The Art Student's Survival Guide

Html

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:57:00 +0000

So I am now trying to develop a home page for mah self and its turning out to be very difficult to talk about myself for any length of time i wonder why that is?

Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:10:00 +0000

Ok so I am just chillin here should be doing HTML work and all that but I'm not I am slowly being sucked into the wide world of Twitter. A real pain. Please follow me and let me know how you are doin!

Unfortuately I am just chillin and trying to get more and more work done. Let me see what you are working on as well I am on Deviantart.com so click the link on the right because I really am bored and want to see what you're doin

RIP Nujabes

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:38:00 +0000

Just heard the sad sad news. This is the first time i have ever been so deeply moved by an artist. I first heard his music when i was 18 and it in someways made me the man I am today. My love for Japanese music, culture and history all were driven on and on in the melodies and notes of Nujabes music. The music was able to make me dance and cry. some of my fondest memories were given background sounds my songs like Feather, aruarian dance, reflection eternal and the love sick trilogy. I was planning on making a trip to Japan in hopes of catching a glimpse of the man who helped me get through so many difficult times but now it seems I'll only see him in the music that he had made. I will still hold my private concerts at home with nujabes records drifting sweetly through my studio. Privately dancing away like a feather in air.

RIP Nujabes/ Seba Jun you are dearly and sorely missed from Atlanta Georgia USA

Face 1- Masked

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:53:00 +0000

click on the image to view full size->

Well here it is I worked on this one a little longer than I was supposed to but I 'm sure that we'll be ok. This is the first drawing I really wanted to express how I was feeling at the time and how I felt really repressed and fake and like I really had to show everyone the face that they wanted to see even if it seems to be totally opposite of me. To really show this I created an African mask. I symbol from a culture I have never studied, visited or felt any affiliation to. In many ways it is the opposite of me in almost every way.

30 Faces - The Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:43:00 +0000

Ok so one of my classes this semester is called Intro to Studio and is basically a class that trys to open students minds up to different possibilities as artists and help them to think about art and art making in a different way. Well my project for this part of the semester is supposed to be a piece of process art that is supposed to be the same process done repeatedly over 30 days everyday well for mine I have chosen to do a Portrait modification. Everyday I am taking a piece of lineart of my face that I drew and drawing painting, gouaching, collaging or something over it. So I am moving forward on this and am going to post these up along with a slight journal accompaniment everyday.

Below is the line art. Enjoy and feel free to do follow along with your own work.

Wow

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:03:00 +0000

Wow guys I am soo sorry it has been so long since I gave you all a decent posting on here. I have been swamped with school work like you would not believe.

Anyways I am moving on from Graphic Design and moving into Game and interactive development/ Concept Art. In line with that I have posted an animation I have done on my Youtube account. Check it out!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:23:00 +0000

Hello I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break. It is though time for schools to start opening their doors and it is our turn to open our heads once again and get to work and since school is beginning to swing back in to session I am gonna get back on the ol' blog mobile and get some more heavy hitting articles coming out for you guys. I hope to get some interviews and such this year and we'll see what else I can get together for you guys.

QUESTION!!! What do you want to see in the new year? In yourself as an artist?

A Call to Arms!

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:38:00 +0000

So with the end of another semester winding down I believe that a call to action is in order. I know I have been promising a photo dump recently and I intend to follow through with that as soon as I can photograph my work.

Since this site is all about the growth of each individual reader I want to open up the Floor to anyone who wants to post their work on the site. Email me (artschoolsurvival (at) gmail.com) with 2 jpegs of your work (as well as anything you want to say about them )that show how you have grown as an artist over the course of this semester. More details to come!!

See you soon!

Question of the Week: World Survival at Stake!!! Are you ready?

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:20:00 +0000

2012 IS COMING AND THE WORLD IS ENDING!!! Not really but this seriously is about global issues. I have recently found that the longer my site is up the more readership I have internationally.

I use alot of tools from Google especially Analytics and Webmasters. I found that using these I can find where in the world people are accessing the Survival Guide from. I am finding that Americans are viewing my site more than others with the UK and Deutschland falling into Second and Third respectively.

So for an Uber late Question of the Week!

Where are you all from? How much of the world will survive when the Artistic Apocalypse comes?

