Samina InK.

Yet another new beginning

2010-01-05T21:38:00.002-05:00

I vowed some time ago that I would maintain my blog regularly, and that said blog would be located on my website. After letting it slide for some time, though, I received a rude shock one day when I logged in: my blog had been hijacked by goons promoting...well, I'm sure you can guess what they were promoting. I was less than pleased, but the experience taught me a few valuable lessons, including the importance of changing your password now and again, but primarily that it's a good idea to keep on top of your site.

Aside from that, the new year has given me cause for introspection. I haven't yet reached my desired destination for this stage of my life, but I accept the challenge and I want to redouble my efforts to achieve my goal (for anyone who finds this (understandably) oblique, I'm referring to a job in the digital media field). Today at work I had a discussion with two of my friends about the need to be generative in life, and we all agreed that it just wasn't enough to have a job to sustain oneself; rather, we want to feel that we have achieved--and created--something at the end of the day. If I can do that, I'll feel that I've lived up to my potential.

That said, I need to keep learning if I want to carve a little place for myself in the industry, there is so much out there that I don't know. However, I took a small step forward yesterday, and ordered Colin Moock's Essential Actionscript 3. I don't expect it to be an easy read, but I hope that I can be dedicated enough to use the book to become a good AS3 programmer. Wish me luck!

Migration

2009-03-12T18:34:00.001-04:00

I've moved all the old posts from this blog to...

http://www.saminaink.com/blog

That's where I'll be updating from now on.

So long, Blogger!

All that Glitters

2009-03-07T01:33:00.003-05:00

Just a quick one. I wanted to show something creative I've done recently, so here's something rather different from anything I've posted before. I don't think many people know that I enjoy making jewellery--mostly, fairly simple pieces, but it's just something fun for me to do. What you see here is made of two types of pearls and some crystals, and it was a wedding gift for my sister. I should explain now that her wedding took place this past August, but I hadn't gotten around to actually constructing the piece until now, despite having bought the components well before the wedding.

Anyhow, all for now...and I'll try to keep up with the blogging.

Time compression and work to be done

2009-03-04T14:22:00.004-05:00

It's study week at the moment, and frighteningly it's almost half over. It's not as though I have tonnes to do, but I have a few significant things to take care of; finding an internship is pretty much at the top of the list.

To that end, I've cold-contacted a bunch of people, but most of the positive responses I've received have been for projects kind of unrelated to what I'd like to be doing once I finish school (namely, Flash, design, etc.) Even when they involve the web, it's often a case of "my company needs a website, and I'd like to pay...nothing." Which is fine, except that I don't really see a solo project building a website as a truly valuable learning experience...a learning experience nonetheless, but I would prefer to be working under someone's guidance in an agency/studio environment, and really experience what the industry is like and how it functions.

At any rate, I have only a little time remaining to find a placement; we have to fulfill our required 120 hours by about a month after the end of classes. Which brings me to the first part of the title: Time compression.

I don't know why, but time seems to speed up when you have pressing things to do, or when you're having a good time that you wish to hang onto. Both apply in this case: I seem to have too little time to finish my work and find a placement; I'm also enjoying my time at college, and I'm not really looking forward to it being over. I'm already becoming nostalgic about my time at Seneca. I think this is because it was the first time I've truly enjoyed school since I finished high school. I spent a rather dull four years earning my degree at U of T, and it sapped my energy and desire to study. Taking the plunge and returning to school was the best decision I ever made, and it was one I was unsure of and hesitant to make at the time.

But to stay on topic: time compression. I feel like time has sped up as I've grown older; it's as though years have zipped by without my noticing, and suddenly I'm ...well, I'm not going to write my age here, but you get the idea (I'm not old, but I think I've reached the point where I won't just say "I'm x years old". Incidentally, my last post also coincided with my birthday). The truth is that there are many things people will never get to do, simply due to time limitations. It makes me a little sad to think that there are fascinating parts of the world I may never get to see, or that I may have to wait a long time to visit. I suppose all we can do is try our hardest to experience all that we want to in our lives, and try to live without regret over lost opportunities.

Ok, I think I'll sign off here. I could probably go off in way too many tangents from what I've just written, and I'll try and save all of that for another post.

