Fluevog Shoe Ad Assignment

    I entered the "Change the future of advertising for the better, one Fluevog Ad at a time" Campaign. Fluevog Creative gives talented and aspiring artists the chance to create a Fluevog ad that will grace the pages of magazines around the globe. I designed an appropriate Fluevog ad for the "Rory " Shoe, the black and white version. I felt it had a 60s-70s vibe so I looked up some inspirational quote from that era. I found and decided to turn a popular Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor quote into something I understand. "Turn on your mind, Tune in to what matters, Drop the negativity." I added it to the background of my ad with colors inspired by that time. I also found a beautiful model with a similar style to the famous Twiggy also called Dame Lesley Lawson. I love the big eyes and the long eyelashes look accentuated by the application of more lashes on top of the natural ones. The model that I used as the foundation for my Adobe illustrator vector art is Peggy Moffit. I then constructed the ad around the illustration of the Rory Shoes and added some abstract elements. Landline phones were a big innovation in that time and they helped to connect people to what they love including items like shoes. 

Project: Save The Aliens in Area 51

    I made a prototype surface design for an app called "Save The Aliens in Area 51." I dabbled with an Adobe Software called "Adobe XD" to make it. I thought it was kind of interesting even though it was hard to grasp at first. Adobe is in the middle of partnering with Figma instead of the program they made called XD. Honestly I really like XD. I don't understand why they don't just enhance it or upgrade it. XD allows people to build prototype front end designs for apps. In the past with the right tools, you can generate code directly from your Adobe XD project. Anima lets designers create high-fidelity code-based prototypes in Adobe XD, then export developer-friendly HTML, React, and Vue code in a few clicks. but now Adobe for some reason wants to leave all that behind and start using Figma. I tried learning Figma. I can build with it but I don't like it as much as XD. 

To start the design I sketched some drawings of aliens I wanted to digitally paint to motivate people to care about the aliens no matter what they look like. I also puttered around with A.I websites that spit out alien concepts that didn't quite look alien or have the right proportions. When I have a job I will learn how to use the high end A.I programs to help me map out concepts but for now the Photoshop Generative Fill is pretty useful. I designed the sheep logo with Adobe illustrator after I sketched it out on paper. 

I don't approve of racism. I don't like bullies who abuse the people who are different. Everyone can love and learn to appreciate, if not adore, Jesus Christ. Including aliens. Capturing aliens and angels and sticking them in a warehouse to study them and experiment on them is not acceptable especially when they aren't even citizens of that country. Not to mention sometimes they get tortured and mutated. Humans and others need to stop hurting them. 

Why do they fly to our time and certain lands? I am unsure of the reason but I know their is a reason. It could be that they want to save us from destruction. Maybe they are like Saints, they just care. Even the Greys that are supposedly experimenting on humans have a good reason. Maybe they are like doctors, trying to figure out why humans are so petty and jealous and full of malice. Maybe they have permission to make us better. Jesus is not of this world as well and he has my permission to make me better than human. I don't know why some aliens do what they do. I think most of them are benevolent though. Maybe the reason changes depending on the dimension they are in or where they are. I understand that multi-verse dysfunctions can happen but with God's permission things can be repaired and heal. Making them angry is not the solution.

All around the world animals have shown that they can evolve. Sometimes they don't even seem like they were born on Earth. Maybe they are not but God knows where they are. They matter and so do humanoid aliens. Helping them find their way to their planet and in the right dimension is benevolent if it is done correctly and with God's permission. You don't want to throw the aliens in a universe where their is war when they are supposed to be in a peaceful realm. You would not do this to angels or Saints so why do people think it's okay to treat aliens differently? Taking angels and Saints and even soldiers out of Heaven is wrong. God does not like creation being hurt. In Canada we have an anthem that says God commands the sons and in all thy son's commands. The Saints command with permission. Canada is a country full of diversity, every culture and ethnicity matters. All of the Saints matter no matter what they look like or where they were born. Not to forget either, that indigenous people getting hurt is not okay. They are home, Canada acknowledges this and our neighbors should do a better job with this concept. Houseless is not homeless. Every energy, ancestors, and guardians matter too. No matter what color it is. Friends of life and goodness. Nature is benevolent. God cares. 

