Design For A Cause Assignment

Here is my Design For A Cause assignment. The poster is based on the the concept in psychology of the inner child. This idea has been written about extensively by Charles Whitfield and others. The basic idea is that we have an inner part of ourselves that we are sometimes out of touch with. This inner part forms the basis of who we are but also influences our actions as adults. Some of the fears and insecurities we face as adults are unresolved issues that we need to learn to reconcile with our child within. This is a very large area of study and this short blurb does not do justice to the subject.

The poster is meant to be a reminder to listen, honor, protect and encourage the child within. I have used color in an attempt to communicate the differences between an adult and the child within. I have made use of the concept of scale to show the difference in size between the adult and the child within. The lack of facial features of the adult and the child looking upwards show a disconnect between the two. The child is shown at 50% opacity to illustrate that the adult is not fully aware of the child. The child's emotions are shown in warm and cool complementary colors. This is intended to show the range of emotions, the good and the bad, that the child has experienced and not really understood. I have used the same color scheme to portray the adult's emotions but in the opposite order. This again is intended to show that as adults we are out of touch with the child within. The emotions we see and express as adults are not those of the child within.

I have made use of balanced symmetry in the vertical axis with the adult emotional background. Unbalanced symmetry is used in the horizontal axis to show the relationship between the adult and the child. The complementary colors of the background are shown with high intensity that gradually softens as both sides reach their complementary color. The high intensity colors show color conflict in the same way that cool and hot emotions can be intense feelings. I have used the child's color as an emphasis by one element.

There is probably more that could be discussed but this should be sufficient to describe the bulk the work and ideas used in this project.      

Color Assignment

Here is my color wheel design for this weeks assignment:

 

Here are my color studies based on my color wheel design:

Hue to White Value Scale - Primary Blue

Complementary Value Scale 1 - Primary Blue to Secondary Orange

Complementary Value Scale 2 - Tertiary Red-Violet to Tertiary Yellow-Green

Online Hue Test:

Color Strips:

Color Strip Results:

Value Self Portrait Collage

Here is my final version of the self portrait value collage. I've used a number of the patterns and textures that were gathered during the week 10 assignment in Photoshop to work around a photo. The light color on the nose is intended to be a light spot and uses one of the lightest patterns that I found.

Illusion of Space and Motion Assignment

Illusionistic Space: I've chosen the following three examples to show the devices of exaggerated space, aerial perspective and linear perspective to show the illusion of space.

Exaggerated Space: The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman movie poster shows the contrast              between "normal" sized people and the 50 foot woman.

Aerial Perspective: I've chosen a part of the opening scene of the musical The Sound of Music to give a sense of aerial perspective.The grayscale image does a nice job of contrasting the point of emphasis, Maria, with the background which gives the aerial perspective.

Linear Perspective: I've used a poster from the movie The Vanishing Point to show linear perspective. All the space is coming from a singular point on the horizon above the mountains in the center of the picture.

Illusionistic Motion: I've chosen the following three examples to show the devices of anticipated motion, figure repeated and blurred outlines to show the illusion of motion.

Anticipated Motion: Here is a shot from Star Trek showing the Enterprise entering what could be warp factor 1. The anticipated motion is shown by the stars.

Figure Repeated: This scene from the movie The Last Samuri shows a line of soldiers each holding a bow and getting ready to shoot. Each figure is similar except that as you progress down the line the figures decrease in size and the bows are raised higher. This also shows linear perspective.

Blurred Outlines: I chose a picture of a hummingbird in flight to show an example of blurred outlines. The hummingbird's wings move so fast  when in flight that all we can see is an outline of the wings.

Texture and Pattern / Grayscale Assignment

Here are my 15 grayscale patterns and textures sampler and the 11 shade grayscale required by the assignment. The objects from left to right and top to bottom are: an orange, tree bark, shirt pattern, bubble wrap, plastic place mat, wood grain, dress pattern, ceramic tile, sandpaper, jeans, strawberry, cloth place mat, towel, granite and foil. 

