Exercises

Exercise – Character Art Styles – Project Two (2330)

| johnson.7643

Instruction

Using on of you characters from the previous character swap, draw them. From this drawing, spin a wheel to re-draw the character in a new art style. Repeat.

 

Purpose

Iterate the same character in different styles and identify what matches the most and the least with their context. Explore emphasizes their features and what thwarts it. Allow yourself to learn about various art styles and what make them unique.

 

My Interpretation

I decided to go with the more flamboyant character of Daisy Buchanan for my subject of this exercise as I figured she’d have a more rigid character to pull inspiration from (compared to Gretel as an alternative). I was given the arts styles of futurism, minimalism, de Stijl, and art nouveau. After initially designing Daisy in her traditional 1920’s flapper garb, going into futurism was an exploration of how to reject her organic form in replacement for sharp, hard supportive-like structures that hide her form. Futurism focuses on color and movement and firmness in the present with hope of the future. The next arts style was simpler, literally. In an effort to reflect how minimalism only shows the most important aspects of a subject, I only included the essential parts of Daisy’s character, namely her hair, her over-the-top clothes, and her pearl necklace. For de Stijl, I was forced to abstract the form, focusing on a set of three colors (not including black and white)  and straight lines creating rectangles and squares. I attempted to create a human shape and colored clothes and designs on tops of it accordingly to help emphasize Daisy. Finally, using art nouveau to represent my character felt relatively natural, a side profile with emphasis on ornate backgrounds and flowing hair on top of a plain, solid-colored face. A good reflection of how Daisy is as a character, flashy and impressive in her surroundings, but unremarkable in herself.

Exercise – Masking Trial – Project Two (2130)

| johnson.7643

Instruction

Create a masking form within 30 minutes. Your partner for the project will be modeling it.

 

Purpose

Explore simple masking forms as a foundation for the rest of the project. Investigate and observe what covering certain areas of the body/face does to an outside observer.

 

My Interpretation

As me and Fabian (my partner pictured above) talked, we explored the conversation of our own faces quite a lot and why we present ourselves the way we do. We eventually reached the topic of eyebrows due to my eyebrow piercing and his mother waxing his eyebrows when he was younger. With that idea in my head, I started to think about eyebrows as a whole, how they communicate so much information and how hard it is to read someone when you can’t see them. I decided to lean into this and entirely cover the eyebrows up to the forehead, contouring the lines to match the curves of the forehead, nose, and eye sockets. If i had more time, I would’ve designed more on the front facing flat side, but unfortunately I had to just leave it blank and geometric.

Exercise – Character Swap – Project Two (2330)

| johnson.7643

Hansel and Gretel

  • characters
    • Hansel and Gretel – the children of a poor woodcutter, left to fend for themselves in the woods by their stepmother after famine strikes and family is unable to support them. Hansel is the naive boy character, easily falling for tricks, Gretel is the skeptical and cautious girl, smart and observant
    • The Witch – manipulative antagonist who lures the children in with food and sweets with the secret goal to fatten them up to eat them
  • setting
    • 1812-ish Germany, in a forest
  • conflict
    • children left to fend for themselves
    • an evil witch plans on killing and eating them, just evade danger
  • resolution
    • Gretel sees past the Witch’s tricks and feigns stupidity, allowing her time to trick the Witch into the oven, leaving her to roast and die. The children steal the Witch’s wealth and live happily back with their father, their stepmother passing away while they were gone.

 

The Great Gatsby

  • characters
    • Nick Caraway – the unreliable narrator, claims to be impartial and unbiased, is not, prefers to stay silent over causing a fuss
    • Jay Gatsby – the unbelievably rich neighbor of Nick in the West Egg, longs for Daisy in the East Egg, they have a past
    • Daisy Buchanan – ditsy cousin of Nick, previous lover of Gatsby, unhappily married to Tom, relents about being a smart woman in such a world, kills Myrtle on accident
    • Tom Buchanan – husband of Daisy, traditionalist, friends with Nick and Gatsby, cheats on wife with Myrtle and tells Nick
    • Jordan Baker – Nick’s love interest, Daisy’s good friend
    • Myrtle Wilson – Tom’s love affair, killed in freak accident by Daisy (Gatsby accompanying her)
  • setting
    • 1920 New York, the East and West Eggs
    • Gatsby’s mansion
    • Tom’s mansion
    • Nick’s humble home
    • the Valley of Ashes
  • conflict
    • Gatsby longs for Daisy and is unable to reach her. Once Daisy’s cousin, Nick, moves in next door, Gatsby sees an opportunity. Gatsby and Nick quickly become friends and the tensions of Daisy’s married life and Gatsby’s constant flirting and attempt to win her back result in an accidental murder.
  • resolution
    • The victim of the crime blames Gatsby for the loss of his wife, seeking out and finding Gatsby and killing him as well as himself. Nick moves away, Daisy resumes normal life with Tom.

