Leonland - Leon Barnard
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January 27, 2008
Done!
Finished!
I made a few mistakes here and there, but overall I really like it and, more than that, I feel like the project was a success. I started with an idea and ended up with a realization of that idea.
It really was a challenge, especially because I'd never done something like it before. I came across a lot of surprises, but I'm pleased that I didn't get deterred by the setbacks or unanticipated constraints. There were times when I thought it was just too hard or a stupid idea or that I couldn't get the right materials, but I kept moving forward and I think that was the key.
Here's the original image side-by-side with what I made. The inaccuracies stand out a lot, but so do the similarities. I'm surprised at how similar they look.
4 days left
Almost out of time, but almost there...
The background is mostly done (I think I'll add a little more detail to the sky). The colors I chose made it a little more abstract than I planned, but I think that's ok, it may even work for it.
The surfer kid is coming together. Assembling him has been a much different process than doing the background. Less measuring and precision and more eye-balling and working by "feel".
Lately I've been noticing how small mistakes and errors in precision get compounded, but I think (hope) that they won't matter so much in the end. It'll be good if it retains the sentiment and flavor of the original more than if it matches it exactly.
On a related note, I've decided that next month I'll focus on getting up early. I'll try to get out of bed before 8:00 on 20 days of the month.
January 25, 2008
First Starbucks in Prague
For better or worse, Starbucks has arrived in Prague.
"Star-bucks? What's a star bucks?"
"Welcome to Starbucks in Prague"
January 16, 2008
Art Project update
It's coming along, but, boy, my art project has turned out to be more work than I imagined. It's always easier in your head...
So, in the last 10 days, I have:
Gone to three different art stores to find about 20 different sheets of colored paper that roughly match the colors in the image. It's not easy to find that many shades of blue...
Bought three different kinds of glue and tested them for: hold strength, ease of application, shine, and whether they warp the paper. This was something that I hadn't thought about before I started, but realized that I should do once I envisioned it more clearly.
Created a higher contrast print-out to serve as a guide. I number-coded the colors to match them to the paper and measured the distances between the layers so that I could lay out the paper correctly on the canvas.
Started cutting out pieces of paper and laying them on a thick paper board that I bought to use as the canvas.
I've never done a project quite like this, so I've spent a lot of time getting to know the materials, which I didn't really think about beforehand. Another surprise was how much engineering has been required. I need to take a lot of measurements to convert the sizes of the paper print-out to the larger, actual size. There's a lot more precision needed than I expected. Also, I realized that I don't have a good workspace to do art. The canvas is 70cm x 70cm, and I need a lot of extra space around that to work, so I've mostly been working on the floor, which is uncomfortable.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with my progress and can see it starting to come together. My biggest concern is getting the surfer kid to look right. The water and sky are relatively simple and pretty resilient to imprecision, but the kid is going to be harder to do.
January 06, 2008
12 in 12 update
So, it's been about a week since I started my art project. A while ago I had an idea to and I'm going to see if I can pull it off.
Step 1 was to choose a photo to use. I wanted something that was personal and meaningful to me and I knew that it had to be relatively simple in terms of colors and contain only a few objects (you'll see why soon).
After a long time perusing my iPhoto library, here's the image that I decided on. It's a picture that my wife took on one of the best days of our honeymoon at Polihale State Park in Kauai, where we camped for two nights.
Step 2 was to "vectorize" the image, that is, convert it to a series of colored shapes rather than pixels. There's an online application that does a nice job called Vector Magic.
After playing around with some settings and trying a few different crops, here's what I ended up with.
And that's pretty much where I'm at now. What I plan to do next is buy sheets of colored paper that match the colors in the vectorized image. Then I'll cut them out to match the shapes in the image and assemble them to make an enlarged version of it, kind of like paint-by-number, but with colored paper instead of paint .
Now you can see why the choice of image was so important. As it is, I'll need about 20 different shades of colored paper to recreate the image I chose. Tomorrow or the next day I'll go to an art store to try to get the paper - I wasn't able to find any paper that was big enough today.
So far it's been really cool to have a project to do, something that I can think about or work on in my spare time. But I've found that regular day-to-day activities get in the way more than I expected; I've had to make time for this project more than I anticipated. But having a goal and a deadline have been keeping me fairly on-track, so I'm optimistic about the result. I think I have a lot more work ahead of me though, I need to get that paper soon.
January 01, 2008
12 in 12 - January
For my first "12 in 12" project, I'm going to tackle the following goal:
Complete a significant art project.
I haven't done much art in the last few years, so I'm really excited (and a little bit intimidated). I have an idea for it already, but I need to investigate a few things before I decide to go ahead with it. I'll post an update in a week or so.
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