Author Archives: ksreichert

Kathryn R- Final Project

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Color-Final Kathryn-R--Final-Project

For my final project, I wanted to continue to work on Van Gogh markings.   I used a photograph I had taken at Creamer’s Field during the fall as a guideline.   As I mentioned in my proposal, the photograph itself has a luminism feel to it and part of the challenge would be converting it to Van Gogh’s impressionist style.   I accomplished this through a focus on overall shapes and the way they flow versus trying to capture every detail.   I relied heavily on brushstrokes to convey depth, direction and texture.   For example, the brushstrokes in the water are a little longer and fluid than the grass.

My intention was to stick to a triadic color scheme of green, orange and purple and I think I was fairly successful, though the yellow and some blue is featured more than I had initially intended.   The bulk of the picture (maybe about 75%) was painted using solely pthalo blue, yellow and orange.   I was surprised at the versatility you could get from three colors by simply mixing in different ratios and overlapping layers of paint.   I was worried it would be mottled and hard to differentiate where one part of the painting ended and the other began.   It forced me to make bolder color choices, such as painting pure orange over the tops of the bushes where the sun would hit.   I don’t know that I would have tried this otherwise.   Previous to taking this class, I would’ve thought it wouldn’t work; the orange would be too loud and just look weird on it.   I’m really glad I tried it though because I’m thrilled with the way it turned out.   It really lends itself to that “golden hour” feel which may have been lost otherwise.

The markings themselves were tricky to figure out at first, but once I got the hang of blending (but not really blending) the short brushstrokes, it started to really come along.   The sky was a several night-long endeavor, as was the lake.   The background took a significant amount of time, too, but it was really from several attempts at reinterpreting the photo so it would be more conducive to the markings, without making everything mesh into one giant, unidentifiable thing.

Overall, I’m really happy with the outcome.   It has been a long, long time since I painted anything and with that being said, this is my first original painting.   I think the colors work well together and the brushstrokes are reminiscent of Van Gogh to me.

Kathryn- Final Progress

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Reichert--Final-WIP

I posted my update a week ago thinking that’s when it was due.   Oops!   Here is what I’ve done since.   I started painting the lake but it’s still very much a work in progress.   I’m still trying to decide what brushstroke I want to use that is cohesive without losing the ducks.   I’m having a lot of fun with this project and think it won’t really be much longer until I’m done.   Sorting out the lake is going to be the last really challenging part.

Kathryn- Final Project Proposal

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For my final project, I would like to explore optical mixing further.   When I first tried Van Gogh markings, I found it extremely frustrating and difficult.   However, after approaching it several ways over the course of several evenings, I feel like I hit my stride and was starting to enjoy it.   The picture that I used for that exercise could have been taken further, though, and I feel like given the chance, it could be much improved.

The picture I would like to use this time around is a photo that I took in the fall at Creamer’s Field of some swans and ducks in Wander Lake.   I brought it into Photoshop and was edited it to give it a painterly feel.   As it is, the colors feel analogous (mainly yellow, yellow-orange and orange) and have a very warm tone.   When I look at this image, it looks like a Thomas Kinkade-style painting to me.   I looked up more information about his style and found that it is referred to as luminism: landscapes done with an emphasis on light.   They often look ethereal and try to hide brushstrokes while preserving detail in the image (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminism_%28American_art_style%29).   Van Gogh’s style feels the opposite to me: there really is no emphasis on detail, it is more about the brushstrokes and the way they are used to imply detail.   Due to the distinct difference between Van Gogh’s style and the style of this picture, I think it would be the perfect subject to try.   My final project would take this photo and present it in an entirely new light.

I would approach the color scheme a little differently.   I would preserve the oranges, but I think that I would emphasize the green more.   This would be for a few reasons.   If I didn’t, the layers of the landscape would probably get lost and it would end up look jumbled and chaotic.   The green would add depth and borders to some areas that could definitely benefit from it.   Also, I would give the sky a violet feel and reflect that in the water, as well.   Using orange, violet and green as my main palette would be using a triadic color scheme which offers a lot of contrast and interest while remaining balanced and generally pleasing to look at.

