Research

Pencil sketch, digital color

color study

close ups - illustrator, hsb & cmyk

video embed updates

Original video, created in touchdesigner

https://player.vimeo.com/video/##########?autoplay=1&loop=1&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=#####&muted=1&background=1

My Embed

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frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="Wave Web"></iframe></div>

Cargo Sites Video Embed

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##########?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=#####" 


frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="Wave Web" data-ready="true"></iframe></div>

testing1

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Using the html section on Cargo editor to display code

showing code as text
<code>
the code
</code>

replace every < in the code with <
replace every & in the code with &amp;

Illustrator Style Study: using vector effects on an illustration of a mushroom

1. image trace of pencil drawing - high fidelity photo
2. stylize effect on vector #5
3. simplified version
4. image trace - low fidelity photo, recolored
5. vector image, hand traced from pencil drawing, added details and color
6. ripple effect on vector #5

Illustrator Color Shading Practice

Adding color to a botanical drawing of an iris (found on the Public Domain Image Archive) from ca 1630

Illustrated Images: Pathfinder, Blending Modes

Cloud shapes that overlap branches are divided (using pathfinder tools)

Blending modes Image 1:
Screen: intersect of branches and cloud.
cloud shapes not touching branches (for the most part)
Normal: remaining shapes.

image 2: all cloud shapes: screen

Creating flower patterns in Illustrator

Flower start symmetrical (identical petals repeated around a circle.

Multiple symmetrical flowers are imperfectlly stacked, and pathfinder tools are used to create the resulting asymmetry

Web Sketch

originally pen and pencil, starting with crossed lines that are rounded at each intersection

Pink and blue web converted from physical illustration, to vector, to 3d model, to screenshot, to vector again (using lighting in blender to add highlights for the final illustration)

Digital Illustration: Morel Mushroom

lighting variations, gradiants

Digital Illustrations referencing the style of floral wallpapers

Basic 3d Modeling and Materials in Illustrator

creates a large file size (converted to smaller size for web)
There are options for changing the lighting intensity, angle, color, etc. The controls for creating shapes are simple compared to Blender, but there are more free materials available.

Illustrator Practice

Petals drawn using curvature tool and pastel gradients

Photography, digital collage

Two photographs layered, parts erased from the top photo, revealing the lower. Subtle layering - the barrage of details making the cutouts less obvious.

3d Modeling in Blender

First Attempt at a 3d figure

An exercise in remembering anatomy, sculpting without reference. I relied on intuition, letting the figure shift and take on its own sense of weight and softness.

Digital Fragments: accidental shapes and impossible geometry created in Blender

I found this tiny shell while investigating a pinched twist of hair (from the figure in the photo above). Colors are sections of the mesh that are selected

Sculpt Mode - Blender, 3d Modeling

Spending no more than 30 minutes, practicing with some of the general brushes (blog, pinch).

Blender Tutorials

Watched:

Blender Guru: “How to Learn 3D in 4 weeks (self-taught curriculum)"
Curtis Holt: “What is BLENDER?! (Crash Course)”
BlenderGuru: “Beginner Blender 4.0 Tutorial” (classic donut tutorial)
The CG Essentials: “WORKSPACE WINDOWS in Blender - How to Add, Adjust, and Remove Blender Windows!”
Grant Abitts: “Blender 3 - Complete Beginners Guide - Part 1”
Josh Gambrell - “THIS Is Hard Surface Modeling!”
Josh Gambrell - “Beginners introduction to Hard Surface Modelling“
Grant Abitt - “Sculpting Beginners Detailed Guide”
Grant Abitt The Complete Beginners Guide to Animation in Blender 2.8

To Watch:

Grant Abitt Beginners Guide to Nodes
CGMatter - Beginner Geometry Nodes
For all things to do with 3D printing with Blender
The Blender Manual

3d Modeling Materials in Blender: Translucency

Testing matierial settings to mimic glass and plastic

In material settings, use stills from Touchdesigner for image texture (color variation in glass). Set transmission to 1

Similar setings on the plane below the orbs make the floor reflective

Shade flat produces crystaline structures while shade smooth looks like blown glass

3d Modeling: Bevels

Diagram of bevels on basic shapes in Blender (using the bevel modifier)

1. cone, 2. cube, 3. cylinder
a. original
b. chamfer bevel (1 segment)
c. fillet bevel (multiple segments): 5 edge segments
d. fillet bevel (multiple segments): 5 vertices segments

Interpreting Data Collected about Musuem Attendance

from an article on aam-us.org

“the trends museums must navigate in a complex, layered future: the DEI backlash, changes in volunteerism, and digital vulnerabilities.” (from an advert for their Museum Magazine)

Signs of a bot from article: Botting: Methodology - a 2024 annuel survey of museum-goers data story:

cluster of surveys started/completed at the same time or within seconds of each other
a large number of responses from the same IP address
a larger than normal number of responses from out of state and/or country
email addresses that consist of jumbled letters and numbers or have names/numbers in a pattern
inconsistent and/or contradictory answers to questions
ratio of completed surveys and partially completed surveys is out of normal range (it is normal to have between 15%-20% of your surveys only partially completed)
repetitive, patterned, nonsensical, irrelevant, and/or less than genuine responses to open-ended questions
results that don’t make sense for some museum types
surveys that were taken very quickly, sometimes in seconds

takaway: “data cleaning becomes a subjective process”
A program alone cannot reliably detect bots (e.g. deciding which results simply do not make sense is a nuanced process)

article written by Wilkening Consulting

3d Modeling Practice: Blender

Modeling a Parasol Mushroom using just the tools from the previous tutorial, going as much from memory as possible.