The Angel Lives

2009-02-05T15:16:00.007-05:00

The title of this post probably seems pretty counter-intuitive, given that angels are...not among the living, but allow me to clarify. Over a year ago, in my New Media Tools class, everyone designed skate decks, and then made vector-art versions of them, which we printed. I did a design with a guitar on it, which turned out fairly well I guess, then had it printed and stuck it on a skate deck. I don't think the image ever worked when I uploaded it, so here it is again at left.

Anyhow, I had another design which I was really eager to work on, more so in fact than the guitar one. That was the angel design which is in one of my earlier posts. Since I really wanted to see it to completion, I worked on it from time to time when I had a free moment, usually quite sporadically; I finally finished it a few days back. This is the final result at left.

At any rate, I like how it turned out; it has more visual interest than the guitar one. But any feedback would be welcome...I will accept criticism and suggestions with good grace, I promise!

Second Time Lucky

2009-01-22T00:36:00.002-05:00

Alright; it seems I overestimated my likelihood to keep up with my blog. However, it IS a new year, which is always a popular time for resolutions (I'm going to conveniently ignore the fact that many resolutions are easily broken).
Anyway, I will say in my own defense that last semester was challenging and quite busy. In addition, I spent the Christmas break running my parents' business while they were abroad; I'm hopeful that I can start producing some interesting material soon though. Fingers crossed!

New Beginnings?

2008-09-30T23:49:00.003-04:00

Today I decided to revisit my blog, which I clearly have not touched in close to a year. I have to say that I regret leaving it to stagnate...I actually have some interesting pieces of work here, and I feel like I should continue adding to it so that I can see my progress over time. So, in the spirit of new beginnings, I'm going to pick up where I left off. Hopefully some good stuff will come up.

Skate deck

2007-12-09T23:50:00.000-05:00

I may have spent way too long on this, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Part of the time factor is due to my having worked on areas that will not actually show anyway...I know that sounds like an incredibly stupid thing to do, but let me explain. I could easily have gotten away with cutting out the fret board, since it will be covered by the board's trucks anyway; however, it just seemed like a cop-out to me to do so. Also, I figured that if I wanted to display the design, it would look silly without that area. So I added a fair bit of work time by incorporating that area into the finished piece, but it looks good now and I can use it for other purposes without having to go back in and make too many adjustments to it.

BUT--there are a few things I wish I could improve about the finished, printed piece: 1) I don't think it's weatherproof--although it was printed on vinyl, it is not laminated and is therefore susceptible to the elements.

2) for the same reason (i.e. lack of lamination), the colours are not as vivid as in my test print--apparently the material soaks up some of the pigment, but laminating a piece would bring the levels back up again (so my printer told me).

3) I didn't do as good a job of sticking it to my deck as I would have liked...it took me ages to get it done, and it still wasn't quite right. After Joe told me how he usually goes about doing this, I almost kicked myself because it would have made the task so much simpler for me. No sense in complaining about things that can't be changed, though, right?

Inked

2007-12-07T22:02:00.000-05:00

Here are a few photos of tattoo art--on myself, my sister and Kim.

Of the designs (shown below), I like the sword best (I call it Excalibur). I'm not sure how realistic the bird looks as a tattoo; I wanted to have more of it showing, but scaling the vector art down made it difficult to see any of the detail, so the result was a compromise. The design I mapped onto myself is the simplest of my three designs and looks surprisingly believable.

*Some of the jpegs for the actual design line-art are acting up, so I will add those later...

A Blast from the (near) Past

2007-12-06T00:37:00.001-05:00

So, here's a small picture of the logo trace I did for our first assignment in DMA101 (I don't really have any explanation for why the colours are so far off here...some sort of internal error to do with Blogger I suppose). Looking back, it's interesting to see how much we've learned in Illustrator over the past few months. I didn't at the time believe myself capable of doing that assignment, but I think we have all made some great progress with that program--and I've come to see that you can do some really amazing things with it.

This is the third of my 3D scenes, also done in Illustrator. I never quite got around to posting it...or rather, I didn't post it because I thought that most people would not see the humour I had intended in it. I guess that's essentially some form of self-censorship, which I tend to do often; in my sketchbook I erase my drawings when I am unhappy with their progress, when maybe I just need to start a new page.

The last three items are examples of word art created in Photoshop. I don't think I got them quite right, but it was still a good exercise to practice using filters and layer effects.

