"contest entry"

My latest assignment called for me to design a piece of my choice with a contest in mind. I chose this particular contest because it is a favorite genre of mine. The illustration I created incorporated many Adobe Photoshop techniques, some that were very new to me.
The contest that inspired this piece has since expired but can still be see at: http://www.graphiccompetitions.com/illustration/ballistic-publishing-exotique-7-competition

Brushfire - Redesign

After much struggle, I chose to redesign Jack Johnson's "Brushfire Fairytales". I had many different albums in my head from many different genres but I just couldn't find the right inspiration. Having had such a chaotic summer, I just couldn't slow my head down enough to listen to myself. Thankfully, my mother-in-law insisted that we spend a couple of days at a lake-house that she had rented. I woke up fresh, calm, and receptive with inspiration all over the house! I no longer had to choose an album because it found me. The house is filled with these very down-to-earth decorations that just screamed to be used and I had no doubt as to which album I should use them for. There was a little wooden sun sculpture and a cute little mosaic table, perfection!

I edited both images. For the sun, I adusted to levels and applied some filters to give it a stone look. On the table, I adjusted the levels too and removed a glare from the glass. I chose to crop the table photo in a place where the green semi-circles would compliment the sun. I picked that particular font (Papyrus) because it had rough edges that seemed to compliment the organic feel of the rest of the image.

 

These are the original photos:

First Assignment - Recreate an image using Adobe Illustrator

This is the first assignment for my Digital Art Class. The assignment was to recreate in image using Adobe Illustrator. This is the first time I’ve used Illustrator since 1997. Man, has it changed! It is more user-friendly but it also has a lot more to learn about too! 

I chose a picture of my daughter Kaya at the beach. I am trying to incorporate more white space in my artwork so; I deliberately left out the rest of the image. This was really difficult for me to do because it feels unnatural to me but I think I found the right balance.

Britt Art

The History of Britt Art

I grew up in a very creative family. Both my parents and all three of my siblings are quite talented.  I have been fortunate to have inherited the art gene as well however, my aptitude for art isn’t entirely inherited; it has taken a great deal of practice.  I attribute much of my talent to the many hours I have spent completely consumed in my drawings as means of escape from reality. You see, art has always been a form of therapy for me and as a child of divorce with several stepmothers and stepsiblings, I have had many reasons to elude reality.

About Britt and Britt Art

 I feel that it is important for me to say that I have never viewed myself as an artist or my creations as artwork. This makes it very difficult to write an artist’s statement so, for this purpose, I will attempt to do so. Perhaps my artwork is best understood when separated into two categories: artwork and work art. The type of art that I’m calling artwork comes as naturally to me as breathing. It is as if something is trapped inside the media, and somehow guides my hand to release it. This process is practically effortless; there is no thought, no plan, and no specific purpose; it just happens. My work art is something else entirely. Whether it is commissioned by someone else or I am the one to define the objective, it becomes work. Work means that there is a plan, there is structure, there is a thought process, and there are impossible standards that I hold myself up to. 

The most common themes in my artwork are duality, sensuality, innocence, strength, beauty, the feminine, adventure, nature, and fantasy.  I enjoy using both physical and digital media. 

Clearing My Head, Getting My Hands Dirty

 In my drawings and paintings, I will use anything handy such as pencils, pens, markers, watercolors and ink, colored pencils, makeup, crayons, sidewalk chalk and bathtub crayons.  I will draw on paper, canvas, myself, sidewalks, the road, on wood, and walls.  If I am in the woods, I will draw on rocks using sticks, mud, plants and other rocks.  All through high school and my first college, I went everywhere with a sketchbook and all I did was draw.  When I am making my art, I find that no matter what medium I am using, I usually end up getting my hands dirty, either by smudging and shading with my fingers,  or ditching my paintbrush and getting my hands into the paint.

 My favorite way of creating art is sketching. It is the most pure form of my art; it is a mirror that exposes the most intimate parts of me if only you take the time to decode it. It is my diary. My thoughts and emotions are written in the colors and strokes.  It is created with no one else in mind. I like it the most because it is raw. My next favorite thing to do is to use ink and watercolors on my sketches. This method adds some neat qualities to the sketches but covers up some of the raw emotion that is more evident in the original.  Another thing I like to do with my sketches use them in my digital art.

Digital Art

Digital art is a lot of fun for me. I generally use Adobe Photoshop to create it. I have a digital camera that I use often although; I am by no means a photographer.  I like manipulating photos, or superimposing my sketches into photographs. It is not uncommon for me to start on paper and end on a computer screen. I have an overactive imagination and when I am lucky, I am able to represent what my brain sees by taking a photo and Photoshopping it to match my reality.  

Work Art

                When I am creating work art, my entire approach is different. Suddenly, I have to start planning before I even begin. I am restricted as to the type of medium, dimensions, resolution, colors, and the scariest of all, time. I need to accurately to portray someone else’s ideas and create the right mood. The biggest difference in work art is the impossible standards I hold myself up to. This expectation is good and bad. It is good because it causes me to constantly push my boundaries; it is bad because I am never fully satisfied with my work art.

                I have created many things that fall under the category or work art, such as:  murals, portraits, and sketches, illustrations for catalogs, face painting, business cards, brochures, digital graphics, and websites.

Websites

As a website building hobbyist, I have been building and designing websites for about 13 years now.  I never seriously considered web development as a real career possibility for myself so I did not feel the urge to keep my knowledge current, causing my website creation methods to become painfully obsolete. Until recently, the only way I knew how to build websites was by using straight HTML. This method is far outdated so, I took it upon myself to learn CSS by taking online tutorials. This was a great improvement in the functionality of my code but I was still limited creating strictly static websites. It isn’t just my coding practices that have become obsolete; my design style is clearly still stuck in the 90’s. 

My Goal

         I have returned to school to update my programming and design skills. In this class, I am hoping to acquire new skills, sharpen the skills I have, and ultimately learn how to make my work art more professional, specifically my digital graphics and webpages.  While the work I do for others is well received, I personally feel that it is still the quality of an amateur and that is something that must be remedied. I have recently begun to employ a “less is more” approach, which has been an improvement but I have a lot to learn about layout, the use of color, and fonts.