Class Info

  • Date: Sept 26
  • Meeting Info: P125
  • Activities: Go over sketches for Project Two with professor

To-Do Before Class

  1. Project 2: Word Map & 20 Sketches
  2. We will look at your completed work during the critique next class.

Project 2 Next Steps

Reflect

Stand back from your thumbnail sketches. Spread them out if you have space.

  • Your forms should be sketched in two ways:
    • as a series of an obvious figure-ground compositions
    • as a series an ambiguous figure-ground compositions
  • Look at all of your sketches and make sure you are working with filled shapes, no lines, texture or pattern – just black and white shapes.
  • Observe how the figure and ground relate. Are the figure and ground present in equal proportions or unequal? Does the ground support the figure or fight for dominance? Is the artifact still recognizable or has it been abstracted?
  • Make a star or circle next to the three best stable and the three best ambiguous compositions.

Experiment

Taking tracing paper, experiment with your sketches, trying them in symmetrical and asymmetrical compositions.

Study the Design Principles

  • Unity: Refers to the unifying quality that makes a composition look complete and finished. Unity gives us the feeling that all the elements relate to each other to form a unified whole.
  • Economy: Using only the elements necessary to communicate an idea, emotion, or formal concept. Less is more.

To-Do After Class

Refine – Final Sketch

Choose your 2 best obvious and 2 best ambiguous figure-ground thumbnail sketches. Each concept should be represented in a stable figure-ground composition and in an ambiguous figure-ground composition.

Refine: Use a full page in your sketchbook (9×12″) to redraw and refine your 4 compositions. See this guide.

  • Draw 4 squares (3×3″) with 1″ between them.
  • Using a soft pencil fill in all the negative space. Leave the positive space white. Or visa-versa, if you’ve reversed the positive and negative shapes.
  • You should have only solid, black and white shapes when you are finished. No lines or patterns.
  • Using an economy of organic and/or geometric shapes, the final compositions should feel unified.
  • There should be a clear transition from your thumbnail sketches to your refined, final sketches.

Materials needed for NEXT CLASS

  • sketch book (9″x12″)
  • graphite pencils (Venus or similar 6B, 2B, HB, 2H, 4H)
  • pencil sharpener (basic metal)
  • small box/container for your supplies (find or reuse)
  • Pigma Micron inking pens + big brush Set
  • metal ruler