Category: Free Inquiry

So, you’re probably thinking…. Jess…. why are you choosing to dedicate a post to photography, when the image is already a photograph?

Well, because I strongly believe that photography is another form of artistic expression, and is an art style that should be talked about as such. There’s a lot that goes into photography that is more than just “point and shoot.” Good photographers understand that they need to know the angles and positions that they need to be in to get the right shot, and on top of that, they need to be knowledgeable about their camera and the camera settings/lenses to make sure they are getting the best possible photo they can. In addition to the skills needed to just take the picture, photographers also need to be skilled editors. If you’ve ever seen before and after shots of of the night sky, or models on the cover of a magazine, then you know what I mean.

We have come a long way from where we started. It might suprise you to know that photography dates back centuries. Or, at least, it got its start centuries ago. Although not what we think of today, the first “camera” was the camera obscura, which ideas date back as far as 470BC. This camera did not take images, but rather was used to observe eclipses, directing light from a small hole, onto a screen. The first photograph, however, was not taken until 1826, by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Now, 200 years later, we can take near professional quality photos and edit them, all from our phones. If you want to know more about the history of cameras and photography, look at this article, which I think does a good job at covering this material.

For this weeks entry, I wanted to actually look at the original image, because surprise! I actually have two photos that were taken that day.

The one on the right is the image that I have been recreating all semester. Fun fact, that photo was actually taken at the rehearsal for the show, which is why the supporting vocalist in the shot is wearing a sweater. The image on the left, is a photo taken during the actual show, where you can see that the vocalists are a bit more dressed up, and you can see a bit more of a crowd gathering.

The reason I wanted to show these images is because I wanted to talk a bit here about another aspect of photography: it captures a moment in life. Even more than a sculpture or a painting, photography is a moment in time, caught in a still. A small reflection back at us of the life we have lived. Through photography, we can often see the a piece of the person captured in the image; we can catch a glimpse of their emotions, or their passion.

One of the great things about having two different photos of that night, is that you get to see the same moment (or close to the same moment) from another perspective. When we add the second photo we can add more to the image and to what we picture when we think of the image. Before, it was clear that there were at least three people on the stage, and now we can see that there were at least 7 (at least one more musician, two more vocalists, and a dancer). In truth, there was an entire other side of the stage with another 4 musicians as well that you still can’t see. The second image also allows us to see the stage setup better, and gives us a better idea of the layout in relation to the audience. We can now see that the stage is much longer, there is a screen on the left (and right) displaying live visuals of the show, and that the stage is around 4ft high, or at least above the waist, and below the shoulders of the girl in the audience.

I say all this to point out the versatility in photography, and its importance as an art form that can capture a moment in seconds. I love that it allows us to use our creativity to highlight a moment, or save it to look back on years later. I love that with multiple photographs we can start to get a fuller idea of the moment. And I love that it can show us something raw, real, and powerful in a way that a painting or drawing can’t often do.

I’m not a professional photographer by any means, but I do think it’s really fricken awesome and I have so much appreciation for those who are.

To find my weekly reflections on this course and my learning, look Here

To find my other inquiry posts, look Here

One of art styles that I initially thought of when forming this inquiry project was anime, or another form of cartoon style drawing.

This week, I wanted to finally do the thing that inspired me and take the original photograph, and turn it into either an anime style scene, or something out of a Disney Princess movie. The trouble here was that there are just so many styles that fall into the category “cartoon” and I was indecisive in what I wanted to do, and I also have not really developed my own style around character drawing. So I really started by focusing on anime styles, looking at the way that many anime artists drew characters, and how they constructed face shapes, and particularity eye shapes and hair. Eye shapes varied, but had a lot of similar features. Whether sharp and angular, or large and rounded, they all had very large irises and think black pupils, with white highlights in various points of the pupils. I tried to mimic this as best I could, in a way that was easiest for me.

Rather than try and wing it though, I used this “how to draw” sketch posted by ariSemutz on Deviantart, which was really helpful for me, in guiding how I drew the body shape, head and eyes.

In the original photograph, my hair is curly. However, most anime styled hair is pin straight and angular, or, hair that is curled is very large, so this was an area that I had to take creative liberty and draw in a way that felt cartoony but also still true to the image. Had I done this differently, I think I would have actually made the hair a lot more dramatic and large, as this feels more true to the style than what I ended up with.