New Projects

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Okay, so if any of you have ever typed "Light Graffiti" into Youtube.com or Google you know that this is a new artform that has been growing and growing through the use of sites like Flikr and all that. Well if any of you are into this or if you want to get started head over to Lighthenight.ning.com and join our community. See you there!

UPDATES

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:54:00 +0000

hey everyone!!

I hope All of you are doing well and that all of my readers here in the US had a fun Thanksgiving Holiday and to all of you outside of the US I hope the end of your semester is going well.

As I said in the beginning of this Blog a few months ago I was going to post some photos of the work I did this semester I do plan on it I just have to get the photos formatted and all of that. So stay tuned, subscribe and we'll see you soon.

Wisdom of the Ages

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:20:00 +0000

So if there was ever a great resource for you guys I think I may have found a goldmine of knowledge to help you improve.

“http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=26636

A page on Conceptart.org that is devoted to nothing but tips for improvement and getting you that creative boost.

Quotes of Wisdom: Disney

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:43:00 +0000

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
–Walt Disney

I was watching Meet the Robinsons on TV tonight and when I saw this I was filled with the urge to keep moving forward. If you haven't seen that movie it is a great inspiration. There are a lot great principals that apply.

Such as FAILURE is a good thing
when we fail we learn alot. When we succeed...not so much. When we fail though we have to take another look and think about what went wrong and fix it.

Great lessons here. What do you think? Post below

Question of the Week: What do you plan to do after Art School?

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:15:00 +0000

It is so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of art projects and assignments that it can be easy sometimes to loose where it is that we are going so this question is really all about that.

What are your plans/dreams/aspirations for after art school?
Do you want to be a director? Maybe a Concept Artist, Entrepreneur, Graphic Designer? Let us know.

Leave a comment below and tell us what it is that you want to do.

Dafont ain't da devil!!!

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:02:00 +0000

Ok so since I started in graphic design I have heard few things despised so much as Dafont.com. I have heard so much bad press from this site that you would think it should have a "For Mature Audiences Only" sign stapled to the homepage. I hear so many times things like "These ****ing kids need to stay off Dafont.com. This piece sucks." "I know that font, I have seen it so many times!" "Stay of Dafont. It's the devil and it rots away the design lobe of your brain."

Okay so maybe I'm stretching it a little on the last one but you get my drift. So many people really don't like this site and it is a shame because it can be such a great resource.

-Note- I said CAN be.

I say can because the problem I see so many times is a font that either doesn't fit with the overall composition or it is a font that I have seen many many many times. For example there was a levi's commercial that aired a little while ago that was using a font called, Bleeding Cowboys. I immediately recognized the font and was a little surprised that they would use a font that was quickly becoming very common. It was featured on the cover of a Photoshop Magazine in December and I am sure that it has been seen elsewhere. While a type face might be great keep looking because if it is overused it isn't going to look good it is going to look cheap.

If you really want to be taken seriously take this next tip and apply it right now.

USE THE RIGHT TYPEFACE FOR THE RIGHT JOB.

I'll say it again. Choose your typeface clearly. When doing any composition, as some of you may know, death can certainly be in the details. The font definitely goes into this. When there is a bad use of a typeface and there are a lot of poorly used typefaces out there (http://vccgraphics.wordpress.com/2006/10/13/10-tragic-typefaces/) just resist temptation. KEEP LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT FONT!!! The key to any good composition is taking a holistic approach. You wouldn't mix bad colors would you? You wouldn't use boring compositions or elements would you? Well then don't flake out on your type. Don't do it!! If you do you may ruin your piece and end up with not only crappy type face but a crappy piece that will demean not only itself but you as an artist.

Want to learn more about typography? Check these out

For typography basics:
http://typies.blogspot.com/2006/11/15-tips-to-choose-good-text-type.html
http://ilovetypography.com/2008/02/28/a-guide-to-web-typography/

For professional type effects:
http://www.tutoriallounge.com/2009/08/25-astounding-typography-tutorials/
http://techpp.com/2009/03/10/22-stunning-typography-tutorials-photoshop-text-effects/

Book Review: Drawing Cutting Edge Anatomy by Christopher Hart

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:21:00 +0000

Well it isn't too often that some things come into my life. Two of those things are Time and Money. It seems like in school I have at least one project or test or sculpture or drawing or something like that taking up all my time. This obviously leaves a fairly limited amount of time for fun projects. This weekend was one of those rare times though that I was able to finally get some time to myself and get some reading done.

