My Website

http://users.tricity.wsu.edu/~jesse.nguyen/index.html

So as I was doing research in the 80's I found out Pac-Man was released in 1980 in Japan and also in the U.S. Pac-Man was one of the first video games I have ever played as a kid. I used to love going to Chuck-e-cheese and sitting down at one of their Pac-Man arcade tables and trying to beat as many levels as I can. I was born in 1989 so Pac-Man has been around over a decade before I even got the chance to play it. To this day I will always be terrified of the colorful ghosts.

As I was making my website, I decided I wanted my header to look like the traditional maze they used in the Pac-Man game. It took my forever to design the header since I wanted it to be perfect. Since I already decided that I wanted to sell Pac-Man themed shoes, I wanted the shoes to replace the traditional Pac-Man who is trying to escape the non-escape-able  maze. I then added the tradational ghosts who are always haunting both Pac-Man and me.

Next, I made the menu bar. I wanted to keep it simple and have a home, about, and the product itself. I used a Pac-Man font I found on dafonts.com and liked it since it fitted the theme and went for it. Next I made the footer. I decided to just have more fun buttons like a contact page and a random link that took to Pac-Man eating dots. It is what he is known for.

For the body, I just wanted to have some fun and created text for each page that sounded fun and silly but also still talks about my made-up company.

I used Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver to create everything. Overall fun project.

Chapter 8

In Chapter 8 of Launching the Imagination by Mary Stewart, she talks about constructing meaning. A term that involves this is iconography. Iconography is the study of symbolic visual systems. Deborah Haylor-McDowell, The Serpent Didn't Lie, represents this idea beautifully as it shows off many different iconic history theories/stories. This is basically how history was recorded back in the day and still being recorded today (with pictures and technology). 

My trip to Starbucks today.

Today, I had a wonderful lunch with my girlfriend and then decided to went to Starbucks (our overlords) to grab a nice warm green tea. I don't know when they started this but they usually double cup my warm drinks now (maybe to prevent burning one's hand but I thought that was that cardboard cup hugger thingy was for?) and when I got this double cupped drink, I was at first content but then I started driving. They forgot to put a "stopper" in my drink. No matter how flat the streets can be, the liquid in the cup will always jump out from the lid and spill out, which in my case and the point of this blog post that exactly happened with my green tea. That made me a sad panda. I wished Starbucks just gave us stoppers without asking for them or McDonald's giving ketchup to anyone who orders fries.

Thanksgiving Aftermath

Hello. I survived my first Thanksgiving where I had to attend 2 dinners! The first dinner was with my girlfriend and her family. She has a huge family so a lot of people showed up. It is alright. The next Thanksgiving dinner was at my parent's house. Usually, my family goes big and invites everyone in my family to come over for turkey and egg rolls. This year was kind of sad since most of us had to work/were out of town so she decided to cancel the big get together and just have Thanksgiving with the 5 of us, my parents, brother,my girlfriend, and me. It was alright as well and joyful. After Thanksgiving, my girlfriend and I spent a ton of money shopping. My wallet died.

Captain America Civil War Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVdV-lxRPFo

As someone who loves Marvel, this first trailer for Captain America, The Civil War has me excited. As it appears in the trailer, Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier is trapped in a workshop like room with Falcon and Captain America. As previously seen on the last Captain America movie/Avenger's Age of Ultron, Falcon has been tracking Bucky's whereabouts for quite some time and they finally found him. One may question why Bucky is being hunted down by military officials but if you all can remember, he was brainwashed by Hydra and did things that he can't remember and he is being blamed for new crimes he did not commit, which makes for a great opening for the movie.

I am personally excited to finally seeing the introduction to Black Panther, a lesser known Avenger but a very important key character in the comics. I am sad that the trailer did not show either Vision (as seen in Age of Ultron) and Spider-Man (soon to be the first teenage Avenger) but I get it as they did not want to spoil is grand entrance yet.

My first stop-motion video!

https://youtu.be/-ghGtMxrV58

Here is the Youtube link to my first stop-motion video. I wanted to have fun with this project and feature some Bionicle 2015 Lego toys. When I was just starting out, I did not realize how hard it was to actually move the legs so I just mainly focused on the upper body for the video. In the current Bionicle story, Tahu, the Master of Fire and his team (as seen defeated in the background for some frames in the video) fights the Skull Grinder. The Skull Grinder defeats all of the Toa but Tahu. Tahu squares off against the Skull Grinder by himself and is on the blink of defeat until the Mask Maker comes in and saves the day. The music I used for the video is from the band Linkin Part, and the song was Gulity All The Same. The noises I found were on youtube or final cut pro itself. Overall fun project.

