Napa Valley College Art Students
Homework Assignments
Art 135 Class 7-10
Class #7
Eastern Composition
According to Suzuki, the two essential elements of the Japanese aesthetic
are sabi and wabi. He indicates that the preoccupation with imbalance, with
asymmetry and the "one-corner" style derive from sabi and wabi. According
to Suzuki, sabi--which literally means loneliness or solitude--"consists in
rustic unpretentiousness and archaic imperfection". Wabi, in turn, signifies
an aloofness or poverty. Both these elements combine to engender a sense of
poignancy, a realization of the uniqueness and ephemerality of beauty as
well as a resigned sadness at its loss.
Dependent Origination and the Dual-Nature of the Japanese Aesthetic
by Railey, Jennifer McMaho
Eastern compositional guidelines are similar to those of modern
art. There tends to be an “all over” quality rather than a specific formal
focal point and supporting elements found in western formal composition. Pattern
and rhythm are more emphasized in eastern composition. Patterns of straight
lines with attention to the repetition of groupings an intervals as well
as direction of lines also establish rhythm. Blending with a gradient can
create beautiful patterns.
Simple Methods to Create an Eastern Composition,
• Create a unit (your icon), vary its attributes and orientation,
choose a version then repeat it equidistantly in one direction.
• A row or column of repeated units can be grouped and
used like a compound unit for repetition in another direction. The units
are the positive shapes that automatically define the negative space in between.
The negative space can be seen as shapes that carry equal weight in composition..
Try filling the background with a gradient to change the negative space.
A group of units can be cut and pasted a clipping mask that can
be repeated to form a composition. To create fill that does not have gaps,
the shape can be square, rectangular, rhomboidal or hexagonal. A square or
rectangular clipped unit can be repeated or paired with another shape
To create a clipping mask, the masking object (the path that
is in the shape of the mask) has to be in front of the objects that you want
to mask. you select the masking object and the object you want to mask. Object>Clipping
Mask>Make.
The Scissors tool is used for splitting paths. Clicking with
the Scissors tool on a closed path makes that path an open path with the
end points directly overlapping each other where the click occurred. using
the scissors tool on an open path splits that open path into two separate
open paths, each with an end point that overlaps the other’s end point.
The knife tool slices through path areas. The knife tool is the
only path-editing tool that doesn’t require that you have paths selected;
it works on all unlocked paths that fall under the blade. you can slice very
precisely with the Object>Path>Slice function which turns a selected
path into a Knife path.
A mandala is an image used in meditation which radiates from
the center outward. It can be created by using rotating units. Create a unit
to be rotated and group it. Decide how many arms you want your mandala to
have. Divide 360 (the number of degrees in a circle) by that number.
Example: 360 divided by 12=30. Edit>Transform>rotate. Enter
30 as the angle amount and check copy. You can now use control D to create
the number of lengths you want
Filling the background with a radial gradient adds circular rings
of light that may complement the composition.
Units forming a band a square or circular configuration
can be repeated with progressive resizing to attain a concentric arrangement.
Start with the largest set of units and reduce so that the smallest set appears
in front with the least obstruction from the other sets of units.
As you resize you can rotate the set of units at each step. concentricity
is more obvious when each step of resizing creates a distinguishable band.
Rotating the sets at each step sometimes makes a spiral movement seems more
prominent than the concentric movement
Another possibility is to use a unit (maybe your icon) twice,
each time filled with a different gradient. Group these two and then make
a copy and fill it with black and send to the back. Now this larger unit has
some depth and can be used as a unit to create different pattern compositions.
They can be stacked horizontally or vertically and many variations are possible
with altering the gradient within the unit. Also try placing a gradient behind
the object.
Deconstructing any of these combinations can be achieved by using
the knife tool and making precise slices through the object. If you have a
gradient fill in the piece, the gradient fills the newly created shapes. The
results can be surprising.