My biggest issue actually came down not to my own technique but rather the tools I had available for this. Initially I had wanted to use markers rather than coloured pencils for this drawing, but unfortunately I did not have access to the markers I wanted to use for the week, so pencil it was. I was also using a thick, watercolour paper. This paper, I learned, is not conducive for coloured pencil drawing, as there were thick ridges in the paper that meant I couldn’t really get a good blend, not matter how I tried. I used blending pencils and a heavy hand to colour in the singer in the image, but it was so time consuming and still did not reach the level of opacity that I wanted, so for the background I was much lazier and just did it quickly. In some ways it works, to help the character stand out, however, it does make the image look like a poorer quality than it could have been, and does take away from the stylistic goals I had. Lesson learned: use markers, or a flatter paper.

Without further ado, here is my image, inspired by anime.

As I now reflect on the drawing, I think its the one that I would like to keep working on the most, and apply what I have learned to another version of the same thing. Maybe next time I’ll actually acquire markers, or spend days working on the piece instead of hours. I think that would be fun.

To find my weekly reflections on this course and my learning, look Here

To find my other inquiry posts, look Here

AI: Artificial Intelligence. It’s the new thing that everybody is talking about. It’s a little bit scary, but also quite intriguing to see just how much AI can do now, and just how far it has come in the last few years. Until around 2 years ago, I had never even thought about giving a computer a prompt to see what it could do, let alone just how well it could do what you ask.

In many ways, It is really cool to see what kinds of things AI can come up with. Just look at last week’s weekly reflection, where I was able to ask an AI generator to create images of Darth Vader at a nightclub. Not only could the generator actually produce the images, it could do it well. I have seen some AI generated images that look a bit wonky, human-like characters have extra limbs, or it just can’t quite get faces right, but these images were fairly realistic, and far better than anything I could have done, or even imagined, myself.

While AI allows for new forms of creativity and artistic expression, it has also become a very prevalent topic of discussion and concern, primarily around attribution, copyright, and plagiarism.

If you give an AI generator a prompt, and it comes up with an image for you, who owns it? Who is the artist? If AI generators create images based on it’s ability to scan the internet for ideas, then how do the artists that are being used for inspiration get credit? Can you pass off the work of AI generation as your own digital art creation?

Another question that has many people concerned is the question of work for artist or other working professionals. This has recently come up in the media through the Disney+ TV show Secret Invasion, in which the entire opening credits video was AI-generated. Many people were upset with Marvel over this situation, because of not only the issues listed above about attributing, but also the issue of putting artists out of work. It was suggested that the use of AI to create this video replaces the artist, so the studio doesn’t have to pay someone for their time and skill. Many people are worried that this is just the start of the industry replacing artists and looking towards AI as the answer instead. Personally, I think that there are some very valid thematic reasons why Marvel may have chosen to use AI for this specific opening sequence. Nevertheless, these criticisms are completely fair and perhaps have some truth to them, and do raise important questions about the future of AI generated artwork and it’s place.

All that being said, I genuinely have so much fun using AI to create art, just as a hobby. I can get distracted and entertain myself for quite some time just giving an AI generator prompts and seeing what it comes up with, and then refining my prompts and making them even more interesting. For example, I spent way longer than I needed to today just playing around with the app WOMBO Dream – AI Art Generator and seeing just how similar or different some of the variations of the reference image I could get.

The reference image, if you need a refresher:

There were many different styles of art that the app would filter the image through to create many different images. The app also allows the user to adjust the settings on how much influence the reference image would have over the AI-generated image. I was able to get many images that were really close to the original photograph when using a strong influence simply using the prompt “create an interesting image using this photograph as a reference”

There were also some that were close but not fully the same in the “normal influence” category. Here is where I found some of the more interesting interpretations, including one that looked a lot like Michael Jackson, which I found very interesting, considering the fact that the performance in the original photograph is of a Michael Jackson song.

Finally is the minor influence images. These were the ones that least looked like the photograph, including only similar shapes colours or ideas. Some of these were very cool, but a few I struggled to even see the connection to the original.

As you can tell, I had a lot of fun with this. These are only a handful of the images I asked the app to create. The diversity of what I was able to create shows us a lot about versatility in what can be created. It was also really cool to see some of these images and how well-made they looked. I would have believed that a person made many of them if that’s what I was told. Thus begging the question again about credit, and plagiarism. That being said, I will probably do this again some time as an casual pastime, as it is fun to see what the AI generator can create.