Propaganda Poster

This is my Propaganda poster. When you google search "propaganda poster", you will see some with Captain America but very few Iron Man in it so I wanted to give him some love. At first, I wanted to do a propaganda poster on Marvel's "Civil War" showing off Captain America's team and Iron Man's team fighting each other saying "What side are you on?" but then as recommended picking a actual side and see how that side would recruit for their own avengers team. I used the traditional Uncle Sam figure, the king of propaganda models, and removed his head and replace it with Iron Man's head/helmet. I was recommended to put a American Flag on my poster so I made one. I also changed the hue of the Uncle Ironman to blend it better. The message part of the assignment was hard for me but keeping with the Uncle Sam thing, I went for his message but changing U.S. Army with Avengers and adding Ironman's glowing eyes and helmet to the color of the text.

Chapter 7 Part 2

As a new DTC student who graduated from WSU with business, critiques was rarely used at all during my time as a student. Critiques now a very common and almost weekly. Stewart makes a bulleted list of questions that the reader can ask that can help them be a better critiques. I think I am personally pretty bad at critiquing so the bulleted list helps. One of the key questions are “Is the visual information tightly packed creating a very dense design, or is the design more spacious, with a lot of space between shapes or volumes?” (142). Another question that I found interesting is “What is the size of the project?”. That question may not apply to all cases when looking at certain art pieces due to the limits usually placed when first making the art project but with more of a hands on, physical piece, like sculptures, people will ask why you chose to pick the size that you went with.

Chapter 7 Part 1

In Chapter 7 of Launching the Imagination by Mary Stewart, she talks about developing critical thinking. I believe on all syllabuses that are handed out at WSU, under university learning goals, the first thing that it listed is “critical and creative thinking”. Stewart says the “establishing criteria” is the first step (140). Stewart lists out questions that makes the student think what teachers try to do. One of the questions listed are “What is the purpose of the assignment?” which can be answered in many different ways. To me, the purpose of any assignment is to apply skills that I know or will learn in order to complete the assignment.

Chapter 6 Part 2

In Chapter 6, Stewart also talks about characteristics of good goals. Ambitious yet achievable is one of the characteristics listed. Stewart says “Too modest a goal will provide no sense of accomplishment. Too ambitious a goal will reduce, rather than increase, motivation.” (131). I gave up soda for my 2015 New Year's resolution. Was my resolution too modest? No, it was not. Now is it too ambitious? I would say no as well since cutting out soda is one step of many to become a healthier me. A too ambitious of a goal, no matter how much I truly would want, is cutting all sweets from my life. I love chocolate too much to actually do that for a whole year but realistically I can maybe cut all sweets from my life for a month at the most.

Chapter 6 Part 1

In Chapter 6 of Launching the Imagination by Mary Stewart, she talks about the seven characteristics of creative thinking. Conviction best describes who I am as a person. Quoting from Stewart, “Creative people value existing knowledge. Since new ideas are often derived from old ideas, it is foolish to ignore or dismiss the past.” (129). I like being open to ways to do things new or differently then what I am used to. I get to see if my way or the different way is more productive or not.

Chapter 5

In Chapter 5 of Launching The Imagination by Mary Stewart, she talks about problem seeking and problem solving. It has been bestowed on our young minds by the great minds of our previous generation that a good way to start pretty much anything is brainstorming. Stewart defines brainstorming as “a great way to expend ideas, see connections, and explore implications” (121). She also listed some of the common strategies like, make a list, use a thesaurus, explore connections, and keep a journal. Making a list is most likely the most common way to brainstorm so it is no surprise that it is listed first. I personally make lists all the time for various reasons. It allows the user to neatly organize a thought and connect that thought with other thoughts that he or she may think of later when deciding what they want to do with their art project or various other things. I think the most interesting brainstorming technique would have to be using a thesaurus. The book uses resentment and anger as an example and lists its synonyms. One of the synonyms is storm which an artist can use for their piece. Right now, I am trying to use depression to show a dark value in a art project. One of the synonyms for depression is sorrow which most likely best describes my art project. The other interesting brainstorming technique is keeping a journal. Journaling is a much harder concept for me to grasp as I am a virtual learner when it comes to all this art but I can see it work with others.

