Textures

The clouds in the sky, the bark of a tree, the skin of a dog, the wrinkling of a fabric... You are absolutely bound, to see them all around, as regular as it may sound, these are what textures are.

I roamed around the house and from each corner of the room, abducted a few things, few very basic things- cling film, toothbrush, sponge and then opened up my stationary drawers and pulled out the basic basic stuff- paints, photo-inks, crayons, glue etc.

With all this material at hand, what followed was hours of fun-filled exploration making textures.

Take a piece of sponge. Soak poster paint onto it and get set go- let your imagination flow. I made some basic curves in shades and hues of turquoise and added a few lines of white with fluid.

I watered an entire sheet, dropped paints of different viscosity on it- poster paint, photo ink, water color. Then covered the entire area with random pattern of glue and crumbled a cling film over it. All this is to be done very quickly. Let it dry for 24 hours. Then, when I removed the cling film, what I got was a beautiful crumbled texture with an analogous scheme of orange, yellow and yellow-orange.

Getting back to the basics! I picked up a simple bubble wrap and brushed poster paint over it in a random manner. A very thing layer of poster paint! Then, i placed the bubble wrap upside down on a piece of paper and applied some pressure. As I took the bubble wrap off, what I got was this beautiful random texture!

All of us have seen oil paintings-those complex pieces of art on canvas as huge as walls of a living room! I once got inspired and bought myself a pack of oil colors. Well, did I make a painting too? Not really. I just used those oil colors for something called a floating texture. I filled water in a broad bowl, and poured some oil colors onto it. Oil being lighter than water, floats over it. Then using a straw, i made a random swirl with them. Then, I put a piece of paper onto the surface of the water and picked it up. Let ir dry for a day and the result is what you see above!

Learning a technique is fun. Doing it is even more pleasing. But what's satisfying is creating an artwork with everything you've learnt. So, I wrote a few lines and started working on the theme to create an artwork- using textures, shapes and color schemes.

"Take it or break it

Keep it real or fake it

Just make sure your thoughts are right

Because Life's what you make it"

This composition has 3 major sections. Each section has various shapes depicting the chores of everyday life. Just like we see all kinds of emotions in our daily life, this artwork has different colors. Red and Yellow for the happy, lively, exuberant sides of life and Grey and Black for the dull, monotonous, gloomy ones. The next step was to decide textures. I made many, put one here, put one there and finalised 3 basic ones I wanted to use. Apart from that, I used solid patches of color.

The background is done with steadtler water color pencils. I colored only the edges and with a watered brush, spread it to obtain the background seen.

Designing is not tough- it's a simple impression of everything on your mind! So get, set, go... Pen down your thoughts, play with a few basic things around your house, create textures and get your own artwork! :)

Dots, Lines and Shapes

Go back in time and think about the times when you were taught to make dots and lines- the very basic ones, over and over again! You were told these are the basic components of any script- letters, numbers, art etc. Well, that indeed, was true. On turning 18, when you step into a design college, the first thing you are taught is - to make proper dots and lines. Yes, AGAIN. But in a different manner.

A dot is a simple point, it can be as small as 0.1 cm in diameter or as big as 10 feet, the condition being that it must be opaque. A line is a path traced by a dot. It can be straight, curved, thick, thin etc., the condition being that the edges of the line must be straight.

Have you seen a striped shirt? Or a polka dot dress? Or a painting from the times of pointillism? These are all designs/artworks created using just a varied arrangement of dots and lines.

I have created 4 designs using purely dots and 4 designs using purely lines. At the end, is an artwork comprising of both dots and lines.

A Point Here, A Point There

This picture comprises of 4 artworks, 5x5 inch each, made using dots in black and white.

The idea behind each is to represent an emotive word in an abstract manner. There is no literal form or element, there is no identifiable structure. It's just the placement of dots that denotes an emotion. The inter-relation, the thickness of the dot, the flow, the gradation... All of it together forms an emotive artwork!

Top left- CONFUSION

Top right- NOSTALGIA

Bottom left- SEPARATION

Bottom right- YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!

Align the Line

Again, 4 artworks of 5x5 inch each, made using lines in black and white.

Each artwork represents one emotive word. The perception, however, might vary from person to person. It is a play of width of the lines, the flow, the placement that creates an impression. A thick line acts has a strong or a blocking effect whereas thin lines promote flow of thoughts. Long lines create boundaries in mind whereas small lines create an effect of movement.

Top Left- GRADATION

Top Right- REVERBERATION

Bottom Left- REFLECT

Bottom Right- UNITY IN DIVERSITY

Of Dots and Lines

After exploring dots and lines, I moved onto shapes. Dots and lines together form shapes. A shape is such an entity that has infinite variables- boundaries, thickness, structure etc. A person can vary a shape as much as s/he wants. 

