Saturday, May 11, 2013

Digital Art


For anyone who stumbles across my blog, or uses it as a hub to get to the blogs in the box labeled "Awesome Site List,"  I have the first update in five months!  I've switched my focus to digital art, and learned a lot about Unity and Blender.  I just finished the image above, and I think that it is miles beyond my previous work in Blender.  Its worth looking at at full resolution.  If you want to see more, check out my portfolio at:

http://joelmryan.carbonmade.com/

Most of the work in this portfolio has been on this blog at some point, but some of it is new.  I will continue to update the portfolio as I make new stuff.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

VCU Application

As many of you know, I tried to apply to VCU's Sculpture and Extended Media program this year. It was a lot of work and took several months to get together.  Unfortunately, in the end, my final reference did not feel that my portfolio was ready to be submitted.  We did not have nearly enough time to make enough changes, and, without his reference, I wasn't able to submit.

I'm pretty disappointed at this, but I trust his judgement.  On the bright side, he would like to work with me for the next year, and I'm sure we can put together a portfolio that will be accepted.

For now, I need to do some thinking and re-evaluating.  The blog will be on hiatus for a while. 

Saturday, January 12, 2013

New Resin Project


When I was little, I used to play with food coloring, watching it drop into water.  The way it disperses is so interesting and beautiful.  A few weeks ago, I came up with the idea of dropping resin into thickened water, and capturing the dispersion.  As it turns out, although the resin does make cool patterns, it turns into small spherical droplets very quickly. Its impossible to capture the inky patterns, at least using my current methods.

 However, I found that in water with a significant amount of gelatin in it, the resin will sit on the bottom for a few seconds, and then begin to rise.  As far as I can tell, this is because the resin heats up as it cures, making it less dense.   When its density becomes less than the density of the thickened water, it will come up in tendrils.  The little guys in this picture are all different methods of making these tendrils.

I have a lot of ideas to try out now.  Even though they are not at all what I was going for at first, I'm hoping that something cool will come of this concept.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Minotaur Drawing Final


This is the final version of the Minotaur drawing, poem and all.  I recommend clicking on the image to view a larger version.

This drawing is a good example of how I can tweak little things for weeks, but in the end I have to just give it up look forward to the next piece.

Speaking of the next piece-- I don't really have anything in mind right now.  Its been a while since I have made an actual sculpture, and I would like to start something new.  For now though, I am going to work on finishing the Artist Statement and getting in the reference letters.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Minotaur Drawing 2


Newer version of the Minotaur drawing.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Minotaur Poem

Here is the poem that goes along with the Minotaur drawing.  Its supposed to be a little silly, but also have a serious side at the same time.

The Minotaur paced round and round
his high-walled hallway home.  
Endless walls to wander past,
and endless halls to roam.  

Now anger is not the natural state
of any living creature,
And so his eyes, once red with blood,
had earned a gentle feature.  

And so his footfalls, though once they fell
with murderous intent,
so now a much more pleasant purpose
to the self-same stones present.

As caretaker and as guardian,
he wanders all alone,
trimming moss from countless crags
and cleaning blood from bone.  

And so in endless tedium
his hours turned to years
longing for a human voice
to warm his lonely ears.

But then, what’s this?
A single, solitary, solid string, strung taut!
“Another creature wanders here,”
The colossal fauna thought.

“But why the string?
And who, and what, and how?”
So on his bestial countenance,
a furrowed bestial brow.

“The string leads to the exit,
The creature seeks to leave.
Such a pleasant lifting of my smothering ennui.
Such a pleasant lifting, but such a short reprieve.”

Just then, clear strand, soft grace—
a spider stalked it prey.
And so the beast-man understood,
that he would die that day.

And yet, to see another face,
even one of hate,
would be enough to cause this beast
to calmly meet his fate.

So cold and still these years had been.
So heavy was his chest.
The Minotaur stood up at last
and ran to meet his guest.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Minotaur Drawing 1


Here is the minotaur drawing in an early stage.