Concentration Proposal

I forgot to do this last night, terribly sorry about that.

My idea for a subject for my concentration is top hats. I'd like to play with the idea of sophistication with an edgey twist (for lack of a better term). I liked the direction I went in with my pattern piece and I'd like to go further there. I think I'm going to work with mixed media but I haven't made a real decision as far as that goes yet. I'll think further on it, but at least I have an idea of what I want to do now.

End proposal.

Edit: I narrowed down my concentration a little and found slightly better wording for what I'm trying to do. What I want to do is create a whimsical contrast between sophistication and... craziness for which I still have no good word. Top hats are my chosen symbol of sophistication, that's what they represent to me... plus I just LOVE top hats. I want to use a lot of color in my pieces so I decided to go with colored pencils for my main medium, but I'll probably mix some digital media and other things like acrylics or mixed media in there.

Does this idea make any sense to anyone? I get it, but I'm having trouble explaining it to other people... Anyway, that's what I want to do for my concentration so now I have a more focused idea of what I'm doing.

Chapter 12: Movement and Rythm

Taking a break from contemplating my painting. I don't really know where to start there... finished my pattern picture though, I like how it turned out. I might post it later.

Anyway, chapter 12. Lots of new vocabulary words! I'll have to take a closer look at this chapter later on when I'll remember more of it. A piece I liked was Residential Window by John Forbes and Jean Rosen on page 240. It had both movement and an interesting kind of rythm to keep the viewer's eye moving. It had a "flowing rythm" which I think I like the best out of all the types described. I also really loved the color in this piece.

Another I liked was Untitled Film Still #65 by Cindy Sherman on page 236 (pictured right). I loved the composition of this. It had great leading lines and contrast, with the focal point on the edge of the paper. It was very interesting to look at and led the eye around the image.

Chapter 7: Balance

Another weird chapter for me. Balance makes perfect sense when you see it visually, but when trying to describe things like asymmetrical balance, it is difficult to do so with words. The only thing I really got out of this chapter was approximate balance which was a term I was not familiar with before. Symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial balance were things I was already well aware of before reading this chapter. Balance-wise I liked The Zen Priest Choka by Nonomura Sotatsu on page 151. It made sense here that asymmetrical balance was created by using negative space. It's not so much my favorite piece, but looking at it makes it easier to understand asymmetrical balance.

Sorry, this blog is a little short, but the chapter and images were pretty self-explanatory.

Chapter 2: Shape and Form

This chapter was pretty cool. There wasn't a lot I already knew, but it helped me connect things such as weight and light to shape. The static and dynamic part was also helpful, I hadn't applied the specific terms to imagery before, strange as that sounds.

Some images I liked were The Sky's the Limit by Michael Hayden on page 47. This might be because I'd seen the terminal myself but the shape of it give the illusion of movement even if there isn't any. I really enjoyed staring up that ceiling while walking through this, I remember wishing I'd had a camera with me. The lights, shapes and textures combine to make a very dynamic image.

Another image I liked was An Exclamation Mark by Kumi Yamashita on page 49. I thought it was a unique way to create shape using light; a novelty idea. I also like the fact that it uses two similiar shapes to create very different meanings.