NG Magazine Final Online

8/2/2019 NG Magazine Final Online

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Contents:Pages 4-13:Black and White

Pages 15-21: Obligatory Cup DrawingPages 22-29: Flame KeepersPages 30-35:Random Photograp

Pages 36-41: Experiments WithAn Otter

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ANEWRevolutionary

This piece was made in Adobe Illustra-tor using the pencil tool, and the shape creation

tool. The source image was a picture I took

downtown of the General Logan statue in Grant

Park. The two people in the picture were just

a random father with his daughter playing on

the statue steps on one of the rst mild days

in mid-February. Admittedly I felt a bit creepy

taking pictures of them, but the overall com-

position was just too good to pass up. I chose

to use primarily black for the whole image be-

cause the source image was taken in such a way

that there was almost no color in the picture. I

chose to add red for the little girls hat and the

statue to draw a connection to the two, and to

keep the eye bouncing from one to the other.

... thought it was aRevolutionaryWar statue... resemble an epic shot

of abattlefield

John A. Logan was a civil war generalwho led the army of the Union in several

important battles, and after the war served in

the House of Representatives. He is actually

responsible for the creation of Memorial Day.

While General Logan was not a revolutionary,

I always get a rebellious vibe off of the statue.

It has a feel of triumph over adversity, and this

is how I chose to interpret the statue. I had

originally thought it was a Revolutionary War

statue, because it was a man holding a ag on a

horse on top of a hill, which always seemed to

resemble an epic shot of a battleeld, like in the

movie the Patriot.

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This piecewas created in Adobe

Illustrator using a variety

of tools, and a true black

color. I used a custom brush

that tapered at each end to get

the texture of both the hair and

the feathers. I used a picture of a

feather found off of a stock photo

webpage, and also another royalty

free picture of a woman reading.

The ink splatters in the background

were part of a the stock ink splatter

brushes.

I wanted the viewers attention to be

taken by the detail. It is fairly chaotic

with everything going on, but I also

get a sense of serenity about the whole

thing. I felt that true black in the feath-

ers/wings created a great image, so it

made sense to continue with that. This

was my rst independent piece of art

I have created with I llustrator, and

it had started out with an exercise

in texturing, but I feel it evolved

nicely.

I had designed this with the idea

of a sticker or perhaps an album

cover. Originally I had intended

to do more with this illustration,

but I felt that for what it was,

compositionally it had a great

effect as it was. There are

several different directions

I could take this in the

future, and I certainlydo plan to expand

on this.

*Chaos

with asense ofserenity

*

W I N G S

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Thiss a picture of my niece, who was waiting

expectantly for the bride to ar rive. Amber, then

4 years old, was picked to be her cousins ower girl.

This was Ambers rst time in a formal dress and was

excited because, in her mind, she was going to be the center

of attention. She knew that the bride and groom were important,

but this was Ambers chance to shine. She was bouncing around,

looking for the bride, waiting for everything to start. She was so

focused on nding the bride so the wedding could start, that she

completely missed when she came in through the back door.

This picture was originally in color, but the composition, with thevariations in the lights and darks seemed to work best in Black and White.

The dress and the light fr om the windows have so many different shades of

light grey versus the darkness of the surrounding. They compliment each

other nicely. I also noticed that the picture looked like one that would be

used as stock pictures found in picture fr ames, which was something I

was actually proud and excited about. This was taken before I had

really considered photography as art I could

partake in, so to have a picture that

I took be on a quality around

that of professionals was a

source of great pride. It

is still something I

am proud of.

ABrideinWaitingShe was waiting

excitedly to see thebeauty that was the

bride to be...

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6/23

This is an older picture I took for my digital photography classwhile bored and waiting for a class to start. At the time I had so

much music on their it lled the hard drive, and I would have to

continue to carry it around even after getting an iPhone. Music has

always been a guiding force for me, with my tastes ranging the

gambit from classical to thrash-core. This particular photograph

was taken as an experiment with the black-and-white feature on

my camera, and its attention to detail. I intentionally left dust on

the iPod to keep the perception of frequent use. This is one of my

favorite pictures I have ever taken.

a guiding forceTrackMaster

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This piece was created by experimenting withcustom brushes or Adobe Illustrator. I groupedthese two illustrations together because o the irsimilar natures. I had been toying with creating aDay o the Dead sugar skull, and through experi-mentation I ended up creating a blueprint, or a pre-liminary sketch or something I plan on sculpting.I wanted to keep it simple at this point, with only aew details. Sugar Skulls tend to be very busy with alot o detail on them, ar beyond anything I wouldever want to do.

