Due to some obstacles during the creation of our board game, we have now decided to change our project. and we only have two weeks left!! dom!! dom!! dooom!!
We will be still focussing on the same ideas and subject matter as before but the main idea behind our work is: “The Extinction of Native Animals of New Zealand”
We are still laser cutting into wood as we first planned, and are planning on inlaying many materials into the Wood works such as dark wood, Paua shell, smashed glass/mirrors, coloured glass, steel strips (rusty), steel Rods.
Inlaying these materials into our wood, Is our representation of “man-made” structures. Which expresses the Idea of how westernised living is harming our planet and its creatures, as it causes deforestation and also global warming.
We have been researching into Maori Patterns, that relate to the endangered animal we have been Researching.
The Title of the work is still: “Ra Hui”
“In Māori culture, a rāhui is a form of tapu restricting access to, or use of, an area or resource by unauthorised persons. With the passing of the 1996 Fisheries Act, a rāhui can also be imposed by the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries.”
It is a simple statement and also a possible solution to some of the worlds ecological problems.
Lincoln In the woodwork room. Wow what a superstar!!We were planning on cutting planks from this piece of Jarrah, but there was a Nail lodged quite deep inside the wood. So we tried drilling around the outside of the Nail (it didn’t work out that well.)Drilling.Measuring for the size of the wooden planks.Measuring for the size of the wooden plankssingle cut plankself explanatory.wood placed on the planner.texting while using machineryplank of wood.About to put wooden plank into the thicknesserLincolns planks of wood he brought into course, we’re really interested in the grain from the wood as it creates really fascinating patterns.This Jarrah wood was really hard, when we put it through the saw it kept jamming at a certain area. So we tried putting it through the band saw, but didn’t get too far.This was a Nail we were trying to chisel out from the piece of Jahra wood, but it just wasn’t budging.birds eye view of the Nail.We are trying our best to re-use wood old wood to encourage creation through the usage of recycling, so we’ve been jumping into skip bins like dirty mike and the boys finding all kinds of native timber. Pretty sure most of the wood was Rimu, really really nice quality wood.putting the wood through the thicknesser.putting the wood through the thicknesser.Our three planks to get laser cut.five planks.smooth planks.planks in the sun.Allan helping us test laser cutting, on mdf.wood placed in laser cutter.Laser Cutting begins for the Kokako.full laser cut.bits and pieces from laser cut.dark wood (Jarrah) inlay into mdf.first laser cut experiment, Got us thinking about jigsaw puzzles.PVA glue placed on wood.PVA glue placed on wood.taped and glued planks.Lasercutting on card.Tuatara card laser cut.Tuatara card laser cuts.Tuatara card laser cuts.Tuatara card laser cutsTuatara card laser cuts,Inlay achieved.inlaying dark wood to mdf.lasercuts.lasercuts on the chair.puzzle lasercut.Kokako, mdf inlayed to jarrahnothing but varnished planks now.cutting varnished wood.cutting varnished wood.sanded wood.wood sanded on table.wood before being put through thicknesses.adjusting the height of the thicknesser.inside the thicknesser.wood going through the thicknesser.wood going through the thicknesser.planks.planks.Excess wood removed.lasercutting dark wood.Taking laser cuts out of the laser cutter.Etching before laser cutting.zoom out.Before the outlines were added in the etching looked really nice, maybe next time on illustrator, I could get rid of the outlines for etched shapes.glued wood put through thicknesser.laser cut mdf before removal of innards.mdf inlayed into dark wood.dark wood inlayed to mdf.close up of laser cut.
Fresh out of the laser cutter.Maui’s Dolphin, fish Hooks and Dangerous weather laser cut and etched on.Maui’s Dolphin, fish Hooks and Dangerous weather laser cut and etched on.Tuatara laser cut on card.
I had a bit of a drawing practice using both pencil and the Adobe Idea’s App. The main focus was to try create black and white drawings, that could be lazercut onto wood.
I made some simple patterns and shapes within the Endangered Animal symbols, which were based from observing the shapes of Maori, Koru patterns. If I could find some meaningful maori symbols that could relate to each animal, It would make the animals seem even more significant to “Ra Hui” (the game board we’re creating, silly!? lets not forget that!!.)
Right now the patterns on these drawings would be described in the Maori Culture, as “Kirituhi,” which is basically translated as “meaningless scribbles.” Which I thought was quite harsh haha, but very true when explaining my drawings. I then got to thinking about Mike Tyson’s face Tattoo, how he said it was ‘based from maori warriors’ but isn’t constructed from traditional Maori symbols. THAT would be considered as “Kirituhi” would it not??
