Expressionism Self Portrait

This project was to create a self portrait after another artists style and art period. I choose Marc Franz Expressionist piece "Piggies" (bottom picture). The idea of expressionism was to blend the foreground and background together on the same plain yet still be distinguishable. Expressionism is also known for having many vibrant colors.

Shine: Literary Illustration

This is a recreation of the painting "Shine" I did earlier this year. This project was to create a literary illustration. We were to take a piece of text from a book or poem we have read and create an illustration that expresses the content of the words. Since I do not read many fiction books I resorted to what I do read, my Bible. This illustrates Matthew 5:16:

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

Larger Than Life: Dream BIG, Aim small

This project was during the study of scale. We were required as a group to recreate an everyday object only MUCH bigger then the normal size. As a group we chose to do a dart because we did not have the money to spend on creating something that required more then cheap or found objects. In fact we only spent $11 on this project as many other groups would spend $50-$150. The tip of the dart is a metal spike, the gold grip part is an aquafina bottle, soup cans, texture plastic wrap and gold spray paint. The black stem of the dart is a plastic baseball bat, plastic piping and a plastic mountain dew cup all covered in black spray paint. Finally, the fins are cardboard that was spray painted red and I hand painted the logo on each side. We also build a stand for our dart board and nailed the dart into it.

What a stellar group!

Balanced Ink

This was a study on balance. We were required to create four compositions, one with symmetrical, asymmetrical, radial balance and crystallographic.

Texture Project

This was a project in which we had to choose a piece of art from an artist and recreate it using a variety of textures. I choose to do David Hollenbach's painting "American Prospect." No worries this piece does not mean I hate America, haha. Hollenbach was making a statement about the American justice system. I think it has to do with slavery in the past but I'm not one hundred percent sure.

I created this piece using found objects such as: a cd, cardboard, canadian tire money, shoes laces, small rope, foam board, coffee filter, cling wrap, pencil case material, elastics, dryer sheets, piece of a towel, newspaper, sandpaper, toothpaste bottle, card stock, fudge-o packaging, epson ink cartridges and much more! We also had to have visual textures (can see but not touch, 2D) I have a couple of those to. For example, the face is drawn and not actually a texture, some of the stripes are just print outs of wood and metal textures.

(if you click on it you will be able to see the textures much better)

This is the original piece by David Hollenbach:

Coca-Color

This project was on the study of color. We were to create 6 small compositions, each displaying a different color scheme. One of each of the following schemes were required:

Primary

Secondary

Intermediate

Monochromatic

Analogous

Complementary

Photo Realism: Gillette

 This project was to buy a product and take a picture of it. Then we had to draw this picture identically to the photograph. At first glance you should not be able to tell the difference between the two images. However, up close the drawn piece is more clear because was created in a vector based program so it was created without pixels. The top image is my illustration and the bottom image is my photograph reference.

Big Bad Wolf: Group Perspective

This is only one fifth of a project that we did as a group. The assignment was to create a series of five compositions in ink that had a consistent intellectual theme. Each composition had to exemplify one type of perspective. We chose to do the three little pigs. This piece has a linear perspective.

Road Signs

This is a project where we were required to create road signs to match the description given below each sign. We were given The yellow sign background and we were only allowed to use black for the graphic. Each sign was to be created in a unique and creative way that would get the message across clearly.

Value Scale

The idea was to some up with a creative way of creating a scale with 11 values from black to white and everything in between. The human eye can only see 44 different values in between black and white. Apparently the most a person has ever created without using a computer is 12. Here are 11.

Tweet... tweet

The Final Product!

Twitter Ideas

These are my blue birds after transferring my sketches into digital illustrations.

sketches

This is an assignment in which we were required to create some birds for Twitter. The Twitter logo is a simple blue bird and many designers create different blue birds that people may purchase or download to display on their home page. We were to create 5 of our own versions of this bird. Here are the sketches I started with.

Now and Then

This is a project in the study of shapes. We were to create two compositions with a similar theme using card stock to cut and paste. One was to be created using only geometric shapes and the other using only curvilinear shapes. The top piece is an old car from the 70's that I choose to create with geometric shapes because cars then were very boxy. The piece on the bottom I chose to create an Audi R8 with curvilinear shapes. I created this one in curvilinear shapes because modern car today are much more rounded. I also chose the colours very carefully in order to create certain contrast. First of all the two time periods in which the cars are from create contrast alone. Also the brilliant red versus the dull grey create contrast. Even the individual pieces have contrast with the red versus white and the black and grey versus white. I chose the old car to red red because the sharp colour helps define the sharp edges in the piece. I chose greyscale for the newer car because the duller colours emphasize the curving lines. There is also the unity of each piece containing white and grey and both subject matters are cars.

I hope you've enjoyed this piece as much as I did creating it!

Zoo Signs

This is a project where we were required to create signs that would be seen in a zoo for various animals. These signs could only be created in white and the background colour that was provided. Also these signs needed to be readable by all ages.

The Lady Jays

This was a logo I redesigned for a lady's weekends that my grandma, aunts and cousins on my mom's side of the family. Her maiden name is Jay, hence the blue jay.

Type Face Buck

This was a project that we had to create an illustration using only type characters.

Contrast with Type

The purpose of this project is to create contrast through colour, size, width, shade using only type characters.

