Vis Language - ShapeShapeShape

Shape is something I have somewhat overlooked and pushed aside in my illustration work. I feel like I rarely consider how my images could incorporate or be built up using shape instead of just line, and that is a massive part of image making I have yet to invest in.

As a result this session was very interesting and eye opening and fun, to do something different and approach my work in a new way.

Representing fruit using just shape seems like a simple, basic exercise, however to execute in an imaginative and exciting way proved really difficult. At first I picked a banana to depict, however because it is such an obvious and distinctive shape, thinking up inventive ways to present it was a challenge, however this forces you to think differently and break down something you perceive as very mundane and obvious into individual elements and pair it right down.

My favourite response was the pineapple. Choosing to just create the diamond shape to build up the main form of the fruit created quite a nice pattern, which is a lot more eye catching than the rather boring banana depictions. I like their wobbly, misaligned quality too; it has more character than any other my other outcomes.

Here is the other studio task, combining shape and texture into a self-portrait. It was a fun challenge to try and distill a face into it's most basic forms yet still keep it interesting and relatively figurative and clear. Also trying to imbue character and personality and expression whilst still simplifying into basic shapes was a question of what makes an expression communicate what it does. 

I also particularly enjoyed working with texture and the task of trying to create contrast and variety with it, for example finding 3 different ways to depict hair in order to show the different features of my face.