– Theme –

My project’s theme is nature, it was inspired by the book “Secret Garden”. I included designs like flowers and leaves, and demonstrate the unity of rhythm with these elements of art – line, shape, space, and value.

How it all started…

I always want to create something magical, mysterious. Ms. Oda showed us some examples from previous students and professionals. Most of the carpet designs uses symmetrical shapes, and their main subjects were often in the middle. To work outside the box, I drew my mandala at the top right corner. By placing a subject off center, it creates a very pleasing image to the eye. It’s called the rule of thirds, discovered by the Greeks. It adds a dynamic element to the picture. Two horizontal lines intersect with the two vertical lines is where you place your subject, thereby emphasizing it to great effect. In order to create a great mandala, all everything has to be precisely measured. Even though it will be gorgeous, I later realize it’s taking up too much time. So I end up turning it into a flower. (Well, it also matches my theme. Brilliant!) This flower is the origin of my project, everything were spread out from this point. Like Sun’s ray, bringing life to rest of the design.

 

Wait, What? Tune it down!

I’m the kind of people that wants to make everything. This may bring quality to my work, but create a major problem, awful time management. Projects always have a due date. When Ms. Oda gave me my formative assessment score, all of my achievements were about 3 to 4 out of 8. “There’s gotta be something wrong here.” I was sad and frustrated. However, after having a little chat with Ms. Oda, I figured out my mistake. Even though all of the designs were perfect, I didn’t include what the rubric asked or. Everything was too crowded, too messy. I should have different proportion, some big some small.

 

Process of Creation

From previous experience, it’s time to draw something bigger. I began drawing leaves , spreading out from the flower mandala. There are two types of leaves I designed. One of them is where tiny leaves tied together, shaped like a bigger leaf. I applied the skill hatching and cross-hatching, where one uses fine parallel lines drawn closely together to create the illusion of shade or texture. I applied this technique to create tonal effects, by varying the spacing of lines or by adding additional layers of lines. Shading the the veins with darker pencil, makes contrast between black, gray, and white. The second one shows multiple layers of leaves swirling out. By using a thicker pen to trace the leaves on the top layer, it creates a three dimensional feeling, like they are popping out. Both layers have different unity  of patterns, showing my knowledge in using organic shapes.

After working on other several designs, I came to another problem, “How should I fill up the background without making the overall design too messy?” I flipped through some zentangle books, and something clicked in my mind. “Ah, I haven’t use geometrical shapes, let’s apply it in my background”. This design were made up by criss-crossing lines. All of them are straight, creating triangle and quadrangle gaps. I filled some of them with little circles using pencil to create, creating different value and colors.

I gradually came up with more ideas that are related to the nature rather than flowers and leaves. One of them are bean pod. I applied shadings to those curvy lines, so it looks like there’s multiple layers. To emphasize the beans, I press my pencil harder to the paper, making darker color. Moreover, I came up with a weird looking mushroom. Since I have use pencil on multiple designs already, I decide to use black pen for this one. They are pure black, which really stand out from others.

 

Evaluation of Elements and Principles of Arts

Line

I’ve constantly use lines in my creation, whether is to make emphasis on specific shapes, or to create different feelings and movements. Both flowers and leaves formed by curved lines, looking as if they were flowing outwards in infinity. Sometimes, I would use thicker pens to emphasize a specific line, and using lighter pen for the surroundings. For example, the bean pods are outlined with thick pen, so they can pop-out, on the other hand, the circle background were drawn lightly, so they balanced out.

Shape

Patterns are formed by various shapes. But have you ever wonder, different shapes may send different impact on audience. One of the most used shape in my project are circles. Circles does not have a distinct beginning or end, so they imply movement. They suggest infiniteness and harmony. Another shape I applied are triangles and trapezoids. They imply motion. The eye is drawn to the shape and follows it from the widest part of the shape to the pointed tip. Furthermore, I made sure all of my shapes are well balanced, some big some small. The bigger objects create dominance, while the smaller ones (like the flowers), create a softer feeling.

Space

Having more or less space can create various values. Like hatching and cross hatching, when you increase the density of a collection of hatch marks, the area will appear darker. For instance, the part where I put flowers close together, the area looks more graying than white. I made sure I leave some space throughout my artwork in appropriate place, so the audience won’t feel to crowded or disgust. (leave some space for them to breath…)

Value

This is probably the most important technique in this project, since we cannot add in color, only black pen and pencil. Hatching and cross-hatching were applied when creating those small leaves, so each of them shows different shades of gray. Moreover, to make object pop out, I shaded the side of it, to create light and dark. Therefore, even if I only have limited tools, I can still create multiple values.