of this artist statement along with your composition.

Sample Artist research

If you are having an issue or question about the artist This is a good example of what the artist research should look like.  It doesn't have to be all philosophical just put down in three paragraphs

1. Who the artist is?  (Short BIO--1 paragraph)
2. What kind of work they make? (describe it, its style, how its classified... ie. pop, minimal, etc.)
3. How does the artist use color in his work?

DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE AN IMAGE OR TWO OR EVEN THREE!

John Doe

Design Foundations

Thomas Green

Alex Grey

Alex Grey was born November 29^th, 1953, in Columbus Ohio. Not the place you’d think a great psychedelic artist would originate. The vajrayana practitioner is associated with “the Age of Aquarius” a.k.a, New Age Movement. This was a period in which the art was based off of self-help spirituality. He is considered on of the founders of the contemporary visionary movement, and currently teaches at NYU.

            Grey’s work has a wide variety of: performance art, process art, visionary, installation, and paintings. The work I’m best familiar with is his album covers for the metal band Tool. When I was young, my mom would show me a lot of music and loved showing me the cover art as well.  I didn’t understand the heaviness of lead singer Maynard’s lyrics but it made sense with Alex Grey’s razor eyes and mandalas. His work and Tools sound complimented each other in a way gears to a clock did. Alex Grey also did the cover art of Nirvana’s in Utero and Beastie Boys’ III communication.

            I admire Alex Grey’s intricacy in his paintings. His work is so clean it looks like he made his painting in Photoshop. In Grey’s work he shows a lot of human anatomy and its interaction with his depiction of spirituality, energy and chakras. Grey always knew he was an artist to the point he dropped out of high school to pursue his dreams in New York. His anatomy drawing where so on point that he was recommended to do illustration in anatomy books as his first job. Grey considers his art as a form of meditation and attributes a lot of his work to LSD and his enlightenment. I agree with his idea of art being meditation,. Art is often used as a rehabilitation technique.

            In Alex Grey’s Overlapping of human anatomy, spirituality, and energies I find inspiration. We go in our own personal trance when we create. It is the physical form of our mind. Gray uses a great deal of vibrant color and progressive pattern, and also plays with figure/ground relationships and reversal in an always new and surprising way. I agree that finding your style of art is a form (if not the most important) of finding yourself, and in that way we can all connect with Grey’s work.

Scanning Your Work

One of the most important things that you can do from here on out in your career as an artist is properly document your work.  Sometimes works may get lost or stolen, or even sold, and you will want to have a professional running catalogue of all the works you create.   While you might not ever show any of the works you have created in Color Theory or other Design Foundations courses to the general public,  it is good to have documentation for personal reference and reflection.  The processes by which you will be documenting these works will also apply to your future endeavors as an artist.  Thus, this is great practice for when you start making more serious works that you will want to share with the public. 

Scanning Your Work

To scan your work for color foundations, you will want to

1. Place your work picture side down on one of the many scanners available to you at MCA.  

2 Place the work in alignment with the edges of the glass scanning window. 

3. From the applications folder on the MAC locate "Image Capture" and open the program:

When you open the application, if you get a window that looks like this:

Or you might get a window that looks like this:

If the window that opened was the first one, you will need to click on the "SHOW DETAILS" button and the second window (pictured) will open up and and Image Capture will automatically run an overview scan. 

Once you are on the second window pictured above.  We will want to check, and possibly change the settings so you will get a print quality image of your work. 

To the right of Scan Mode:  the drop down tab should read "Flatbed." If it does, then you are good.  Go on to the next step.  If it reads "Transparency-negative" or "transparency-positive" then you will want to click on the drop down and change it to "Flatbed." 

Next, your "Kind:" tab should read "Color." If it reads "black and white" or "Text" then you will want to change the setting to "Color" 

The next tab, "Colors" should read "Millions" if it doesn't, then click on it and change the setting. 

For Resolution, you should have "300" dpi selected.  If you are not on this setting, then you will want to change the setting before proceeding. 

Just below "Resolution" click on the "Use Custom Size" to let "image Capture" know that you will be using one of their settings. 

Next you will want to highlight the area that you would like to have scanned.  To do this take your mouse up to the top left of the picture plane in the center of the application window and click and drag to cover the entire picture plane.  When you do this, Image capture will create a border and include the dimensions in the "SIZE" windows just below "use custom size." 

