Assignment 7: Greyscale- Free Composition. Due Monday, March 6th

Project Description

Design and execute a composition in greyscale with the unused paint swatches left over from your black and white value scale. Refer back to your notes regarding the elements and principles of design, and apply these to create an arrangement of line and shapes that move the eye around the page. 

Specifications

Minimum 8 inches x 8 inches overall. You can make it larger if you want.
Mount the composition on matt board with a 2 inch border around all sides. 
Name on back. 

NO pieces may overlap. I originally said this in class but I am going to allow you to layer your swatches. You MAY overlap the painted paper swatches. You man also tear, rip, scratch, etc. Be creative, thoughtful and intentional. 

The composition may be representational or abstract. It just has to be good. 

Schedule

Wed, March 1st- 

In-class work day. Bring materials to work and a sketch of the composition. 

Mon, March 6th @ 10:30am. 

Project Due On-Line (NO CLASS)

All work must be posted to your blog by 10:30am on Mon, March 6th. Each student will review ALL other students in the class. Use the comments sections on the blog to post your comments to your classmates' work. This required feedback will replace our regularly scheduled in-person critique. It should take you about two hours to do. 

All work posted after 10:30am will be marked as late and reduce a full letter grade. 

Tips

Focal Points- 
Create at least three different focal points in the composition and arrange them on the page to help move your eye around the entire space. Positioning them in a triangular configuration is a common approach. 

Hierarchy- 
Establish an order of importance to all the elements (lines/shapes) in your design. 
What is most important? 
How will you establish this?
Answer: Contrast

What is least important? 
How do you establish these? 
Answer: Similarity with the ground and with the majority of elements on the page. 
What is the purpose of these elements?  
Answer: To support the most important things. 

Figure/Ground-
Remember that you SIMULTANEOUSLY create figure and ground as soon as you make a mark in space. The moment this happens, you define both the mark, and the space it resides in. If you keep this in mind, you will not make the mistake of drawing things on a "background". Instead, you will have interesting positive AND negative shapes. Interesting Figure AND Ground. Test your composition by studying the negative shapes in your composition. Are they as important and essential as your figure/subjects?

Framal Reference-
Have you considered the way your composition works with the frame of your page? When an element/shape is confined within the frame it feels small/contained. When an element/shape extends beyond the frame it feels large/expansive. Use this to your advantage. Also consider gravity and the fact that we read from left to right. 

Atmospheric Perspective-
As things move back in space there is less edge contrast and less overall contrast. In addition, the colors move toward achromatic gray. Your swatches are all achromatic treys (grays without color). Can you introduce more swatches of muted and prismatic colors to bring things to the front/closer to the viewer? Yes

Similarity and Contrast-
Use similarity to create unity and contrast to create interest. This is a balance. Too much similarity = boring. Too much contrast = discord. 

Texture-
You got it... use it. a bad paint swatch from the last project could be a great thing here. 

Create the unexpected. Have fun. Use those swatches!

Assignment List for Semester

Spring 2016- List of assignments and exercises

Assignt 1a-What's up/Mashup (magazine- first attempt)

Assign 1b- What's up/Mashup (magazine- second attempt)

   

Assign 2- Figure Ground Studies

     Square (Stable, Reversible, Ambiguous)

     Circle (Stable, Reversible, Ambiguous)

     Rectangle (Stable, Reversible, Ambiguous)

Assign 3- Symmetry (2 parts)

     6 emotion studies

     Animated gif (Final Project)

Project Series- Value Scale and Tessellations (3 Assignments)

     Assign 1- Painting Greyscale Tiles

     Assign 2- Greyscale Value Scale

     Assign 3- Greyscale Composition with extra swatches

Project Series- Hue, Value, Chroma (4 Assignments)

     Assign 1- Three Primary color charts

     Assign 2- Achromatic grey value scale 

     Assign 3-  Color Wheel

     Assign 4- Three Chromatic Scales

Interaction of Color- Joseph Albers Exercises (8 Exercises)

     Ex. 1. Hue as Value

     Ex. 2. Boundaries

     Ex. 3. Transparency

     Ex. 4. Color Manipulation

     Ex. 5. How Much to How Much

     Ex. 6. Color Climate

     Ex. 7. Visual Mixture

     Ex. 8 Three Colors Look Like Four

Final Projects (2 Assignments)

     Assign 1- 3 Color Compositions in mixed media (application of all theory and techniques covered in course)

     Assign 2- Emotion Animation (application of theory and techniques)

Slight adjustments may be made as necessary. Students will be amply notified if this occurs. 

