Optical Devices

I viewed multiple pictures and descriptions of optical devices on the LCI blog, and my opinion is that it is amazing how individuals could think up inventions like the graphoscope, or the magic lantern so many years ago. The two of my personal favourite optical devices are the graphoscope, and the poly-o-rama panoptique. The graphoscope was kind of like a large magnifying glass attached to a platform that had a small easel attached to that. What a person would do, would be to look through the single lens of the "magnifying glass" and be able to see whatever the small image on the easel would look like enlarged. The poly-o-rama panoptique, I'll just say P.O.R.P., was a device that a person would stick translucent pieces of paper that had pictures printed on them and hold the P.O.R.P. up to light to view the images. For all those who are too lazy to go to the LCI blog website, simply click on the optical devices link in sidebar link list.

Dream Assignment

This assignment was to create, using a real picture that we took and adding various elements, an unrealistic photo that illustrated the concept of "dream". For my idea of dream, I used a real photo of me and used a photo of a manga character called Vincent Valentine, whose picture I got from www.deviantart.com (the link is in the sidebar). I shrunk his picture down until he looked about 2 feet tall and drew some swirly green enery beams around him. I thought it would be interesting to see a picture of me picking up a small version of Vincent Valentine using energy beams. The thing about this assignment is that it should portray something that could not be seen in real life. My photograph is something that would definitely not be seen in real life and it also depicts something that could be easily recognized.

Pinhole Photography

Pinhole photography is a very different way of taking photos. The way to do it is to stick a pinhole into a piece of tin foil and stick that over a hole in a tin can. Then you spray the inside of the can black. You tape all sides of the tin foil and place a bit of tape over the hole to block out light. You cut and place a square of photographic paper and go outside. Take the tape off the hole and leave it off for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Then you put the tape back on and develop your photo. The result can either be an inverted negative or a black picture. You get a black picture if the photo is exposed to light too much. You get an all-white picture if the photo was exposed to too much shadows. At Gallery 44, we took pinhole photos. There are 3 examples of pinhole pictures above and a link to pinhole photographer William Mokrynski's website in the sidebar.

Compositional Elements Photo: Diagonal Lines

LIGHT AND SHADOW

This photo illustrates the element of light and shadow. The daisy is in the highlight, so it is the main piece, and the shadow is the leaves and grass behind the daisy, making it stand out even more.




TEXTURE

This photo illustrates the element of texture. The grass gives a feeling of soft grass.



CENTRE OF INTEREST

This photo illustrates the element of centre of interest. The cone's hole at the top is darker than the walls of the cone so the viewer's eyes are drawn to that first.



SELECTIVE FOCUS

This photo illustrates the element of selective focus. The camera is concentrated on the leaf and the rest of the tree is blurred.



CAMERA ANGLE

This photo illustrates the element of camera angle. The window is seen from the bottom and the camera is angled up.

Law Suit Over Marilyn Monroe's Photos

Bert Stern has filed a law suit at Michael Weiss and Donald Penny for accusing them of stealing his photos of Marilyn Monroe in 1962, just months before her death. Weiss and Penny claim they found the photos in the garbage and that there was no name or anything on them that indicated Stern's ownership. Their lawyer, James Brickell, also said that Weiss and Penny made a deal with Stern and that was to get prints for the pictures in exchange for the originals; they said Stern asked them for money instead but backed out when they refused. Stern said that was a heap of rubbish. He and his lawyer, Stephen Weingrad, declared it was unlawful for a photographer to have to pay ransom for his photos. They also accused of Weiss and Penny to have been rude when Stern had offered money to pay for their defendants' troubles with returning the photos. Who do you think is the rightful owner of the photographs? Who do you think will win?

Diagonal Lines In Photography

Diagonal lines work well to draw the viewer's eyes through the photograph. They create points of interest and also give a picture more depth by suggesting perspective. They can also add a sense of action and dynamic feel to the artwork. Diagonal lines can help or destroy your photograph. It can help by drawing your reader in and adding a lot of action. And it could destroy it because if you go overboard and use too many lines, you'll end up with a chaotic and confusing photograph.

