Cameron Back
Light Art Humanities Practicum
Biography:
My name is Cameron Back, I am currently studying Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). As a college student, I study a lot of electrical systems, and also do a lot of work in: python, C, C++, matlab, CCS, and Vivado. Most recently, I have been working with MSP programmable boards.
I decided to pursue visual art as my humanities requirement because despite my main focus being engineering, the field of art has always been incredibly interesting to me.
My interest in visual art is mostly inspired by my love of movies, cartoons, comics, and other similar pop culture. Most of my work has been influenced by comic book superheroes, such as the Avengers, the Justice League, and Watchmen. These stories continue to thrill me even today, and most of my best works of art are in reference to characters from these stories.
In fact, I spent most of my early years of middle and high school learning to draw things from these types of stories, and slowly began to learn more about perspective, lighting, and the human anatomy. In high school, I learned how to use In-Design as a 2D digital art software, and from there, began to pursue other methods of digital Art in College remembering that experience. These include: Maya, Zbrush, and Flash Animation.
However, the type of art that excites me the most is costume design and fashion. Because WPI is a very project based program, I decided to take on a project the summer before attending. I did this to prove to myself that I could see it all the way through to perfection. During that summer, my friend and I attended Comic Conn in St. Louis, and were blown away by costumes people wore there. Each one had incredible amounts of detail and style to them, and I wanted to take on a project like that for myself. I chose to create a Green Arrow inspired suit for myself that summer. I spent several hours every day working on both the design of the suit, and on the actual construction of the suit.
By the end, I had something to be proud of, and the confidence to pursue future projects at WPI.
But despite the project being over, I still think quite a lot about different possible costumes and Ideas, and would love the opportunity to work on this type of project again.