Logo Project

Project: Logo

Purpose: To explore the typographic possibilities of individual letters

Assignment: To design a hand rendered logo using your initials. Experiment with several different styles of type. Create at least 10 different thumbnails sketches of your logo, ranging from conservative, where legibility is important, to experimental, where the visual impact is paramount. Consider the effectiveness of each. Color is restricted to only black.

The final logo design will be hand rendered in black marker/ink. The logo needs to be at least 3 x 3 inches in diameter.

Format: 10 X 10 inches

Presentation: 13 x 13 inch black matte/Illustration board

Examples:

Typography Project

Project: Ransom Note

Purpose: A fun exercise to prove that not all design solutions must come from the computer and to explore the design potential in found typography. Discover, create, and combine interesting letterforms to compose an interesting collage of type.

Assignment: Cut type specimens from newspapers, magazines, or other printed material. Create a dramatic typographic effect by composing a short, humorous ransom note stating your actions, demands, and ultimatums. It should be evident that the note has been created by a graphic designer. In other words, it has a design or aesthetic rationale and is not just a random selection of type. You may also incorporated images into the design.

Format. 10 x 10 inches

Presentation: 13 x 13 inch black matte/Illustration board

Examples:

Project- Implied and Tactile Collages

The next project will be working with collages, both implied and tactile.  

Visual collages actually use more rubbings and collections of images to create the feeling of texture rather than actually making texture. 

Tactile collages can use textured paper and other three-dimensional materials (like string, cardboard, sandpaper, etc.) to make a tactile surface.

The actual surface texture needs to either be felt, or seen with light raking across its surface to make the texture visible. Painters are most likely to take advantage of this to give their painting's surface a lively look. Paint can be built up into rough peaks in a technique called impasto. Vincent Van Gogh is famous for this. Some painters add sand to their paint to make more tactile texture.

Example of using Actual/tactile texture to create a design

Both types of texture are important to the designer, but in 2D art, the illusion of texture is used more than tactile texture. 

Visual texture is always a factor in a composition because everything has a surface and hence a texture. Texture is one of the more subtle design elements. It can make an image richer and more interesting, but is not likely to save a poor composition all by itself.

An example of using pattern and line to create texture in a design

Most textures have a naturalistic quality; they repeat a motif in a random way. A motif is any recurring thematic element or repeated figure in design. It could be an object, shape, color, direction, etc. With a texture you may be aware of the repeating motif but you are more aware of the surface.

PATTERN


A recognizable motif regularly repeated produces a pattern. Pattern requires repetition- in design as in life (a pattern of behavior). The more regular the repetition, the stronger the pattern.

Texture and pattern are related. When you look closely at a tree you can see the pattern of leaves that make its surface. When you back away you loose awareness of the leaves and notice the texture the leaves make on the tree. Farther away still and you can see the pattern of the trees making up the forest and finally the texture of the forest.

In this way pattern changes to texture as you loose sight of the individual motifs. This is easy to do with natural patterns, but you have to get quite far away from a checkerboard grid to see it as texture.

Another example of using line and pattern to create texture in a design

Patterns are generally more noticeable than textures. This makes them a stronger visual element for controlling attention. 

Project 1- Visual Texture

To create a collage using texture from rubbings and photographs.

An 11"x 17" piece of white paper
Glue
Scissors
Coloured pencils
Found texture

Experiment with several types of texture, creating rubbings. Also look through magazines and photographs to create interest in your collage. Use your own imagination using pattern to create texture in your piece. Create your own textures by drawing and making your own patterns.


This project will be presented on a black matte board with at least an inch frame around your page.


Project 2- Tactile Texture Collage

This time you will be creating a collage, but this time using actual/tactile texture. You will also be creating pattern in your design.

Use your own imagination to create texture in your piece. Create your own textures by drawing and painting your own patterns and texture. Also gather found objects and create your tactile texture you will apply to your design.

An 11"x 11" piece of heavy white paper

Glue

Scissors

Coloured pencils

Paint

Found texture

This project will be presented on a 13" x 13" Matte board (black).

TEXTURE

Texture is the surface quality of a surface or substance - rough, smooth, soft hard glossy etc. Texture can be physical (tactile) or visual.

Categories of Texture:

Real/Tactile Texture is the actual texture of a surface or substance. Artist may create real texture in art to give it visual interest or evoke a feeling. A piece of pottery may have a rough texture so that it will look like it came from nature or a smooth texture to make it look like it is machine made.

