Semester in Review: FA 102

I took a Fine Arts Design course this semester to contribute to my minor in 2D Art For Games. The course had me do a lot of sketching and painting with a solid watercolor paint called Gouache. The stuff was slick, better than printer ink.

These pieces are created by painting two sheets of bristol paper with black and white paint. The shapes are then cut out of one sheet and glued onto the other. The result is crisp, clean, and delicious.

The course put a huge emphasis on the process of drafting art. All of our assignments began with several pencil thumbnails, the best of which became ink drawings, then full size drawings, and ultimately a final painted product.

We also had our fair share of technical painting exercises. I will never look at gray the same way again.

My only frustration with the course was that I could not submit any of my final drafts as a computer image (not even printed). The final piece needed to be assembled by hand.

Of course, that didn't stop me from coloring my sketches in Photoshop to determine color schemes. :)

The final product, a 14 by 17 inch poster.

The last class assignment was to redesign a CD album cover. I chose one of my favorite indie composers.

I liked the pattern in the original cover, and decided to expand upon it with imagery that the music triggered in my mind. To keep in line with the technically raw nature of the music, I repeated the simple primary colors and strong angular lines found in the pattern. Materials used were colored pencil, and drops of paint for the stars.

Overall, this art class gave me great practice in design and composition. I learned some useful skills for designing color schemes that will be essential for my digital art projects.