Research
Some research I did for my Shape Grammar included some notes learning about how to make an equilateral triangle, a perfect circle, and a square. I also learned about different geometric compositions and what they are made up of. I also started learning about the difference between geometric and curvilinear shapes and what makes certain ones static or dynamic. This all helped guide me on what to do for my first exercise.
Exercises
An exercise I did to prepare for the final project was making shapes from shapes. I applied all the previous research and cut out shapes from Bristol and then arranged them on some tracing paper and created new shapes from them. Then once I had one curvilinear and one geometric shape I cut them out of some black card stock along with a line and a dot for each composition. Then I positioned them all on some 8×8 pieces of Bristol. In total I made four compositions: one dynamic curvilinear, one static curvilinear, one dynamic geometric, and one static geometric.
Final Physical Compositions
Final Digital Compositions
Iteration
Here are some examples of iterations I created in Adobe Illustrator. Initially I was still in the mindset of creating only a single shape floating in space, however I slowly realized that I was now creating shapes from not only the positive space but the negative space as well.
Using a New Method
Here I have decided to stick to using only circles and squares. I have learned to use the whole composition and to fill in the colors of the shapes. I am finally using the whole space but I am only focusing on the positive shapes and ignoring the negative space.
I have started realizing that I need to focus on the negative space and have created some shapes in the background, however I was too focused on creating a story, an image. When I needed to convey a feeling from the shapes.
I decided to completely throw out my old idea and start fresh on a new composition with my new knowledge on the project. I created inverse compositions of each iteration so I could see if I could find shapes from the negative space. I worked more on trying to create squares in the negative space from the squares and circles of the positive space.
Concept Statement
I focused on creating a composition of shapes that would interact with each other to convey the feeling of stability and the principle of balance by utilizing the negative and positive space of the shapes.
Production
For the production of my finally composition I continued tweaking and fixing up my iterations of the design I had in mind. I made sure to try to find squares and shapes in the negative space of the compositions. I tried to make the background become the foreground when the colors were inverted.
I have the basic design of the final composition and I am just working on the top part. I feel the bottom half is solid however the top half needed more work on creating squares that could pop out.
Final Composition
