Dave White

Today I looked at this great artist called Dave White.

He is categorised as a Pop Artist and does lots of work on trainers, comics,  cars and more.

The trainers he paints/draws are what made him popular, as they are quite abstract but simple at the same time.

This is an example of one of the trainers. His style seems to be acrylic painting with visible lines to show a 'dripping' effect. I like that effect because it can be applied to anything, as he does apply it to everything, which I believe represents street art with spray paint.

Dave White was born in 1971 in Liverpool, England, and went to Art School at the age of 18. Later, at 21, he went to Liverpool John Moores university where he worked in The Beatles' John Lennon's old art studio and graduated in 1994. After this, he went around exhibiting his work until 2002 when he created his sneaker collection and collaborated with Nike. From here on he collaborated with many other large businesses.

Ideas and Concepts

What Gives Them Their Ideas?


SALVADOR DALI
Salvador Dali is an artist from Spain who has his own unique method of coming up with ideas for artwork. This method is something he calls "Paranoiac Critical" in which he thinks completely outside of the box by simulating paranoia. By this, he means to find the odd and unseen things within everyday things, such as seeing animals or monsters within clouds, for example.

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali.














LEONARDO DA VINCI
Leonardo Da Vinci, the genius artist/scientist/inventor. As he was unable to attend any form of educational practice due to his parents' shame, he could not read many texts that he would need to read in order to find out the things he needed to know to make his creations. This deficiency may well have turned out to be a proficiency as due to this, he decided instead to go out and study the things he needed. By doing this, he gained a deep understanding of how things worked, therefore knowing more than most people in this field.

Da Vinci's concept of what could be an early version of the helicopter, in the 15th Century.














FRIEDENSREICH HUNDERTWASSER
Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian architect. Hundertwasser believed that the straight line is 'immoral' and from this alone it can be safe to say that he was not the most normal person in the world. He prided himself on saying that he could make the most 'ugly' of architecture look nice and good, and a lot of the time his work, whilst controversial sometimes, does fulfil his means.

Hundertwasser's Hunderwasserhaus, built in the '50s by him and Joseph Krawina.

















ANDY WARHOL
Andy Warhol, American artist. Warhol was inspired by his religion. He was a Byzantine Catholic, and the iconography of the religion. In a way, he managed to make popular figures, such as celebrities' faces, into iconic figures just like his religion had symbols. This was an inspiration to him because it gave him something to go for.

This is a piece of artwork that Warhol painted. It is Marilyn Monroe as some kind of long-necked snake thing.

















FRANCIS BACON
Francis Bacon was born in Dublin in Dublin, Ireland, on October 1909. His work was mainly but loosely based on surrealist art and abstraction, drawing inspiration from that style. This was not successful, so in 1944 he destroyed all of his artwork up to that date and decided on a different style. He wanted to shock people with his art, which succeeded, and he became known for his shocking imagery.

This is Pope Innocent X by Francis Bacon. Its shocking look was based on his idea that he wanted to create bizarre imagery and is a kind of mutation of the Pope Innocent X painting by Velazquez.















AUGUST MACKE
August Macke was a German expressionist artist and one of the leaders of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He got some influence from the modern arts movements within the Parisian avant-garde. Later, he met the Chromatic Cubist artist Robert Delaunay and his work from then on was somewhat influenced by Delaunay.

This is August Macke's self-portrait. It is very detailed and seems to be show that, by the background, he may be an emotional guy. The background shows this because it is dark and gloomy-looking.

PABLO PICASSO

Picasso was influenced by many things in his life. He was influenced by various world art like African and Greek art. He was also later influenced by world events and the woman he loved. During the Korean war he painted the Massacre in Korea which depicts North Koreans being killed by Americans and/or South Koreans.

CLAUDE MONET

Claude Monet was influenced majorly by John Constable and J.M.W. Turner when he visited a London museum in 1870.

These influences can be seen in his Soleil Levant (meaning Impression, Sunrise) - which is dated 1872 -where he used the image of sunlight passing through the fog, similar to Constable and Turner.

CHUCK CLOSE

Chuck Close (born Charles Thomas Close) was an American painter and photographer born in 1940 and is still alive today. He based his paintings and photos on people he knew (friends and family) and, using the photorealistic technique, made his work. Close believes "inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you’re not going to make an awful lot of work". He therefore does not have any influences and simply does what he wants to do. Below: Close's Mark, 1978-1979.

DONATELLO

Donatello was an Italian sculptor, who worked within the 1400s. Donatello was mainly inspired by Classical figured, nudes and antiquity. He sculpted nudes and classical figures because they inspired him. His inspiration of/by antiquities was because of a trip he took to Rome to study some ruins. 

On top of these influences, he was influenced by some other artists, namely Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. The below sculpture is Donatello's, take on David (1408-1409). 

WAYNE THIEBAUD

Wayne Thiebaud is an American painter. He specialises in Pop Art, and paintings of cakes and other common items. He uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colours in his paintings of these items. As a young man, Thiebaud worked in a café and it could be his experience there that made him appreciate certain foods like cakes enough to want to paint them. This is Cakes, 1963. 

Balance/space

This is the colour wheel exercise. 

This is another image made on Illustrator. It was a fairly simple and easy task, even though I am new to Illustrator it was not hard to figure out what it was I had to do to draw these trees, the river and the mountain.

This is the Ying-Yang symbol that was made with Illustrator.

