Alright! First assignment for animation; draw a landscape of your favorite childhood location and one of your favorite local location.
Childhood Location
There is one location from my childhood that is especially precious to me. The Lake Muskegon Channel at Pere Marquette in Muskegon, Michigan is a special place that holds many memories. It is here, where my father and I first went SCUBA diving in open water, I often swam with my cousins, and my uncles took the family on boating trips through the channel. Also, inside the channel is a retired World War II submarine, the U.S.S. Silversides. My grandfather took me to the neighboring museum when I was very young, and he spoke a great deal about bravery, courage, and other things I would come to understand much later in life.
I’ve always found a special comfort in the waters of the Lake Michigan. When standing in the surf, and breathing deeply of the cool rushing breeze, any problems and concerns I have are washed away. I realize just how small I am in the world and how simple life really is. Lake Michigan has been the setting for a great deal of my most treasured childhood memories that helped make me the man I am today.
Kansas City Location
Although I’m a second semester student here, this is my first year attending Kansas City Art Institute. I transferred here from a small town, called Troy, located outside of Saint Louis. This place is very unfamiliar to me, and I knew I would need a place that reminded me of home. I like very much how KCAI is not located in the middle of a bustling city with skyscrapers and congested intersections. Although this is a major city where you can find almost any form of entertainment, there’s still a friendly inviting attitude to this place. Our campus is surrounded by trees and anywhere I need to go is within walking distance.
While walking through the Sculpture Park on the Nelson-Atkins Museum property, I found a place that became very special to me. It was rather instantaneous. What first drew me to this spot was the sculpture titled “Three Bowls”. It is located on the highest hill overlooking the entire park. “Three Bowls” differs greatly from the other sculptures in the park. While most of the works emphasize smoother curvilinear forms, “Three Bowls” resembles a rigid geological structure. Once I approached “Three Bowls”, I saw over the side of the hill. The sun was just beginning to set behind the city buildings in the distance, illuminating them with a golden light. In that moment, I knew I’d found my special place where I could “escape”.
The little house makes me smile. It's very cute, like a scene out of a children's book.
ReplyDeleteI applaud you for the details on the second piece. Also I like how you soft shaded the buidings in the background. It creates sort of like an atmospheric perspective.
Thanks, the little house is the NOAA Weather Monitoring station for the harbor nearby.
ReplyDeleteI hope to keep some consistency for the details in the flipbook.
Concept:
ReplyDeleteVery nice. Although with the obviously deep meaning of the lake image it would have been nice to see some more personal detail in the image. But there is also a certain child-like quality to the rendition...which in turn really personalizes the memory.
Composition:
The point of view of both images is quite different but reaches for the same experience; the memory image is almost as if you're looking down on the space from an elevated position (not unusual when drawing from memory). Whereas the Nelson image is very intimate and full of depth...obviously immersed in the space from a ground level. But what's interesting is that both spaces are frames for private memory and/or experience...positive experience.
Detail/execution:
The Nelson image is full of more tonality and detail, therefore (generally) more engaging from a traditional point of view. You could push the contrast of the overall image and try to flesh out a bit more in terms of perspective. The perspective is also "softer" and feels more realistic. Whereas the lake image is not correctly laid out (from a traditional point of view) to convey the proper perspective. Which actually works perfectly for this drawing! The only element missing that would have improved the image and fully capitalized on the child-like rendition would be more tonality and texture. There is a lot of detail and attention at the top of the composition, but the bottom feels a bit lite.
Following instruction:
Good. The only fix I would request is that your blog title just be your name. Currently it comes up as: KCAI: Animation