Project 2 – Tonal Portrait

 Project 2 – Tonal Portrait

                                                     Project sketches:

    From my sketches, I aimed to create a cohesive yet simple album cover that thoroughly encapsulated Kendall's essence. From my first two sketches, the shoe and the lily flower, I realized that I wanted to tie them together, making my representation stronger. The idea for Kendall's shoe came from the idea of how people's styles can say a lot about them, so I took inspiration from her shoes that she wears often, which are a coral color and represent (in my opinion) whimsy.

Here are the shoes, for reference.

Final rendition:

Reflection:

    For my take on this project, I decided to make an album cover that represents the classmate I got, Kendall. For my hue, I chose orange, as Kendall is a fun, spunky person. I believe that you can tell a lot about a person by judging them by their style. From this, I decided to have my album cover be the shoes that Kendall often wears to class. They are an orange-ish coral color and tie into her overall style well. Additionally, I added lily flowers coming out of them, as when I think about Kendall, she gives me vibes of someone outgoing, carefree, and casual. I used different tints, tones, and shades of orange to push the limits of the monochromatic requirements, while still being cohesive. By having the flowers sprout out of the shoe, I intended the feel of the painting to give off a warm and fun feeling. This project challenged me, as I haven’t used paint, especially acrylic, for any project or assignment up until this point. But, by experimenting with color and different brush sizes, I used symbolism more than anything to represent Kendall as an individual. When talking to Kendall about this project, she gave me pretty much free rein as to what about her I wanted to portray, and I felt as if choosing something that represents her, rather than just a portrait of her, was most insightful to the potential viewers, so they have a perspective on how others see her. With the background of the piece being a lighter orange and having outlines around parts of the show and flowers, I tried my best to encapsulate a positive connotation in regard to Kendall. This is because, from being her classmate in multiple classes, I caught a gist of how bubbly and creative her personality is. 

Project 1 – Design Foundations

 Project 1- Design Foundations

          Exploratory Studies

          Final 11" x 14" Black & White Composition

Reflection:

On the 11" x14" white paper, and using a thick Sharpie marker, I chose to explore the theme of self-expression. From this, I applied the design principles of line, shape, rhythm, and unity. Through this assignment, I got to thoroughly put on paper how and what I was feeling in the moment. This project was extremely therapeutic for me personally, as it allowed me to sit down and be completely in tune with myself and what I’m creating. Experimenting with the use of thick and thin lines was so fun to do. Along with that, the fact that the entire piece should be in black and white allowed for full creative freedom regarding using negative space and eliminated the issues that could occur when trying to choose a color palette. This also helped me immensely regarding choosing what I did and did not want filled in or blank. Upon first glance, the piece is a bit overwhelming to the eye- but that was my intent. Exploring the theme of self-expression gave me the chance to sort of just play around as I go, and additionally not be too focused on if the outcome were to be “good” or “bad”. From my perspective, this piece expresses how my brain can sometimes look. Scattered, but unified. There were a couple of lines/subjects that I added on both sides of the paper, such as the squiggly lines with the thick, alternating curved lines in the middle. This can represent recurring thoughts, and how some things can stay in an individual's head and affect them over time. Branching off of that, in the middle, I chose to sort of divide the page with the use of negative space, where I added the small, half-filled-in circles. From this, that choice can symbolize the divide that some people experience in their heads when deciphering situations. To an untrained eye, the chaos of the piece may seem a bit much, but when explained, can be broken down. I utilized the use of circles multiple times throughout the piece, and they can be interpreted as individual thoughts, flowing through one’s head. Additionally, the immense use of lines throughout the piece signifies the cluttered thoughts that can occur through someone’s head. 

Mini Design Studies x4

 

        For this assignment, I divided my piece of paper into quadrants, and went from there. On the top right, is study 1. There is repetition in the half circles, with them being filled in every two. On the bottom right, is study 2. I freehanded the squiggly lines, along with the triangles bleeding into each other, and experimented with "rhythm" with the circles along the outside of the squiggly lines. On the bottom left is study 3. I left negative space in the sections of the piece outside of the squares, leaving the content not too busy. Lastly, on the top left is study 4. In regards to minimalist unity, it's a bit busy, but at the same time, I incorporated the half filled and half not filled shapes on the corner to cohesively fill in the triangles on each corner.