flowers at home

on another note: my photography

-purple crocus from earlier this spring    
I took this with my cell phone camera last week and already these flowers are gone- sad, but they're very pretty!
-LPDS

final project- note on my final project:

I really enjoyed doing this project and I am pretty happy with the final results of my artwork! I had trouble with the mounting on the board. I wanted to present both the color composition and the gray scale one each, in one long "series", and hand them from the ceiling. I think that would have help it all flow better. I unfortunately stuck the first two boards together the wrong way, so then I had to do the others the same way, and that's how I got that stand alone, sign-like format, I presented in class, which actually I thought was pretty good considering my earlier mistake.
Also, just wanted to note again that the elements I was thinking about and working towards as I did my final project were:
eye movement
repetition
scale
flow and direction
design and placement
layering and grouping
cropping

I think I did well in all these areas, except for flow and direction; I think I could have done better with that, but I think the mounting issue made a big difference.
Thanks to all!
-Lisa

final project- here are these again -so that it's all together

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

statement

My Final Project Statement:

For my final project, with both my gray scale and my color composition(s), I wanted to show a sectional break down of the song I chose, “Big Noise From Winnetka”, as well as keep some of the fluidity of it.  The gray scale and color compositions are quite different from each other and yet quite similar, even though they go with the same song.  The gray scale composition is done with symbols, in a colleague format.  Each symbol represents a different instrument in the song, and that symbol is placed in/on the composition, based on the order of the introduction of the instruments in the song.  It’s almost like reading a line of music, with symbols, instead of notes, (sort of like reading it in another language).  The color composition is done with my feet and/or hands, (I thought of just forgoing this idea, but I really wanted to do it).  This time, a certain color represents a certain instrument in the song.  The “symbol(s)” effect that was achieved in the gray scale composition is found here in the way of certain positioning(s)/imprints of the feet and/or hands.  Those imprints, as in the grayscale composition, are placed in/on the composition, based on the order of the introduction of the instruments in the song.  Also, the two compositions are related to each other in that they are both divided and set-up into five musical sections, which is based on the song and how it changes.  However, my intention with the color composition was to make it even more fluid than the gray scale composition and to have; just more dance-like.  I had to listen to the song over and over again many times, to pick out the sections and the instruments and their specific parts.  The main aspects I tried to pay attention to as I thought about and did this project were (not necessarily in this order): eye movement, repetition, combination(s) of symbols or imprints, scale, flow, direction, placement, design and cropping.  As I was breaking things down, I focused very much on one section or part of a section at a time, and intentionally, just put it all together and waited to see how it, the overall piece, would turn out in the end.  The color I chose to represent each instrument was also picked at random.  I thought these could be ways/places where I could show some randomness, because I really wanted that to be an aspect of my project, without it taking away from the structure and “break down” elements I wanted to use as well. 

Colors key for color composition:

Red= drums

Blue= trombone

Yellow= trumpet

Green= high saxophone

Orange or amber= low saxophone

Silver and/or gold= piano

Posted by LPDS at 12:53 PM 0 comments

Thursday, April 14, 2011

final project- song choice and composition ideas

Here it is.
In class I brought in a cd with the song of my choosing on it: "Big Noise From Winnetka."
It is a song from the Jazz, Big Band Swing era, and it is 4:05 mins. long.
On my cd, it's performed by: The Swingfield Big Band= Gil Rodin, Bob Crosby, Robert Haggert and Ray Bauduc.
I knew I wanted to pick a song from my swing cd for the final project, but it took me a long time to pick which one; they're all so good! I thought of using either "Sing, Sing, Sing", or "The Pink Panther Theme", but I decided not to, since those ones are so well known, they have so many images, ideas and thoughts attached to them and I didn't want that to affect me or others; so I picked one that's not as well known. I also picked it because it seemed to be the song with the most clear sections to it. There are five sections to it, and I found I could make a better distinction between them in this song than in the others. I think I'll dance out one of my compositions, probably the color one, but not sure yet, and hand-paint out the other (probably the black and white one, but not sure yet), so they're different. There are at least three sections in the song, where there's a one instrument solo, or at least one instrument is highlighted. This will help me to show the difference in the various panels of my canvas, as I want to either have a specific physical movement technique for each instrument, or a different color paint (acrylics). I haven't decided yet, if I will plan out "the dance steps", or not; I'd like to just dance how I feel as I listen to the song, even probably, have my eyes closed the whole time on both the "feet composition" and the "hand composition." We'll see.
Hopefully too, I can find some way to film myself making them, so I can show that to the class as my process. I'm not sure how else I could explain the process, if it ends up being so "in the moment." The two compositions overall, I think, should be bright, energized, yet a little mysterious, somewhat romantic, and have some of that randomness or chaoticness that is found in Jazz, yet, as was mentioned in class, a politeness in that the instruments kind of take turns; there's a comrodery there. Also, when I listen to the song I picture both "couples dancing" and "the band performing on stage." I'll try to put all this together and see what comes out of it.