Implied/Visual Texture is the where a two-dimensional piece of art is made to look like a certain texture but in fact is just a smooth piece of paper. Like a drawing or photograph of a tree trunk may look rough but in fact it is just a smooth piece of paper. 

Paint a Song!

The next project is to pick a song and paint that song. Ok, this sound a bit weird you say? 

Just like color, music has tones, rhythm, pattern and evokes feelings. Play your song and close your eyes. Do you see colors, or a visual? How do you feel when you listen to the song?

I want to to focus on lines, shapes and patterns. I do not want you to create an object or image in your design, but more of a pattern, rhythm or feeling using color, lines and shapes. 

You are to pick a triadic color scheme for your painting (Be sure to look back on your notes from class). Keep in mind the color when thinking about your song. Colors evoke different feeling. What feeling are you trying to convey? 

This painting needs to be on an 18" x 24" page with a 2" border all the way around. This will give a nice frame around your painting. 

Be sure to think about emphasis, a focus in your piece. Also how are you going to use your color and design to create a focus in your piece?

Be sure to have a copy of your song to share with the class. 

If you have any questions post them and I will respond as soon as I can!

Have fun! 

Color

also called Hue

the quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation and brightness of the reflected light; saturation or chroma; hue. As artist we use pigments in the form of powder or liquid paints to create color.

Categories of Color

Color Wheels a tool used to organize color. It is made up of:

Primary Colors- Red, Yellow and Blue. These colors cannot be mixed; they must be bought in some form.

Secondary Color-Orange, Violet and Green. These colors are created by mixing two primaries.

Intermediate Colors/tertiary- Red Orange, Yellow Green, Blue Violet, etc.; mixing a primary with a secondary creates these colors. 

Complementary Colors- Are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.  When placed next to each other they look bright and when mixed together they neutralize each other. 

                          

Color Harmonies

Color Harmonies is when an artist uses certain combinations of colors that create different looks or feelings.

Analogous Colors are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel for example red, red orange, and orange are analogous colors.

Triadic Harmony is where three equally spaced colors on the color wheel are used for example, yellow, Red, Blue is a triadic harmony color scheme.

Warm colors are on one side of the color wheel and they give the feeling of warmth for example red, orange and yellow are the color of fire and feel warm.

Cool colors are on the other side of the color wheel and they give the feeling of coolness for example blue, violet, are the color of water, and green are the color of cool grass.

Monochromatic Painting/ Colour Value Scales

Value Scale is a scale that shows the gradual change in value from its lightest value, white to its darkest value black. 

Monochromatic is where one color is used but in different values and intensity, from the darkest of darks to the lightest of light values.

Below are the hues (colors) and the tones (dark and light) scales of each.

Below are some samples of monochromatic paintings 

Using yellow

Using blue

VALUE


Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. Value is also called Tone.

Categories of Values:

Tint is adding white to color paint to create lighter values such as light blue or pink.

Shade is adding black to paint to create dark values such as dark blue or dark red.

High Key is where the picture is all light values.

Low-Key is where the picture is all dark values.

Value Contrast is where light values are placed next to dark values to create contrast or strong differences.

Value Scale is a scale that shows the gradual change in value from its lightest value, white to its darkest value black.

Practice Tone by Creating a Gray Scale or Value Scale

The two extreme tones or values are black (very dark) and white (very light). Recognizing the tone or value of a color, rather than the hue, is important to an artist/designer because successful works have tonal contrast in them, or a range of values.

A painting with only mid-tones risks being flat and dull. Value or tonal contrast creates visual interest or excitement in a painting. A high-key painting is one in which the contrasts in value or tone are extreme, from black right through the range of mid-tones down to white. A low-key painting is one in which the tonal range is narrower.

Value Project:

Create a 10-tone Value Scale using magazines to find our tones. You can use pieces with text or texture in an image to show interest. You have the freedom of what shapes and sizes you use as long as all ten tones fit inside an 18" x 6.5" matte board. You can also choose to frame each one as in this example, or use one solid frame. You could also choose to leave them and have the black matte board frame them alone.

This is an example of the project

Sketchbook and Animal Morphing Projects

Hello all,

I am hoping you are all catching up and getting your projects finished thus far. I noticed there are quite a few of you that have not posted on the blog for the Animal Morphing Project. Please do so as soon as you can.



Just a kind reminder: The participation/critiques on your blog are a graded into your overall points. Please make sure you are getting EVERY project finished and the ones needed posting, posted.

