FINAL PROJECT: ABSTRACTION SEQUENCE

For your final project, you will apply all that you have learned concerning line, texture, shape, space, composition, value and color contrast.

As you may recall, and please refresh yourselves by going back to the start of this blog to review all of the concepts we have covered, we began with an interest in how perception is altered by viewing distance-- that is, how close or far away you are to what you are viewing. This was illustrated most clearly by The Powers of Ten film. We drew a relationship between space and time, by examining sequences, including a simple walk across the space of a room. You may also recall the texture project, in which you were required to carefully study an object selected from nature, and then to move closer into that object, abstracting its essential form. You must understand, and this is an important function of this course, that abstraction always has its origins in an existing form. It is an expression of the fundamental structure found within a form. You arrive at abstraction by abstracting, removing, sampling, distilling, that essential design. Bearing down on its essence.

Here are some concepts you should keep in mind: Paint that is flung on a canvas or images that are completely detached from any sourced or referential form, are not abstractions, they belong within the domain of non-objective imagery. Representation is a very clear representation of the thing itself. Abstraction, is the pairing-down of the thing to its essential structure. Non-objectivity, is completely removed from any strictly-referenced structure.

Now that some of these terms and concepts have been sorted out, it is time to address the goals of your final project. You will be required to create three 10 x 10 inch paintings during the next three weeks. 

1) These paintings will emerge from a natural object from which a contour study will first be made: After selecting the object, you will examine it carefully, from every possible vantage point. Examine with a magnifying glass, turn it around. Your contour drawing should be in HB graphite, without sketching, but with an even, sustained, clean line that follows the contour of the object's surface, does not utilize value/is without shading. It is a contour drawing that is a recording of surface changes, as if your eye is following the touch of your finger across the surface of your object. The line should be continuous and unbroken. Your object should fill an entire sheet of 10 x 10 bristol board, rather than a tiny object floating in the middle with a lot of surrounding white space.

Since this is your final project, it will be graded as a final and broken up into fourths, with your natural object drawing, being 1/4 of your final.

2) After completing the study of your natural object, you will need to make a series of thumbnail sketches in which you will plan out a sequence of three images that abstracts the essential structure of your object. You can do this by either breaking the form down into configurations of shape, or by moving into the object, thereby altering your perception of it based on a shift in viewing distance/scale. After you have planned your sequence of three abstractions, you will draw them out in light graphite, on three sheets of 10 x 10 inch illustration board. Then, you will execute each using three color contrasts, which I will discuss seperately:

1. Light/Dark Contrast
2. Cool/Warm Contrast
3. Complimentary Contrast

In addition to understanding the basic expression of a given color contrast, consider the use of tinting, shading and toning. Use of black and white paint or space, should be kept to an absolute minimum. THIS PROJECT IS ABOUT YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF COLOR, NOT BLACK AND WHITE. If I see too much black or white or grey, you will be graded down.

What you will be graded on is the following: 

1. Understanding of the mechanics of abstraction.
2. Use of shape and space in composition.
3. Use of the elements of design and the principles of organizing those elements.
4. Grasp of basic color contrast expression.
5. Technique: handling of paint, overall neatness in execution.

Again, this is your final project, and it will be graded as a final would be in any other class. Late projects will not be accepted. Your final project, containing 1. Natural object contour study, 2. Thumbnail compositions, and 3. Three abstraction sequence panels, will be due at the final one-on-one meetings on Thursday April 20th, along with your final portfolio of all of your work from this semester. 

Below, to help guide you, are examples of a sequence of abstraction from 1917, by the Dutch artist Theo van Doesberg of the De Stijl movement. In them, van Doesberg abstracts the form of a cow, both in shape and finally in color. I am providing these images in helping you to understand the process of distillation that occurs in abstraction. These images are not here for you to adhere to any particular compositional formula or use of color. In fact, unlike Doesberg's cow, I do not want you to work from a living natural specimen nor do I want you to create as simplistic a composition with such a reliance on white and black, as Doesberg has done in his final panel.

Another valuable set of reference images, comes in the form of a series of drawn and etched studies from an elephant skull, by the British sculptor Henry Moore. Working from a skull gifted to him by a friend, Moore studied it from every angle and adjusted his viewing distance from the subject, allowing his gaze to penetrate the spaces within the skull, resulting in a series of abstractions. Please take note of how Moore isolated the forms found within the skull and framed them to create engaging compositions on their own. This is certainly another approach of abstraction that you take with your natural object. The image at the bottom, is of a sculpture created by Moore, titled Oval with Points (1968-1970), an abstract form derived from his studies of the elephant skull.

And here are some examples of longer abstraction sequences by students:

PROJECT 5.2: VALUE (part 2)

For the second part of your value project, you will be required to apply the skill and knowledge that you have fostered during the creation of your 10-step greyscale.


Once you have successfully finished your 10-step greyscale, you will need to obtain a color reproduction of an "old master" painting-- the term "old master" typically refers to a European painter of skill who lived and worked from 1470 to 1800. This reproduction must only come from a book or a postcard (in other words it has been professionally printed) and not the internet. The reason for this, is that many digital reproductions incorrectly represent the original color balance and contrast of the works, as images are repeatedly sampled, re-sized, compressed and edited without the knowledge of the original copyright holders. I suggest that you locate at least three images of interest to you-- images that demonstrate a range of color and a dynamic composition. Additionally, your image cannot be a cropped detail of a full work, but must be the entire image. Pay attention so that you do not choose a cropped image.

You will need to bring these images with you into Thursday's class meeting, along with your completed grey scale. This means that you must bring the book or the postcard from which you will arrive at a final image to use. You cannot bring a computer printout or a copy from a Xerox machine. I will be speaking with each of you, one at a time, to discuss your image choice during class. If you do not have an image-- you will receive point deductions.

The Nightmare, by Henri Fuseli (1781)

View of Toledo, by El Greco (1596-1600)

After you have an image to work with, and receive the go-ahead from me, to create a very simplified line drawing of the work you have chosen, onto a sheet of illustration board (not bristol board) that is at least 10 inches wide. That means you need to include a one by ten inch strip at the bottom of your composition, where you will carefully glue your bristol board greyscale chips down into place-- neat and straight. Then, you are to look at the reproduction of the painting you have chosen, and match it's light and dark areas with the steps of light and dark in your greyscale. That is, consider each step a number (from 1 to 10), and when you match a value to the value in the source painting, you write that number on the corresponding area in the drawing on your illustration board. In other words-- you are making a paint-by-number value translation of an Old Master painting, in order to familiarize yourselves with the compositional uses of light and dark distribution. This exercise will help you see how areas of light and dark can be composed to masterfully guide a viewer through a work. By breaking the composition into shapes of light and dark, you are seeing a painting for its value and compositional makeup, rather than for its subject or "style."

Once you have determined all of the values, you will then need to paint your composition. Do not worry about blending or the need to "forge" a perfect copy of your source. If you do this right, it should actually look much more simplified than the original with stark, graphic shapes, rather than areas of blended subtlety. Look above for some student examples. I also suggest you mix a single value and then paint of of that value out, before moving onto a different value.

Mix your paint gingerly. Meaning-- take care to use small amounts of black-- for it goes a long way. Use only enough paint for a given value. Try to paint with an even hand, as smoothly as possible. These areas of value should be solid and opaque, without any transparency whatsoever.

DUE THURSDAY, MARCH 30 (images are to be emailed, as class will not be meeting on the 30th-- your next assignment will be posted on the 30th, for you to review).