I hopefully will be able to get you guys a lot more resources like this one.I wanted to refer all of you to a book that is really helping me with my anatomy. The book is called Drawing Cutting Edge Anatomy. If you are looking for a great reference on how to draw the human form like a pro then this book is gonna become your friend. On Amazon you can take a quick look through the book and see what I am talking about.

I picked this book up from my Local Library (which is a totally awesome force for evil but a different blog entry all together) but anyways, I picked it up and even through this weekend have found some of the principles in it making my drawing improve significantly over just the last few days. I highly recommend it!! Absolutely!! I'll get some pictures of my drawings uploaded to Deviantart as soon as I can. If you have any specific questions let me know. I am in the process of writing another review for my US History class that is five pages so if I go any deeper than saying that it is fantastic I am gonna break the internet bandwidth.

It's worth the risk. The approach to the book is nice and straight forward and gives examples on many different styles from a few great illustrators/artists. It really talks predominately about the Muscular system and what it is made of and not so much on how to draw it which makes it an incredible reference for poses and understanding the musculature of the human body but skims a little less on the instruction side of things. But as the title states it is the "ultimate Reference" for the comic artist. So there is a level of artistic aptitude that is required to get the most out of this book.

Ok so that is my little spiel about this great book. go get it it is worth it! Enjoy!

Alex

Question of the Week: What is the hardest part of Art School?

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:08:00 +0000

This weeks Question of the Week is all about what is difficult for you. What makes you want to pull the hair from your head and break every pencil you own.For me I have been struggling through Anatomy and the proper portrayal of the human form. It kills me every time.

The key to these things though is learning. Don't try an solve all of your own problems by yourself. it won't work get some books, some critique anything that will help you to move on and grow.

So to summarize this two part question.

Let us know...

1. What is the most difficult thing for you?

2. How are you improving on it?

New work and New features

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Well I just posted new artwork to my Deviantart account and I have some new Ideas that I am kicking around for the Blog.

The largest of which is a featured Section. I want to get Ideas from around the Community and see what survival tips you have.

if you want to be reviewed for a feature Let me know on either

Twitter: @Surivethearts

Or

Email: Artschoolsurvival@gmail.com

Survival is an option
Alex

Question of the Week: Halloween Costumes

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:00:00 +0000

So with the halfway milestone quickly fading into the distance and the new semester quickly approaching the question for this week is simple.

What are you going to be for Halloween?

yeah pretty pic I know. If you got some great ideas let us know because I am sure there are a lot of people who still have no clue what their costumes for Halloween are going to be.

A Need to Feed.

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:55:00 +0000

Ok so here we are another great morning to be an student. Surviving is really difficult I find when you have no survival tools. So I am here to describe a great tool that some people might not know about it. It is called the RSS feed.

It is that little icon that to the right of my posts. Looks like 1/4 of three concentric circles. Yeah that is called an RSS Feed icon. RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. Basically it is a subscription service. It allows users to subscribe to a website,blog, or really anywhere that offers information that is updated like videos, news, posts, articles, photos and stuff like that.

The reason this is so helpful to us as art students is that it puts the knowledge of experts and professionals right at our fingertips. If you are a user of iGoogle (which I highly recommend) then your RSS feeds will post directly to your homepage ready to view at anytime. These are all automatically updated whenever the site adds content, which means that you don't have to go looking all over the net to find that Typography tutorial you saw or the really awesome free vector pack. It will all be cataloged right in your Feed Reader ready to go.

Subscribing to these feeds is as easy as clicking on the Feed Icon on the site. It may come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors but they all do the same thing. After you have clicked on it you then have to tell the feed where to go, kinda like your address on a magazine subscription. There are many places to put feeds. I already mentioned iGoogle but Windows Live, myYahoo and Newsgator all have Feed readers on them and they will help you tremendously.

I want to wrap up this Entry with a short list of some of the Feeds that I use and that have helped me to grow and keep up with all the craziness involved in surviving.