I am writing this on a day after Israel declared war on Palestine. I don't want the world to go to war but I don't like how some people have been at war for a very long time and the world didn't really flinch or try to save them. Humans get used to war and death but I know that doesn't mean God thinks it's okay. I do believe that God wants to save the good. It doesn't matter what they look like. If humans want to live in a world without war they need to save what is good. What was, will be, and can be good. 

Saint Paul matters. Saints like him matter too. When something is redeemed and forgiven it needs to be protected just as much as what is pure. Throw in time travel and a long timeline and what was good can change in a negative way with torture or painful challenges but it still matters. I believe only Jesus Christ is perfect. Turning around and picking on things that are more perfect then you is not okay either. Corrupting things just to make yourselves feel better is and always will be wrong. Breaking things, people, animals, beings, energy and paradises is not okay. 

We need to do what we can to protect, repair, heal, save and forgive when we can. Also, we should let what can go to Heaven go to Heaven. If they are supposed to be in Heaven or somewhere nice let them be there.

I was born in Canada in an imperfect peaceful time that I learned to respect. When my parents got a divorce I felt like something became damaged, and I was kidnapped. I ended up traveling a lot as a child. Some cities in the USA were nice but some were not. Some seem to have changed for the better while others not so much. Some cities that were nice are not now and vice versa. 

Aliens need to becareful where they go especially when trying to save

Most of the cities in the the southern states of the USA are not that nice to aliens. I can only remark on the cities that I got stuck in. I understand that there is no way of knowing how they would be in a different dimension with negative elements not being there. If you remove the bad guys from the world, the world would obviously be better. And if the world is better why would you put the bad guys back in the world to torment the aliens, angels, and Saints? I don't know why nor do I want to.

• Tampa Bay, Florida is horrible to the aliens. 
• Orlando is better but it's like a weird child-like matrix. 
• Miami in better days can coexist with aliens well.
• No data is allowed to exist about Alabama and Mississippi. All I can say is they seem racist.
• The big city in Georgia seems nicer to aliens but they also deal with racism. 
• Louisiana is dangerous but can be repaired. 
• Texas is home to a lot of liars. They don't really like aliens it seems.
• Nevada seems to depend on certain factors. It seems like a danger zone but maybe not always.
• Philadelphia can be repaired and then is anti-racism but I truly think the aliens need help here nowadays. 
• Colorado is very temperamental. Not sure anymore, but I think they can be repaired but be-careful.
• The Carolinas are racist these days.
• California seems to like aliens but not religion or the religious.

(Below) This is the final concept of the first page, the home page of my Save The Aliens in Area51 app.

I created a Tattoo Magazine replica

    This lesson took a lot of imagination and focus. I had to first, figure out what to make the magazine about in Adobe InDesign. I sent messages to my friends trying to figure out what might interest me. My friend Lee told me that the trans issue was one that was close to his heart because he is a transgendered man. I immediately sensed his bravery and courage and was moved. I decided to interview him but I needed a second topic to talk about in my magazine...My cousin is a tattoo artist and he also messaged me online and told me he would not mind if I interviewed him. Fantastic! I love tattoos. I have some myself. I was inspired by these two people and merged everything together. My magazine would be about tattoos and how they affected my friend Lee and Guyli, my cousin. It would tell Lee's story and the other article would tell the story of my up and coming tattoo artist cousin.

    I was lucky enough to be able to score photos from Lee of his tattoos and Guyli allowed me to take the pictures of his tattoo art and some of him from his Instagram. Then I created the back cover of my tattoo magazine and then the spine, and then the front cover in the traditional layout that goes to print style. Back, Spine to Front. I made the tattoo magazine title logo. I thought "Tattoo Lifeline" was an appropriate title. My cousin let me use all his flash tattoo art to make the wallpaper art that I used as a front and back cover. His art is really cool and has a subtle profound meaning, plus it's very creative and cheeky with modern icons. The back cover has the Winnipeg Tattoo Show ad and at the top is my own original art. I just wanted something that kind of went well together. Then I made the inside contents. It has a letter from the author, me, to the readers. Then the table of contents. Then Lee Sousa's interview with photos. The interviews have ads near them as was required for this assignment. Then it's my cousin Guyli's interview. Then the next page also has pictures of him and his tattoos. I also had to attach a magazine style guide and that is at the end. 