Tattoos

2007-11-28T12:27:00.000-05:00

These are some of my designs in preparation for getting 'inked.' I'm going with the sword in the drawing on the left, but I'm hoping to also try doing the stylized bird. I'm going with a really clean, sharp line technique that will make the designs stand out best.

Skate Decks - Initial Draft

2007-11-28T00:16:00.000-05:00

Here are two of my better designs for the skate deck assignment. My idea for the first was actually to have a character playing the guitar, but I ended up sketching an electric guitar on pretty much the full board instead (I used my brother's instrument as a reference).

The second one evolved on a whim, and I think it has some visual interest to it...having the entire image repeated on the smaller deck within the drawing was a fun idea courtesy of Craig, and results in a deck-within-a-deck sort of situation (ad infinitum).

Random drawing

2007-11-23T23:35:00.001-05:00

I finished this sketch a few days back; I'm not sure why I made it look Grecian/ancient Roman, and I don't have any sort of story behind it, but it looks kind of interesting (I think).

I've also done more work on my tattoo designs, toy box concept art, and skate deck designs [which I will post as soon as it's all scanned in]. I'm not sure if anyone else is having the same problem, but I'm worried that my tattoo designs are a)not complex enough and b)that they lack originality. I do like one of them, which is of a sword--I revisited one of the very first designs I did for this assignment, back in the 3rd or 4th week of classes. I can't seem to tear myself away from that idea, much the same as my attachment for my incomplete toy logo (I hope this isn't a bad trend). I've given a lot of thought to the sword and I think that if it's too simple in itself, perhaps I could combine it with another large element...what I had in mind was that a bird (namely an owl) could be carrying the sword/have it dangling from one of its talons.

Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words (so they say), so once I've scanned in the relevant sketches, the concept will become a bit clearer.

Watercolours II

2007-11-23T00:04:00.000-05:00

Just briefly...here is my finished watercolour painting. I'm not entirely displeased with it, though there is clearly room for improvement. I also did a second painting, seen with the corresponding photo (taken in Maine, again by my parents). I have a tendency to overwork my pieces when using watercolours, and this is evident in both of my paintings. It can be really difficult with watercolours to get the colours you desire [i.e. those that most accurately match the reference], and it's equally hard to maintain control over the paints. But I do like some aspects of the two I have here and I hope to do some more when I have a free moment.

Logos R US

2007-11-18T00:34:00.001-05:00

Day two of noticing logos: I had to remind myself to notice them--which reinforces the point of the exercise. Logos are so commonplace that my mind doesn't always consciously register them. I went about with a small notebook making a note of emblems on people's apparel and bags etc. (when I remembered, that is). Also, I tried to take some photos on my phone while on the bus, but I didn't get too many because I felt as if other passengers were giving me odd looks...clearly they don't think there's anything on Steeles Ave. worth capturing on camera [I didn't take pictures of people's clothes and such...I figured I could get in trouble for that].

From my observations, I found four brands which were most visible: Nike, Roots, Adidas and Reebok. In my sample set, Roots cornered the backpack market while Nike was the overall winner for footwear. Anyhow, here are some photos I took (the first bunch were taken during my bus ride):

As you can see, logos are everywhere you turn...from your phone to your mp3 player, to your notebook, pen, and stick of chewing gum...virtually every object has become a source of prime marketing space.

Noticing things (again)

2007-11-13T23:39:00.000-05:00

If you will recall the days of yore, a certain assignment will come to mind, in which we had to select a common object (with which we often come into contact) to pay attention to. Well, I didn't quite pick a winner last time, so I'm revisiting that exercise. I took the suggested idea of logos and tried to notice those I saw. Not surprisingly, they're everywhere...we're inundated by symbols wherever we look. It became a bit ridiculous trying to take note of all the logos I saw outside, because every corporate office had their emblem on the building, as did chains and franchises.

Here's one funny thing, though; I happened to take YRT and VIVA to get to school yesterday (I usually go by TTC), and I realized that they have absolutely no print ads on their buses, and hence no logos displayed besides their own (I could be mistaken about YRT, but this was definitely the case for VIVA). However, VIVA has a little TV screen which runs looped ads (and inane 'news' and celebrity gossip), so I guess there are a few logos to be seen if you pay attention.

