Unity: Repetition

Artist: Ugo Rondinone
Title of Work: Clockwork for Oracles
Year Produced: 2011
Medium: Mirrors, newsprint
Source: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/new-contemporary-galleries/featured-artists-and-works/ugo-rondinone/

This piece effectively utilizes repetition to create a very spectacular sight. Though varying, the repetition of the rectangles on the wall creates a very unified, impactful piece. If it were many different shapes, I don’t think it would have the eye-catching power as it does now.

This is another good example of repetition used effectively. In this piece, he repeats nearly the same slice of cake over and over which creates a definite sense of unity. However, he manages to create interest in such perfect repetition by painting the viewpoint from an interesting angle as well as adding a dramatic shadow.

Artist: Wayne Thiebaud

Title of Work: Boston Cremes

Year Produced: Unlisted

Medium: Oil on canvas

Source: http://timeisart.org/?p=136

First Critical Essay- Work of “Daarken” on Magic: The Gathering cards

The artist who I’ll be doing my first critical essay over is a digital artist who goes by the pseudonym “Daarken”. He has created many images for various game company, one being Wizards of the Coast, who produces the trading card game Magic:The Gathering. I’ve included two of his pieces, printed as they are normally seen, on the magic cards.

I really love both of these pieces, and they both utilize very similar design elements and principals. One way in which Daarken creates an overall visually appealing piece is by using psychological line to lead your eye effectively in and around the piece. In the first piece, he does this through the lines created by the use of red coloring, it leads you in through the right side, and then around the piece, eventually settling at the focal point of the creatures face. In the second piece, the line created by the butterflies are what guide your eyes through the piece. He also used very organic shapes in both pieces, which contributes to what feels like a free-flow throughout each piece. They both also utilize similar principals that create depth in the pieces. In the 2nd he not only uses the repetition of the butterflies to create movement, but he also varies them proportionally to create an illusion that they are moving towards you. He uses a similar tactic in the first piece, adjusting the proportion of the arms on the creature to make it feel as if he is reaching out toward you. One way in which he creates variety and catches the eye in both pieces is by using a color that greatly stands out. In the first, he uses red to contrast from the rest of the piece which is very dark, and in the second he uses blue which contrasts from the backdrop of the creatures body. He also uses the same tactic in both pieces to create unity, by generally featuring the color in the piece that would border it. The first piece was commissioned for a “black” card, which will always have a black border. In this situation, he used dark blacks/greys/blues in most of the art in order to make it feel unified with the border and card it would be placed in. The second piece was commissioned for a “blue” card, and in this piece he mostly features the color blue in the butterflies as well as the background.

Even though he has created many pieces for many different companies, you can definitely see a link between his works as far as the principal and design elements that he utilizes. All of them create a very interesting, eye catching piece that holds attention well.

First Piece:

Artist: Daarken

Title: Bloodghast

Year Produced: 2009

Medium: Digital

Source: http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=192230

2nd Piece:

Artist: Daarken

Title: Vanishment

Year Produced: 2012

Medium: Digital

Source:http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=240130

Scale and Proportion

Artist: Kurt Wenner
Title of Work: Unlisted
Year Produced: 2010
Medium: Chalk
Source: http://kurtwenner.com/galleries/pavement/pavement_3/pages/StreetPaintingGallery3.003.htm

This is a great example of proportion and how it can create depth in a piece. Even though his entire piece is flat, the way that he creates some things proportionally smaller (the things that are supposed to be further away) than others (the things that are supposed to be closer) creates and extreme sense of depth.

 

Artist: Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen
Title of work: Spoonbridge and Cherry
Year Produced: 1985-1988
Medium: Sculpture
Source: http://www.sophia.org/tutorials/design-in-art-scale-and-proportion, Minneaqpolis Sculpture Garden

This is a good example of how scale and proportion can be used to create an interesting piece that would otherwise be uninteresting. The fact that this sculpture depicts a spoon an cherry much larger than their real life sizes draws interest to the piece. Though they are proportionally the same, their scale is much larger than usual.

