Typography and Text-Based Art

Mikhail Baryshnikov

This image of Mikhail Baryshnikov, the famous Russian ballet dancer was created using GlassGiant's ASCII Art generator. I looked for a photograph that had a high contrast so that the photograph would come through more clearly. I feel this image accomplished that. My only gripe is for some reason my image was elongated once it was converted. I could see using this program again in the future.  

I added the color image below of my daughter when she was 6 years old. I wanted to show an image in color since I chose to use a black and white above. 

The previous 3 photographs were created using Text-Image. The first is a photograph of my sister when she was little. It is HTML and I used the word "sister" as my letters for creating this piece. The second is a picture of my oldest daughter and is done in ASCII. The third is a photograph I took in Williamsburg, VA and is done in Matrix. I think these programs are interesting and could be a lot of fun with the right photograph as a base.

I L-O-V-E Tagxedo and I expect I'll be using it again, often! If you can't tell, I created these two images of Mary Poppins using the line from her famous song, "A Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down". I love the way it turned out and decided to make two! :)

Scribbler Week 10

Scribbler

I enjoyed working with this application although it took quite a bit of time to work out how to utilize the different tools. It was also a challenge getting the images to still look like what I had drawn once Scribbler began. Using a mouse to draw is also very difficult as I am a bit of a perfectionist and wanted perfect circles when that was not going to happen. I added 3 images because I couldn't decide which ones I liked best. 

Scribbler 2

I did not like this program at all. I actually found it more difficult to work with than the older edition of scribbler. I am not very fond of the connectivity of the lines. It made it nearly impossible to draw details. After a lot of experimenting I did find ways around that but ultimately, this is not a program I would use again. 

My first picture was copied over a sunset scene. I tried to mix the different shades of orange, yellows and reds to make a smooth background. The second was a free sketch of dancing feet. 

Flame

I thought Flame was fun. My first image is of a Phoenix, which ironically is a bird made of fire. I really love the way that one turned out. My second image was inspired by the video we watched of the paint that was photographed while being tossed about by sound waves. I thought this looked like an explosion of color as well.

This final image was my attempt at a screen shot while experimenting with the extras you posted. I kept trying to get a good shot but by the time I would get the image captured, most of it had faded. 

New Slide Show - A Day in My LIfe

Revised slide show 
Please note: My animations are not able to be shown here, so you're missing part of my work. 

This movie was created using Keynote on my iMac. I had a lot of fun creating this as there are a lot more features than Google Slides. I decided to do an alphabetic representation of things in my life. I spent a good part of the morning coming up with items for each letter and revised them as the day went on. Then I proceeded to make sure I photographed these events. I hope you enjoy this revised "Day in My Life" Slide presentation.

Becher Grid

It took me a few days to figure out what items I wanted to photograph to make this Becher Grid. I needed to find something that I owned 16 of or go out on location somewhere to find 16 items. I loved the idea of leaves being the huge nature lover that I am, but alas, it was already done. I considered my son's Angry Bird collection but he only owns 12 even though it feels like 100 as they propel through the air in endless hours of enthusiastic play.

It then hit me that I have an immense sewing supply stash that I utilize every Nov./Dec. as the gift making frenzy starts and my overwhelming urge to "Get Crafty" takes over. So I pulled out the spools of thread. My only regret was my limited color choice. Apparently I love blues, reds and greens. Missing were the pinks, yellows, and oranges. Forget about purple, I have a strong distaste for that shade and I reject any mention of it in my home. It literally makes me feel ill to look at it. lol

As I was working my way through the assignment, (L-O-V-E the video tutorials Prof. Ballard!!!) I began experimenting with the values when I strayed from the RGB tab and started altering the individual colors of Red, Green & Blue. By doing so, this allowed me to pull out the natural reflected colors from the shadows. I was thrilled with the results! One problem I could see with the Becher Grid was the inconsistency with the white level. I wanted all my squares to have the exact same brightness but that was difficult because of the reflected color coming from my spools of thread. By bringing out the natural hues in a very strong way, I was able to create a color rich environment, in some cases using complementary colors. I decided to make a black background and go for a warm and cozy quilt look with my Becher Grid. Overall, I am very happy with how it turned out and I hope you like it too!

A Day in the Life Slide Show

I can see how this could be a really useful tool for communication of ideas and pictures. I had never created a slide show before so I am sure there is still a lot I have to learn about it. I enjoy the simplicity of a white background and allowing the pictures to add the pops of color. I could see myself using this application to make slides for art or history class or even my future educational films business. It is exciting that it is all online and free, which makes me even more motivated to utilize it. Overall, I am excited to continue to explore this product and use it in future endeavors. 

Menu Plan for October

Black Bean and Corn Taco Bake

1 lb ground beef  - cooked

1 can black beans

1 small can corn

1 13 oz jar salsa

1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Dump all into a crock-pot on low for 2-3 hours. 

Eat with chips or in a tortilla with sour cream. 

Video Mash-Up

Today I am sharing with you my Video Mash-up using iMovie. This project took me about 18 hours over a period of 3 days. It took me a lot of time to figure out what I wanted this movie to say. It had to have a story. As usual, this process changed and evolved as I searched for clips and began piecing it together. 

The story starts off with the insecurities of life. Afraid to show our faces to those who would judge us, we tend to go about our days hiding. But as the story goes on, we gain confidence in who God created us to be. Because He created us, we don't  have to fear man and their opinions. We can hold ourselves confidently. He is the author of life, and in this parallel, dance. At the end, I show the faces of the ballet dancers from the beginning of the film to represent this. In a few places in the film, you'll hear audio from the 1985 film, Footloose. While I am using the exact words from that film, I cut some words out and I rearranged them to tell a different story. 

I used clips from a lot of movies to make this film. They are: 

Flashdance

Dirty Dancing

The Breakfast Club

Swing Time

Emma

Step Up 3D

The Black Swan

Footloose 1985 Audio only

Footloose 2012 

Save the Last Dance

Something Borrowed

and

A Musical Groups 1940's Style Song Video

This project was challenging because I had to make the dancing in the film go with the beat of my song. So I used the speed feature a lot in my editing. I also put filters on many of the clips to evoke different moods. Some clips were cropped and I also added transitions between some of the clips. I cut, arranged and modified the clips until they hit the song in just the place I wanted them and also to tell the story I was trying to tell. I also learned how to completely remove the audio from a film, leaving the soundtrack to be manipulated to tell a completely different story as I did with Kevin Bacon's audio from Footloose.  

I realize that my video is not very weird, but it is "me". It tells the story "I" wanted to tell and I feel it goes very well with the music. I choose to use my song in its entirety because... well it took a long time to make it and I wanted it all in there.