They pack an incredible amount of information into the chapters of a design textbook. Only one chapter and I'm reading about perspective, frequency of images, frame and orientation, emphasis, scale, relationships, location and symmertry. I feel like I need a book in order to read this book. It's no wonder I've been working on this one for a month.
Luckily, the author has used images of jewelry and from Mulan, nice of them to take into account my obsession and my regular life stuff.
Ok, Words are hitting a wall again here. I think I'll just blurt things I think of when looking at the concepts.
- Unity and variety- A piece, jewelry or painting, is one thing. All the elements and images must coordinate and work together. But there must be differences to create interest.
- Continuity-even elements that are dramatically different can contain similarities that create w sense of connection in the piece.
- Similarity-As mentioned earlier, this is the simplest way to create continuity.
- Visual Systems-using a pattern to connect elements in an image. Would this work with jewelry? Frequently it's a collection of pieces. When it's not it's usually small. Working in minature would give me the opportunity to create an individual piece with a system. Naturally, several parts of a necklace or bracelet form a pattern.
- Closure-the tendency of the viewer to complete patterns and lines that are implied.
- Weight and Gravity-It's very easy for the central element of a jewelry piece to have the greatest impact on the design. Balancing the weight along the entire length of the piece gives the design interest all along it.
- Balance- can be created with symmetry or balanced asymetry and color and brightness or darkness.
- Scale can create motion, emphasis, perspective.
Allright, there's too much here for one blog entry. I'm going to chew on these ideas for tonight and get to making jewelry.
It's no wonder I had so much trouble with this stuff in college! For me, understanding of these concepts has come through experiencing art and creating it over the years. How can one expect a young artist to grasp everything in one week, lesson, chapter? I imagine I'll be coming back to Chapter 2 many many times before I'm done studying this book.
(Referring to Launching the Imagination: A comprehensive Guide to Basic Design. by Mary Stewart. McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2002)
-Simbelmynë
