Garfield Crumbie

Fahrenheit 451 Art Piece

This artwork is designed to introduce a new concept into an original piece of work that people never knew could be created. It ignites a new form of art that can potentially cause the viewer to rethink the whole concept of the subject. It also depicts a message that will give a certain vibe to the viewer. Every other art piece that is similar to this one, such as the “Humument” has its own message and vibe that is conveyed, and can be brought forth by using certain colors. The saturation, or even the hue of each color is a significant trait that can either bring together, or take away from the concept of the art.

My art piece in particular is from the text of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Coming from the first page, I skimmed the paragraphs in search of words that could be placed together in order to make a new sequence. I had to decide if I wanted the sentence to carry out the same message from that of the novel, or if it should take a different direction. In the end it seems to convey the same dark vibe compared to a story about a Utopian society. It was not a difficult goal. It took about 5 minutes to find the proper words that coincide with each other and maintain a certain meaning. I was left with a satisfying result that states, ” It was his head-burning down- and the fireflies in the furnace died and grinned- Later- that smile never ever went away- he walked one inch along the earth as he felt the air there, and detected the temperature rise ten degrees”. The sentence structure has a flow that is broken, which makes the sentence seem incomplete.

In order to find the correct color for this art piece, I had to determine what would represent the message that is being conveyed. In the piece, there are numerous references to heat which in my opinion, can portray an “evil” tone. Words such as ” burning”, “furnace”, or even “rise ten degrees”, let me know that I need to search for colors that represent high energy. The colors that immediately came to mind was red, yellow, and orange. Generally, these are colors that you see in flames, or any thing that involves heat, which can give off high amounts of energy. I chose to adjust these colors in Adobe Illustrator  to make a color palette so that I have a guide for the process. This is the most interesting part of the art piece, because it is the most engaging by allowing me to experiment with numerous colors. In the process of searching for the best color, I discovered colors that seemed like some sort of an illusion. I had to make sure the colors were not too saturated because it would take away from the high energy that I need to convey. After this portion of the piece was complete, I was left with the colors red, red-orange, and yellow orange.

Figuring out how to get these colors onto the actual piece was another project in itself. I printed out several copies of the text to experiment on in order to see which one will come out the best. I decided to make the words pop out from the rest of the page by outlining them with jagged lines. This is a technique used in comic art to depict an explosion or catch the readers attention. I then used a lay out palette that showed the dominant colors that would be the background shade of this piece. The secondary colors would be where I want the readers attention to be drawn to. This section contains colors with the least saturation and high value. The main purpose of this art work is to emphasize the mood of the text by highlighting the key words that make it this way it is. The end result depicts a new scene for readers, that holds a similar concept.