Final Design: 3 choices

Theme: Environmentalism

Art Movement: Expressionism

Artist: Wassily Kandinsky

The 3 Designs:

When There Is One

Visual treatment
      The artwork depicts a fictional post apocalyptic future whereby war and pollution has devastated the earth. The man in the picture depicts a human. But what the gas mask and the hazmat suit he is wearing depicts the level of pollution and radiation is too high for people to live normally without any protection. The sign board on the other hand depicts the area is full of radiation, therefore another object to depict the high level of radiation in the environment. The plant symbolises hope to the people of their time as it is the last living plant found alive. The cracked floor texture is to symbolise the dry, rough environment of that future. Warm colours of orange, red, brown, grey and green were used to make a hot and dry atmosphere to create an unhappy emotion. 
   
Idea and concept 
    The idea came about when i thought of what if pollution and war rages on. This idea and concept is to remind people what we have been doing to our planet and that if this irresponsibility continues we might have a future like this when we would not be even given the chance to repent and redeem our mistakes. The plant is to remind us that we should cherish and appreciate what was given to us, Earth.


Elements of Design

Lines- used straight lines to draw the human body and billboard behind. Jagged edges on the board can be seen to show the rust and deformation of the board over the years. curved lines were used to draw the leaves to depict softness. Curved lines were also used on the gloves to depict the hand holding together a plant.

Shapes- The shapes are defined to make sure the viewers know what it is. For example the shape of the Plant, the shape of the pole, the hands and the mask.

Value- The bright colour and warm colour used is to create a contrast on the plant so that the attention will be on why the man is holding a plant, with the background colour and the board showing a post-apocalyptic world.

Colour- warm colours of orange, red and green are used to colour the sketch. the bright green colour used on the plant is to depict life and a contrast among the warm colours. Dark colours such as black and grey are also present.

Texture- The texture present is to present a rough, hard and dry texture feeling. Though the print version would be smooth.

Alignment- The alignment is vertical from top to bottom.

Proportion- Proportion is good as the size of the man, the pole and the plant is of equal proportion as seen in real life. 

Eye movement- Eye movement follows from top to bottom as the viewers sees the crack then the board, followed by the man in the hazmat suit to the plant on his hands.

Principles of Design:

Hierarchy- Hierarchy is present where the man draws attention because of the suit he wears, but the main attention is the plant as it contradicts with the environment the man lives in. 

Balance- Balance is radial as the objects present in the picture correlates to one another to present the idea.

Scale- Proportionate to Human scale

Harmony- Harmony is present as the colours used depict a future of pollution if it is not stopped and can be seen on the colours of the leaves too.

 A future of Capitalism

Visual Treatment 
           This picture depicts a fictional future of capitalism. The smoke acts as the embodiment of pollution. As you can see, the cloud depicts the consumption of trees which are the small tiny green strokes on the cloud. This depicts how capitalism is to the world of nature, a monster taking their lives for the gain of a few. Next the claws of the clouds are holding people who are colored in blue and purple to depict the future of man is in the controlled by it. The curvy buildings stacked together is to create a sense of an industrial sector. The smoke monster relates to the industrial sector as capitalism relates to pollution and environmental problems.
   
Idea and concept
     The idea is to make people realize that do they want a future of pollution because of money, and do they want to live in riches where there are no natural environment left to cherish and appreciate. 


Elements of Design:

Lines- Lines used are straight and curvy to show uncertainty in the shapes

Shapes- The shapes are not drawn perfectly do produce uncertainty in the size of the buildings and to depict the "living cloud" which means pollution.

Value- The dark colours used are to depict the heavy level of pollution and the warm colours for the environment.

Colours- Colours used are warm colours of orange, brown and grey. Green is used to depict the trees being swallowed and purple and blue the lives of the future. 

Texture- The texture used is intended to make the viewer feel dry, rough, sandy and dirty. though print version will be smooth.

Alignment- Alignment is vertical from bottom to top.

Proportion- proportion is not good as it does not follow proportion of the real world to depict a fictional future.

Eye movement- Eye movement is from bottom to top as we follow the footsteps of people following capitalism into the future.

Principles of Design:

Hierarchy- Hierarchy starts with the clouds moving down to the people walking down into the world of capitalism.

Balance- Balance is not present as the cloud depicts the idea of the picture. Therefore without the cloud the picture would not bring a stronger message.

Proximity- It is present based on the many buildings grouped together to create an industrial area.

