Sarah's Blog

Quadruped 3D Model-Sculptris: Dinosaur My quadruped model is a...

Tue, 01 May 2012 03:56:00 -0400

Quadruped 3D Model-Sculptris: Dinosaur

My quadruped model is a dinosaur. I used ‘Inflate’, ‘Grab’ and ‘Smooth’ mostly, to create this model. I chose a metallic material before painting and it resulted in a shiny little dino!

Biped 3D Model-Sculptris: Eagle These are my 3D models...

Tue, 01 May 2012 03:35:00 -0400

Biped 3D Model-Sculptris: Eagle

These are my 3D models ‘Eagle’,created using Sculptris program.

The first model is the shape. I used ‘Inflate’, ‘Grab’ and ‘Smooth’ functions to creat this shape. Second, I added eyes using ‘New Sphere’. Finally, I pained this shape. What a cute eagle!

Web Design

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:09:00 -0400

In designing a web site, there are some principles to be kept in mind to produce a good web site.

1. Simplicity

This means “use as few features as are necessary to achieve what you need to achieve”.

Simplicity is important because we want to attract user’s limited attention effectively to what is more important. To achieve this, we need to remove unnecessary components without sacrificing effectiveness and try out alternative solutions that achieve the same result more simply. This means we need to remove all unnecessary visual elements and use the visual details to communicate not just to decorate.

Example: Link to http://www.lifeway.ac.nz/

2. Simple Navigation

This means permanent navigation needs to be clearly identifiable as navigation, and should be easy to interpret, target and select. This is because users need to be able to identify navigation, which tells them various important information such as where they are, where else they can go from here and what option they have for doing stuff.

There are some ways to make navigation clearly distinguishable from non-navigation: positioning permanent navigation links apart from content; differentiation navigation using colour, tone and shape; making navigation item large and bold; using clear text to make the purpose of each link unambiguous.

Example: Link to http://www.advancedcomputers.co.nz/

3. Bigger Text

If you make the text bigger, it will make thing more noticeable. Bigger texts stand out better, and they also more accessible to more people. Some people can have visual impairment, or if they are looking on LCD screens in sunlight, on their phone, sitting a little further from the screen, or just skimming the page. Bigger texts can attract people’s attention more easily. You need to fill the same amount of space with less stuff and choose to make more important elements bigger than less important elements. If you need to have a lot of information on a page, and it’s all relatively equal in importance, keep it all small. Making everything big is not a good idea.

Example: Link to http://www.mozilla.org

4. Bold text introductions

This means a leading headline description. These normally set out the site’s USP, elevator pitch or main message. They tend to be graphical, rather than regular text. The reason for this is that designers want a lot of control over the page’s visual impact, especially early on in a browsing experience. Only use one if you have something bold to say. If you have a simple message that you want to be seen first, headline this. Make it clear by putting it against a relatively plain background.

Example: Link to http://www.photoshop.com/

5. Strong colours

It is needless to say that bright, strong colours draw the eye. Use them to divide the page into clear sections and to highlight important elements. Use a bit of intense colour to help differentiate areas of importance and to draw attention to items you want the visitor to notice. Colours can be also used for communication brand values, for example, green for good health. But use strong colours sparingly, only for the high-value features. If everything is in strong colour, it is not so effective to draw attention because the site will feel confusing and chaotic.

Example: Link to http://www.colorschemer.com

These are three examples of Gradation. Gradation is a gradual...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:40:00 -0400

These are three examples of Gradation. Gradation is a gradual change between hues, tones, or shades. We actually drew an apple,and applied the gradation technique on it.

These are 4 techniques used in Charcoal Drawing and...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 05:48:00 -0400

Left hand sketch

Blind contour

Negative space

10 minutes observation exercise

These are 4 techniques used in Charcoal Drawing and Design.

Photo 1 is the Left Hand Sketch. If you are a right-hander, you draw with your left hand because your left hand movement is connected to the right side of your brain. It is supposed to tap the right side of our brain, which will help us draw what we see.

Photo 2 shows Blind Contour.Blind Contour is where the artist draws subject matter without looking at the paper.It is supposed to help us observe the object more carefully through enhanced hand-eye communication.