Disclaimer: I believe that being a Christian includes the act of being a friend and a friend listens and empathizes. Everyone sins. "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luke 5:32, and in Mark 12:31 "‘Love your neighbor as yourself." We all matter to Jesus Christ no matter who we are and what we do. Christians can change the world by being compassionate. I do think prayer is important and powerful and I pray almost every night for all of my friends.

    

    Below are pictures of my tattoo magazine concept. If you would like to view it you can if you click this sentence, please keep in mind that it will show you the back cover first, spine and then the front cover.

More clothing at pleasedonttellmaman.com

A wallpaper collage of Guyli's Flash Tattoo Art

This tattoo magazine inspired my design

My original painting

Exploring Charcoal Art

For this lesson we studied the human limbs and learned how to use charcoal to outline things and then blend and smudge to create shadows and hair strands etc-

I love drawing and traditional art. I had never used charcoal before though but I enjoyed the assignments tremendously! 

What an alien skull could look like

A foot that is tan

Saint Clare of Assisi

The Skeleton of a giraffe

My self portrait

De Stijl art and Dadaism art merges

    I was highly inspired by Theo van Doesburg and John Heartfield. Theo was heavily influenced by Wassily Kandinsky. Theo van Doesburg made the switch from a representational painting style to one that prioritized a minimalistic and geometric approach because of this influence. The Dutch artist championed the De Stijl artistic movement and has inspired many graphic designers over the decades with his thought-provoking art theories. The artists of De Stijl produced artworks that stretched far beyond painting and sculpture. They aimed for a unified synthesis of form and function in all media, covering literature, music, typography, and industrial design in addition to the fine and applied arts. Founded in 1917 by the ground-breaking abstract artists Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. De Stijl magazine’s name literally translates to “The Style” in Dutch. The De Stijl movement emerged as an Interwar Period artistic expression in reaction to the catastrophic devastation of World War I. In its effort to separate from the intricately ornamental and excessive artwork of previous eras, the movement strived for simplified and minimalist works of art.

In 1916, John Heartfield and George Grosz experimented with a form of art and combining images created what is now recognized as Photomontage. John Heartfield crafted highly political images that left a lasting impression with the Photomontage technique. He was known for taking iconic images from the illustrated press - like photos of well-known politicians or noteworthy events - and re-arranging them to form new and provocative messages. John Heartfield and George Grosz were pioneers of the German Dadaist movement, actively participating in the renowned Berlin Club Dada (1916-1920). Through their trailblazing work, they were instrumental in elevating the concept of montage to an art form that is recognized worldwide today.

My Creative Rationale: In much the same way that the De Stijl artists did, I recognized the boundaries of my poster space and filled it with geometric shapes. The background of the poster is made up of original De Stijl magazine pages that I found online. I added the De Stijl magazine name at the top. I also used a font that resembles Theo van Doesburg’s original lettering at the bottom page. The words written make a sentence that is similar to what John Heartfield wrote on the photomontage art piece of “The Happy Elephants.” I changed it to happy animals because in my art I included elephants and cows. Theo van Doesburg created cow art. He began with a series of figurative sketches of the cow and then transformed them into a geometrical composition. I wanted to be different but still show how I was influenced by Theo and John, so I drew John Heartfield’s happy elephants with wings with my pencils and then I turned them into shapes in Adobe Illustrator. I added both the pencil drawing and the shape components in my poster. Theo’s cows thus were turned into a photomontage in my art and I added wings to the cows to match the happy winged elephants. Photomontage is the method and outcome of combining multiple photos by cutting, pasting, rearranging and layering them together to form a unique image and that is what I did in my art poster. Dadaists revolted against the capitalistic logic and reasoning of their bourgeois society, which had driven them to war, by utilizing artistic forms that appeared to disregard rationality and instead celebrate chaos and absurdity. Thus, my art poster has a bit of chaos in the layering of the geometric shapes in the background. I merged Theo and John’s art styles to create my art piece. Combining them was thrilling. This was a fun artistic experiment for me.

The next page has original works from Theo van Doesburg and John Heartfield. After this are pictures of my art poster inspired by them.

My geometric shape sketch

My drawing of the Happy Elephants

The first rough draft

The final product

Making Digital Color Palettes

    Yesterday's assignment was fun and simple. I went to a popular mall and walked around taking photos with my iPhone of colorful objects. The furniture store had a lot of cool displays but they preferred neutral, earthy colors over bright, additive colors. Maybe in the spring or summer their colors will be more vibrant and bold. I still got some great captures though! It was fun sampling the colors with the color picker tool and then filling in the squares and organizing them in my palette. Very designer-ish 😉💛

Click on the pictures to enlarge them and then you can read at the bottom, the brief descriptions of my assessment of the color combinations used in the images.

