What I learned from this project is that anything can be simplified thru design, and can be used to communicate/represent something. Things I feel that I could have done better was to try not to focus so much on the detail and the lines, instead focus on shapes and finding the shapes in everything. On my next project, I will look for shapes in the image and find ways to simplify an image.
Overall, I enjoyed doing this project. Taking all the photos as I walked around different neighborhoods opened my eyes to everything around me and how interesting and intricate they could be. I was happy with a lot of the photos I took, and even ended up using some for my other course I’m enrolled in.
Having the project guidelines and following the process/phases helped me complete the project seamlessly, as well as teach me how to approach my work, and I’m sure that will help me in any future projects I work on in and out of this course.
I feel like I could have improved on my usage of tracing paper; I haven’t really used it before, but in the end I did manage to transfer my sketches over to bristol paper for inking. Although they were flipped, the overall composition of my work was preserved and I was ultimately happy with the end result.
Here are the links to my posts for each phase of this project, displaying my progress and process for this project: Phase 1 , Phase 2 , Phase 3
In Phase 3, I spent two and a half hours tracing and inking my compositions. Phase 3 relates to Phase 2 because I had to revisit my thumbnails and sketches, and then redraw/ink them. I traced each drawing first and then transferred them to a new sheet of paper before I begun inking.
In Phase 2, I spent three hours sketching and refining the thumbnails, as well as my full page sketches.
My first three images are respectively of broken chicken bones, ripped loose leaf, and a stem and leaf. These images all show an obvious figure/ground relationship. The stem and leaf stick out, as well as the chicken bones, and the loose leaf is very clear and distinguishable. The paper is very geometric while the chicken bones and leaf display organic shapes. My other three pictures are of chipped wood, paint splattered wood, and a tree with moss on it. These were my choices for ambiguous figure/ground relationships. They’re all mostly organic, with the exception of the chipped wood, which shows some type of geometric shaping in the literal chipped parts of it.
The chicken bones and loose leaf were found outside a school by a bus stop; I imagined both came from a student heading home who accidentally dropped some work as they were discarding their food. The leaf and stem was found on the sidewalk by someones house; It most likely fell off and out of the persons yard as a result of wind and rain. As for the wood, I discovered both in a private parking lot by people’s garages. The wood has been chipped at for years, going through many seasons; heavy rains and winds. The paint splattered wood was more fortunate not to experience as much damage over the years, could possibly be much more fresh than the other. And lastly the mossy tree is a result of the rainy weather; The day I took these photos it was raining pretty heavy actually.
I worked on this Phase for about four hours, including traveling to take pictures, choosing and editing six images from all that I took, and then finally writing about them.
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mpaularenniscom-grdesprin1/2018/09/03/project-1-phase-1-comd1100/
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mpaularenniscom-grdesprin1/2018/09/24/lost-found-phase-2-comd1100/
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mpaularenniscom-grdesprin1/2018/09/24/lost-found-phase-3-comd1100/
This project took quite an effort to accomplish. It required a lot of thoughts on how you can distinguish the difference between an obvious and ambiguous image. What I could of done better was adapting and learning the black and white percentage ratio and how they influence what determines an obvious and ambiguous. For the next project, I learned how the background is important and its influence on the foreground and it can be applied to our next project.
Hours worked: 3 hours
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mpaularenniscom-grdesprin1/wp-admin/post.php?post=62&action=edit
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mpaularenniscom-grdesprin1/wp-admin/post.php?post=195&action=edit
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mpaularenniscom-grdesprin1/wp-admin/post.php?post=366&action=edit
I learned that proportion is also a key factor in determining the ambiguity or obvious relationship in a composition. I could have made my ambiguous figure more wider so that it looks more ambiguous. I could’ve excluded three other shapes for my obvious composition or joined them together. For my next project i will make sure that i can get rid of unnecessary shapes and lines and be careful choosing proportions.
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