Assignment 6: Value Scale- Greyscale. Due Monday, Feb. 27th

Project Description

In gouache, create a value scale in 11 steps total starting with white (from the tube) and ending with black (from the tube). For the value scale, you will need 11 tiles total. Each tile will be painted a different value from black to white. The value must shift evenly between tiles. 100%, 90%, 80%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, etc. Use the provided color wheel I gave you for reference. 

Part One- Painting Tiles for Tessellating Value Scale. Due February 22.

1. Draw your pattern/tiles

Lay out your pattern on bristol board, leaving a ½" gap between each tile. The gap will give you space to paint beyond the lines and will make it easier to cut your tiles in the next step. 

Take advantage of drawing triangles and a straight edge if you will be making tiles based in triangles, such as rhombus, equilateral triangle, hexagon. All of these are based in the equilateral triangle and can be drawn simply with a 30/60/90 drafting triangle. 

If you are able, you may draw your pattern in illustrator and have it printed on the bristol. You will have to check with the print lab to see they are wiling to do this. See example of layout below:

Lines drawn at 90 degree angles with ½" spacing

3. Paint your tiles

You will need more than 100 tiles to get the 11 for your value scale. This is because not all of them will be acceptable in terms of correct value, or painting technique. Remember, your goal is to make these tiles look like they were painted in a factory (no brush strokes, no streaking). 

When painting your tiles, be sure to watch some videos on how to mix gouache. When I gave the demo in class, I told you to watch out for a few things. I have listed them here:

• Don't waste paint- Start with white, add black. 
• Use a wash brush (¾" or 1") 
• Mix paints on a white surface (you may use a large ceramic dinner plate, plastic disposable plate, or disposable palette. 
• Have two cups of water for cleaning your brushes. Keep them clean. 
• Minimize Streaking- Clean brush thoroughly between painting different values.
• Minimize Streaking- Mix paints thoroughly on palette- adding small amounts of black to the white.
• Minimize dry brush or water color effect- Maintain proper consistency of paint (not too much water, or too dry)
• Minimize Streaks- Load brush evenly (both sides of bristles). 
• Minimize Brush strokes- Lay paint down evenly (not too thick or thin). Paint in only one direction. 
• Don't stack paint tiles while drying. 

Here's a person that documented a similar project and posted her process. Your's will be the same with the exception that you may choose a different shape for your tiles. This is the tessellation part of our project. She did her's with squares. 

The painted tiles are due Wed, Feb 22nd. You will need to bring all 100+ tiles to class, uncut. 

Part Two- Assemble Tessellating Value Scale. Due Monday, Feb 27th

Here is the layout for the value scale. Please use the black mat board provided in class. Your mat board will be cut to 5 inches x 15 inches. 

Process

1. Cut swatches in long 1" wide strips

2. Compare the swatches to the value scale I gave you.

3. Mark the closest value (ex. 30%, 40%) on the back of the swatch.

4. Cut the swatches from the 1" wide strips. Be sure to leave extra room beyond 1". 

5. Choose the best swatches to accurately represent the 11 steps in value.

6. Lay them out and double check (before gluing)

7. Draw two parallel lines 1" apart on a clean sheet of bristol board.

8. Glue the bristol board and the back of your swatches.

9. Carefully attach the swatches to your pre-glued bristol board.

10. Cut the newly glued 11" tall value scale down to 1" width. 

11. Using pencil, lightly mark your mat board where the value scale will go.

12. Glue the mat board.

13. Glue the back of the value scale.

14. Attach the value scale to the mat board using a ruler as a guide. 

15. Clean ALL excess rubber cement from mat board and value scale. 

16. Write name on back. 

Assignment 5: Mounting F/G studies. Due Feb 13th.

