Drawrings & Things

graffiato
Friday, September 7, 2007

I think that graffiti can be a beautiful thing. To me, it epitomizes the underground, the underbelly, the alternative, the anti-establishment. It's true that some of it is ugly--I still remember going to play at the neighborhood playground to find it covered with spraypainted swastikas--but as an art form, its got meaning and grit and flair. I like how it can be employed as a playful and insightful upraised middle finger to everything too uptight and narrowminded about authority (see banksy). I love seeing colors and shapes bloom on a decaying urban wall. It's a pleasant surprise. It shouldn't be there. But it is, evidence of humanity's drive to create things, to share ideas, to express itself, regardless of rules or location or abundance of artistic materials. It's ingenious and clever. It's about making something extraordinary out of something ordinary, creating a diversion from and a commentary about the mundane.

I just finished reading the wikipedia article about it. Here are some highlights:

"The eruption of Vesuvius preserved graffiti in Pompeii... One inscription shows a phallus accompanied by the text, mansueta tene: "Handle with care"."

"Disappointed love also found its way onto walls in antiquity:

Whoever loves, go to hell. I want to break Venus's ribs

with a club and deform her hips.

If she can break my tender heart

why can't I hit her over the head?"

"This 2nd-century representation of a crucified donkey is believed by some to be the first representation of Jesus"

"With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign which involved people in various states spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." However due to illegalities some of the "street artists" were arrested and charged with vandalism"

"Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic Light-emitting diodes as new mediums for graffiti writers. The Italian artist Kaso is pursuing regenerative graffi through experimentation with abstract shapes and deliberate modification of previous Graffiti artworks."

See the Graffiti Research Lab for yourself. The "light graffiti" it advocates is not only aesthetically awesome, but leaves behind no paint or scratches...so it technically isn't vandalism

With Hektor, graffiti gets digital. Hektor's a "portable spray paint output device for laptop computers". props to Hektor's creators! what a cool machine.

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I tried my hand at cardboard stenciling and spraypaint, a la banksy, last quarter. It was hard. There's a lot of advance planning involved--with complex pictures, you have to figure out what to cut out first and how, and how to lay the paint down (which was difficult in itself! aerosol paintcans are temperamental) so you get the right colors down.

I managed to snag some free spray paint (five colors, including turquoise, silver, and royal purple) from an outgoing product design student right before I left school for the summer. Hopefully I'll have time to experiment with them. artistically and legally, of course.

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And of course, some facebook Graffiti that I'm particularly proud of. It came out during finals week and became the bane of my spring quarter GPA. I became a Graffiti junkie. Mostly I just made bad stick figure drawings, but some of them turned out well.

from top to bottom:
1. Moon Woman, or Best Use of Time Spent Procrastinating an IHUM Paper
2. Karen's Birthday Unicorn
3. Man and Burro Traversing Sideways Cliff in Front of Burnt Sienna Sky (done completely with my laptop mouse)

People I owe Graffiti to:
- Ben
- Jessica
- Amy
- Alex O
- Kontien

Posted bySHELLY! at 5:45 PM 0 comments  

Labels: graffiti

all warfare is deception
Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Currently watching: Planet Earth. It's gorgeous, brilliant, entrancing, plus a million other superlatives. Nature shows are my anti-drug.
Currently reading: Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (a history of human civilization written during the Enlightenment by Marquis de Condorcet), and The Art of War by Sun-Tzu. Pretentious much?

[to the left: detail shot; to the right: full image]

I redid her face so it no longer looks as freaky, however, I'm off-put by how perfect she looks. It's hard to draw normal looking people. Imperfections. Disproportions. Although I enjoy looking at beautiful digital illustration, a lot of the "pretty woman/man/or androgynous figure in intricate clothing in lovely environment" paintings always strike me as empty. I want to create something that's more meaningful and more moving than that. I have plenty of 'deeper' or more interesting ideas in my head, but I've never actually composed or executed them.

I have an excuse with this painting: it's a present for a friend (shoutout to Rhea!) and practice for a lot of different techniques (figure drawing, rendering water, composing a piece that seamlessly integrates the foreground with the background, choosing a more uniform color palette), but after this, I'm going to devote myself more to substance than style.


My occasional existential crises about my major/life plan continue to strike. I know I should study what my love--the problem is, I love so many different things! I have so many divergent academic interests! My dream major would be mostly product design (heavy on needfinding and design, easy on engineering and math), anthropology/human biology (People are fascinating!), some neuroscience (Brain & Behavior was a great class, and I liked Psych 1 a lot too), and of course, a good dose of studio art.

For next quarter, I'm debating between the following classes to round out my schedule (with E14, CS106A, Design I, and a 10 hr/week campus job is already looking to be pretty hectic)
- Intro to Theatrical Design: I wanted to help out with set design for The Wild Party, but I had no time or experience. Will this class change things? (requirements filled: none)
- Intro to Art History: I LOVE art museums. I read about art history on wikipedia for fun. but I've always wanted to take a formal art history class. (requirements filled: none)
- Drawing I: I've never taken a formal art class past 8th grade. I need to work on my live figure drawing skills. (fills another product design requirement)
- Human Behavioral Ecology: Biology! Psychology! History! Anthropology! (requirements filled: none. exploration into anthropological science: yes.)
-Environmental Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: How the way humans treat the environment is resulting in the spread of diseases. Case studies of malaria, HIV, the plague, etc. For the part of me that relished reading every single page of The Hot Zone. (requirements filled: none. exploration into epidemiology/anthropological science: yes.)

