Thursday, February 28, 2013

Travis Price

By Travis Price
     Travis Price is an Australian vector-based illustrator. A good portion of his work is put onto tees, in magazines, and is used as logos. Price grew up in Victoria, Australia. He recognizes the influence of graffiti art and the skateboarding lifestyle in his own art: he began sketching in his free time while taking public transportation, where seeing intricate and beautiful graffiti is commonplace. Along with his commercial work, Price also has developed a kid's clothing line, Mister Mista, as well as a collaborative art group, Triiike.
"Pop Vectorism" by Travis Price
     What drew me to Travis' work was his versatility. I skimmed his portfolio and there is a huge variety of style and technique. In an interview by vector tuts+, Travis states that his main tools he uses are "ideas, journals, and Illustrator". His subject matter is also ever-changing, which reflects the nature of his career as an illustrator and his willingness to be flexible to fit his clients' needs. One work in particular, "Pop Vectorism", was quite interesting in that it looked like a painting but was made completely with vectors, a feather effect, and brush texture overlays.

"Dead Astronauts" by Travis Price

     Price's work ethic, along with his variety of artistic style and technique is commendable, and has allowed him to go very far in the commercial art business. He has worked with Nike, Computer Arts Projects Magazine, Globe and Blindside Skateboards, and many more companies. His vector art is instantly likable, his characters are instantly recognizable, and his portfolio leaves an easily memorable feel.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Portraits









A collection of friends, the famous, and those who are never forgotten.

Georg Nees

     Georg Nees was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1926.  He began programming computers in the late 1950s, and was interested in particular how computer programs and algorithms could create art.  Nees wrote programs that would be used by a flat-bed pen plotter that could take the algorithms and draw out his ideas.  He was one of three artists (known collectively as the 3Ns) --Nees, Frieder Nake, and A. Michael Noll -- to start programming art using a computer, and all 3Ns debuted their works in three small art shows in 1965.  Nees was the first of the three, thus he became the first person to publicly exhibit his digital art in an art show.  
"Schotter" by Georg Nees

     In one of Nees' works, "Schotter", visually expresses order and sequence gradually being broken down into chaos and disarray.  To explain it shortly, Nees created this work by telling the program how many rows and columns there are, how many squares go into each row, and how severe the squares in each row are randomly angled.

"Sculpture" by Georg Nees

     In another work, "Sculpture”, Nees created the first computer-programmed sculpture.  He was able to program the sequence and run it through a Stochastic Script Machine.  In his program, Nees outlined the dimensions of each rectangle and it's placement in the sculpture, as well as the overall dimensions of the sculpture itself.

     I believe that Nees' art is interesting because he took the idea of creativity and limited it to the bounds of computer science, where randomness is actually pseudorandom and where objects must be precisely placed.  Initially, his art, along with most other digital art, was not seen as such because he did not draw his work directly by hand.  However, as the definition of art began to expand as modern artists became increasingly innovative.  Without his contributions, the definition of art would not be the same as it is today.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Celebrity Mashup

Nicolas Cage and Adrien Brody

To create this glorious celebrity mashup, a combination of Photoshop tools were used. I used the spot healing brush tool, the healing brush tool, and the blur tool to smooth out Nic's skin. To add Nic's third eye, I used the patch tool on both sides eyes. I also lightened up the jaw with the dodge tool to add Adrien's mouth and used the burn tool around Adrien's eyebrows to add depth. I changed Nic's third eye color with the color replacement tool and finally added Adrien's hair using Free-Transform. Voila!