Methods of Design is class that broke down the concepts of appeal and flow of traditional and contemporary artwork. We had to sketch images of everyday objects and then chose a specific part of the sketch and create a scaled up piece. For our close-up project, I sketched a bracelet and a clothes pin from an interesting angle that you wouldn’t be so quick to identify.
Clothes Pin:
Cardboard Sculpture:
Students had to create a sculpture using the design aspect of strong negative space. I decided to go ahead and model several versions first in 3D and then print out the images to get critiqued. I ended up choosing a difficult design, but after assembling an interim version with heavy stock paper, I decided it was way too ugly and started over. My second involved much more math to in order to cut the dimensions of the cardboard, but I was much more pleased with the end result. After this, I learned to become more honest with myself and not get too attached to my design work.
I will upload some images here soon, as the sculpture is currently on display at Full Sail.
Aesthetics Project:
For our Aesthetics Project, we were required to select a piece of artwork by a popular artist that we didn’t find appealing. The art could be contemporary, traditional, renaissance, pop, etc. We were then asked to breakdown the piece and what design aspects we didn’t agree with. After explaining our intentions, we had to create the piece into something we preferred.
“Baked Potato”
By: Roy Lichtenstein
1962
Ink and Synthetic Polymer Paint on Paper
Artwork Critiques
Subjective Critique – This piece of artwork makes me feel empty and dry. The overall appearance of it makes me think the artist might have taken advantage of the “pop art” style. I almost feel offended that the artist tries to pass this off as a legitimate piece of work. Lichtenstein does many pop pieces well, but this one feels like he just “phoned it in.” The image looks as though someone possessing artistic skill created it, but with little effort.
The solid black of the potato gives me a solid feeling of stifled creativity. The filling of the potato is the same white as the background, so it gets lost within it. Overall, the piece just gives me a bland taste. Even the splash of stark yellow representing the butter doesn’t help to make it any more appetizing. If I was going to hang this on my wall, I wouldn’t be able to just leave the background blank and void of color. I would have to create a background setting for the subject, or create some kind of abstract graphic that adds emotion.
I feel like the piece is a poor attempt by the artist to create humor, like a famous comedian’s joke falling flat on an audience. I want to exaggerate the comedy of this piece, so I think I will replace the potato with a bottle of vodka. And since the best vodka comes from Russia, I will create some kind of early, Soviet or Russian propaganda poster with the red, blue and white color themes. The piece is also missing a message, so I will incorporate one of some kind within it. This message could be a satirical play on the whole piece itself.
Objective Critique – This pop art piece uses only the colors black, white, and yellow. The color Lichtenstein uses creates emphasis to draw your eye to the center of the image. The white potato filling is the same white as the background. The potato is almost completely solid black, and lacks value gradation. All of the lines used are of the same thickness and hardly vary at all. The solid black potato creates strong contrast on the white background. The stylized steam lines show the movement of the steam rising, while the splash of yellow shows the butter melting.
Pre-production
Inspirational Artwork and Design
Concept Sketch and Color | Vector Art with Illustrator
After doing some color tests, I decided on leaving out the color blue, and just going with two different shades of red. I felt the color blue made the piece feel less “Soviet” and a little too busy, or complicated.
12″ x 16″ Prints for Light-table Trace and Final Pencil
Colored Pencil Trace and Fill Progress
Finished Piece with Colored Pencil
Compare and Contrast Critique
I wanted to give the original piece more life, such as complexity, color, meaning. I kept the same sort of emphasis on the center of the piece using the yellow, but I added perspective lines to help pull the viewers eye toward the center point (butter) below the star. I also did similar lines to suggest movement like the steam lines of the original piece, but my lines represent industrial smoke, similar to the older Soviet propaganda posters. I also kept the same subjects, the potato and butter, as the original. I wanted to push the minimal humor, whether this was the artist’s original intention or not, a bit further. As a satirical play on the original, and spinning off the Soviet theme, I decided to put the potato on vodka bottle label with the butter on top. The message in my piece also serves as a satirical play on motivational messages seen on propaganda posters. The noticeable differences between the two pieces is the background and the vivid color of red. My rendition has a background which gives the piece a setting, or environment. Also, the color red in my version conveys much more power and demands attention instead of the bland, black original.
Storyboard Project:
Read the Juniper Tree story from Grimm’s Family Tales and create an adaptation using a specific dated theme. These could be scenarios such as a western, 1940’s mobster, post-apocalyptic, future sci-fi, etc. I decided to go with the post-apocalyptic theme.
We were then required to design the characters and props in the story from our imagination reflecting our particular theme. Below are some of the concept sketches I came up with.
After our concepts were approved, the storyboard had to be created using industry related terms for the camera movement and actions of the scene. Unfortunately I do not have good images to share here, but if you want to check them out, you’ll have to come visit the school as they are still on display. 🙂
the pied pixel 