Marsha Roberts/Final project

Description of process.

I actually enjoyed creating my final project! It was very time consuming and took forever but I learned so much. I started out staring at a blank canvas and feeling freaked out because I had no idea what I wanted to do for this project. Once I had an idea, it was fun. When I started to create this composition, I knew I wanted to create something that would be fun and different. I wanted to create a piece of art, not just a design. I decided to start off using the basic shapes that I have used from the beginning of this class. I created the background with a large rectangle. Then I created a large ellipse and some triangles. I added texture, filters and colors. As the design started to come to life, I wanted to create depth with volume so I started to add shadows and trying some overlapping to see what affect it would have on the design. I created some small ellipses and tried to make them look like Easter eggs. I added shading and put a glow on some of the eggs. I changed the opacity and scale to make some of them appear farther away than the others. Once I had all the Easter eggs placed where I thought they looked uniformed and balanced, I tried to make them all show a form of motion by positioning them so that they would appear to be floating around the design in a semi-close pattern. Finally I went out on the web and found images of baby chicks and placed them in the composition. I wanted to throw in that extra abstract piece to the design. In my final project, I listened to Deepak about the chick (AKA “rat”) being a distraction to the design. I moved the chick that was exaggerated in scale. I scaled the chick down and placed it close to the center of the design so that it appears to be standing on the shiny floating metal. I used the burn tool around the feet, eye, mouth and feathers and a drop shadow behind the chick so that the chick would have the illusion that it is actually standing on the metal. With the chicks in the eggs, I brought the opacity down so they would appear to be in the actual eggs. I added a drop shadow to them so they would have some depth and volume inside the egg and also added a lighting effect. Finally, I changed the colors of the smaller eggs and played around with the opacity and lighting effects until I was happy with the finished product of my composition. I struggled with the tools through this whole course. There were times when I wanted to throw my laptop out of the window and scream! Now that we are at the end of this course, I feel like I can finally create a design without a melt down and that I have at least a basic understanding of the tools. I can finally remember what I used and how I used it to get the effect I want on an image or element that I am working with. I also feel like I am walking away with so much knowledge that I didn’t own at the beginning of this class. It’s an awesome feeling!

Artist Statement

With my final project, I wanted to create an asymmetrical composition that was a mixture of abstract elements contrasted with elements that exist in everyday life. When I first started the project, I spent a lot of time brain storming about what type of design I wanted to create. In my mind, I knew I wanted it to be based around an Easter theme but I wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted to go about developing this design. It seemed like everywhere I went; I was trying to find inspiration around me. I also spent some time online looking around the web for inspiration. I sat at my computer, played around with Photoshop and Illustrator but there still wasn’t any creative ideas coming to mind. I have found through this class that I spend a lot of time thinking about what I am going to design even when I am not working on the assignments. Getting away from the computer sometimes will actually help me find inspiration for a design. I finally had an idea come into my head and I couldn’t wait to get started.

To create my design, I wanted to create a piece of art, not just a design. I have learned that I like using asymmetrical balance in a composition so this was my intended goal. I decided to start off using the basic shapes that I have used from the beginning of this class. I created the background with a large rectangle. Then I created a large ellipse and some triangles. I added texture, filters and colors. As the design started to come to life, I began to see radial balance in my design because of the triangles radiating out from the center of the design. I wanted to create an emphasis on depth with volume so I started to add shadows and overlapping to see what affect it would have on the design. I created some small ellipses and tried to make them look like Easter eggs by adding a few tiny lines and dots with the pencil and paint brush tools. I added shading and put a glow on some of the eggs. I changed the opacity and scale to make some of them appear farther away than the others. Once I had all the Easter eggs placed where I thought they looked uniformed and balanced, I tried to make them all show a form of motion by positioning them so that they would appear to be floating around the design in a semi-close pattern. This could be a part of the Gestalt Theory, Law of Similarity or Proximity, the similar or close ellipse elements can be grouped together because of their similarity and proximity to each other. Finally, I wanted to throw in some more abstract contrast by using everyday life elements along with the elements that I had created in Illustrator. I went out on the web and found an image of a new baby chick and placed it in the composition. I scaled the baby chick to an exaggerated size to create volume and positioned it to have the illusion of being close up in the composition.

In my final project of this composition, I made a few changes to my design. I moved the chick that was exaggerated in scale. I scaled the chick down and placed it close to the center of the design so that it appears to be standing on a shiny floating piece of metal. This shiny metal piece became the focal point of my composition. I used the burn tool around the feet, eye, mouth and feathers and a drop shadow behind the chick so that the chick would have the illusion that it is actually standing on the metal. With the chicks in the eggs, I brought the opacity down so that they would have an illusion of being inside the actual eggs. I added a drop shadow behind the chicks so that they would have some depth and volume inside the egg and also added a lighting effect. Finally, I changed the colors of the smaller eggs and played around with the opacity and lighting effects until I was happy with the finished product of my composition.

For the most part, I think I successfully accomplished my stated goals for my final project. The only thing that changed from my stated goals in the beginning was that I thought the composition was going to be more concrete than abstract and it turned out to be more abstract than concrete. Being new to the Adobe tools has been a challenge throughout this course. I am finally starting to feel comfortable with some of the tools. During the time that I was creating my final project, I discovered more things that the tools accomplish! For the first time, I felt somewhat successful with the tools and didn’t have a splitting headache by the time I was done. I am very pleased with the outcome of my final project. I utilized what I have learned to create a design that I never thought I could create five weeks ago! I went from being a person who couldn’t create anything in Photoshop and Illustrator to someone who can. This is a very challenging class but it is a very educational and beneficial class. I have enjoyed it and have learned more than I ever thought I would.

Chicks incorporated into my design were found at: www.reddirtchickenranch.com

Final Project-Design Drafts (Week 5)

I created four thumbnails from the same composition. In this design, I tried to create visual interest by combining elements that we encounter in everyday life with abstract elements. My design has asymmetrical balance, unity, depth and volume along with radial balance. I used scale and exaggerated size to help bring in the illusion of depth and volume along with overlapping, shading, texture and filters. I tried to use the Gestalt Theory in my creation. I think this was accomplished with the “law of familiarity” because when my step-daughter looked at the design, she related it to a fan blowing really hard and making everything blow away like it was in whirl wind. I found some baby chicks at a website called www.reddirtchickenranch.com . I scaled the chicks, changed the opacity and put them in the eggs to balance the abstract pattern with the everyday elements in my design. I think I successfully accomplished my project goal.

Color Studies

This assignment turned out to be harder than I imagined it would be! I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to work the tools to accomplish what I wanted to get done. I decided to go with colors that resemble Easter since I incorporated somewhat of an Easter theme into an abstract composition. I also decided to go with primary colors for my Triadic scheme. The Triadic scheme I used is Red, Yellow and Blue. These hues are equally spaced on the color wheel. In my second design, I used the Split Complementary theme. I used shades of violet, yellow green and yellow orange. My third scheme is Monochromatic. This utilized one hue, yellow/orange, and can vary in value. Finally in my last color scheme I used Analogous. This scheme combines several hues that are next to each other on the color wheel. I used blue, blue violet and violet. To me, when I look at the colors, they remind me of Easter eggs! My goal behind this design was to create an asymmetrically balanced composition that will incorporate elements we see in everyday life with abstract elements to bring in more visual interest. My intent was to show informal balance, unity, depth and volume by using a variety of exaggerated scale, overlapping, shading, texture and filters.
~Marsha