This assignment was to research on rhymes and compose images using Photoshop, to represent lines given in the rhymes and explore the principles of design.
We were initially broken down into groups and each group was assigned a rhyme to research on and compile a photo bank after editing on Photoshop. After which, we were to compose multiple image compositions and then choose our final 4.
My group was assigned to do the rhyme “There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe“. This was how the rhyme went:
Just the cat and the fiddle. Literally. The huge fiddle in the middle contrasts in size with the cat at the corner. The small cat at the corner also helps to balance out the big fiddle in the middle.
The cows have a gradual change in size to signify movement. The smaller group at the top contrasts in size with the bigger group at the bottom.
The cow skin covers the moon, signifying the cow jumped OVER the moon. The moon is brighter than the entire picture being relatively black to bring attention to it.
The sport refers to the cow jumping over moon. There is a laughing dog in the background, showing contrast between size and colour tone of background versus foreground. Shows symmetry.
The paws are tilted and have a variety of sizes to show the dog dancing around happily or laughing, while the white mooncake in the foreground represents the moon. Shows contrast between fore and background.
The gradual change in size and opacity to represent movement. Purposely twisted to have a dramatic path and show both the dish and the spoon.
Added a background of grass texture to give the context of running on grass or mountains. Stripes added to give texture and more contrast with foreground. One dish added to foreground out of frame to have a hint that they have not stopped running.
An egg on a wall. Egg is off-center to reduce symmetry, placed along one-third of the picture. It is also tilted to have more movement and life, imitating a relaxed and laid back sitting position.
The gradual change in opacity to show movement, and the different angles along the bottom further adds to the movement and life of the egg.
Background of brick wall added to give the context of falling from the wall. Size of the eggs have also changed to have a gradual change to signify the falling from a further place, i.e. top of the wall.
Replaced decorations of the the king’s crown with imperial soldiers and soldiers on horses. Emphasizes on the symmetry of the image and the stark contrast between black and white.
Stark contrast between shape of egg and background, with low contrast of soldiers in the background. Small little dots in the egg represents how the egg has shattered into tiny bits and cannot be put together, despite having so many people.
Shifted the egg to a corner to reduce symmetry and bring the center of focus to a point. Egg is purposely shifted out of frame as audience will complete it mentally, also making the composition more interesting.
The symmetry and pattern of the babies to bring the center of focus to the only difference – the “?”. The babies are also crying to signify the lack of attention as there is too many of them.
The idea was changed to using milk bottles and pacifiers to represent the vast amount of children, and then a subtle “?” is across the entire composition by having a darker tone and contrast. Parts of the “?” are out of the frame to make the composition more interesting.
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The amount of milk bottles and pacifiers represents the huge number of children that the old woman has. There is then a subtle “?” formed in the middle by having a darker tone and more contrast to represent the idea of lost and not knowing what to do.
The above composition has rhythm and repetition in the milk bottles and pacifiers. It also has contrast to bring out the “?”.
The entire image is filled with silhouettes of soldiers, then an egg at the bottom left corner. The silhouettes of the soldiers show the huge number of soldiers, and the egg represents Humpty Dumpty. The egg was edited with halftone to have the dots , in which the soldiers can be seen through the egg. These small little dots that form the soldiers represent that Humpty Dumpty has shattered into tiny pieces and cannot be put back together again.
The composition shows repetition and rhythm in the soldiers, and also contrast of the colour and size of the egg to let it become the center of interest. The egg itself actually also has a gradation of tone to give depth of the egg.
This image shows a trail of a dish and a spoon, following a gradual transformation of size and opacity, small to big, transparent to opaque. This is to signify the movement of the dish and spoon. They are also composed to take a curved path to emphasize on the dramatic movement, and also to show both the dish and the spoon clearly. The background is laid with texture of grass to give a context of the dish and spoon running on grass or mountains. The stripes serve to increase the contrast of the background versus the dish and spoon.
This shows repetition of the dish and spoon, their directional movement through the change in size and opacity, and contrast between the background and foreground.
The background is decorated with varying shapes and directions of dog paws, showing the happiness of the dog, seemingly running and dancing about, to signify the laughing of the dog. The low contrast of the paws and the black background is to bring out the high contrast of the foreground. The foreground shows a mooncake to represent a moon. It is made to be white to seem more like the moon, and also have a greater contrast from the background. It is slightly out of frame to let audience complete the circle. The cows are placed around to the moon in one direction to signify the movement of the cow over the moon, and made to have a same size to have a contrast with the varying sizes at the back as well.
This shows contrast between the foreground (white, consistent sizes) and the background (black, varying sizes). It also shows repetition of the cows and paws, and the center of interest of the foreground through the stark contrast.