Butterfly Fairy Princess

This is a photo of my daughter as a Butterfly Fairy Princess splashing in a mushroom.

The mushroom is commonly known as "Chicken of the Woods". I took this picture at Bennett Spring State Park, Missouri on July 22, 2007. It was roughly 14inches in diameter. The picture of Raevan and the butterfly was taken at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, Missouri on July 23, 2007.

Study in Repetition

This assignment consisted of creating either a design or motif for the first image. The second image was to be a repetitive pattern. The design could be flipped, mirrored, or tiled. Whatever it took to achieve unity and balance.

The first part of this process was creating the motif. I did this by experimenting with different motif possibilities on graph paper. This allowed me to make sure that the positive and negative spaces matched up precisely with each side. I then scanned the motif’s to which worked best as a pattern.

Upon making the decision for the motif that created the most balance and unity, I set to perfecting it in PhotoShop. This proved to be a very time consuming, yet rewarding, task. I chose to use contrasting colors of purple and yellow, and green as an accent color. Keeping it three colors, or less, I felt was important to maintain the unity and balance.

The next step in the process was to create the pattern. I had intended on having the edges vertical, and the middle two rows horizontal. This was too much movement, however. I then chose to keep it simple by tiling the motif, as if it was ceramic wall tiles, or fabric. I feel the end result to have the rhythm, balance, and unity in the repeating pattern that I desired from the beginning.

I do think I will try the other two sketches...So stay tuned :D

Posted by Laura McDowell at 7:06 AM

Study in Positive and Negative Space

The assignment in Positive and Negative space consisted of finding making an 8x10 image of a black alphabet letter on white background.

There were some requirements:

• The positive and negative space has to be close to a 50%/50% ratio.
• The image has to produce atleast 5 seperate shapes in the negative space.
• The letter has to touch all four sides.

There were some options:

• The letter can be of any alphabet in any language.
• The edges of the letter may be cropped out.
• The letter may be edited to meet the requirements above.

The process of deciding which letter wasn’t difficult. I was originally going to pick a thick cursive “L” with sweeping lines. However, when I came across the font Old English Text MT was exactly what I needed.

I did need to edit the original font to add some weight to make it approximately half of the image. I also added a few extras to soften up the negative space, and make the outcome of the second part more interesting. Finally, I thinned out the negative space in the center of the letter.

Original and edited font, for comparison:

For the second portion I completed eight design variations. The first one was balanced, but the negative space made somewhat of a character, thus changing focus to the background. This negated the concept of using the negative space in Image one and the positive space for Image 2:

Other tries seemed to be too random:

The one I finally chose was due to the balance I seemed to achieve. In this image, the balance can be seen from top to bottom, as well as left to right. I had one heavy piece, and by combining all but one of the other pieces, the finished image seemed to have unity and balance. The integrity of the white becoming the positive space is most prevalent in this one, in my opinion:

Study in Color

This assignment consisted of seven images. The images were to be made up of basic shapes arranged in a way allows the viewer to asses the relationship of the colors.

Image one and and two are made up of the primary colors against both black and white backgrounds:

Looking at the two studies side by side, one sees a definite switch of emphasis. The design on the black background is more balance with each color seemingly sharing intensity. The same image on the white background, however, intensifies the blue shapes, as the yellow circle in the center seems to blend into the white background. The vibrancy of the colors is much more intense set against the black background. The one thing that seems to be an interesting effect is that of the red circle in the center of the yellow circle. The set in the black background seems to have a receding red circle, whereas in the white the red seems to be in front of the yellow circle.

Images 3 and 4 were to be the same shapes as the secondary colors on black and white backgrounds:

Once again, the black background increases the intensity of the colors. The focus of these images has changed from the center circle, as in the primary, to the orange portions in the black background. The white background seems to make the purple portions stand out the most. The relationship between the colors are an interesting aspect of this design. The orange set against the purple takes on a cooler hue, and those set against the green take on a warmer hue. The green reacts accordingly with it’s surroundings, as well. However, it is the intensity that changes for the green. The green that is set against the purple takes on a darker shade than that behind the orange. These color relationship changes are equally seen in both the black and white backgrounds.

Images 5 and 6 were to be the same image, once again, using the 6 tertiary colors.

There is so much going on with this color scheme that it is hard to focus on one aspect. One thing that stood out right away is the trapezoids seem to be larger against the black background then those on the white. With the primary and secondary designs there was certain unity about them. The whole picture provide a focus, and the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines of sight were easily established. In this set; however, there seems to be a vertical line through the cool images, that separates the top half from the bottom.

As far as color relations, the blue-green does seem to be cooler as a background for the yellow-green then that against the yellow-orange. The red-purple in the center of the blue-purple seems to be an entirely different hue than that set against the yellow-green. In the past images the black background seems to intensify all of the colors. In this one the blue-green is less saturated than against it’s white counterpart.

Image 7 was to be the image that is, in my opinion, the most harmonious. The emphasis is to be circled and followed by an explanation on why:

This one is, in my opinion, the most harmonious of the six images. The colors seem to belong to each other, and to the black background. This image creates a sense of depth that literally pulls the eye to the center. However it’s not the center that is the main focus, but the action created by the trapezoids that catches the viewers attention. It’s almost as if a box has been opened, and the thrill is not what’s inside, but the act of opening it.

Conclusion

In my first design I chose just three shapes arranged as they are now. Once I came to the tertiary portion of the assignment I quickly realized that more shapes were needed. Both to fit all six colors in, and to adequately observe the relations between the colors. I am still not fond of the tertiary sets. I am accustomed to sticking with a two to three color combination, thus the tertiary sets seem to be overwhelming.