Lauren Greear

Lazy artist, active imagination. Avatar and header art drawn by me.

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Project 4 Final Piece

All sounds and sound effects belong to their respective owners.

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Extra Additional Post of Inspiration

While it isn’t very common that I spark inspiration from my own creations, I’d like to think that I was inspired a little bit from this turtle condo I made as a theme for my Project 4 video.

In very certain ways, I feel that terrariums themselves can be a form of installation art. While the objects in the terrarium might be very specific and aren’t considered everyday regular objects, I do feel that having an empty space and installing bits and pieces inside to create a synthetic environment for a plant or animal could still qualify as installation art.

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Tech Culture Option X

Senior Thesis Exhibition

On December 1st 2018, I attended the Senior Thesis Exhibition at Oakland University to view the artwork of graduating graphic design seniors. I arrived right when the gallery hall opened, so it was a pretty quiet and tranquil experience. I hadn’t visited the gallery in a while, but I felt that this particular exhibition was rather small. There were definitely fewer pieces displayed in this exhibition than the last exhibition I visited about a year ago, however I saw this as a positive, as I wouldn’t feel completely overwhelmed with numerous pieces of art.  A few pieces that caught my attention were from artists Gabriella Randazzo, Daija Ginyard, and Christopher Ware.

Randazzo’s piece titled, Caldo Freddo, consisted of a coffee shop wall graphic design that had Italian and American influences, with a couple of mini tables, coffee cups, and wine bottle props set up on display. Seeing this set up genuinely made me feel like I was in an authentic coffee shop, and the glass cup of real coffee beans certainly made it smell like an authentic coffee shop as well.

Ginyard’s piece, AMNION, consisted of art mediums ballpoint pen, acrylic paint, and Gelly Roll pen on plywood in the three-sectional style of triptych. I was already impressed that the artist did a 48x24 drawing with the use of ballpoint and Gelly Roll pens, and as I read more in-depth information on the concept of the piece it impressed me further. The piece depicted three African American bodies keeping refuge in what looked like a womb (and there were speakers beside the exhibit that played a loop of a heartbeat to further support this), to represent the question: “Where in America is the Black body safe?”  And with me being exposed to recent unfortunate events, I would say that Ginyard’s piece really spoke to me on a personal level.

Ware’s piece titled, New Video Game Ratings, no doubt caught my attention quickly with me being a fan of video games. His exhibit consisted of a slideshow presented on a computer screen that featured numerous beneficial facts about video games. Four video game cases were displayed on the table, each with a different icon taped to the case that represented Ware’s four main positive aspects of modern video games: Problem Solving, Social Interaction, Moral Development, and Intensive Reading. Ware had explained that modern video games get such a bad reputation, and the purpose of his piece was to inform the audience that these video games could be beneficial as well. It certainly made me happy to know that not everyone saw only the negative side of modern video games.

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Tech Culture Option E

‘Friends’ Without a Personal Touch article by Michiko Kakutani on the subject of texting culture.

GIF by Sasha Katz

Texting Culture

I first learned about the use of texting when I got my first flip phone at around eleven or twelve years old. Even when my parents had their phones I never really got the chance to mess around with theirs and see what texting was all about. I was still learning the responsibilities of possessing a phone, so I was told to only use it if I were by myself somewhere and I needed to speak with someone or for emergencies. Initially I was not too fond of texting and preferred to call someone if I needed to get my word out, one reason for this was because I didn’t quite understand the letter mapping on my phone’s keypad (the letters, A, B, or C could be typed with hitting the number 1 on the keypad a certain amount of times) and my fingers would cramp up. And after several years of using phones I still prefer the method of simply calling someone rather than spending countless minutes zipping my thumbs across a glass screen.

Though, despite my slight dislike for depending on the use of texting for long conversations, I will have to admit that texting has become my primary method of telecommunication when I am out in public or on my own and I need to speak with someone. Additionally, I am still trying to improve on my anxiety and nervousness speaking with people, and texting helps ease my wariness. Whether I’m at work or the store or at home, I will text others casually if nothing is too important. However, if something is important and I can’t get an immediate answer through a text I will resort to calling.

