September 28, 2023
This project had many layers. We started with figure drawing, where we were to choose from different figures and sketch them out, first practicing to get the anatomy and gesture correct, and then with a focus on the negative shapes that the angles of our figures made.
Above are the 5 figure drawings I created during these class periods. The first three were mostly to practice drawing the actual subject, and therefore i added a good amount of shading with my charcoal. The last two were made with the angles and next step in the project in mind; I knew I’d have to scan these into Adobe and use the negative space, so I used a pencil instead and tried to get clean lines.
Next, we worked on still life drawing with an arrangement of stools. This was another kind of challenge because we weren’t allowed to use rulers or guides to get the legs of the stools straight. Still, it was good practice to use my eye and practice measuring and relying on my knowledge of perspective to create the repeating ovals and parallel legs. We used pencil for this since charcoal wouldn’t give us a clean line, something we needed not only for the rest of the project but also to be able to understand the negative spaces between all the shapes.
After we had both the stools drawing and the figure drawings, we had to make a “combo composition,” where we took both of the pieces, put them into Adobe Photoshop, and layered them over and next to each other, focusing on how many interesting negative shapes we could come up with in the composition. I ended up choosing the first figure drawing I made because of the interesting angles the pose entails. We created an 11 x 17 tabloid-sized file in Photoshop and uploaded the two images. To layer them, we used a “multiply” layer which allowed us to see both drawings at the same time. I’ve rarely used Photoshop, so even though the task was pretty straightforward, it was interesting to get to know the different tools within the software. We then printed our compositions out on the tabloid-sized paper.
The next step was to trace the composition in order to get the negative shapes cut out on bristol paper. Using tracing paper and carbon paper, we cut out two sets of the white shapes in order to be able to create two more compositions: one figure and one ambiguous on 10″ x 10″ black paper. I arranged the white shapes of one set to make a figure of a person walking, and then I used the other set of white shapes to create an ambiguous landscape (we didn’t have to use all the shapes). The purpose of this was to create these two compositions using the same white shapes, but I didn’t end up using all the same shapes so it didn’t fit the criteria as well. The bottom left image is the ambiguous composition and the bottom right is the white figure.
Something I didn’t think about was using the same shapes on both sides, but it makes sense to have that as a criterion in order to make sure that the white shapes occupy the same amount of space and have an equal amount of black negative space. This is something I had to consider for the next step.
We then went into Adobe Illustrator and used the pen tool to trace our compositions.
This was my first time using Illustrator, so while I got the idea and was able to trace and use the pen tool, I ended up tracing the figure instead of the white shapes, so I had to go back to redo it for the next part of the project. Another thing that I struggled with was simplifying the figure’s shapes. I started by using a lot of anchors and points, but I had to go back and delete them to smooth out the lines to make the white shapes easier to work it.
The final part of the project was using what we learned from Illustrator and the previous ambiguous landscape and figure and putting them together into one. Using the white shapes from the pen tool tracing above, we made two black artboards of equal dimensions (10″ x 10″) and essentially did the same process as what we did when arranging the physical white bristol pieces on the black paper. We could’ve exactly remade the ones we physically made before, but since I didn’t use the exact same pieces in both pieces, I decided to use the same concept but redo it entirely.
The top left image is the white figure that I remade. My thought process this time around was to get a figure with enough shapes to be able to make the ambiguous piece. I also wanted to cover enough of the black background so the white and black pieces would feel balanced. Once I was done, I copied the pieces over to the second artboard to ensure that I would use the exact same pieces. I rearranged them, thinking about how the black space should feel equal to the white shapes. I struggled with this one because I realized I used a lot of smaller pieces in the figure, so it made it hard to get larger and continuous shapes for the ambiguous composition. I ended up adding more pieces to the figure, which is where the bag came from, in order to get more white onto the black for the ambiguous piece.
In reflection, this exercise in all was definitely a challenge for me. Starting with the figure drawing, though I am used to figure drawing and enjoy it, it was hard for me to not shade or mimic the realism. It took a couple of tries, and the switch from charcoal to pencil, to get me to understand what was actually necessary for the assignment. However, drawing the stools and the figures was probably one of my favorite aspects of the entire project. I did enjoy getting to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, albeit briefly, because it made me even slightly more comfortable with the idea of using them in the future. In general, it was nice to mimic a physical project digitally and to explore how realism can influence abstract art. It was definitely hard for me to understand this idea because of how minimally I’ve explored abstract art, but even just through this project, I’m sure this class will enable me to open my mind to it.