To find my weekly reflections on this course and my learning, look Here

To find my other inquiry posts, look Here

This week I have chosen to look at digital art and art apps such as Procreate.

Digital Art is defined as any form of “artwork that draws upon digital technology as an essential part of its creative process” (What Is Digital Art? 2023). It was first utilized as an art medium in the 1980s with the invention of AARON, a painting robot developed by an engineer, Harald Cohen. By the 90s the idea of digital art had grown to include the use of personal computers, and the art medium has only continued to evolve as technology has developed further, into what we see today where digital art is an expansive and easily accessible way to create. Below is a chart that compares digital art to traditional art:

One of the most popular ways to develop digital art today is through Procreate. First created in 2011, Procreate is an art app which focuses on sketching, painting, and other forms of illustrating, made exclusively for iPads. Something that I think is really cool about Procreate is its accessibility. Anybody, from a kid in one of your classes, to professionals working in the film industry can use Procreate. For example, did you know that the logo for the show Stranger Things was created on Procreate?

Procreate is also relatively easy to learn how to use, with plenty of brush options and app features that allow the artist to create their own unique image based on their own art styles.

While the app is accessible, it can able be expensive when starting out, compared to traditional art. While you can find basic art supplies at the dollar store if you are a casual artist, procreate doesn’t really have a dollar store equivalent. You fist have to acquire an iPad and then purchase the app, which itself is only $17.99, however, to really use it you also need to purchase an apple pencil, or stylus, which in its most affordable form is $109. However, once you have these tools, you dont need to spend any more money on tools, or replenishing supplies.

Now, I must admit that this week I did not actually recreate the image myself because of these financial limitations. Primarily, I did not have an iPad, and I was not going to purchase one for this activity. However, one of my friends, Lindsay, does, and she just recently started diving into digital art using Procreate, and she asked me and some of our other friends to give her suggestions of what to make. So, I asked her if she would be willing to recreate the image for my inquiry project, and this was the result as her 5th digital art creation:

Because I did not create this, I cannot speak to the process of creating it. However, I do want to publicly thank my friend for doing this recreation for me, so that I could include this topic in my inquiry project.

References:

Bravic, L. (2023) A Short History of Digital Art: Between new technologies & innovative artistic practices. Artland Magazine. https://magazine.artland.com/digital-art/

What is Digital Art?. Adobe. (2023). https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/illustration/discover/digital-art.html

To find my weekly reflections on this course and my learning, look Here

To find my other inquiry posts, look Here

This week, I chose to focus on abstract art. The style of abstract art I have chosen is called Suprematism. Suprematism is an early expression of abstract art that came out of Russia during the First World War. The style is characterized by simple motifs such as the square, circle, and cross, and employed non-Euclidean geometry, a practice which gave the illusion that geometric forms were floating in space.

The goal of the art style was to achieve the “zero degree” in painting, which was “a point which the medium could not go without ceasing to be art;” its most fundamental form. The image seen on the canvas was meaningless, while the significance came from prioritizing the supremacy of feeling and expression.

The first person to use Suprematism was Kazimir Malevich, in 1913.

If you would like to learn more about Suprematism, there are links to my sources below:

Art Movement: Suprematism, Artland Magazine.

Suprematism, The Art Story.

For my own Suprematism piece, I decided to start with an off-white base, even though my image has a much darker background, as that is a common trend that I see in the style. Suprematism also has a lot of very bold, basic colours, whereas my image mainly uses varying tones of blues and purples. This also meant that I had to adapt even further my piece just starting with choosing the colours to use that would still reflect the art style and the image. I tried to stay true to the colours as best I could, but I did adapt the lights especially.

What I liked about painting using Suprematism was that I was much less conscious of how it looked than I was with the sketch. Although I likely could have been more precise, I was less worried about the accuracy of recreation, instead just trying to capture the general idea. Where I think I missed the mark on this painting is in the “non-euclidian geometry” aspect of the style. I only realized halfway through painting that all my lines were perfectly vertical, rather than at an angle; I only corrected this when adding the “people,” so it does not have the same floating visual.

Overall, this was a really interesting experience as I had not heard of Suprematism until I researched for this week’s recreation, and I’m glad I did. I had fun working on this one, even if my lines aren’t as crisp or angled as I would like them to be.

