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Shape Week 5- Lecture & Homework
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The Power of Shapes in Composition
"Since we feel the meanings in the substructure, in pure elemental visual forces, and Contributors
because they lie within the province of the anatomy of a visual message it is a very intense
communication."  Amelia Kasten
                                                                 - Beckie Lee
Donis A. Dondis
Bill Perkins

Chelsea Chan
This image by Eyvind Earle is an elegant example of variations on a theme.  There are but a
Cullen Townsend
small number of distinctive shapes but the whole image consists of subtle variations of
these few shapes.  Draw this image and see if you can define the basic shapes repeated Joss
with slight variants.
Julius

Khyli B.

Lorraine Li

Marilyn Lin

Michael M

Nina Julianto

Rachel Morales

Rachel

Reginald

Sandra Chang

Sangah Lee

Sayoung Park

Steffany

Wynonna Kirk

rachel wilson

yk
Mood and Shape か
Here are some notes that Walt Stanchfield handed out at one of his drawing sessions at
Disney and were later published in his Drawn to Life books.  And though there are no
standardized rules or shapes that always convey specific moods, these generally imply Report Abuse
moods and are worth noting.  Shapes and particularly symbols can convey different
meanings depending on which culture you are addressing.  That is why I am careful to say
these are generally accepted as implying these moods (in the US). Blog Archive

April 2019 (6)

March 2019 (8)
February 2019 (5)
January 2019 (22)

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Most all shapes have both balance and direction.  The circle has balance but it doesn't have
a directional bias.  Although even a circle is subject to characteristics of compositional
stress.  Compositional stress has to do with the way we scan or visually orient ourselves to
a composition.
We will discuss this more below.

Viewing a composition
The position within the frame were shapes, focal points or objects sit will add to the
relative simplicity or stress.  Sometimes we read stress as dynamic intensity, and when
gone too far we see stress as the cause of uncomfortable imbalance and unwelcome.  You
can see this effect in the compositions below. As intersections and lines are placed in
various places within the images below they convey different levels of stress, or dynamic
importance.

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Not only do our regular basic shapes hold inherent meanings but they also display areas
where we sense more stress.  That is what makes these areas of these basic shapes more
dynamic or demand more of our attention than other areas within their silhouettes.

Modifications of our basic shapes can quickly add more visual intensity (stress).

Size and groupings of shapes can imply other characteristics of balance, space and scale.

Creating variations on a theme and keeping it simple.

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Here are some images that span various periods of art history and thousands of years apart,
and all represent flat space.  Also stylistically they all have the strongest emphasis on
mass, line and form contribute to various degrees differently in each of these images.  

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What are your shapes doing for your composition?

Are they purposeful or static?  Are they emoting a visual expression, or directing your eye
through, or merely a static symbol.  You can make them emote and expression while being
a symbol that is meaningful, as well as display a force that directs your eye.

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And animated films

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In Cinderella, it is clear in these images the artistic style is based on the contrast between
mostly vertical lean straights and the tightly curved 'S' shapes and curly que shapes in the
baroque furniture accents, moldings,  in the wallpaper, and carpet.  Together these create
the tall elegant quality of the castle and interior of Cinderella's home except within her
bedroom and the stairs up to it.  The ceiling is low and the room anything but elegant
because we do not see long straights in contrast to the curvy bits, but the straights are
shorter and not 90 degrees to one another but they still contrast the curved shapes and
lines.

Various shape explorations for Fantasia 2000 to determine how the clouds could become
unique and contrast the columns in the interior of the Icebergs.  Even he different
chambers had different shapes of ice to keep them unique and magical.

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Here are great examples of keying shapes with a limited range of contrast within those
shapes.  Remember we measure all our visual components by Major Key (Proportion) and
Minor Key (Range of Contrast) even shapes.  Look to see if you can point out the Major Key
shapes (the shape or shapes that dominate most of the composition), and the Minor Key
(the range of variation of that shape or shapes).

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Mary Blair concept design for the Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland.

Variations on a theme

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Style Guide
“Everything film is designed… either by a plan or by default”
The notion of an overarching style guide first occurred to me at Disney when I was trying
to familiarize myself with the characters in preparation for layout on the Little
Mermaid.  Glen Keane had done the storyboards and his understanding and control of
Ariel’s’ expression and design in each drawing was an inspiration, and went beyond the
range of the character design sheets and turn arounds.  The standard of the day was for
each character there would be a packet for the animators and clean-up artists, which
would include drawings with explanations of do’s and don’ts, range of sample expressions
and complete rotations of the 2D character so that one could see how shapes would resolve
as they disappear around the form.  These character guides were vital for the animators
and clean-up artists as a guide to maintain the continuity of each characters design and
range of expression.  But we hadn’t developed one of these for the movies overall style?
I ran across this sketch in my journal.  My thought was simply this:  “What if I could design
a looking glass which would distort the world into a caricature of itself?  Then if I could
give all the artists a looking glass we would all draw the world as we perceive it but it
would all look like it came from the same hand”?

