Final Project: Minimalist Collage

My collage was about how women try to assimilate themselves by "perfecting" their bodies with enhancers but turn out to look very unnatural and scary. I used scale by choosing disproportionate features; I chose eyes that were too big for the head, and a body that was too small for the head. I placed the figure in the center bottom of the page so her hands could come off the page and it seem as though she is trying to hold on to it. The hair I chose had a large hand in it so I kept it and created it to seem as though the hand was a bigger/higher person than the "woman" and trying to fix her hair and it make it bigger while it is already perfect and big enough. I isolated the figure and did not add anything else so it could be the only thing on the page to draw attention. I also incorporated stitching the pieces together to give off a "Frankenstein" look to it in order to create unity, which I was very successful with. This piece overall is my personal favorite because it touched a very interesting realistic subject. This project is very similar to the collage project we created by incorporating proportion, scale, and isolation.

Memory Game

The condition of the deck of cards were well crafted-- there were very few to no blemishes or smudges and the colors were very opaque. Though they could have been better, much time and effort was put into creating the cards. I used repetition of the poppy flower images and created a simple design on the front and back of the cards. I created a trivia game about Remembrance Day in the UK and tested the player's knowledge on why the flower is a very strong symbol and how it has very great influence over the years. The deck of cards show unity and integration because they are the same on the front and back and show relation to each other. I had originally planned to create a game board and include dice and pawns, but it came to be more difficult than I had thought and ran out of time. I would have been more successful if I had incorporated the game board with the dice and pawns. I was very successful painting the poppy flowers onto the tracing paper and cutting them out with the cutting knife and gluing them onto the cards. This project was very similar to the "Color Spinners" project because we had to create a design and repeat it through out the piece in different scales.

Selfie: Value, Line, Shape, Negative Space

I used texture and value to create the illusion of depth by using black paint and ink mixed with water to create the grays. I showed a well use of contrast and negative space by using a white ink pen with a very tight pattern to illustrate it as the darkest dark and then gradually spaced out the pattern to differentiate between the background and my hair in the photo. with the whitest white, I used a black ink pen to create the same contrast as the white ink pen with a black background. I carefully painted and used the removable tape so no smudges or blemishes were created and was very successful. I would change the way I set up the pattern; trying to cover the entire black background was a very tedious task. This project was very similar to the "Figure/Ground" project because the objective was to use contrasting colors; the white/black ink pens created much contrast.

Archetypes

 

 

The talisman I created started with a font that looked similar to Arabic. I did not have a particular design in mind so I started to create different lines with the letters L, I, and F-- my initials. The outcome of the design was very successful and it looks like a bit like Chinese. I was very content with the image I created. For the next step, I printed a larger scale of the design and a smaller one; I went to Michaels to buy a fabric marker and a T-shirt. I used the larger scaled design to trace onto the shirt and I used the smaller version to trace onto Bristol Board. The process of tracing the design on the shirt with fabric marker was very difficult and tedious so I decided to use Sharpie instead and I had a more successful outcome. The talisman conveyed friendship because I am with or talking to my friends ritualistically. The talisman was created on a shirt starting out with myself wearing the original design. Then, the shirt was handed off to four different friends over a course of five days--each friend had the shirt for one day. Each friend that had the shirt, had to alter the original design by adding their own style to it; so as the five days went by, the design had changed. It was supposed to signify how over a course of a lifetime, those who you surround yourself with have great influence on you in one way or another. Creating my talisman on Bristol Board was a very easy and straight forward process. I had no problems with keeping my negative space clean and without blemishes anywhere on the paper. I can relate this project to the "Color Spinners" project when we started the designs on paper and had to just draw lines and switch with those at our tables. For both projects there was no control over the outcome of the design.

Eco-Art Interventions

I chose to use leaves for this project because they were very ubiquitous. The only problem I had was finding the same type of small vibrant red leaves to give it a more well-put-together and unified look all around. This site was chosen because it was very dull and dark. The vibrant yellow, orange, and red colors of the leaves would have created emphasis and line--in order to carry the viewer's eyes around in a circle around the picture. I created a unified application of materials by putting the vibrant leaves in the cracks between the sewage cover and the ground creating emphasis on the leaves. Looking at this piece, the bright color of the leaves are "enough" to catch attention and draw the eyes away from the center.