&A

DoodleThis piece is actually an older doodle that I eventuallyturned into a tattoo that I put on my left calf. I have anobvious afnity for otters, given other content within thisbook. They have a sense of play. They work hard to achievewhat they want to, but they then spend the rest of the time

swimming around playing. They have sophisticated social

systems, and are so mentally advanced compared to their

counterparts that they use tools, something that is only

shared by a very few number of species. Basically it is a

reminder to be as clever as I can, work hard to survive, but

always make time for play.

The original was done with a Sharpie on a piece of copypaper that I scanned in then rened in photoshop. As anexercise in Illustrator, I vectored the drawing with the pen

and pencil tools. This allowed me to get sharper points then

I would have ever possible achieved with just a sharpie. The

actual tattoo process was done at Body by Design, and took

roughly two hours simply because of the amount of time the

artist had to put into it with all the sharp edges.

A Tattoo

A reminder to be ascleaveras I can, workhardto survive, but al-ways make time forplay.12


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Timeforthe

ObligatoryCupDrawings

Craft: This painting was done in Adobe Illustrator using various brush sizes, and using colors from the availableswatches which were adjusted for saturation and value while trying to stay within the same general hue. Even the darkest

color in the painting is just a very dark red. The eraser tool was used to shape the object.

Composition: The dark band in the middle divides the piece in 2, but I wanted the viewers eye to be drawing to thediagonal/scraggly lines that denote the metallic nature of the object. I tried to use only horizontal curved lines, but Idecided on a few of the highlight marks, vertical worked a little bit better.

Concept: I wanted to convey that this object was a red, brushed metallic coffee thermos, but I am not 100% sure it waseffective.

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Craft: This painting was doneAdobe Illustrator using variou

sizes, and using colors from th

able swatches which were adju

for saturation and value while

to stay within the same general

Horizontal lines were used for

exterior and vertical lines were

for the interior.

Composition: The difference line direction was an intentiona

tempt to differentiate the interi

exterior of this object. I wanted

a very mess and sporadic look

strokes on the interior to differ

the interior from exterior, and t

the viewers eye downward. I p

posely decided to not give the

too much detail, as I felt it wou

become too chaotic.

Concept: The object is a shinbottom half of a martini shaker

Craft: This painting was done inAdobe Illustrator using various

brush sizes, and using colors from

the available swatches which but

adjusted saturation, value and hue

while trying to stay within the realm

of green. The brush stroke sizes are

much more varied in this piece then

it most others. There is more color

variation in the color as the object

itself had many different shades of

green. This object started out with a

large brush which painted horizon-

tally to create the general shape, then

the aspects of it were further dened

with different values and brush sizes.

Composition: I wanted to show thedifference between the top and thebase of this particular bottle. I foundthe base to be different than the rest

of the bottle because it was shinier

and had a lot less color variation.

The light source made the bottom a

very dark green, almost black, but I

wanted it to be seen easier. I at-

tempted to give the bottle depth by

layering brushstrokes to show that

you could in fact see through this

bottle.

Concept: ... its a green glass bottle.

... its agreenglassbottle...

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THATSA LOTOF

CUPST

his drawing was created using a base layer

of the darkest possible gray using only horizontal

curved lines. A bigger brush was used in someparts to ll in better because of how I wanted

the bowl to appear. I then added in middle tones

and a few highlights. Middle tones were used to

give the bowl a denite shape. The subject was a

black, shiny plastic square bowl, and I wanted to

highlight each of these characteristics. I went for

a completely solid dark background to give the

impression of how dark the subject was without

using black. It was shiny, and all of the middle

tones were used to identify the edges as they ap-

peared with the dim light to the side. I wanted to

pull the viewers eye into the inside of the bowl

at the curve, so I positioned the light to reect

in there. I avoided using white to retain the how

dark the subject was.

