Digital Design

Description

The picture is called “The Little Owl” which was painted by Albrecht Dürer in 1506. I see a small owl with light and dark brown feathers and beige underbelly feathers, with a dark beige face. The owl also has black eyes with a light yellow beak, as well as light grey feet and talons. The page the picture is drawn on has apparently yellowed with age and appears blank with some stray markings. The painting appears to be colored with watercolors, but some signs of pen and opaque watercolors are visible in the painting as well. The colors of the painting seem to have light and warm tones, however, there are some dark-colored areas of the picture, such as on the feet and face of the owl, mostly on the right side. The strokes of the brush have been used for the texture of the feathers of the owl, so the owl seems very fuzzy in the picture. I also see a sort of Chinese symbol in the bottom left corner, with a capital “D” below it, with the letters 1508 above it. I also see how there is a shadow, to make the owl seem like it’s standing on the page.

Analysis

The owl is placed in the center of the page, so it seems that it is meant to grab people’s attention. The use of light, warm colors make it seem very realistic, and it unifies the drawing together as well. The owl is also on the scale in the drawing as well and appears as if it was a real owl standing on the page, which makes the drawing successful as well. The owl is very large on the page as well, which fills up a lot of the negative space in the artwork as well, even though the owl is meant to be small. The drawing has a sense of stillness to it as if the owl is sitting perfectly still on a branch in real life. There are different brush strokes on the owl, such as: Around the face, its body, and its feet as well, which gives the piece a sense of unity. There is also some shadowing on the body of the owl, which also gives it a sense of realism.

Interpretation

The picture could symbolize a sense of smallness in the world, due to how small the owl is in the drawing. The owl could also represent the mystery of night, since owls are usually out at night time, and the owl has coloring that makes it look like it’s nighttime. A metaphor for this picture could be “The night is a mystery”. The picture could also represent wisdom and intelligence since owls are known to be intelligent birds of prey. The artist must have got his inspiration from the animals he has seen, and thus has recreated them in his work. The artist must have gone for a sense of smallness and frailty in his piece “The Little Owl”, and wanted to emphasize this sense as well. This piece was created in the Northern Renaissance period, which must have given Dürer other inspirations for the piece, with other artists creating their own work.

Evaluation

I really do like this artwork, because it’s put together very well. The use of the brush strokes and warm, light colors is very pleasing to me. To me, the best part of this piece is the use of brush strokes as the texture of the owl’s feathers, as it makes it very realistic as if it’s popping off of the page. The least successful part of this piece would have to be the negative space left out, and I think if the artist used some coloring on the negative space, it would give the artwork more interesting elements than just an owl. I would include some coloring in the negative space if I were painting this, but I would leave the owl the same. As stated before, I believe the owl is representing a sense of smallness, as well as the mystery of the night. Even if it’s a simple watercolor painting of an owl, it is well put together, and the use of colors and scale is very well done. The use of realistic representations in the artwork is also nicely put together. The artwork is simple, and was created using watercolor paints and the usage of pen and gouache, but is very well done, and goes along well with the other paintings Dürer has done before. If I could apply any kind of philosophy of art to this piece, it would be realism, since the artist has most likely observed a real owl, then used this reference to create the piece.

I chose the colors blue, teal, and purple for my logo because blue represents responsibility and security, teal represents morality, and purple represents imagination, creativity, and intelligence, which I believe are traits that I have, so I chose to incorporate these colors into my logo. I chose these colors because they represented the colors of a galaxy, and I also wanted to incorporate my love of astronomy into my logo, and I did so by adding the colors of the galaxy, including little stars and a galaxy swirl as well. The logo itself is the head of a wolf, which is meant to represent how I am a lone wolf sometimes, and for my love of wolves too. I chose the font Curlz MT font for my name because it fits with my fancy space aesthetic, but is not too fancy for my lone-wolf style of the logo as well, and I also chose it because I liked the organized feel of the font too, probably because I also like having my stuff organized.

