The Fourth Lecture: Cultures and Combinations

On Friday Professor Babcock toured around the room and examined our multitude of drawn symbols for the various aspects of everyday counterpart of our lives. The student that sits next to me is from England in a small town called South Port. As the teacher passed by his series of drawings the professor noticed a pound currency sign on his paper and a dollar bill sign on my own. The student commented on how he was still adjusting to America but it also made me think or other cultural differences. Later, after the teacher had inspected my own paper, I compared my tiny drawing of the world to the other person's own rendition. Once again, the cultural difference was apparent; my drawing was centered on displayng America, while his displayed more of England/Eiurope area on his global drawing.

Later in class, Babcock discussed how much research can go into the design of a simple logo. In the case of the Olympics, a council decides the theme for that year, and then selects a series of words and images that would best represent those themes. Themes that usually show up involve tradition and comradery, but the location of the Olympic event has a major impact on the visual imagery too. My thoughts turned to when I had to research Barcelona, Spain for a design project and found the overall design for the event centered around the look of Pablo Picasso designs; the image of a brush painted running man as the logo and the mascot dog was based of Picasso's designs.

Babcock explained that now we had created all our everyday images, it was now our turn to combine these objects into forms that could prove visually interesting but still appealing, and to have them done over the weekend. My excitement for the weekend as well as the challenge of the project are evenly tied.

Illuminating Illustrators: Jean Giraud (Moebius)

Illuminating Illustrators is a section about artists who may receive some recognition for their work but need to receive a little more attention from developing artists to see how much of an impact these artist have on the style and possibly the techniques they wish to use in their own careers.

This first article is about one of the most influential artists of 20th century filmmaking but outside of certain films his name barely gets registered. His designs have had influence on some of the most popular science fiction and fantasy films of recent history, and the way the world has viewed the future for over four decades.



French artist Jean Giraud, under the illustrating alias Moebius, has created some of the most complex and futuristic landscapes and technology for his graphic novels, such as the "Long Tomorrow" (pictured left), which have been the inspiration for such popular films such as Blade Runner, Escape from New York, Tron, and even Star Wars; but none of his comic works or illustrations have been published into English in over twenty-five years.









Jean Giraud began work as a comics illustrator on French western comic strips in the the early sixties; his most famous set of stories about a former soldier/gunman named Lt. Blueberry. In 1963 Giraud created the alias Moebius for his science fiction/fantasy stories, and built a reputation outside of France for fantastic detailed cityscapes and inventions of the future.






By 1975 he had co-created Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal) Magazine as a way to show more mature comics to a widespread international audience, and would go on to collaborate visual designs for directors such as Ridley Scott (Aliens, Blade Runner), Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), George Lucas (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back), James Cameron (The Abyss), Steven Lisberger(Tron), Ron Howard (Willow), Hayou Miyazaki (Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind) and others to help them create some of the most iconic costumes and robot designs seen on the silver screen in over half a century.


Despite his contribiutions, however, neither has his long running Blueberry series (which had been running on and off for nearly three decades) nor his science fiction works except for a series call "Incal" has seen any type of American publication since 1991. His last American collaborations in comics was a 1989 short series called "Silver Surfer: Parable" with marvel visionary Stan Lee, a short story for Dark Horse series "Concrete," and artwork in a graphic novel adaptation of the Halo video game series from 2006. He also did artwork for the video game series "Panzer Dragoon".



Jean Giraud. Age 71.

The Third Lecture: Condensing and Creating Logos

Wednesday in our introduction class we displayed our refined, bolder, and simplified illustrations of our stories. Several people had reduced their stories down to one image, but others were still having difficulty grasping the concept and were still trying to use multiple images to tell their personal events. It can be a challenging task, but everyone has their own unique method to figure out artistically the way they wanted to convey their messages.
Professor Babcock seemed pleased with the efforts of the class, and used examples of what some of the students had drawn to discuss the next project. Handing out a series of articles and images from books, the professor began to explain how illustrators and designers are often expected to take several concepts from a client and turn them into simplified, singular logos. A customer who is describing their company or product in multiple ideas and terms expects many of these artists to take all this information and turn it into a unifying symbol that represents a normally positive aspect of that company or product.

As reemphasized from a book called "A Smile in the Mind", artist often combine two or more images that are already recognizable symbols in a way that lets both retain their history but ads a new association/message to both as well that would not have been possible when separated. A mint leaf in the shape of lips; a road in the form of an "A"; a fish shaped like a hand, and several more examples or abstract combinations. For the rest of class, the professor instructed us to write down as many word and ideas that we commonly think about and associate with; followed by us trying to draw each of these images to present next class. It is an exciting assignment to venture into.