Graphic Designs

This is a graphic design that is one of many from www.bydesignbda.com, a website that is all about graphic designs. This particular design is very creative and would be suitable for representing music; the atmosphere is very melodic and harmonic. I chose this design for this entry because it has a simple look about it but it gets the message of creativity and individuality across. In the sidebar is the link for this website.

Different Kinds of Frames

Framing is the act of making a natural border on a photograph using trees or other objects. Doing this attracts the viewer's eye to a certain section of the photograph, therefore making the photo seem more effective. In the above examples, the first photo illustrates this point to a perfect tee. The photographer used trees and bushes as a natural frame, leaving only a small part of a distant mountain showing. The second photograph depicts a different kind of frame, one where it uses legs as a frame instead of trees. Also, in the tree photo, you are looking across a valley; in the leg photo, you are looking up from under the legs. The perspective and framing distinguish the two.

Logo Assignment

My company, Water Reed Productions, is a hardworking company that creates cartoons, and graphic designs for various companies.We are a diligent company that enjoy the work we produce for our various benefactors. The otter holding a fish represents working hard (the otter had to hunt down the fish) and its goofy grin represents the fun side of its nature. The only thing that I think could have been improved was the type of the logo. This cannot be read when the logo is shrunk. Other than that, the logo was a good piece.

My Chess Piece

In my chess piece, I used shading on the side of my pencils to create a softer tone than using the tip of my pencil for harder lines. In some places, it was difficult to layer to achieve darker tones, so those were areas of fault. I tried to nail the proportions almost perfectly because without the proportions, the finished work lacks an important trait. The background was slightly dodgy mostly because of the "halos" that were caused next to certain shapes and lines, but I tried to fix those as soon as they were detected. The thing that made the knight stand out was the light and dark contrast on the chess piece itself; when you squint your eyes at it, the light parts are seen more visibly than the really dark parts.

Big Ben

The "Big Ben" by Andre Derain, a painting capturing a London canal's splendour with Big Ben, the clock tower, in sight.


Hey! I'm The Phantom and I'm here to discuss in these three paragraphs, the meanings and ideas about Andre Derain's painting, Big Ben. It may not be as well known as The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci, or The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, but perhaps in reading this assignment and learning about this painting, you can spread the knowledge.

This painting expresses imitationalism, yet to a certain degree. When you look at the buildings and Big Ben on the shoreline, you see enough detail to know what you're looking at. But Derain simplified the shoreline, the bridge, the boat, even the shadows on the water very much. So much, that if imitationalists looked at the painting, they would not think that the painting was a representation of art. They would think that it didn't have enough detail or didn't look real enough. In my opinion, both this painting, in its simplicity, and a detailed painting, are equal forms of art.

When you look at this painting, it can create a feeling of peacefulness or relaxation because the artist used calming colours such as purple and blue, even around the sun, except it's a fiery yellow and red. The reflection on the water is the main bright spot that your eyes are first drawn too. But the contrast of the green, black, and blue does not make the water seem so angry. If an emotionalist looked at this painting, they would probably say, "This painting makes me feel calm and happy. Therefore, this is a fine work of art." I believe that this painting does make me feel happy too, but I would not judge this artwork, or any artwork for that matter, by the strength of my emotions.

The overall layout of this painting is well done, so this painting expresses formalism in a clear way. The eyes are drawn to the reflection of the sun and the sun itself, which are both on the left side of the painting, but with the clock tower and the bridge, they contrast so your eyes are drawn from one thing to another. A formalist might look at this and say, "The sun is too much on the left; this painting's layout is not at all appealing!". In my personal opinion, this painting's layout seems to have been well thought out, and that the result was quite pleasing.

In conclusion, this painting was very well organized and had succeeded in winning my approval. Andre Derain's Big Ben has a good sense of imitationalism, emotionalism, and formalism. His unique style of dots and strokes has made the painting well layered and cheerful. If you have anything to say, please comment on what you think was the highlight of this painting.