The variations were done by changing colorsand brush stoke, as well as size.

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Craft:This painting was done in

Adobe Illustrator using various brush

sizes, and using colors from the available

swatches which were adjusted for saturation and value

while trying to stay within the same general hue. Layers were

added on top of each other with decreasing brush size for the

background. The colors were chosen based on complimentary co

Each stroke used was the number 8, and the values of the purples

yellows were chosen systematically as being 10% darker then the p

value.

Composition: I want the viewers attention to go to the darker areas

them dominate the space. The number 8 is a curved number, and I creect this and retain this quality in the overall painting. The curved ei

together to create a solid object, and retain a bit of a messy style. Over

that all sense of depth was lost, but as an experiment it was intere

Concept: This is a painting of a pint glass that has a slight curve tothe top.

All se seof depth waslost, but{[...] it was

interesting.

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FlameKeeper

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I have always been a bit of apyro

These pictures were taken on a trip to Mexico with my girlfriend.We were watching a re dance, which basically involved 3 men and 2

women playing with re and a group of people playing bongos in the

background, which is certainty something I could get behind. In the

picture to the left, you can actually see some of the performers. I have

always been a bit of a pyro, spending a fair bit of my time playing

with re, constructing re-eating torches and juggling reballs. When

taking pictures of re, it captures a moment of time in which ames

are dancing, and it is captured with levels of light that the human eye

could not hope to organize in the short amount of time the patterns

are present. I wish more than anything about this pictures that I was

closer. There were people in front of me at the show, so I could not

help but capture them in the pictures. I also wish I had a tripod. As

it was, with the very dark lighting conditions, any movement at all

would create blur.

These particular pictures involved a man holding two wheels withtorches at various points around the diameter, and doing a dance,

spinning them and creating amazing patters. It created a giant rebal

the surrounded the man, and the patterns and the lighting conditions

created a very peculiar effect in which the man actually disappeared

in the photographs. Also, despite everything else in the pictures being

blurred because I did not have a tripod. The ames remain very clear

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Pull Quote

everything else isablur

The fire creates apattern

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PULL QUOTe

Taken at a bonre, this picture is of a patio replace at my hotel in Mexico. It kept throwing out sparks because the

wood that was used was still a little moist. There was a high wind that kept causing the sparks to shoot everywhere,

and made the ames are regularly. I had originally tried to take the picture to capture the movement of the ames,

but after the rst picture, I noticed how the slower shutter speed captured the path of the sparks like lines erupting

from the ame. In order to make the picture pop more, I did some editing in Photoshop with levels and color balance.

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I wanted the forest itselfto be the subject

Trees...This panoramic was taken in a local forest preserve for a digital photography class during mid-fall. This

is pieced together for 5 different pictures taken with a tripod, and then complied by Photoshop. A lter

was added to pull the yellows out past the browns. The composition was set up to help hide the lines

created by the panoramic process. I wanted the forest itself to be the subject, but I felt that would lose the

eye of the viewer, so I made sure to include a tree in the foreground to give it a subject.

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One BrakeLightOuSpeeding down the highway that is otherwise abandoned except or our car and the tr uckahead, I took this picture. It was my girlriends rst experience out west in Nevada, and shewanted me to take as many pictures as possible. On a 3-hour drive through the desert and themountains, there isnt much to look at or take pictures o, so I took pictures o the truck. I no-ticed that it only had 1 unctioning taillight, which I thought was especially dangerous. Tispicture was not modied in anyway, and was taken at high speed with zoom, and somehowmanaged to keep motion blur to a minimum.

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Wai i g... I took the opportunity totake some pictures of the

individual, but the shakingof the platform ruined it.

This picture was taken on a train platform. The source of theshaking was actually in incoming train, and the person in the back-

ground was actually following my girlfriend and I for a while. I

took the opportunity to take some pictures of the individual, but the

shaking of the platform ruined it. This is what resulted.