Photography

"Desire over Duty"

"Come As You Are"

(will contain a guy sitting in the front row with his head in his hands)

"Beyond the Pulpit"

Well this summer I have been studying the church a lot and thinking a lot about how it functions. These pictures each have their own meaning and message that I hope to soon turn into paintings.

Expressive Words

A couple expressive words and an expressive phrase for Typography class.

Can you figure out what the phrase says?

Back At It

Well it has been a while, but summer is now over and i'm back to high-speed internet that is actually high speed! So I will get back to continually updating my blog for whoever cares to follow along for the ride!

Worship: A Reaction

by Jon Allison

 

       People often think that worship is simply singing songs of praise. It is so much more than this! Praise comes from the mouth but worship comes from the heart. Singing can be used for worship but it is simply a means of worshipping God through praise. Today’s contemporary music is full of emotion that creates a feeling inside of us that moves us, but this is not necessarily worship. Worship is not a feeling. It’s an act. Emotion is not wrong but we can often be distracted by it.

            There is such a huge divison in many churches dealing with music. The older people in the church enjoy singing hymns because it is the style of music that they have always sang. Hymns are very beautifully written that contain so much thought and doctrine. These are great to sing praises to God and worship Him. The content is very rich but the music it self is much slower then a chorus. The youth of today enjoy much faster, upbeat music such as chorus’. They feel that hymns are old and boring. This music contains much simplier doctrine yet there is a lot of emotion built into the music.

            It doesn’t matter how we worship God because everyone worships in a different way. The important part is that we worship Him and worship Him with our very best. People worship God in different ways just as people gets excited for their favorite sports team in different ways. Some people go crazy and are very enthusiastic when their team scores a goal. Others simply smile and beam with joy but they keep their emotions inside. The same thig happens in worship. People who raise their hands before God should not feel uncomfortable doing so, but they should also not look to the next person and expect to do the same. In that same way those who don’t lift their hands should not feel obligated to, nor should they look down upon thos who do. Anyone who has time to judge the other in a time of worship is not worshipping God themselves. Worship is between ourself and God, no one else.

            God being master over the universe, Creator of all and the giver of life ought to be worshiped every moment that we live. But how much time do we take daily to stop and reflect on God and worship Him? We need to spend time in worship of our God each day.

            In order to worship God we need to understand both who He is and who we are. God is the creator of all things, He is omnipresent and omnipotent, the Alpha and Omega. He transcends both time and space, and He is a God who loves us! We are human, physical beings that have both a beginning and an end, sinful creatures that are destined to eternal death, helpless and lost, yet loved by God Almighty.

            The reason we ought to worship God is not because He needs it or requires it and not because it makes us feel holy. Rather we worship God because it is our reaction as a creature before our creator, a son before a father and a prince before a king. We worship God because His greatness is so overwhelming we cannot look at His face. He is in absolute control of our lives and He guides us down the pathway life. We ought to fall facedown and worship Him. We need to surrender everything we have and everything we are to Him. To surrender your heart to someone mean that “if” they fail you wou will be broken and have nothing left.

            When we seek God and begin to know and experience Him, we see how awesome He really is. Our reaction to this is worship. It’s a reaction to what He did for me in love to rescue us from a state of hopelessness and give me life. We must worship God because of who He is and what He has done.

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

                                                                        -Psalm 100

Year: 2009

Medium: Adobe InDesign

My final project of the year was to design a newsletter and for every article we wrote our selves we would receive extra credit. I wrote one article of my studies this past year on worship. It's titled "Worship: A Reaction." This past year I have spent a lot of time studying the topic of worship. Really when we look into it, it becomes alive and real. Worship is so much deeper then many of us perceive, as we all see it sometimes as simply singing. Read through these articles because they will challenge you more then you realize and open your eyes to the depth of worship!

Identity Project

This was an assignment where we had to create a company and design a logo, letterhead, envelope, and business card. This may be legit one day, we'll see I guess.

Liberty University Visual Communication Arts Program

Year: 2009
Medium: Adobe InDesign

This was an assignment given that required us to create a brochure for the art program here at Liberty University. The first image is (from left to right) the inside flap, back, front (the outside opened up). The second image is the inside opened up.

one life

year: 2009
medium: Adobe InDesign/Adobe Photoshop/Adobe Illustrator

This piece shows a person with a blank face representing everyone. We always see ourselves as one person living our own life and maybe only 0.01% of the worlds population even know you exist. We are just one person, but as Christians we represent the Lord Jesus Christ and though Him we can have an impact on this world! I am tired of people, including myself, whining and complaining about things that are wrong with our world. People complain that things aren't being done properly and so on. It is too easy to sit in a pew and point the finger at a messed up world and people failing trying to make and impact. We need to be the change that we want to see in this word! The only reason things are the way they are is because you haven't changed it yet! We need to change this world for Christ. With God as my strength I can change this world. Care to join me?!

eternal life

year: 2009
medium: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop

This is an ad in a response to the iPod ads. Except this ad is selling eLife (eternal life) rather then iLife (a life about me). Clearly no headphones because the figures are dancing about as a reaction the the gift God has provided them with.

Special thanks to adam docksteader as he and myself are the images in the ad! also this inspiration came while adam and i were working out! haha

Old Mill Townhomes

year: 2009
medium: Adobe InDesign

This project required us to find an ad in the newspaper and recreate it. The first image is the original ad and the second image in my recreation.