Post Critique Writing Challenge 4 (final exam)
On my final composition...
To create my composition I chose to use construction paper to build the shell and a combination of magazine clippings, drawing, and text to collage the subject matter. I used the construction paper to make the actual book because I thought it would be an efficient way to convey continuity among all of the panels and folds, without being distracting from the subject matter. Initially, I was only going to use magazine clippings for the subject matter. However, as my transitions and subject matter developed, I had to expand my material choices in order to obtain all images I needed to create visual harmony, variety, and balance. The downfall of my material choice(s) was that as I added more to the form and as I handled it more, it became less sturdy in its structure and less pliable when the glue dried. The benefit of my culminating materials was that it allowed for unity and variety throughout the composition. For instance, using text I found online allowed me to create unity between the title letters on panel one to the smoke in panel three in terms of texture and visual weight. Likewise, I combined magazine clippings and images found online elsewhere to allow unity and variety. The word ‘leaving’ was a magazine clipping that I combined with different types of smoke I found online. Using images found online allowed variety because I could then used multiple types and images of the same subject. Further, manipulating text allowed variety (as in panel six) because I was able to change the color to blue, creating a transition through hue. Variety was even more possible on the interior because of different types of materials being used. For instance, adding the reflective paper in panels two through four created multiple reflected colors that could be repeated elsewhere in different mediums, such as blue paper, yellow marker, and colored duck tape. Therefore, I attempted to use variety of material to create unified panels through line, hue, and proximity.
I believe that the first strength of the composition is the mostly successful blending of different materials in an overall harmonious way by use of line, color, pattern, texture, text, etc. To continue, the combination can seen at the end of the book, where an online image, magazine clippings, duck tape, and marker are all used and connect by the colors of yellow, magenta, and blue-and proximity. The successful blending of materials is also evident by the desired sensible proportions throughout. For example, the sizes of the heads on the exterior (different materials) and their respective transitioning patterns. Another strength is the hue distinction used in the design as a result of advice from a working critique. To more accurately convey ‘happiness’ and ‘sadness’ or ‘lightness’ and ‘darkness’, it made sense to use color in order to convey meaning by making the exterior all B&W or greyscale, and make the inside contain emphasis on color. As the composition developed, I in some way needed to make a connection in panel 6 of the exterior to the tail, so I added the word ‘or’ in the same hue and drew outlines throughout the hair to make the visual transition by hue and intensity. The blue at the end would also serve as a transition into the interior of color, which starts by fading into white and yellow. Then because of that, I repeated yellow throughout in mostly the form of lines or word associations. I also highlighted hues of blue, green, and pink which can be seen in the fountain, flowers, and abstracted lines, harmoniously combining tints and shades and allowing contrast. I think another success is the amount of interactive elements that I was able to include. I attempted to use the ‘less is more’ mentality here to make intriguing elements that invite the viewer to touch or open them. While I would have liked to have had a few more interactive elements, I was happy with the ones completed. I thought that the word ‘revealed’ on panel one of the interior needed to be made into an action and literally be revealed by the viewer, so I made a slot for it to be pulled out from the word ‘light.’ I also used repetition here by including two flaps to open up, one on the interior and one on the exterior (reflect & the eyes). Finally, I find the composition to be dynamic because it contains less expected visual elements like texture and light, as can be seen in the smoke, fur, reflective paper and duck tape. When viewing it in its entirety, the combination of images and their placement, scale, color, line, pattern, repetition, etc. together clearly convey the two opposing emotions of happiness and sadness on each respective side.