Repetition- Repition is present among the buildings, the tiny humans, the trees and the chimneys.

Scale- the overall scale of the picture are of abnormal sizes. as we can see with the huge pollution cloud and the enormous industrial sector.

Variety/Unity- Both are present as seen with the shapes and the amount of buildings. 

Harmony- Harmony is present among the colours.

Planting life back into earth 

Visual Treatment 
       The sketch depicts a plant on top a tree over the earth. This is to depict that the tree and plants are the life of the earth. The colours used are cool colours to give the viewer a cool feeling as the background depicts outer space. This picture aims to make the viewer want to cherish the earth more.
  
Idea and concept       
    The idea is to tell people that our earth is special because of the plants and it is the greenery that makes it look so beautiful. So we should cherish it and make sure the plants stay the same as beautiful as our generation remembers it.


Elements of design

Lines- Lines used are curves and straight lines

Shapes- shapes used are drawn perfectly to show what the object is, example the plant in the pot and the semi earth.

Value- The bright colours used are to depict the plants colour and the dark blue to separate the space with earth.

Colour- Colours used are of bright green, blue and yellow. warm and dark colours of blue and brown.

Texture- The texture present is smooth .

Alignment- The alignment is vertical from top to bottom.

Proportion- proportion is not good as the size of the plant is as big as the earth, therefore creating an unbalanced proportions of size.

Eye movement- Eye movement is from top to bottom

Principles of Design

Balance- Balance is radial as the objects in the picture relate to each other to present the idea.

Proximity- Proximity is present as the many shoots together form a plant also the yellow stars around the picture creates the outer space with the dark blue background.

Repetition- Repetitive yellow dots are used to depict stars. Also, many plants are drawn together which shows the repeated usage of the same drawing.

Scale- The overall size of the sketch is of abnormal human size as seen between the plant's size and the earth.

Variety/Unity- Variety is present as seen between the different lengths of roots and the different size of continents on the earth.

Harmony- Harmony is present within the painting as the colours depict most of the colours used on these objects as seen in depictions by other artists.

Design Project 3: Process

Theme: Environmentalism
 
Art Movement: Expressionism

Reference artist: Wassily Kandinsky

The 3 Sketches

When There is One 

Initial sketch

 Open the file

 Start colouring with paint bucket

 refining small edges with pencil tool

mixing the colours

colouring the sketch with paint bucket and pencil tool for smaller areas

Using pencil to write the number

using mixer brush

Searching for filters.

Merging images

Selecting texture from file saved on desktop. Using the texture to overlay.

Final Design

 A Future of Capitalism

Original version

Restructured version

Opened the file and started colouring with paint bucket

Adjusted colour contrast using the level adjustments

prepare outlay texture by retrieving from file in desktop. texture used is apocalyptic texture

Final Design

 Planting Life back into Earth

Original version

Coloured version

Coloured with paint bucket, also used pencil tool to create the small stars with yellow colour

Took texture from desktop and used it as outlay for design. Texture used was a big bang texture

Final design

Sketches: Environmentalism

Theme: Environmentalism

Reference Artist: Wassily Kandinsky

Art Movement: Expressionism

Why Choose Environmentalism?
  The world we live in faces ever growing environmental problems and i feel inspired to create an awareness of its problem through my understanding and perspective.

Problem Statement:
  Humans irresponsibility to the environments health has always been an ongoing topic for discussion as what we do to the environment around can affect us in the future in different consequences, for example global warming. 

Purpose of content:
 To alert people of the consequences of their irresponsibility towards mother nature and the environment we live in, and to show that what the future may hold for our irresponsibility towards the environment.

Research question:
 -What will our future look like if we do not act?
 -Capitalism vs Environmentalism
 -Fictional hope? alternatives?

Pencil Sketching(hand phone camera quality):
Capitalism vs Environmentalism

Capitalism vs Environmentalism

a sketch depicting the two ideas using eyes as a medium to show that both ideas can never see eye to eye

Road of Capitalism

This sketch depicts a road to a factory with development projects going on nearby while showing the amount of trees that were cut down to represent how little value is nature to the world we live in today.

A future of Capitalism

A rough sketching that shows people going to work in a giant factory. The factory represents the future of capitalism while the empty space on the sides of the sketch represents wastelands, because in this fictional depiction of the future, plants are nowhere to be found.

Fictional hope? Alternatives?