Gradient Mesh tool changes a normal filled path into an object
with the appearance of volume. Select the object, then Object>Create Gradient
Mesh menu option, the dialog box appears. Here you can specify the number
of rows and columns to include in the mesh. You can specify its Appearance
to be Flat, To Center or To Edges. The Flat setting does not add a highlight
to the mesh. The To Center option causes the center of the mesh to have the
brightest highlights at the edges of the mesh. The Highlight value sets the
maximum highlight value.
Homework
Create two eastern inspired compositions using some of these
techniques. Try for an engaging overall composition. Be prepared to speak
a bit about the choices you made, both conceptually and aesthetically.
Class #8
Space and Volume
Bending a Shape
• A rectangular shape appears flat. Object>Path>Add Anchor
Points will add middle points between existing points. Move these points with
the white direct selection tool and the shape appears bent.
• Another method is to skew the rectangular shape and reflect
a copy of it in a different fill horizontally. Group this shape, repeat it,
skew it and add different fills to create spatial illusion.
• With the rectangular shape containing added points, we
can convert those points at the middle of the upper and lower edges to curve
points and move them downward. The shape will appear curved. The curling effect
can be enhanced by adding a gradient fill. You can copy it, send to
the back and distort the different shapes.
Receding shapes
Change a rectangle into a parallelogram. Reflect a copy of this
and blend into an appropriate number steps so there is no overlapping. You
can repeat the blend, progressively reducing the size. The resulting arrangement
creates a surface in one point perspective.
Rotating Shapes
• Position one side of a rectangle contiguous with one
side of a parallelogram, to make one a darker shade than the other. Rotate
and reflect to create bending groups that can used to form compositions.
To create the illusion of 360° rotation in space blend a
shape in full frontal with one as it would be seen in its edge in two different
viewpoints. Blend these together to form the illusion of a 90° rotation.
These two blends can be brought together to form a 180° rotation. Put
the original together with its reflected copy to create a 360° rotation.
Add a Shadow to a Shape
Copy a flat shape in a different shade and skew it to form a
shadow behind an object. Change the shadow portion to a linear gradient.
to change the viewpoint, skew the entire object.
Adding Thickness to a Shape
• Start with a square, clone a copy to its left side. Select
two points of this copy at the far left edge, and drag to form a narrow parallelogram
to represent one part of the shape’s thickness. Clone another copy, select
two points of the lower edge and drag to form another part of the shape's
thickness. You can fill the parts with different shades of a fill to create
the illusion of volume. Make sure you don’t have a stroke because outlines
can flatten an object.
Layers
Using layers is like placing your artwork into separate sheets
of clear plastic. A single layer can have as many pieces of artwork on it
as you want. Layers are created ,selected and hidden in the Layers palette.
Window>Show Layers. You can hide the visibility of a layer by clicking
on the eye icon on the layer.
Transforming a Surface
Blended parallel lines an suggest a surface with folds or creases.
You can add wrinkles to the surface. You can place each copy into its own
layer and manipulate the colors to suggest shadows and depth.
To create a plane in a folded in another way, start with a single
straight line and drag copies from it. in sequence. These lines can be differently
stroked so that their blending makes noticeable spatial effects.
Transforming Volume
You can create uniform volume by blending copied shapes. To vary
the volume bend a series of three shapes. Try moving the shape in the middle
or strengthening the illusion of volume by increasing the steps in the blend.
My Favorite Movies & My Masterpiece
Make a list of your five favorite movies of all times. Write
a brief synopsis of each plot. What is the look of each movie? List for each
movie what appeals to you. It can be what calls to you emotionally, the overall
look of the movie, the narrative, or lack of a narrative, the message or the
theme.
Share with your group your list and a brief plot of each movie,
why you liked it and what it meant to you. Begin with one another to look
for a common thread that runs throughout your list. It could be a common theme,
a certain look or genre.