Anywho, We have chosen to carry on with the designs as they are now, so we can get straight into lazer cutting. I still haven’t explained in full what Endangered Animal’s we’ve chosen to be placed on our game board, so I’ll do It now.
When we started thinking about what the game pieces would be, We put them into categories; Marine Life, Reptile, Bat, and Bird.
Initial Maui’s Dolphin sketch
Outlines of Koru Designs before black fill
Black fill for maui’s dolphin
We have chosen our Marine Life animal to be, Maui’s and/or Hector’s Dolphin. Described as the worlds “Rarest Marine Dolphin” their are approximately 100 left in the world, Human Interference plays a big role in Maui’s Dolphins disappearance.
We have chosen our Reptile to be, the Tuatara. Due to global warming the Tuatara is becoming extinct, as temperature changes create a big impact for livelihood of the species.
“the last survivors of an order of reptiles that thrived in the age of the dinosaurs.”
Quote found at: http://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/reptiles-and-frogs/tuatara/
Short-tailed bat initial drawing
Drawn over with adobe Ideas
line work fill
black fill
We have chosen our Bat to be, The Greater Short-tailed Bat. The Short-tailed Bat has already been described as extinct, due to “human inhabitancy.” which I think is quite sad.
Kakapo Head redrawn on Adobe Ideas. The problem with this drawing is that the figure is not easily recognised as a Kakapo or even a Bird so I decided to give the Kakapo drawing another try.
This is my second attempt for the Kakapo sketch, this time I tried creating a silhouette of the Kakapo.
Contemporary Koru designs placed within the Kakapo
We have chosen our Bird to be, The Kakapo. According to ‘Morris and Balance’ In 2008 there was approximately 86 Kakapo left in New Zealand (and the world). The Kakapo is known to be the worlds Rarest Parrot. stoats and rats are good examples of predators that payed big tribute to the Kakapo’s endangerment.
Hitchmough, R., Bull, L., Cromarty, P. (comps). (2007). New Zealand threat classification system lists (2005). Wellington, New Zealand: Department of Conservation.
Millar, T., & Spoolman, S. (2009). Living in the environment (17th ed). CA, USA: Yolanda Cossio
Morris, R., & Ballance, A. (2008). Rare wildlife of New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House.
Mike Tyson found at: http://www.parapundit.com/archives/005280.htmlgood example of a silhouette + black and white makes such a powerful imageReally liked the thundercats logo, how it had curvy cutouts and using black and red makes it quite a powerful imagemortal kombat dragon also had some nice wavey shapes
I managed to finish the final image from the ‘Cass the Villain’ post, I just had to finish the ‘Hand’ on the ‘Right side’ and find a background. I typed in “Aku Background” on google and found an image, I then placed my figure overtop using Adobe Ideas.
I had a go at drawing Lincoln and Myself on the iPad. I am planning on displaying these black and white images on a ‘Refill like’ background, giving the images that ‘sketch’ feel. I would love to display these images with speech bubbles making the website feel more comical, making the viewer feel more entertained and wiling to get amongst the writing.
For the actual website I would edit the writing, making It say: “The Mind Of The Native”
I had a little practice on Photoshop trying to edit my Logo design for the website. I found It quite difficult and time consuming, using the computer gave me less time as I had to work with pixels. If I could use spray paint, It would help a whole lot more as I could get a lot more done visually faster and also think It would be a good learning experience. I feel that my Photoshop skills are developing also, so thats a bonus!!
I’ve had another try at re-creating my Logo using The Adobe Ideas App, I tried two colour combinations that I am planning on experimenting on the home page of my blog to see the effectiveness of dark and bright colours being placed over a black background.
Initial sketch
Redrawn on iPad
I tried editing the letters a little bit, I found That I don’t have as much control of the lettering when using the iPad compared to when I draw in my book. I think I would like to have a practice using spray cans
I tried adding A little 3 dimensional effect to the letters
I have tried creating myself, my own personal character based on other nostalgic video game characters, characters from television shows, and hip hop music. I decided to recreate myself as a villain, as it reflected my personality whilst I was in my high school years. I used to be a delinquent who would listen to evil rap music, always wanting to be known for fighting, and loved it when I knew that others were intimidated by me. lately I’ve found since I’ve been attending Art School I have become a more peaceful, positive and patient person.
I have found when I voice or write things I think about in my mind, I feel free from negativity. One thing that also helps me, Is making art as I find it quite therapeutic. One thing that Im trying to achieve in life is finding true happiness. I’ve found out the more that I analyse things and understand them more, the happier I become. I believe that knowledge is One way of finding happiness, but i believe that I can’t find true happiness if I have no understanding of evil in its purest form. So I was thinking deeply into the reasons I was angry and also reasons I could relate myself to other villainous characters. I also questioned myself, ‘why do I and also my friends have such a dark humour?.’ We can hear and discuss the most outrageously evil and offensive content and then laugh about how extremely cruel our minds can be.
