Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Strongest design??

I am taking a year long class from Elizabeth Barton and got some feedback on one of my sketches. The design is from a photo I took of Paris rooftops and chimney pots this past summer. For the assignment I sketched it out trying to shade in various values since this was basically supposed to be a value study. Before I even sent the sketch to Elizabeth I knew that the roof on the lower right was too strong. Why do we know something, but refuse (or are too dumb) to change it? I guess I was copying the photo too much. I have to remember that people don’t create the values in their city buildings to result in a great design in a photo without editing.

paris roof tops sketch Elizabeth also pointed out that there is not much happening on the left side of the sketch. Boy I did not even see that. Again I was just drawing what I saw in the photo. So I had some work to do. She also suggested that cropping to just the interesting stuff might be better.

Here’s what I tried.

better Sketch 1: Cropping to just the right side where most of the stuff is happening

better2 

Sketch 2:  Cropping out the large dark roof top on the right and adding another chimney on the left.

better3

Sketch 3:  Adding a chimney on the left side and toning down the large dark roof top

better 4 

Sketch 4:  Same as 3, but moving the chimney on the left further to the left

better5 Sketch 5:  Cropping the right hand side of the original sketch, but toning down the roof

So the question is which is the strongest design? Which one would you make into a quilt?  I think I know which one I am leaning toward, but your feedback would be helpful.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

5 comments:

  1. Ok, that's a tough one, for me at least. I felt a surge of YES though when I saw the last one. I think the bottom right part adds so much interest to what otherwise would be a pretty stereotypical rooftop scene. It really draws my eye. But it could become a supporting element of interest depending on how you add color.

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  2. Thanks for your comment. Someone else emailed me and picked #3 or #5.
    Chris

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  3. I like #5. It has more going on in it.

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