Project 2

Theme

I wanted to do something nature-related for my theme but I had difficulty pinpointing what theme I wanted to do specifically. With Sherin's help, I finally decided on

the theme of "Seasons" and I portrayed the 4 seasons in my designs.

Artist/Inspiration

I was really inspired by the Art Nouveau style because of its elegant lines and flowing, fluid-like style. I did some research on the style and came across a lot of tarot cards that were designed in the art nouveau style. The style is so intricate and delicate but yet so developed and prominent in the designs it appears in that it was the first style that really appealed to me on the list of designers.

Process

I. Subjects

After deciding that I was going to portray movement, balance, repetition, and emphasis and economy with the four seasons, I had to think about the subjects of my designs. After researching art nouveau, I noticed that there was a lot of emphasis on different flowers and leaves. Thus, the seasons of spring and fall were easier than summer and winter. After looking more closely at certain tarot cards, I noticed a lone bird on a branch and thought that that would be a good subject for winter. This was the same for summer because I noticed in one tarot card that there were two suns with faces bordering the card. I felt the art nouveau style was very fitting for my theme because many elem

ents of the style refer back to nature.

II. 4 Principles of Design

I figured that I would make winter as my emphasis and economy piece, because obviously, winter is the barest season. Furthermore, I felt the idea of the numerous leaves during fall could be portrayed well in my piece by using repetition. I debated about movement and balance, but eventually felt like summer could be better portrayed with movement and spring with balance.

Emphasis and Economy

I saw some elements of lone birds when researching art nouveau and felt that it was an appropriate subject for the season of winter. Art nouveau is often very elaborate and so I wanted to tone that down for this piece. I still wanted to retain the style, but have less swirls and patterns. So I opted for a bird on a single tree branch. However, I shouldn't have extended the tree branch all the way across the page. Perhaps there would've been more focus to the piece, and it would've been a better composition.

Repetition

I wanted to repeat leaves for the season of fall and I was inspired by all the arches and patterned borders in the art nouveau style. So I decided to frame my piece in this way and made many different leaves around arches and side bars surround a central leaf growing out of the ground. I wanted to keep repeating the motif of leaves and I tried to imitate the flowing structure of leaves in different ways and from different angles.

Movement

I really liked the suns with faces I encountered while researching art nouveau and really wanted to incorporate it into a piece. I wanted to make the sun appear as if it was moving toward the sky to represent the beginning of summer and its emphasis it places on the sun.

Balance

Springtime seems like a very balanced season to me and I wanted to play off of that by making my composition reflect the design element of balance. I decided to use a woman's profile to do this and I tried to frame and balance the composition with the flowers surrounding her. I wanted to balance the entire composition by placing the bouquet of flowers on the left and the heavier, darker flowers on the upper right as well as the flowers in the upper left and the bottom right. I also wanted to balance the shadows on her hair to the shadow on her neck.