Visual Literacy

I used Photoshop to create all the compositions for this assignment, and I most of my work on Wacom. The most challenging part for me is how to include more abstractness in my work, which still need to vividly reflects my thinking and emotion.

Each composition in each series is built on by the previous composition. 

1. Human Body

The first one I worked on is the 4 compositions for human body, because to me this is the most concrete one.

I want to choose a dynamic and beautiful movement, so the first thing came to my mind is Michael Jackson's dance move. The following two pictures are my inspirational sources. Since we were talking about Andy Warhol and pop art this week, all the knowledge and techniques are still fresh. I am still very excited about it and want to create something that is pop art related. 

Composition one

For this one, we are just allowed to use lines and dots. I used lots of curved lines in this composition to emphasize the flow of movement, the rhythm of music. However, I did not use dots here because I believed dots will make the composition more scattered and disordered.

Composition two

Shapes and colors can be used in this composition, I emulated the style of the my first inspirational source. I create the following piece. I like the use of strong contrast colors here. 

Composition 3 and 4

Dichotomy: Singularity and Juxtaposition.

Obviously, these two piece were inspired by Andy Warhol's work. One is just a coca cola can which shows singularity, the other one is lots of coca cola cans and lots of pepsi cans, which includes repetitions. Also, there are not only strong contrasts of red and blue colors here but also the opposing brands and Jackson images. 

I think I did a good job in expressing my inspirational sources for this series, since I present the movement, repetition and contrast well.

2. Landscape

For this one, I try to incorporate more abstractness than the previous series. 

I am inspired by landscape in the lion king,  so I choose a image which is somewhat related to the lion king. The following is my inspirational source.

Composition one

I created this composition by only using lines. I realized this is more like a sketching than a interpretively simple form of this source. In other words, it lacks abstractness, this bothers me a lot. But I am happy on my representation of the sun. Although it is simple, it still shows the brightness and the heat of the sun. The difference length of the lines also make the sun looks more dynamic and natural.

Composition 2

Composition 3&4

Dichotomy: Unity and Fragmentation

I just used the glass filter in Photoshop one the unity one to create the the fragmental piece.

3.Emotion(Mischievous)

I am trying to explore abstractness in this series. I first created a piece with lines that are followed by rules and then I tried to explore the meaning of the graph. But I felt nothing and did not feel connected. The following is my failed piece.

My roommate told me it looks more like my Math homework rather than me. She advised me to draw lines spontaneously without thinking too much since I am a spontaneous person. After exploring drawing lines spontaneously for some time, I am happy with the following. It looks mischievous and I like the playful lines and dots. 

Composition 2

Composition 3 & 4

Dichotomy: Symmetry and Asymmetryt

After struggling for some time, I think I successfully include some abstractness in my emotion piece. I felt that when trying to create an abstract piece, I should not think too much about composition and should just follow my instinct, that is, be spontaneous.