Photo 3 shows Negative Space. In negative space drawing, instead of observing the positive shape of an object, you draw the shape of the space around the object.

My last photo is a example of 10 minutes observation exercise. This one is actually the first technique we used to draw the objects. Main aim for this is the appropriate composition of the drawing with basic lines and design without shading in 10 minutes observation.

This is my first animation using Pencil.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:58:37 -0400

This is my first animation using Pencil.

Rebirth-Maori Carving

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:16:43 -0500

Rebirth-Maori Carving

A Prince: Mt Cook When I saw Mt Cook, I was fascinated with its...

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:14:27 -0500

A Prince: Mt Cook

When I saw Mt Cook, I was fascinated with its majestic beauty. It looked as if it is commanding all the other great snow-capped mountains.It looked young to me though..like a prince, not a king.

Bluerose-winter

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:07:02 -0500

Bluerose-winter

Sunset Karekare

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:00:00 -0500

Sunset Karekare

IMPD Assessment 1

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 03:41:00 -0500

Sir Peter Siddell (1935-2011) is one of New Zealand’s most prominent realist painters, best-known for his unpopulated cityscapes of Auckland area and New Zealand’s panoramic landscapes. He was the second knighted artist after Sir Toss Woollaston. Siddell’s work follows the tradition of European realism and regionalism in his realistic style and preoccupation with place and local identity. His cityscape paintings depict Auckland city environment which appears familiar, yet are not truly realistic. His landscape paintings, however, portray the magnificent scenery of New Zealand in almost photographic reality. Siddell’s two different paintings, A Place to Stand (1978) and Separation (1998) represent the clear characteristics of these two different subject matters in his paintings. This essay discusses the differences and similarities of these two paintings in style, symbolism and cultural context.

A Place to Stand (1978). Acrylic on canvas. 1120mm x1640 mm.

Separation (1998). Oil on canvas. 1100mm x 1660mm.

The style of Siddell’s work, whether it depicts landscape or cityscape, can be summarised in absolute accuracy in depiction, stark contrasts in colours caused by the play of light and the carefully arranged composition. A Place to Stand, painted in 1978 in acrylic on board (1120mm x 1640mm) describes the townscape in Auckland area. This painting shows the amazing depictions of details such as the detailed structures of buildings, reflections on the windows, townscape up to the great distance. The stark contrast of dark and bright in colours is typical in his paintings, which results in images of the immaculate, tidy and unrealistic imaginary world of this supposedly real city. Well arranged composition somehow gives this building-packed painting the uncluttered atmosphere. Separation, painted in 1998 in oil on canvas (1100mm x 1660mm) portrayed the landscape of the mountains of Tongariro National Park. This painting also represents the typical characteristics of Siddell’s style: the photographic depiction of the snow-capped mountains and the objects in nature such as trees and bushes, the contrast in colours and well-composed foreground and background. However, these two paintings also reveal the Siddell’s different approaches in style to the cityscape and landscape. Like his other cityscape paintings, A place to Stand gives a surreal feeling in spite of its painfully accurate depiction. The buildings are too perfectly geometric in form, and the immaculate colours of them without any traces of stains gives a eerie, unnerving atmosphere with the fact that the scene is unpopulated as in all Siddell’s paintings. By leaving out people and traces of time from the scene, Siddell created a timeless, ideal and imaginary replica of the actual city. On the other hand, Siddell’s landscape paintings show the unbelievably precise reality as if they were photographs. In Separation, subject matters of nature such as the great mountains and the distant lake, yellowish green hills and trees evoke the illusion that they might be copied from a photograph. Only the artificialness of the building in the foreground convinces us that this is a painting. The immaculacy of the geometry and colours of the building instils the same unrealistic feeling as the cityscape paintings to this otherwise photographic scenery.

