clangl20's blog

This particular project, the ABC 123 project was the most enjoyable. The idea was to find all the letters of the alphabet and the numbers one through nine hiding, so to say, in nature (note: cracks in the sidewalk, parts of ironwork, etc. count). It was rather difficult to find everything, but certainly enjoyable. I decided to make a book (another hard but enjoyable task) to hold the images. Below are the images themselves as well as the book and its critique.

ABC 123:

Book:

Critique:

Beautiful book

good natural color selection

only thing: rather strange way to paste photos into book (strange mind!)

To take the destroyed map and make something out of it. (A hard decision, as many ideas came to nothing.)

The drawn lines over the map sparked the idea of creating a map over the map. A map of the eq. center over a map of Savannah, the two places I spend all my time. The yellow lines indicating roads and pathways are made from a ribbon won in a horse show. The location of the barn is shown with a photo of the barn, and the locations of rings and pastures are shown with images of horses and riders. The wrinkled map portrays “wrinkled” ground.

Photos of part of the process and finished project:

Critiques:

Idea is nice

yellow lines with purple background aesthetically pleasing

perhaps minus one or two photos

perhaps minus small map of center

To take a map and destroy its purpose:

As introduced earlier, the exercise was to take the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme and interpret it into another story and then illustrate it in six panels.

The original rhyme:

Jack and Jill

went up the hill

to fetch a pail of water,

Jack fell down

and broke his cfown

and Jill came tumbling after.

The group made a new rhymefor the new story:

Jack dragged Jill

Right up that hill

To throw her down the well,

With a quick whack

Jill broke Jack’s back

And now it’s Jill’s story to tell.

The six panels were pasted on blackboard in a horizontal line, with small rectangles holding the verses underneath.

A few words about group projects in general:

Group projects are usually found to be pretty hard as they require considerable more time in regards to meetings, also requiring more planing as to the exact project and division of the project. One of the hardest things with group projects, however, is that while one party may have and put into the project all the enthusiasm and perseverance they can muster, another party may not care what the outcome of the effort really is, or may not be trying to do their best, wanting only to pass the class.

Fortunately, this particular group for this project was able to work well together, planing ahead and dividing up the work well. In the end, however, it seems that if one want to have a really successful project, they should steer away from the group, which is more of a social meeting, and work on their own.

Critique Notes:

- without words story a little confusing

- craftsmanship good, but some lines not straight, eraser, pencil

- good negative & positive space

- used pretty much all symbols

- interesting ending

- simple?

- wishes for more complexity

- a line to follow

- different symbols together making one shape

- a lot of repetition & variety both

- diagonal lines bringing eye through

- placement of things makes thing repetitive

- split first layout in half (3 and 3 instead of 1 long)

- last panel confusing

- entire piece plays on entry of “not entirely sure whats going on”

- makes you wnat to stay and figure out

- stronger without words?

- hard to understand without words

- [viewer] could probably get close to story without words

- different hills [going up & on top]

- Jills arms same

- Jack’s arms different?

- everything [all symbols] in Jill’s shadow – good!

- Jack’s shirt hard to figure (in fourth)

- Jack’s shirt not consistent

- last panel concept really good, visually not as great

Translating sound into a visual design is not always the easiest of tasks. The idea of this particular exercise was to make a map describing the sounds that one hears sitting in the same spot over the course of an hour. This day’s  particular class was led by a substitute so some parts of the assignment might have been interpreted differently than intended.

It was decided that the sounds would be shown through each individual’s preferred signs. Here, the “signs” that make up the sounds are actual words that write out exactly what the sounds were. As can be seen, the majority of sounds were made from cars, dogs, and footsteps.

Watch your step!

The last project, a group project, was based on the Jack and Jill rhyme. It was “interpreted” into another story and illustrated in six squares. Our group made another rhyme to match the other story:

Jack dragged Jill

Right up that hill

To throw her down the well,

With a quick whack

Jill broke Jack’s back

And now it’s Jill’s story to tell.

The six squared are organized in a single horizontal line with small rectangles holding each verse beneath the corresponding illustration. Unfortunately, nobody thought to document the process of making it until it was too late, but hopefully the photos of the final story will be up soon.

Many people create a lot of asymmetrical and rather random designs, using more organic shapes than geometric. Although creating any design can be difficult, it seems that the more geometric designs are the hardest to make successfully. Here is the link to some geometric (and successful) designs:

http://geometrydaily.tumblr.com/

Happy looking!

Finally we have the Repetition Grid project up. Apologies for some confusion with photos and such, hopefully they will all show (in order).

There were at least five different motifs that were assembled into the 100 square grid before the final one was chosen. The first one looked too much like bathroom tiles, but some of the others were not quite so bad. Below are images of a few.

Scan3

Scan4

Scan2

Scan1

Four of the different motifs entering grid formation…

One of the motif options

Another option

Another…

The final motif in the 100-square grid

And different pattern options…

Unfortunately, they all look rather similar. A trait of the motif, I think.

The scans for the inking plans had some troubles, but here are some examples:

Scan1

Scan

The final grid pattern was a mixture of all the attempts (for everything)

(Please note: Most of the scans and photos cropped, so the edges may not be true to form)

Critique notes:

- good craftsmanship

- interesting design

- although stretching (or breaking) the rules, the line drawing/design is interesting

- what about removing some of the three figures at the top?

- remove two left, keep right

The In Class project for today was an exploration of black squares. Given six words, each person was to come up with a design describing (or illustrating) those words.

See below.

Tension

Bold

Ordered

Playful

Congested

Increase