This weekend you will fix/re-do anything that needs to be corrected with the first Figure/Ground studies (square, circle, rectangle/thick line). Once you are happy with the outcome, please mount them on matt board provided in class.

Tip: use the skills you are learning with flash (vector drawing) to see if can improve your compositions and make them better. Drawing in illustrator is very similar to drawing in flash/animate.

For figure ground studies, leave a 1" margin between compositions and a 2" border around the edge.  Mount each group of studies on a separate matt board. Ex. squares on one matt board, etc. 

Put name on back and clearly label each assignment.

Next week we will begin painting with gouache. Please bring the following to class with you:

• black and white gouache
• 1" gouache paint brush
• wax paper, aluminum foil, or disposable pallet paper
• two plastic containers for cleaning brushes 
• pencil
• ruler

Final Project: Emotional Animation (Shape Shifter). Multiple Deadlines

Emotional Animation

For this assignment, you will start with the six emotion compositions and create an animation which morphs between all six of them. Either use Adobe Flash, Adobe Animate or Adobe After Effects to create the project start-to-finish, or use a combination of Photoshop, Illustrator and analogue processes to create your animation. My recommendation is to use Flash or Animate. After Effects will give you the most options for motion effects, but is more difficult to learn. Illustrator and Photoshop will make the process more cumbersome and will require more steps. 

Goals

Create an interesting narrative LOOPING animation by carefully considering the transitions between your compositions and by paying close attention to both the positive and negative shapes in the six compositions.  Be sure to consider: 
Rhythm/Pacing/Timing and Proximity.  (which emotions blend into each other and which emotions are farthest from each other). 

Sound may be introduced into your animation to help communicate the different emotions. This is easy to do in Flash/Animate/AfterEffects.

Specifications

1 to 3 mins total run time. 
Looping.
File Type- Animated gif or .mov file. 

You MAY NOT shape tween or blend entire compositions into each other. You have two break the compositions down into smaller parts. You can group objects in your compositions to blend/tween together, just not the whole compositions. 

Assessment

You will be assessed on the quality of your animation- does everything look intentional? Good Transitions? Details? All shapes represented and in motion? 

Creativity- how you choose to animate and morph one composition to another

Communication- how well the animation reinforces the emotions you are trying to communicate through the compositions. 

Technical- Does the animation work? Can it play on your blog? Is it between 1-3 min.? Does it loop? No glitches?

Due Dates

Monday, Feb 6th- 
Animation from One Emotion Composition to another- exported as looping .gif or .mov
example- anger to joy. 
Minimum 10 second loop.
Uploaded to your website/blog.

If you have a computer with the software, please bring it to class. We will try and get access for anyone who does not have a computer for class work time. 

Wednesday, Feb 8th- 
Animation of two emotions- exported as looping .gif or .mov
example- anger to joy to contempt. 
Minimum 30 second loop.
Uploaded to your website/blog.

THE REST OF THE SCHEDULE IS BEING REWORKED DUE TO THE  STEEP LEARNING CURVE. MORE TIME WILL BE GIVEN BEFORE FINAL PROJECT IS DUE. 

Monday, Feb 14th- 
Final Project Due. 
Animation between all six emotions. 
Minimum 60 second loop. Can be up to 3 min. loop. 
Uploaded to your website/blog. 

Brief statement on Blog-
This should be three paragraphs or bullet point lists describing the process- 
Paragraph/list one- 
what you learned technically with the software
Paragraph/list two-
 what you learned regarding use of the elements and principles of design in motion. 
Paragraph/list three- 
how the decisions you made with your animation worked toward communicating the emotions of your compositions. Think about type of movement (smooth or choppy), types of interactions between the individual elements in the compositions, proximity of one composition to the next (similarity or contrast, etc) and sound.