Asril Lee Charmaine Regina

Final Art Project Paper

FADN 102
China Adams

The three artworks is inspired by a comic strip the artist came across online,
the staircases prompted an idea that could potentially explore the concept of
dimension. The first piece, which is the artwork that made use of cool blue and grey
tones was used to explore a sense of dimensionality, the second piece, which is the
artwork that consisted complementary colors yellow and purple, was meant to look
flat and two dimensional. The third piece made use of warm colors to emphasize a
clear foreground and background relationship.
The first piece was one that was executed in a cool color harmony. The
intention was to make the rectangles and parallelograms look like descending steps
that ventured into a place unknown. Cool colors such as blue and grey were used to
evoke a sense of mystery. The closely related values and low intensities of the color
blue were meant to create a feeling of somberness and uncertainty. Different shades
of blue were used to create a three-dimensional look to the descending steps. It
started out with a very light shade and ends off in a dark shade of blue. The value
shift to a darker shade of blue also accentuates a literal sense of darkness and
mystery to the steps that seems to end up nowhere. Examining the center of the
artwork, two different colors are used; greyish-blue and dark grey respectively to
add on to the dimensionality of the design. The dark grey represented the
background in the artwork and the greyish-blue piece brought the steps forward,
clearly differentiating it from the background color. This is a very straightforward
design as viewers can clearly see the artists intention of making it look like steps, as
the dark grey background represented a space of the unknown. Overall, this design
was successful in achieving my aim of creating a sense of dimensionality through the
descending steps.
In the second artwork, the artist made use of complementary colors purple
and yellow to create a vibrant mood that differentiated itself from the first piece,
which was solemn and depressing. By adjusting the purple to a darker shade, the
yellow color was used to draw the viewers attention. A similar shade of purple was
used throughout the center of the artwork, unlike the first piece, to ultimately
flatten the steps, especially on the top half of the artwork. With reference to the top
half of the design, the artist did not make the shadow of the steps and the frontal
view of the staircase the same shade of purple, which was intended to make the
steps look disjointed, thus flattening it out. By mixing up the shades of purple, there
is no clear foreground and background in this piece as a whole. This was done
intentionally so to confuse the viewer as to what the steps are meant to be.
However, the high contrast between the intense yellow and purple color on the
bottom half of the ar work, brings forward the steps. Also, the lighter purple as the
background on the bottom half had the effect of making the steps look like buildings
in a distance instead of steps descending into some place unknown. This design
could possibly be improved further by using lighter shade of yellows because it was
not the artists intention to create a sense of dimensionality, however, due to the the
high intensity of yellow on the bottom half, it made the steps seem as if they had
dimensions.
Lastly, the third artwork made use of high intensity warm colors to simulate
loudness and anger. With most of the design having nearly similar shades of pink,
the reddish-brown color on the bottom half of the design stood out and became the
focal point of the design. This was done intentionally so to create a clear foreground
and background relationship, with the buildings representing the foreground and
the nearly similar shades of pink representing the background. The steps on the top
half of the design had a darker value of pink, this was done so to simulate a shadow
of the top view of buildings in a distance. Unlike the two other designs, the
difference in value creates fluctuation because of the high contrast between the
more saturated and less saturated colors of red. This design was successful because
it was intended to make the steps on the bottom half of the design to look like
buildings, with the rest looking like the background in a distance. However, the
design could be improved by making the trapezium connecting the rectangle steps
on the bottom half a few shades lighter as it seems as though it could blend into the
background as well. Also, the design would be less piercing to look at with a lighter
value of pink as the background on the whole.
In conclusion, the three designs displayed different aspects of dimensionality
and ways of viewing just basic shapes like rectangles, trapeziums and
parallelograms with color play. While they may not have successfully achieved all of
the artists design aims, they are still experienced differently each through different
usage of colors.