City Landscape- Moments and Stories
Introduction
In this project, which is called City Landscape, we were supposed to change the story of an image from our City Shoot project of Photography. I developed different stories in different techniques and styles. The image I chose showed a path and a walking couple and construction signs on the sidewalk. So, I decided to develop my different ideas in two different themes.
Materials
For this project, I used a Nikon Camera for city shooting, SD memory card, a surface pro 3, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Illustrator, Hand drawing tools; markers, pencil cryon.
Creative Process
I develop my narrative compositions in both chromatic and achromatic colors. For the colored practice, I tried to make my artwork in a cartoonish theme with humorous exaggeration. I tended to create an imaginary story for the colored artwork because texture and color gave me varieties to depict creative stories. Getting advantage of the value, I improved my second story using gray scales. This story shows a wedding ceremony in the church. To depict the memories and emotions, I decided to develop this story in black and white. Achromatic value made me able to make my story more dramatic and narrative.
WORKFLOW
To reach my objectives, I started the design process by brainstorming and exploring different techniques. I used tracing papers to work on varied compositions and values. To express my concept, I tried to keep some main elements including the caution signs, the path and the couple. One-point perspective has the potential to drag the eyes to the vanishing point. So, I managed to keep my main subject -that was the couple- near the vanishing point to put the emphasis on it and push the eyes to follow them. I mostly used lines and created the perspective by repeating them. Parallel lines helped me to develop my shapes in the image. After developing some sketches on tracing papers, I decided to improve my concepts through digital tools. So, I basically created some collages to depict my stories.
The original photo; This City Shoot photo was selected to be changed in two different moods and stories
Developing concepts; Using collage technique to create a different story
Digital collage
Using tracing paper to create different ideas
The final colored composition
I used chromatic colors and invented texture to tell my imaginary story.
My first story is about the mysterious journey of a cartoon couple, so, I used color value to express the emotions and feelings of the moment, mostly included fear, mystery, and adventure. To depict the mentioned feelings, I put some warning colors like red, orange and yellow.
In terms of perspective, the image dragged the eyes to the vanishing point on the top side of the workspace. The point was put at the end of the path, so the eyes movement ended up to the destination of the couple’s journey-the scary open mouth.
Digital collage for the second story
Developing different ideas
Using tracing paper to create different ideas
The final black and white composition
I used achromatic colors and high-key values to make my story more romantic.
The story is about a bride who is walking with her father towards the groom. However, some construction signs can be seen in the image which made it partially surreal. The wedding story is in the daytime, so, the shadows gave me the chance of representing different types of achromatic value. To make the image more romantic, I decided to keep it bright and use high-key values. Local value can also be found especially in bride dress. To create plastic value, I used markers in four scales of gray. Highlights and shadows made my artwork a three-dimensional image and more realistic.
Conclusion
This project was a unique experience because I had to use my imagination to create a narrative artwork. I learned that colors have great potential for expression. I also found that texture sometimes can be invented to convey the personal feelings of the artist. Subjective texture gave me the chance of creating imaginary and mysterious artwork.
I also got familiar with the psychology of the colors and their functions. For instance, I used warm and sharp colors to represent danger and warn and used green for the characters to represent balance and hope. Using gray markers- which is my favorite tool- gave me the chance of creating an emotional and expressive artwork. I learned that achromatic values compositions can be used when the artist tends to focus on the meaning of the artwork rather than the visual aspects, so that the message of it can be clearly conveyed.
