Topic Two: Pattern and Ornament - Assignment #2 and Assignment #4

Topic Two: Pattern and Ornament - Assignment #2 and Assignment #4 

Chair Pattern

For the chair design, I chose the Sheraton design. I liked the sleek, almost sharp look it had, and decided I wanted to exaggerate these features, and smooth out more blocky aspects the original had. 

The initial sketches.

The front view.

The top view.

The side view.

As they were presented in class.

Quadrant Abstraction

After this, we were assigned quadrants to work with. I was given B.

I decided to go with the front view, because I felt it gave me the most variety of shapes and figures to work with. It was still a little difficult to figure out what I was going to do, but from the get go I wanted to depict something you wouldn't expect from a chair; movement. I also wanted to use some sort of sword-like object, since many people pointed out that the chair legs looked sword or dagger like, and I liked the idea of continuing to emulate the sleek, sharp look that had first attracted me to the chair design in the first place. The wolf-like figure was chosen to complement the sword element.

The original digital sketches, playing with what shapes to emulate from the chair and what colors to use, as well as texture. (The heavy black in certain areas was to help me keep track of the silhouette of the figure while I sketched).

The work, sketched and fully inked on the paper, which isn't normally utilized for this process. It's a paper (a rice paper to be exact) that's normally used for printmaking. But I love the texture and feel of the paper, and wanted it to come through in the finished product.

Needless to say, that was difficult.

It was a bit of a messy process, and because of the color of the paper, I wasn't able to get as many values of color into the piece as I wanted (plenty of color tests were done, plus trying to see how I could get the charcoal to smooth out. Obviously I took these results with a grain of salt, as this paper was white). Instead I used different amounts of pressure and mixed the medias where I could.

The fibers in the paper resulted in MUCH fuzz. It kept clogging up my markers, and I'd have to pull the clumps off after every few strokes. (Note: Not fun. But at the least, it was so exasperating it made me step away several times over the course of creating the work that I got plenty of chances to get away and come back after to look at it.)

Apart from losing fibers, the markers also bled through quite easily. Thankfully it wasn't noticeable through the front, but all the same it was frustrating. This paper just isn't made for this ink though.

I loved the color of the charcoal, but just like the markers, it did damage to the paper and caused, you guess it, more fuzz. In a way I figured it worked, since the figure was a wolf after all. 

The one thing I really loved though was what came about when I used crayon, specifically the yellow. It created a nice, smooth surface (which I found great after all the fuzz) and I could use a black marker to create better shadows. The wax didn't let it dry too fast, so it was easy to use my fingers to blend them better (I then used the same process in other areas to create stronger shadows).

The finished piece, Keen Crimson.

Overall, I'm pleased with the piece, but I still wish I hadn't had as much issue with the paper (now I know for the future), and I wish I'd been able to push the values more, along with hues. Maybe even gotten another pose in there.

As it was presented in class.