The next three settings tells Image Capture where you want to place the file, what you would like it named and what type of format you would like the scan to be.  

I like to select "Scan to: DESKTOP" so I can see the file as it is finished, and I can move on to the next work I need to scan.  

In the NAME window,  Enter your last name.  All images that "Image Capture" scans will be placed on the desktop with your last name as the base and a number (depending on how many times you have scanned).  For example, your first scan will be titled "Yourlastname" then "yourlastname1" "yourlastname2" and so on. 

Once your settings are all set, go ahead and click "Scan" in the lower right of the "image Capture" window.   Sometimes you will get a "Scanner is warming up" message in the scanning window.   Do not be alarmed

once the scanner is warmed up, the scan will begin and you will see the message change to this: 

This will take a approximately 20 seconds for the scan to completely run.  WAIT until you see the image on your desktop before removing your work from the scanner.  Once the images is finished and on your desktop, you can continue to scan the rest of your work without having to adjust any of the settings. 

Color Air Paper

Greetings Everyone,

Please go and pay Heather Ragland (in the business office at Gibson Hall) the 30 dollars to purchase Color-Aid Paper.  The school has ordered the paper for you and you will be using it for most of the second part of this class.

You must either have her print out a receipt that you will bring to me as proof of your payment, or she can send an email to my email address confirming the payment.  

Thanks so much.

Tom

Externships (from Carrie Allison Brooks)

The following EXTERNSHIP MEETINGS are available to all MCA students.  The last day to sign up is Friday.  Please see Carrie Brooks in Career before friday to sign up.

Key Items: Small business and social media know how; lots of alumni sell work here

Site: Allie Cat Arts

Facebook page: Allie Cat Arts

Contact: Nicole Phillipe (MCA Alumna), Owner

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Informational interviews Oct. 20^th or 21^st after 5 PM. You can walk/bike to this site.

_________________________________________________________

Key Items: Large design firm

Site: Archer>Malmo (Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Leigh Anne Rose (MCA Alumna) and Greg Hastings (MCA Alumnus), both Creative Group Directors

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Informational interviews on either Oct. 20^th or 21^st depending on the student’s schedule.

_________________________________________________________

Key Items: Perspective on design in a large corporation

Site: Autozone (corporate headquarters

Contact: Jason Falconer (MCA Alumnus), Art Director

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Mon. Oct. 20^th up to half a day.

_________________________________________________________

Key Items: They love fine artists! Arts administration; diverse activities within the organization

Site: ArtsMemphis (Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Sarah Blackburn (MCA Alumna) & Elizabeth Rouse

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Ideally, they would like the student/s to attend their staff meeting from 2-3pm on Mon., Oct. 20^th.

_________________________________________________________

Key Items: Museum education; volunteer training; museum/art interpretation

Site: Brooks Museum (Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Elesha Newberry, Associate Director of Education

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Informational interviews Oct. 21^st anytime. You can walk/bike to this site.

_________________________________________________________ 

Key items: Small design agency with big ideas and clients

Site: Combustion (Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Leah Jones (MCA alumna), Design Director

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Tues., Oct. 21^st. You can walk/bike to this site.

_________________________________________________________ 

Key items: Curating; MCA students will have work there for the Art on Fire Auction!

Site: Dixon Gallery & Gardens (Approved Internship Site)

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Informational interviews Tues., Oct. 20^th

_________________________________________________________ 

Key items: Small publishing firm; children’s magazine

Site: Jabberblabber  (Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Teresa Andrucietti, President

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Mon., Oct. 20^th or Tues., Oct. 21^st  for one to a few hours depending on the students’ interest and availability. You can walk/bike to this site.

_________________________________________________________

Key items: Business/ gallery owner; Collaboration for success

Site:  Jay Etkin Gallery

Contact: Jay Etkin, Owner

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Informational interviews on Mon., Oct. 20^th or Tues., Oct. 21^st, one to two hours. You can walk/bike to this site.

_________________________________________________________ 

Key items: Large design firm with big-time client list

Site: Oden a Business to Business (B2B) Marketing and Design Firm

(Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Andrew Lebowitz (MCA Alumnus), Designer

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Mon., Oct. 20^th or Tues., Oct. 21^st  for one to a few hours depending on the students’ interest and availability.

_________________________________________________________ 

Key items: Painting majors can be (and need to be) social media savvy… 

Site: Pinot’s Palette

Contact: Amy Beth Rice (MCA Alumna)

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Informational interviews, Oct. 20 or 21^st, one to two hours.

