Weekly IP Blog#21

What I did

Sun. 3/18/12: 2.5 hours digitally painting my volcano.

Mon. 3/19/12: 7 hours digitally painting my volcano and made edits. Got feedback from my digital painting tutor at CCS. 

Tues. 3/20/12: Met with James to go over my volcano edits and quality, also went over my printing plans. Visited G & B Graphics in Ann Arbor to see a test print of my hurricane. For about an hour we discussed princes, printing options, sizes, and the possibility of having a light source for each of my prints. 

Weds. 2/21/12: About 7.5 hours digital painting and reworking all three of my natural disasters. Got feedback on my edits from fellow discerns online.

Thurs. 2/22/12: Had small group critique, discussed color and texture edits on my series to make the three more cohesive. We went over the display order of my prints and the possibility of having text/words between my prints. Spoke with Mark and G & B Graphics about printing options for friday and the timeline I have to get my project printed. 

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered

This week I worked really hard to meet my deadline with the placing the order of my prints with  G & B Graphics friday. I spent most of the beginning of this week reflecting on what was making my volcano edits so flat. The other problem I was facing was that it had the danger of just looking like an explosion if my lava and rock textures were not incorporated accurately. I spent a lot of time, mostly monday and tuesday getting those details down. Fortunately I got my volcano at the recognizable and impacting level I wanted. I got a lot of feed back over the course of this week on what odd shapes or textures people could see in all my natural disasters. For example some of the designer giving me feedback saw a human figure or baby in the smoke that the volcano produce, so things like that edited and shapes I reworked as well. 

Feedback during IP this week was also very helpful. James came to my studio on Tuesday and we went over the volcano edits I had made. I learned my background got better, but that more bright yellow and whites still could really push the lava over the red more. I also arranged to drive out to G & B Graphics and met Kevin for the first time. He was extremly helpful and is getting my prints mounted onto plexiglass for half the prices I was looking at with other printers. He also did a test print off my hurricane and we compared it other printing options. We really liked how the test print looked on a light table, so we are going to try to get florescent lights for my prints. G & B Graphics is also printing my project larger than any of the other printers would, 49"x61" with lights or 46"x58" with an inch of plexiglass showing as a border. I heard today that they could mostly likely get the lights for me, so tomorrow I will be visiting them again and look over prices again.

Thursday's small group critique was one I really needed. I learned that I can relax a bit more about printing my project. I was really worried that my test prints or blowing up the scale of my prices would cause issues, so I wanted to dedicate all next week to leave to make edits and deal with mistakes. Presenting all three of my natural disasters during my small group cirque was great became we discussed the display order in which my prints could go in. We reflected my hurricane vertically to see it how it compares to the volcano and tornado and having the wave come in and point to them from the left helped a lot. I also learned about some correlations the tornado and hurricane have with colors and lines. I need to make edits to the color pallet of the hurricane and line textures, as well as be more carful keep the three related to each other enough to make a successful series. Hannah also brought up the point of how I could incorporate text or words in my final presentation based on my research. I was at first confused and imaged gallery labels for between each large print, but then I understood how helpful having text or complementary quotes would help viewers look at and understand my work better. I can see how this can help, so I will consider the option with the final printing display and time I have left. Im excited and worried about getting my project printed, but I've worked really hard to get where I am with them. Below is the order I am thinking about putting my prints in for the IP show. 

This week was also a bit crazy because outside of printing because my laptop died. I had to purchase a new Mac to safe my project and all other work. Im happy now that I managed to catch up to where I wanted to be at the end of the week, but on tuesday and Wednesday when I had serious computer issues was terrible. I finally can run Photoshop CS5 normally and get my work done, Im just a bit worn out by trying to make up for the lost time. 

What I think I should do next

Tomorrow I will be going to G & B Graphics to start some test prints of my work and place the order of my tornado to be printed fully. I will also be looking at the lighting options they are offering, repricing my entire project as well and discuss how to give them credit on my post cards. Im excited to have lights come through my prints that will be mounted onto plexiglass, Im just hoping it all works out! I also plan on playing around with a way to have words presented with my prints at the show. Another think people told was cool to maybe have at the show was a quick stop motion clip or photos of all the laying and digital painting process that goes into making the complex natural disasters I created. A lot people are just amazed at the different transformations that happens when I go in and edit different layers or repaint a section of my work, so that were I get a lot ask me more about my project and working process.