I also tried to watch out for logos on people's bags, clothes and shoes, and again there were too many to keep track of; I think tomorrow I'll just focus on this area and try to keep a running tally of those I see, like a poll of sorts. It might be interesting to see if there are any brand preferences.

On a more sketching-related note, this is what I worked on when we were using watercolours. The first one is my unfinished painting, and you can see from the accompanying photo that it needs some more work as yet.

This last drawing is one I did some time ago and tried to adjust somewhat yesterday. I would appreciate some feedback on this one; I'm not sure if I've got the positioning of the arms right for that particular pose, i.e. if she's aiming in the direction I've indicated, would she be holding the bow like that? Also, would her head be tilted upward? As I said...some input would be invaluable to me.

Watercolours!

2007-11-12T20:59:00.000-05:00

Watercolours have both the power to relax and frustrate, but despite some minor difficulties, I had a really good time working with them today. I haven't touched my paints since before the start of the semester and it felt really good to use them again. We started off with a classic watercolour exercise, painting geometric solids to show dimension, keeping in mind the direction of light on the object. Once we were a bit more comfortable with that, we moved on to landscapes, using the photos we brought in. I started a painting of what I believe is Lake Geneva, from a photo my parents took in Switzerland. I'll scan that in later.

The point of today's class was to understand how programs like Illustrator and Photoshop evolved from classical art forms; as with watercolours (and other forms of painting), the end result using such programs is achieved by creating successive layers...it works a bit like a puzzle, but with pieces that are laid out behind and in front of each other rather than side by side. Eventually the pieces come together to create the finished picture.

Another point we touched on in class is that art isn't created on the computer (not often anyway); drawing and painting will never be obsolete because we always need to start on paper and get ideas out before we can translate them onto the computer screen. And on that note...I will go back to my sketchbook.

A cut-out Stewie, 3 Spider-Man posters and a somewhat sore back later...

2007-11-10T23:31:00.000-05:00

I spent a great part of today at the Graphics Canada show at the International Centre (I know this doesn't quite relate to DMA179, but it was an experience). As it turned out, the show was more geared toward people involved in the physical end of the printing industry; a lot of the exhibitors were demonstrating equipment (of the huge expensive variety), while others were paper distributors or had some other connection to printed media. In that sense there wasn't much relevance to me because the creative portion of digital media wasn't represented.

Nonetheless, it was interesting to see the equipment used to make high-quality posters, signs, etc. (this also presented me with a chance to pick up a moderate amount of swag...hence the posters etc). Exhibitors such as HP used posters as an incentive for people to stand around watching the machines do their thing, which is why I found myself waiting 20 minutes to get a 4 x 5 glossy Spider-Man poster that I knew my brother would like. HP also had one big piece of equipment that looked like a HUGE desktop printer--I mean massive, as in, several people could have stood around comfortably inside it. I would have taken a photo, but I was weighed down with brochures etc. at that point.

On a more relevant note, here are a couple of drawings to do with my toy project...I think I mentioned them earlier but didn't get around to posting them. The first is my logo, which may not be complete yet...I'm stuck on this idea and I don't want to let it go. The other drawings are ideas for box art for Little Red, as well as an expansion idea for Hansel and Gretel toys.

Not enough action...

2007-11-06T08:56:00.000-05:00

Get your head out of the gutter...I was referring to this sketch I did over the weekend. For some reason, when Joe asked us to do some drawings for use in PS, I assumed he wanted a sort of hero figure...and I came up with this. The problem is, it's too static (seeing as it's meant to be an action figure); I could have spent my time better developing the other outline sketches I did of people doing sporty things. I think I'll work on that today.

While on the subject of superheroines, I can't help thinking how completely ridiculous it is to have a woman running around in high heels fighting crime and evil-doers...

Arrghh...

2007-11-04T19:21:00.000-05:00

This weekend feels like it was a complete waste. I'm not sure about everyone else, but it seems as though the less work we have to do, the less that gets done; and at the end, you realize that there actually is a bunch of stuff that needs dealing with, and you end up in a mild panic. My sketching feels uninspired...in search of help in drawing comic figures, I turned to a book, which I suppose isn't the worst, but I don't have much more on the page than I started with. I feel restless and discontent.

