WWEdgarD?

This is what happened when I decided to take up cross-stitch (I was looking for a medium that was cheap and easily portable). Rather than follow a published pattern or something, I came up with this. After all, the stitches of cross-stitch are essentially pixels, so a computer graphic (in this case, a video game sprite) is the perfect thing to reproduce. It also feeds into my penchant for combining contrasting elements in my work.

The featured character is Edgar from Final Fantasy VI. He’s a good fit for the “What Would ____ Do?” phrase, since in the game’s story he’s constantly scheming.

Sketchbook: Night Dragons

Here’s another dip into my sketchbook (actually, this was drawn on the back of a school handout, if I recall correctly). Two dragons, lit from the side, perhaps by a sunset; shading is an aspect of drawing that has always given me trouble, but I think these two turned out all right. Incidentally, these are the same type or species of dragon that appears in this piece — they come from a creative writing project I’ve worked on here and there for years, and they often turned up as a motif in my artwork. Sometimes people have mistaken them for horses; I’m not sure why, unless it’s the proportions.

Moon Birds

This is one of my first experiences with printmaking, and so far my only encounter with silk screen. I made this piece during an after-school art program when I was in high school (I think; it may have been earlier than that). The layer using orange ink, which produced the tree-like shapes, was masked out with torn pieces of newsprint — once the ink was applied, it stuck the paper to the screen, which allowed for multiple prints to be made. The blue layer, with the birds, was masked with conventional masking fluid.

This is a good example of a stream-of-consciousness piece of art. Why birds? I don’t know; as far as I remember, they don’t have any significance beyond “why not?” Why is one of them sitting on a moon? I have no idea! Still, I kind of like the way the blocks of color turned out on this one, despite being completely unplanned.

Essay: Merovingian Figural Representation and its Prototypes

The following research paper is one I wrote for my university Medieval Art class in 2003.  During the lectures there was very little mention  of continental European art before Charlemagne, just a passing reference to the Merovingian dynasty. This piqued my interest, since the only other place I had encountered that name was in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (the book The DaVinci Code was based on). The information I turned up had nothing to do with any conspiracy theory, but is equally interesting in its own way.

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The period of the fifth to the eighth centuries in Europe is often referred to as the Dark Ages, suggesting a lack of cultural sophistication, learning and artistic endeavor. It is true that the kingdoms of the Merovingians during this period produced little or no art in the classical Greco-Roman tradition. However, that is not to say that the Merovingians did not have a vital artistic tradition of their own. An examination of Merovingian art, both in sculptures and in illuminated manuscripts, demonstrates connections with several more and less Classical traditions, including the Insular, Byzantine and, especially in figural representation, Coptic art.

Bird/Dragon

Assignment: produce 2 contrasting images on 2 plates using various etching techniques.

This was one of the projects for my university etching class. The plate on the left depicts a house finch; the plate on the right, a dragon. Apparently I was stuck for inspiration, since that’s when I tend to bring the dragons out. These two plates incorporate drypoint, hard ground and soft ground etching, as well as aquatint and sugar lift. (The paper is actually off-white; the grey tint is a result of the scanning method.)

Crossing the River

This is a simple game for teaching probability. I remember one of my own teachers using it, and I’ve recreated the game board for my own use. The rules are quite simple:

• Each student receives 12 tokens, 2 dice and a worksheet.
• The student places the 12 tokens on any of the 12 spaces on the Start side of the river.
• The student rolls the dice. They may move one token across the river in the space that matches the dice roll.
• The object of the game is to move all of the tokens across the river in the least number of rolls.

The students quickly discover that some numbers come up more often than others, and that a pair of dice will never roll 1. For a more advanced lesson, different means of generating numbers could be used: a 12-sided dice, three 4-sided dice, twelve coins, a spinner and so on.

Sketchbook: Mom and Baby Creature

No matter what media an artwork is in, most of the time it begins with a sketch. This one has been in my portfolio for years. It’s nothing much, just two creatures scribbled in pencil and then inked with a ballpoint pen, but I find it evocative. I don’t remember if there’s any story behind this image, or if these creatures are supposed to be a particular species. I probably scribbled this out in a spare moment between classes.

Lesson Plan: Fake Ads

Grade: 7
Subject: Media Literacy
Topic: AdvertisingMaterials: examples of fake ads, fake product worksheets

Introductory Activity: (15-20 min)

Show the students examples of fake ads (image or video) and discuss how they try to sell their product. Eg. appealing word choices, images, celebrity endorsement.

Fake Ad Skits (20 min+1 period)

Divide students into groups of 3-4. Give each group a worksheet with a fictional product. They have the rest of the period to devise a fake ad skit, with written script, to (a) describe what the product is and (b) convince the rest of the class to buy it.

Students then present their ads to the class. (following period.)

Assessment:

• Script handed in at the end of period 1.
• Performance of skit:
  • Speaking clearly and confidently /4
  • Making product appealing /4
  • Effort (costumes, props) /4

Image source

Write a commercial, in the form of a skit, for this product. It should:
1. tell the audience what your product is
2. convince the audience to buy it.

You will act out the skit in front of the class. You will also hand in your script. Make sure all of your group’s names are on the skit.

Comments:

The most difficult part of this lesson was finding examples of fake ads that were school appropriate (many contained profanity). The students enjoyed creating their ads, although some groups had trouble figuring out how to depict their products. Each fake product was a photoshopped image from the Worth1000 website.  The element of humor made the exercise interesting for everyone. This lesson could work well in an advanced ESL class; it could also be adapted to things like fake news reports in order to practice specialized styles of language.

Mark

This is another comic strip from my University days, this one drawn for my own amusement. It’s just a slice-of-life story about a man with an unusual hobby. The drawing style is a bit experimental, loose and sketchy; it might look like a rough draft, but this is intended to be the final version. The emphasis is on gesture and broad strokes, rather than detail. Read the story as a PDF here.

On a side note, I’m also quite pleased with how the title logo turned out.

Magnolias

I took this picture while I was living in Nagoya, Japan; the magnolias were blooming in early March when there was still snow on the ground in Canada. There are a lot of things I like about this shot: the way the backlit flowers seem to glow, which contrasts with the silhouetted branches. The difference in scale between the foreground and background flowers. The cloudless sky (which, at the time of this writing, I rather miss since it has been a rainy spring). And I guess I also like it because it’s not dramatic or impressive at first glance, but has a kind of elegance that comes though if you look at it for a while.