Project Funtime - Where The Hell Did This Come From?
Brought to you by the letters P and Q. Random inspiration brought on by numerous things, one of which is Edward Gorey. As one reviewer put it: "I don't know what kind of tea Mr. Gorey drinks but I'd quite like to try some."
Edit - I think his Amphibigorey Too and Doubtful Guest books are back at my place in PA... which means I'm going to need new copies. Not to mention copies of everything else by him... and banksy, my newest obsession. I've added quite a few things to my Amazon wishlist, check out the link on the right side of my LJ. Woot!
Edit2 - Have you guys seen his version of Dracula? (A Toy Theatre: Die Cut, Scored and Perforated Foldups and Foldouts (Hardcover)) Go immediately. It's wonderful.
I digress.
I have two versions of somewhat the same project. It's going to be the Art Alphabet, a title that may or may not change throughout the duration. Anyone who wants to participate with me is welcome - part of the fun of art projects is having other participants.
Project 1: Illustration.
An art alphabet, with illustrations from A to Z. The goal is illustrations for each letter.
Unknown: The timeline, one letter per day or per week.
Unknown: Different styles of the same illustration or different illustrations?
Example - A is for Arachnophobia. Divide a sheet of paper into four equal sections (like a square pie chart). Three sections will involve sketching any ideas that come to mind regarding arachnaphobia. The goal with those three sections is to get down ideas regarding the subject. As the unknown states, I'm not sure whether I would prefer to focus on more ideas or more styles - i.e. a contour line drawing of the same idea, then a scratchy sketch of the same idea... or whatever style you prefer with as many ideas as possible. The fourth section should be the best (perhaps most photo-realistic) of the most obvious item, i.e. a spider. (Or perhaps just a portion of a spider, as if you were zoomed in on the upper left front angle.)
Project 2: Typographic.
Another form of art alphabet, except this time experimenting solely with fonts and words. One
Example: See Edward Gorey's "Category". That particular one would be "C is for Category".
Unknown: The timeline, one word per day or per week.
Unknown: Experimenting solely with fonts, or with a scene involving illustrations that revolve around the word? I noticed that in the cover of the book, there are (probably not ironically) cats removing the letters from the word category. Typography is always fun, but do I want to make it even more challenging?
- - -
The unknowns will be more absolute after I finish one or two pages as an example. Timelines are both a pro and a con in that they allow you to have a certain amount of time to work on things, but in regards to personal projects they sometimes don't allow you to have the time you need. They also help you to focus but sometimes make you feel rushed.
My personal goal with this is to become better at art. That's why there are so many unknowns at this time, but it was an idea that needed to be written down before it was forgotten.
I'm fairly sure my versions are going to be primarily by hand (with possibly small amounts of digital work if I decide on colorization), and I'm only going to use Micron pen and graphite/charcoal style pencils. However they'll all be photographed and uploaded... and possibly added to my portfolio if I produce any spectacular pieces.
I'm also going to do something different from my norm and not make a prefabricated list of words/phrases, instead the next alphabetized item will be listed when the prior one is completed. This will allow me to focus more on technique and less on worrying about what idea to come up with. (Although another focus of this is to learn to be more creative on the fly.)
I think I've also just figured out the timeline. No more than a week for an item (so that there isn't time to dwell on mistakes), but if I complete an item before the week is up, it will be time to add a new item. With that being said, it will be okay to go back and work on certain things (add touchups, etc), but at least that will keep me from stagnating on an idea.
- - -
The next project may be a written version of this, i.e. for each item write a very short story (one page minimum).
- - -
Well, that feels different. It feels much the same way as when a particularly intriguing project was assigned to me back in the PTI days. The same way as when I had all my tools spread out on my dining room table right before I began undertaking whatever weird stippling or matting task they'd given me.
Surprisingly, I've logged out of WoW to work on this update. Hmmm.
Edit - I think his Amphibigorey Too and Doubtful Guest books are back at my place in PA... which means I'm going to need new copies. Not to mention copies of everything else by him... and banksy, my newest obsession. I've added quite a few things to my Amazon wishlist, check out the link on the right side of my LJ. Woot!
Edit2 - Have you guys seen his version of Dracula? (A Toy Theatre: Die Cut, Scored and Perforated Foldups and Foldouts (Hardcover)) Go immediately. It's wonderful.
I digress.
I have two versions of somewhat the same project. It's going to be the Art Alphabet, a title that may or may not change throughout the duration. Anyone who wants to participate with me is welcome - part of the fun of art projects is having other participants.
Project 1: Illustration.
An art alphabet, with illustrations from A to Z. The goal is illustrations for each letter.
Unknown: The timeline, one letter per day or per week.
Unknown: Different styles of the same illustration or different illustrations?
Example - A is for Arachnophobia. Divide a sheet of paper into four equal sections (like a square pie chart). Three sections will involve sketching any ideas that come to mind regarding arachnaphobia. The goal with those three sections is to get down ideas regarding the subject. As the unknown states, I'm not sure whether I would prefer to focus on more ideas or more styles - i.e. a contour line drawing of the same idea, then a scratchy sketch of the same idea... or whatever style you prefer with as many ideas as possible. The fourth section should be the best (perhaps most photo-realistic) of the most obvious item, i.e. a spider. (Or perhaps just a portion of a spider, as if you were zoomed in on the upper left front angle.)
Project 2: Typographic.
Another form of art alphabet, except this time experimenting solely with fonts and words. One
Example: See Edward Gorey's "Category". That particular one would be "C is for Category".
Unknown: The timeline, one word per day or per week.
Unknown: Experimenting solely with fonts, or with a scene involving illustrations that revolve around the word? I noticed that in the cover of the book, there are (probably not ironically) cats removing the letters from the word category. Typography is always fun, but do I want to make it even more challenging?
- - -
The unknowns will be more absolute after I finish one or two pages as an example. Timelines are both a pro and a con in that they allow you to have a certain amount of time to work on things, but in regards to personal projects they sometimes don't allow you to have the time you need. They also help you to focus but sometimes make you feel rushed.
My personal goal with this is to become better at art. That's why there are so many unknowns at this time, but it was an idea that needed to be written down before it was forgotten.
I'm fairly sure my versions are going to be primarily by hand (with possibly small amounts of digital work if I decide on colorization), and I'm only going to use Micron pen and graphite/charcoal style pencils. However they'll all be photographed and uploaded... and possibly added to my portfolio if I produce any spectacular pieces.
I'm also going to do something different from my norm and not make a prefabricated list of words/phrases, instead the next alphabetized item will be listed when the prior one is completed. This will allow me to focus more on technique and less on worrying about what idea to come up with. (Although another focus of this is to learn to be more creative on the fly.)
I think I've also just figured out the timeline. No more than a week for an item (so that there isn't time to dwell on mistakes), but if I complete an item before the week is up, it will be time to add a new item. With that being said, it will be okay to go back and work on certain things (add touchups, etc), but at least that will keep me from stagnating on an idea.
- - -
The next project may be a written version of this, i.e. for each item write a very short story (one page minimum).
- - -
Well, that feels different. It feels much the same way as when a particularly intriguing project was assigned to me back in the PTI days. The same way as when I had all my tools spread out on my dining room table right before I began undertaking whatever weird stippling or matting task they'd given me.
Surprisingly, I've logged out of WoW to work on this update. Hmmm.