First Project: Line and Space

My first assignment of the semester explored the concept of line and space: looking at objects and observing how line shapes or creates that object and the space around it. I was asked to go out and take photographs, looking for design principles, such as: movement, rhythm/repetition, variety and contrast. With the pictures I took, I then designed various thumbnails trying to capture these principles.

After drawing up concept thumbnails, I completed a few semi-finals and eventually settled on three final designs.

This first design was taken from a photograph looking at a tree from the ground up. I simplified the shapes to create a sense of geometric movement and differed the size of the asymmetrical  branches to portray rhythm and repetition. I also left a very thin white space where the branches would typically meet the trunk to bring forward the image of the body. I feel that this small detail really emphasizes the perspective I was trying to capture and gives it a true sense of shape.
Initially, I tried to draw this image using more organic lines, staying more truthful to the actual design of the tree, but I failed at getting the same effect that this design accentuates.

This next piece was abstractly designed from a sculpture outside of a building on campus. The sculpture was a pile metal rails running off in all different directions for a few feet. I simply extended the rails indefinitely off of the page while also adding a couple extras to give a feeling of fluidity. The base of the object is true to the actual structure and was left that way to maintain stability in the design. The largest upside down triangle you see allows the eye to move around the entire design without going entirely off of the page or getting lost or confused within the other lines.











My final design was also taken from a picture of trees, but this time I attempted to stay more truthful to the organic shape without going into any detail in the canopy. The purpose of this design was to create a sense of depth in space. I used very thin and closely placed together diagonal lines to give a clear definition of foreground and background. I feel this, along with having trees in descending order of size, give true depth to the image.

South to Scotland

When I first began my college career I had no clear focus in mind and my decision to go was made simply because I thought I had no other choice. I had taken classes at Clarion and then Penn State Behrend, collecting credits and debt with having no real interest in the different majors that I dabbled with. And as I listlessly went through the motions over the years, I had realized the path that I was on would take me nowhere. I knew I had to change. The person who I was then was not who I wanted to be. I began to chisel away at the mold that had come to define me, uncovering and reawakening desires and motivations that I had forgot I even had. New emotions stirred within and these new realizations (among other influences) gave me the strength and motivation to pursue a better life for myself. Thus, I began my quest for an education in the arts.

Art had always played a major role in my life and was something that I had a natural ability in. After high school, though, I had convinced myself that I wasn't capable of pursuing it as a career. I gave up on it entirely. But now, after my trials and revelations, I am shedding my skin and going back to doing what truly makes me happy.  

This past August I started my first semester on the main campus of Edinboro University and I am currently concentrating in illustration, graphic design and advertising. This blog is a documentation of all of my projects, assorted artwork and life, in general, here in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. Not only will this be an online portfolio but the blog will also serve as an electronic sketchbook/journal that tells a story of my scholastic trials and my life, renewed by art.