Narrative Story and Other

Above is my latest Graphic Design project. The project was called Narrative Story on the handout, and the idea was to illustrate an important event/time in our lives. Before we did any design work we first had to write a 3 page paper about the event. I chose to write about my freshman year in college, when I failed my English Composition class and became friends with my African American roommate. Failing English was traumatic, I wasn't an outstanding English student in high school, but I had never failed a class. Normally my work was a good solid C. Support from my roommate helped me to hold it all together.

Anyway above is my final design for this assignment. Work was entirely done in Adobe Illustrator. I did use reference photos for the line work on the desks, window, lamp and birds, but there are no photo's used in the finished work. I am rather pleased with how this turned out, esp. as I was a bit concerned about what I was going to do for this project.

In Photography we have been playing with Adobe Photoshop and had to create a spoof ad. I don't really like what I did so I am not going to post it. Lets just say I spoofed a sewing machine ad from a couple of years ago and let it go at that.

 Soft Ground Proof

In Intaglio I am working on 2 plates, my soft ground plate (proof image above) and one that is supposed to be a combination of techniques. For me, I think I will start with the standard etching then add either sugar lift or aquatint to give me darker areas. In class Tuesday I prepped the plate and applied the hard ground. Over the weekend I had created a drawing from a photograph made several years ago. The photo was a picture of one of my sister's cats resting in a plastic bag. I have a scan of the drawing below, now it just needs to be transferred to the plate.

Drawing of Mira

With the soft ground plate I am adding some darker tones in the top left background and I am going to try and add a door to the house by darkening in an area. I also added some texture to the foreground. The images you do see in the proof were all done by applying a soft ground to the plate, then placing various materials, lace, netting that was a thread keeper on spools, and some pine needles on top of the ground. Then the plate and stuff is run through a press. The materials with the pressure of the press will move the ground aside exposing the copper below. After the run through the press the materials are removed and the plate is put into the etching solution. I had done most of this before our spring break but I didn't get a proof of the plate until this week. 

That is it for this post. Quite a variety of images isn't it? Otherwise I am working on my next mandala, and in graphic design we have started drawings for our next project, a Book Cover Design. I want to take a moment to wish everyone who celebrates a Happy Easter, and a good Passover week. Comments as usual are welcome.