In view of that, I need to focus on something that IS done, so here are a few things I've done for previous DMA101 assignments. The first is the end result of my vector trace and the others are two of my 3D objects.

Toys, revisited

2007-10-31T23:37:00.000-04:00

I made a few minor adjustments to Little Red, who now looks a bit better I think (ok, maybe there's not really that much of a difference, but anyway). Other than that, I drew out an expansion idea for the toy line (in this case, Hansel and Gretel) as well as a brand/logo idea, and other images that could be used on a box.

This is a drawing that I'm considering for use in Photoshop, maybe after I add some facial features. I still need to come up with some more interesting comic characters, but I have one other (which I will post later, as the file isn't cooperating) that might be workable. I need to play around with PS quite a bit--it seems like I'm the only one who's never used it (which is mildly embarrassing). But after seeing how quickly we've all gotten into Illustrator, I figure it won't be insurmountable...it didn't take too long for people to start making kick-ass stuff with Ai, and it can't be too much worse for PS, right?

Toys -- Part Deux

2007-10-24T23:03:00.000-04:00

I'm a little behind with the blogging. Nonetheless, I got the drawings of Little Red done on Monday, and as my dubious luck would have it, I may have to redo them; they just look a little wonky. If I were to summarize the problems, they would be as follows:

1) I think her eyes are too close together in the front view.

2) I wonder if I should have made the body uniformly gum drop-shaped instead of how I have done it (see profile drawing).

3) The profile just looks distinctly odd. Actually, I think I've succeeded in making 'Little Red Riding Hood' into 'Little Bit Creepy.'

4)The hood and cape are throwing things off somewhat. Until I decide whether they would be molded or made separately out of cloth, I can't accurately draw the pictures. Maybe I should get rid of the hood temporarily for this purpose, i.e. make it a separate entity. Maybe I'm just obsessing; who the hell knows? Anyhow, input would be appreciated, but I'm not sure it will be forthcoming, as I highly doubt anyone reads these regularly. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Toys Inc.

2007-10-20T10:23:00.000-04:00

This week we continued working on our toy projects in class. I had a few ideas, two of which are shown in the picture on the left. The first was the subversive fairy tale character (far left), and the second was the mythology personality key chain.

I'm going with the first one, which has Little Red Riding Hood saying uncharacteristic things. Actually, she was originally intended as just a figurine with a rude sign, but that didn't seem very toy-like, so she's evolved into a talking doll. As you can see on the right, she's been streamlined quite a bit...the first version would have been a bit hard to mold etc. She also looks more like an innocent and cheerful child, which would create a funny kind of dissonance with what she would say.

Now I'm working on some other aspects, such as the mug shots, colour schemes, etc. for Phase II. I'll post pictures in the next installment.

Tracing, and toys (and perhaps tracing toys)

2007-10-14T01:04:00.000-04:00

I spent most of this afternoon up till around 8pm working on the latest project for DMA101: the sketch trace. I'm using my Egypt material and although it's taking a while, I'm looking forward to seeing it to completion...I think it has some potential. I guess what was the most interesting was its evolution from a collection of rough ideas to the sketch itself, to the final concept, which was really Joe's idea.

This got me thinking about ideas and how we come up with them. The Egypt work started with a brainstorming session in DMA179, and everyone derived something unique from it. We all came out of the class with at least a couple of expandable concepts. Coincidentally, brainstorming was the subject of Daria's class on Friday. We spent part of the class working on initial ideas for advertisements; the process of thinking aloud let us pool ideas and gave us material to play around with and modify. We found ourselves throwing out random things and making connections that worked.

On the subject of concepts, we're also working on toy ideas for DMA179. Somehow I arrived at these subversive fairy tale figures and mythology keychains. Maybe it's because we had expandability in mind, and the easiest way to do that is to start with a large pre-existing group of characters. Anyway, I'm not sure what we'll end up developing further, but it's going to be interesting.

Studio Tour

2007-10-10T12:11:00.000-04:00

This past Friday I went downtown to tour a few of the prominent interactive studios in the city. The day began at the FITC headquarters on Augusta Street, in what I have to admit was a pretty non-descript building--you could easily walk past without noticing there was anything in there; once you went in, though, there was a display of design books, magazines, t-shirts etc. (the front of the unit is a store). Following a short intro by Tim, a former DMA student, we split into groups and set off for the studios.

