Sunday, February 14, 2010

Work In Progress . . .

Time to update.
So I'm home for the long weekend. It's been rather enjoyable to eat my mom's food, sleep in a bed that is actually soft and take full advantage of the woodstove in the living room. But all good things must come to an end, and sadly my time is almost up.
One not-so-enjoyable feature of this vacation has been all the homework that I have had to do. Three assignments for one class is over kill in my opinion. I don't like that class . . . . But, since I have slaved away under the whip of the A, I will share my small triumphs with my loving fans (all three of you)!
Here is my first piece. . .

The amount of work I put into this picture was not quite worth the result. I would have been if I had know what I wanted and the proper technique to get there, but alas, I had neither when I blithely started my project. It was for a typography assignment.
"A character made completely from a font."
Notice how is says A font? Yeah, that's right I did all of this with one font and the only thing in the picture that is not made out of words is a rectangle that I used for a clipping mask for the inside of hood. I'm very proud of this little piece of work. I guess I should be for 15+ hours of work spent on this bad boy. Well, enough about the technique. On to the content.
The hooded figure in the center is a representation or Altair or Etzio from the Assassin's Creed series. The reason I say either is because they both have the same hood, which is the focal point. The title of the picture, "Nothing is true, everything is permitted." is used several times in the games with considerable impact on the storyline. Because of this, I figured that it was an appropriate title. In addition, I don't think the phrase is trademarked, thus giving my artwork a legal legitimacy. That little bit was for you, sister! : )
The background words are from Lorem Ipsum. If you don't know what that website is, Google it. It will be worth your time. All of 2 seconds of it. The inside hood words/face words is made up of a phrase that I made up but could have easily been in the game. "Come, old man, and I will give you death." To be honest, it is a kick butt phrase in Italian, as far as looks go, at least. His mouth or teeth is the word "morte," which in Italian is death or dead. I thought that this little touch added depth and significance to the picture because he is an assassin and death is what he deals.
The rest of the hood is a quote from the game: "Non temete l'oscurità - accettate il suo abbraccio," Which means roughly, "Do not fear death - but welcome it's embrace." A very beautiful phrase in my opinion. So there you have it, my massive project.
This was a much smaller project that I did tonight that I have to present in class. It's based off a tutorial that I found on the internet.

I think that final effect is pretty cool. It's not perfect. I messed up a few places, but I'm not going to tell you because then you would notice. : P
I think the coolest part about it is the marks around the edge. They are so exact, like a watch. And if you know me, you know that I LOVE watches. The compass star in the middle is pretty cool too, and the shadows give a nice touch. All in all I'm happy with it.
Anyway, I have to go back to good ol' St. George tomorrow, and I have to get up early. : ( Last night I get to sleep in a legit bed for three weeks.
Well, don't forget to leave feedback, my beloved readers! That's the only reason I ever update this thing, is to get comments, so if you want this perpetuated, leave comments! Tell me what you think about my projects, constructive criticism is welcome.
Night, people.
Peace.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, wow, and wow. Both your projects are impressive, especially the 15-hour one. Seriously, the way you have so much symbolism embedded into the work is amazing. I had to stare at it for a while to take it all in. And then after I read your explanations, I stared at it some more. ;) Very well done! You're really talented.

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  2. Bronson! First, I'm VERY jealous about the eating mom's food/sleeping in a soft bed/doing homework by the wood stove thing. It sounds like it would beat my weekend of staying up late whilst stressing about having to give a campaign speech for an election I lost. Also, school. Notre Dame officially needs to get with the program and let us honor the presidents.

    Your project is really cool. Bit of trivia... do you know why the phrase from the game isn't trademarked? Because it's actually a religious axiom and hundreds of years old. I don't know if you've ever heard of the ancient Hashshashin (you should actually google it... cool stuff - it's where we get the word assassin), but I'm pretty sure their successors the Nizari Muslims would be pretty upset if their famous scriptural passage was trademarked to become legal commercial property of some American video game :)

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