Since I never used Illustrator before, I was worried that this logo wouldn’t turn out as I wanted it to, but I quickly learned how to use each tool for my logo. I started off by simplifying one of my graphic reductions of the wolf’s head in Illustrator, then fixing the lines by reducing and adjusting the anchor points, so that it appeared much fancier and cleaner. Then I added a dark blue fill of the wolf and used the freeform gradient option to make the gradient colors of the wolf, making it seem much more space-like. I then added a light blue in the eye and added a white radial gradient in the center as if it were a galaxy swirl. The stars were the hardest part of the logo because I was trying to figure out how to make them glow, but Ms. Laux showed me how to add a gradient to them to make them look more like stars which worked. Lastly, I added my name below by using the Text on Path tool to add a curled look to the text as well. If I started again, I would try to use different tools to see how my logo would turn out and to experiment with the tools as well. The most successful part of my project would have to be the use of the anchor points and the stars, as they turned out to be very good in the end.

The message of my infographic is Autism Awareness in schools, the bullying and victimization of autistic students, and the delivery of special needs education.

In my design, I separated each type of information into their sections, with autism awareness amongst students being the first, bullying and mental health being the second, and delivery of education being the last. I used a soft primary color palette on various icons used to bullet point the information, and the colors of the icons and the background were also similar to the autism puzzle pieces, which is something I was trying to convey through the color scheme. I used larger, bolder fonts for the title text, and smaller text for the information in each section. The design targets my audience because the use of the colors catches their attention and the organization of the text and graphs used in each part of the infographic.

I created unity by using similar tones with the colors, and by organizing my data visualizations and information in a certain pattern as well. I also used bolder fonts for the labeling of the graphs and sections of information to create emphasis in my design. The use of the bolder and bigger fonts is to help emphasize the importance of autism awareness in schools and among students. The use of the specific color tones also helps create a sense of unity when lined up next to the information in each section, and the pictures themselves represent what each piece of information is about.

I used Piktochart to create my infographic. I chose a background that fitted well with the color scheme I had in mind for the infographic, and I reduced the opacity so that it wouldn’t be the main thing that stood out to the audience. I then started by adding the information in their sections, creating charts to correlate with the information provided, and putting lighter white boxes behind each piece of information and the chart, but later on, I separated the bullet points into their text boxes so that it would be easier to read.

The first data visualization represents the number of autistic students in schools, and how many students know about the autism spectrum. The information came from the sources that I used for my information next to the chart. The second data visualization is about the bullying and victimization of autistic students. The information provided in the charts came from two of the sources I used to create the information provided. The last data visualization is about the delivery and execution of special needs education for students on the spectrum. The data used came from the last sources I found and used for my infographic.

I first proposed a galaxy themed YouTube video introduction with the use of music and camera manipulation. I ended up changing my idea to a YouTube video introduction with a moving gradient background, a wave effect on the top and bottom of the animation, and a little animation of one of my characters waving. I changed my mind on the project because I realized I wasn’t as skilled in After Effects for my first idea, and I knew it would take longer to try and understand how to do it. I ended up keeping a dark space-like background for the project, and I used music in my project like I originally intended. I ended up making a smooth animation with nice wave effects and smooth transitions as well.

I learned how to use the 4-Way Gradient to color and move 4 points of gradient colors that creates a moving gradient background throughout the project. I also learned how to do a text reveal where a white line would appear, then slide across the screen, revealing the center text, and then bounce out of the animation. I also added an effect where the text would disappear from the top and bottom, where it fades out at the center. I added two different colored solids at the top and bottom of the composition, where I added a gradient to both of them, and used the menu to add waves and create a wave animation that moves until the end of the project. I also used Photoshop to create one of my characters to use in the After Effects project, where the character would bounce into my animation, then begin waving cutely until the end of the animation. Lastly, I added a fading effect where the animation would fade in from black, and then fade out into black at the end.

I think the moving gradient background, the text reveal, and the character animation were the most successful parts of my project. I think I could improve the wave animation so that it looks more sharp and clean, and it doesn’t look too choppy. It was hard to learn how to make the character animation in After Effects, since I had to use the position tool to make it move, then I had to make the waving arm a separate layer to make the wave effect. I would definitely go back to try and fix the character animation to make it a little more clear and smooth.