Thank you all and have a great week!

SPACE

Space refers to the area that a shape or form occupies. It also refers to the background against which we see the shape or form. Space can be defined as positive and negative. The positive space of a design is the filled space in the design—often it is the shapes that make up the design. Negative space is the back­ground. The negative space in design is as important as the positive area.

We live in a three-dimensional world of depth. When we look around us, some things seem closer, some further away. The artist can also show the illusion of depth by using the following means:

Shading - modeling with light and dark

Linear perspective - the relationship between apparent size and space

Atmospheric perspective - how the atmosphere affects the appearance of objects in space

Overlapping - objects in front of one another



In this lesson you will:

Study the design considerations of flat space

Learn the basics of linear perspective

Learn to control space with atmospheric perspective

Shading is the way to make objects appear three-dimensional on a two-dimensional
surface. The different values created when light hits a three-dimensional object cause that object to be seen as occupying space.

When items appear round (occupy space) the illusion of depth is generated. Shading can make
objects look three-dimensional but that limits them to occupying shallow space. 

Overlapping is where objects appear to be on top of one another each and closer to the observer than the next. There is no clue, using only overlap, as to how deep the space is. All you can tell is what thing is closer to you than what. If overlap is used alone with flat shapes, the space
remains fairly flat.

It takes perspective to give the illusion of deep space. 

There are two systems of perspective: 

linear and atmospheric.

Linear Perspective is a system for drawing objects that use lines and vanishing points to determine how much an object’s apparent size changes with space.

It was formalized during the Renaissance and is based on the concept that an object appears smaller as it gets farther away from an observer. The “lines” in linear perspective are used to diagram how much smaller the item would appear.

Basic Concepts With Linear Perspective

The Picture Plane is the “window” that is represented by the picture, refers to the flat surface of the canvas or the physical material onto which the art is placed.

Ground Line is a line that is parallel to the picture plane at the base of the object being used.

The Horizon Line is a theoretical line that represents the eye level of the observer. The horizon line is the same as the horizon (the edge of the land against the sky) only on a large flat plane like the ocean. 

Indoors the horizon is often not visible but there is still a theoretical horizon line representing the point of view of the observer.

Vanishing Points are points usually on the horizon line where receding lines (planes) meet. The number and placement of the vanishing points determines which perspective technique is being used.

Basic Concepts With Linear Perspective:

The Picture Plane is the “window” that is represented by the picture, refers to the flat surface of the canvas or the physical material onto which the art is placed.

Ground Line is a line that is parallel to the picture plane at the base of the object being used.

The Horizon Line is a theoretical line that represents the eye level of the observer. The horizon line is the same as the horizon (the edge of the land against the sky) only on a large flat plane like the ocean. 

Indoors the horizon is often not visible but there is still a theoretical horizon line representing the point of view of the observer.

Vanishing Points are points usually on the horizon line where receding lines (planes) meet. The number and placement of the vanishing points determines which perspective technique is being used.

One point perspective

Two-point Perspective is used when you look at or into the corner of an object. There are two
vanishing points since the two sets of sides are receding in two different directions.

Two point perspective

Three-point perspective is a development of two point perspective. Like two point it has two vanishing points somewhere on the horizon. But three point perspective also has a vanishing point somewhere above or below the horizon which the vertical vanish to.

Three point perspective

Atmospheric perspective is how the atmosphere affects the appearance of objects in space

Atmospheric perspective deals with how the appearance of an object is affected by looking at it through a layer of air. Moisture, dust and pollutants in the atmosphere act to filter the visual
information.

Things To Consider With Atmospheric Perspective:

Foreground means in front - the area immediately in front of the observer.

Middle ground is in the middle. There is no specific measurement for what the limits are -- it is just in the middle.

Background is in the distance. The term means behind (in back of) something. In a landscape it means far away.

Contrast: Use a highly contrasting image for the foreground. It should have high contrast within it and contrast with its surroundings in your image. As the scene goes farther back, use less and less
contrast. Be aware of a highly contrasting background with a softer middle ground. 

Focus: Make the foreground the sharpest in the image, the middle ground the next sharpest and the background the dullest if possible.

Details: Use an object for the foreground that has a lot of details. The background should be chosen because it has little in the way of details. The middle ground, as usual, is in the middle.

Color: Keep the foreground bright and warm in color. The background should be the dullest and
coolest in color. Be careful of warm colors in the background since they will want to come forward.