I was struck by the open and friendly work environment; everyone seemed really relaxed and happy, very laid back. This was especially so at Organic, our first stop; there were toys and action figures on a lot of desks for inspiration (which is what Joe has been pointing us to since our first class).

Outside Teehan+Lax

Despite the toys and the fun attitude, these places obviously meant business--all of the studios we visited were really impressive physically, sometimes taking up several floors of a building, such as at Blast Radius. And at every place, they were doing some really amazing work. Teehan+Lax showed us some particularly innovative projects, one of which was a Facebook application commissioned by Telus--it involved creating a fishbowl on your page, decorating it as you wished, and inviting your friends to join. It was a fun way to advertise their Fave 8 plan.

I'm really glad I went on the tour--it was a great way to see how current employees in the field are applying the skills we're learning in DMA. Also, it gave me a more detailed response to the constant query I get ( 'What will you be doing once you've finished your studies?'). Hopefully two years down the road I'll find myself in a workplace similar to the ones we visited.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw this giant thimble sculpture in the fashion district (I'm sure it's nothing new to most, but it's HUGE).

Seeing the Ordinary

2007-09-30T06:22:00.000-04:00

The major ideas this week in our class were awareness and receptiveness--awareness in terms of noticing things around us [rather than being on autopilot], and receptiveness to different ways of thinking or doing. To explore this, we had a small assignment that entailed a) trying two new things and b) picking something ordinary, and actually noticing our encounters with it.

The two ideas are closely related: you need to notice the ordinary in order to find ways to make it new and interesting, and similarly you can use different/unusual means to view the ordinary.

I decided to take a different route home from school to test this. Normally I take the TTC along Steeles, going from Keele all the way to Markham road, so I took YRT instead. It was fairly convoluted, but I did end up seeing some different scenery from the usual industrial areas and strip malls that characterize much of Steeles, including a house built to look like a castle in a mostly generic residential area. I found myself having the 'oh, crap!' thought of "Is this the right place to wait for my second bus?" And, unlike usual, I was paying a little more attention to where we were going.

The second thing I tried was performing simple tasks with my non-dominant hand (in my case, the left). Stirring a cup of tea was not hard, but it felt a bit odd. Brushing my teeth was another matter: the whole business became really effortful...normally I don't even have to think about it, but now the brush felt foreign in my hand, and I had to adapt how I was holding and using it. It was a new way of performing a routine task.

Lastly, I had do pick something ordinary to pay attention to (on a related note, noticing things is DEFINITELY important, even outside creative contexts. I had a dose of 'I told you so' in this respect on Wednesday night; only after I had pulled the front door closed did I notice that the set of car keys I'd picked up did not have a house key with them, and consequently I ended up having to break into my own house. So you see...).

I figured that license plates would be interesting, as we usually don't give them a lot of thought. I saw out-of-province plates (New Brunswick, Maryland, and Pennsylvania); dealer plates (red on white); and many truck plates (black on white), though surprisingly no yellow mechanics' plates.

The most interesting were the vanity plates, some of which included emblems such as remembrance poppies, loons, etc. In about a two-hour period I saw 44 unique plates (there were others that I didn't quite catch). A few interesting ones:
HOOP DOME (basketball fan?)
SOBERANO (Spanish for 'sovereign')
HAY NOW (?)
GLF 4 ME (golf fan)
AU H20
7 SQUAD (this looks like a soccer reference)
I NSRU (probably an insurance broker)
CHE LOCO (Crazy Che)
HEYYYYY (as in,'heyyyyy, look at my shiny new BMW')
HAUS 10
TEL AVIV
and my personal favourite, MMMMM.

All said, I think I did end up being more observant than usual.

The Bad Beginning

2007-09-22T23:40:00.000-04:00

My apologies to Lemony Snicket...

The idea behind this blog is to document my creative process for a course I'm taking--Sketching for Communications. Basically, I can refer back to my entries from time to time and see where I'm drawing inspiration from, and how ideas are evolving. This is important to the development and effective communication of ideas, which are key in industry. Hopefully it will be a good time management tool as well.

After spending the first proper class sketching, I found that I need to think more outside the box. I'm also beginning to wonder--is creativity something that just happens, or is it a deliberate exercise?