                      

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The result that followed seemed clear.  I had to design a document, which would define
the looking glass, not the world.  In other words define and make clear the characteristics
of the distortion which would change the real world so all artists would be able to join in
the design and produce art, which had predictable outcomes.  Also in order to insure
continuity in variation this guide would have to demonstrate both distinction and at the
same time possess elastic performance capabilities.

Aladdin 

These characters maintain their uniqueness of design because their silhouetted shapes.
 They are all made up of a similar range of fast to slow 'S' and 'C' curved shapes.  Even
though the carpet (which could have been only a rectangle) is always posed with some type
of curve to it.  Jafar has the longest (slow curved) lines and shapes.  The idea of a style
guide is to build a visual continuity between characters and the world they inhabit.
 Continuity between character and background was one of the visual characteristics that
set what we consider timeless classic animated films apart from others and these drawings
were but some of the drawings of a much larger document.

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Brother Bear

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Fox and the Hound II

Mulan Design

Here are some notes by Hans Bacher discussing and demonstrating the use of shapes and
general design for Mulan.  This is how he layed out his visual shape ideas to the crew.  Like
a Style Guide; these pages serve to create the design bias, and boundaries through which
the visual story will be told.

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Tangled Design
Last week Kelsey raised the question about the shapes and design of a concept piece I did
at Disney Tangled.  Here is how it came about.  I was initially told that the directors
Nathan Greno and Byron Howard wanted to capture the spirit of design in Cinderella.  So I
went to these images and made some observations of that style.  And as we will be looking
deeper into visual components I broke these images down through the relationships of its
components.  I saw that there was a great exaggeration of scale, and contrasting shapes
from thin columns to swirling massive curved structures, all adding to the scale of
the space.  Most of these images below represent the castle so they are massive, the
interiors of Cinderella's home were also large compared to her room which was very small,
no columns and a low ceiling with skewed heavy rough beam shapes on it.  The artists were
using Scale, Shape and Space to create visual contrasts that were so important to the
story.  Also repetition played a part setting setting up the featured shape.  Addressing the
Major and Minor Key in terms of shapes.  Notice the image of the kings bed or the grand
stairway, even the hallway with guards the Major Key would be a proportionately large
amount of vertical thin shapes and repetition of these shapes. The Minor Key (of shapes) is
the range of contrast between shapes, and clearly within these designs there is a great
contrast of shapes.  This contrast gives more importance to these large bulky curved
shapes.  In the bottom images the delicate lattice above the hallway door and the bridge
are contrasting shapes.  In these images there is also a shift from mass and counterchange
on the trees to line of the lattices.  Again contrasts of all kinds draw our attention.

I began with researching what type of trees are indigenous to the location of the film.  I
found a few varieties but I chose a couple with great contrast and they were Oak, and
Beech, so I focused on them.  In the drawing below the drawing on the left was done for
Bolt and I changed it's design based on my notes from above.  I increased the scale and
bold swirling shape aspect of the oak tree.

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I also exaggerated the contrast within the tall beech.  The thinness of the trunk to the
bulkier canopy both sharing a rhythmic quality.

This image reflected my initial design sketch.

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From here I set the value groups to see how the shapes would silhouette.  I created a focal
area in the lower area by designing around it.  I placed Flynn in this place rather than
Rapunzel because I wanted to tell that this was the first time she would have actually seen
the woods from the ground and having her literally filtering around Flynn with unbridled
excitement could reflect her naivete.  So I thought he should be the anchor in the focal
area that is why I chose a back view of him.

Seeing some of the lighting tests that were being done I wanted to reflect that quality of
light with more texture and richer warm colors.  The light rays and addition of light hitting
the upper left tree helped to imply straight directional quality to the otherwise mostly
organic bulky shapes.

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 Searching for stylistic differences of shapes I used the same tree branch as a constant and
drew it with variations of shapes.  In this way you can see the difference of change on one
constant shape.  If you draw different things the focus is taken away from the difference of
change within object and other aspects of interpretation begin to have an influence.

The image below was drawn to show the distinction between various styles of films.  Fox
and the Hound II was going to be made just after Bambi II and Tarzan II.  The question the
execs posed to the art director was "What would the difference be between the woods, and
jungle of the previous films.  The art director wanted a Grant Wood influence on the film
so again I used a constant (this time a log) and drew it with the various style influences to
illustrate the distinction.

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Thee shapes below are extremely linked to the balancing of the 2D patterning of positive
and negative shapes.  They are successful for this reason.  If you designed characters in this
manner and did not manage the balancing of negative shapes the effect of the design
would be marginalized, and could appear to be merely deskilled drawings.