A couple of pros that texting and calling have are that they are both super convenient and at times can be very quick, though the biggest disadvantage for both is that people can be easily distracted and too engrossed with their mobile devices if they lack the proper self-control. Another disadvantage is that with the overuse of cellular devices, it weakens the intimacy and art of having an old fashioned, face-to-face conversation with others.

I can’t really recall any incredibly important news that I have delivered to anyone by text because all the urgent news is reserved for phone calls and personal conversations, but I can say that a few other important texts that I have sent were when my brother and I had traveled to downtown by ourselves for the annual Youmacon convention. Because the location of the event is so far away and it gets so crowded and busy both day and night, and my brother and I don’t really travel far by ourselves, it was crucial that we keep our phones charged, that we text our parents when we got to the place, that we check in every half-hour or so, and that we text when we left the place.

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Symbol Illustrator Video Tutorial

Extra Additional Post of Tutorial

I felt that Adobe Illustrator was a bit intimidating for me to work with because there was so much to look at, and the interfacing was a little different than Photoshop. However, I did come across this really helpful Youtube video on how to create, save, and use symbols in Illustrator. This one surely helped me out with my infograph.

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Photoshop Brush Installation Tutorial

Extra Additional Post of Tutorial

Found a pretty useful tutorial on how to load,save,and use new brushes into Photoshop. Also comes with a video towards the bottom.

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In case of those who were interested in the horror map of the world I was referring to

It can be found here.

Extra Additional Post of Inspiration

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Extra Additional Post of WIP Sketches

Bits n’ pieces of my paper sketches used in my infograph final piece. I just really like how they all turned out.

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Project 3: Infograph

Really super happy how this all came out.

Information Sources:

Rottentomatoes.com

Imdb.com

Metacritic.com

IMDB users connorbbalboa,  jamesenstein31 , wglass-57063, and johnplocar

Illustration Sources:

Knife

Moth

Any other illustration on this image excluding the legend rectangles, pie chart, and bar graph were created freehand by me through a mix of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Paint Tool SAI in White Lake, MI from October 26th through October 31st 2018.The bar graph, pie chart, and rectangles in the legend were created by me through Adobe Illustrator.

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Project 3 Text and Research

For my approach with my infograph project, I’ve looked for the top three highest-rated horror movies of each decade beginning with the 1960′s and put them all together in a bar graph. The ratings are based off of a score average between movie review sites Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, and Metacritic.

Initially I was hoping I could start with the 1900′s, however as I did more research for horror movies released during the decades before the 1960′s I was able to find movie ratings only from two websites as opposed to the three that I needed. It turns out the 1960′s was the best decade to start out with.

I figured it would be quite overwhelming to just start Googling horror movies and writing down ratings for each and every one of them, so I started my research with the movie lists from IMDB users connorbbalboa, jamesenstein31, wglass-57063, and johnplocar. I believed that these might have been personalized movie ranking lists, so I sorted them by the highest IMDB rating (which conveniently also had Metacritic’s rating on the site too) and did some extensive Google searching while looking down the list to filter out the three highest-rated movies.

In my bar graphs, the #1 highest-rated movie out of the three for each decade with exclusively have some kind of illustration that represents either an iconic scene or object from the movie (i.e Psycho with a showerhead, or Silence of the Lambs with a Death’s Head hawkmoth).

I thought about adding a pie chart in my infographic too, to show which subgenre of horror movie appeared to be the most popular.

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First draft of my infographic project. Super happy with most of it, I still need to fix a few things.

The second image below is something I’m debating on whether or not to try to add more flavor to my bar graphs.

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Some really rough sketches of my infograph project so far done on paper and Photoshop.

I’ve decided to create a graph showing three of the top-rated horror movies throughout the decades according to the movie score average between IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic altogether.

1960 and 1970 movies are shown here in details for an idea of what I want the other decades to look like. I am still debating on whether or not to start from 1900 for this because I’m not finding movie ratings from all three places for certain movies. More research will have to be done for this.

