Iconography: the study of such symbolic visual systems

Stereotype: fixed generalization based on a preconception

Cliche: overused expression or a predictable treatment of an idea

Pure Forms: shapes created without direct reference to reality

Representational Shapes: derived from specific subject matter that is strongly based on direct observation

Abstract Shapes: somewhere between non-representational and representational, derived from visual reality but are distilled and transformed to reduce their resemblance to the original source

Definition: the degree to which we distinguish one visual component from another

High Definition: strong contrast between shapes, increases clarity and immediacy of communication

Low Definition: increase the complexity of a design via soft shapes, gradations and transparencies

Analogy:  creates a general connection between unrelated objects or ideas

Simile: creates the connection using the words “like” or “as”

Metaphor: more direct than an analogy or simile

Metaphorical thinking: connecting an image to an idea

Anesthetic: to induce sensitivity or unconsciousness

Aesthetics: the study of human responses to beauty

Postmodernism: the dominant art movement from 1975-2005

Modernism: general term that encompasses a wide range of individual movements

Appropriation: the reuse of an existing artwork

• Color contrast makes things visible

• Our eyes have the ability to segregate specific frequencies of reflected light waves into comprehensible sensations and the brain interprets the sensations as color
• Colors that seem similar have nearly the same wavelengths
  • Each ray of sunlight has a continuum of color zones
    • Each zone contains gradients
    • The boundaries between colors are blurry, not sharply delineated
• Perception of colored surfaces is caused by the reflection of light from those surfaces to the eye
• Light waves that are not reflected are not perceived as color
• Light intermixing is considered an ADDITIVE COLOR PROCESS
  • The intermixture of spectral colors in pigment tends to produce colors that are duller and darker than those being combined
• Darkness means less LUMINOSITY
• Mixing pigments is a SUBTRACTIVE COLOR PROCESS
  • Intermixing pigments darkens color because the reflection and absorption of color in pigment aren’t always pure
• Red, Blue and Yellow make the PRIMARY TRIAD
  • Each of these colors are said to be indivisible; they can’t be made by combining other colors
• Complementary hues are colors that are direct opposites from each other on the color wheel
  • Mixing complements lowers the saturation and value
• Orange, Green and Violet are contained in the Secondary Triad
• Color mixing results depend on which side the primary color is bias to
  • Overtone=color bias
• Co-primaries are colors that can produce a full set of spectral colors and tones
• Artificial lighting effects the color spectrum, changing its hue dependent on the kind of bulb being used

1)In fifth grade, I had a terrifying experience with an ambulance involving my father. He thought he was having a heart attack one night, so we had to call 911. This instance will forever live in my memory as one of the worst days of my life.

Although all of these pictures are of actual ambulances, I remember this night of my fifth grade year as just seeing a bunch of red and my dad being taken out of our house. I hope to use a lot of red imagery in this piece. The color red is obviously because of the ambulance lights, but also because I think that the color depicts anger and fear.

I am unsure of what I will use to construct this piece and what the components would be. I am leaning towards using construction paper and clay (something of which I did not realize is not allowed in this project).

I hope that through making this piece, I get over my anxiety of seeing ambulances and break through the bad memories that I have had of this night. Being in college, I have definitely seen more of them, so it has been difficult, but I hope to break free of these feelings after eight years.

2) After thinking out ideas and ways to  construct my piece, I cut two pieces of cardboard and made a display board that is stuck together with hot glue and blue artist tape. This idea ended up bring the right one, and I was able to make my full composition come to life.

3) My hopes for the sky would be darkness that was overshadowed by light; I tried capturing this by using oil paint and yellow, orange, red, and blue card stock paper. At first I was not totally pleased with its aesthetic, but after putting more pieces together, I decided it was the right move.

4) When doing the house,  I just started cutting card stock and glueing pieces together. I was not sure which route I was going to take, but I decided on making a roof with folded paper that was brownish and had golden tones, complimenting it with a red-brick body.

I am unhappy right now with the window and door, but I am going back to fix that with darker paint, or cut out the windows completely with an exact-o knife.

