I took some photos from the car on a real journey
- my final draft
which I inverted;
I then re-read the brief and realised there were supposed to be no lines in the final piece. I think the first image is the most effective so I used Paint Shop to further simplify it and take out as many lies as I could.
You could argue that there are still lines, the roof and the street markings, but I feel these are essential to keep the meaning of the image. I could now clean up the edges to make it look more as though I cut out the shapes but I like the rough effects, and from a distance they don't show.
What have I learned?
I draw a lot but tend to reject stuff that doesn't immediately look "right" I know I need to persevere with some images but I would never have taken a self directed image so far. I didn't expect the transition to black and white to be so effective. The final uncluttered image is quite striking - not something I thought that I was capable of producing. I've been feeling a bit uncertain about my abilities and this does give me a bit of encouragement.
3 comments:
Hi Carole
that's an impressive set of exploration and the use of photoshop is resourceful.The absence of line is to make you look at shapes and be aware of where forms end and see if the tone needs to end in the same place. It doesn't have to of course(the sky can be as black as some of the leaves on the trees on the horizon.) If you can bear to return to them (now or in the future)it may be good to introduce some more pattern-could there be some white tiles on a black roof,swirls of black in a white sky-this would introduce a bit of texture and give you some edges which may have softer shapes.You could also get some L shapes of paper or a make a frame and move around the composition to either edit form it or tip the composition to create a different dynamic. Sometimes working on a small section of a compositon in an intensive way can be rewarding. have you seen the B/w work of Geoff Grandfield? The compositions are like film stills and suggest a drama. Greta to see the process and see you bringing research from a range of sources.
Jo
Hi Cal, I'm also on this course. I looked at your blog to try and understand the exercise (always get muddled with the explanations, which I get so easily when I see a visual example!) so thanks, and well done to you! PS I haven't learnt how to use the imaging softwares yet and I think I'm going to work with scissors instead, maybe I'll look at paintshop too... you make it look easy! all the best, mp.
Hey thanks for your nice comments MP. Its nice to think that it's helped someone else, I do find sometimes that the more I read the instructions the more conflicting ideas I get, maybe I'm looking too deep. Good luck with the scissors (I thought I was cheating using paintshop so at least you're doing it properly
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