Shapes are of 3 kinds-

-Geometric: the shapes we learn since childhood; square, rectangle, triangle etc. 

-Natural: the shapes seen in nature; leaf, flowers, mountains etc.

-Abstract: a stylisation of natural shapes; a paisley is an abstract of mango.

With these basic concepts in mind, I worked upon the following artwork. Again, the idea is to represent a thought- be it an emotive word or a phrase.

"WITH AGE, COMES WISDOM"

In this artwork, the 26 letters of the roman script- A,B,C,D,... are stylized and written in an abstract manner. They are not literally visible. However, they're interlinked, rotated, stretched etc. to form this composition. Dots and lines of various types and thicknesses have been inculcated to add a decorative element to the artwork.

Paper Cutting and Folding

Paper is the basic stationary found everywhere and with everyone, be it a child or an 80 years old man, be it a student or the owner of a company, be it your bedside table or a table in the courtroom... Paper is everywhere. But is it just for writing? Or taking notes? Certainly not.

Paper is a material that has endless explorations. It can be cut, folded, crumbled to get interesting designs. Kirigami is the art of paper cutting, origami is the art of paper folding. However, apart from these two defined techniques, there are various personal explorations which give commendable results.

To obtain the artworks shown in this post, I've used the concept of tessellations. A tessellation refers to the repetitive and systematic use of a single motif. The condition is that each unit should be placed next to one another without any gaps.

All About Geometry

Squares and circles are two very basic geometric forms. I have combined them in a manner that they give visually appealing design. It is a simple play of forms, angles and depth.

Materials: Colored papers (3 different colors), scissors, cutter, cutting mat, paper punch, foam tape (double sided), glue

Step 1: Take 1 colored sheet. Make a table of 0.5x0.5 inch on it. 

Step 2: Cut the table cells out to obtain 0.5 x 0.5 inch squares.

Step 3: Take another colored sheet. Punch holes out of it. Collect the circles thus obtained.

Step 4: Take an A3 colored sheet for base. Make a 10x10 inch box on it and divide it into 100 squares each of 1x1 inch.

Step 5: Put small pieces of foam tape on each box. 

Step 6: Take the 0.5x0.5 inch squares and start pasting them over the foam tape. Keep them straight in alternate rows and tilted by 45 degrees in alternating rows. 

Step 7: Put a dot of glue on each square.

Step 8: Paste the punched out circles over each square.

Tips:

-The 0.5 x 0.5 inch table can be printed and then cut to save time. (Print via excel, word or Photoshop)

-Choose 3 colors of a particular scheme- be it analogous or complimentary. (Refer to Understanding Color Schemes post) http://everdaydesigner.blogspot.in/2013/11/understanding-color-schemes.html

-Always try to keep at least one neutral color in such artworks: beige, grey, cream, off white etc.



The Guitar Strings

Music is a universal remedy. I, personally, love music too. So when I sat down to think of a motif to use for my artwork, the shape of a guitar came into my mind. The guitar's silhouette and a stylisation of its string led to the following artwork.

Materials: 3 colored sheets, paper cutter, paper punch, glue, cutting mat.

The Final Result

Step 1: Draw or print the following geometric structure of the guitar on a colored sheet.

Step 2: Cut the guitar on the lines using a paper cutter except for the red line. That side will be used for folding the structure.

Step 3: Punch out the circle using a paper punch. 

Step 4: Obtain 16 such motifs: cut and punched. Lift up the guitar structure along the red line.

Step 5: Cut out strips of a different colored paper, 0.5 cm wide and 12 cm long.

Step 6: Take a base sheet. Make a box of 10x10 inch.

Step 7: Paste the guitar motif (2x2 inch each) side by side on the entire box. Paste in one corner, rotate the next unit by 90 degrees and then paste. Repeat this process.

Step 8: Make slits opposite to the broad part of the guitar. Thin slits of approx 0.7 cm so that the paper strip goes in.

Step 9: Take the paper strip and insert it into the slit. Paste it from the back side.

Step 10: Take the paper strip through the punched hole, onto the other side, and insert it behind the edge of the paper. Paste it from backside.

Step 11: Repeat this for alternating units.

Tips:

-Print one unit out. Cut it as mentioned and use it as a stencil to draw and cut other units out. It is better than printing 16 copies of the same thing because on pasting them next to one another, we get edges. However, if used a stencil on a single sheet of paper, these edges can be ignored for a neater look.

-Instead of cutting such strips of paper, quilling strips can be used.

-Make sure the cutter is sharp or else paper will crumble and make the work untidy.

-Use a cutting mat or a glass slab for smooth cutting.

Invest your time, and obtain beautiful results out of simple structures repeated to form tessellations! And then again, it's all with PAPER!