- A pattern can be described as a template for a design but can also be used to describe the repetion of a design motif. This meaning is intrinsic to human thought processes. A pattern can also be described as a way of capturing visual interest.
- Patterns can be reduced to a grid, resulting in a crystallographic balance or order. Elaborate patterns are built on complex symmetries and rotations. Mathematical pattern-making can help create balanced and intricate pattern pieces.
- Pattern is usually defined as a repetitive design, with the same motif appearing again and again. Texture, too, often repeats, but its variations are not as precise. Both patterns and textures could be very similar in their appearance, but not their touch. Their main distinction comes down to whether the piece arouses our sense of touch or simply just appeals to the eyes.
- Texture appeals to our sense of sight and touch, allowing our memory to provide a sensory reaction. Texture in the form of crafts, sculptures, paintings and more all add to creating visual interest.
- Actual texture is texture that can be felt, such as an impasto painting technique. This technique creates a rough three-dimensional paint surface. However, implied texture is to create the illusion of a raised, three-dimensional surface with techniques such as dry brushing or stamping, but the texture of the print is actually flat.
- I would define a collage as the pasting down of varied mediums and materials, such as colored and textured papers, cloth, magazine clippings, wrapping paper etc. A great example of a successful collage is Anne Ryan’s Untitled collage.
- This “deceptive” painting technique called trompe l’oeil is when the objects are in sharp focus, and delineated with meticulous care. The artist copies the exact visual color and value pattern of each surface.
- Value is the art and design term for light and dark. Human perception of figure and ground depends on the contrast of light and dark. A value scale is simply the darkest of dark with swatches of grey until it becomes white.
- Achromatic grays are mixtures of only black and white -- no colors.
- Value contrast is the relationship between areas of dark and light. Because a value scale is sequential, the contrast between any two connecting areas is rather slight and is termed low-value contrast.
- One can achieve balance in a composition with value by including all parts of the value scale, running from black to white. Weighted contrast on either sides of the painting is also very important.
- Low-contrast and high-contrast and a starting point creates a value emphasis. Planning some areas to be more high-contrast and others to be more subdued controls where the main emphasis or focus should be.
- The quality of creating a three-dimensionality to shapes and using light and dark to imply depth and volume is called chiaroscuro.
- Aerial -- or also called atmospheric -- perspective is the effect where objects or shapes that are painted in high value contrast seem to come forward, where, naturally, areas of lesser contrast appear to recede back suggesting distance. This is very important when it comes to landscape paintings.
When searching for a work of art that corresponds well with this week’s homework assignment, it didn’t take me long to realize that Sebastien Noel’s light installation for Troika (marketing business company) fit the criteria wonderfully. What makes the so-called “Arcades Project,” built with lenses, lights, steel, and aluminum, is fact that it isn’t a painting or sculpture, but an entire installation that was photographed, revealing a beautiful value scale with achromatic grays. When looking at the photograph, you can see an emphasis in value, as well as the white lights appearing brighter and more delineated in the foreground with the farthest lights less bright and blurred, creating atmospheric perspective. The value contrast is a strong one, with both darkest blacks and bright whites, however there still remains a balance in the composition of the values. One could argue that even the floor contains some patterning in the reflective nature of the evenly tiled flooring, creating an implied texture in the photograph. Though not a concrete piece hanging on the wall, the photograph itself provides an interesting idea on searching for value and texture.