I had 2 assignments: to create six emotive compositions and a visual narrative to the story. Emotive compositions were easy, as I was imagining these feelings inside of me and expressing them via geometry. But my process of creating a visual narrative of the story “A Riddling Tale” was long even though the story was simple. While doing both assignments, I first drafted my ideas in my journal by hand and then created them in the Illustrator.
Drafts of the emotive compositions and visual narrative
The visual narrative started to be hard when I had to choose the colors. And that’s where I got stuck because 5 colors weren’t enough for me, although I’m a fan of minimalistic design. I guess the idea of color constraint made me anxious because if the colors are wrong, I wouldn't show important details the way I wanted them. Subsequently, I chose these color associations: green - grass, yellow – sunflower, and orange - sun and the curse. I applied black background to the first 2 squares, as they are describing the curse and I needed them to be scary. White color appears when there’s a chance to break this curse to symbolize hope.
As for the shapes, I used flat horizontal shapes to show stability and ground. It also helped to visualize the perspective by separating the ground and the sky. The triangular shapes of women were placed vertically on a flat base, as well as rectangular flower shapes that demonstrated that they are not moving, as they are cursed to be flowers every night. Only their hair (petals in the flower form) is put in diagonal direction to give a sense of movement. The husband, however, consists mostly of diagonal shapes because he’s the only one who isn’t cursed and wants to save his wife. So, he is the one who is acting in this story. In addition, I used pointed triangles for the grass to show the danger and despair of the curse. In the last 2 squares I drew dew shaped as tears to add some human emotions to the flowers that will forever stay cursed. Despite my love for symmetry, I tried (made myself) to use asymmetry as well. I started with the house and the moon, but I’m still doubting whether I balanced the elements right. I do feel that asymmetry looked good on the other squares.
I read the readings after I finished the visual narrative and I realized that I subconsciously made the choices to express what I wanted in a way that readings suggested. It surprised me. Of course, the readings made me look at my visualization differently, so I started to notice what shape or color does to my perception of the composition. Now I’m looking forward to be surprised even more.
Visual narrative of "A Riddling Tale"
Emotive compositions
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