GoMediaZine - A great site that posts tutorials and articles that pertain to Graphic Design and illustration

Psdtuts+ - The Photoshop arm of the Tuts+ network of sites. They provide top notch tutorials from some the best in the industry.

Freelance Switch- Information on all of the ins and outs of freelancing

FreelanceFolder- Another great freelancing site. They literally wrote the book.\

Do any of you have any RSS feeds that you subscribe to? Let us know!

Survival is an option.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Well sorry that it has been so long guys but I have been swamped with geuss what? Art work!! Yeah

It really isn't too bad but it does weigh on me sometimes. I was up until 3am a little while ago working on a project for 3D Design. Not the most fun but I think I am finding my groove. Last night I was working on a project that was a strict follower of Murphy's law. I was painting on foam-core/ foam board and I was going for a stone texture with a silver corner. My plan was originally to spray the entire piece silver and then mask, spray with texture, remove the tape and be done. But no the masking tape began to peel the silver off of my corners. The texture paint I found was detrimental to the structural integrity of foam board. It was peeling the upper layer of paper off of the foam center. It also somehow made my hot glue corrode and become nonadhesive. So I am in the middle of crunch time and my sculpture is falling apart. What do I do? I work through it and just let it go and laugh.

In class this morning I was tired and not really wanting to be there. But the only thing to do is find the best in the situation. How? Laugh. not any one thing in particular but just find your own humor. If I can lighten a mood then it helps everything go smoother and keeps the tension of a critique down.

So today do yourself a favor. Laugh.

Survival Tip #3

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:04:00 +0000

Roy D. Chapin Jr.-
Be ready when opportunity comes...Luck is the time when preparation and opportunity meet.

Tip #3
Make the most of EVERY opportunity!

Art school is and can me a great opportunity for networking and meeting new people. Meet people in as many different fields as possible. Meet people in Film, Business, Graphic Design, Illustration, Computer Science etc. You never know when you will find someone who can help you on a project or teach you something new that will lead to new growth.

Take advantage of whatever opportunities your school offers. I am going to be applying to a job in the next few days at my schools Mac-based computer lab. For the first few weeks I was in this school I had no clue that this place even existed until one of my friends told me about it. I was relieved to find a room full of not only computers but computers that had the entire CS4 package on them and they were all 17+" iMacs. I had hit the jackpot. That lab offers many assets that will help me besides the availability of computers but they have tablets, MIDI controllers, Scanners, Audio/ Visual equipment even a full recording studio. I have been known to stay for hours after my final class just working on getting used to the various ammenities available through my school. Take advantage of yours as well.

What opportunities do you make a priority to be a part of?
What is it about your art or design school that you take advantage of the most?

Projects Under Way

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:14:00 +0000

Well as you might be able to tell my schedule has been pretty crazy and kept me from being able to do all that I would have liked on this forum but hey better late than never.

So anyways, an update on my life. I just finished my first sculpture piece in 3D Design and it was one of the most frustrating thing I believe I have ever done. If you read some of my earlier posts you probably heard and could possibly viscerally taste my hatred of wire work but that is beside the point. My assignment was to create a piece that captured the word "precarious". Well my process was one of trial and error
trying to figure out what the word entailed as far as attributes and charcteristics. I began to formulate ideas and images that would evoke a sense that my sculpture was so grossly out of wack that it could fall over and all the components roll across the room. So I made a sculpture that would do just that. I created a wire armature that was a cube, It had a single shaved corner that would form a tiny tiny base for the rest of the sculpture to balance on and give the impression of "How does that work?" "Doesn't that defy some law of modern physics?" as well as other phrases that showed my audiences preconceptions of what was possible was breaking down. I then constructed internal elements that utilized no wire connects only balance to exaggerate the instability of the project as a whole and to draw attention into the form.

This might all sound fine and dandy but there were a lot of lessons taken from that project.

1. Be You
2. Have a Plan
3. Relax and Enjoy

1. Being true to your vision is important. If you miss this then you aren't creating for yourself but for your professor. Getting wrapped up in how it will be received, how it will be graded, will it be good enough or any of the other million things we throw around in our brains. Be true to yourself. If you put your best work out then that, as stated in some of my other posts, is an achievement unto it self. Focus not on your grade but on creating the best work you are capable of regardless of any fleeting judgement made about it.