A large difficulty in the composition came from the construction. Upon using my mock-up and design format to make actual-sized measurements for the actual form, I realized that the way I had sketched my design had more horizontal emphasis, while my construction influence had a vertical emphasis because its panels were taller and skinnier. Thus, my visual pauses-the points/ridges between each panel-did not have as much of an effect because of their shallow depth and manipulation from glue and folding. I also attempted to create fusion through transitions in my subject matter, but it was successful only in certain areas. Visual pauses that are too long occur where there is little fusion, such as the last panel where the stripes meet the bouquet. The fusion, visual unity, and transition could have been improved there in terms of color, because where there are three sources of blue in that area, that do not connect enough in their tones. Further, I think the completed book as a composition, when closed, could have had better closure. While it does open and close in several differing ways, the final way the form closes is not as closed as desired. And the continuous folding and pasting while working on the piece prohibited the necessary movement to fold the book completely flat when it was finished. Even with scoring, the paper material was unable to fold in both directions in particular areas, so my folding options for the flat presentation were limited. I tried to create a transition on the ‘cover’ by starting with the black and showing both a section of the reflective and the white, squeezing the colorful, reflective section within that contrast of B&W. With that also, the finished composition did not have as much depth from panel to panel as desired, so the accordion form was then less deep as desired too. With more time, I would have liked to have made a clasp to connect the front and back both when it is closed flat and when it is opened into its circular-hexagon form. Due to lack of time for extra brainstorming, as I had to take time to rework transitions toward the end, I had to use sticky tack for a viewer to secure the form as a standing closed circle-which lacks any complementary design qualities, other than being concealable. Finally, while I think I did successfully utilize unity and variety harmoniously, I think that my amount of material choices and the complexity of my folding detract from the ‘less is more’ quality that the composition should have. While it has an overall visual unity created by shape, color, line, and direction, the additional patterns and materials brought in to create necessary transitions did increase the complexity of the subject [and the composition] before considering the simplification of it first.
The visual movement of the composition is achieved not only by the subject matter, but by the overall circular/hexagonal standing form inspired by my whimsical visual research. Standing up, each of the book’s panels seem to angle with a visual pull outward toward a point, where it comes in, creating a ridge/transition area that added to the three-dimensional quality of the form, abstracting it from its 2D paper shell. While I did attempt to use the 2D subject matter on the panels to create visual movement using the principle of design, I took a different approach too and wanted to add a sculptural element that would serve as a transition through color and introduce a new 3D property. Starting from the cool temperature blue in the hair on the last panel of the exterior, the eye moves to the blue hue in the ‘or’ and the blue in the tail, whose black base fades into the background. Then the eye moves around to the interior of the composition because the scale, placement, and fusion of the tail unify the two sides and pull the viewer inside. Throughout the exterior panel also, transitions created mostly by line and outlining allow undulating horizontal visual movement to occur. For example, the smoke starts in panel two coming from behind the lion and its mouth, overlaps the text on the next panel, and funnels into the skull. On the interior, I also focused on orientation of lines and abstracted objects to create visual movement to the right using diagonal lines, almost like an arrow. Because the lines are so repetitious and bold in color and design, they nearly create a centricity, or compressive compositional force toward the center and to the right. These lines mentioned can be seen in: the abstracted diamond magazine clippings, along with the drawn colored lines and arrow (in panels one and two); the diagonal metallic lines coming from the reflective paper and out of the fountain, which draw emphasis to it and produce a visual weight pulling downward and to the right like a force of light, so to speak (in panels three and four); and the lines on the last two panels (five and six), where rose patterned duck tape in blue and pink hues, with drawn yellow diagonal lines, leads the visual movement right to the center of the bouquet of flowers at the end.
I believe that the first strength of the composition is the mostly successful blending of different materials in an overall harmonious way by use of line, color, pattern, texture, text, etc. To continue, the combination can seen at the end of the book, where an online image, magazine clippings, duck tape, and marker are all used and connect by the colors of yellow, magenta, and blue-and proximity. The successful blending of materials is also evident by the desired sensible proportions throughout. For example, the sizes of the heads on the exterior (different materials) and their respective transitioning patterns. Another strength is the hue distinction used in the design as a result of advice from a working critique. To more accurately convey ‘happiness’ and ‘sadness’ or ‘lightness’ and ‘darkness’, it made sense to use color in order to convey meaning by making the exterior all B&W or greyscale, and make the inside contain emphasis on color. As the composition developed, I in some way needed to make a connection in panel 6 of the exterior to the tail, so I added the word ‘or’ in the same hue and drew outlines throughout the hair to make the visual transition by hue and intensity. The blue at the end would also serve as a transition into the interior of color, which starts by fading into white and yellow. Then because of that, I repeated yellow throughout in mostly the form of lines or word associations. I also highlighted hues of blue, green, and pink which can be seen in the fountain, flowers, and abstracted lines, harmoniously combining tints and shades and allowing contrast. I think another success is the amount of interactive elements that I was able to include. I attempted to use the ‘less is more’ mentality here to make intriguing elements that invite the viewer to touch or open them. While I would have liked to have had a few more interactive elements, I was happy with the ones completed. I thought that the word ‘revealed’ on panel one of the interior needed to be made into an action and literally be revealed by the viewer, so I made a slot for it to be pulled out from the word ‘light.’ I also used repetition here by including two flaps to open up, one on the interior and one on the exterior (reflect & the eyes). Finally, I find the composition to be dynamic because it contains less expected visual elements like texture and light, as can be seen in the smoke, fur, reflective paper and duck tape. When viewing it in its entirety, the combination of images and their placement, scale, color, line, pattern, repetition, etc. together clearly convey the two opposing emotions of happiness and sadness on each respective side.