In the groups each person should have time to go over his or
her films, find a common thread and then contribute to the next person’s
list. Make sure each person has enough time to work on his or her list. You
should be able to find some sort of thread that holds the list together.
The theme can be visual, emotional or can take the form of a certain
type of message.
When you find your theme, it will become a piece of the
final project. Be prepared next week to show a clip from one of your movies
that exemplifies your theme. It doesn’t have to be long--5-15 minutes -- enough
for us to understand what you’re going to pursue in the final Masterpiece
Project. Be prepared to show us a work in progress. It can take the form of
sketches or the beginning of an Illustrator art piece
The final project will be an illustration done in Illustrator
and show that you have internalized and utilized all the elements we have
been covering.
Class #9
Color Theory
Color originates in light. Sunlight, as we perceive it, is colorless.
Color is the perceptual characteristic of light described by a color name.
Specifically, color is light. Objects absorb certain wavelengths and reflect
others back to the viewer. We perceive these wavelengths as color.
A color is described in three ways:
* by its name
* how pure or desaturated it is
* and its value or lightness.
Chroma, intensity, saturation and luminance are inter-related
terms and have to do with the description of a color.
* Chroma: How pure a hue is in relation to
gray
* Intensity: The brightness or dullness of
a hue. One may lower the intensity by adding white or black.
* Saturation: The degree of purity of a hue.
* Luminance / Value: A measure of the amount
of light reflected from a hue. Those hues with a high content of white have
a higher luminance or value.
Intensity
* Shade: A hue produced by the addition of
black.
* Tint: A hue produced by the addition of white.
Color Relationships
A color wheel is a visual representation of the mixtures achieved
by combining colors, and their relationship to one another. Using a color
triangle is a good way to quickly understand the relationships between colors,
or to estimate the final outcome of blending colors.
Primary Colors: Colors at their basic essence; those colors that
cannot be created by mixing others.
Secondary Colors: Those colors achieved by a mixture of two primaries.
Complementary Colors: Those colors located opposite each other
on a color wheel.
Monochromatic Colors: Variations of shades or tints of the same
hue.
Analogous Colors: Those colors located close together on a color
wheel.
Color Systems
Available color systems are dependent on the medium with which
a designer is working. When painting, an artist has a variety of paints to
choose from, and mixed colors are achieved through the subtractive color method.
When a designer is utilizing the computer to generate digital media, colors
are achieved with the additive color method.
Digital media presents some problems when attempting to reproduce
compositions in a printed format. Since digital designs are generated using
the RGB color system, colors used in those designs must be part of the CMYK
spectrum or they will not be reproduced with proper color rendering.
Subtractive Color
When we mix colors using paint, or through the printing process,
we are using the subtractive color method. Subtractive color mixing means
that one begins with white and ends with black; as one adds color, the result
gets darker and tends to black.
The CMYK color system is the color system used for printing and
is an example of the subtractive color method. The colors used in the printing
process during reproduction are cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
Additive Color
If we are working on a computer, the colors we see on the screen
are created with light using the additive color method. Additive color mixing
begins with black and ends with white, meaning that as more color is added,
the result is lighter and tends to white.
The RGB color system is an example the light primaries and creates
color with light. Percentages of red, green, & blue light are used to
generate color on a computer screen.
Although a monitor may be able to display 'true color' (16,000,000
colors), millions of these colors are outside of the spectrum available to
printers. Working within the CMYK color system, or choosing colors from Pantone©
palettes insures proper color rendering.
Color on the Web
The Web brings another level of constraint regarding the use
of color. Not only is there a difference in monitor quality and resolution,
but there are only 216 browser safe colors today. If colors outside of the
Web safe palette are used on a Web page, how they render is determined by
the
users system platform (Mac or PC), and the browser used to access
the page. Internet Explorer and Netscape render colors differently. To insure
accurate rendering across platforms & browsers, working within the browser
safe palette is essential.
Color & Contrast
Every visual presentation involves figure-ground relationships.