Peter Siddell seems to have wanted to symbolise the eternal beauty of his environment whether it is artificial; such as architectures and town streets, or natural; such as magnificent landscapes. In both of his paintings, like his other cityscape paintings, he left out the descriptions of any transient objects such as people or cars, even stains from time. It seems that he wanted to capture something timeless and enduring, sometimes from his memory or imagination, so they are not actually real even if they look real and existing. This intention, however, resulted in the differences in depiction of the two types of subject matters. A Place to Stand, as a cityscape painting, symbolises the artificial beauty of the man-made city, which would stand the time and human inhabitation even when the people are left out. The beauty is from Siddell’s memory or imagination of the city so the colours are vivid and pure and forms are perfect. It is not real, rather a dreamlike imaginary world and the painting creates the mood of illustrations of the children’s picture books. Separation, however, depicts the eternal beauty of the nature, which will impose its grandeur at the background regardless the passage of time. His other landscape painting such as the Coast from Aoraki (2001) presents such a fantastically realistic depiction of the great mountain which would be easily believed as a photograph. It seems that Siddell wanted to describe that whether from memory or from observation, the natural beauty is immutable. Compared with the natural beauty, the relatively transient beauty of human architecture at the foreground looks ‘separate’ and somewhat out of place from the serene background.

The cultural context of Siddell’s work is definitely of New Zealand. His cityscape paintings represent European settlements around Auckland region, which were the predominant subject matters in his cityscape paintings. A Place to Stand captures the beauty of European style architectures whether they look modern at the foreground or older at the background in this painting. Siddell painted his home city of Auckland, combining his memory and the symbols of the city: European buildings and streets by British settlers, the iconic volcanic domes which were originally homes for the Maori inhabitants, and the ever changing clouds which are typical over the city. In his landscape paintings, however, Siddell seems to have wanted to amalgamate the serene beauty of the places with the Maori myths. In the title of Separation, Siddell seems to have had in mind many kinds of separation; the Maori myth of the separation of Taranaki and Tongariro; the separation of the remote building ‘regional centre’ which was once the thriving centre of the region from the rest of New Zealand by the passage of time; the separation of himself from the place by the distance of the time;or the separation of man-made beauty from the natural beauty.

In conclusion, Peter Siddell’s two paintings A Place to Stand and Separation represent the characteristics of his artwork in style, symbolism and cultural context. He drew different elements together from a variety of sources to create timeless images of the uninhabited city, and the eternity of the natural beauty that endures the time and human trespass.

References

Artist gallery. (2011). Sir Peter Siddell. Retrieved from http://www.artisgallery.co.nz/artists_show.asp?id=143

NZ-artists. (2011). Peter Siddell. Retrieved from http://nz-artists.co.nz/artists/siddell/

Wikipedia (2011). Peter Siddell. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Siddell

A Sunset of Bucklands Beach

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:33:12 -0500

A Sunset of Bucklands Beach

I would say this one is my favourite among those taken on the...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:00:00 -0500

I would say this one is my favourite among those taken on the first day of our IMPD course!

Another childish preference. Tiny flowers among pebbles. I...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:54:00 -0500

Another childish preference. Tiny flowers among pebbles. I should relearn how to use macro-mode properly, though

I like this one, too, Sunshine coming through leaves.

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:48:00 -0500

I like this one, too, Sunshine coming through leaves.

I know it’s pretty childish that I still draw on flowers...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:46:00 -0500

I know it’s pretty childish that I still draw on flowers as my object to take photos. But I still like them. This one came out quite nicely with Macro-mode. But the problem is, I don’t really know how I made it!

A beginning

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:16:00 -0500

This is a bit overwhelming, especially to someone like me, who regards herself as an ICT illiterate. But I must confess that I am enjoying this! With my com-wiz daughter’s help, I managed to put up my amateur art works. Feeling a bit shy but also adventurous. :) Thanks for opening a door for a new world for me, IMPD!

I love to watch dew drops…especially their magical way to...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:56:00 -0500

I love to watch dew drops…especially their magical way to change the light and colours. When I was very sad,everything seemed so sad….even those dew drops looked like my tears….

Reference...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 07:38:00 -0500

Reference from http://jjuuhhaa.deviantart.com/art/a-Boat-and-the-Sky-35520662

When I saw the photograph of this scenery,I loved it so much so I painted it. I fixed it a bit more,but this painting was sold to someone who loved it,so I can’t see it any more…Funny,I don’t really like selling and giving away my paintings….I love them so much as my creations, even though they are not great artworks.