ANOTHER JOURNEY TRIP
We began this assignment with another trip of our original journey from project one. Except, in this journey, we had to pay more attention to the feelings we had and think more intently about the detail of every location. I knew that I wanted to do my journey as if exploring a new planet, I thought it would be fun to show areas of our very familiar campus is a way that is very unfamiliar and slightly uncomfortable. We are all very comfortable with most spots in our campus here, so I wanted to try and portray a feeling of uncertainty and make it feel uncomfortable in the beginning. I also intended on showing a lot of curiosity through these. Attached are my “notes” of my journey as if I were from another planet, and visiting planet earth. I wanted to keep it as more of a “journal entry” to keep it more realistic and understandable than just writing down steps. I wanted it to feel like a story.
COMPOSITIONAL ELEMENTS
In class, we learned about the many different types of compositional elements that help show different feelings or moods. These included, Extreme Long Shot, Long Shot, Full Shot, Medium Shot, Close Up, Extreme Close Up, High Angle, Low Angle, Birds Eye View, Worms Eye View, Over the Shoulder, and Canted. Along with these, we are also directed to try and use the elements of, Rule of Thirds, Symmetry, Leading Lines, Diagonals & Triangles, Frame within a Frame, Golden Triangle, Golden Spiral, Negative Space, Foreground/Background, and Juxtaposition. These each create very different feelings when used, for example if you use Low Angle, it makes the object that you are looking up at seem superior and more intimidating. If you were to use Extreme Close Up, this creates a relationship with the subject and creates an intimate image. For my case, I felt that the elements that would work best would be Close Up, High Angle, Worms Eye View, Canted and Over the Shoulder. I thought this way because they all give an uneasy feeling in a way. I started my interpretations of five for each location interchanging each of these and found that the most successful were Canted, Close Up, Over the Shoulder, Extreme Close Up and Medium Shot. I originally had a majority of my rough sketches as close up or extreme close up, and I was given the advice to explore the other elements more to establish what feeling I wanted to show. I changed my mind for some of my rough sketches. For Hayes, Instead of doing just straight on of the steps and bricks for extreme close up, I made the frame canted and it gave the feeling of disorientation a lot more. For the light post, I originally had majority of the top of the light post in the frame, but I decided it made it more curious to make the frame include just a portion of the light. For Orton Hall, I originally wanted to use the left side of the building, but the more I walked around the building, the more I realized how much more I liked the Idea of using the right side where the tower shows the most.
FIRST HAYES
FIRST LIGHT
FIRST ORTON
DRAFT SKETCHES
Hayes Draft
Bench Draft
Light Draft
Orton Draft
Thompson Draft
Nike Draft
Attached above are all of my drawings that were submitted as my “drafts”. For each of them there are still a lot of details that I want to add to them. They each need more detail, shading and compositional fixes. For Hayes, I wanted to add more detail to the brick along the steps. For the bench, I need to add more grass detail and figure out how I want to show the grass in the foreground and the background. For the light, I wanted to add light shading around the light, to show the light that it gives off. For Orton, I want to add some detail to the sky, but not too much because I want the focus to be on the building. In Thompson I need to add a majority of detail still along with add shading to the elements. In Nike, I don’t want to add a lot more, I want to add a little bit more shading but overall I like how it has turned out and I want to keep it simple and to the point. I made the decision to keep the background plain so the focus is on the statue.
FINAL SKETCHES
Attached above is a photo of my final sketches, I tried to make it a jpg but it wouldn’t work for some reason. In my final sketches, I did all of the changes that I listed above in my draft work, and I am very happy with the outcome. At first, I was unsure about this project, and I didn’t exactly get the point at first. As we went on with the project, I grew to love it. I like how we made some average locations and sketches into a story and feeling by just altering how we sketched the location. I also really enjoyed learning about all of the different compositional elements and how they evoke a certain feeling or mood. With my first sketch of Hayes Hall, I wanted the feeling of disorientation and fear, which is why I chose to do canted. I also included leading lines in this as well to keep the viewers eye moving in all directions. For my bench, I wanted the feeling of intimidation or nervousness, which is why I chose over the shoulder, I wanted it to seem like this subject was hiding behind the tree. I included rule of thirds in this one to draw attention to the tree and the bench. For the lamp post, I wanted to bring out feelings or curiosity and confusion. I chose to do Extreme Close Up to make it seem like this subject was inspecting the light, as it is unsure of what it is. This drawing includes diagonals and triangles to bring the feeling of uncertainty. For Orton Hall, I wanted a curious yet more calm feeling, as if the subject was getting more comfortable. I chose close up to get the beautiful details of Orton involved. This drawing also includes diagonals and triangles, as if the subject was still curious. At Thompson, I wanted a calm and more relaxed feeling, so I went with the medium shot. This drawing includes leading lines, to have the viewer scan the entire building. Finally for the Statue of Nike, I wanted this shot to be very close, to make it feel more like a relationship, and more intimate. I was thinking how the subject would be intrigued by this headless person and wanted to take in all the detail.