Over the course of the semester, we worked within a wide range of techniques and used new materials in creating an understanding of the relationship between people and the physical or mental spaces that they exist in. The course not only challenged me to draw the figure using a variety of techniques such as mapping, tone, and ‘boxing,’ but also encouraged me to use new mediums and different approaches to composition. Two of the assignments that I was particularly interested in were the black and white and color montages of the New York Public Library (NYPL) as well as the interdisciplinary ‘figure-ground relationship’ project.
Black and White (bottom) and Color (top) Versions of the NYPL Montage(s), Created with Adobe Photoshop
The NYPL montages were one of the projects that I had the most fun with and really enjoyed making. We started with the black and white version first which really pushed me to consider the tonal values of the NYPL in order to create depth and space. The process of using photoshop to layer basic geometric shapes over one another in order to create dimension was one that I initially struggled with and had to go through a few rounds of ‘trial and error’ to understand how the forms were to be placed in relation to each other. Making the color version of the NYPL montage was much easier as I knew where to improve on mistakes I had made in the black and white version; it also was an opportunity to improve on my technique of making the larger forms such as the walls and curved railings, ensuring that my craft was good and that my lines were clean. The color version was also a great opportunity for working with color – which I solemnly use in my work – and understanding how colors interact with one another to create dimension and a sense of space.
Stool and Figure Drawings That Resulted in the ‘Figure-Ground’ Compositions, Drawings Created with pencil on Paper and ‘Figure-Ground’ Compositions Created with Adobe Illustrator
The ‘Figure-Ground’ compositions really furthered the class’s key theme of “people and places” and emphasized creating shapes and forms from the spaces between things, as opposed to just using line. We spent several classes drawing the figure and a still-life setup of stools, while considering the presence/absence of movement, directionality and rhythm in each scene. We then scanned our drawings into Photoshop and rearranged them in an abstract composition that focused on positive and negative spaces. From the negative shapes, we created two new compositions, one that showed a white “figure” on a black background, and another in which the figure and ground were ambiguous. The project prompted me to concentrate on the relationships between the figure and ground in formally understanding the arrangement of objects and the resulting negative space that is created.