This relationship between a subject (or figure) and its surrounding field
(ground) will evidence a level of contrast; the more an object contrasts with
its surrounds, the more visible it becomes.
When we create visuals that are intended to be read, offering
the viewer enough contrast between the background (paper or screen) and the
text is important. Text presentations ideally offer at least an 80% contrast
between figure and ground. (Black text on a white background is ideal.) If
there is not enough contrast between figure and ground, a viewer will squint
to view the text, causing eye fatigue.
An occurrence known as 'simultaneous contrast' may happen when
opposing colors are placed in close proximity to each other. Text may appear
to vibrate, or cast a shadow. Eye strain and fatigue will result if a viewer
focuses on a document displaying similar properties for an extended time period.
The Color Wheel
A color wheel is a visual representation of colors arranged according
to their respective relationship to each other. Most often a color wheel begins
with primary and secondary hues, then displays a chromatic bridge between
analogous colors. The color circle can be divided into ranges that are visually
active or passive. Active colors will appear to advance when placed against
passive hues. Passive colors appear to recede when positioned against active
hues.
* Most often warm, saturated, light value hues
are "active" and visually advance.
* Cool, low saturated, dark value hues are
"passive" and visually recede.
* Tints or hues with a low saturation appear
lighter than shades or highly saturated colors.
* Some colors remain visually neutral or indifferent.
* Advancing hues are most often thought to
have less visual weight than the receding hues
Complements
We look at a color wheel to understand the relationships between
colors. Not only are they positioned in such a way as to mimic the process
that occurs when blending hues, they also occupy position across from their
complement.
Color Combinations
Complementary Relationship: those colors across from each other
on a color wheel
Split-Complementary Relationship: one hue and two equally spaced
from its complement
Double-Complementary Relationship: two complementary color sets
Analogous Relationship: those colors located adjacent to each
other on a color wheel
Double Triad Relationship: three hues equally positioned on a
color wheel
Color Proportion and Intensity
When colors are juxtaposed, our eyes perceive a visual mix. This
mix will differ depending on the proportions of allocated areas.
* The color with the largest proportional area
is the dominant color (the ground).
* Smaller areas are subdominant colors.
* Accent colors are those with a small relative
area, but offer a contrast because of a variation in hue, intensity, or saturation
(the figure).
* If large areas of a light hue are used, the
whole area will appear light; conversely, if large areas of dark values are
used, the whole area appears dark.
* Placing small areas of light color on a dark
background, or a small area of dark on a light background will create an accent.
* Alternating color by intensity rather than
proportion will also change the perceived visual mix of color.
Homework: Select your favorite composition you created. Try coloring
it with the various possible combinations we have discussed. Vary the proportions,
shades, tints and colors. Be creative and experimental. Be prepared to tell
the name of the color combinations you have used. Bring in at least six to
show the class.
Class #10
Color Theory
Additive Color
Remember: Nothing has any color. It's a grayscale world until
light falls on a surface and our eyes (more acuartely our brains) register
the light waves reflected back to it.
Inside Our Eyes are a group of light-sensitive cells called rods
and cones. Rods pick up dim light and are good for detecting brightness and
motion. Cones are responsible fro color. They react best to strong light.
Cones are located in the central part of the retina and rods are found in
the outer regions. Therefore, you can judge colors most accurately by examining
them in daylight and looking directly at them.
Cones come in three types. Generally each type is sensitive
to red, green or blue light. This differs from the three primary colors in
paint.} If all the cones are stimulated, you see white. If both the red and
green cones get excited, but the blue cones shut down, you see yellow. What
is important here is the light coming into your eye may bounce off a yellow
object, pass through a yellow filter, or come from a combination of red and
green lights shining together. Your eye doesn't know the difference.
