line
There are 4 posts tagged line (this is page 1 of 1).
Assignment 1 “A line is a dot that went for a walk” – Part 2
Lyrical: melodic, musical, symphony/harmonious, lilting, flowing, musical notation, soundwaves, beauty
Turbulent: stormy, unstable – changing motion, turmoil, juxtaposition, harsh contrast, swirling, irregular, always changing, moody, dark
Nonsensical: Non sequitur, not making sense, meaningless, silly, childish, into the rabbit hole, ridiculous, random patterns, no relation to each other
Lyrical was one that I also had a lot of trouble deciding – all my previous experimentation looked too similar to Sensual, so I tried experimenting with musical notation and stacked lines to invoke the feeling of flowing movement.
My initial idea for nonsensical was to emulate a child’s doodle or drawing – but after getting feedback about that idea I decided to change it to something more abstract instead.
Systematic: grid, mind map, interwebs, connections, regular, stable lines/dots, part of a system/machine, gears, solid, categorized, sorted, mathematical)
Ambiguous: neither here nor there, more than one meaning, not decided, foggy, veiled, vague, muddy, unfamiliar, faceless, no recognition
Sloven: untidy, messy, crumpled sheets/fabric, unmade bed, chaotic, scribbles
From my initial experimentation with Systematic, I tried doing a grid style with the spacing between the dotted lines following the proportions of the Fibonacci Sequence. However, I decided that that reference was too obtuse and indirect, so I tried a different style for systematic instead, focusing on how different parts are connected to each other to form a coherent system.
Spontaneous: creative, energetic, instinctive, unrestrained, impromptu, changing direction BUT with flow, single stroke, confident, bold, unplanned, on the spur of the moment
Awkward: uncomfortable, squeamish, uneasy, clumsy, bull in the china shop, feeling out of place, feeling big and bulky, not belonging, high contrast
Aggressive: angry/forceful, confrontational, high energy, violent, explosive, bold, pushy
Indecisive: fickle-minded, changing direction, changing style, forking paths, unsure, going back and forth
Spontaneous also gave me quite a lot of problems: the previous ideas I had were too similar to lyrical or nonsensical. So I tried to go with (literally) a more spontaneous and loose approach, with the entire drawing only made up of a single stroke done in one sitting.
Assignment 1 “A line is a dot that went for a walk” – Part 1
Process: With each emotion, I first mapped out a mindmap to plot out the keyword I associated with each emotion, then tried to represent them physically with lines and/or dots, typically doing 2-3 variations until I was satisfied with the result.
Anxious: High tension(knotted rope), antsy(ant trail), irregular pattern, scribble/tangles, nervous/jumpy, shaking hands, trembling motions, ball of nerves
I tried to use scribbles of lines jumbled together to convey the nervous, jumpy energy that comes from being anxious. I ended up doing a lot of variations as the first few versions of scribbles didn’t feel nervous and jittery enough to me.
Embarrassed: Low energy/simmering energy, confidence>embarrassment transition, sheepish, mortification, blushing(crosshatch), shy/hesitant, wanting to find a hole to crawl into(negative space), clouding embarrassment
For embarrassment, I tried to do something different – I wanted to convey the change of emotion state from confidence to mortification when someone gets embarrassed/does something embarrassing in public, so I tried to do that by using the contrast between the thick bold lines at the beginning to the soft scratchy lines at the back.
Distracted: Irregular, truncated paths, hopping from one thing to another, jagged lines,irregular weight
Bizarre: fluctuating energy, weird, unpredictable, random, oddity, clownish, eccentric, going off on weird tangents Rorschach pattern(ink blot test)
Psychotic: Bullseye (people staring at you), lunatic, mad, manic, frenzied, paranoia, crazy energy
For me this was a very interesting experiment – I was initially experimenting with the eye concept for Bizarre but eventually realized that it looked really psychotic instead – so I decided to do that for Psychotic and instead went with the Rorschach ink plot concept for Bizarre.
Exhausted: worn out/drained, light tone/faded, tired, haggard, low energy/low battery, smudged
Sensual: flowing, indulgence, elegant, femme fatale, soft waves, locks of hair, relaxation, alluring, enticing, beckoning, flowing stream
Fragile: delicate, details, small/easily breakable, tiny, crystals/cells, lace, spider’s web, thin lines, intricate, woven, precious
Fragile was one emotion that I took many iterations to pin down – I tried to experiment with different imagery, from crystals to cells to webs, but they all didn’t have the kind of feeling that I wanted to fragile. Then, I tried blowing ink across the paper with a straw to emulate tendrils and it worked! So I decided to layer that over the web idea.
Assignment 1 “A line is a dot that went for a walk” – Project Prep
Part 1: Personal Prep
My initial preparation for this project was primarily with experimentation – I tried out various methods of creating dots and lines with different tools. In doing so, I tried to my strokes in terms of size, texture and tone so as to bring about different moods and emotions, also to serve as a reference point when penning down the 18 different emotions.
Part 2: Research
Through the class’ presentations on the first lesson and my favourite artists, I narrowed down my inspiration to 2 artists: Agnes Martin and Yayoi Kusama.
I liked Agnes Martin’s use of very subdued and understated hues, lines patterns that were simple and yet felt complex and whole in its mood. In fact, I felt that the simplicity of the images lent them more weight, as the elements that were in the image became even more important.
In contrast, Yayoi Kusama’s work is bold and striking, filled with bright colours (not relevant to the assignment unfortunately) and vibrant imagery. I really liked her use of abstract shapes like mosaics to create big, bold images, making them seem tangible yet abstract.