To find my weekly reflections on this course and my learning, look Here

To find my other inquiry posts, look Here

While last week I wrote about what I was doing, I never revealed the image that I would be recreating for the next nine weeks. So, this week I thought it would be a good idea to reveal the reference photo and explain a little bit about why I chose it:

When choosing an image to recreate I had to think about a few things:

1. Can I use the image without fear of copyright strike? Due to caution, this meant no album covers or film posters.
2. Are there people in the image? This was a priority for me, as drawing people is something I am admittedly horrible at, so I wanted something that would push me out of my comfort zone, while also allowing for the most freedom in choosing an art style to recreate the image in.
3. Is it visually attractive or interesting? I wanted something that had a range of dynamics and colours, that would allow me to focus on different aspects of the image as a priority each week, and also something that would be fun to recreate.

So, this is the image I chose. Yes, it is me, but that’s actually not why I chose it. Being me is an unfortunate byproduct of hours of searching for the right picture and coming across this as the one that seemed the most interesting to me. And no, I will not be taking questions at this time, let’s focus on the art side of this.

I chose this image mainly because of how the lighting worked to create an interesting colour pattern. I love how the stage lights and background screen work together to create a moody tone, and I think it just looks pretty. Second, because yes, there are people, but they are all slightly obstructed, especially in the face, which gives me a little bit of grace while also still checking off my second point.

The Sketch:

This week, I started my journey with a “simple” black-and-white sketch focusing on the shadows and light in the image. I chose to begin with a sketch because I thought it would be a great way for me to create a baseline for myself for how easy or challenging this project would be. It would set both my expectations and yours, for my ability and it challenges me to do something I’ve never done before. For this first attempt was done going in blind, as I did not do any research into the basic art theories of how to create shading in a pencil sketch. As this was my first week, this was intentional as a way to see what I could figure out on my own.

You may or may not be able to tell, but this took a lot of trial and error, and I found that as I went on, my techniques got more refined. For example, I always started from the left side and worked my way right. You can notice that I used a tiny eraser for the first stage light and realized that this did not work and had to change it. I also realized that I started this drawing off with a mechanical pencil and small eraser, but as I went on I realized that this was not the best choice and switched to a regular pencil and larger eraser to help with the shading and highlights on the image.

Through this process I learned the importance of shading and how to add dimension when all you’re using is a pencil, finger, and eraser (however if I had the correct pencil and eraser I wonder if it could have been a little better). I also realized just how long this takes. What I thought would be an hour out of my evening became multiple days of effort. The final product is not good by any means. In fact, it’s actually kind of embarrassing to be putting this on the internet, and I still can’t draw people, but I am still proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and trying to be creative through things that I tend to avoid.

To find my weekly reflections on this course and my learning, look Here

To find my other inquiry posts, look Here

I consider myself a creative person. Generally speaking, if something can be made, I’m going to try to make it myself. Want a bookshelf? Build it myself. Need a planner? I guess I’ll make a Bullet Journal as well. Bookbinding? Yeah sure! I’ll even dabble in painting a bit if it’s to enhance an object I already own. That being said, I’m not the most skilled artist. I create often out of practicality, rather than a desire to produce art, So it’s rare that I ever pull out a canvas and go at it with a brush, or draw something simply for the sake of it. Still, creativity through art is something that brings me both joy and peace even if its not amazing quality.

Going into the education program at UVic, I was warned that this would be a busy semester and that I would likely not have much time for the things I enjoy. However, if I’m going to survive, I will still need a creative outlet; this assignment allows for that.

For my inquiry project, I will explore different avenues of artistic expression each week by recreating the same image in different art styles. I have no formal art training, with the closest thing to it being a Grade 8 Art class 13 years ago. So this project will allow me to learn a bit about different art styles ranging from painting and drawing styles like a simple sketch and expressionism, to AI-generated images, and maybe even 3D modelling using play-dough?

Join me over the next ten weeks as I find my way through an artistic avenue I tend to avoid. I will be exploring artistic styles and techniques from a beginner’s eye. It will be messy and may not be “professional” quality or even just “okay,” but I think it will still be a fun way for me to learn the basics of a few art styles.

To find my weekly reflections on this course and my learning, look Here

To find my other inquiry posts, look Here