The Second Lecture: Gesault Pychology and Minimizing Designs

On Monday we began the class with a discussion about turning in money for out Art subscriptions, but then we moved onto our first drafts of our story designs for three separate events. I had assumed the professor had wanted us to try to tell a personal but still complex story with as few images as possible.
I had not expected him to just want an one panel illustration/logo for our stories. Only one person had achieved this effectively, with clear detail explaining that he or she recycled; had found a cheap house or apartment; and had found a dog with a new ad.
Babcock then began to explain about the principle ideas of Gestalt Psychology. The concept theorizes that the human brain likes to fill in gaps of visual information even if the actual details aren't there, which basically is one of reasons optical illusions are so fascination to look at.
Some of the more effective artists/advertisers use these concepts to drawn people to a project they've been working on by adding or subtracting the information the audience sees. Some old cigarette ads in magazines that used to try things like adding third arm to a person in the background so that a person flipping through would sense something was off on the page and turn back to it.
Recently, a Dr. John Heilman posted the 10 most basic Rorschach tests on Wikipedia; and not just the images, but what the most common responses to the images were and what they meant psychologically. He may be facing trouble for it, but it is fascinating to see how people can perceive visual information and what it can say about aspect of their identity.
At the end of class we formed groups to discuss how to minimize our stories, which was pretty easy for two of my stories but my most complex story about a friend whose heart had stopped at a party needed some tweaking. I believe I found the answer and worked it out. Here's for the best.

My 2009-2010 Classes and Goals

As I am an Illustration Major, the majority of my classes are art classes for this semester, but I also do have a minor in theatre. I am currently taking Introduction to Graphic Design and Illustration, Life Drawing/Anatomy, Painting I, Art History Survey, and Typography.

Eventually, by spring, I hope to take Art History Survey II, Life Drawing, Painting II, Printmaking, and possibly Drawing/Design III depending on the availability. Due to my minor in Theatre, though, I may be considering to take stagecraft, stage movement, and a yet unknown set of courses depending on the time and function of the class.

The choice in my major and minor comes from an overwhelming fascination of story telling in any form. I enjoy film , graphic novels, novels, stage productions, television shows, etc. and how each achieve a different way of communicating with the audience by mixing several medias and senses together in both original methods and traditional ways.

Graphic novels can be exceptional fascinating the way a person subconsciously create noises and motion from the images depicted on a page to make up for the lack of the actual sound or movement. I hope to work in one of these medias; illustration, film, or theatre, and keep myself open to as many options as possible with my major and minors so as not to limit my opportunities.

The First Lecture: Materials, Magazines, and Minimalist Messages

On the second day of our intro to graphic arts class Professor Babcock showed us the materials he used for his professional illustrative work and suggested materials that all the students could use. Some of the students were shy, but he eased the tension by telling an intersting fact about the psychological effect of how the levels and spacing of a room can effect the student's perception of the teacher.
He proceeded to demonstrate the refinement of using sable brushes and how they are expensive but durable as opposed to breaking and wearing down several cheap brushes to compensate. He also showed different quality inks and pens to show the what inks are appropriate for some projects and what cartein pens could accomplish more for fine detail or just to use as to fill space.
I've always been curious to know about these difference in quality material because as I venture into the world of illustration, I've noticed that several artist describe the kinds of brushes and inks they use but until now I've been unable to see the actual brushes and inks, let alone how they vary.
After the demonstration, the professor gave a list of art magazines that he said were signifigant for graphic design and illustrators to have in order to learn, update, and be inspired by as we develop as artists. All of the magazine supscitions seemed expensive, but hopefully worth the price. Money is currently tight enough as it is and art students often have to spend a lot for materials without monetary opportunities to pay them back. Some sacrifices must be made in any ventures.
Towards the end of class, he began to talk about the use of basic and uncomplex imagery to send messages to the common public. He used a term- Semiotics- which he said was the study of the meanin of things. He drew a dot on a chalkboard and called it an eye, saying it can take just a dot and people will interpret in one way or another. It reminds me of a scientific test in the eighties where they showed babies the image of a person smiling and reduced to the common smiley face drawing to see if a baby could still recognise and respond positively to the drawing becauce it had similar friendly features as a person smiling. The babies reponed to the smiley faces positively.
The right symbol or image can be one of the most powerful tools a person or media can use; wearing a cross lapin, or a elephant or donkey banner can divide a room in the right situaton.
Professor babcock wanted us to apply this concept in a series of three drawings, using simple signs and symbols to tell about stories we experienced. I feel I have done well enough with these drawings, and I am curious to see the stories people will tell.

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