Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Oftentimes, in the middle of a particularly bad game in which goals are just constantly being scored against them, water polo goalies can feel like they don’t even exist in the cage. For that reason, I decided to try to take the goalie out. It was easier to take out the goalie’s arms and head when in front of the net or water behind it, but it was a challenge to adapt the movement of water both behind the goalie and coming off of the two arms.
Bikes are always accompanied by riders, at least when they are moving. So I thought it would be an interesting experiment to remove the subject/rider from the photo and leave this to the viewers imagination. The sunset was fairly easy to create behind the rider but rebuilding the bike behind the leg of the rider was a challenge.
Using the most common paint schemes of sixteen of the best Nascar drivers, I averaged the paints scheme packages that Nascar releases in order to create a new image and attempt to spot a theme. The image is unique and it is clear that the image is a race car. The wind shields, tires, and features of the car, in general, are very distinct. Furthermore, looking at the front of the car, the Ford and Chevrolet symbols can be easily seen along with the word Camry, Toyota’s model. The Goodyear tire emblems can also be seen although not quite legible.
An interesting characteristic from the artwork is that the average color seems to be red, at least pretty clearly at the nose of the car. This could be a result of many drivers racing in the color red, or drivers purposely not racing in the color green, which has historically been a color of bad luck in the sport. The image below is of the sixteen driver cars that I used in my averaging image in which non of the schemes are clearly painted green.
The Bmw M3 was a revolutionary vehicle when it first debuted in 1985. Never before had a sports car contained four seats, reliability and comfort all in the same package. Since its launch, other companies have tried to copy BMW’s masterpiece, but none have truly succeeded as much as the M3. I wanted to capture the history and design of the M3 as it has progressed through history.
For my subtractive piece I chose to see what the effect of removing something critical from a picture would do. I removed the cone from a photo of ice cream to see how it would change the picture and the ways people view it. In my opinion the image becomes a bit more interesting because of the strangeness but loses some of its flow. Some of the blending looks a bit weird, especially up against the persons legs.
For this project, I decided to use a photo of some leaves I took back in October and removed most of the branches from the image. I hoped to create the illusion of a cluster of leaves falling at once rather than them just being leaves on a branch. It was interesting working with such a busy background because on one hand it can sometimes be difficult to figure out what color it should be behind the branches, but on the other hand mistakes or inconsistencies stand out less.
My subtractive “art” took and old Garfield comic and removed garfield from it. All that’s left is Jon Arbuckle talking to himself and staring at the table. Make of it what you will. The hardest part about this comic was the background, which you can see is slightly distorted where I had to fill it in.
I thought it would be interesting to take a still life photo of a flower/vase presentation, and to focus only on one element of it. I could have erased the flower, but the effect of leaving the flower suspended appeals more to me as a way of adding interest and provoking thought, especially since the image itself loses some interest once the bottle is taken away.
Hi there!
My name is Ben Wagner and I’m a junior trying to complete a Mechanical and Robotics dual major. I am currently the Vice President and student coach of the Club Water Polo team and am a brother of Tau Kappa Epsilon. Being able to take part in these organizations has really helped me to expand my views on certain topics, really develop as an individual, and discover my true passions in life.
I’ve enjoyed digital art for years. All through high school, I enrolled in multimedia courses that taught me how to build 3D animations from scratch. In my junior and senior years, I worked extensively with a particular character model (changing the skin as necessary) in order to produce the introductory animations for our yearly presentation. Beyond what I make, I enjoy any other animated product, whether video games or animated movies, because seeing what other people have created just astounds me. I enjoy seeing how close to reality animation gets with each successive year. I was blown away when 343 Industries remastered Halo 2 with 60 FPS cutscenes, and, frankly, I was pretty over the moon when I saw the CGI that was in Rogue One.
While at WPI, I completed the drawing seen below in AR1100 essentials of art using colored sticks and paper (reference image below). I’m fairly proud of this piece, as I had a firm belief that I could not draw anything. The assignment was to assemble one final still life with at least one large difference in color (see the orange panel) and a cup or mug of some sort. I decided to push myself and try to draw a rock in addition to the cup and paper airplane, as I had done very little work with natural objects throughout the rest of the course.
Outside of classes, I made a Week in Review video, highlighting my fraternity’s biggest fundraising week- dubbed “TKE Week.” During this week, the brothers of Tau Kappa Epsilon stay up for all day and night for a week raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, hosting difference mini-fundraisers every day in order to keep people interested. This past A term, the week ended with a 5K walk in Boston with all the teams throughout the region participating. I had the general idea for the video before the week even began, and attempted to take as many short videos and interviews as possible so that I could assemble them at the end. As a direct result of seeing the video, several generous family members and friends donated, pushing us well over our original goal for the week.
https://www.facebook.com/TKEZetaMU/videos/1497961996965354/
Finally, my Bitmap image, in which I attempted to make a water polo goalie. I first started out with a simple water polo player, such as what you see when they advertise the matches for the Olympic games, but ended up with too much negative space. Since I am a goalie for the WPI water polo team, I wanted to create something that I connected with a little bit more than a generic player. A big part of being a goalie in the water is relying on your legs to keep you up while blocking with only your torso and hands. It was difficult to portray the minute detail I wanted- including the cap and netting while still preserving the figure shape overall- but I feel like this could potentially be a character in an 8-bit shootout game.
Write a short introduction of yourself/autobiography.
Some things to focus on: What life experiences have most made you who you are?
Ever since I was little, I have always been fascinated with cars, fish and golf. Growing up, my uncle taught me how to fish golf and work on cars in the summertime down the Cape. Since then, I have continued to expand on my knowledge in each. I practically live, breathe, sleep: cars, fishing and golf. My curiosity and wanting to learn more attitude towards my hobbies have spread to just about everything, causing me to want to understand the world I am living in better each day, which is why I want to be an engineer.
What artistic activities do you practice and what are your creative inspirations?
A lot of my art comes from cars, although, I am working on creating my own fishing reel company. This requires constant sketching to transform my ideas to real products. Last year, my art was centered around cars. I guess I’ve always wanted to be able to draw hyper realistic car drawings
Please include 1-5 images or videos of recent creative projects with a bit of back story about each one.
Above is a 1:1 scale painting of a 2002 R34 Nissan Skyline, similar to the one Paul Walker drove in the Fast and Furious Franchise. I called the piece “For Paul” because of the impact he had on me. I shared many similarities with him and as a small dedication, I decided to paint his car.
Also incorporate your low-res icon image and an explanation of the significance of your design.
As an avid car fan, I decided to create the Ferrari shield. Cars are the reason I want to be a mechanical engineer so I can one day work for a company like Ferrari.
