Some inititial ideas on concept and critique.

[eselgeist]

By no means exhaustive, or definitive, this is something I was
told by abecat and, less formally, kamenkyote, both of whom

Comments

[ranshire]

Oooo, that last one looks like a cluster galaxy. Preeeeeetty

[science geek mode off]

[eselgeist]

That's one of the digital photo pieces by Chris Jordan. I point to his stuff in the post, check it out, it's terribly intense (and I suspect -vertigo inducing- in person).

[noodlesandbeef]

[eselgeist]

you are a total art director :D

[noodlesandbeef]

I wish there was a reality show for designers so I could be a snooty guest judge.

[wannabeyote]

Guernica strikes me as somehow Hieronymus Bosch-ish, maybe because of all the symbolism in it. Though the title of "heir to Bosch" would better fit Dali, if bestowing such a title were useful.

Thank you for this post. It's interesting to see how art creation is perceived from the creator's perspective. As a creator of non-artsy stuff, the approach is very different: First comes function (driven by need/desire, that of the client that is), then comes design, which implements the function, then comes form - if you can afford form, or you even (have to) care.

[eselgeist]

Then I'm afraid I wasn't clear.

What you describe as "function" -is- what is considered initially as concept. It is the "why". The rest of it, composition and color and so on, that's the design of it, and the form is technique, detailing and flourishes, the actual means and tools (pixels, pigments, codified marks, etc.)

I'm not sure where I might have suggested that you work in reverse of this method.

[wannabeyote]

Ah, thank you for clarifying. I really like this formalized way of approaching creation

[eselgeist]

Optical contrast works exactly the way it does on your TV or computer monitor; it is the amount of different between light and dark. The highest contrast is between black and white.

Images with high contrast have lights and darks sharply delineated, this tends to describe line drawing, as well, as lines stand out in contrast to the background.

Images with low contrast tend to be murky or hazy (image on the left). Some pictures use this for atmospheric perspective.

Knowing how to use contrast helps support your composition; low contrast can push things in the background to the back, sharper contrast can be useful for describing where the light source is, and so on. High contrast is often used in animation (the so-called "cel shaded" look) to simplify shadows and forms to fewer colors to animate.

[lutos]

Interesting post! And thank you for the link to Chris Jordan's work. I'm totally overwhelmed -well, shocked would be more appropriate- by the sheer amount of waste we produce in such a short time only. I knew it was bad, but this....aargh (vertigo of the perceptive faculty) X(

[mikosquirrel]

I spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff, mostly in relation to music. One thing that makes me stay up all night rolling around sweating and grinding my teeth is music that begins and ends at 5.Technique, and how I hate hate hate it.