This is what got me thinking of the music that influenced my thoughts whilst I was at high school, and then I came to realise that the closer friends I have made at Art school, also have similar villainous qualities as myself. This made me enjoy coming to Course as I found people I could finally relate to, besides my brothers at home. I also thought that It would be a good idea to incorporate my music that I listen to into my artwork as I’ve found that many people (even at art school) are so ‘closed minded’ when it comes to hip hop music, as they are only exposed to the music that they hear on the radio or the popular hip hop songs on YouTube.
They show no appreciation for the creative lyrical content within other Songs that are ‘not so popular’ to the radio stations, or even songs that ‘were’ popular on the radio but are not of this time. I myself prefer hip hop music that is from the 90’s, but lately I have found new artists that have reopened my ears to their style of music, which contain the similar vibes to the music I used to listen to during high school. Ideas began flowing to my head, when I was shown ‘the birth of captain murphy’ YouTube clip from one of my breethas ‘Aaron’ (the guy who was helping me during my screen printing practice.) I then began listening to more from the Artist ‘Captain Murphy’ and previous Artists that I used to listen to before. I was finding that all these musicians I would listen to, all had the mind sets of ‘villains,’ they would admit that they were ‘bad guys,’ I appreciated the honesty and creative way that they would express this. With my works I was trying to create my character, ‘Cass tha Crook’ who would be described as ‘the villain of all villains.’ I would imagine that my character would discover other villains from video games and television programmes, destroy them and then consume their souls.
My villain would then begin wearing body parts of those he had slain as a trophy to show those who chose to approach him, who he had defeated. For example, my villain begins to grow horns which are shaped like jaws. That is to symbolise that he had killed and skinned the video game boss, ‘Andross’ and had then wore his jaw bone as a trophy. My villain would then morph into a similar shape to the next villain he would destroy. I also wanted my villain to Kill all Heroes, anyone who would stand in his path, and take things from them to symbolise how Evil he was. I always wanted my villain to be wearing my bucket hat, so you would know It was me who would be defeating all of these individuals. I wanted to think the most evil thoughts I could possibly think of, so I would scare myself and never want to think of evil thoughts again.
The music I would listen to paid great influence to my work, the results terrified certain viewers which was exactly the kind of reaction I wanted from the works. I feel that I managed to get my point across, through my works. Leaving me satisfied and making me feel eager to continue to create.
Background made from screen shot from ‘birth of captain murphy’ episode
Mf dooms album cover influenced my art style and also the usage of gold chain as his hoodie straps.
Found at: http://skoodmusic.net/tag/mf-doom/
The breetha Aaron showed me this video, which was an introduction for the new alias made by the musician ‘Flying Lotus’ which he goes by now for his rap persona as ‘Captain Murphy.’
I was captivated by the psycadelic/pop arty style of the art work of the video, the different ideas that each of the characters came up with and also the evilness that Captain Murphy brings into the video and also into his music
Found at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R0uWDDq0F8w
He creates electronic type music that also has a hip hop vibe to it, and also incorporates retro video game sounds into his music, which I really enjoy.
When he became Captain Murphy he created really dark Rap music, rhyming about how he lives his life as a cult leader and describes his other evil deeds which he commits, which frightened me a bit, that I kinda liked for some reason.
I loved how he created a new character for himself which reminded me of other rap artists like ‘MF DOOM’ and how Badass he describes himself reminded me of the Other artists I used to listen to at high school, like ‘Big L’ and ‘Kool G Rap’
Found at: https://news.beatport.com/hear-flying-lotus-go-extra-large-for-his-last-bbc-residency-show/
He created an alias for himself based on the comic book super villain ‘Doctor Doom.’ Which inspired me to recreate myself into my own type of villain.
DOOM is known to be always wearing his metal mask to hide his identity, which I thought was awesome as no one can judge him on how he truly looks and can only listen to what he says in order to understand what his character is trying to express.
When I first tried listening to DOOM, it sounded like he was speaking a whole bunch of gibberish, but I got to listen to him a little bit more and thought more into what he was saying and I found that his lyrics were actually quite simply said but had very complex meaning. DOOM is a lyrical Genius.
Found at: http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/2015/06/05/history-of-a-hip-hop-villain-a-guide-to-mf-doom/
One of my favourite hip hop artists of all time.
His lyrical content was crazy, he had some of the greatest punchlines in hip hop history. He would often speak about how much of a badass he was, he even had a song that described himself as ‘the Devils son’ he wasn’t the most positive influence, but one thing that I respected the most about Big L was that he lived by the words he spoke.
