Assignment #4 Chair Quadrant Abstraction

Hepplewhite inspired

 

 Inspiration
Halloween decorations

Dre Renayne's style and stuff

 My friend Blue's art work

 And her Pink toed ballerina tarantula which terrifies me.

 

Sketches

Actual drawings

Color schemes & details

 Hanging in class

 

I was assigned quadrant C which threw me off. I was expecting it to be the bottom left quadrant and was already planning to use my top view for the assignment but it ended up being the top right quadrant so I decided on the front view. Thankfully I left that particular one devoid of the most color and was able to have a bit more leeway with it.

First things first, I needed to look at just my quadrant to see what I had to work with. The picture was a bit crooked to this is not the exact middle but it is still the upper left quadrant of my front view Hepplewhite chair design pattern.



 

 I cut out some paper from a roll I have and taped it to a door while at work. I decided to enlarge my quadrant image. I of course had to tweak it slightly so that it was exactly the upper left quadrant ending at the middle while maintaining the proper proportions.

 

 

I know placing anything in the middle of the paper is never a good idea but the point of this piece for me was to be distracting without the eye resting on any one focal point in an effort to hide my quadrant form while still being able to find it if looking for it. After drawing the form on my paper I then used a ruler to extend and add all the lines across this paper to just dissect this form until it was good and obscure. I then went back over and free handed some curved lines the break up the paper further, particularly the edges because they ended up in giant chunks.

  The only colors I had in my chair design were yellow (Because I wanted a gold color and didn't have any so yellows and oranges are the next closest thing), red, and black. I decided to do a yellow wash in water color across the entire paper and fill in the shaped I wanted with those three colors and their variations. Colors like: maroon, burgundy, orange, light green, pink, magenta, etc... I was going to go over certain lines in black marker but I decided not to because I thought it would detract from my piece.

My goal was not actually to hide any lines so much as bring attention to certain shapes. In fact, I feel being able to see the lines that make up the smaller internal shapes when up close to be a positive as it adds more detail and distraction for the eye to follow.

 I was very upset that I could not find my chalk pastels (Still cannot find them) so I used all water colors and then brought out some additional shapes with layers of color pencil and marker in certain areas. You cannot see the quadrant form at all unless you are looking for it, which was the goal. I was going to outline the major shapes in black but I thought better of it. I felt it would take away from the overall piece and swallow some of the smaller shapes. I still feel like it could have benefitted from an extra layer of chalk pastel to add some more variation in texture and color but I had to rely on the marker and color pencil to do the job well enough in stead.
 

Below are three different views of my piece so you can get a feel for what it would look like if you were to walk around it.

 

CRITIQUE TAKE AWAYS AND FINAL PRESENTATION

 

 

 

I felt my critique had some harsh (but not malicious) commentary. I came back with a few string take-aways. Clearly I went a bit overboard if everyone except Greg had difficulty seeing my quadrant in the piece. I have high lighted it above for reference. Some of the comments I received were as follows: "not enough substance, lacks in craftmanship and professionalism, the paper was wonky, cut wobbly, there was little or no variation in line weight or chroma, a failed attempt at creating depth, and it resembled a child-like exercise". That last one was particularly difficult to hear but it was a dose of reality; and though I may want to sulk, it was a very constructive commentary and I hope that I can only do better.

 

I realized that some things mentions were actually thoughts I had had myself and either dismissed or was unsure on how to execute properly. I mentioned above that I wanted certain lines to stand out but I thought black ink would be too strong and decided to dismiss that thought. It had not crossed my mind that I simply would have changed some line weights to get some variation in there. I was relying in the shapes themselves and their colors too much. I had not really considered depth as I should have because I was so focused on splintering this image and making each piece individual. I had considered making the edges darker and ignored it. I realize after listening to critique that I could have made all the edge pieced with increased chroma while keeping the color variations in tact and lowering the saturation of the pieces in the center. That probably would have really helped me a lot. Looking back, I should have gone back over my edges again with a ruler and created cleaner cuts. I also see how perhaps mounting this on foam-core may have prevented warping and been a wiser decision; and hearing the seeing an example of what a good job looks like it class will really help me in the future.

 

Going into this project, I was not sure what to expect and I never thought I was great. In fact, I don't think I'm actually particularly good at anything. I'm just mediocre or semi-decent at a little of everything. That said, I still thought with the size and medium that I was being pretty ambitious and that my idea of literally putting my quadrant in the center of the paper and expanding on it was a smart decision. I see now that it was still full of missed opportunity and I suspect that my assignments will only grow to be increasingly difficult. I can only strive to do better and I am thankful for what I have learned from this experience. I still need to see how I can manage to progress in terms of "ambitious projects" and I think I will find it to be a real struggle.