Seat and Shelter

This was a presentation done showing 2d to 3d development and a final 3D model of a seat and shelter design. Throughout this process, I worked from the Art Deco inspiration and chose to stick within the geometric design of the time period. With the multiple chevron designs throughout most Art Deco pieces that I saw, I chose a Pinecone as an inspiratinoal object. This pinecones shape and repetitive design represent Art Deco in my eyes. I worked from an inanimate object to 2D abstractions (in an earlier post) to 3D models (also another previous post) and then came to the design of this seat and shelter. I learned a lot in this process about abstraction and time management. Along with what I tend to lean towards design aesthetically. I feel that I successfully built a seat and shelter from my inspiration without pulling directly and obviously from it. Hope you like it as well.

SketchBook

These are some sketches out of my sketchbook. The first sketch is my very first sketch of a 1 point perspective drawing and the second is my second one. The first one was done in the education annex on campus and the second at the campus library. For never intentionally doing a perspective sketch of the interior of a building, I was very proud of myself for how well that I did. The third sketch was a contour lines excersize, where I practiced quick undetailed outlines of people. I found it difficult to do this without wanting to constantly improve the people, or to not do so well at teh perportions of their legs (hence why some have no bottom halves). The fourth sketch was done in order to practice sketching the negative space in order to form an object. The fifth sketch is actually a layout of my friends apartment (which I was staying in at the time) on a napkin. Being a designer, sometimes knowing how to draw on a napkin effectively can come in handy. This was my first layout and perspective drawn freehand. I found the perspective and scaling hard to do at this time, but have improved since. The sixth sketch was done as a shade and shadow excersize in order to see how light effects an object and the shadows casted. I had a hard time with finding a good stairway that wasn't too shaded and not too overcast, however I feel confident that I know understand the concept. Sketch number seven was a 5 perspective view sketch of a chair which I chose a chair in the classroom that I found the material interesting on. This came easy to me, as I have sketched little peices of furniture around my house for years. Number eight was a watercolor and contour line still life, which was intended to be a quick study. I felt confident in this as I am more confident with paints than ink. Sketches nine and ten were done of the same area on campus in order to show two different media of the same shade and shadow. I feel that I look more confident in the graphite, however when doing these sketches I actually had a harder time with the graphite as I felt that I was smearing it too much. Sketch number eleven was a 1 pt perspective of an exterior building which required color for emphasis. This made this sketch extremely hard for me (and probably my least liked sketch in my opinion) because I am not confident in colored pencils and cannot quite figure out how to utilize them effectively. This is a goal of mine to work on in the near future. Number twelve is an interior 2 pt perspective of my living room. Before this sketch I didn't exactly know what a two point perspective was. However, it didn't seem too challenging as I understood the concept and utilized the skills learned beforehand. The final sketch was an exterior two point perspective of the education annex on campus (the interior is sketch number 1) and though my shading is a little dull, I am confident and proud of this sketch.
With these sketches and the process of growing and learning througout it, I feel that I highly strengthened my skills and hand weight on lines. I do think that I can improve in my shading style and comparing sketch 9 and 13 can show the range that I tend to use along with my "scratch" like style. My sketch journey was a fairly fun process and easy for me due to my familiarity with sketching in the past, however I do think that I improved tremendously still and that I can continue improving and practicing this skill.

2D Abstractions

Starting with an object found in nature, I pulled elements and principles of designs out of the object itself and represented them 2-dimensionally and abstractly within these sketches. My object of nature was a pine cone and I sketched it realistically from 6 different views and abstractly in water color and graphite. I feel that my abstractions improved with critiques from classmates and professors from my first set (not shown) and the second set (in photo below). I chose a pine cone as my nature object because I liked the pattern within the object and the fact that it is very geometric all around. I did not think about how hard and challenging it could be to analyze the object from many perspectives and thinking "outside the box" you might say, but with hard work and determination I was able to come up with many different ways to analyze the object without repeating the same aspects. I feel most confident when sketching realistically, so the abstractions were a little challenging for me, but I feel that I did well at pulling abstractions from my realistic views.

From 2D to 3D Abstraction Models

These are models I've made representing various elements and principles of design. The elements and principles that I was emphasizing throughout my models stemmed from abstractions of a nature object, a pine cone. I pulled out Unity through Repetition, Symmetrical and Visual Balance, Radial Symmetry, Texture (tactile and visual), Curved Line, Diagonal Line, Illusionistic Space, and Geometric Shape/Pattern. There are many more elements within this one nature object, however, I tried to keep within the main ones that I saw. The first photo is a 3 Dimensional representation of texture and unity through repetitions, the second is showing balance and geometric shape, along with diagonal line, while the third photo is showing all of my 3-dimensional models. I feel that I had a good grasp on the elements within my models and that I was able to abstractly pull those concepts into 3D objects. I plan to revise and add on to the textured geometric pattern (Shown in photo) and to the chevron pattern object, along with a few of the others.

Tessellation Pattern

This is a Tessellation that was done with photos from the Art Deco period, which I manipulated in Photoshop and combined with each other in a repetitive pattern. I had a hard time at first with Photoshop as I had only used Lightroom for editing my photographs before, but finally caught on. With the first few photographs that I manipulated in Photoshop, I had a hard time with the tools of the program. By the fourth or fifth photo, I had learned to use many more tools than before. I chose to do a complementary color theory with the red side of the purples purples and greens because with the editing that I had done to each photo, purple was very apparent already. I improved my color replacement skills in Photoshop when having to change colors within my photographs to match my color theory. I also learned a lot about the polygonal tool and keyboard shortcuts. I decided to do a diagonal layout in order to stick to my theme of Art Deco with the chevron designs and geometric patterns. With the process of the tesselations, I had to edit and manipulate photographs and cut them into a pattern (repeating and tracing that pattern onto each photograph) and then had to open them up in InDesign in order to match the images together like a puzzle. The photos needed to be the same sizes and well cut in order for them to match up well.

Palouse Sketch

This is a digital sketch done with Adobe Illustrator of a photo taken in the Palouse area. I chose this image because I was drawn to the angle of the photo as well as the welded fence in the front of the photograph. I had a hard time figuring out how to use the paint brush on the program, as it would delete after each brush stroke. With time, I was able to learn how to use the software better. When painting the digital sketch, I started with the barn and moved towards the foreground and background, if I were to redo this, I would start with the background and move towards the foreground so the brush strokes would layer in a more realistic way. This is my very first digital sketch and I wish that I knew a little more about the program when doing it, so that I could get a more realistic result, however, I am content with the final sketch that I ended with. Original Photograph

Digital Sketch