Jennell Thomas Project 6: Forms and Space

In this project I explored how two-dimensional forms can be transformed into three-dimensional forms on a flat plane through sketching and Adobe software. In the discovery phase I sketched out a variety of shapes and turned them into geometric forms highlighting scale, hiercharchy, and repetition. I needed to incorporate criss crossing lines, and curved ellipses with different line weights to emphasize depth and and dimension. This was good practice for me as I find it somewhat difficult to create three-dimensional forms in space without the use of a horizon line and vanishing point. In some instances I went a little ahead of myself and incorporated shading instead of the structural lines on the form, this is something I will work on in future projects.  

During the define stage I translated some of the geometric forms I created digitally using Adobe Illustrator’s extrude and revolve functions. It was very interesting to see the hand drawn elements be computerized, it showed the flexibility of this design element. I created cubes, spheres, rectangular prisms in stars. Following this I went a step further by focusing on a particular form, I chose a cylindrical shape. I used this form to create an image that imitated elbow macaroni noodles flying out of a bowl. I scaled the forms larger as they approached the top of the artboard to give a sense of depth, the viewer could see and feel which forms were closer and farther away. I was also able to achieve depth by overlapping the forms, this solidified each position. Lastly, I sketched my digital interpretation on bristol using structural lines to define the three-dimensional shape. 

Overall, this project has taught me more about the abilities of Illustrator as it is becoming my favorite software to use for my creative expressions. More importantly, I grasped both abstract and concrete interpretations of designs using forms. I was able to learn the importance of simple forms and shapes as these are the basics for just about any design. Once you can fully understand how to create them you can do just about anything because they make up everything.