Intro to Blender

This was the result of a 5 hour tutorial on Blender. The tutorial is mentioned in most articles and posts about getting to know 3d modeling. This was my first deep dive into 3d modeling software.

The donut shapes, the frosting, sprinkles and plate were created starting with basic shapes (torus, circle, sphere). There is a box shape around all of the objects with a rectangle cut out of one side to let in a controlled amount of environmental light. The plants and utensils are imported models from Poliigon.

Testing Projectors

Optoma ZU500USTE - short throw, 5000 lumen. Image hits higher up on the wall (the photograph is with the projector tilted)

epson EX11000 - 4600 lumen. appeared brighter than the optoma, perhaps due to a newer bulb

Reusing Materials

Embroidering on carpet, following the texture

Sensor Research

Accelerometers can be calibrated as with or without gravitational acceleration. A sensor that measures “acceleration with g” will detect motion when sitting still. The motion detected is the motion of the earth spinning in space.

Resources

Search Engine that prioritizes non-commercial content:
marginalia-search.com

Free equivalent to photoshop:
photopea.com

Image:
digital collage of noise objects, created in Touchdesigner

Touchdesigner Shapes

Individual shapes are created starting with a grid of dots. The coordinates for each dot are shifted by a rotation matrix equation and noise.
Videos created and collaged together in touchdesigner.

Flashdrives, Digital Storage, and Mac to Windows Compatibility

If a file on a flashdrive can be seen on a Mac but not a Windows computer, the flashdrive may have an oudated format, like FAT16.

Reformatting to an updated format like exFAT should solve the problem

Circular Noise

Images are stills from an experiment with using instancing and noise in Touchdesigner to create algae-adjacent forms. The forms are created using Touchdesigner Noise Top passed through a rotation matrix equation

Flattened Samples of Algae

First image taken at a lab, where I saw algae being grown and samples tested . Second and Third images are flattened samples of ocean algae.

Digital Embroidery

Embroidered using a Brother PE700 and formatted using the Inkscape extension Inkstitch.

Inkstitch has an option to remove shapes smaller than can be stitched (Extenstions -> Inkstitch -> Troubleshoot -> Cleanup Document)

Converting shapes to bitmaps and then using Image Trace in Illustrator or Trace Bitmap in Inkscape sometimes helped. While in pixel format, color ranges were easier to select. Trails of thread between shapes can be minimized using auto-route options, and by changing the order of layers.

The second image is a QR code I generated, with rounded shapes and a cloud at the center.

Studies, Video Stills, Digital Collage

In Photoshop, video frames can be converted to layers, meaning all the seconds of a video can be collaged together. Using Photoshop, once the collage pieces are selected and rearranged, then I can add some shadowing and highlights, tweak the colors, and sharpen the edges

Earlier in the year, I created a 10 second video in Touchdesigner that fed my love for glitch. The shapes and colors remind me of a type of texture I love seeing in paintings and tvs: small spatters of complementary colors mellowing each other out to an intriguing grey. Bright hints of rainbow like oil.

Layering Techniques

Image created in touchdesigner, composite node (the equivalent of Photoshop blending modes)

AI Generated Design

I created a number of these. I feel responsible for them now

Postcards from a Climate Resilient Future

In 2023, I created postcards for a project focused on imagining a hopeful climate future for Multnomah County.This image began with a photograph of a pigeon perched on a water fountain in downtown Portland. Pigeons and fountains - remnants from the past. I hope in the future, they are still around.

Edge, Glow, Pigeon and Egg

Sometimes tne images I create don’t fit cleanly into a project, but I like them anyway. The first is from the original photograph of the pigeon from the Postcards project, edited in Touchdesigner to add a white edge and black background. The second is an AI generated image, resulting from a prompt about diatoms. It makes me think of an egg. There is something about the composition of the two next to each other that makes me feel badly for the bird. It seems to be longing to go back in time to life as an embryo, or perhaps horrified by the thought of having gone through transformation.

Plotter Drawing

Axidraw: Plotter Drawings

The Axidraw is a plotter that follows vector designs. Any drawing utensil that is somewhat pen shaped can fit into the holder (pencils, paintbrushes, markers, lasers, etc.). Axidraw has an extension for Inkscape that allows for visual controls like hatching.

The settings for hatching can be set at precise angles. In Inkscape, two duplicate vector shapes can be stacked on top of each other. Each of the shapes can be given a hatch fill with angles off by a few degrees from each other to create a moiré effect.

Xray, Electron Microscope

2024 Teardown Conference, imaging technology.
flattened samples of dried plants
electron microscope workshop

3d Printing

diatoms, algae, roots, circuit boards.

Images are converted to 3d models using Hue Forge, and printed on a Bamboo Lab X1-Carbon, which allows for automatic shift between multiple colors of filiment.

Resource:
filamentive.com - algae filiment

Vector Studies

I took a photograph of this disgruntled looking crow while on a walk in downtown Portland. At the time, I was learning about how to convert photographs and other pixel art into vectors. These are samples of results converting the photograph using Inkscape’s Trace Bitmap function, and Adobe Illustrator’s Image Trace.

📁 STUDIO RELL

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