Mosherina!

Latest work for English. These character designs are for a teenage rock concert computer game called "Mosh Pit". It was fun making these - I sub-consciously used characteristics from people I know..or at least they reminded me of them..

It is FINISHED!!! MHA HA HA!!!!

You have no idea how much of a victory this is for me.

This was very difficult to make.

This picture is actually a bus stop! I'm meant to design a concept that will aid transport in an anti gravity situation (Isn't that stupid? I talked to my psychics friends about it and they say the situation is impossible! So much for imagination making sense.)

So, because this will be "ACTion buses" version 1.2, I named my design concept "TrACTion", which makes perfect sense - just take a look at the definition!

I know the perspective of some things are slightly out of perspective, but still, I welcome all comments, opinions or critques. Thanks for reading, I'm really happy I got this finished finally.

I'll get my other design concepts still in progress up and blogging soon, stay tuned.

The light endures to examine the shadows

Hey all, this here is a picture of me gone through photoshop. I know it looks way depressing and emo but I still like it very much. It has expression and a message, so it's still great. I love interpretive pictures like this. It makes you want to just stare at the picture for ages and wonder what she is thinking...

Website Evaluation #6 - GFX Artist

What web browser are you using?	Explorer
Does the site suggest that it is better viewed with one kind of web browser in particular?	No
What is the URL of the Web page you are evaluating?	http://www.gfxartist.com/
Have a look at the domain name of the URL. How does the fact that the site is an .edu; .com; .gov; or .org influence your opinions about the site?	.com, No
Who put this information here?	Commerical Organisation
Does the source of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	Only Slightly - There will just be a few ads. in your face and that would be it.
How often is the site up-dated?	Updated Daily
Can you tell when was the last time particular page/section was changed?	Yes
Does the currency of the information have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	No
How old is the material?	Most of the material is relatively new
Who wrote the information?	The "GFX Team" and users
Is the author’s signature on the page?	Yes
Is the author’s e-mail address included?	Yes
Is there any other way of identifying the author?	Yes
If you can’t identify the writer does this have any effect on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Does the institutional affiliation have any effect on your judgement about this site.?	No
Why is this material here?	To provide an online artist community.
Is the purpose of this page indicated clearly in a prominent place?	Yes, through a link
Is there any evident bias in the information at this site?	No
Does the reason for this have any influence on your judgement about the usefulness of this site?	-
Can I do a cross check?	There are other artist communities on the internet but there is not really a need to cross check.
Do I have any doubts about the accuracy of the material?	No
If so, is there any way I can cross-check the accuracy of the information?	Check related websites.
Is the information available anywhere else?	Most Likely, might be easiest to ask someone who is very artistic.
Would it have been easier to get the information in some other way?	No, unless you want to.
Does the site include links to other sites?	Yes
Is there any selection process for the links?	Yes
Are the links organised (i.e. by subject category)?	Yes
Are the links described?	Yes
Are the links all still active?	Some are. I tried some tutorial links that don't work.
Do the links seem relevant to the subject of the web page?	Yes
Is the page only viewable by a specific browser or release of browser?	No
Is the site often busy and difficult to access?	No
Does the page download in a reasonable time?	Yes
Does it include any large graphics or files which take a long time to download?	Yes, but that is required in this website.
Is it organised in a way that makes it easy to navigate?	Yes, the fonts in the menu is quite small though.
Are the navigational links clear?	Yes.
Do you have to scroll through the entire document to find information you want?	Yes
Is there any provision for searching the site?	Yes
Is the page viewable by a text-based browser only?	Yes
Do all the graphics have a text explanation?	Most of them.
Does the design complement the content?	Yes

New Website Layout Inspiration

The webpage layout inspiration is finally finished! I made this layout about a week ago, but I have to work out how to change the html of my blog to work with this set out.



I think it looks pretty awesome, I'm not sure about the dotted line and the big "A" overlapping the main square where the content will show, but it will still be readable. Tell me what you think. Are the "P"'s legible?