2. Having a plan is really basic and really really important. Without a plan you will accomplish nothing and your deadlines will creep up on you like a prowling lion. Make a plan and stick to it.

3. Relaxing is a resource that most people believe is only for the weak who can't handle the stress of working. Contrary to popular belief this is actually very important. You can not make any of the above steps happen if this is not in place before hand. If you try and throw your best work together in a tense aggravated state you are going to a) rush in and screw things up lacing tip #2. or B) you are not going to think straight and are going to cut off any and all circulation to the creative lobe of your brain not easy to be creative when you would rather slam your head through a wall than paint or draw or write. Let the ideas flow from a relaxed mind.

What do you do to get the creativity flowing? When you are working on projects what tips do you have?

Music and the Creative Soul

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:03:00 +0000

So I wanted to talk about something that is very close to my heart and that I feel is also a key aspect in my artistic process. But before hand I think it is important to get the proper mind set. When creating a piece of art we are not creating a series of colorful blots that appear in whatever out chosen medium is. We are communicating an idea, a thought, an image, an emotion, a feeling and many more things all simultaneously through the piece. It maybe hard for some of us to get in touch with this side of ourselves. It may be even harder to capture all of that in a single still image. There is no movement to catch the eye and throw the viewer into a feeling of speed, no sound to caress the mind into a state of lulled relaxation and there are no words to lead the mind into understanding. All there is in the image before you.

This is were I find music comes into play. I say music because it is what connects me to that side of myself. It is what leads me to those places where I can formulate charcters and worlds and entire stories that capture the emotion and feeling I want. The song "Aqueous Transmission" by Incubus connects me to a side that is easy and calm I can visualize scenes of youthful innocence and adventure. Characters that are so small in the scheme but also incredibly close to the heart.

When I need songs that pull out the side of my creative mind that live in the dark corners of a city. Moving fast, leaping over buildings fighting in the dead of night I listen to songs like "Crash Thru Walls" by O.U.O..

These are just a few songs that make me feel a certain way and inspire some of my works. I understand that not everyone is a musical person but there are other things that I pull inspiration from. Films are one of these things. I watch movies like Disney's "Treasure Planet" and get a rush of adrenaline as well as freedom when Jim is Solar-surfing. I look at the shapes used and the angles/perspectives and try and grab that emotion for an instant and hold on to it and use those things in my art.

What helps inspire you? What makes you more creative and helps you tap into areas of yourself that fuel your art work and makes it alive?

The Courage of an Artist and Survival Tip 2

noreply@blogger.com (AGregorie) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:44:00 +0000

Okay so it is currently an hour past my usual bed time and the sandman is beating me to death. I am just finishing a project that has taken me an astounding amount of time and it has lead me to an interesting conclusion.

I HATE WIRE. The assignment was quite simple, make your hand out of 12 gauge rebar tie-wire. I started strong using a piece of pipe to mold the fingers and all was good lots of fun. Then it started to become a pain the more I worked. The wire would simply bend too far or not enough and just became an overall pain to work with. My hands are now looking like the hands of a coal miner from the annealment of this medium of Satan and my legs are thanking me for sitting down for the first extended period of time since I began working around 3:00 this afternoon.

So all in all I am proud of the product. From seeing how most everyone else was going about the project I think I have come up with a creative and original solution to the problem proposed. Instead of using the standard contour and gesture lines I decided to use a series of modified spirals and wire braids to form a three-dimensional hand that resembles a mix between a piece of science fiction and horror. Whatever goes down I am proud of my work and that is what art is really all about.

Survival Tip #2:
Be content with your best work.

Joe Namath said,"You learn you can do your best even when its hard, even when you're tired and maybe hurting a little bit. It feels good to show some courage." This is definitely true when it comes to making art. There are few professions that demand so much with so little promised in return. There are no guarantees that our work will be given great reviews, excellent merit from spectators or even, in the worst case, a glimpse at all. It is in these cases were it takes genuine courage to continue to create art. SO never look down on your best work. When we do we only handicap ourselves and slow our progress but when we take in what we have really accomplished then we can move on to bigger, brighter and better things...that hopefully don't involve wire.