Project 2- Shape Pos/Neg and Symmetry

COMD 1100 Prof Diamond

Design Element – SHAPE

Shape Project

 

Dictionary definition. “The external form or appearance characteristic of someone or something; the outline of an area or figure”.

Shapes are 2 dimensional and can be organic or geometric, irregular or regular. They may refer to a form, such as a figure, plant, object etc, but exist as a 2 dimensional area with little reference to 3 dimensional properties.

Positive and Negative shape when used in art and design refer to the areas around the dominant shape, what we usually call background.  

Project- Organic shape, positive/ negative

  1. Research– on the internet look for images of plants, flowers, leaves etc and find an image that interests you which contains an overall movement of plants, leaves etc across the page.

 

  1. Line Drawing – draw the image, or selected areas (you may do some editing or composite imaging)
    1. Sketch- do any preliminary sketching to practice shapes, composition etc.
    2. Make Sure all sides of your page are crossed over with a part of the drawing, a leaf or branch etc. Cropping on all sides!
    3. Final sketch is 9”x12” either sketch paper or directly on Bristol
  1. Transfer, Redraw or copy full sketch onto Bristol for final piece. (can use light board or lit flat glass window for tracing.
    1. Can also use tracing paper
    2. Maintain 1” border around drawing.
  1. Negative/Positive Shape—use thin and thick pens/markers for inking.
    1. Divide the composition with thin line.
    2. ½ the composition will be drawn with white positive shapes (plant shapes) on BLACK inked NEGATIVE SHAPES
    3. ½ the composition will be drawing with plant shapes in black on WHITE NEGATIVE SHAPES.
    1. PART TWO—SYMMETRY AND PATTERN
      1. Discuss Structure through symmetry principles
        1. Mirror, reflective, and radial symmetry and repetition pattern
        2. look at resources, images and examples
      2. Using Adobe Photoshop and/or Illustrator, create small modules/units from Neg/Pos shape plant drawing (transfer digitally)
        1. Unit derived from roughly 2”x2” thumbnail detail within plant drawing- Look for interesting abstract neg/pos composition.
      3. Experiment with one unit at a time, using digital tools – 
        1. Edit/Tranform—mirror, flip horizontal, flip vertical
        2. Make 4 moves of each unit design to create SYMMETRICAL DESIGN which includes MIRROR and REFLECTION symmetry.
        3. Then, expand project by reducing scale of each design and multiply/repeat to create repetition patterns.

    PLEASE  UPLOAD ON COURSE SITE ANY IDEAS OR METHODS YOU HAVE FOUND TO MOST EFFECTIVELY CREATE THIS PROJECT.