Rythm: Pattern

Artist: Matthew Haggett
Title of Work: rheomorp
Year Produced: 2012
Medium: encaustic painting
Source: http://mchaggett.com/2010/04/new-encaustic-pattern-paintings/

This piece is an example of a rhythmic repetition that has been repeated so much without variance that it becomes a pattern. Though he has some variance in color, it is overall the same pattern, with the exact same repeating shapes.

Rythm: Progressive

Artist: Arpad Radoczy
Title of Work: Isolated,reflection,harmonious scene from sea stones
Year Produced: Unlisted
Medium: Photo
Source: http://www.123rf.com/photo_6323219_isolated-reflection-harmonious-scene-from-sea-stones.html

This is a good example of progressive rhythm, the repetition of shapes/objects that progressively get smaller/larger. He does this with stacks of rocks, both moving them backwards in the photo and removing height from them.

Rythm: Alternating

Artist: M.C. Escher
Title: Two Birds
Year Produced: 1938
Medium: Unlisted – Print
Source: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/m-c-escher/two-birds

This is a great example of alternating rhythm, which is rhythmic repetition of two alternating shapes. In this piece he alternates two different color birds.

Movement

Artist: Butch Rovan
Title of the Work: Science of movement
Year Produced: 2009
Medium: Photography
Source: http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/10/rovan

This chronophotography piece is a wonderful example of movement, considering that it is movement. The fact that he showed movement through the photograph makes it much more interesting that a simple photograph of human form. It draws your interest, leads your eye, and makes the piece much more interesting. It also shows that one way to show movement is repetition.

 

Unity: Variety

Artist: karlita-giulia
Title of Work: PATTERN FEELS WORK
Year Produced: Unlisted
Medium: Digital
Source: http://karlita-giulia.deviantart.com/art/PATTERN-FEELS-WORK-201591502

This piece has an extreme amount of variety in it through the colors, shapes, line, ect. Even though there is so much variety it all seems to come together in an interesting piece. This is possibly because even though there is so much variety, there is slight repetition in the figures, as well as having a similar color palette (all bright colors) which gives it an overall unified feel.

This is another good example of having variety in a unified piece. Though all of the subjects are cakes, in order to create interest, he adds great variety between them as far as size, coloring, and a few other factors. This adds enough variety for the piece to be interesting, but it is still repetitive enough to be unified.

Artist: Wayne Thiebaud
Title of Work: CakesYear Produced: 1963Medium: Oil on canvasSource: http://www.creativityfuse.com/2010/12/wayne-thiebaud-cake-paintings/wayne-thiebaud-cakes-1963-oil-on-canvas/

Unity: Harmony

Artist: Arpad Radoczy
Title of Work: Isolated,reflection,harmonious scene from sea stones
Year Produced: Unlisted
Medium: Photography
Source: http://www.123rf.com/photo_6323220_isolated-reflection-harmonious-scene-from-sea-stones.html

This is a good example of harmony. The repetition of the stones simple shape creates a clean, harmonious piece. The reflection of the rocks in the water also continue this.

This is another good example of harmony. Throughout the piece you have the repetition of smooth, circular shapes, as well as the general stone texture. This gives  the piece a simplified feeling as well as being very unified.

Source: http://canielewicz.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/1111867436harmony-520_500.jpgMedium: Photography

Value

Artist: Chuck Close
Title of work: Big Self Portrait
Year produced: 1967-68
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Source of image: http://www.walkerart.org/collections/artworks/big-self-portrait

This piece utilizes value extremely well. The fact that it’s done completely in black and white as well as being extremely photo realistic shows the impressive range of value that Chuck manages to use in the piece. He uses the darkest black all the way to white and every hue in between.

 

Artist: Paul Cadden
Title of Work: After
Year Produced: Unknown
Medium: Pencil on Recycled Cartridge paper
Source: http://www.paulcadden.com/#!portraits/c18ty

This is another beautiful example of value. In this piece he utilizes value in a way that allows him to express water photo-realistically, as well as the figure in the piece.