The #1 movie of each decade will have an exclusive illustration added to it that relates to a scene or focal point of the movie (i.e Psycho has a shower head illustration to reflect the famous shower scene, and Alien has a chestburster alien)

I am also deciding on whether or not the box with all the movie details would be too much information for this project. Each movie listed on the graph would have their name, movie director, release year, and all three ratings from each movie critic website (IMDB, Metacritic, and Rotten Tomatoes) The top rated movie would also exclusively have a quote from the movie added too. But again, I don’t know if that would be too much info.

Some other stuff I was interested in putting would be the most expensive/cheapest movie of all the #1 movies listed, or possibly all the movies listed here. I’m thinking of turning that into a graph as well.

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Pen Tool Practice

Pen Tool Practice for Adobe Illustrator of a flower. I did a few more extra details to really get some more practice in using this tool.

Original flower image

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Tech Culture Option C: Phone-less

Image Source

On the 9th of October was the day I decided to go for one whole day without my phone. I use my computer just as much as I use my phone, if not more, so I refrained from using that too. 7:30 in the morning was when I started my day. Usually I take a glance at my phone for the current time and since my phone was tucked away in a drawer and I don’t have any clocks in my room, I had to get up and look for the nearest clock for the time.

I did my daily morning routine of preparing coffee and breakfast and I cleaned the dishes, and after that I chose to sketch a little in my free time. I was actually able to draw with content this time because I wasn’t distracted by my phone or any other electronic device, so it was a pleasant and stress-free sketching session.

Around noon I traveled with my family to the apple orchard and read a book on crystals to pass the time. This experience in particular was something very uncommon because during long road trips I listen to my music or mess around on my phone due to my strong dislike of the radio. However, I was able to have nice and lengthy conversations with my family to drown out the radio.

After the orchard I went to Troy to peruse around the mall and then dinner afterwards.  I normally don’t listen to my music or doodle with my phone when I’m out to dinner with my family unless it’s at a Benihana’s (the loud noises and utensil clanging bothers me to no end) so this wasn’t too new to me. More conversations with my family and deep thinking kept me entertained for the duration of the stay.

After my day without my smart phone, I don’t feel as if I missed a lot on social media and if I were to try this experiment again, I still wouldn’t miss much because I don’t follow a lot of people on Twitter and I don’t use Facebook very often, almost rarely. I think the only thing I really missed was my usage of YouTube because it has become my main source of entertainment and music source. Nevertheless, I think I was able to concentrate more on my freelance drawing and actually get it the way I wanted to look. I think I would like to try doing this again, I really don’t like spending so much time on the computer or my phone and I think I would be able to concentrate better on my own projects without the distractions of my electronic devices. And I think that limiting the use of my phone and computer would help curb my lazy and procrastinating tendencies as well and I’d be able to get more things done.

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Project 3 Ideas

1. How many hours a day does each of my family members listen to music? How many hours a day do I listen to music?

I could interview my family members for one week or less and ask them if they’ve listened to any music, and if so for how long. I will record my results for about a week, including my results which will be through my YouTube and Pandora music history. After the week is over and I have all the results I will put them into a bar or line graph for comparison.

 2. How much time have I spent on an art project that was done digitally? How much time have I spent on an art project that was not done digitally?

I could do this by timing myself every time I work on a piece of artwork that is not homework-related for one week or less. Then I will record my progress. My art projects will have the following categories:

Digital Drawing

Traditional Drawing

Jewelry Making

Writing (done by computer)

The graph will be a bar or line graph, or possibly a pie chart.

 3. How many hours a day do I spend on my computer? How many hours a day do I spend doing something else non-electronic related?

This will also be done by timing myself every time I leisurely spend my time on the computer and every time I do anything else --nothing homework or work-related, this is strictly hobby-related. Both methods will be compared in a bar or line graph or a timeline.

