The Pig…

The Story
“I am flying!” a pig thought.
However, as the bigger picture comes into view, turns out that the stork was carrying the pig…

Elements and Principles
In the first frame, the pig is a circle that extends out of frame to look bigger. Gestalt law of closure is used as while the lines outside the frame are unseen, we are able to visualise the full circle. The pig also takes up about 2/3 of the frame, using the rule of thirds in the composition. The other third shows the clouds and sky as part of the background.

In the second frame, the stork carries the pig and is placed around the intersection of two grid lines from the rule of thirds. The landscape (hills) also occupy about 1/4 of the frame bottom up for a more dynamic framing. However, with the addition of the white space around the hills, the landscape ended up taking about 1/3 of the frame, rendering it using the rule of thirds as well.

Click here to read more about the process (breakdown of each frame in more details included).

Difficulties
One difficulty was on deciding whether to carve and create patterns. While having no patterns rendered a straightforward and clearer print, it seemed too simple. However, by adding on patterns, the main subject like the pig’s focus was lost amongst the “messier” patterns I chose. Hence, a compromise was to remove the patterns and to have a ring of white around the subjects. Also, simpler marks like straight lines seemed better too, especially when next to more complex looking objects like the stork.

Takeaway
I learnt that composition and framing techniques, like gestalt laws and the rule of thirds, can be used efficiently to tell a more engaging story within space constraints, like with the two frames.