Bonnie Dolin

Bonnie Dolin is probably my most inspirational fine artist and seeming she is a very infamous American artist, I thought I'd shed some light on a few pieces which literally keeps me painting to this day! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do =D

Blue St. Clair - 36" x 42", Oil on canvas



View from Judson - 24 " x 18 ", Pastel

City, Back Window - 48" x 60", Oil on canvas

CSU, Rain - 18" x 24", Pastel

Dark House Sunset - 18" x 24", Pastel

Cape Cottage - 48" x 60 ", Oil on canvas

Want to check out some more of her portfolio and bio?

Go to... http://www.artistsofcleveland.com/ 

Thanks and please comment!

Journey is Destination - My concept

Journey is Destination - My logo / Concept 


This is an idea I've created, through the fact that for a while now, I'm talking years, I've wanted to be more connected to the internet and I've wanted to represent myself, my concepts and ideas to the community - Forcing my foot into the door. Yeah, yeah it's barely even a toe haha! but I'm going to persist!

The term 'Journey is Destination' isn't even grammatically correct, however what I essentially mean is this idea that we get told from a young age that everyone's life is a path that is taking you somewhere which you aim for with certain analogies like 'crossroads' or 'its the end of the line'. But for me, I've never seen this path or what ever you want to call it as a route to something or somewhere. Instead I see a never-ending path and that's where i'm going. This is a concept I feel very strongly about - The idea that we are never reach a goal but only to constantly carry on going and pursuing in life. 


My designs that I have done digitally will mostly be on my blog and my flickr but designs and development will be in sketchbook and I will photograph them if deemed necessary for the blog. Otherwise, linking the two elements discussed here. I have started on some very basic stuff on photoshop


1. Don't actually know what I was doing, more experimental than anything...

2. Easy on the eye here...

3. This is actually getting borderline more complex for me and it did take me a while to get this effect. After just these three designs which I developed in a new sketchbook, I can say that I feel like I'm getting somewhere with photoshop; feels good. 

A little bit more on the concept. You can see that the design has no spaces in between the characters and this is more of a technical aspect as the maximum amount of characters for most usernames and other things like that is 20, thus without spaces is 20. Plus there's something about writing without spaces I like. It's almost like having to decipher something you already know how to but you don't just skim the words quickly into your brain and let the scanning process so many of us seem nurture oblivious to the actual integrity of the word. 

Forexampleifiwastowritethenextsentencelikethisyou'vehadtoputinmoreefforttoreadwhathasbeensaidhoweveryouknowwhatitsaysandyoutakeintoaccounteveryletterforitsowndefinitionandworkoutwherethespacesare.

Okay that probably took twice as long to read but I think words are something people are seeming to not appreciate more and more in the 'super fast' world we live in. Typefaces are something I really enjoy and one of my side projects at the moment is designing my own typeface. This will be on here soon.

Please comment :) Ta

Talk about picky!

Today we've started our last workshop for the carousel on our course. That is Printing- We've begun on producing mark-making images that have certain characteristics to them; elements that are different in some way (that link but read further on for that). Once that was done, as a group, we were to bring all 6 or however many we managed to accumulate over the time we were given and make a 'classroom' picture',if you like, that had 18 of our pieces together (that's 6 columns 3 rows). Our tutor said that there could be some heated discussion and as joke said she was wondering who will be the first person to have their head 'ripped off'! Now I don't know about you but this surely wasn't going to occur. My group is fully of level-headed, charismatic, easy going people who I all got along with.


...This proves me wrong...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAPkO7t6nHg

(Video of discussion)

This was a fairly interesting incite to group debates and how people have different opinions, even if some to me were driving me insane! The process will occur often if I were to go into the industry as a designer and that is the path I've chosen to go down. This activity also shows how even artists/designers are so different from each other! 

Anyway after that we got our own 6 pieces and created a 'picture' that communicated between each piece in a rhythmic way. Once this was achieved, off to the polypads and a biro to bevel the print in. Roller. Ink. Print. Finito! 

Next day, same thing only with colour and did also mono-prints where we put ink on the tables and pressed into it on paper with pencil or something. Using more than one ink as well on one print, flipping it etc. Got some awesome ones

Pictures can be found on my Flickr account, will post that on here at some point :)

Lines and Dots!

 Looking at images from the web that I've found just with Google images, I differentiated the two main types of graphics which is Vectors and bitmaps. 

Bitmaps are simply your everyday image great for photography, here is one from my flickr account. They are pixel based images where by the computer reads different colours and plots them onto a grid to create an image. These dots are also known as pixels.

This is a Vector Image, as seen in the picture below, they are very good for curves and they don't lose quality in scale and so the don't lose quality when blown up to huge sizes. Something bitmaps aren't very good at. Instead, they just go blurry as your only increasing the size of the pixels, a term known as pixels.
 

Now to Illustrator to practice some vectors...

Here is the vector I created. This again isn't an image I made from scratch myself but instead a representation of the properties that vectors have. This one contains 40 odd colours and again but this time only in black and white...

 Vectors are great ways to pick up the tones in a picture and still keep its quality in a large format. This introduction in to the sheer basics of digital art has helped me also to gain the simple knowledge and the use of the first tools on Photoshop and illustrator.

 

Lets get things straight

Just so the world knows, I don't actually hate Emily, just a little bit. She asked me what my blog was called and it was the first thing that came into my head, no actual originality or skill involved there just probably me trying to be funny! 

But just before I kick things off, this is a blog that will represent my work from my Foundation Diploma I am currently studying at Plymouth College of Art. Spreading my wings much? I should hope so! This college has almost everything I need, the most important thing being the time on my hands to experiment and funnel myself slowly into the designer I was born to be. I've started this blog fairly late and most of my work I will be recording will be in my journal, however during my stay, I am hoping and wanting to gain a vast knowledge in Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver etc and I'm hoping by the end of this year that I'll have the confidence to use these programs with ease, as this is the area that I enjoy the most. 

Lets start with a beautiful picture of the bauhaus inspired building which is the college itself. 

                                The College...

                                Inspiration much?