The Gestalt Principles in Design

    Gestaltism was founded in the early 20th century by a group of psychologists. The Gestalt Principles describes how humans group similar objects, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images. These principles are divided up into five categories: proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness, and closure. Artists and Designers of all types use it to organize content and make it appealing. It's also great for building logos.

    For this topic's assignment I had to take an object and simplify it. Breaking it down to abstract lines and shapes. This project was fun and stimulating! I will definitely use this method in the future to make logos and banners in business cards and websites.

    I stuck with my ladderback chair image and deconstructed it:

The Final image illustration of the Chair Story

    Design Assignment 1, Personality Personification of a man-made object. My story is about "The cycle of life from the perspective of a chair." This is the scene I chose to illustrate in greater detail: The senior couple living happily together in their home, watching TV still utilizing the man's childhood chairs that his father made. 3 artworks. 2 digital collages.

The rough draft

Storyboarding, The Story of a Chair

    Design Assignment 1, Personality Personification of a man-made object. I chose to draw a chair. The cycle of life from the perspective of a chair. The storyboard has 20 thumbnails. 5 strips.

    I wanted to create a cute love story. And this is what materialized.

Here's a quick summary of the story beginning with the first row: The chair is being made in a workshop by a man who then brings it home to another chair.

Second row: The chairs like each other. The man's family consist of a young child who grows into a man.

Row three and four: The son who is now a man, falls in love with a woman. They sit and live their lives by utilizing the chairs who are also in love with one another. Time goes by and the adults become senior citizens, then the old lady passes away. The lady's chair eventually breaks too and is used as fodder for a fire. The other chair is sad, and daydreams about past memories.

Final row: Eventually the old man passes away and relatives drive the furniture, possessions, and chair to a consignment store that sells furniture. The old man's chair is surrounded by new chairs and furniture. Eventually someone buys the chair and it is recycled to a new home. Life continues.

The last drawing page is a detailed rough draft that highlights moments that could be in the story.

Click on picture to enlarge it

2nd Website Project utilizing Dreamweaver

     Learning how to use Dreamweaver was a little bit of a challenge for me but in the process I ended up memorizing some valuable CSS codes. I am now comfortable making separate <div classes and using advanced HTML5 and CSS codes when building websites. I was gently pushed by my teacher to pick a website online and to try to replicate it. I chose to try and replicate a WIX musician portfolio website that has a split screen. A friend of mine is a shy musician but he agreed to let me use his images and videos as content for the site. I tailored the website theme to meet his emo style. The website is made as a fake musician portfolio for him, highlighting his guitar playing skills and his music taste etc.

     I found the split screen layout code on the W3Schools website. It worked but with some glitches that my teacher, friends, and I had to tweak. I spent a few days changing words and numbers in the code till I learned what was what and what did what. It was a great learning experience! I wish Myspace.com was still around so I could build cool Myspace layouts all day LOL. 

    For the INSPIRATION section I vectorized my friend's selfie profile picture and added headphones and put it next to his Spotify playlist. He loved it! The CONTACT page has a cool text effect in it if you click the picture there. The BOOKING section that lists his fake booking agents was made entirely in Dreamweaver. I learned, at the end of my project after putting it online that the code I used worked well on desktops and laptop computers but not as smoothly on mobile phones. I did my best to try and solve this dilemma but I wasn't able to fix everything. If you would like to see the website message, comment, or email me. The class project was directed at laptops and desktop computers and so I got an A mark. In my previous blog entry about building a comic book page flipping website, the code that was used for it is mobile friendly. It's just another lesson learned for me. I have grown a lot taking these courses and I know that I'll just keep getting better and better at coding websites. You have to remember that I didn't use an easy website builder with widgets like WIX or SQUARESPACE. I built everything from scratch using only HTML and CSS. The Dreamweaver textbook taught me how to easily tweak things and add useful elements but I also had to Google a lot of the solutions myself. I am happy that I know now the basics of building websites. It will be interesting to see if Dreamweaver evolves to implement widgets in it's website building strategy in the future.

Using Dreamweaver to build the BOOKING page