Monday, March 21, 2011

Romanticism

Hey Everyone,

Recently we studied the Romantic time period of art and were asked to create a piece of art consisting of what romanticism is. I chose to do my piece of art as a collage and to make it represent the sublime in nature. My idea was to show a couple having a picnic in a valley while a storm approached from beyond the mountains. This shows the powerful and unforgiving attributes nature holds as well as the beauty it shows.

My collage utilizes lights and darks to create a focal point and emphasize upon the lower half of the page. It was important to create this effect as it further contrasts the peaceful picnic with the approaching storm. I also used some colour contrast to help create a focal point. It was really important to me that the focus be on the couple and lower half of the page so I used colour contrast to make them stand out more. I used shades of red against the green valley grass to create contrast and made the people white in contrast to everything on the page. No no other element of the collage is white.

To create my composition, I used line to create movement that lead your eyes around in a triangular composition. Your eyes are first drawn to the bottom of the page to the point of the triangle and then you notice the storm clouds across the base of the triangle. I believe this was an effective composition because it brings you into the reality of the collage. Your eyes are first drawn to the serenity of the picnic like the people there would be, but then you notice the storm looming overhead much like the couple would eventually see.

To create more unity within the piece I used different shaped pieces of paper, roughly around the same size, to create every aspect of the scene. The different pieces of paper form cohesive shapes which makes the collage very unified. I also used values of colour to create gradation within the sky. That helped to create movement and once again bring the focus to the bottom half.

Technically, I had few problems , but I would not suggest someone with little patience to make a collage. The amount of time and repetition creating a collage takes can be really annoying, but yet somehow calming. I hope you liked this and feel free to leave a comment below!

~K

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