Color Spinners and Grayscale

 



This was the first composition took much detailing and time. There was use of Geometric and organic shapes, rectilinear and curvilinear. Rectilinear is a shape with pointed edges while curvilinear is a shape with curved edges. I used the acrylic paint to create very opaque colors for each shape. I was very successful in mixing colors creating lighter and darker values. I would change my application method; the more I used the acrylic paint in other compositions, the more I got the hang of it and it became easier to apply the right amount and not in excess. The grayscale composition was fairly easy and taught me how to create an incremental value. This assignment relates to the grayscale "selfie" composition because both assignments required using value. 

Blindfold Drawing

I used paper "lines" to create depth by placing tracing paper between two white lines and adding blue contrasting construction paper on top of it. The placement of the lines while being blindfolded created a difficulty in creating depth because I had trouble finding a place in this composition to create depth. I would change the placement of my lines and taken more time on it. I was successful in creating layers and I found this as a way of learning to work with what you have. The color and lines unified my composition by creating a contrast and most lines were touching other lines. My composition was very neat and did not have any blemishes. This assignment can relate to the "Texture and Line" assignment because you had to create line, unity, and contrast to create a texture like pattern which relates to creating depth in this composition.

Texture and Line

This assignment was most difficult for me because it was very hard to create a very tight pattern and I was inexperienced with the dip pen. I would change my last row of patterns to create something tighter and more texturized. I successfully created movement and pattern throughout both pieces. This composition taught me how to use line, shape, and motion; as well as getting the hang of a dip pen. This assignment relates to the grayscale "selfie" assignment because of the use of line and contrast along with positive and negative space. Adding areas of negative space gave more texture and definition to my composition because it made the positive space become more defined and stand out more creating more contrast. This composition was one of the very first assignments and as I was still getting the hang of being precise and neat with my artwork, I only had little smudges and blemishes. Now, I have made progress in keeping my artwork neat and blemish free.

Figure/Ground

My composition started with a "curly" I which could represent a cursive capitalized L or just an I. In my figure/ground composition, I created unbalance by starting from the top corner creating a "falling off of a cliff" effect in the far right piece. I also created a sense of unity by connecting each corner of the pieces of the letter. The strongest element in the construction of my figure piece, was line/motion. I created a motion of something "falling off the edge." I was most successful with creating a very clean and neat abstracted image. I would want to change the placement of my figure piece to create a different "state of being." Overall, this piece was my most successful and enjoyable. This assignment relates to the "Texture and Line" assignment because our original piece ended up being abstracted in the end and we had to create contrast while using negative space.

Collages: Minimalist and Maximalist

In my collage compositions, I used scale, isolation, and placement to create emphasis. In the "maximalist" collage, I used scale by choosing bigger men sleeping and also chose smaller people as well as mountains scaled to be smaller than the "sleeping giants." Next, I used placement by placing the "giants" on top of the mountain and leaning against them sleeping. and placed the smaller people in the grass. Lastly, I used isolation by isolating the "giants" from the people.
In  the "minimalist" collage, I used placement by placing the facial features on a background of many birds. I placed the eyes, lips, and nose in accordance to a face. I chose larger scaled eyes and smaller nose, eyebrows, and lips so the eyes would be emphasized more, in which I was successful.
I would do minor changes to both compositions because the water on the bottom of the page in my "maximalist" collage competes with the "giants" for emphasis because they are the same color scheme. I would add a bit more to the face to emphasize the eyes in my "minimalist" collage. I successfully emphasized what I chose to be emphasized and had overall success in creating both compositions. Both compositions were well organized, clear, and blemish/smudge free. This assignment relates to the "figure/ground" composition because we were supposed to create contrast and emphasis on a figure in both compositions.

Grayscale Selfie Composition

I was successfully able to create incremental value with the ink. At first, it was challenging to get the value I desired; I had to go over the part I wanted to be darker several times. There is contrast and emphasis going on all over the composition where the whitest white value contrasts against the gray spots around my face along with the black background causing my face to standout and be emphasized. I was very detailed, though I could have added a little more around the grayscale values on my face. My piece was clear with no smudges besides a small blemish on the bottom right corner due to the paint sticking to the tape I used to protect the border but overall, I was successful with the quality. I could have added a couple more details so the values would contrast better against each other and unified the entire piece. I successfully created a nice grayscale value throughout this composition. This assignment relates to the grayscale assignment because we had to create a grayscale value from whitest white to blackest black and this was very similar with ink.