Artist Post #4

Giulia Balladore 

"Bianco E Nero"

Giula Balladore is a hyperrealistic vector artist who lives and works in Italy. Inspired by her father, she has self-taught herself everything she knows and started experimenting, by chance, in digital art when she bought her PC in 2002. She uses Adobe Flash to bring alive her hand-drawings of portraits that look so realistic it gives an imaginative quality to her pieces. Much of he inspiration comes from the simple beauty within women, fashion, and just what strikes her attention the most. 

"Crema Ventisette"

Balladore's works are astonishingly detailed and super realistic, showing true human nature and the simplicity of it. She will start by sketching the drawing, then it will get scanned and opened in Flash. From there, she will trace it, add color and then add many layers; she says the more layers her piece will have, the better it will turn out. Her technique allows her to manipulate and change her original sketch without losing the quality of the piece. Balladore says "My work is mainly focused on female portraits for the simple reason that for me the purest and simplest beauty stands in the look of a woman, with all of her imperfections and boundaries." This shows that she wants to capture the raw and simpleness of human nature within her work, but the added effect of vectors gives it an extra imaginative, artistic feel. 

I find her works to be breathtakingly inspiring because she takes plain sketches and turns them into these masterpieces that portray the simple beauty of the people she draws. The pure elegance that shows through her pieces makes you attracted to it and you can't seem to look away. Also, at first glance you think it is a photograph because it is so realistic and relatable. She does a superb job at getting the lighting, expression and detail just right to make it look so life-like. It is also very admiring because she has self-taught herself how to do these masterpieces, which shows that she has a great passion for the work she does. 

Project 2 Progress

Music Art

Line Art

Portrait Images

Project 1

Technology Collage 

Artist Post #3

Pascal Dombis 

"Topo"

Born in 1965, Pascal Dombis is a digital artist who uses computers and algorithms to create the images of repeating and complex designs from algorithm rules. Thus, his pieces are never planned, he just lets the algorithms go through a series of interactions. Typically, no piece would exactly be the same because the algorithms produce unpredictable results. He gained a engineering degree from Insa University but he also spent a year at Tufts University studying computer art classes, starting his usage of algorithms in his art. At first, he only used simplistic rules, like a straight line, but then he started to use digital help to create these abstract and wild works. Now, he lives and works in Paris.

"Eurasia" 

Dombis' works evoke a struggle between the orderly control of simple rules and the randomness that follows when the rules are put together. Anyway the piece ends up, it always is visually stunning and stimulating because the eye is constantly moving through out the work. In the series that "Topo" is from, Dombis focused on the idea of opening and closing geometric shapes. Continually adding more and more curves, the pieces evolved into out of control hyper structures that were integrated to look like architectural structures. 

In the series "Eurasia", Dombis wanted to convey how the internet is a major contributor to how we perceive the world, so he put together Google search image results of the words red, blue, black and white into a digital collage. The two halves compare the results from European and Asian Google pages and the collage comes together with the help of a random algorithm. The perspective changes and which side is which is determined by the viewer, but there is a clear distinction between the motives of both halves. Also, the movement of the piece helps attract the viewer and makes them stay interested. 

All in all, I really find Pascal's works to be really interesting and awesome. The idea that someone can take a simple algorithm and turn it into this complex and wild piece of art is astonishing. To make unpredictable work but to have it convey his message so successfully is inspiring because he doesn't know what the final project will look like. When I look at his work, I find myself thinking I'm lost in some crazy world trying to make sense of what is going on because he has set his work apart from others that give it such an original and unbelievable effect. Although Dombis is the one creating these pieces, the machine creates the rule but then the art work just goes on to create itself, taking on its own life per say. 

Artist Talk

Light in Flux: Glenn Shrum

Originally trained as an architecture, Glenn Shrum has turned his passion for light into an artistic profession. He currently lives in Baltimore, MD but teaches at Parsons The New School for Design School of Constructed Environments in New York City. He believes that light is something more than just an artificial source for brightness but instead a "sensory phenomenon" that is meant to be experienced first hand through the eye. Shrum highlighted three major aspects of lighting that he uses in his works that allow light to impact people and space and they are flux, visual space, and the uncommon place. 

Flux means the change in light over time and many of Shrum's projects focus on emphasizing the change in natural light, which are refreshing because people are used to fixed, artificial light nowadays. The flux in light helps reveal depth, transparency and other aspects of an object not visible without light. 

Newspaper Mound

Visual Space is perceived through the difference between direct and peripheral vision. With the presence of light, the grand space of a place can changed thus allowing for certain parts to be seen or for the whole peripheral space to be noticed. Visual space with added light manipulates how people see space and usually creates distance. 

The uncommon place means that light can be found in unexpected places, therefore making it special. People are used to the fixed, artificial light and don't tend to notice light in uncommon places, like light being reflected off of a car. Thus, lighting designs help expand the perceptual field and get people to appreciate light in their most aesthetic and natural ways. 

I find Shrum's works very inspirational and interesting because he takes a medium as simple as lighting and turns into art. I really enjoyed listening to him talk about how he creates these pieces and I had no idea that there was so much planning and work that went into them. Also, I really liked how he had a passion for his work and stressed that people should take in the uncommon light because it really is special. I believe Shrum shows that people can create anything artistic with anything as long as they have a passion for what they do. 

Artist Post #2

Alberto Seveso 

"The Three Graces"

Alberto Seveso is a graphic illustrator/designer that has created this technique called "sperm shaping" by using black and white photos with a blending of vectors on Photoshop. He was born in Milan, Italy but grew up on the island of Sardinian with no education in design or art. He has self-taught himself through using an Amiga 1200, Delux Paint and becoming a street artist. He began his career as a graphic designer when he moved to Rome and started using Photoshop, which amazed him of its capabilities. Seveso's "sperm  shaping" was born by a collection meant as a joke, but people really took a liking to it so he kept going with that inspiration.

"Astro Bonas"

The photos become Seveso's medium and the basis of his artwork. He creates these swirly vectors and layers them onto the photo, adding tasteful and sometimes sensual effects. There is a mystery to his works as well because he plays with what to hide and what to show, allowing the viewer to get lost into the picture and   imagine what is there and what isn't. He assembles the vectors in Photoshop, making them more realistic and giving them depth, and  follows the curves of the body or face to make it more authentic and life-like. Seveso says it is a very tedious technique but quite simple, it just requires patient to make the vectors and bit-map picture harmonious.

Seveso's works are very intriguing and captivating. The blending of vectors on black and white photos really brings out the patterns he creates, which usually look like sperm. The idea of "sperm shaping" is kind of strange but it does create this abstract and awesome picture that really pushes the limits of the mind. At first though, I didn't even pick up that most of the patterns looked like sperm until I read about his works and style. Also, his ability to become such an established artist with no degree in design or art, really shows that anybody can do whatever they set their mind to if they have the passion and dedication for their work. I agree with Seveso that you don't need a degree to be successful in art, although design schools do teach the fundamentals. I believe that creative expression comes from within and Seveso definitely proves that by making these amazing works.