Research

When picking my focus, I decided to select a natural theme of a coral reef, because I have always loved the ocean and especially sea creatures. I wanted to showcase the patterns you can find around a reef. 

 

For my man-made, I pondered about what is the exact opposite of a coral reef, and that would be a ship on top of the water. In this direction, I wanted to focus on a block-like feel and similar chunky shapes. 

 

 

Exercise

The next part was taking images I had found and putting through the abstraction process. (Fun fact: during this process, the Adobe Illustrator app reset and both abstraction sheets were deleted, along with my rough draft mandalas, so I had extra practice remaking both of them.)

Where I found images:

• Coral reef
• Boat
• Coral
• Coral
• Star Fish
• Sea Shell
• Octopus
• Fish
• Stingray
• Seahorse
• Anchor
• Wheel
• Figurehead
• Ship
• Fish Hook
• Knots
• Life Preserver

Ideation 

I first started doing quick sketches of the primary elements I think about when pondering nautical culture and the coral reef. I also tried to see what patterns I could find that fit the theme.

Concept

I decided my digital mandala would be my natural theme. I was inspired by my love of coral reefs and wanted to play on the natural patterns you could find around one. I sought to use curves to give this piece movement and give it a free-flowing feel. Starting from the center I have a coral pattern inspired by the ever-folding bud of coral. Out of that, I simplified an octopus down to a single tentacle with a few towers of coral and a couple of simplified seaweed grass plants. Emerging out of it, I used the pattern of a sea turtle shell and added a sea star and stingray. The next part is a shark fin to add a motion to the piece. To round out the mandala, I added a school of fish andtried to spread them out to make it seem like the mandala is fading away. For my analogue mandala, I went with my man-made theme. I decided to play off the coral reef as a home for fish below water and I went with a nautical theme of a human’s home above water–a boat. I wanted this to be structurally stiff. I start at the center with a steering wheel, which I loved as a focal point because there is so much radial symmetry to it. Next is an extreme abstraction of a ship’s mast and sails. I then round that off with a circular life raft. I wanted this piece to have a burst feeling in contrast of the digital piece, so I use anchors tomake it seem like it’s exploding out. I use nautical knots to help the piece feel more connected.

Process

My production of the digital version was fairly simple. I took what I drew in Procreate and traced it in Illustrator. It was a time-consuming process but I liked what I had made in Procreate and this was the most effective way to make vectors. 

Analog was a bit more difficult. Originally, I planned on printing out my Procreate piece and tracing it on a light table, but I found that I could not print it out big enough to accommodate the size requirement. Instead, I printed out one-fourth of the piece and rotated it. I then traced each section separately on the same piece of paper using a Sharpie pen. 

I realized for my natural one I really did not like outer rings and it did not go well enough together and I really wanted to play more on patterns and see how they could merge the piece more. For my man-made mandala, it was way too representational so I had to go back to the drawing board to see how I could play with a shape more and give it a more abstract look.