Research
20 Abstractions
When taking pictures, I tried getting a good array of images that I could make interesting abstractions with. In the drawings, I tried finding patterns that people wouldn’t typically see in these everyday things and drawing out abstractions that didn’t become non-objective.
Practicing and Making the Radial Grid
Choosing Color Schemes
Since all of the elements that I included in my mandala were originally yellow or at least had some hints of yellow in it, I figured it was appropriate to have a monochromatic color scheme for one of my mandalas. I wanted to stay true to the original colors of the elements in at least one mandala.
For my other colored mandala, I wanted to completely change the scheme and colors involved. Since the first mandala was centered around the color yellow, I decided to use colors on the opposite side of the color wheel to make the mandalas look very different from each other. I decided on an analogous color scheme so I could stay on the other side of the color wheel while utilizing more colors.
Exercises
3″x 3″ Exercise
I started off making a pattern that turned into a tessellation once lined up. I realized that my abstractions were too non-objective and unrecognizable once I used them. I attempted to fix it as shown in the second photo, but was still unhappy with it. I ended up starting a new combination of human-made and natural forms as shown on the right. I was also able to experiment more with value in my new iteration.
9″ x 9″ Grids
I made two seperate grids using the 3″x 3″squares. Each one was completely different from the other and I was able to test out many techniques that I needed throughout the rest of the project.
Iterations
Round One
From left to right, you can see the evolution of my mandala during this first round of iterations. My first one had absolutely no value and was very bland. With each new iteration, I started changing up the sizing of certain things and tried including more value into everything. Despite having all of the elements with each other, they weren’t very connected and interactive with each other. What I had come up with for my “final” seemed lackluster and in need of more, so I just started experimenting with many more iterations.
Round Two
After being unsatisfied with my previous mandal iterations and feedback from my professor, I made multiple new iterations that were completely different from each other. With each of my new iterations, I experimented with changing the sizing and layering of all of my elements.
Production
Brainstorming/Planning
After playing around with my honeycomb abstraction in the 3″x 3″ and 9″ x 9″ grid exercise, I got inspired to use elements revolving around bees and honey. Shown on the left, I drew out the bees, honey bottle and dipper, and all of the other things that I wanted to include. Also, I initially mapped out where I wanted to put each element as shown on the right.
Fixing up the draft
The iteration that I did previously was more for experimentation purposes, so I cleaned it up before adding in the color. I fixed the value of many of the elements, especially the honeycomb, and made sure things were correctly aligned with each other.
Adding Color
Adding in color was both fun and challenging. I really liked seeing the mandala being brought to life with color, but using the value from the original mandala in the colored version was a difficult thing to achieve.
Final Product
I like how the different colors and schemes bring out a different element in each of the mandalas. The numerous iterations that I made led up to my final and it was nice to see how much my mandala evolved from the first iteration. Also, using more color and learning about color schemes in this project was very interesting and a whole new learning experience.
Link to Portfolio Piece: Pattern and Abstractions