Honours Workshop Diary 2 – The Jellyfish of Questions and Craftsmanship Research

Meeting Agenda -> The Jellyfish of Questions

The aim of this activity is to help to identify themes and key research interests to lead my honours project activities. At the end of this session I hope to have a defined research domain and be able to attach appropriate activities in terms of drawn experiments, practical work/media tests, literature research and media critique which will help clarify my project aim.

Progress Report

Here are the questions I gathered and beneath I selected core elements and tried to define themes and research topics. It is still very broad. This is partly because I want to improve my craftsmanship skills in many directions and not just one. For my final honours project it might be wise to choose a certain category though.

Digital Portrait Study No. 1

I painted this portrait in Photoshop with special focus on soft shadows and skin colours. Furthermore the painting has only little contrast and a limited colour choice. To portray the material of the partly see-through top of hers was also a challenge. The digital medium allows layering and painting in different opacities that are very handy for such a task though. 

I particularly like how her eyes turned out. They enrich the portrait by adding expression and personality. This is a realism attempt and should be seen as a study to improve my digital craftsmanship skills. All together the piece took me around 2-3 hours to complete. 

Honours Workshop Diary 1 – Exploring Ideas

Meeting Agenda

Define a general research direction of personal interest.

Progress Report

For my Honours Project I want to focus on 2D art. This can be in form of Illustration, concept art or even animation. Out of the 3 mentioned directions concept art provokes the most interest in me due to its high creativity and demand of new ideas. It is a very challenging job though and will most likely lead to a free lancing career with fluctuating income.

Agreed Action Points

• Research into concept art -> special/further research into environments and their mood, atmosphere and lighting.
• come up with some research ideas and an early project idea
• what inspires me about concept art?

Structure of the Concept Development Log

This post will be kept up to date and serve as an overview of the honours project in able to demonstrate current development thoughts of the project.

I broke down the research project into four major categories in able to provide a clear structure throughout the development process of the Honours Project. The chosen categories are as follows: 

 1. Concept Development

 2. Honours Workshop Diary

 3. Practice Based Research

 4. Digital Painting

These four categories can be found on the right under "Labels". Please return to the main page (-> show all posts) or select the desired label on the right to read specific information on one of the listed topics.

My Honours Project: Aesthetic Vision - Developing a Personal Art Style

This post will be kept up to date and serve as an overview of the honours project in able to demonstrate current development thoughts of the project.

Abstract

This research project aims to clarify one's aesthetic vision. Aesthetic criteria will be established through research into aesthetic theory and define one's artistic style to create meaningful art, which expresses personality and originality. The digital medium will allow both an intellectual and social process as well as an emotional and subjective process.

Additionally the practice-based project serves as documentation of an artistic process to create extraordinary imagery in terms of craftsmanship as well as thought provoking concepts. Important aspects and emerging themes will be gathered, documented and analysed. 

Introduction

My name is Sam Heisler. At present I am a 4^th year Computer Arts student at the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland, pursuing my Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree. This blog will serve as a concept development log demonstrating the progress of my Honours Project.

The blog will further present evidence of analysis and evaluation of critical theories relevant to my research topic, explore different ideas to drive the project forward as well as give insight to my thought process during the development stages of the Honours Project.

Additionally the practice based research will be explained, underpinned and strengthened through the concept development log.