I researched different types of natural and humanmade objects and how to create abstractions from them including abstractions of scale with shape, direction, components, and value and color. I then learned what a mandala was and how to use abstractions to be able to create a mandala using the principles of design, in my case I chose movement. Finally, I learned how to use value and translate to color to help better my design principle.
Exercises
This was the first exercise where I selected the natural forms to create my abstractions from.This was the second part to the exercise where I selected the human made forms to create my abstractions from.
This shows one of the exercises where I was taking abstractions from the images that I knew I wanted to use and worked to make them into shapes in Adobe Illustrator and trying to make them perfect.This also shows part of the exercise where I was initially creating my abstractions in Adobe Illustrator, but also the continuation into the next exercise which was to make a pattern with that shape. From the beginning I knew that I wanted to work with the principle of movement, so I started testing with the first pattern.After creating the final mandala and experimenting with changing the values I then learned about color theory and experimented with color harmonies to help my principle in the mandala come forth more.Combining of two abstractions
This was my first iteration of the mandala following the circular grid that I chose, adding to the wheel spoke mandala that I had before but I included all 5 abstractions. I wanted to have the repeated pattern especially with the outside ring because it worked as an illusion and started to spin. I also wanted to make the other abstractions tilted to show movement and that they were not static but spinning too.The next major iteration I made a couple big changes. I made it so that it did not look like just a bunch of rings. I added the new combined abstraction that I made from the fire and leaf abstraction, created a more interesting center that showed more movement like it was wrapping around the center, and I added arms that I had going out and weaving through the rings like the abstraction is from, a weaved basket. I also started messing with the value to show the weaving movement.I continued to make more changes. I took every other spoke and increased the size to take the place of the weaving arms and have the spokes cut through the outer rings, but i would later change that because it did not add much to the composition. I also brought the combined abstraction inside the spokes and had the positioned to continue lines to relate the sections to each other. I added a second outer ring layer to show contrast to hopefully make the illusion stronger, and I really started experimenting with value.
This is what I thought would be the final value iteration. I took off the tips of the larger spokes and had the end blend in match shapes with the outer ring to help relate and join the layers together. I also decided on the number and arrangement of the outer wheels as well as the value to show the most movement.After finding what I thought was my final value mandala I started applying color with new knowledge of color theory and started testing. After testing the colors with my current value mandala, I realized that my values were too dark and that the only way to really change the colors of the mandala to be as bright as I wanted was to alter the values.
This is the final production of the Value version of my mandala. Because of how dark the colors were before when I applied them, I had to change the value of the entire mandala to brighter values in order to show the vibrant colors I wanted. Every layer is connected in some way to relate each part to one another which helps to express movement and the illusion the entire piece is spinning.The colors applied help to show movement with the secondary principle being contrast that is clearer with color. I chose the warmer colors with the primary color being red and to mostly show warm colors because of what we learned in color theory that the color red shows energy and movement. I made the colors in the middle more vibrant and outlined to bring more attention to it so that it is balance with the rest of the piece and not overwhelmed by the large spokes and their depth.This shows the color pallet I chose for the last mandala, based on a square color theme, on a grid to show the different possible brightness levels I could have chosen to use based off of the brightness levels on the value mandala. It also shows levels of brightness where at least one of the colors have their saturation manipulated in the mandala.The colors applied to this mandala also help to show movement with the secondary principle being contrast that is clearer with color. I chose to use more cool colors with the primary color being a very vibrant light blue because cool colors have more range when altering brightness and look more like different shades of blue which helps with the large spokes to unify the mandala. Again, I kept the inner layers more vibrant to balance the mandala.
This shows the color pallet I chose for the last mandala, based on an analogous color theme, on a grid to show the different possible brightness levels I could have chosen to use based off of the brightness levels on the value mandala. It also shows levels of brightness where at least one of the colors have their saturation manipulated in the mandala.
The final deliverables for reaching the final production include the cutting down of the larger spokes and matching up with the outer ring so that all layers of the Mandala will be related and flow together. Also changing the value of almost every shape in a mandala in order to be able to have vibrant colors to help express movement, as well as choosing the right colors for the different layers in messing with saturation in order to be able to make certain shapes stand out or perform a certain way such as the outer rings making the illusion. The last final deliverable was adding in a border around the shapes in the middle of the mandala to help them stand out and balance out the mandala and not be overtaken by the large spokes with the increasing brightness.
