If you could see music...

let yourself feel. from Esteban Diácono on Vimeo.

My Last Class!

Today is my last day of class! I can't believe the year is over. Here are a couple shots of my final design project that I will be presenting today.

It snowed most of yesterday and there were some of the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen. As big as the palm of my hand!

creativeLIVE

I recently discovered this online creative classroom. I wanted to wait to post about it until I had actually experienced one of the classes.

The way it works is that different artists will teach a course or workshop and you are able to watch the classes live, for free. If you miss the class, you can download it after but in that case you have to pay for it.

The class that I took had around 1500 students. There are frequent Q&A sessions throughout the class where the teacher answers questions from the live audience, the class chat, and Twitter.

There are not a lot of courses at the moment but this is something that is just getting going and I am sure the selection will expand.

If you enroll in a class you are sent a reminder email an hour before the class begins. I have enrolled in Fundamentals of Digital Photography, The Creative Eye with Art Wolfe, and Watercolour 101. I am particularly looking forward to the weekend workshop on DSLR Cinema which was how I found out about it in the first place.

I think this is an amazing opportunity and it is wonderful that they can provide these classes for free.

http://creativelive.com/

Final Drawing

This was my last drawing. There were a few different choices for the assignment. I chose the one where we could draw absolutely anything but we had to do it very very well.
I am happy with it and it was well received by the class and teacher.

Homey

This is a little preview of a design project I am working on. More pictures and an explanation to come once it is finished.

Wayfinding Sign

For our design class we had to make pictorial wayfinding signs with no words. We each got a different department or area of the school. We decided on the shape as a class so that there would be some consistency. I am pretty happy with mine but the criticism was that the black arrow doesn't read as an arrow immediately. It was so clear in my mind that I didn't think of that but I can see how it might be unclear and look like the film was meant to be splitting.

Drawing with Paint

In drawing class this week we were experimenting with drawing with paint. I spent the whole time asking myself every step of the way whether I was drawing or painting. I think I tended more toward painting. It is difficult to use paint in such a different way.

I am really happy with the way it turned out, though.

Lily Pond

This week's assignment was to take two drawings of models that we did in class and put them together in a new environment.

The only part of this that I am really happy with is the feather in the corner.

From Memory

In our first drawing class we had to do a drawing from memory or imagination. The perspective in this isn't great but I feel it captures the spirit of the place even if it is rather more spartan than in reality.

Web of Bags

This is from drawing class a few weeks ago.

First Design Project

These are probably pretty self explanatory but in just in case: the assignment was to illustrate the three words we were given using only four black squares. We were to come up with six ideas for each word, develop three of those ideas and then pick one of those to develop into our final design.

Hanging Chairs

Our drawing teacher likes to create unusual setups for us to draw.

The Slicing Method

This is a method that our drawing teacher introduced. You use your tool on it's side and draw using only straight lines applied in a cutting motion. I am not pleased with what I made in class but the method is interesting and I might experiment with it more.

Large Scale

In drawing class yesterday we got to work very large. Our teacher papered a huge wall and we set to work. We were using the 6 small drawings we did earlier (posted here) as reference. We each picked one of our own to render large and then we were given someone else's drawings to chose our second piece from.

The apple is mine.

And the pocket knife that is hiding behind the chairs.

Because the paper was taped onto plexiglass panels, you could see the drawings, backlit, in the classrooms behind.

Of course the moment we were finished we had to tear them down but it was a fun process.

Drawing project part 2

This is the second part of the three part drawing project for which I did the drawing of Taio on the pig. In class we all switched drawings so that we were were working on the second part of someone else's work. We were allowed to use a different style than they had but it had to transition smoothly.

Old Drawings

Here are the drawings, as promised.

This first one is from before christmas. The assignment was to draw hands and feet so I spelt my name in sign language, and drew my feet.

These other three are from figure drawing this semester.

Old Paintings

I finally brought home all the work that had been accumulating in my locker. Today I'll post the paintings and tomorrow the drawing.

(I am really happy with these fruit ones. We were supposed to paint them once normally, rearrange them, and paint them again using clear brush strokes instead of blending.)

(I really hate this last one but for some reason I decided to post it anyway.)

The Steed

It's fun making a ground. Messy, though.

This is part one of a three part assignment.

(drawn from a photo of Taio at Pike Place Market in Seattle)

6 Drawings

Six drawings of small objects for drawing class. Some better than others.

Remember that self portrait I made a while ago? Well here it is. I got tired of having it staring at me so I squashed. Funny thing is I kind of like it more now.