Saturday, January 26, 2008

Julie's Intro

This is my official written introduction for my class "The Digital Studio: Art and technology." We will be keeping a blog record of the projects that we are working on for this class. Here are my answers to the questions on the board:

Name: Julie Bates

Experience with computers: I have a lot of experience with computers from my previous jobs (data entry) as well as from art school and my current job for which I have web-master duties in addition to print. I graduated from the Art Institute of Colorado with my Bachelor's in Graphic Design; so we had classes in Adobe Illustrator, PhotoShop, Premiere, Quark Express, Painter (just touched on it), Dreamweaver and Flash (also just touched on them). In my job I use Adobe Illustrator, PhotoShop, InDesign, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc... I have Macs at home and PC at work. My programs are out-dated, but still work fine (PhotoShop 7 and Illustrator 8) and at work we have CS2, soon to get CS3 (unless they cut that from our budget!)

Experience in digital arts: I taught myself to do digital illustrations in school; they didn't really cover that when I went and to have workable images (photos on a students budget, even on istock, is steep) I taught myself to make illustrations from the images. I used the same technique that I used for making clipping paths at first and have tried numerous other ways to simplify the process. I try to use my own images when I come up with an illustration... but I don't think I have been really diligent about keeping track of where I get other misc. images.

Why this class? I wanted to take both classes, but wasn't sure what kind of over-lap there would be. I also couldn't afford both, monetarily or time-wise. I am familiar with your work and was influenced by it when I became interested in art (I've lived here for 22 years patched together). I am really interested in learning from a "working" artist and one that has good business sense... etc. Really interested in seeing your process; being consistent with my process is one thing that I struggle with as an artist.

Describe your goals for this class: I have a list of goals that I want to accomplish in the next year: Website, promotional postcards, business cards, and an etsy.com site. I am hoping to at least have structured time in which I can work on fine-art ideas that I have. I am hoping to have a body of work (or the material to build a body of work) that I can use for my professional development. *After thinking about this all week I would sum it up as... I want to learn how to make a living by doing art and I want this block of time to work on it.*

Projects you want to work on: I have started a couple pieces and I would like to develop further and then I would like to come up with more ideas for future pieces. I could see being able to finish 4 pieces + the 2 I have started.

Mac or PC: Both ("homework" probably will be done with Mac at home).

Do you identify as an artist, and on what level? Talking about perceptions and dealing with baggage... My great-aunt always told me that artists can't make money and are "starving artists" for a reason, so I always thought I needed to make my living at something else. I always kept art on the side. I went from going to school for Psychology, to going for a double major in Art & Psychology, to going to school for graphic design. Now that I am working as a graphic designer I realize that I need the free-form of just creating for creation's sake. I thought my creative needs would be met by working creatively everyday, but I still have a million ideas swirling around and have this huge need to get them out of my head.

What would make this class go well for you? I would really love to have time to do hands-on... Maybe getting to use one of the art studios. I have been concepting in my sketchbook, tightening them up and doing the layout in Illustrator, and then taking the finished digital and putting it on canvas or paper.

Can you work on your own laptop: I don't have a laptop.

1 comment:

Teri said...

I loved looking around at the things in your blog. Watched some of the youtube movies, etc. Really like your art as well!