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Craft:This piece was made in Adobe illustrator. The referen

photo was taken from Google, and is included below

the pen tool, I started to create layers that were appar

the source photograph, initially starting out with bod

and adding layers to show the variation in color. Ove

shape was then edited to create the impression of fur

background was created by laying out 4 different sha

with the pen tool and colored to resemble the backgr

the source image, and then a Gaussian Blur effect wa

The fence was created by tracing out the shape of on

wholes and cutting this shape out from a grey layer in

tempt to get some consistency in s hape. The fence la

laid on top of the body of the otter, but a layer for the

was laid on top of that to create the illusion of depth

Composition:The pose was obviously dened by the source photo. Laye

used in such a way to try and create the idea of depth, and

otter is behind a fence. I wanted to create a South Park p

out vibe, so I kept the shapes simple. This style helped to a

modate a limited time frame that I was able to work on thi

I wanted the viewers eye to look at the otters eye rst, so I

the eye have the only true white in the piece, and then crea

fur layer that was very light and large to help draw the eye

here.

Concept:Otters are generally very active and playful animals, so I f

image where one looked almost sad to be fairly moving. I

to communicate the despair or anger that the source image

to have. The otters face, which I anthropomorphized as h

human facial expression of sadness or deance communic

me, along with the fence that the otter was unhappy. I tried

municate this as best as I could with the limitation of using

the pen tool. I spent a lot of time on the eye, to create that

sadness, or the inside looking out kind of sensation. Perh

was lost to an extent in the mouth area, but the eye commu

this.

I wanted to

create a

South Parkvibe

OTTER IN PROGRESS36


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I tried to convey the character on the insidelooking out, as if ... it wanted outside the

fence.

It got so detailed, it keptslowing down the comput

raft:is piece was created in Adobe Illustrator. I used the previ-

s version as a model, and painted over it with a brush that I

eated to simulate hair. The otters hair is short and wet, so the

okes were intended to convey small clumps.The fence was

eated with the pen tool, forming one square of chain link, then

peating it throughout. Colors were not used from a pattern.

hose random colors within the brown family to again avoid

y obvious pattern. The background was made using a spatter

ush then a blur was added.

slight blur was added to the whiskers and the parts of the

dy furthest from the viewer. More blur was initially added,

t it created issues with the le size and load times, so it was

ned down.

omposition:e wires of the fence were bent randomly to avoid any sense of pat-

n. The paws and the whiskers that are towards the audience were

eated and layered on top of the fence to create the illusion of depth.

ur was used to convey a sense of depth. The background was left in-

ntionally abstract, as the source image had the background extreme-

out of focus. Attempts to create this did not work. A green was used

ly in one place to continually draw the eye towards the otters eye. I

en wanted the attention to ow down the face following the ow of

ir. But i wanted attention to keep being drawn to the top of the head

the eye. That bit of color draws it there.

oncept:tried to convey the character on the inside looking out, as if

ere was something it wanted outside the fence. Either it was

oking at food, or looking at the outside world, wanting to

cape. A whole, yearning of freedom, pseudo-concentration

mp painting. This was largely an experiment of not using

lid blocks as shadow, and actually using color with extreme

tail. Im generally very erratic with stoke lines, and here this

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Left: this modication was createdrom my initial attempt at the drawingwhile messing with the color pallet. Ichose this color scheme on a whim, andelt it worked nicely.

Near Right: Using the samecolor pallet as the one above, I choseto eliminate the background. Tis isbased o o the nal detailed versiono the otter, and largely lef it upto the computer to place colors atrandom. I did tweak a ew things inorder to prevent the eye rom beinglost.

Far Right: For this version, Ikept the colors the same, but alteredthe brush size and stroke shape to agrittier brush. I tweaked a ew thingshere as well to prevent the eye beinglost.

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Note from the Editor/Artist:I suppose I may as well include a little note about this particular magazine.

I created it with a variety o pieces I have created over my last ew years o school. chose to include mostly pieces that were created as experiments. I am not a hor-ribly prolic artist, and I tend to jump rom one thing to another. As such I tend toexperiment quite a bit. I have un experimenting and playing with these styles anddierent mediums. I am not used to creating nished pieces or using an entirely

digital medium, as are included in this magazine.A note on the title: I named this magazine Cimbyote (phonetic or symbiote) which is a t agthat I have used or t he last 7 or so years. Its what I generally name the characterso the videogames I play. As ar as I know, I am the only Cimbyote in the world,having done research to try and create a unique name or mysel.

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NG Magazine Final Online