Chapter 4

In Chapter 4 of Launching the Imagination by Mary Stewart, she talks about the illusion of space and the illusion of motion. In creating the illusion of space, Stewart mentions linear perspective. Linear perspective is a mathematical system for projecting the apparent dimensions of a three-dimensional object onto a flat surface (92). There is five basic concepts about linear perspective. The first concept, which is one I am used to the most is "objects appear to diminish in size as they recede into the distance". Jan Vredeman de Vries, Perspective Study shows this open area, and using a top-right motion to decrease the area behind the open area. By making the background small and in the corner, it makes the eyes of the looker to want to look beyond that area.

Photomontage Timelapse Project

Due to image quality/blogger being weird, I couldn't upload image within the first week the project was done. Sorry for being so late :P


For my Photomontage Timelapse Project I decided to use my house. It is my home, with probability some of the greatest memories with my life so that is why I chose it. Within a course of time, I took pictures of my house capturing it during different parts of a day within a week. The four main pictures I used was a cloudy morning, a bright morning, a evening, and at night. I chose the bright morning picture as my background as it just looked beautiful. With the other three themed pictures I cropped parts of those and added it to the original background in sections.

What's Trending?! 3

In today's What Trending?!, I wanted to talk about physical and digital video games. When deciding a video game nowadays, you can either do one of two things. You can either go out to your local Gamestop/store and buy the video game physically on a disc or you can buy it digitally with that fancy console you have. Personally, I think Microsoft and Sony are pushing towards a more of a digital download age, offering in-store discounts or forcing you to install the game in the console's hard drive. The CEO of Gamestop thinks that physical discs will always be a thing, and people will always want to trade-in their games for other games which is a valid point but from a developer standpoint, who has to buy blank discs in bulk, can save lot of money by just offering the game digitally. Times are changing and I believe discs will soon fade out.

Vector Exercise Abstract Triptych

Here is my Vector Exercise - Abstract Triptych. It is very hard to tell. but I used my initials to make this. For the J and the V (the first two) I basically played around with anchor points on the letters and adding some of my own to shape it. Both are very random but I liked how they turned out. For my last initial, N. I simply moved the edge of the anchor points outwards. Rachel showed me some cool animal patterns in illustrator so I decided to use them. Animals are cool right? Finally I added random border strokes to each piece giving it a more abstract feel. I really like how the N turned out.

What's Trending?! 2

     On this week's segment of What's Trending?!, I wanted to talk about the conclusion of the Apple Event "Hey Siri". So the rumors were true, iPhone 6S was announced with a great new feature called "Live Photos", which allows for photos to be made into quick GIFs. Also, the new 3D touch feature is really appealing and a cool now way to interact with the iPhone. I personally won't be upgrading my iPhone until the iPhone 7 is announced so I will have to wait a whole year for hands on interaction with this feature. The iPad Pro with it's bigger screen looks amazing. With the ability to multitask now with the new iOS 9 update, one can be almost as productive on a iPad as they can be on a computer.
     Things I did not expect but was nice that Apple announced was the new Apple TV. It is Apple's 4th generation of the device but they way they presented it at the keynote really has sparked my interest in the device. As a part time student and almost a full time worker, I personally don't have much time to sit around and watch anything on TV. However, when I do, I usually just watch it on a Wii U, which is a little bit more expensive then the Apple TV and does a lot more. The remote for the Apple TV is really cleaver and may appeal to future consumers.

Chapter 3 Part 3

Back when I was taking a different art class at Columbia Basin College, I made some sort of pyramid using triangles and the very center of said pyramid, I made a triangle black. My teacher called that a focal point. It made anyone looking at the pyramid, “Hey, why is the center black when everything else is colored?” Focal point is once again seen in the book and it can be more abstract than a actual object. A person’s eyes or someone just pointing in a direction can lead us to a focal point in a painting or work of art.

Chapter 3 Part 2

Also in Chatper 3, Repetition is talked about. Repetition means a little bit differently in the book then the normal everyday use. “Repetition occurs when we use the same visual element or effect over and over.” (70) A good example of repetition being used in art is Frank Stella’s Lac Laronge IV, 1969 where he makes that “hook” shape within his circle over and over. It may be different colors but the shape is used over and over again to complete the art.

Chapter 3 Part 1

In Chapter 3 of Learning the Imagination by Mary Stewart, she talks about Two-Dimensional Design. Right off the bat, she talks about composition and how it can be defined as the combination of multiple parts into a unified whole. (66) She goes on to talk about in a well-composed design, line, shape, texture, value, and color work together, as a team. As a non-artist, it is good to know everything that goes into a composition and what exactly a composition is.

