All Time Greats and Representation Of an Artist

For my all time great task i have Chosen James O'barr this however co-insided with the task i was given to represent an artist in a style that relates to him.
This task was interesting because i got to research more into my favorite artist not just for fun but for a task given to me by our tutor.
http://artistlifeconnorstephens.blogspot.com/
I decided to present my work on a seperate blog because James O'barr does a blog on what he is doin and also up coming events for comics that he will be attending.

Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf is a photographer from the 1900s he was famous for portraits of famous people such as Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth. His work is very visualily interesting he creates this very serious tone in his work by using the very dark tones and no colour. However this also in some of his work creates a sense of deep emotion as seen in his image of Anita Ekberg where she looks happy and in the moment of complete happiness.

James O'Barr

James is a Graphic Novel Author. His most famous piece of work is “The Crow” this Tale of sadness is very much a venting System for James because of the tragic accident involving his first love and fiancé, who passed away after the accident.

After this James decided to join the marines and was stationed in Germany handing out combat manuals to fellow force member on the site. When not on duty he spent his time drinking and fighting in pub fights.

Upon his return to America he was set of revenge only to find out that the drunken driver that killed his fiancé had passed away of natural causes . James Created the crow as a vent from the pain he was dealing with although he later admitted that it made him worst and he went down an even more destructive path than before.

At first no companies would publish the Crow for reasons such and “it’s too dark” or “it’s too confusing”. Until Calibre comics took the project to publishing. The Crow then became the most sold indenpent Graphic Novel of all time with over 750,000 copies sold worldwide.

The Character of the crow was based on Ian Curtis in facial expressions and way he spoke however the motions he goes through and way he moves is based punk legend Iggy Pop as both their music helped James through his very tough times in his life.

The Crow was adapted into a film in 1993 and was realized on the big screen in 1994 however the Death of Brandon Lee in the making of the film put James back into his destructive path as he had become best friends with Brandon.

Even though there have been three sequels and a TV series James has had nothing to do with those projects. The Crow has become an Icon for Modern day Goth culture and is sometimes described as a cult.
Refferences
http://www.motionworkscomics.com/about-creators/james-o-barr-bio
Own Knowledge on the Subject.

Short Review of Final Fantasy 13

I will be reviewing Final Fantasy 13 by Square Enix due to the fact that I have played final fantasy for just under a year and have still not finished it. Ok I haven’t done it quickly but that has made me stop and be completely blown away by the amazing graphics and change from normal TV and to HD. The Story as true to every Final Fantasy game is massive and complex and yet not difficult to keep track of. However as a bit of down point is the lack of free roam they have put into final fantasy 13 compared to its predecessor number 12 was a completely free roam epic. After 150 hours of game play I still don’t know the ending. This made Final Fantasy 13 be a slight disappointment from the start but then it picks you up and sweeps you straight into the characters life and keeps you involved. As always the cinematic part of Final Fantasy franchise has shone through with truly amazing quality no wonder it takes them roughly 5 years to create the new part. This also however creates a bigger pit of disappointment because I waited five years to have the new game take everything I liked about the previous games and change it.

Overall for the truly epic storyline and amazing HD videos to create a game that feels more like a movie to watch in the cinema Square Enix have managed to create an amazing game that really does live up to the famous franchise it is part of.

Website Research

I have been working towards planning a layout on my website however instead of trying to just create one I decided I would research and look at websites based around my style of site to get an informed view on the market and current fashion in the websites around my style.

I have that the websites that sell items of my style and are in my style are;

http://www.spiraldirect.com/  because of its influence from tribal designs and the range of makes it sells that are reflected perfectly into the design of the website. Although it has a very basic layout it deliverers in style and originality due to design. I would strive to create a website as well made as this website.

http://www.grindstore.com/ This site is different because of how easily you can navigate and it makes me think of how I need simplicity in navigation but complexity in design to keep the eye’s engaged but also knowing where they are while on the website.

http://www.bluebanana.com/ This site is a very well known site and packs the site full of information and things to buy so its stock of items is very impressive however that on the home page it is very over packed and so I would be happy to have the stock that blue banana have acquired.

After looking at these sites I have a few ideas flying around in my head. I feel that my site has to be original and so I might take aspects that each site use such as drawing on tribal patterns to enhance my designs such as borders. I will try and take the simplicity of travel on the grind store website and merge it with blue bananas mass of stock to create a user friendly website full of everything needed.

Sound Recorder Introuduction

we have had a introduction  into using the sound recording equipment and learning how to use a Gun Mic with a Marantz. which meant that we learnt how to set it up into a preset for indoor and outdoor recording. we also learnt how to formatt the memory cards before and after use to make sure that no other students can use my work. we learnt how to set up the recorder to record MP3 formatt because its the smallest and simplest setting to record.
we also learnt the names for different types of mic.
Directional Mic = a mic that only picks up sound in the direction you are pointing the recieving end
Omnidirectional Mic= a mic that picks up all sound around it in an arc therefore picking up background noise that you could other wise not want.

DSLR introduction

Today we had a introduction to the DSLR camera and we got taught the basics on how to use the camera on manaul mode.

we covered

Aperture

The main function of a camera lens is to collect light. The aperture of a lens is the diameter of the lens opening and is usually controlled by an iris. The larger the diameter of the aperture, the more light reaches the film / image sensor. Aperture is expressed as F-stop, e.g. F2.8 or f/2.8. The smaller the F-stop number  the larger the lens opening

We also covered 

Exposure

Exposure is the amount of light collected by the sensor in your camera during a single picture.  If the shot is exposed too long the photograph will be washed out.  If the shot is exposed too short the photograph will appear too dark.