Julia James is a very mysterious woman, so she does not carry a bag on her person. She likes to leave some things up to the imagination. However, there are essentials that she absolutely needs in her everyday life to keep up appearances and do her “job”. In order to detail these items and add … Continue reading “Jewel’s” Treasures

Sasha Kellogg is a classy woman who always keeps her handbag with her. The visual assignment “what’s in your bag” (3 pts) tells more about Sasha, because her bag holds the things that she feels she could not go without. Additionally, looking up items from the 1950s was lots of fun, because they are all slightly different than today but in many ways exactly the same. Seeing what is in Sasha’s purse also tells you about her history because normal people don’t carry guns in their bag (at least I don’t), but Sasha’s violent past has led her to find this necessary. Sasha keeps practical things in her bag, because she needs to be ready for any situation, especially in the looks department. All in all, Sasha is incredibly fashionable, as seen by the contents in her handbag. The purse itself is black to go with any outfit, and may be a little too small to hold all these things, but Sasha has a way of making everything fit. There are keys to her apartment and to her car on her keychain. Of course the sunglasses are for when it is sunny, because Sasha always comes prepared with fashionable accessories. Likewise, black gloves to match her handbag and sunglasses also go with any outfit. The hair bow is red with polka-dots, because wearing all black would make Sasha feel like she was going to a funeral, so there had to be some color. The hair bow also keeps her hair under control on a windy car ride, because she puts a lot of stock in looking great all the time. In the same vein, the red lipstick and nail polish are essential to looking gorgeous. No chipped nails will ever be seen on Sasha’s hands, and the red color matches her lips and hair bow perfectly. She also has a compact mirror to make sure she is looking to-die-for all the time (and if you have ever applied lipstick without a mirror, you know what a struggle that is). Her wallet is simple and practical so people don’t get the wrong idea about it and try to steal it. Sasha hopes that keeping it small will give the impression that its not worth stealing. She also keeps a small pad of paper and pencil in her purse, because you never know when you will need to write something down (especially working as a secretary). Finally, her gun is for protection, but it is kind of big to keep in her bag all the time, so when she is feeling secure she leaves it in her car.

Here is the post-it note visual assignments that’s two points. For this assignment, I wanted to use the characters I created for the noir world I’m doing. In this world, it is around the time when the group are starting to get to know each other and it shows how they work together. This is their bulletin board were they exchange notes and messages. Each persons name has a different font. The red sticky notes are from an unknown person, while the other colored notes are from a few of the characters surrounding Lukas Jones (my noir character). It is done to show basic interacts with him.

The what’s in my bag challenge wasn’t all that hard – but having to incorporate my noir character into it made it much more difficult. First, I had to find materials that would actually represent my character, which was harder than I thought it would be. I scoured my room trying to find little things that would 1) define my character and 2) actually be something anyone could carry around on a typical day.

After I gathered the items, it was also difficult organizing them in a way that everything was easily visible in the visual. This was not as easy as I thought because I wanted to make sure each item was recognizable and in sight.

The easiest part was writing up the items. I really enjoy writing as the noir character, and this challenge offered another interesting way to bring more description to the personality of my character.

Well, here’s what’s in my bag. I’m not sure why everyone thought they needed to know this, but I’m never one to not accomplish a project that’s given to me. What we have are just the typical things I carry around during my days. We have the current book I’m reading – complete with comprehensive notations and earmarks of particular areas that I have found interesting, inspiring, or confusing.

I also have my notebook for notes and sketches that I need to get down immediately. Accompanying that always is my favorite pen, given to me by Mrs. Delvey, my neighbor from back in Rhode Island.

I have a few New Yorkers, something that reminds me I’m a part of this city. I have a backup pair of glasses in case of emergencies and a pair of sunglasses in the unfortunate case that the sun is out. I also have a large black raincoat in the fortunate case that the clouds are out.

