Week 4 - Observation: Economy

This week I have to be on the lookout for designs with good use of Economy.

Economy means keeping it simple.
If you can remove an element from a composition and your composition still works, then leave that element out.


I remember walking through New York City. In Times Square I couldn't help but notice the amazing Lyft billboard.

At that time I couldn't really put a finger on what made it so good.


It's so simple and so easy to parse in your head.


Lyft is the most affordable ride in town.

If that sounds good, then download and go.






Here's another example of what lyft does with design.






I've always been a loyal user of Lyft. Screw Uber! :)

Week 4 - Reading: Shape and Form

Alrighty here is another episode of me doing the reading and writing down the main points.


Shape and Form

Shape - A figure that appears to be flat

Form - A figure that appears to be three-dimensional


Designs that emphasize shape





The first painting shows us how shapes are emphasized in the drawing. The painting can seem like just a trapezoid held up by two rectangles.


Geometric Shapes


Viewers all have an understanding and familiarity with geometric shapes and have preconceived notions about what they do. As an artist it is vital to be mindful of the associations viewers have with certain shapes.





Invented Shapes


These shapes do not remind us of the world on which our notions of order are based.





Enlarged Lines, Letters, and Numbers




Familar Objects





In the figure above we know that the "2" is a 2. We don't need it to be fully complete to understand that.





The poster above is for a tea ceremony where the figure is an apple.

This poster is very simple yet exquisite due to the attention to detail and asymmetry of the apple and the use of economy.





In the above painting. The figures look like an array of snails, flowers, etc.

When drawing paintings that look like figures, it is crucial to understand the associations that come along with it, as those are the things that give it a deeper meaning.


Vocab word:
Biomorphic (shape) - Shapes that remind us of structures from the natural world


Unfilled Areas as Shapes

So apparently this drawing below is a woman because of the "boobs"?





Anyways the empty space gives a feeling of a feminine figure. The paper collage on canvas is called Venus by Henri Matisse.



Sometimes the figure and ground are balanced that it's hard to tell which one is which.

When there is a perfect balance like this, it's called physical figure-ground reversal.





In the figure below, even though there is more black than white, the figure and ground can still be interchanged.

This is called optical figure-ground reversal.





Implied Shapes









Holding Shapes Together


Shapes would look like this if there was no unification. All messy and shit.




Abutting - to be next to





Interlocking - holding together like jigsaw puzzles





Suggestions of Continuity


Paintings like the one below is nice and easy to parse because of the straight lines. It's easy for our eyes to navigate through it and get what we need.





Where as painting that have more circular elements force us to take more time to grasp everything.

Week 4 - Thumbnails: "Two letters"

So my assignment was to do 15 thumbnails of my initials.

I honestly hated this assignment.

Mostly because I didn't really find it fun.

A part of me was hoping for a "Karate Kid" moment. All these drawings feel like I'm "waxing on, waxing off". Maybe one day I'll realize how much training this actually was.


The rule were that I could only use certain fonts listed on the sheet that I got in class.

One letter had to be dark and the other light.


















































To be honest, I'm not quite in love with any of these.

Maybe the combinations aren't really that great.

Some letters flow really well together but whatever. Gotta play with the cards I was dealt.

Week 4 - Reading: Line

Me being the idiot who didn't pick up the assignment paper and wasn't aware of the reading last week, this week I have to read two papers.


This paper was about lines.

All the different kind of lines and examples to demonstrate them.


Intro

Lines do not exist in nature is a cliche that reminds us that lines are more of an abstraction. Qualities like depth can be expressed with lines, however they're not really a thing in nature.

Lines can do all kinds of awesome things. Thick and thin lines gives it darkness and lightness, respectively.



Space and movement can be expressed with lines.

Lines are actually quite dynamic. We often forget about this fact until we sit down and think about them (or read about it).


Handwriting


The handwriting below can quickly tell you about the manner in which is was written. The swirly lines indicate that the characters were written quickly.

Below are three different artists that all have a distinct way of using lines to draw people.


1. Lennart Anderson




2. Jacopo Tintoretto




3. Willem De Kooning





The artwork above makes me shake my head honestly. How the fuck do they call something like that art???


The Impersonal Line


This line is the same throughout. It doesn't change in depth at all.


These are Alexander Calder's drawings.




He must really love circus acts.


And I guess he really had to make a point below about which of the people below had penises or boobs haha.



Anyways as you can see how the lines don't vary very much.



Materials & Line Qualities


Lines can be different depending on the artist.

Nicholas Maes preferred to go more hard and linear with his lines.





Whereas Ernst Ludwid Kirshner preferred to go with more soft and flowy lines.





The above drawing was done in charcoal. However this drawing is completely different than the drawing below, also done in charcoal.






Implied Lines

Some artists are a lot more sneakier in their use of lines.


Rembrandt's The Night Watch has an implied line with the top of people's heads.
There's this up and down motion of a lines as you go left to right of a page.




In Madeleine I by Henri Matisse, there's a nice flowing line through the woman's body although there isn't really a line there.





Contour: Line as Edge





The figures are singing... lol.


In Mary Cassatt's Tramway, the contours give a clear border between the shapes.





Whereas Paul Cezanne's, Seated Nude has multiple lines giving sort of a transitionary area between the sections.





And lastly in Alberto Giacometti's Vase and Cup, the lines give sort of a motion like feeling.





Line and Three-Dimensional Form


Lines within each shape give a nice 3-D feel to them.


In Jost Amman's, The Stag, the lines really give a round feeling on the Stag's body. On the ground there is a sort of "cross-stitching" that is happening. That's is called "cross hatching".

In this case it is used to indicate a flat area.




The same cross hatching is employed in Albrecht Durer's An Oriental King on His Throne, but the cross lines are used to show darkness.





Lastly in Hokusai's, Yatsuhashi (The Eight-Plank Bridge), the lines are well used to show depth.