Brief
Make a small collection of objects around a theme – choose from:
Festival – The morning after – Summertime – Workshop
Using a digital camera move around your set of objects. Look at them from above and from underneath. Zoom in and out. Look for interesting combinations of shapes and textures, and document them using photographs. Be unusual with the positioning of the frame. Experiment with diagonals within the structure and deliberately position some elements close to the frame.
Do the same thing with drawing but work in a format that is different from your viewfinder, such as a square format, or long and thin, or an irregular rectangle. If it helps you can make a viewfinder using two ‘L’ shaped pieces of stiff card or paper in your chosen format. Repeat the exercise of exploring viewpoints but this time document your visual journey around the set in your sketchbook. Draw shapes to work with that are the same format as your viewfinder. You may find it helpful to draw around your viewfinder to create a set of thumbnail shapes.
Choose your favourite design. Remember that you are trying to communicate an idea about your chosen theme – your favoured design should be one which is most successful in this regard.
Using a pencil, draw this design on a larger scale. Either draw from the photographs that you took or from the still life directly. Draw your final design to a format and scale which is proportionate to your thumbnail. This line drawing should be descriptive and readable as a visual and not a final artwork in its own right.
In your learning log record your thoughts on the following questions:
• Which viewpoint best fitted the word your objects illustrated? Why was this? • Which format best illustrated your words?
• Did changing viewpoints make you think differently about your choice of objects and arrangement of them?
Key words:
- Make a small collection of objects around a theme
- Document them using photographs
- Do the same thing with drawing
- Be unusual with the positioning of the frame
- Communicate an idea about your chosen theme
- Record your thoughts on questions
My chosen theme is ‘summertime’. I collected some items, I had at home that directly or indirectly could be related to theme and started taking photos from different angles.
Rectangular format
Square format
I cropped the images into square frame. Square images have a more balanced feel than the rectangular images. They’re predictable and stable. The viewer’s eye tend to move in a circle and towards the centre.
Narrow rectangular format
Then I cropped them into very narrow rectangles. A vertical format encourages the eye to move up and down, where as a horizontal format encourages the eye to move side to side.
Chosen angle
For my theme, I chose a rectangular format with eye level angle. I felt with my chosen objects and my composition, the vertical rectangle communicates better with the viewer.
By changing the viewpoint in my photos, I realize that some objects that seem larger and the main focus of the photo became smaller and less important in another one. So, depends on the importance of an object the viewpoint can be changed to achieve the desire communication with viewers.
Maryam: OCA Graphic Design 