Planting life back into earth

This sketch shows a plant's root growing into the earth and showing a mirror where trees are growing to show that growing a plant may not change much, but with effort we can still make the world a better place.

Lamp-plant

a sketch showing a Lamp-plant, where we can see that the plant has a light bulb for a head and lives on electricity. The idea came to me as a question where by why people cannot treat plants as importantly as we would to a normal lamp at night and what if plants were lamps?

Make plants not nukes

The sketch shows plants growing out of nuclear contained barrels to show that instead of always creating weapons of mass destruction, why not create a little peace by planting trees instead? Sounds like a better proposition than war.

Cube of growth

This sketch was inspired by the All spark from Transformers which could give life to their species. The cube shows life growing out of it to show it can give life to plants . This cube is a type of fictional hope for humanity when all else fails to preserve nature there is this cube to give them one last hope.

What may the future look like if we do not act?

The world as we know it

This sketch shows the daily pollution found in the world such as river pollution, rubbish mountains and carbon dioxide emissions. These pollutions are depicted by the different buildings seen in the sketch. The break in the ozone shows what we are facing lately which is global warming, and on the right we can see a huge iceberg waiting to be melted by the sun with the aid of global warming.

The eight wonder of the world

This sketch shows the last tree in the world is preserved in a frozen state to be shown to tourists in an exhibition hall. In relation to the title, this sketch depicts a modern fictional world where trees are nowhere to be found anymore and the only living tree is  preserved as a worldwide attraction hence the eight wonder of the world.

Rocky pollution

This sketch shows a rocky mountain being polluted by unwanted barrels.

When there is one

This sketch shows a man holding a plant. The man holding a plant is wearing a bio-hazard suit. This is to show that the world in the future is so polluted and radioactive that everyone has to get one of these suits to stay alive. In relation, the watch on his left arm shows the date and year he is in, which depicts a fictional post apocalyptic era where war and pollution has polluted the earth and virtually destroyed all plants in the world. The plant he is holding represents the only plant left in the world. This sketch is drawn to create awareness among people that what our future may look like if we do not act now and start appreciating.

Expressionism

Expressionism, an art originating from Germany during the early 20th century before the First World War, and was particularly popular in Berlin. Expressionism is an art that aims to evoke moods, emotions or ideas into the viewer as expressionism's typical trait is to present the world from a subjective perspective. Expressionist artists usually creates their art to express what they are feeling or explain an idea that they want to share with the viewers.
.
Expressionist artists also often employed swirling, swaying and exaggeratedly executed brush strokes in the depiction of their subjects. In part these techniques conveyed the emotional state of the artist, though they might also offer comment on modern the world.

These are some Expressionists of their time:

Sir Sidney Robert Nolan

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Vincent van Gogh

Wassily Kandinsky was my choice of Expressionist.
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (16 December 1866 – 13 December 1944).The creator of the first modern abstract paintings, Wassily Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. In his youth, he studied law and economics at the University of Moscow, and was later hired as a professor of Roman law at the University of Dorpat in Estonia. He was 30 years old when he began his studies in painting, focusing on life drawing, sketching, and anatomy, at the University of Munich.








His most notable artwork:
Der Blau Reiter a.k.a The Blue Rider
The Blue Rider is perhaps Kandinsky’s most important painting from the early 1900’s, before he had fully developed his abstract style of music as sound. The painting illustrates a rider cloaked in blue, speeding through a greenish meadow. The painting’s intentional abstractness had led many art theorists to project their own representations onto the figure, some seeing a child in the arms of the blue rider. Allowing viewers to participate in the representations of the art was a technique that Kandinsky would use to great fruition in his many later works, which became more and more abstract as his career wore on.



Elements of Design
-Lines
The artist uses a heavy line to draw the curved line that separates the meadow from the forest to show two different landscapes existing in one picture,also a heavy blue line is drawn to depict the sky and the mountain in the background. Soft drawn lines are used to draw the objects in between the landscapes.

-Shapes
The shapes in the painting are not drawn perfectly to create a sense of uncertainty among the viewers. In this case, is the rider a male or a female? or what type of tree are present?

-Value 
The bright colours used on the meadow is an attempt to attract more attention for the rider as the rider is painted darker and riding on the meadow which provides a tonal contrast.

-Colour
Warm colours of green, blue and yellow are used in colouring the landscape and the objects found. The colour of the rider which is blue, is used to represent the artist's love of the colour blue and as the colour of spirituality. As Wassily believes that the darker the blue, the more it awakens the human desire for the eternal.