Cyberspace Article #1 - Web Design Clichés

This article I'm summarizing was made by Stuart Brown on the 18th of June this year. It's also published in the United Kingdom. Brown talks about the graphic design trends that have been increasingly popular during this year and critically analyses the impact these cliches have been overused throughout growing websites. He grows through the top eight cliches of 2006 and pinpoints examples and the irritatingness about them.

1. Excessive use of Gradients - designers have become too dependent on them.
2. Odd Names and Misplaces Dots - because of the shortage of domain names
3. 45 Degree Diagonal Striped Backgrounds
4. Big Fonts
5. White Backgrounds - used to look professional, now it's plain and boring
6. Wet Floor Effect
7. Pixel Fonts
8. Tag & Folksonomy

Impact? I think this article does say something about the trends on the internet. At first I didn't understand what the big deal was, and why Brown was criticizing these design techniques as I enjoyed seeing them around the internet. What I do understand now, and what I didn't notice before, is that EVERYONE is using at least one of these techniques on their website that it's almost become unwritten laws among web designers. This impacts my outlook incredibly on the way I see popular designs using those techniques now, and I can see how people are not coming up with exciting new ways to attract people's attention without resorting to at least one of those ways on the list. I didn't see that generalization before I read that article, and now I can see how the trends on the internet affect people's impression on the website and how much they keep their attention or read their website.

Continuing on..

Click the title. It goes to an awesome blog full of interesting sketches. Motivates me to sketch more. I wish life had more time so I could relax and take my time to draw what ever I wanted. A week or two ago I did that on a bus but I only had about 10 minutes so all I drew was the back of someone's head. I'll scan it in for you to see. Maybe some of the people that live around the ACT could guess whereabouts I was sitting on the bus.

I finally figured out some sketched for my design class. I've got a couple of designs for cars and one design for a shoe. They need a lot of working on though. They are just ideas for now. I also need a third item in the area of transport, I was thinking something along the lines of a transport tube, like in Futurama, or maybe a futuristic elevator tube. Honestly I'm not too keen on designing products with no gravity involved. After all, if there was no gravity, we would be dead. Thank God for that!! (No really.. I do thank god for that :P)

I wanted to post up something yesterday but I never got around to it because I collapsed on the couch and slept away the night. After on and off sleep I finally work up and realized I was still in the lounge room at 3:50 in the morning! Maybe it's from all those times of reading past midnight or just mucking around on the computer at night for too long.. or maybe just because of school. At least I can sleep a lot - some of my friends have been sleeping less than 5-6 hours every night. One has been especially sick for some time now :(. At least I got my flu injection this year so I wouldn't get sick this winter. Only one more month until winter is over :D!! I'll be glad because I don't have to suffer the bitter winds that blow constantly where I live.
I'll post a website evaluation before I go, but I'd better do it quickly because it's getting pretty late.
*Yawn*,
Flik

Neosynthesis

Calling all art-junkies!!! -->This website is beautiful you should check it out some time. It's full of dramatic photographs, artistic abstracts and digital manipulations. Someday I'll learn how to manipulate that well. Just about every art piece on there has the style of dramatic simplicity that you just stare in awe at. I would post an example of here but it doesn't allow direct linking to pictures in case you steal them.
Speaking of art - I do design technology at school. I love being in that class, it's a place where I can be free with my mind but also extend it to a special point of thinking about how to present my ideas on paper. Right now we aren't doing something I'm so enthusiastic about - we have to imagine a world without gravity, which in reality, is impossible because we'd all be dead, but in design we have to think of products to help live without gravity. I guess it more about making a product look cool, but I don't enjoy it because I have to wrap my mind around how my product will work. I'll keep you updated with my works and ideas if I can.
I think that will be all I'm going to write for today. I still haven't talked about what specifically inspires me (although I've started with art with this post) and I want to talk about an update Greenpeace put on their website this week that I'm very excited about.

Masquerade - Paper Faces On Parade

I'm back home now.
I was looking through some blogs and I found this awesome one at random. I love the layout, it's inspired me. I'd better get photoshop out and start getting expressive with some digital art! I wish I was good with photography, but unfortunately I'm not so great.