Harvard referencing

We had a seminar on harvard referencing today, it was quite interesting but if im honest its still massively confusing. i understand the need for it but there has to be a simpler way of doing it!

Mechanical reproduction

Some time in the 1980s The Guardian ran an April fool’s article on the ‘first’ photograph. Shown on the front page this was deemed to have been taken in the 1790s by a monk in Japan. It was a joke, they did it to prove a point, when people think of a photograph they assume its a window into the past. they don't think of this when they think of paintings, its a very interesting idea. i think that if somebody was to show me a photograph from the 70's , for instance, i would probably believe what i was seeing as the reality of the time. if somebody was to show a photo today, with all of the photo editing software available to just about everyone these days then i think i would be much more sceptical.

The first authentic photograph is the fixing of a camera obscura image. The means of fixing an image is all that distinguishes a photograph from a projected image. is the camera a faithful representation of what the eye sees? no its not, in my opinion, it is a still image of something that, when the eye saw it was a moving, breathing, living landscape. a photograph cant show you truly how momentous a mountain is. it can show you a scale, even place a person next to it but it cant replicate the sense of scale you would get if you were stood there.

The difference between photographs and paintings is more than a matter of their resemblance to things or even their resemblance to each other. Often a painting is said to be 'photographic' when it is realistic. Yet we know that photographs may not appear to be realistic. To understand the significance of the photograph to the modern age we need to remember that it is a special kind of indexical sign - that it bears the imprint of its subject as light. This being so we can say that the photograph has something in common with other indexical signs such as a footprint in the sand. In this sense the photograph is the equivalent of the cast - and casting, in the tradition of sculpture, was understood as a form of mechanical reproduction.

• conventional signs/ image - letters, punctuation, words etc
• iconic signs/ image - pictures

indexical signs - indicate something: shadow indexical of a man, smoke is indexical of fire, footprint indexical that a foot has been there. 

indexical signs are evidence of presence

simulacrum is a copy without an original.

Anton Marrast

I love the simplistic style of Anton Marrast, it reminds me of pop art.

Digital illustrations

Just a few digital illustrations that have inspired me, it is this level of illustration which i strive to in my spare time.

Dylan Cole

Dylan cole is a supremely talented artist, i stumbled on his work when i was looking for difgital painting techniques and tutorials. i bought his matte painting dvd and it helped my work a lot!

Final T-shirt design

Here is the finished piece for my tshirt design. i dont know how but for some reason digital painting just clicked and i made this first attempt. im so pleased with it! obviously i know its not a masterpiece but i feel like the practice has payed off and ive actually gained something from it.

The technique i sued was to draw the design on paper, scan it in then place the drawing above the background colour layer, i then set the drawing to multiply and painted under the sketch layer, i then got it to a stage where id built the 'paint' up enough as to see detail with the sketch and i erased parts of the sketch but left some in to try and give it a traditional feel. i dont think i quite managed that but i do like the effect/

Word and Image

The visual is processed on the right side of the brain
speech is processed on the left side of the brain.

perhaps this is why left handed people are supposedly more talented artists. I don't actually believe that it is true but maybe that is where the myth stems from.

the first alphabets were images called hieroglyphs.

one of the first alphabets was the phoenician script, there alphabet represented the sound we make when we speak, is that where phonetically comes from?

some of the inspiration for my tshirt design

here is a few examples of the illustrations i have been looking at when thinking of my t - shirt design.