nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
classmate portrait I found this assignment very challenging because i have a diffucult time expressing things abstractly. at first, I used more obvious visuals but when I thought about combining the three ideas in terms of importance and visibility, I realized the combination of both abstract and literal ideas worked well together. I was pleased how it all came together and I think i captured a small piece of dorothy in my composition.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in-class: random marks This exercise was fun and really forced me to use my mind more creatively than I was used to. it took me a long time to come up with how to use the marks to make a picture and did not have enough time to draw a more interesting picture. I have reazlied that overthinking is something I really need to work on as it wastes a lot of valuable work time. However, I did like what I eventually came up, the boy dreaming about the ballerina, and it would have been better if I had added more detail and contrast to it.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises in intro These were fun warm-ups for the class and were good exercises for training the mind to think in a more creative manner. I learned my brain is very set in its linear ways but i really enjoy letting the other half of the brain get some exercise. The pencil we use for class is really versitile for making lots of different types of marks and it was fun testing it out.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises in intro Continued...
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises 1.3-1.7 I liked the way in which this material was explained, i thought it was really clear and concise. One thing is realized from these exercises was that i have a hard time drawing straight lines and i still do. i am working on it.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises 1.3-1.7 continued....
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in class: cube landscape I had never thought about the expressive use of space before but it was really interesting to analyze it and get a better feeling of what kind of space evokes various human emotions. I think my composition was successful in portraying the intended whimsical feeling through the use of varied scale and animating inanimate objects. my designs tend to lean towards whimsy and simplicity so this was an easy extension of myself. However, i am working on drawing more technical, precise and detailed as that is a definite weak point in my free-hand drawing skills.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises 1.101.15 Again, my inability to draw straight lines made these exercises very difficult. However, the methods I learned are very useful and were unknown to me before. I was even able to share some of the things I learned with someone in another class and helped passed the knowledge along.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises 1.101.15 I decided to challenge myself and drew them in all 4 rotations. it really forced me to think about the object and it was also good practice for object lines.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in class: interior landscape This is not one of my favorite compositions because it lacks interest and detail that I admire in many of my classmates’ pieces. I feel this is too simple although the waving man really adds a nice touch and prevents it from being too boring. I relied too heavily on things i normally see and not enough on making it look visually appealing.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises 1.22-1.25 I find circles in perspective a little tough because there isn’t a definite rule on how to get the perfect ellipse. however, I think i was in a good mood that day as evidenced by my laughing three fourths spheres. I really liked how lifelike they turned out with the simple addition of well-placed dots.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises 1.22 - 1.25 these were definitely more difficult to draw than the previous set because of the elliptical shapes. Figuring out where to place the circle in perspective so that it would be tangent to another circle made it even harder. eventually, i believe I got the hang of it and they look the way they should. I also tried to emphasize the object lines to make them stand out more on the page.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in class: mornings in perspective I am pleased with the layout and scale of this composition. It gives the items some weight and makes them seem menacing and tough even if they are just lowly breakfast items. what does not work are the milk carton, which looks flat and unnecessary, and the shadows behind the toast and tea bag. Prof. lum pointed out that the way in which I shaded the shadow made it garner more attention than it should and I agree. Even with tight deadlines, I should take more care when adding extra elements. I should have instead focused in on adding more details to the items which i think this composition lacks.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in class: the water container This was another project in which I spent too much time thinking and not enough time doing. Furthermore, the resulting picture was not the way I had envisioned it in my mind and if I had sketched it out earlier, perhaps I would’ve had time to fix it before pin-up. I wanted to focus on the different ways water flows from one vessel to another and did not think about the connections between the different elements and it shows. I am least happy with the final vessel which i completely changed in my second iteration of this project. One thing I realized about myself is that when I am stuck on one idea, it is very difficult for me to change that. I am working on being more flexible with my ideas.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: the water container 2.0 I am definitely more satisfied with this iteration. it really showcases the flow of water and makes the containers secondary, which I thought was more interesting.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: artist mark making techniques I liked the idea of this assignment but I found it really difficult to do with my objects. After seeing how other students tackled the problem, I think it makes more sense to me on how to achieve the desired look. My rendition of dali was my favorite although i think it needed more fleshing out to really look great. I plan on working on it further.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in class: 5 minute sketch itially, i underestimated my time and focused too much on the building on the left-hand side too much and didn’t have much time to fill in the rest of the portrait. however, I think i captured the essence of the picture in the short time available. I need to work on better managing my time as this seems to be a recurring theme in my work.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: sphere converter I spent a lot of time researching and seeking inspiration for this project and one of the ideas that i really liked was a catapult followed by a flattened sphere idea so I tried to work that into my machine. The top picture was my initial idea i had in class and the bottom photo is a quick sketch of my final idea. I tried to make the machine more complex than I would usually make and I am satisfied with the amount of detail I included. I still feel like my drawings have a cartoon-ish quality to them but I am working to get rid of that tendency. I think I am headed in the right direction.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
iteration 3
at home: sphere converter
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
iteration 2
iteration 1
i tried to refine and add detail with each iteration of the elevation. I also worked out the kinks of the machine and finally added the catapult with the last iteration.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: page layout After sketching out some ideas for the presentation, i was drawn to the more curvilinear layouts because it matched the curved shape of my machine. Also, because i wanted to highlight each piece individually, it made sense to do it with seven separate pictures. I believe the layout of the page is successful in that it is eye-catching and informative.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises 1.33-1.36 I have trouble doing accurate contour lines but i believe it is something that I can improve with practice. everyone’s method of doing contour lines greatly differs and I feel like my contour lines are not correct because they do not resemble wire frames. I need more practice visualizing where the contour lines go on various objects.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: exercises 1.33-1.36 I tried to do something different by choosing an animal as my speed shape but it ended up looking more cartoony than scary.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in class: hand contour with feeling After coming up with some feeling words, I tried to make up a story with what I had written down and decided on shock, relief and vengeful. I decided on the hand motions and quickly sketched out how i wanted them to appear.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
at home: hand contour with feeling I tried to combine line quality with the corresponding feeling and I think this came across well in my pin-up in class. However, it was pointed out that my hands did not have a contour wire frame quality which was very different from the rest of the class. I didn’t realize I was missing that until pin-up.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in class: hand contour with feeling I added the more contour lines in class for my second iteration but was unable to capture the same feelings in the line quality.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
in class: hand contour with feeling 2.0 While this version of the composition shows more clearly the contours of my hand, I do not think it is as successful in conveying the emotion I wanted to show. The first hand showing shock is particularly not as effective because it looks to calculated to be shocked. the middle hand, however, does look better with a slightly darker outline. This iteration is also shows the object lines much better than the first.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm
summary I think I have made a good start at free hand drawing but I must master straight lines to make my drawings seems more realistic. Also, I can see the cartoon-like quality of my drawing is due to simplicity and thick lines and so I have been trying to add more detail and watch my line quality. While I am happy with my progress so far, I think with more thought and practice, my drawing will definitely improve. In terms of my ideas, I am trying to step out of my comfort zone to produce compositions that are more thought provoking and less literal. This have definitely been a huge challenge but I am learning alot about the thought process and have tried to incorporate it in my pieces thus far.
nancy tariga | design 110 | fall 2008 midterm