-Texture
The texture is of visual texture because the artist used oil painting which does not provide physical texture, therefore providing a smooth and flat texture on the paper

-Alignment
The artist uses a horizontal alignment to depict the rider riding from right to left

-Proportion
The proportion in the painting is good as the artist successfully depicts the rider riding in a wide meadow and having trees with equal proportions in size to men, creating a balance in size of either objects seen in the painting.

-Eye Movement
Eye movement follows the path of the blue rider is riding towards which is from right to left as we can see that the horse is galloping towards the left.

Principles of design
-Hierarchy
Hierarchy is present where the rider is at the top of the hierarchy because it represents the main interest of the painting, while the landscape is the background for the rider causing it to be the secondary interest of viewers.
 
-Balance
The balance is radial as the rider is the focus point of the painting and the viewers attention will spread throughout the landscape seen in the painting.

-Proximity
Proximity is present in the form that the trees are grouped together to create a forest and the bright green colour of grass creating a meadow. Therefore, creating a landscape where there is a forest next to a meadow.

-Rhythm/Repetition
Rhythm is present in the form of continuous rhythm as we can see that the rider is riding to the left. Repetition is present in the trees, rocks and clouds.

-Scale
The overall size of the painting are of normal of human sizes as the objects seen within the painting are of proportional scale to humans in the real world.

-Unity-Variety
Unity is present among the shape of the trees as the artist repeats the curves done to each tree while the vertical lines of the tree trunks provide a sense of variety as there are two different lines present within a single object drawn. The shape of the horse also provides both unity and variety as the shadow is a sign of repetition to the horse's shape while the lines used to draw the horse does not only consist of curves therefore creating a sense of unity-variety again.

-Harmony
Harmony is present within the painting as the colours used in the environment are used accordingly to the colours of the objects in the real world. This provides an arranged and orderly composition in the painting.

Other notable works of Wassily Kandinsky:

Old Town II

Forest Edge

Park of St.Cloud with horseman

On White II

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/on-white-ii-1923
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/old-town-ii-1902
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/forest-edge
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/park-of-st-cloud-with-horseman-1906
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky#close
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/blue-rider-1903
http://www.bluemoonwebdesign.com/art-lessons-7.asp
http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/design/elements.htm
http://www.squidoo.com/designelementsandprinciples
http://maddisondesigns.com/2009/03/the-5-basic-principles-of-design/

Perceptual vs Conceptual

Art can be enjoyed in many ways, but it all comes down to how the artist expresses his motives, feelings and intention through the artwork he creates.So, when an artist creates a piece of art, he addresses either one or both elements of art which are Perceptual and Conceptual.

Perceptual art, the art of which stimulates the senses. This form of art in general is created by the artist to stimulate the senses of the viewer by creating a parallel universe through their art. Perceptual art can also be sometimes know as "performance art' due to the fact that viewers can unwittingly or unknowingly be a participants in the creation of the artwork itself. A perfect example of  perceptual art is these pieces done by Kurt Wenner, a street artist from America who creates 3d pavement art.

 There are definately more examples of perceptual art but these particular pieces interests me more. why? because of the amount of detail seen within the art and the art's ability to make the viewer feel like the art is alive and they are part of it, prompting optical illusion. therefore giving it the name 3d pavement art. These type of art are usually dependent on the angle where the viewer sees it therefore making it a perceptual art.

Moving on to conceptual art, this type of art is created to carry and idea or a concept. as stated by Sol Le Witt in "Paragraphs on conceptual art" during the Artforum June 1967- "In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art." Therefore conceptual art is the type of art where viewers can interpret different messages in an artist's artwork. for example these pieces of art below.

an art piece of Jabberwocky from Alice in wonderland

an art piece depicting a battle between vampires and a slayer

From these pictures we can interpret different information provided just by looking at it, for example the piece above where we see a man with guns shooting people with sharp teeth while man with wings flying from behind are coming to attack him. This can be simply interpreted into a firefight between a vampire and hunter and vampires. so conceptual art are those type of art "who" make sure you notice every single detail so that you understand what the artist is trying to tell you.

 If you ask me about perceptual vs conceptual, i would definately pick conceptual as i spend a lot time daydreaming and thinking a lot, therefore conceptual interests me more as it helps my brain to be more active than dead and besides art with ideas and concepts behind them are definately worthwhile trying to figure out what is the story behind them.