A large difficulty in the composition came from the construction. Upon using my mock-up and design format to make actual-sized measurements for the actual form, I realized that the way I had sketched my design had more horizontal emphasis, while my construction influence had a vertical emphasis because its panels were taller and skinnier. Thus, my visual pauses-the points/ridges between each panel-did not have as much of an effect because of their shallow depth and manipulation from glue and folding. I also attempted to create fusion through transitions in my subject matter, but it was successful only in certain areas. Visual pauses that are too long occur where there is little fusion, such as the last panel where the stripes meet the bouquet. The fusion, visual unity, and transition could have been improved there in terms of color, because where there are three sources of blue in that area, that do not connect enough in their tones. Further, I think the completed book as a composition, when closed, could have had better closure. While it does open and close in several differing ways, the final way the form closes is not as closed as desired. And the continuous folding and pasting while working on the piece prohibited the necessary movement to fold the book completely flat when it was finished. Even with scoring, the paper material was unable to fold in both directions in particular areas, so my folding options for the flat presentation were limited. I tried to create a transition on the ‘cover’ by starting with the black and showing both a section of the reflective and the white, squeezing the colorful, reflective section within that contrast of B&W. With that also, the finished composition did not have as much depth from panel to panel as desired, so the accordion form was then less deep as desired too. With more time, I would have liked to have made a clasp to connect the front and back both when it is closed flat and when it is opened into its circular-hexagon form. Due to lack of time for extra brainstorming, as I had to take time to rework transitions toward the end, I had to use sticky tack for a viewer to secure the form as a standing closed circle-which lacks any complementary design qualities, other than being concealable. Finally, while I think I did successfully utilize unity and variety harmoniously, I think that my amount of material choices and the complexity of my folding detract from the ‘less is more’ quality that the composition should have. While it has an overall visual unity created by shape, color, line, and direction, the additional patterns and materials brought in to create necessary transitions did increase the complexity of the subject [and the composition] before considering the simplification of it first.
The visual movement of the composition is achieved not only by the subject matter, but by the overall circular/hexagonal standing form inspired by my whimsical visual research. Standing up, each of the book’s panels seem to angle with a visual pull outward toward a point, where it comes in, creating a ridge/transition area that added to the three-dimensional quality of the form, abstracting it from its 2D paper shell. While I did attempt to use the 2D subject matter on the panels to create visual movement using the principle of design, I took a different approach too and wanted to add a sculptural element that would serve as a transition through color and introduce a new 3D property. Starting from the cool temperature blue in the hair on the last panel of the exterior, the eye moves to the blue hue in the ‘or’ and the blue in the tail, whose black base fades into the background. Then the eye moves around to the interior of the composition because the scale, placement, and fusion of the tail unify the two sides and pull the viewer inside. Throughout the exterior panel also, transitions created mostly by line and outlining allow undulating horizontal visual movement to occur. For example, the smoke starts in panel two coming from behind the lion and its mouth, overlaps the text on the next panel, and funnels into the skull. On the interior, I also focused on orientation of lines and abstracted objects to create visual movement to the right using diagonal lines, almost like an arrow. Because the lines are so repetitious and bold in color and design, they nearly create a centricity, or compressive compositional force toward the center and to the right. These lines mentioned can be seen in: the abstracted diamond magazine clippings, along with the drawn colored lines and arrow (in panels one and two); the diagonal metallic lines coming from the reflective paper and out of the fountain, which draw emphasis to it and produce a visual weight pulling downward and to the right like a force of light, so to speak (in panels three and four); and the lines on the last two panels (five and six), where rose patterned duck tape in blue and pink hues, with drawn yellow diagonal lines, leads the visual movement right to the center of the bouquet of flowers at the end.