Thanks, -Lisa Schwab

final project- process pics, ... my color composition 3

**I eventually decided to forgo the whole drawing with markers idea and went back to paints. I tried to keep the colors for each instrument basically the same with the paints as with the markers. This is my paint palet; I used both acrylics and water-based matalic paints, which worked fine together. Here we have red for drums, blue for trombone, yellow for trumpet, green for high saxophone, amber orange for low saxophone and gold for piano. I decided to just "dance on the page with my fingers." :)

Here's my set-up:

I agree with Monica that a kitty is an important part of any art project. -hehe  My cat "Coats" trying to help, but mostly getting in the way. :)

**Here is the final copies of my color composition:

-1st section of the song

-2nd section of the song (1st high saxophone feature with piano and drums)

-3rd section of the song (trumpet feature with piano and drums)

-4th section of the song (2nd high saxophone feature with piano and drums)

-5th section of the song (low saxophone feature with piano and drums)

-6th section/finally of the song

final project- process pics, ... my color composition 2

Here's the 1st section of the song in marker colors. I was holding several long markers when I did this, and had trouble cordinating and being flexable enough to it- in beat with the music. I generally like it, but I just didn't feel satisfied with it in the end.
*note- I also wanted to see if I liked the results better if I did it with my eyes opened or with my eyes closed, so I experiemented with that too. This one was with my eyes closed.

-2nd section of the song, and I believe this was with my eyes opened. Still not too happy with the results.

So then I thought of doing just one color, marker at a time, and I would used the one that is most emphasixed in that particular section of the song, for example, this is the 2nd section of the song- the first high saxophone feature, so I used just my one marker color that represented that one instrument, (even though in the song there is actually drums and piano with it). Nice!, much less to handle- could flow more easily in strokes and I could move faster and be caught up with the beat of the music. I was still wondering about the eyes opened or eyes closed thing, so I experimented with that again here.

*This one was done with my eyes closed.

This is also the 2nd section of the song, the first high saxophone feature- done that same way the one above was done, but with my eyes opened. *See the difference? I felt, after these experiments, that I wanted to keep my eyes closed, I seemed to have more creative freedom and to make more interesting designs if I wasn't aware of my markings. I decided I didn't like this just one color thing either; it's just not as interesting and it defeats my goal of wanting to show the layers of the instruments/music.

final project- process pics, ... my color composition 1

*For my color composition I really wanted to just play the music and "dance it out". Here's an experiment of that. I actually like the result I got, I think it's pretty, but the paints were so sticky on my feet that it restricted my speed of movement and my feet would stick to the paper and it would tare. So, sadly, I had to put that idea out. This is the 1st section of the song.

-2nd section of the song

So next I tried the same basic idea with markers in my hands:
First, I tried out different marker colors:

I picked: real red for drums, tempting turquoise for trombone, yoyo yellow for trumpet, glorious green for high saxophone, really rust for low saxophone, and creamy caramel for piano. Those ones seemed to best match the paints I had picked out.

final project- process pics, ... my black and white composition 3

Here are all the symbols ideas I had. For symbols to represent the actual instrumentation, I chose: #3 for drums, #3 for trombone, #3 for trumpet, #2 for high saxaphone, #2 for low saxaphone, and #4 for piano.

*But I kept my border idea (for the top and bottom of the page). I made the border by arranging all of my symbol(s) ideas on photoshop. See:

*I did think about making the border go all the way around, but I had trouble figuring out the spaces, and come to find out I wouldn't have had room to do that anyway.

**Here are the final copies of my black and white compositions, (they all fit together to make one "black and white version of the song" ) :

-1st section of the song

-2nd section of the song (1st high saxaphone feature with piano and drums)

-3rd section of the song (trumpet feature with piano and drums)

-4th section of the song (2nd high saxaphone feature with piano and drums)

-5th section of the song (low saxaphone feature with piano and drums)

-6th section/finally of the song

final project- process pics, ... my black and white composition 2

-5th section of the song

6th section, or the finally of the song

Then, I tried to count out the symbols I'd made in each section, as is demonstrated here, but it was hard to figure out how to scale down the final copy I was going to do, because the simplified symbols I used above, were smaller than the cut-out ones I'd be using on the final copy, and I could fit more of them in a smaller space, or one line, than I know I'd be able to with the cut-out symbols. I think I did pretty well with the grouping and scaling down; I also just focused more on the where in the song a certain instrument was emphasized, and/or where it came in and joined the other instruments.

*I also considered just getting rid of the whole symbols idea with my black and white composition and just doing it by hand with markers, just closing my eyes and marking however I felt as I was listening to the song. This is my experiment with that ideas. This is the 1st section of the song.

-2nd section of the song

*But I decided to stick with my using symbols idea.*

final project- process pics, ... my black and white composition 1

experiment with the border idea:

I listened to the song and made markings based on the placement of the instrumentation and/or emphasis of it. I had to simplify my symbols, so that I could make them more quickly. My song, "Big Noise From Winnetka (a Jazz song), was really fast. -Here's the one for the first section of the song. I noted the time duration of each section of the song in the lower right corner.

-2nd section of the song

-3rd section of the song

-4th section of the song

Hi! and note:

Hi all,
Nice last class today, huh?!  I enjoyed the class and being in it with all of you! :)

Just wanted to let you know I will be posting my preliminary scetches, etc. for my final project here shortly.

*I think I'll keep this blog going for my personal use.  Maybe I can figure out how to post my photography, finally. -haha

Thanks, -Lisa