Chapter 2 Part 2

Chapter 2 also talks about color schemes. Color schemes is very important in a early DTC major learning how to use color efficiently for their projects in classes. “Complementary colors are opposites on the traditional color wheel” (50). For example, red is the opposite of green. Red and green obviously refers to Christmas colors. The red brings out the green and the green brings out the red. It is pleasing for the eyes to see those colors together.

Chapter 2 Part 1

In Chapter 2 of Learning the Imagination by Mary Stewart, we learn the element of color. Stewart uses some lines from Johanne’s book, The Art of Color when talking about how different fields use color theory. “Like the physicist, the artist uses color wavelengths to create visual effects” (39). The quote goes on about chemists, physiologists, and psychologists and how all of them approach color theory in a different way. I find that all interesting and relatable because I have to use color theory at work as well. I work at Van’s Jewelry, and diamonds is graded by color. There is 4 different classifications that a diamond’s color can fall in. Colorless, near colorless, very light, and light. All of these classifications use a letter grading system using the letter D as best while using the letter Z for worst. In order for the diamond to be considered Colorless, it would have to fall under D, E or F. To the untrained, naked eye it is impossible to tell the difference of colors between D, E or F. With the right equipment or a trained eye, it is possible to tell the color difference in diamonds.

Digital Self-Portrait Exercise (Raster)

So this is my Self-Portrait. As the center of the image is me graduating from WSU Pullman as the class of 2013. The border around my image is a blank Hearthstone card, which is a digital card game that I play a lot. All cards have "text" usually so I decided to add Marvel's logo as I love Marvel and all of their universes they made. Now for my dominant background I decided to use a cool Dragon Ball Z picture I found as I love the Dragon Ball series. Now finally the last piece of this self-portrait is a banner for Attack on Titan, another anime that I like to watch. This self-portrait best describes who I am as a person.

What's Trending?! 1

On this week's segment of What's Trending?!, I wanted to talk about the upcoming Apple event "Hey Siri" that Apple is rumored to announce the iPhone 6S. I am a huge Apple fan, and I have been using the iPhone since the original. I currently have the iPhone 6 so I am not going to upgrade my iPhone just yet but I am more excited on the other rumored items to be announced like the "iPad Pro." The iPad Pro will be a higher performing, and bigger screen from the current iPad, the iPad Air 2. I currently have the 3rd generation iPad (I believe the generation before the very first iPad) so it will be nice to get a new upgrade for apps, movies, and pretty soon books that I been wanting to buy but couldn't because of no space on my current iPad. This event is a very big event for Apple as they are completing with their rival, Samsung, and their just released Edge phone.

Chapter 1 Part 2

The next part of the the chapter talks about shapes. I never knew that shading can also be called gradation. Also, it surprises me that with shading, a 2-D picture can be made into a 3-D picture with the use of lighter colors and extra lines drawn in. On page 12, Stewart defines that “a shape that is distinguished from the background is called a positive shape, or figure. The surrounding is called the negative shape, or ground.” It is interesting learning all these new art terms. I still think of the terms, positive and negative as either math or business terms.

Chapter 1 Part 1

In Chapter 1 of Launching the Imagination by Mary Stewart, we learn the basic elements of lines. On page 2, Stewart says that “Diagonal lines and curving lines are generally the most dynamic. Changed with energy, they suggest action and movement. Horizontal lines are typically the most stable, or static. Vertical lines imply potential change. When verticals adhere to the edge of the design they become tethered and thus lose mobility. Free-floating verticals on the other hand, seem ready to topple at any moment.” For a paragraph, it is amazing how true this is when it comes to most if not all art in general. For someone with no background in art, whatsoever, it really helps me understand the foundation of art. Now that I have read the chapter and done the first project, it is interesting to look for “lines” outside and see how “stable” or or they can have “potential” change.

Preface & Intro Blog

In the Preface & Intro of Launching the Imagination by Mary Stewart, she talks about "how artists and designers explore a wide range of solutions to every problem then choose the most promising option for further development. (XIX) This gives the sense of idea that artists and designers are like mechanics, but instead of cars, it is with anything that they see as a "problem". I never really taught about artists as someone who finds solutions to problems but since in my opinion, all designers are artists then yeah it makes sense. Designers uses art to create solutions to the problems at hand. They create a rough sketch and can immediately see whether the idea has potential or not.