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Tech Culture Option D: Tech and the Body

Image Source

Performance-enhancing Drugs

Performance-enhancing drugs over the years have been increasingly utilized by many competitive athletes. However, illegal or not, any kind of drug can have negative side effects as harmless and useful as they may seem at first. According to the Mayo Clinic article posted above, performance-enhancing drugs can come in several forms: anabolic steroids, stimulants, and diuretics to name a few.  Anabolic steroids increase muscle mass and strength, which is appealing for many athletes looking for an easy recovery from intense workouts. Diuretics are drugs that change your body’s natural balance of electrolytes, and they can decrease an athlete’s weight, allowing them to compete in a lighter weight class.  Both illegal and legal performance-enhancing drugs have risks and these risks vary amongst different metabolisms. Common risks include drug dependence, high blood pressure, heart problems, muscle weakness, and in fatal cases death if abused. It’s really up to the athlete themselves if it’s worth the risk.

Even if performance-enhancing drugs may be deemed as safe, I think athletes should not be allowed to use them both in and out of competitions. Any kind of drug, safe or unsafe, illegal or legal, has risks, even if those risks are small or don’t have much of an effect on bodies. I feel that safety and performance-enhancing are very far from being limitless in terms of these drugs and in general, as that risk is almost inevitable and there can be risk applied to almost anything. I personally feel that when it comes to competitive activities that athletes partake in, your raw and natural strength and speed should be utilized; in a way I feel that the use of performance-enhancing drugs are kind of like cheating. And even outside of the competition, the constant use of these drugs may cause drug dependency which could possibly hinder one’s ability to function fully without them.

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Meet Illusia Delusia. Illusia dwells in the darkest depths of the ocean, always poking her nose (or what’s left of it) in things that she shouldn’t out of burning curiosity. Poor Illusia dreams of wandering and longs for the thrill of adventure, but her lower body is covered in stationary coral affixed to the ocean floor, so she isn’t physically able to move far. No worries though, she’s quite the lazy type so she doesn’t mind staying in one place for long periods of time doing absolutely nothing.

Illusia Delusia doesn’t talk much, either. While she is capable of unzipping her mouth to speak and to eat, she prefers to keep her mouth zipped shut in case of unwarranted comments slipping out.

Illusia also deeply values her incredibly outlandish imagination which is generated by constant hallucinations. These hallucinations inspire her creativity for personal art projects. But again, she tends to be much too lazy and unmotivated to even start one.

Internet Images Used

XENOPHYOPHORE ABYSS BACKGROUND SLOTH CORAL BRAIN CORAL PENCIL LIGHTBULB COMPASS STITCHES ZIPPERS GOBLIN SHARK PSYCHEDELIC RAINBOW LEAFY SEADRAGON LION FISH SPACE MORAY EEL CLOUDS

Personal Images Used

ARMS. My mother took a picture of my arms when I was holding a box on September 23rd 2018 in White Lake, Michigan that was used for the arms of my monster.

BRACELET. I took a picture of a handmade bead bracelet on September 25th 2018 in White Lake Michigan that was used as a jewelry piece around my monster's arm.

GLASSES. I took a picture of my own glasses on October 1st 2018 in White Lake, Michigan that were placed on the face of my monster.

EARRING. I took picture of an earring on October 1st 2018 in White Lake, Michigan that was used as a nose ring for my monster.

BATHROOM MAT. I scanned an image of a bathroom mat on October 1st 2018 in White Lake, Michigan that was used as a texture on my monster's body.

LEAF SWIRLS. The swirls on the leafy parts of my monster were drawn by me on October 1st 2018 through Photoshop CS4.

Self analysis

Given my limited knowledge on the many tools of Photoshop, I would have to say that I’m pretty pleased with the outcome of my creation. I managed to incorporate several elements taken from different species of animals and various objects into one amalgamation without making them look too inconsistent. I like that my character has a good use of analogous cool colors to compliment the abyssal background I added. However, I believe that I still could have incorporated more photographs of myself to make this character more based on myself rather than just an addition of my arms and glasses. I also think that I could have done a better job adding a blue gradient overlay over the whole image to really give my character the appearance that she’s underwater.