Computer screens and televisions fool your eye by speaking
directly to your cones. The inside of a monitor is coated with red, green
and blue phosphors that emit light. A yellow pixel is really a combination
of red light shining for the benefit of the red cones and green light going
to the green cones. If there's no blue light coming from the pixel, the corresponding
blue cones take a nap.
Exercise: Go to the color palette in Illustrator. If you are
in RGB mode, you can move the sliders of the R,G and B to create these full
colors. If you remove all the color, the result is black. If you add all the
colors together, the result is white. This is the opposite of painting
colors, the subtractive color system.
Go to colormatters.com for cone exercises.
RGB Light
Thierefore, red, blue and green are the primary colors of ight.
In theroy, all visible colors can be expressed using a combination of these
three basic ingredients. Intense lights, or multiple lights projected together,
produce lighter colors. That's why red and green mix to from yellow, which
is lighter than either red or green. Equal amounts of each color in lesser
quanties amke gray and the absnece of red, green or blue is balck.
Exercise: Go to the color palette in Illustrator and make a gray
by entering a quantity amount for each color. Change the color mode
to CMYK and watch what happens when you use each color in its full strength
and you enter 0 for each color.
Note: The color swatch with the exclamation mark is the gamut
warning. This lets you know that this color cannot be printed in a tradition
four color printing process.
HSB Stands for hue, saturation and brightness. Hue is pure color.
Saturation dictates the amount of color you see. The greater saturation, the
more intense the color. Brightness determines the amount of black added. HSB
is a variation of RGB than a separate color mode. It's ideal when you want
to find a different shade of an RGB color. Take an RGB color, switch it to
its HSB equivalent with the HSB command in the Color pallet's pop-up menu,
adjust the saturation and brightness, and switch it back to RGB when you
are satisfied.
Swatches Palette is where we store colors. You can sort the swatches
by name or kind by choosing the command from the pop-up menu in the Swatches
palette.
Setting the Swatches Palette Focus - Set the focus by holding
Ctrl+Alt (Cmd-Option on the Mac) and clicking inside the palette. Setting
the focus activates the palette so that you can make selections within the
palette by using keyboard commands instead of the mouse. When you set the
focus to a palette, a black line appears inside the palette. (This works for
other palettes as well.)
Once you have set the focus inside the palette, you can scroll
around using the arrow keys, you can type the first few letters of the swatches
name to instantly to that swatch.
Color Libraries
Illustrator ships with 25 libraries filled with predefined colors.
Some of these , such as Default, Pastels or Earthtones, are colors created
by Adobe. Others. such as Pantone and Trumatch, are based on commercial products
that match colors in printed swatch color books.
Window>Swatch Libraries allows you to open the available swatch
libraries in their own palette. You can use any document as a color library
The file you use cannot be open.
Diapon Ink and Chemical (Diccolor) and Toyo are Japanese color
systems. FOCOLTONE is based in England. HKS is German.
Web Colors and VisiBone 2 are web based systems containing the
216 Web-safe colors that prevent dithering when viewed on the web, Dithering
puts pixels of different colors next to each other so your eye will mix them.
While dithering can be good at its mission -- to simulate colors outside the
current palette -- it creates a splotchy effect that can make graphics look
bad. It also makes text hard to read. This was more important a few years
ago when most monitors should only read Web-safe colors.
Trumatch: Designed entirely using a desktop system and with computers
in mind, Trumatch contains more than 2,000 process colors, organized according
to hue, saturation and brightness. The colors correspond to the Colorfinder
swatch book. This is the most common system used by designers fro the computer.
Pantone: is the largest color vendor in the United States. With
the addition of pastels and metallics (in Illustrator 10), this system is
most commonly used by print designers. The colors match printed colors in
the Pantone Process Color System Guide swatch book.
Exercise: Visit Pantone's web site at www.pantone.com
Homework: Using the same composition from last week, recolor
it using analogous, monochromatic and complementary color combinations.
Big Hint: You can use Filter>Colors>Invert Colors to find
a colors complement.