It’s already 4 weeks into the semester and so much has happened so far. Some bad things, but for the most part, some really great and exciting things. During the winter break, one of my goals was to get an internship for the summer/fall, but just a couple weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised by an offer to start immediately. It’s an internship with the CSUS Union. They are the in-house design staff for anything related to the student union and more. It’ll be my first design position so it’s really exciting yet a little scary at the same time. All the designs they produce are very creative and professional looking, and I know it’ll push me to design at the same level.

The only class I’m worried about this semester is GPHD 30. It’s equivalent to last semester’s GPHD 25. Same professor and everything, so high expectations and brutal process. We’re currently working on symbol and it’s very frustrating. It’s such a balancing act between simplicity and ambiguity. I’m learning to not only write down my thinking, but also draw them as well; to express my ideas in form. Our first project is to design a symbols of an ant or wasp, one communicating frantic and the other sluggish. It’s not as easy as simply tracing a silhouette of the insect, but intentionally interrupting the black space with white space to convey form, message, function and simplicity all in one. The form is in recognition, message in expressing the emotion, function in still being readable at 1/2″, and simplicity in instant recognition. Lately I’ve been wasting a lot more time than I can afford. I still have a couple drawings and photographs to submit for the portfolio review in May and I was asked to put some of my work in a gallery in April. Some of my mini goals are to draw and learning Adobe software everyday. This is a recent drawing I finished as a part of my goals as well as to put in the gallery.

experimental side lighting drawing based on photo
4H-8B graphite on 11″ x 14″ paper

I’m going through this really good drawing book right now, Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson. So far focuses a lot on the technical aspect and technique of drawing. For example, you should be looking at whatever you’re drawing more than the drawing itself. I bought it a year ago because it was a recommended classic. I’m only about half way through it, but with the portfolio review coming up, I hope to finish it well before then. Here’s one for the chapter on lighting. (the white lines under the chin and hair is actually the ripples on the paper reflecting light from the scanner)

ben harper portrait

4H-8B graphite on paper

Winter break’s over! It felt short yet at the same time when I think back it feels like it’s been a while. Around 4 weeks ago, I set some goals for myself. How did I do?…Not too bad. I predicted that I would fall short, which I did, but I also didn’t anticipate how much work just a couple of my goals were. I am glad to have finished my top two priorities: my GPHD 25 Final Book and crazy drawing of a Japanese Factory. Little over halfway, I added my GPHD 25 process manual to the list as well, so technically finished three things. I also got a good start on contacting local design studios about possible internships for the summer/fall of ’10. Currently that’s on hiatus because I need to talk to one of my professors more about it. Questions I need to ask before I put myself out there are: What area do I want to focus on? What kind of responsibilities would I like to have? Not have? What do I want to get out of the internship experience?

I didn’t finish a design/drawing book nor did I keep up the routine of 1 drawing a day. Most of my time was spent working on my GPHD 25 final book/process manual. This is the class that never ends. I am very happy with my revision of my series 2 – Gestalt. Basically I have to pick six pictures, each showing one of six Gestalts: similarity, proximity, equilibrium, continuation, closure, & figure/ground. All six pictures have to be work together as a Gestalt itself. Gestalt is rooted in the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Looking at the whole will reveal new meaning than looking at just the individual elements. To me, Gestalt is all about relationships. It’s those relationships that form in an entire composition that creates the Gestalt. This reminds me of an entry where I talked about a book I read: Paul Rand: Conversations with Students. One of the quotes I remember is, “Design is a relationship between form and content.”

I was fortunate enough to receive some nice Christmas money as well as be able to work some more hours so I could afford my two new loves: a rotary trimmer (Rotatrim M18) and a large format printer (Canon Pixma Pro Mark II), both of which I got really good deals for. I seriously don’t know how I was working all semester without these tools. I’m trying to focus less of my energy in the craft and more in the intellectual/creative aspect of design. Both are important, but craft to me is mostly a matter of care and patience. Design on the other hand, I don’t think you can ever stop learning.

Here is a visual summary of my winter break.

So it’s been about 11 weeks since I’ve had a real post here, which correlates directly with the start of school. It’s a love/hate kind of feeling right now. I love the subject matter I’m learning right now, but hate how much time, energy, and money it takes.

Currently I’m taking a beginning drawing class, art 20a. I enjoy this class because I’m learning so much. Everything from making gesture drawings, to cast shadows, and creating form through just simple shading. It forces me to practice my drawing skills which I feel is my weak point. I’m also taking intro to graphic design, GPHD 05. A very chill class with a funny professor. It balances out the other extreme opposite course, visual basics or GPHD 25. This class probably takes up about 70% of my school work time. It’s based on 5 series: Balance/Tension, Gestalt, Interval, Composition/Communication, and Plane/Line/Dot. Each series requires intense time devoted to the process. The design I’m talking about isn’t the posters you see on the streets, but abstract dots and squares on a 4×4 square format. The process also isn’t what you might think it is either. Process means lots and lots of thumbnails and trying to figure out as many solutions as possible. From the few good thumbs, I then refine those even more. After you decided on one final one, start all over from a different approach.

My last class is intro to black/white photography. Lecture isn’t always engaging because they cover very basic stuff like aperture and dark room protocol, but the dark room lab is always fun. Going out to take photos is also a nice way to relax as well as train my eye. I love to explore and this just gives me an excuse to do that all over Sacramento. Usually I’ll go out in 2-4 hour blocks and looking for any opportunity to capture something interesting. It’s so draining and time consuming, but if I was able to capture at least one great shot then it’s worth it. That’s usually what I strive for. For those of you that have done dark room stuff before, you know that it takes forever just to get one good print. The most fascinating part about it to me is the organic process of developing your own film to enlarging your own prints from a negative. The black and white series I’ve been posting up the last few weeks are some of my photographs from this class.

Graphite on acid free paper, 5 1/2 x 8.
This is my latest assignment from my intro to drawing, art 20a class. We were told to pick a master artist and replicate a drawing of theirs. I chose M.C. Escher, whose style is actually more graphic than fine art. That’s probably why I gravitated towards him for this project.