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Design for the Other 90% rocks my socks.
That is what I want to do with my life. The big question is: how do I get involved with it?

Posted bySHELLY! at 1:30 PM 0 comments  

Labels: design, existential crises, work in progress

nature is a cathedral
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Many things have transpired since my last post:

- I wrote a 20 page research paper (double spaced!), entitled "Development of Production and Purification Procedures for Calbindin D9k Mutants for Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy". as the title suggests, it is just as thrilling to read as it was to write.
- I finished my lab internship
- I discovered that my laptop was infected with a horrible virus.
- With the help of some more technologically-savvy friends, we deleted everything on my computer, reformatted the hard drive, and then put everything back. and then some. I now finally have Photoshop CS (no more Photoshop Elements!), Office 2007, and a faux Mac OS X! :)
- I left Washington. I don't know when I'll ever return. :( :( :(
- Chilling with the family here in Ohio is great, however. We have a kitty! He's an adorrrrable orange tabby. The fam named him Simba, but I secretly call him Genghis Khan (clearly the better name of the two).
- There are many. many. cornfields in Ohio. So far the stereotypically Midwestern-ness of this town (cornfields, rolling country roads, barns, and farmhouses) is still charming and amusing to me. I'm glad I'm only here for a few weeks before school starts, because I think small town America will quickly lose its charm for me.
- After several indecisive, agonizing hours spent poring over Axess , the undergraduate engineering handbook, and the course bulletin, I've chosen my classes! I am stoked for sophomore year!
- Design I: Fundamental Visual Language (4 units)
- Drawing I: MAKING DRAWRINGS :D (4 units)
- E14 Statics: Using Math to Make Sure Things Don't Fall Down (3 units)
- CS106A: I hope to God I'm Good at Coding Or Else This Class Will be the Bane of My Existence (4 units)
- HARRY POTTER and the Art of Storytelling (2 units)
...5 classes, but only 17 units? troubling.

Actual art update:

I spent the better part of today working on this. Not bad for my first time using Photoshop CS to paint something. I can't blend as well as I can in opencanvas, but, painting in Photoshop is still an amazing experience.

She's supposed to look youthful and mischievous...not pale and...old. I think it's her mouth. haha. At one point, she looked exactly like Angelina Jolie. Which was cool, but not what I was going for.
I redid her features soooo many times, because her face kept looking glassy-eyed and creepy.

[right] Detail shot
[top top left] Full image. Actual size of working image is something ridiculous, like 2600 x 6000 pixels. The reduction in detail when I resize it to more practical dimensions makes me a little sad inside. I SLAVED OVER EVERY EYELASH!

Posted bySHELLY! at 9:17 PM 1 comments  

Labels: ohio, photoshop CS, portrait, work in progress

the beet is the most intense of vegetables.
Monday, August 13, 2007

Occasionally, I do t-shirt designs for friends because I am kind and generous. and, okay, for monetary compensation too.


Senior girls shirt for Kennewick High's Class of 2006. Their motto reads "As Good As it Gets".






I am a proud alumna of PNNL's Young Women in Science program. In loving memory of all the good times had by all at the lab, we decided to start an annual t-shirt tradition. I can't find the first one I helped design, but here's last year's:

note proper safety attire, like gloves, closed-toe shoes, and safety goggles.









Here's the design for this year. The girls wanted something Charlie's Angels-esque, so I came up with something remniscent of Tomb Raider. This year's shirts will be kelly green. I love kelly green. It's a great color.

the stabby thing she's wielding is not a knife. I took artistic license with a serological pipette. harhar. My biological in-jokes are hilarious!










And last but not least, I haven't forgotten about this picture! I'm about halfway done with the hair. I kept going back and forth between shading it too dark and then compensating by making it too bright and red.

Although I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming along, it's taking along a wiggish (as in, like a wig) quality. Like it should be on the head of another person. This coloring thing is hard.


IN OTHER NEWS: I WENT TO PORTLAND AND PURCHASED A PAIR OF ZEBRA-STRIPED CONVERSE. HAPPY!

Posted bySHELLY! at 11:57 PM 1 comments  

Labels: SHOES, t-shirt design, work in progress

the history of (white) women in art
Saturday, August 4, 2007

Posted bySHELLY! at 3:39 PM 1 comments  

structured procrastination
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Posted bySHELLY! at 11:33 PM 3 comments  

Labels: fanart, silly, snapes on a plane

Your camisole was a sprightly light magenta
Thursday, July 26, 2007

in memoriam of Dumbledore (my second favorite headmaster), the end of the Harry Potter series, and feverish fan speculation/general ridiculosity that heralded the release of Deathly Hallows (See the DIGS theory, or, Dumbledore Is a Giant Squid Theory, for further enlightenment):



Inspired by graffiti I saw (and subsequently admired, deeply) on my most recent trip to San Francisco:

Posted bySHELLY! at 11:36 PM 3 comments  

Labels: harry potter, silly, sketches, work in progress