In the Coffee Shop

Here's the latest video for Degs, starring Mike and Gabrielle (aka Nels and I).

I decided to go all La Jetee on it and use only still images. The challenge was to make it dynamic while only using the still pictures.

Programs used were Premier, Final Cut, and Illustrator. And Nels used Protools for the audio.

Sunken Car

So the goal of this project was to put this car under the ocean for 50 years. Of course, I show it to my Grampa and the first thing he says is, "I don't think this car has been around for 50 years."

lol

figures

This one took me two days to do (would have taken me one if the dear ol' family didn't keep distracting me)

This was a texturing project through and through. The model is the 1976 Chevy Hatch by Pieter Steyn off of Turbo Squid. Background photo taken from istockphoto.com. It was a lot of fun. Did a lot of playing with layered textures and bumps and difuse and transparencies and ambient colors and... well... everything. :-D

So let's start with a brand new car, just off the lot..



Then as we're throwing it into the ocean it's gonna get a few scratches



And it's gonna get rusted and corroded, of course. This is my favorite shot. I love how the light scatters across the hood and the roof.



then green things start to grow on it



And, of course, barnacles and more grossness



and let's see how this beauty looks now



I can't help but feel like my compositing skills could use some room for improvement, but I'm very pleased with how the car turned out. Very gross, very water-logged.

Well I guess I should start with "hello"

Thus begins my first artist blog (deviant art doesn't count!). Here I will post my digital art, as well as some of my more traditional things.

My name is Cherie Christensen, by the way, for any of you who haven't met me. You can call me Kitty, though, if you like. I am currently a senior at Pratt Institute and working on my senior project, which, if I do say so myself, is quite brilliant. Most of my postings will pertain to that.

Though I am a digital artist I love to work in traditional media. There's just something so satisfying in oil paints that you can't get with a computer. I love bringing together the digital and the traditional (in fact, my entire senior project revolves around this). Combined they can have so much more depth than one or the other alone, in my opinion.

I am also of the belief that art does not have to have a meaning. 20th century artists were brilliant, but they got this idea into peoples' heads that all art must have a purpose and meaning (and it must always be profound). Why can't art simply exist for art's sake? Why can't a person make something with the only intent of being pretty or visually interesting? So often I am asked, "What's the meaning of this piece?" when really we should ask, "Does this piece have a meaning, and if not does it really matter?"

Please feel free to browse through my artworks. I plan to post most of my things up here, but until then you can check me out on my website, Deviant Art, or youtube.

peace, love, and IK handles,
Kitty