The Original O'G

ABCs123s

Brian O'grady — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:16:30 +0000

For this project we had to find the alphabet and numbers 1-9 in nature. Mine is incomplete. No excuses, just blew it on this one.

Map Project

Brian O'grady — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 07:38:48 +0000

The idea for this project was to take a map and physically destroy it, only to recreate it in a way that totally negates the purpose of the map. I took a map of Dublin, Ireland and molded it around a pint glass inside and outside. Then, I poured beer and whiskey into it (the whiskey was Seagrams, so it’s not like I was wasting anything good). I let it soak for a while, but this map was actually liquid resistant and wasn’t really soaking anything in. Actually, it just slid off the map and made it sticky. What I did next was light it on fire in the middle and let it burn for a while before putting out the flame. The result was what looked like a giant hulking figure seemingly doing a fire dance.

The thinking for the final product was to burn the map further and use the remains to make dancing flames in the front. Then, I would spray paint orange and red on the board to give off the glow of the fire, then paint the black silhouette of the dancing figure in the background. Unfortunately, it did not come out the way I would have hoped due to the map covering up too much of the hulking outline. Lowering the map flames and/or raising the figure would have better served this piece.

Jack and Jill

Brian O'grady — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 07:29:00 +0000

For this project, we worked in a group of 4 people to accomplish the goal. The idea for this project was to take certain objects and symbols provided to us to re-create the nursery rhyme for Jack and Jill. The main subjects that we took were a mouse, an eagle, and a snake.

The original version of this piece was incomplete with two of the panels due to what might have been miscommunication from the language barrier with one of our teammates. As a result, 2 of the panels came back in pencil on regular paper instead of the required bristol board. In hindsight, we should have either hounded that person harder or moved on without him to complete the project, but what was done was done.

We decided to re-do those panels and improve on the others. Some of the critique notes we received stated that the order of the story was hard to follow and that there lacked a focal point in some of the panels. To create more of a focal point, we made the mouse solid black in all the panels except the final inverted one (originally, the mouse was white). This end result is much improved over our original.

Black Square Assignment

Brian O'grady — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:46:45 +0000

For this class assignment, we had to take black squares to convey the following ideas.

Congested

Order

Tension

Increase

Playful

Bold

Sketch 1

Sketch 2

Class Project #2: Final Piece

Brian O'grady — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:58:02 +0000

I went with the final because I thought visually, it could represent two different ideas. At the top it kind of resembles rain coming down to earth, but the bottom shows what could be the process of coal turning into diamond. I didn’t want it to be too minimalist, but at the same time I didn’t want it to be busy just for the sake of it looking like it took a lot of work (example: my second inked plan, the ugly sweater). Unfortunately, I didn’t get any critique notes for this one because I turned it in late. So, if anyone wants to give me their critique points on this piece, please feel free to leave a comment.

Class Project #2 Work Process Part 2

Brian O'grady — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:51:06 +0000

I traced the grid and saw varying sizes of diamond shapes, so I wanted to outline them and color in some just to mess around and see how it would look. I also saw rows of X’s, but I left them alone for the first inked plan. I thought the first one looked okay, but lacked variety.

The second design I threw in the rows of X’s along with the smaller diamonds. I felt the end result looked like an ugly sweater pattern. While that would be humorous, it probably isn’t something I’d wanna turn in. Plus there’s no real focal point, which is why I colored in the center design, but it just looks weird and out of place there.

For the third design, I tried to combine the first and second to see if I could create some kind of harmony, and I think I did. I’ll explain the thought process in the final design post next.

Class Project #2 Work Process Part 1

Brian O'grady — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:20:14 +0000

For the second class project, we had to create either a 1 or 2 inch motif to insert into a 10 x 10 inch grid in order to create a repetitive and creative pattern. The motif had to be a shape that would pierce through a circle. The shape I ended up choosing was a star because I thought it would create some interesting options.

The next step was thinking up 5 different design options for the grid. Basically, I had them all put in standing order, all upside down, opposite every square, laying on their sides with each row opposite, and finally with the 2 rows touching (the one I went with).

Weekend creative music

Brian O'grady — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:50:04 +0000

I’ll try to remember to post suggestions for creative music for the (few) people who visit this blog. This week’s entry: Mad Season’s X-Ray Mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iNmnIdpDfU

Concentration and Isolation

Brian O'grady — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:32:37 +0000

Went into overtime working on this project, so hopefully I’ll post some better quality scans in the near future.

Redesign for the first assignment

Brian O'grady — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:27:34 +0000

I chose this because it follows the guidelines of the project more accurately and it was something I did in my original sketches that caught my eye, with it kind of forming a shape but tapering off on both sides.