All in all, I’m looking forward to starting on this project.   I think it will be challenging to transition this piece from what it is now to one that uses Van Gogh markings, but I really like the idea of getting to explore that style further.Color-Final reichert_final-sketch

Kathryn R- Project 3

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Reichert_Project3_2 Reichert_Project3_3 Reichert_Project3_4 Reichert_Project3_Concept Reichert_Project3_DesignsReichert_Project3_Layout

Here is a ton of pictures for my third project!   I’m not sure if the planning and design sketch was supposed to be on here so I added it anyway.

Fallout 4 was recently released and is constantly on in the background here, so I found myself being drawn to the whole 1950’s-ish product design so I used that as a springboard for this packaging design.   It contains elements from the 1920’s through 50’s for design.   The whole backstory is that it is post-apocalypse in that time period (thank you Fallout) but instead of nuclear war, I’ve gone with the ever-popular zombie apocalypse.   It’s far enough after the event that people ave established towns again, but occasionally need to leave the safety of the city limits.   That’s where these come in: Brainsavers zombie-repelling chewable gin tablets (gin because everything back then seems to have had some sort of drug or alcohol.   What is more fun than powdered gin?).   Chew one of these for four hours of zombie repelling action.   “Chase Away the Hungries”.   As far as I’m aware of, there’s nothing quite like this on the market!

I chose a simple color scheme because that really seems to be how things were packaged in that era.   Nothing was overly complicated.   I went with yellow because it is eye-catching and energy inducing- something that you probably want when you are in need of this product.   There are hints of red throughout the packaging.   I wanted to keep the colors warm and bright and play a little off of the macabre aspect of it- subtly!

Kathryn R- Color Relationships 2

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PointillismI posted for this one before but I only put up the picture with the Van Gogh markings.   Here is my attempt at pointillism using the famous picture from Nat Geo of the Namibian sand dunes as a reference.   I can honestly say I’m not a huge fan of pointillism.   I originally chose a different picture and worked on it for ages but just couldn’t get it to look right at all.   I’m much happier with the outcome of this one but found it incredibly time consuming.   I prefer brush strokes over dots and mixing the paint on my palette lol

Kathryn R- Color and Composition

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Reichert_RuleofThirdsRule of Thirds

Reichert_RuleofOddsRule of Odds

I left the grid on the Rule of Thirds photo so it’s easier to see how it fits in.   The fish falls 1/3 of the way into the photo and the boat and kid are centered 2/3 of the way in.   Horizontally, the water, brush and sky are divided in thirds.

In the Rule of Odds photo, the soldier in the middle has two guys around him, adding balance to the photo, offsetting the big chinook in the background in the other half of the photo.

Both of these are photographs (the Rule of Thirds is a composite) I took for another class but fit the guidelines of the rules well.

Kathryn R- Color Contrast

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Reichert_Color-ContrastFor this exercise, I chose to try a painting of a flower with the moon overhead.   I thought it was a good way to see the difference in light and dark values.   The light dominant picture has more of a watercolor feel to it and could almost pass for daytime.   The dark dominant picture is clearly at night and the colors are darker and richer.   I don’t think I have a preference between the two styles, I could see how either one could work nicely for different projects.

Kathryn R- Photoshop 9

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Reichert-Photoshop-9This tutorial was pretty easy to follow so I didn’t have too many problems.   Initially, though, the smart blur option was grey-ed out and I couldn’t figure out why.   I think it may be because I chose a RAW file to work with.   The JPEG version of this image ended up working fine so maybe that was the problem?   Otherwise, I had no problems with this project.   I liked getting to “customize” the watercolor effect using my own brush strokes; I thought that was pretty cool.