Augmented Reality Prototype

Something I always thought visually pleasing was watching wisps of smoke in slow motion, fading out and just as easily flitting back into view. It was elegant, graceful, and inspiring.

Smoke is evanescent. Short-lived, just a brief touch on the senses before it disappears.

Because of the ethereal nature of smoke, there is always great care to show positive and negative forms in order to even see the smoke in motion.

We chose this theme of smoke and wispy-ness; we wanted to be able to capture the dark and chaotic movements of air molecules as it dissipates and moves through the air.

My base consisted of two different elements. The first sets the tone and atmosphere of the piece. Note the heavy greys and only slight use of whites and lighter greys. There are wisps of smoke billowing in all direction, very much like being thrust into the very heart of a fire.



The second overlay I did on top was actual smoke (gestures), but these were done in an inky black and adds the dimension of grace and beauty I wanted to capture, after I had set the stormy tone and mood.


Together, in concerto.

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Update 9.2.11:

Since my background was too dark, I ended up losing the wisps of smoke. Thus, I ended up lightening it a bit so the entire composition wouldn't be lost.


When everything came together...voila!

Marking and Gestures Individual Practices

As always, be sure to click on the picture to see the high resolution details.



This assignment focused on marking and gesturing, or using dabs and wide, elegant arches to create pictures that would exhibit positive and negative forms. I began with a completely black canvas and, using the soft-edged brush at about 1200 px in size, painted the top left corner. My original purpose was to have white at the upper left corner and black at the bottom right corner, with a grey gradient between each tile. What happened, as I began to incorporate varying shades between the colors #000000 and #ffffff (black and white, specifically) into each square, is that I began to lose a clear sense of the gradient theme; now it is only barely discernible.

See if you can guess what words I was trying to describe.

Relevance of Marks and Gestures - Schin Loong

Throughout the years, I have been a part of DeviantArt (shorthanded as simply "dA"), one of the first and most successful website of its kind. The website acts as a media for artists of all expressions and forms to share, critique, challenge, and learn from each other. Shortly after its inception, DeviantArt began to showcase exceptional pieces, and were given the honor of a "Daily Deviantion" (or "DD").

One of such artists given a DD is Schin Loong, a professional illustrator specializing in fantasy, folk tales, legends, women, and portraiture.

Arguable Miss Loong's most famous piece, "The Four Beauties" captures the legend of the four most beautiful women to have ever existed in China. Three of such ladies met forever cruel fates, and a third, now widely agreed upon by scholars to never have existed in the first place, lived happily ever after. You can read more on their stories here.

Click on the images to view them full size.


What's interesting is that even though the piece manages to portray four different ladies in four respective panels, there is still remarkable balance and utilization of positive-negative form within each column and throughout the piece as a whole. The first three ladies from the left have a significant amount of background compared with the farthest right beauty. But if you notice, the first and third ladies are confined to their panels, while the second and fourth pop out of their respective spaces.

The marks and gestures feature prominently in the piece; the marks and dots in the "negative" background comprise much of the upper backgrounds, and creates texture, sets the mood, and richly evokes the appropriate sensation from each panel. The warmer colors are dotted and painted with large brushes on medium hardness, and about a 20-30% opacity. The gestures and wide sweeping arches that convey "softness" of fabric in the first, the aura of moonlight in the second, the night glow of the third, and the water-rippling in the last panel really complete the look of each lady and harmonizes the final pictorial of contrasting but sensual sensations, textures, and emotions.

Amongst her other pieces:

"The Ascension of Te Wheke"


"The Blood Eater"


"A Brief Glimpse"



"Butterfly Kisses"


"The Fox Bride"