Finally, I have my box of matches that go along with that horrible cigarette habit of mine. I really need to cut that out, but haven’t found the time yet.

“It’s 3 am. It’s dark. It’s lonely. Heat pulsates from the rattling vents in the wall as I sit in the middle of the floor. Alone. Not like that’s any different from normal. I’m repacking my bag. Again. It’s time to fly south.”

-Victoire Absinthe’s Diary, January 31, 2015

Victoire emptied her purse onto the floor.

Victoire doesn’t need to keep a lot on her person. She’s got a head scarf to keep her hair in place while cruising in her newly acquired roadster, a tube of lipstick (for obvious reasons). Her wallet is a small bag with an eastern inspired print. She got it in San Francisco.  She likes it more than a traditional wallet that other ladies walk around using. She finds them trite and easily, “Misplaced.” To be fair, this little money bag is easy to, “lose”, as well, but you wouldn’t think twice about it. Considering she’s got a gun tucked away in case of those little life emergencies. It’s a dangerous world out there. A girl needs to be prepared. She also threw in a black pearl bracelet. No particular reason. She just thinks it’s pretty.

You’d think that throwing a bag together would be easy for Victoire. But it’s not. She’s on the move, so finding items that she would consider appropriate to cary at all times is something of a feat.

(note: I, surprise surprise, don’t actually have a small handgun from the 40s so pretend that nerf gun is actually a pistol ok thanks)

This quick narrative was part of the, “What’s in Your Bag” assignment. If you’re interested, here is the link.

Experimenting with image editing software has always been a pleasure of mine. I  enjoy transforming photos from their original form, such as by cropping and applying filters. Given this hobby, the assignment, “Splash The Color” seemed perfect because I had never tried to add color back to only one object in a picture. The assignment states: … Continue reading Well, Color Me Gold!

This assignment is to take a historical figure and make a selfie of them before a tragedy. This is Harry Houdini in front of the Princess Theater in Montreal. At this theater, a student named J. Gordon Whitehead had punched Houdini, supposedly rupturing his appendix.

After completing my Poetry Art Assignment, I decided to peruse through the rest of the visual assignments. One assignment, “Shiny Like Silk”, really stood out to me.

Ever since I got my first computer at age 10, I have always had either a cosmic or abstract style desktop wallpaper. I have a huge folder on my computer dedicated to and filled with both styles of art, ranging from Hubble Space Telescope images to abstract fantasy art.

With a graphic designer as a mother, mostly realistic depictions which we had around the house while I was growing up, so I guess I searched a bit as a child to find my own art niche to enjoy. She had her oil and chalk, while I had my computer search engines (AskJeeves and Lycos…anybody?). I never really attempted to make my own art–I wanted to rush to the end and see the finished product too quickly, I realize now. My creative drawing skills are essentially non-existent as a result; I favored neatly organized technical drawing. So “Shiny Like Silk” helped to blend the two together for me!

I played around for about 5 minutes on the software prior to making this image.  I learned that over-saturation of colors would just look like a big white blob, so I kept that in mind while making this.  I started with orange, my favorite color, and went around the color wheel, changing at least one of the settings with every color switch.  The three settings were the number of rotational symmetry folds, whether or not the drawing would be mirrored across the center, and whether or not the “silk” would move toward the center, or toward the outer edges of the frame.

Keeping with my note on technical drawing, I used simple midpoints as starting locations, and drew toward intersecting strands.  I felt like I was drawing with smoke, which was a really cool to get my head around, since it usually dissipates so quickly in the real world.  I really didn’t focus at all on the center of the image while creating it, but was mindful of the saturation, making sure it hadn’t reached as bright a white as I had seen while getting the feel of the program in the first 5 minutes.

Overall, I’m really happy with how this turned out.  I’m actually using it as my wallpaper now.

The sketch filter always makes the subject almost unrecognizable. The focus suddenly becomes 2-D instead of 3-D and it looses the shadows and highlights of the normal camera.