LINE This image was taken at a park near where I live. These lines are the lines on the road that alert you that a stop sign is coming up. I love the way the yellow and white lines intersect. The white lines are a little thinner than the black spaces, which have also created lines. The yellow lines are thicker but appear thin because of the angle of this shot. I think the picture itself is a bold statement and gives a very graphic take on straight lines.
COLOR This is a picture of roses I took near the park. These flowers in the sun really allow the viewer to see the different shades of red/pink and the brightness of the green bush. Color is very important when creating art and can really impact the viewer emotionally. Colors are used in advertising to evoke certain feelings out of the viewer. Reds can be used to evoke feelings of excitement and passion. Some may see this photograph as spring time, and sunshine, while others may say that roses evoke a feeling of love (thank you Valentines Day). This image would not be nearly as eye catching or emotionally charged if you were to view it in black and white.
TEXTURE This picture was also taken at the park, of some River Birch trees. One of the really great things about texture is that you can feel it, but also that you can see texture as well. These trees have such a crunchy looking texture. You can immediately tell from the picture exactly how this bark would feel. Many times in art we are forced to draw a texture that can not be felt, much like this picture, you can see the roughness of this tree, but if you feel the picture on the screen, it is smooth. Artists must spend lots of time using their 2D knowledge to give the viewer a texturized piece of art and the illusion that the object feels the way the brain perceives it to feel.
VALUE This picture was taken at my local grocery store. Value is all about the lights and darks of colors. This picture represents so many different values of green. The lighter shades of green forming from the reflection of the overhead lights and the darks of the green forming from the shadows of the stacked limes as well as the natural value each lime has. Value also adds dimension to a photograph. The viewer can see that these limes are 3D and could easily be picked up. Value provides a richness to the photograph and viewer.
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
MOVEMENT This picture was taken at the park, of water running in the river. This picture encourages your eye to move through the photograph from the top to the bottom. You see the smooth water pouring over the rocks and splashing down into the rocks below creating the bubbles and white caps. It as almost as if you can hear the water running by. It is a very interesting concept to try and capture movement with a still life photo, but luckily the brain can visualize the reality of this picture and what we know is occurring based on what we see.
BALANCE This picture was taken on a local bridge downtown. I have done a few photoshoots here before and I love the way the bridge appears to disappear off into nothing. The type of balance seen, is symmetrical balance, the left side mimics the right side. I love the way the bridge is heavy and dominates the picture while the sky leaves a light and airy feeling in the negative space. Balance is not only created in the left and right sides of the photograph, but also in each section of the bridge with the small rectangle metal squares outlined by a white larger rectangle.
FOCAL POINT This shot was taken on my way home in a field. Although focal point does not have to be a stand alone object, I chose to do my composition this way because of its eye catching ability. I had stopped by this field to take a picture of something else I had in mind for my focal point shot, but when I saw this weed standing alone and so bright, I knew this was a much better choice in focal point with all of the green negative space surrounding it, giving it a pop of color against a more neutral background. The weed is slightly offset to give the viewer a more interesting piece to look at.
PATTERN This is a patterned floor at the entrance to a building on the local downtown square. It is a very simple design of black squares being repeated vertically and horizontally, all with a white outline. Each square is about 1"x1". I chose this pattern much like some of my other pictures, because of its bold property. I love the eye catching way these small squares grab your attention when you are walking down the sidewalk.
COMBINATION OF ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES
COLOR AND MOVEMENT This photograph was taken near the rose bush from my color post. I knew when we were assigned this project that I wanted to use a flag to represent movement and color. As mentioned above, color gives this flag life and evokes feelings in all of us. These colors play such an important role in the lives of American citizens and portray a feeling of pride and strength, hope and freedom. I wanted to do a flag because of its unique way that it moves at the wind carries it around on the pole. The viewer immediately knows that there is movement in this picture and that this flag is flying in the breeze.
