Urban Scrawl 8

August 23rd and 24th made for a pretty cool weekend spent at Columbus's own Urban Scrawl 8. It's a two day event with live music and painting. Paintings all go to the benefit of the arts district and art programs around the area. My friend Ian was harping on me and my roommate Maxx to apply for canvases earlier this summer. A month later we were given big primed plywood canvases (4X8, 8X8). Here's a picture from Saturday night as well as Saturday afternoon, followed by what I ended up with and me being a terrible dork:

Wish I would have taken more photos - I only was able to catch a few of my friends by their pieces. I feel really fortunate to know a handful of people who want to and can make giant paintings with the sun beating down on them. Take a look at their websites, too:

Ian Ballantyne http://ianerballantyne.com/

Maxx MaEvoy http://maxxmcevoy.prosite.com/

Kyle Bergamo http://www.kylebergamo.com/

Aaron Kirchmaier http://www.aaronkirchmaier.com/
Lucie Shearer and Jake Mensinger http://www.lucieshearer.com http://www.mensingerart.com/

Jacob Tanner http://illustrateyourworld.wix.com/badtrumpeteer

Mandi Caskey http://mandiellen.wix.com/fine-artist

Sam Thomas http://waywardventure.tumblr.com
(and Logan Schmitt's on the right!! http://loganschmitt.tumblr.com/)

Selfie Sunday #1: High School Sarah

Last Sunday, I did a small photoshop sketch - it was refreshing to take a break from more underdeveloped sketching and animating. I decided: why not do something every Sunday?
I also decided: why not play up that obnoxious Instagram hashtag, #selfiesunday? So here is the first of many more this month: say hello to high-school senior Sarah. It's been awhile.

 

Senior year of high school, my small-town, public district decided to implement a dress code. I wore band buttons and got my gauges to size 0, I got in trouble with a pink streak in my black/white hair, I wore tight black pants with a studded belt and converse shoes... of course. Oh, the "scene" days of seventeen. At least I kept it classy with some Arizona tea almost all of the time.

Hardcow Cow Turnarounds

I have been working on some character turnarounds for my Hardcore-Hardcow character.
Next up: a pig, a chicken, and a grab-bag of barn-yard citizens.

Lottery Roulette GIF/VIDEO

Here's a .gif I made for Experimental Animation class! These are ticket book fronts from The Ohio Lottery. My family owns a small gas station/convenience store out in the middle of central Ohio - at the beginning of the semester, my mom gave me a whole slab of these, saying maybe I could find a use for them. I ended up scanning each individual card three times: once flat, once slightly crumpled, and once (after 'weathering' them with water and sunlight). I used a few scans to 'wipe' the card across the screen to add a different type of strobe effect. 

The concept revolves around the cycle of money associated with lottery. Have worked at a store that sells lottery, I have handed over countless tickets to countless customers: some dedicated regulars, some desperate trash-pickers, some high spenders, and some just looking for a quick jab at 'luck'. Though it can be completely argued that the lottery is a waste of time and money, it's funny when you contrast that fact to the fact that lottery tickets bring in lots of money and support to small businesses. It's also funny when you consider how many tickets come in a book, and the fact that they are all worth $1-20 - that adds up! The money that is given back to a community in kind of twisted little way is compelling - I wanted to highlight the cycle. Money is frivolously spent, intently spent, and desperately spent on lottery tickets: then, once in a while, the money is given back: someone wins. The spending continues. The business is able to stay afloat and continue to serve it's customers. Everybody wins. Upon talking to my mom recently, I heard we hit our biggest winner yet.

Here's a quick, trippy video-version I slapped up on Vimeo:

LottoRoulette from Sarah Schmidt on Vimeo.

Finals! Summer! Hooray!

Haven't updated with proper gusto in awhile - a lot has happened in the past month. Namely, finals. But it's finally over! Summer is finally setting in. Some big things that happened, that I need to put up some posts about:

- Updated Experimental Animation Cat Project, a final project gif/video
- Handful of passes of animatic for Layout and Timing Class/"Space Puppy"
- Handful of passes for Animation III/"Hardcow"
- Rigged Character for Animation III
- Finished/Updated project for Motion Graphics, Demo Reel for Motion Graphics
- "Forthmade" t-shirt screen-printing experience

In the meantime, here is a gif experiment I made in class a few weeks ago of my friend Jeff Ockerse (http://giantfrogfish.tumblr.com). He and I collaborated on a magazine cut-out animation a few months go (http://sarahmaeschmidt.blogspot.com/2013/02/rager-rick.html), and it actually got recognized in the CCAD 134th Annual Student Exhibition.

Space Dog Can't Breathe Final; Animation II Project Reel

Here's what was due the last day of Animation II: the final rough of the acting/emoting project, and a demo reel/Animation II project/process smash-up. Stoked to make a 30 second short in Animation III!!

Juiceboxx Process & Finale

I saw a show Wednesday, and I'd go so far to say that the co-headliner was the most punk-rock thing I'd ever experienced. Here we are with Juiceboxxx lyrics.

http://juiceboxxx.com/blog

This time around, I vectorized in Illustrator, then didn't really come back to it, just making layers and layers in Photoshop. Textures include: a dog in a parking lot. A friend in front of a television. A football field at night. An entire marching band shoved into a dark room. And many more.

Hardcow Process II

Today I pushed this a bit harder, with blends, textures, the draw inside option, and opacity levels. My favorite bit would be the plugs - that's a map of Ohio, folks. I think I want to call this done - And I might be slightly worried I already over did it - but I am not sure. I just really want to order it on a tank top via skreened.com. I plan on either taking the texture out of the ears, or adding more texture to the cow itself. Afterwards I might add some "dirt" to the overall design, to give it the worn/vintage feel that everyone (including myself) seems to dig. Also, I have to decide what to do with that text. I think where it is at is the best place to have it - though I am really conscious of the tangent on the top right of Ohio. I might tip the Ohio-outline more to the right.

A few hours in, I added some irises to see what they'd look like - and behold: instant Disney.

The only thing is - despite the smirkingly-serious appeal I want with this design, I really love those Disney eyes. A lot. The inner character-designer/lover in me has a deep need for them.

Hardcow Process I

Finally taking a serious slap at an idea that has been floating through my thoughts and my sketchbook for what feels like more than one year. The idea is that local art and local music, as well as any other passion that anyone has and is in pursuit of - should be celebrated and supported, especially by the community surrounding it. Everyone has to start somewhere, and everyone who's anywhere started somewhere: what are we without our roots?

This design is meant to commemorate and raise awareness of local art forms. Why not go out to a show, why not get to know people - make the most of where you are/whatever community you were born into. Being in Ohio, sometimes we might feel like we're all just cows surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans. But we aren't just any cows. We're hardcow cows. ... haha, puns.