15 pattern and texture sampler

Modified Grayscale with pattern

11 shade grayscale

Shape/Volume Assignment

Here are my three shape/volume pieces. These started as digital photographs of a dining room chair, a table and lamp and a floor lamp. The pictures were taken from different angles.

Line Assignment

Here is the Line assignment for this week. I have done all the work in Photoshop except for the Contour and Blind Contour drawings. I did this drawing with a HB pencil. The Gesture and volume drawings were done from the Contour drawing and used on Photoshop due to my limited artistic ability.

Part 1 - Emotions in Dry Media

Part 2 - Verbs in Wet Media

Part Three - Contour and Gesture Drawings in Dry Media

Part Four - Volume in Dry and Wet Media

Rhythm Assignment

For the rhythm assignment this week I've chosen the sense of sound. The words I've used to describe sound are "clear", "loud" or "forte", "soft" or "piano", and "distorted".

The recurring theme throughout the five designs is repeating waveform of a cello note. The first piece shows a clear cello note waveform. The pattern is shown repeated only three times here as a sound. There is a built in rhythm pattern to musical notes as the pattern repeats until the sound dies out. The white background is intended to show a pure, clear sound.

Piece number two is called "loud" or "forte". I've taken the same waveform and greatly increased the amplitude which is what happens when sound gets louder. I've applied a Photoshop fine dot Mezzotint filter to show more sound energy. The background has a linear gradient overlay from white to red to show high kinesthetic empathy and intensity.

Piece number three is called "soft" or "piano".  The same waveform is reduced in amplitude compared to the top piece. Once again, quiet sounds show the same pattern but much less amplitude. I've used a few soft colors of the rainbow spectrum and applied them to a linear gradient at an angle to simulate a partial rainbow background to generate a softer kinesthetic empathy.

Piece number four is called "distortion" . Distortion is caused by overdriving a sound wave. I've taken the clear cello sound wave and applied a ripple filter to give the jagged, less defined shape that would be seen when distortion occurs. The black background gives a dark and sinister kind of kinesthetic empathy associated with heavy metal music. 

Piece number five combines progressive and alternating rhythm. The progressive rhythm is found in the recurring pattern of the repeating waveform. The alternating rhythm is found in the background. I've used variations of the gradient to show the left and right side coming towards the viewer. The center section goes away from the viewer. I've also tried to vary the waveforms to follow this contour. The largest sections would be in the lighter part of the gradient while the smaller section is in the dark section. The idea was to create motion by following the alternating rhythm of the background.

 

    

Balance Assignment

 Here is my balance assignment. I've used around 15 items from the kitchen to put this together. I've used asymmetrical balance in two places: the plate with table settings and a play on straight lines with the egg slicer, honey dipper, spatula and the cheese slicer shown in a partial arc. There is also some movement with the straight lines of the cake knife, ice cream scoop, wooden spoon and the meat tenderizer. There is a subtle attempt at humor on the left side. The tea bag strainer looks like the side profile of a face with no eyes. Below it is the wooden spoon and the measuring spoons making a moon shaped eye. Enjoy.    

Balance - Part 2

Balance - Part 1

 

Negative Spaces

Scale and Proportion Assignment

Here is my work for this week's assignment. I've taken a digital photograph of my cello and used it to demonstrate scale and proportion. There are different size cellos for players of different ages. The composition shows a full size cello (4/4) and a 1/4 size cello along with the bows. I've used a musical scale with a bass clef to tie it all together. Cello music is played from the bass clef.

Emphasis and Focal Point Assignment

Emphasis By Contrast:
Here is an example of emphasis by contrast and is similar to the textbook example on page 58. There are in essence two focal points defined by the black and white striped pattern on the hat and bag. It's interesting how the black stripes stand out when compared to the dark background. The white stripes also stand out much more than the jacket.  

http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/principl/rhythm/rhythm.htm


Emphasis By Isolation:
This is an example that incorporates a few of the emphasis and focal point topics. I am choosing to see this picture as creating a focal point by isolation. The painting called Nighthawks by Edward Hopper shows a dark and lonely street corner. Inside the diner are four people that are the subject of the painting. All the other parts of the painting fade into the background as we focus on the scene inside the diner.

