Special Edition Blog

In the fall of 2008, I visited a town called Pilsen in Chicago and visited various galleries.  These galleries had numerous different artists with drastically different styles, but I found a piece of art this inspired me in a few different galleries.

CMYKBW:

This work of art intrigued me because it incorporates vivid color, as well as a black and

white photo.  I love black and white photography as well as paintings with vivid color, so

the combination of the two in this work of art is very inspirational.

From the Sources:

I have loved black and white photographs since I got my first digital camera.  This

artwork took me by surprise because when I was far away from it, it wasnʼt apparent

that the woman in it is naked.  However, once you get closer and look at the intensity in

her eyes and body language, it draws you into the photograph.  I love the fact that it has

not only one photograph, but four.  Each of which have a different emotional state.  I

love this piece of art in general.

Solitary Susan:

Just like Every Daylily, this piece also intrigued me when I went into the gallery.  (This

piece was located in the same gallery as Every Daylily)  I love the fact that the focal

point is one flower in particular, and then the rest of the flowers are blurred in the

background.  I think that it was photographed beautifully.  I love the vibrant color and the

perfection of this one, solitary, susan.

Lipstick:

At first when I looked at this piece of art, I was completely confused as to what the artist

was thinking.  Then I started to form my own judgements and I came to the conclusion

that my interpretation of this piece of art is that beauty resides in the mind.  I think that

beauty is something that is obtained through intelligence and how you “hold” yourself.  I

also took the idea that the artist might have wanted this to be a representation that

intelligence comes before beauty.  With the idea that the brain is on top of the lipstick

(giving it dominance) and the idea that beauty is something that can come and go, but

knowledge is something that stays with you forever.

Every Daylily:

I love photography and the second that I walked into this gallery, this particular piece

grabbed me.  I love the contrast between the vibrant yellow-ish orange and pink flower

against the black background.  For lack of a better word, the flower “pops.”  I think that it

is an amazing piece of artwork and definitely something that I would like to recreate,

and something that will hang in my house one day.

Week 14

My magazine is now uploaded to LuLu.com.

Purchase my Magazine: C.O.C.O

Click Here to Order!

Week 13

These are the front and back covers for my magazine "C.O.C.O."  I chose the title "C.O.C.O" because it is a family nickname.  I then took the letters c and o to make the title an acronym for something.  It is titles "C.O.C.O. Creativity Oasis of Original Creations"  I then chose the back cover to be an ad for China Town attractions because the bulk of my illustrations are from China Town.  The background of my back cover is an original photo that I took in China Town and the attractions are places to eat and shop.

Week 12

Happy Thanksgiving :)

Week 11

This week we put the finishing touches on the magazine layout.  It was crucial to not only have an interesting magazine layout, but also a consistent layout so that the viewer is not distracted by the layout.

This first layout of my magazine is the main inspiration for the magazine layout in general.  I used a color from the predominant illustration to choose the background color and used black text.  Their is a large object on the left page of the first half of the magazine, which includes all illustrations and then there are smaller images as well as text on the right hand page, as seen below.

In order to design this layout, I used the "Box Tool" to make the solid background as well as the text boxes.  I also used this tool to "Place" my illustrations and photos into the layout.  I copy and pasted the text into the articles from both my Blog as well as a "Word" document.

The second half of my magazine deals with digital photography that I had done in a previous art class at SXU.  These layouts solely incorporate the photographs with little to no writing.  Because I wanted the photographs to be the main focus, the background of all these pages of the layout are white.

These layouts were created the same way the the first half were, by using the "Box Tool," "Place," and inserting text.