TEXTURE AND COLOR This picture was taken on an old metal framed bridge in the park. I was not really looking for this shot at the bridge, but stumbled across it and knew it was perfect for this combo of texture and color. There are so many different textures in this picture, the smoothness of the metal, the peeling paint, the moss, and the little plant that has also emerged onto of the moss. Although colors are similar here, the peeling of the metal paint reveals a orange/brown rust color. The smooth bridge, the moss and the plants are all varying shades of green which gives this piece a nice cohesion while still allowing each piece to have its own identity in the world of color.
LINE AND TEXTURE This photograph was also taken on the old bridge with metal railings. I love this use of lines. Because my first example of line was so direct and bold, I wanted this representation of lines to show just how different and versatile lines can be. There are some straight, wider lines, as well as curved and broken lines. Some lines are short, some stretch the entire length of the bridge. The texture you see is also created by all the lines in the wood planks. Over time the weather has caused the lines of the wood to really show through and create these unfinished, bumpy planks. I like this shot because most times, if you were to see this bridge as a whole, you wouldn't necessarily notice the lines in the wood, or just how textured they are, so getting this shot extremely close was important to the image to show line and texture.
SHAPE AND PATTERN This is another store front entrance on the downtown square near where I live. Most of the stores have a tiled or patterned entrance dating back many years. I really like this entrance because of how balanced it is. The outside appears to be a mismatched puzzle piece while inside the circle there in unity and reform. Each small individual piece represents shape; triangles, rectangles, and rhombuses that form a larger shape of a circle. Because the tiler chose to use it shape within the circle to build upon each other, it has created a beautiful pattern, that is very appealing to the eye. Unlike my pattern above, this pattern changes with each new circular ring.
GESTALT THEORIES
PROXIMITY Our brain tells us that objects that appear together or near each other are in the same group. This picture was taken at the park and really sheds light on this theory of proximity. This small tiny tree seems to separated out of the larger group of trees in the background. It makes the viewer wonder if this tree was planted on purpose outside of the line of trees behind it, or perhaps, if Mother Nature planted this seed many years after the row of trees was planted. Either way, the viewer sees the smaller tree that stands alone as a separate tree not to be grouped with the larger, much older trees behind it.
SIMILARITY This shot was taken on my road. The viewer can easily view this shape and know that these are all similar items (mailboxes) that have mostly the same shape, with a few color and material differences. I think this photo also creates the feeling of similarity because of the single post these mailboxes sit on. The post tells our brain that these little boxes are connected, and we assume that all of the owners of these boxes must live down the short road behind them.
CONTINUITY This was taken at a local grocery store. I think our brains look at this picture and group all of the green pieces together as one panel between two white walls above and below. If you really look, the white lines actually break up the green bar so that really there are actually only shapes of different size and color on the wall, that our brain wants to connect and group together. The while lines really allow the eye to flow all around the picture from the top white portion of the wall to the bottom white portion of the wall.
CLOSURE This is a drain on the downtown square. There are multiple trees planted around the square all surrounded by this drain. As the viewer looks at this drain, it is automatically assumed that these shapes are actually circles that overlap, when the reality of the picture, is that there are many different arcs that you can see but no fully connected circles. Because our brain likes to simplify what it sees, our brain tells us these shapes are circles that are overlapping and interlocking.
REFLECTIONS This was a really fun project for me. My whole career teaching art is founded on the elements and principles of design. I was really inspired to get outside and really look for these things in nature/on the street. I visited Dahlonega (near where I live) and Gainesville for all of my pictures. I think the elements and principles of design can be found in many places in many different shapes and forms. These are the fundamental basics of art and design and really influence a work of art or advertising piece that you are trying to create. It is very important to consider all of these aspects when trying to conduct any type of advertising or visual component for a client or yourself. Certain elements/principles evoke certain emotions (an example would be most fast food restaurants using yellow and red in their logos). Many times one of the most important elements is color, it is very beneficial to research the psychology of colors when starting out on a visual product to be seen by others. While I have not had much experience, other than what the book gave for examples, with Gestalt Theories, I really enjoyed getting outside and trying to find these in nature. This was probably the most challenging of the assignment for me, but also one of the most rewarding. I think this assignment was a great start to this class and I am really looking forward to everything we are going to accomplish this semester! Art is my passion, and I think combining this with technology will prove to be very fruitful for me!