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper 1942 Oil on Canvas


Emphasis by Placement:
Once again I've chosen a painting by Edward Hopper to demonstrate the creating of a focal point through placement. The painting shows a scene of a house with a line of trees in the background. The house, grass and trees are well lit. The window section of the house is shown to be shaded but the sunlight is illuminating the inside of the room. The focal point to me is the illuminated lady inside the room. With out the figure of the lady placed in the window I don't feel that there would be a focal point to the painting.     

Cape Cod Morning by Edward Hopper 1950


Emphasis By One Element:
This is an example I found on Google Images of a one element, dominant focal point. Although the berry is in fact small in size all the focus is centered on it. I find it interesting that there is a very shallow depth of field which allows the background to fade and contributes to the strong focus on the berry.

 

Google Images

 Absence of Focal Point:

Here is my final example of this assignment showing the absence of a focal point. In my opinion non-representational art portrays this idea very well. As I look at this painting by Jackson Pollock there is nothing specific that jumps out as a focal point. The painting is a complete mix of lines and swirls of various colors without a clear subject to focus on. 

Jackson Pollock

Unity Assignment

Proximity: After reading the text section on proximity I remembered an old Jimi Hendrix album cover. Here is a picture of the album cover. The artist composed Jimi in the middle with the other two members of the group on either side of him. The effect is that of the picture being inside a glass ball. The picture shows curvature of space and depth.


(Jimi Hendrix Experience album cover 1967) 

Repetition (Similarity): Here is an interesting example of repetition with an emphasis on similarity. These are old post office boxes shown at an interesting perspective.

(Various sources)

Repetition (Variety): I thought this was a very clever example of repetition with an emphasis on variety. The M&M's are all the same shape but the different colors add variety to the same shapes.
(http://sorryabouthatbud.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/repetition-and-variety/)
        




Continuation: The example in this picture shows the continuation of the line of the train extending to the line of the bridge. Seem like here are a lot of variations on this idea.



(Source unknown - http://130marilynkallstrom.blogspot.co/2011/02/21-unity-through-continuation.html)



The Grid: Here is an example of the grid being used as an organizing factor in a travel brochure for the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My family has been to the Outer Banks many times. How much better to analyze literature from this spectacular place. This brochure uses the grid in a few ways. The header spans both pages. The bottom left side uses a grid with four horizontal rows. The bottom right uses a grid of three vertical columns. This overall approach gives variety and produces an interesting brochure.

(http://bighousedesign.com/portfolio-items/outer-banks-tourism-brochure/)



Chaotic, Unreadable Image: The QR Code came to mind when the topic of chaotic unreadable images was brought up. Of course this is machine readable but to the human eye it is meaningless. The image just appears to be a maze of random black squares of various sizes seemingly without meaning or design.



(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code)

Non-Objective Expression of Unity: This idea was a little harder for me to grasp. Here is a non objective example that I found. The objects are unified by proximity and color.







(http://angres.deviantart.com/art/Asymmetry-Non-Objective-Art-112505149)

Figurative Expression of Unity: Once again this was a bit of a hard concept to grasp. For this example I chose the Mona Lisa. I see a unity between the colors of the subjects skin tone and the horizon of the sky. There is also unity of color between the clothes and the landscape.

(Mona Lisa - Leonardo DiVinci)

Blog Post #1

My knowledge of two dimensional art is very limited. That's why I'm taking this course. My initial understanding of two dimensional design would be something with width and height but no depth. I'm sure there is whole world to this subject and I'm looking forward o learning all about it. Here is my first thought about a two dimensional design. The picture is a work by Escher. I have always appreciated his works and found them to be very clever in the way that he blended images between the transitions from black to white and white to black.