Ways of Seeing ~Response

After reading the passage from Berger, I have come upon some interesting things. He discusses how a painting, or other work of art, changes in meaning or appearance over time. In the past, a painting of a group of people might have had a strong meaning. However, if a modern person looks at that same painting now, he or she is likely to just notice the work put into the piece, and not necessarily the symbolism. Many people admire greek sculpture for the detail and realism and wonder how they could look so perfect and effortless. Back in Ancient Greek times, artists and sculptors might have looked at the same work(s) and said or thought that it/they looked like garbage, with mistakes showing up everywhere. They saw things much differently than modern folks today. However, this may also be a matter of skill for seeing and being able to make art. Berger shows and talks about an image of a man with a weird expression on his face. One side is smiling a bit, while the other is relaxed and neutral. Today, people would think that this was to portray the person's personality in the painting. However, Berger says that the man's expression could be a result of facial paralysis, and the man is just posing with a neutral expression that is disfigured because of the paralysis. As time goes on people's ways of seeing a work of art change constantly. A person from the 1980's would most likely view a picture differently from someone living in 2011. The reason for this may be that more and more facts are discovered about the work or the artist between these time periods. Since "Ways of Seeing" was released, in 1970, our ways of viewing, pretty much everything, has changed drastically. We have much more knowledge about things like science and medicine and history than we did back then. The atmosphere between the 70's and now has changed from disco and psychedelic colors to metal music and cold metal appliances and technology. We don't see nearly as many afros in fashion as back then, and kids are much more independent than in the 70's. Now, culture (in America) is more liberal than it was back then. More things can be taken as art than as "porn" or "explicit." In the next ten years, our views of things will change even more.

Portrait Lines

Another Portrait. This is the line self portrait that I needed to turn in a while ago. Here it is.

Hands

This is my "Hand blind contour drawing" from long ago, near the beginning of the semester.

Autobio Comic Part 2

The Home Ec. teacher agreed to fix it for me. I was extremely grateful. She managed to stitch it up very quick, but I still got to the bus late. It was pretty insane for me to run in front of a moving bus. Shows how much I cared about school trips!

Autobio Comic Part 1

This is my Autobiographical comic about the time when I was in 8th grade. It was the last day of school and we were all going on a cruise in Chicago as a celebration of our graduation from Junior High. I picked a special dress to wear specially for that day. Unfortunately, at school that day, when I sat down at my desk, it ripped at the part where my bottom is. I was embarrassed and went to the Home Economics teacher to ask her to fix it.

Understanding Comics

After reading the first 3 chapters of "Understanding Comics," I have a much greater perception of the meaning of comics. I had always thought that they were just novels where every paragraph or section of words was represented by a picture. I never thought that there were types of transitions between panels, that the artist just played everything by ear. Of course, I knew that things like composition and panels were set up a certain way, as well as the shape of the panels and shading style, etc. However, after reading this, I am just amazed, and a little intimidated, I admit, of all the different types of transitions, the complex definition of comics just blew me away, and made me feel stupid in a way, or at least made me feel like I was living under a rock all this time. I still am having some problems comprehending everything in all 3 chapters, but I see this as a challenge and a learning experience. I'll most likely be incorporating much of what I have read into my own comics. At the moment, I am studying storyboarding and animation, and have learned so much in those classes already. All of these rules and styles and types of ways to go about doing things are making my head hurt, haha.