These illustrations rely on counterchange and form.  There are some silhouettes and strong
flat shapes designed to work as compositional elements in contradistinction with the more
form and counterchange elements.

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Dean Cornwell 
Dean Cornwell grouped his shapes into various and distinctive depth planes

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Grouping masses and textures

In this line drawing below the artist concentrated different types of textures or detail in
different areas.  For instance the type pattern on the woman's coat is only contained
within that silhouette.  Her black collar and cuffs only are solid within those areas.  The
dark hat on the woman on the left is broken so it does not associate with the other
woman's collar and cuffs.  You will see this type of treatment in many artists work because
it allows the artist to include variety while maintaining visual clarity in what could become
complex compositions.

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Franklin Booths image below is made of very limited number of shapes but that is a great
design device that will help to keep your image clear and dynamic.

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In the image below Dan McCaw grouped the lighter local values with light shapes to create
a combined matrix of table, table cloth, and girls dress.  The shapes of light on the grass
around and behind the girl are random and chaotic.  The light shapes created through the
trellis are all orderly.  The light shape in the grass on the foreground is singular and has a
stronger directional force.

These images are from Feast and we can see a clear adaptations to shapes.  They are
clearly not in a photographic realistic world.  Scale and shapes are played with within a

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particular range which gives context to the style.

The train images below are from previous students work from an assignment of Hero and
Villain, locations.  They used tone and color to push contrasting moods.  Rather than
change the shape of the trains radically the shapes of the light patterns or overgrowth can
change the tone of the scenes.

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In all these images look for the differences in the character of shapes from simple
backgrounds or straight, vertical and horizontal, lines or shapes to rhythmic, or curved, or
dynamic shapes.  These are cases of contrast of shape that determine importance through
dominance and subordination.
Compositions with extreme contrast of shapes like the one below where the whole
composition is ridged vertical and horizontal shapes extent for the little girls on the dock.

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 Their silhouettes are so different from anything else in the image.

The down shot of the hanging has a dynamic angle to begin with but notice how all of the
figures are grouped on the gallows and how the hand rail along the bottom frames them in.
 The guilty man stands attached to the vertical line (rope), the guard stands attached to
the upright column, and the two officers stand separated below.

In this image the shape of the light is the subject so it is featured by the greatest amount
of contrast.  The shadow of the chair is the most curved shape in this matrix and bridges
the relationship between the light shape and the red chair itself.

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Richard Bunkall's image of the city buildings has variations of shapes and he softens the
architecture by allowing the shapes of the light side contrast the hard silhouetted shadow
side edges.

Symmetrical at first but the variations make this image far more compelling

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Look for similar shapes or limited numbers of shapes with subtle variations.  In terms of
Major and Minor keys look for strong Major key of shapes (large proportion of one shape)
 with a high minor key (high level of contrast) or variations on a theme.  Or try to recognize
or create images with a limited number of distinctive shapes with subtle range of contrasts
within each shape group.

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The tree drawings below are observational drawings analyzing the shape, and directional
forces unique to the specific variety and maturity of these trees.  These were done for
Bolt.

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Here are a few images that represent some of the most basic of compositional ideas.  I am
putting them up on the blog as basics but remember since our visual language does not
have grammatical rules to adhere to, the response to these images cannot guarantee the
same responses.  You as the artist have to determine the context for any image, story, or
world.  Look these over and if you have any questions we can discuss in class.

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 We can look at space as surface division in a 2D manner as well as illusionary space in a 3D
impression.  Below I will talk about both and different applications.  We have basically four
or five types of illusionary space, Flat, Limited, Deep, Ambiguous, and Cubist.  Our 2D
space division is abstract to the illusionary space and we tend to think of it as positive and
negative spaces between figure and ground.

Homework

For this week, go outside and do landscape drawings, as many as you can! From the all
those that you have, pick 4-5 that best describes the image with shapes and post it on your

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blog. The goal of this homework is to explore and capture the essence of an object through
its shape.

For example, if a tree has a certain oval shape with specific texture, try to capture that.
Don't "dumb" down the shape of that tree to just a circle, or triangle. Try to observe and
translate the character and essence of the tree's shape into your drawing. But this does not
mean to render it!!

Remember Eyvind Earle's work! 

Also, this is a composition class, so don't forget to draw your frames!!

Apart from the landscape drawings, don't forget to add a row for SHAPES for your long term
project!

Goodluck!!

at February 13, 2019

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Color Workshop

Here are some files from some color workshops explaining color set ups and painting exercises.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1T7B...

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Karen Han
"Good" katherine lam robh ruppel ralph hulet hwei lim tatsuro kiuchi tadahiro
uesugi ay...

Beckie H Lee
Week 1 Good composition Bad composition Workshop Week 2...

Color Workshop
Here are some files from some color workshops explaining color set ups and painting exercises.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1T7B...

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