MoMA:
I took color inspiration from Max Ernst’s work “The Blind Swimmer”. In this painting, Ernst uses light and bright colors, and green and red form complementary relationship. So I use several complementary relationship in my work as well. I also took space inspiration from Oskar Schlemmer’s work “Oskar Schlemmer”. In this painting, there is a two perspectives where the first part of people climbing stairs. The vanishing point is inside the painting. In my work, I also applies two point perspectives that viewers can see both the front side and profile side of architectures at the same time. And my work’s vanishing point is also inside the painting.
Max Ernst, The Blind Swimmer 1934
Oskar Schlemmer, Oskar Schlemmer 1932
Times Square Photos:
Pictures that I took at the Time Square are either 1 point perspective or 2 point perspectives. When I was taking pictures at the Time Square, there were a large number of tourists, and some of them were taking selfie as the first picture shown. I want to mainly focus on 1 point perspective, but have 2 point perspectives in the bottom of the painting. I reference the structures of architectures at the Time Square in my own work. Architectures are layering together at the Time Square, so there are some different perspectives in one building, such as the second picture. There is a cylinder billboard and having a rectangular build above it. Architectures are lying aside the road, so if one looks from the beginning at the road, the whole architectures group at the Time Square is mainly 1 point perspective, but have 2 point perspectives near one (the beginning of the road). The third and last pictures show such structures.
Perspective Analysis:
The first photo is taken besides the road. It’s a 1 point perspective photo, and the vanishing point ends at the end of the road and is inside the photo. The second photo is taken in front of the steps of the North end. It’s a 1 point perspective photo. The vanishing point is on the billboard at the bottom and is inside the photo. The third photo is taken in front of a building at the Time Square. It’s a 2 point perspective photo, because both the front side and the profile side of the building can be viewed at the same time.
Line Drawing:
Illustrator file:
In this assignments, we need to change the Time Square into something else, but remain the structure of the architectures at the same time. I immediately think about castle groups. Castles and the architectures at the Time Square share some similarities. They all have layering architecture structure, and most of them are the combination of cylinder and rectangular. I want to create fairy-tale and dreamy environment in my image, so I choose complementary colors to paint castles, such as blue and orange, purple and yellow. I make colors light and shallow, so they are more dreamy rather than realistic.
Final image after working in photoshop:
In the final image, I add some details of texture into it. I add some lines of bricks into castles and the road. I also deal with the light sources. I make windows more bright and reflecting some lights according to imaginary light sources. And I make the bottom of the right side building darker, because I imagine the light comes from the back of the building. I also add a carriage in front of the castle to make the entire image have more mid-century vibe.