This is the challenging cube exercise. It was challenging, as the task name implies, as I had to get the sizes right so that it was proportionally sound. I also had to be careful of the colours because if the shading of the cube was wrong it would not look right at all.

Man being attacked by a bird. It seems to be a very large but fat bird and it's pecking his bald head. Made with 100% Illustrator. I had some difficulty with this because I was forced to use basic shapes for most of it. I am not used to working with restrictions so this made it somewhat taxing.

Rhythm

Regular Rhythm


Regular rhythm in photography is a rhythm that is a pattern of equal shapes, with equal distances between and sizes.

The metal fence here is a regular rhythm; the diamond shape is the recurring shape and it is arranged such that it is in a pattern and is regular.

Another regular rhythm. I can tell it is a regular rhythm because the shapes and symbols are, again, recurring and if the photograph was larger then it is likely that the pattern would continue exactly the same as it is.















Flowing Rhythm


Flowing rhythm is a rhythm that is similar to a regular rhythm but some shapes are in different places.

I can tell this is a flowing rhythm because it is that similar line-ish shape repeated many times in different places and different sizes. The ball, however, is not part of the rhythm.







Progressive Rhythm


A progressive rhythm is a rhythm that gets progressively  (hence the name) larger or smaller based on which direction it is leading. 

I can tell this is a progressive image because it has these figures that get smaller as they go into the background of the image and bigger as they go towards the foreground.

Presentation Design Task

Today, we had to come up with a concept for Internet Explorer 9 to get people aged 18 to 25 to explore the internet more.
I have learnt that it is important to go through many stages in creating concepts and that the first idea is not always the best.
The reason we did this was to practice designing and building up ideas and possibly enter our ideas into a competition on D&AD.
I believe that my design did not do so well as I did not manage to find a way for it to be applicable for real life, although my design was different and new. It was a good idea at first but my presentational skills let me down as I could not explain everything properly or fully. I need to work on this. I think that if I work on it more and focus 100% I will be able to get my point across next time and address the problems and how my project would be physically helpful.

Interactive Media

LITERAL: A monitor with some writing on it. ABSTRACT: Could be a little joke as the ad would not cover the whole screen, but it could show that the Internet is just full of advertisements. FEELINGS: I feel that this is indeed a little sly dig at how the Internet is full of ads, so I like it. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: Looks fairly old, but the fact that there is a computer means it can't be TOO old.
 LITERAL: A large touch-screen keyboard. ABSTRACT: This could be a new piece of technology that can make things easier or more fun for people. FEELINGS: I like the idea of large touch-controlled keyboards, but they do not need to be on-screen. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: This will have been shown at some kind of showcase event for a touchscreen computer.
LITERAL: A car game. ABSTRACT: It looks like you can go very fast in this game and there are arrows showing where to go so it cannot be a very serious game. FEELINGS: I don't think I'd like this game, I don't like the style of game. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: Again, very modern, as with all images in this topic.
LITERAL: A new-age phone. ABSTRACT: Two phones that are identical but with different images on each - perhaps referring to the fact that it is a phone for anyone and everyone. FEELINGS: Looks like a nice phone, but I feel this is a weak image. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: Once more, the image has to be modern and recent.

LITERAL: This is an image of a projection of a figure. ABSTRACT: 3d rendering of what it would look like if there were many lights on the floor and above the floor. FEELINGS: This is a kind of confusing image, I think. It does not make much sense. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: I am not sure where this would fit in in terms of cultural or social places, but maybe it is part of a design.

LITERAL: A hand holding a cable. ABSTRACT: This may mean that someone must unplug their cable and punish someone else (who?). FEELINGS: I feel that there is a subliminal violent message here. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: Due to the date on the image, I can say that this was made during mid-2011.

Scientific Images of Optical Illusions

LITERAL: A black and white Jesus. ABSTRACT: If stared at nonstop for a while, the image of Jesus Christ will be shown when you blink. FEELINGS: I like this optical illusion because while it is obvious, it is also surprising. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: Made in the early 2000s, this is a popular optical illusion.
LITERAL: A painting of a tiger stood in the open. ABSTRACT: The words Hidden Tiger are formed by the tiger's stripes, this illusion is somewhat hard to find out without being told. FEELINGS: Again, I like this one, simply because it is both hard to see but also so out in the open. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: Popular image online, very modern.
LITERAL: Two faces on either side with many stripes. ABSTRACT: There are actually at least 5 faces in this image. FEELINGS: I was told that there are actually 7 faces but I am unable to find them, this annoys me. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: Again, popularised online, but I believe this image was pained. Therefore, probably first seen in a magazine/forum for optical illusions.
LITERAL: Many dots and circles. ABSTRACT: A completely still image that looks as if it is moving when your eyes move around the image. FEELINGS: Whenever I see this kind of image, I feel confused and a little dizzy because it is a still image that looks to be moving, which is odd. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: Likely seen in a magazine or compilation of illusions.
LITERAL: A black and white hand. ABSTRACT: There is the face of a lion in the middle of the hand, perhaps this is a hidden meaning that there is a bit of fierceness (because of the lion) in us all. FEELINGS: I like this image because I believe it is a very realistic image, apart from the fact that it is a lion.
LITERAL: Purple and green odd shapes. ABSTRACT: If focused on one corner of the image, the middle seems to be collapsing into itself. FEELING: Another very odd feeling image because of how it moves when it is clearly a still image. CULTURAL/SOCIAL: One last time, this image will have been doing rounds online, in optical illusion magazines and so on.