5)  In our final class of the semester, this was the progress of the project as a whole. I was basically miserable and did not like it at all. I was about ready to start over, but I knew that I definitely did not have enough time. In realizing that, I continued working on it by making the ambulance, and I had a much better result afterwards.

6) The ambulance was the key part in making this project more enjoyable. It was the focal point, so maybe I should have started the project with making this first (oh well). This was a picture taken in progress of the ambulance.

7) As I started getting more of the ambulance finished, this is the progress I have made in the right direction; I finally started liking my project. Although it is not exactly my vision of what I wanted to achieve, it is closer than it was after our final class of the semester. Many of the elements, including the sky, have started coming together so I am happy about that.

I love the shrubbery I made too; I think it pulls the piece in well together.

After working on it for several hours, I am definitely happier with how it is coming along.

8) Now, I am considering if I want the perspective of my final image to be like the one from above, or if I want to use the original idea and take the picture through a doorway. The original idea was to have the camera lens positioned under a door frame, so it would make the viewer look at the composition from an outsider perspective. I would still like to capture it that way, but I am unsure if that will work how I would like it to.

I like that my piece does not look completely realistic, but it also has an artistic feel to it. Although it does really look like painted paper, I am now realizing that I like that more than I did towards the beginning.

My process of the entire piece was pretty slow; I did not entirely have anything set until a week or so before the due date. I was struggling to get started mostly because I wanted it to turn out how I saw it in my head. I began with the display, started painting the sky, did the house, constructed the ambulance, and placed the shrubbery. What I have to do next, is finalize the position of the ambulance, make final touches on the house, and place the doorframe in a good position so that I can get the right perspective for my final image.

9)

10) My final image looks like this:

Even though it does not look completely realistic, I like how it looks surreal. Like dreams, they are not entirely concrete; details are jumbled and fake when you think about them after you wake up. I like how I blurred the background, and made the ambulance the focal point.

The overall objective of this project was to recognize action and motion principles in other works my master artists. Many of the principles that I used were anticipation, one-point perspective, two-point perspective, atmospheric perspective, direction, scale shift, overlapping, and several others. As we progress on in the project, we begin to understand more and integrate these principles into our later projects. Things I’ve learned that I didn’t know in the past was that all different types of artwork display these principles as well. It takes a lot of critical thinking to recognize sometimes, but these principles are crucial to many pieces.

These two mapping pieces were a way to recognize the principles in other pieces by master artists. At first, it was difficult for me because I was afraid of being wrong, but after a while, I got the hang of the project. Direction and Motion can sometimes be tricky when really thinking of the meaning and putting it into practice.

This was the project that really formed my idea for the one below. Although this picture does not involve the micron pen, it is a clear depiction of the final project. After a lot of thinking and experimenting with how I would duplicate myself, and where I would position the duplicates, I came up with this final product. I was going through my camera roll on my laptop, and I thought this would be an interesting picture to use and possibly even tear apart. I was unsure of what to do until I started using the pen tool and traced myself. From there, I copied and pasted several times to get the effect I was originally thinking of. After our mini-critique, I had a better understanding of what I would do, and that was more settling. There was motion within the anticipation of the waves, the direction of the clouds, and the direction the duplicates of myself were going in.

This piece was mostly inspired by previous thought, and then put together after the beach panorama piece. It was truly a stepping stone, and I am happy with how it turned out. This piece really took a lot of chance, instinct, and pure luck. I had no idea how it would turn out, but I knew that I did not want to throw away the blueprint idea and the clouds just yet. Because of all of the test strips in photo, I also felt like I should put a few of them to use where I felt roads and buildings would appear. These ideas took a lot of time, and stepping away from the ideas at certain points was my best shot at making  good piece. I had to realize when to take a break, and those times really allowed me to bring an idea together.

The principles and examples of Motion and Action are applicable to different art making practices because you are able to represent these ideas in many different ways. Using line, form, shapes, rhythm, etc, you can create these principles and use them to your advantage. I enjoyed being introduced to these and allowing them to be the focus of my piece.