15 Animated Dingbats

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Reflective Essay - Collages

The process for creating these collages was fairly simple. I just utilized the drag and drop with different groupings of images until I found ones that I thought fit well together. I did not go into any of these collages with a predetermined idea, it was more just moving the shapes around and seeing what I could come up with (however, the swastika was suggested to me by another classmate, I mean no offense by it). The ability to pull an unlimited amount of copies of an image from my library was very helpful, especially with the "snake eyes" collage. It did change my view of those symbols. Originally I had drawn the skull with the snake as a reference to the one picture that had the eye in it, and drew the dice because board games and some puzzles use dice. Once I put them together did I realize the dice did not have the 1 showing, which could mean it was on the top, creating "snake eyes."

Rather than having the collages distance me from my work or how I viewed my drawings, I think it brought me closer to them. I had a clear view of what all the dingbats were in my mind when I started and they transformed as the process continued which I enjoyed. The new meanings and variations could give me a better understanding of what I had before and let me see the images in a different light. As far as the shape of the document, I tried to stay within the lines, but with each subsequent collage I seemed to spread further and further apart. Maybe this was subliminal with wanting to branch out in more ways than one.

I do believe that this project allowed me to not think too literally about the images and my work. As a continuation of last week, it was kind of refreshing to just put images onto a blank canvas and just watch them evolve without having to figure out every specific piece of the puzzle. I think the ones that most gave me freedom were the face and "showdown" mainly because none of those images were placed as I had originally intended. I have a large backstory for what I feel is going on in "showdown" but I enjoy that the image can still speak to some level and be different by person.

Collages

A Face.

Block Man's Time Pizza Kitchen.

Snake Eyes.

Showdown at high noon. Are you with or against yourself?

Never forget.

Dingbats: Reflective Essay

When I started this project I really had no idea what I wanted to do. Drawing thirty images all with a relatable theme seemed like such a daunting task. So, I took advice from the art 351 blog and went with the Miles Inada method and just started for pictures I liked. I also started thinking of things that have caught my interest lately; one of which being a board game called Puzzle Strike (the cards now serve as one of my sources of inspiration). So eventually I catered my search to puzzle themes which of course lead me to MC Escher and Dali whose artwork has always made me think of puzzle pieces. The reason I have so many clock pictures as well is one I saw the inside of a clock it just looked so complicated to me; if you'll forgive the pun, each cog is like a 'puzzle piece' and if you don't have each one in its proper place then the whole thing falls. And I find that fascinating.

So now it was time to actually draw my 30 dingbats. I started with characters like the puzzle man and the clock man because I thought they looked silly and were fun. I definitely consulted my inspirational pictures throughout the whole process, trying to find new things about the artwork I hadn't noticed before and how I could incorporate it into something I could make fresh and make my own. My theme also evolved to be not only "puzzles" but things I find "puzzling," as noted by the pencils and the lizard/shark/thing. The pencils were based off an optical illusion I had seen not too long ego which really blew me away. And the lizard thing was more just me putting my pen to the tablet, closing my eyes, and seeing what shape I could make. Then I detailed it a bit / cleaned it up, and viola! I made "the missing link!" (aka the last piece of the puzzle... aha, aha). With most of these images I had a clear idea of what I wanted to draw, and why I wanted to draw it, but pretty much everything in the bottom right hand corner of my picture were things that I drew based off my missing link method; what could I make just drawing and how could I edit it to fit the theme? It was almost like a puzzle in and of itself trying to make my doodles work and connect and I loved the process.

This was a very fun experience. Going into the theme blindly and watching it evolve in front of me just based on the pictures I found as inspiration and then just based on the doodles I was doing was quite eye opening on what Miles always harps on, "just draw." And it worked. Who would have thunk it?

DingBats

Here are my complete 30 images / dingbats using a "puzzle" theme. The theme has evolved into not only puzzles but things I find "puzzling" or that are "puzzled" etc. More explanations will follow in my reflective essay.

Dingbat Theme / Inspiration: Puzzles

While searching for images I landed on the theme or idea of puzzles. I suppose I will let the pictures speak for themselves until I write the reflective essay on my train of thought on how I chose these images.

For the ease of uploading I have put them in a zip file but have included some examples here as well.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mcc97r18mzp9xpw

I Just Realized

I just realized that while I had the picture up, I never actually showed Mortimer Mime fully made. I apologize. Here's my new little buddy.

If I had to go back and do it again I'd probably give him \ / eyebrows just because I think it would be funny to make him look angry. Otherwise I think he's fine. Yes, simplistic, but if you haven't noticed by now, I love simplicity. I feel there's an art to trimming down and making things as base as possible. I don't like clutter. I think the more simple something is, the harder someone had to think about it. "Simplify, simplify, simply!" as they say, or as the other famous quote goes "If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter." That's how I feel about my art / expression.