how to get and keep attention...

is a really tricky thing. this series of Thai commercials is an amazing testament to the ability of an artist to something remarkable. consider all the goofball requirements that your teachers make of you - things you HAVE to do, but don't want to. and then consider this commercial - something that HAS to sell face cream, and yet does something astounding.

i dare you all to take this approach. tackle every assignment, and do your best to make it interesting.



there are 4 commercials in this series, back to back for a total of 12.30 minutes.

session 3!

hello all!

welcome to the Tyler Summer Workshop series - i'm excited to see what kind of work you make.  we'll be working on illustrator & photoshop, and while part of this class will be technical - simply learning tools - the other part will focus on content & creative thinking.

here's a video by Chris Ware, animated for This American Life, that mixes the two nicely:

since Evan asked...

i've been thinking about my response to Evan, and my diatribe this afternoon in general.

overall, i'd like your artwork to be really strong, and part of that means it should be worth looking at. that doesn't mean that it has to be over the top or outrageous, but that it has some surprising characteristic, something unusual, something undeniably YOURS.

so what i really like is art that challenges me, that forces me to reevaluate my ideas of beauty, or truth, or good, or typical. flip through some of my links to see examples of Kara Walker, Tim Hawkinson, Marcel Duchamp and others.

i see enough thoughtlessness in daily life that it bugs me to see it in artwork in class. i dare you all to make things that you're really proud of, not just something that you got finished. make things that will generate some talk!

like this:

this is pretty corny..

but it does a nice job breaking down the process of drawing with photoshop. take a look, and turn the music off! ouch...

starting off...

welcome, session 2 gang!

i wanted to start us off by showing you a terrific, and interesting commercial. it's for honda, which is the least interesting part of it. what i find really intriguing is the tenor of the ad - that they use 'hate' as a way to sell a product, and to promote critical thinking and problem solving. both are great things for you artists to embrace!

photoshop...

when you use photoshop, see if you can create powerful images that really take advantage of the tools. photoshop has the uncanny ability to fake images that look right, but are obviously wrong. if you haven't seen Aphex Twin videos or album covers, here you go - they're a great example.

silhouettes...

take a look at Kara Walker's work, and check out how much detail can be described with only the outside edge of a shape.



for our final project, we'll try using a silhouette made with illustrator, but imported into a photoshop background that you build.

altered self portrait...

while we're working on altered self portraits, take a peek at Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, who investigates what it means to be Indian in America, instead of American Indian. interesting work!

speaking of content...

making your triptych can be difficult, especially because you're considering content. how can you get us to feel what you want us to? you're aiming to avoid predictable thinking, which is hard - it's so rarely encouraged.

take a look at my link to Banksy, a british artist who specializes in graffiti and often has politically loaded images, like this one.

uploading images

when you save your illustrator images, be sure to select and delete all extraneous marks or we'll see oversized and awkward pics. like so:

design & composition

we did a little talking today about design and composition, but i wanted to follow up a little bit more.

the way that you construct your imagery is really important - what do you emphasize through enlargement, centering or tons of small detail touches? what do you de-emphasize by simplifying, obstructing or shrinking? how do you alter natural color to reinforce your decisions?

these things will help to create a focus for an audience, and enable them to appreciate the features that you want them to spend time with. your choices help to control and lead the viewer - that manipulation is crucial to artmaking.

take a peek at this Chris Ware animation below - it's a fantastic story from This American LIfe, an NPR radio show - but watch how he uses basic circles to create focal points, and advance the narrative. it's terrific, simple design.