 

Character Swap

  • the characters
    • Daisy Buchanan – faux ditz, secretly depressed and lonely, unhappily married, remorse over past, does not take responsibility for her actions, spiteful, protective of family, dependent, observant
    • Gretel – impulsive, childish, ultimately outsmarts antagonist, cautious and skeptical, smart/witty, observant
  • Daisy in a 1812 German forest (after being kicked out of home)
    • Daisy would take the hit of her stepmother kicking her out very very hard. She would overthink every internal flaw within herself instead of seeing that the stepmother’s motives were not out of hate, but irresponsibility and neglect. Obviously, her high-profile lifestyle would be entirely upended in the harsh forests of the time. She would trip and fall, stumble and stagger all across the land. Once approaching the strange house, Daisy would quickly latch onto the kindness the Witch fakes, becoming quickly acquainted and probably asking for help in any way for herself and Hansel. Once the Witch tried to trick Daisy and Hansel, she would quickly become protective over Hansel and immediately doubt the Witch’s motives, becoming cautious from this moment on. She may not kill the Witch, but both would inevitably escape and return home, possibly without any wealth. It is unlikely that Daisy or Hansel would change much as a result of this experience.
  • Gretel in 1920s New York wealth districts
    • If she is young girl in the hustle and bustle of a reformed world after the First World War, she would undoubtably be overwhelmed. Living under the stern fist of Tom, life would be regimented, but comfortable. Gretel would appreciate the life she is given, it may be tough as a kid and some creativity may be stifled by discipline, but she would be a strong and powerful child. However, if she was of age and married to Tom, having the same experiences as Daisy would have, the story is different. In this case, Gretel would be content in her life with Tom, happily acquiescing to his painfully toxic masculinity and not worrying about her past, certainly not letting it trouble her. As she reconnects with Gatsby, the meetings would be purely of friendship and any moves Gatsby would try to make on Gretel would be politely declined. As Gatsby would inevitably push harder and harder, Gretel would stand her ground and if it got too out of hand, request aid from her husband. The main conflict of The Great Gatsby would be completely thwarted by Gretel’s ability to be a healthy and happy human being. Life would continue in a state of “above average, but not perfect” until their lives naturally end.

Exercise – Initials and Space

| johnson.7643

 

Instruction

Using positive and negative space, create your own initials and have them reflect something personal about yourself.

 

Purpose

Understand positive and negative space, further explore gestalt principles.

 

My Interpretation

I wanted to utilize all three of my initials (MAJ) because they fit well together and can create a lot of unique shapes. I started with a theatre setup, the M being the proscenium, the A being the lights, and the J being the stage and backstage. I also included an iteration where a backstage box is the tittle of the J, further lowing the backstage theme. I also explored musical interactions, fitting MAJ within a music staff and simply MJ in music notes. Still unsatisfied, I simplified the entire project and tried fitting the letters within each other in negative space, but I was still disinterested. Finally, I decided on recreating my initials in a form of my face. I wanted to highlight my hair and my piercings as I connect very strongly with them. The M is the widows peak of the hairline, the A is the nose, and the J is the jaw line. This iterations also uses the most gestalt principles, using closure to complete the face, similarity in the piercing shapes, and simple positive and negative space.

Exercise – Text in Context

| johnson.7643

Instruction

Laser cut a word (in a font of your choosing) out of any material and semi-permanently place it into a location within Hayes Hall, the Fine Arts Library, or Hopkins Hall.

 

Purpose

Explore words in context and how proximity and other gestalt principles impact meaning. Experiment with font types and how they use the same principles to change the overall feeling of the word.

 

My Interpretation

I played with many verbs, most notably “performing”, “pin.”, and “RIOT”. I played with punctuation and capitalization to change the overall feeling of the words and ultimately decided on “RIOT” in a font titled Filicudi, which uses the negative space between bars to creat a blocky and bold typeface. I placed a template of my word in many chaotic locations such as near punched holes in the wall, under bells and alarms, and even over another person’s placed word to emphasize the theme of what “RIOT” means. In the end, I decided to create contrast with my word by placing my call-to-action in a quiet, calm, and civilized library, right in the center of a table.

Exercise – Break Down and Build Up

| johnson.7643

Instruction

With the given reference images, break down the subject by creating a realistic, semi-complex, and abstracted view of the same subject. For the final set of shapes, do the opposite, building up from abstracted components to a realistic view.

 

Purpose

Practice abstraction of breaking down and building up objects into a subject that was not their before. Exploration into essential components.

 

My Interpretation

The break down drawings are self-explanatory, but for the build up drawing I immediately saw a top shape. With that in mind, I created  a semi-complex drawing, adding detail, and finally further emphasized those details in the realistic one.

Exercise – Exploration of Angles

| johnson.7643

Instruction

Find an object and use it as a subject in the given frame/cinematographic terminology: far shot, mid shot, close shot, high angle, low angle, over-the-shoulder, rule of thirds, frame within a frame, and golden triangle.

 

Purpose

Explore and understand how different cinematographic angles and techniques create different tones and feelings.

 

My Interpretation

I used my water bottle as my subject matter.

 

Exercise – Mood Swings

| johnson.7643

Instruction

With the same deforestation scene, use different angles and cinematographic tricks to create a feeling of guilt and disgust, weakness and fragility, and power and resilience.

 

Purpose

Explore usage of angles and how the impact mood and feeling. Hone into these feelings and explore how the change feelings and emotions associated with what you are looking at. Explore high and low angles.

 

My Interpretation

I decided to create a scene of the edge of deforestation, a contrast of lush forest and cut stumps among a singular bulldozer. For guilt and sights I wanted to emphasize and compare the slow death of a forest to a spreading plague from a high, brid’s-eye view, full trees replaced with empty circular stumps. Next, for weakness and fragility I went with a worm’s-eye angle, showing how weak and defenseless an already destroyed tree can be in front of a brooding metal beast. Finally, for power and resilience I went back to a higher angle to show the once-huge bulldozer as a smaller, almost ineffective force among the overbearing treetops.