chair – ABIGAIL RAE STERN

Gif Making!

admin — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 15:14:38 +0000

After a few hours of wrangling I eventually lined up all of the photos of my chair sketch in photoshop. The fateful moment came- to try to make the gif! I read the instructions online which made me a little nervous, I am used to receiving instructions verbally. But I decided to just give it my best shot and do it myself. I encountered a few problems when I had to fill in photos where there was some empty space with no color. I had to backtrack a bit and became confused, but eventually I found myself right where I had left off. I didn’t exactly find the problem, it was interesting that I didn’t need it to get a solution.

Once I figured out how to make a gif I was so excited! This is something I have wanted to do since I was in high school and had a tumblr. I always wished I could create gifs of music videos to decorate my blog. Now that I can create in this accessible format, I am excited by all the possibilities. I played with tweening but didn’t like the effect. I became more interested in seeing my process in the chair gif, so I slowed down each frame and made the last frame longer so there is a bit of rest on the final product.

Click on each image to see the animation!

Chair Process Blog 2

admin — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 16:47:52 +0000

It was a little easier at first to come back to the chair, since most of the work of getting it actually on the paper had already been done. The hard part was figuring out where had to be refined. When I first started back up I wasn’t using the string measurement system as often and I think that messed me up. When I resumed looking at the proportions in a more structured way, the mistakes I made began to make sense. At this point I am pretty comfortable erasing and moving big parts of my work as long as the solution is in sight. I felt my fear easing away as I began to get back into the zone. I am excited to continue to work on it and see how it grows, maybe not so much defining as finding.

I think aesthetically I am more into the first rendition of my chair but I appreciate this assignment as a way to hone my skills of sight.

Chair Process Blog 1

admin — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 16:23:17 +0000

There was a moment of pure fear before I put the charcoal on the paper. What if this wasn’t right? I wanted to force myself to strive for perfection in a way I usually don’t. Most of the time I accept imperfection as long as what I am trying to depict remotely resembles itself. Drawing this chair required more concentration than I am used to, and more self analysis. The stark fear I felt began to fade as I let myself experiment, be messy and make mistakes. The more I messed up and corrected the better I felt. Slowly the image came together. Looking back on it now, it doesn’t look very good to me. Maybe the back is too angular, or the fact that the shadows are undefined is confusing. I have to remind myself to draw what it looks like, not what I think it should look like.

Clicking back and forth between the process photos is exciting thought because I can see every little adjustment I made. I can’t wait to continue to refine and define the work. Who thought a chair could be so interesting?