_________________________________________________________

Key items: Business owner, expert metal smith and craftsperson 

Site: Tootsie Bell, Silversmith/Jeweler (Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Tootsie Bell, (MCA Alumna), Owner

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Mon., Oct. 20^th or Tues., Oct. 21^st—as long as all day.

_________________________________________________________

Key items: Public art, diverse work, business owner, bicycles…

Site: Youngblood Studios (Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Tylur French, Owner

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Tues., Oct. 21^st up to all day as the students’ schedule allows. 

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Key items: Be your own job creator, designing and building clientele

Site: Woodland Tree (Approved Internship Site)

Contact: Justin Nunez (MCA Alumnus), Director of Design

Dates/hours for externship with this site: Tues., Oct. 21^st up to all day.

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Color Harmony_Midterm Assignment

Color Harmony

Color Terms and Harmonies

Harmony-A relational combination of hues that produce a pleasing effect; the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole; agreement, unity.

Temperature-the relative warmth or coolness of a color as determined by its hue (blue is cool, orange is warm)

Tint-adding white to a pure hue

Shade-adding black to a pure hue

Monochromatic Color Scheme-Using and tint, tone, or shade of just one color

Complementary Color Scheme-Uses colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel

Analogous Color Scheme-Uses colors that are close to one another on the color wheel

Triadic-uses colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel (this relationship makes an imaginary equilateral triangle)

Split Complementary Color Scheme- this is a variation on the complementary color scheme.  In addition to the base color, it uses the colors adjacent to its complement.

Tetrad Color Scheme-uses four colors arranged into complementary pairs, and adjacent to a complementary set of colors.  (this creates a rectangle)

Square Color Scheme-Similar to the rectangle, but with all four colors spaced evenly around the color wheel

For this assignment, you will research and find an interesting pattern that has uniform and varying shapes (i.e. no checkerboards).  From here you will create a large four panel gouache series based on that pattern.   In each panel, you will be using one of the following color schemes: Analogous, Triadic, Split Complementary, and finally Tetrad.

You will start by creating a series of four groups of four 3x5” thumbnails in your sketchbook, breaking your selected pattern down into shapes.   Each composition will be painted on a 6”x9” Bristol board (if you have 9x12 tablet, this is half of one sheet).  You will want to include up to 25 shapes for each panel, keep in mind that simplicity can create a harmony and make the compositions easy to look at.

After you have selected your final design, gently draw the shapes onto your panels and paint.  Remember: Color Harmonies/Color Schemes are like recipes.  If you do not follow the recipe, you will be altering the recipe and the Harmony will not be successful.

Finally, mount your four compositions using only a ½ inch border on the exterior, and a ¼ inch border between each panel on the interior.

Examples of past student works:

Midterm Grading

Midterm Grading- Color Foundations (FD160)

For your midterm, you will be turning in a folder on the server, which will include

1. scans, or photographs of all your finished projects,

2. your artist research papers

You will also be handing in your sketchbooks so I can see the progress you have made on your in class assignments.  I will be giving you a grade for your sketchbook assignments that is equivalent to roughly 200 points (20 percent of your grade). 

Sketchbooks will be graded for overall content (sketches, notes, splotches, etc) and also for organization and construction (are all your splotches thrown in there, or are they neatly pasted in the book in an orderly fashion?)

You will label your folder with “lastname_firstname_midterm” and place it in our classroom folder.  You will also place a copy of this folder in the dropbox.

To begin: 

1. You will need to scan your images using one of the many scanners that are available to you in the mac-labs and in the library.  If you prefer to photograph your works, that is fine too.

2. You will edit and adjust the images to make sure they look professional using Photoshop of the photo editing software of your choosing. Your images should be 300 dpi and sized about 8x10.  You will need one image per weekly assignment.

3. Create a folder (on your desktop or somewhere handy).  Drop your four word.doc artist research papers in the folder, then your edited images in the folder as well.  Each image should be named “Lastname_Assignment title.” You should have images for the following.

1. Achromatic

2. Prismatic

3. Chromatic

4. Muted

5. Color Harmony

This, along with your papers will total 900 points.   Your sketchbook will count as 200 points, and the midterm assignment (properly scanning your images, and placing all these files on the server) will count as 100 points.   Thus,  there is a total of 1200 points that you will be assessed on to process your midterm grade.