There was truth behind most of his creativity, as he described his life in Harlem like living in Hell, where death was an every day thing that people had to live around and try to avoid, One thing that he couldn’t do as he was shot.
Listening to his songs made me realise that growing up in such a harsh environment, explains how someone can have such a negative view on society.
I could relate to Him although my lifestyle was no where near as rough as his.
Found at: http://www.okayplayer.com/news/90s-rap-cookin-soul-big-l-put-it-on-remix-video.html
I took an image from google typing ‘captain murphy’ background and placed my image overtop.I found I preferred the Image with a black background, It created a nice effect with the the hair lighting
when it was floating in a white space makes you appreciate the outlines compared to black.
I tried to make him have shiny gold teeth, with rotten gums, like he was a zombie.
I always like the effect that black adds to the piece.
I was influenced by the video clip of ‘Mighty Morphin Foreskin’. I was focussing on figures placed in the middle of a continuous focus on the skull in the middle of the screen, so I tried creating the same effect but using my own figure.my image over background found from google.
My image overtop a white background.
my image over black background
black background
white background
Black suits most of my digital drawings. It creates great effects.
I took an image from google, typing ‘psychedelic background’ then found this piece which its line work was similar to mine.Used my previous work as a background.Becoming recognisable as bosses in video games. like ‘Andross’ from the nintendo 64 game, ‘Star Fox 64.’
This video game boss was scary as shit when I was younger, and sort of freaks me out today still.
Thats how I wanted my villain to look, menacing inflicting fear into those who witness its presence.
found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZh5gFHQATA
I found it to be quite interesting how Andross was in his own little realm waiting for you to face him, so I decided to make my character have its own little realm also. Using my previous works from photoshop as a background.
found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZh5gFHQATA
I used the inverted background from last module.
work in progress I need to finish his hands.
I used the inverted background from last module.
Aku inspired the body shape of my character.
I enjoy how evil Aku can be on samurai jack,so much that I even find certain remarks he makes, quite humorous.
found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvNzuj79jRM
Akuma inspired the shape of my characters hair.
I’ve been trying to research into Akuma and found that he is one of the most evil characters in the video game street fighter.
I found that he killed his master and then stole his beads which then turned him from the man named ‘Gouki’ into a ‘demon’ (Akuma) who’s sole purpose was to kill anyone who opposed him.
Akuma meaning found at: http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/japanese-mythology.php?deity=AKUMA
found at:
http://jimbobox.deviantart.com/art/Akuma-397283262
I got this idea from looking at A street Artist by the name of ‘Flox’, Her piece had a white paper ‘Tiki’ stencil placed over top her spray painted nature stencils. The combination of these images is the expression of how The nature of New Zealand and culture work with each other.
I had a go with this type of method and creating an image with my theme by taking New Zealand Landscapes and overlapped the images with my Bomb drawings. I did his on adobe Ideas but I wish I could of made these images on Illustrator so I could have more accurate line work but hey it’s just another practice, an Idea Practice……
With this practice, I took another New Zealand Poster and transformed the displayed figure into a terrorist. Again just introducing the Idea that Isis could be among us so I thought it was perfect to take one of the Native/Maori people of New Zealand and make them an extremist, just playing off another idea that Isis will ‘become one of the natives’ of New Zealand.
I thought it was perfect to use a New Zealand holiday poster, as it is trying to show the beauty of New Zealand, my poster now should be viewed as a ‘warning sign.’ I wanted people, especially foreigners of this country to see this piece and ask themselves “would I really want to go to New Zealand for A holiday, if it contains stuff like this?.”Again this is just another stab at the idea of making new zealand part of the war against Isis and its consequences.
I tried something abit different to my other works, by adding my own line work to the figure my head was placed on top of. I also tried abit of photoshop blurring to make the black lines seem to be part of the image, im just trying to make my images look like an actualposter.
I was influenced from the idea of how propaganda has been re-edited to make different statements of what they represent, by changing text to display a different message and also muddling up figures to express it.
I got really inspired by the idea of taking old New Zealand tourism and product advertising posters, and playing with their text and subject matter to enforce the idea that terrorism will be coming to New Zealand. As our prime minister volunteered New Zealand to be part of the war against Isis.
In the initial poster for this piece it’s advertising lemonade in New Zealand, I tried playing with this image by replacing the sillhouette of the woman with a man with an AK-47 and balaclava. This is just representing the Idea of Isis coming to New Zealand is slowly becoming a reality, so their ‘lurking in the shadows’ and will be among us. I also tried changing the brand of the original poster to Isis and replacing the little star at the end of the brand name with the symbol for Isis.
My final image wasn’t that satisfying for me but its getting the idea across that is important.
Cass Get Da Muneez 