Assignment 1 Commentary

BEFORE CRITIQUE

This is the photo I have chosen for abstraction, which is a black 7-seater car. I wanted to present a visual objection of a car as I felt that there were many details about a car that we can look into and it can be easily shown as an abstraction.

I utilised the software Adobe Illustrator throughout this project. This is the Stage 1 of the abstraction, where I digitalised the car by using the pen tool taught to us during class. I included multiple details, such as the car wheels, the 3D side mirror and also the sign that says ‘BABY ON BOARD’ on the car itself.

For Stage 2, I simplified the wheels, the handles, the ‘BABY ON BOARD’ sign and the side mirror into a 2D format, and also changed the shape of the car to become more regular.

For Stage 3, I removed more details which includes lines outlining the car’s structures and the ‘BABY ON BOARD’ sign. I also simplified the brake lights, wheels and shape of the car.

This is Stage 4, where I ‘vectorised’ the car, utilising mostly regular shapes to replace the different car parts (headlights, wheels, brake lights, side mirror etc), as a form of abstraction.

This is the last stage, Stage 5, where I changed the colour of the car to be of colorless and also removed more details, to present a very simplified car.

OVERALL CRITIQUE PIECE

CRITIQUE COMMENTS:

I was given the following comments to improve on my abstraction piece:

1. To do up the background of the photo. This is to further to show details of the photo in Stage 1 and hence show the resemblance to the photo, where without any reference, I can identify that it is a digitalised form of the original image.
2. To also add the colour red to the background to show a greater contrast and similarity between Stage 0 and Stage 1, so that further stages have more obvious changes to the object.
3. To stop at Stage 3 and include more stages in between. This is to ensure that the car still have a resemblance to the photo, even after the further simplification of the object.
4. I have also consulted Mr Kai En about whether to remove the background after Stage 1 so that I can focus on the object I have chosen, which is the car, and he agrees with my point! 🙂

AFTER CRITIQUE: SUBMISSION OF THE FINAL WORK, ASSIGNMENT 1

To clean up and make it clearer and more aesthetic, I changed the way I presented the abstraction, from an A4 portrait mode to one that is of landscape, and also labelled the stages and put in place borders to showcase further the differences from each stage.

This is Stage 0, where I added a shadow to further emphasise on the three dimensional effect, I also outlined the building and to further showcase that the car is in the parking lot. I also added the colour red to the tiles of the building behind the car, and I also included more details of the brake lights to make it more 3D.

For Stage 2, I removed the background of the building and left only the ‘parking lot’ to show that it is parked, to slowly switch the main focus to the car.

For Stage 3, I simplified it from a 3D form to a 2D form, where I removed the shadows and also the remaining portion of the parking lot space. This is because I would like to focus the abstraction on the object that I have chosen, which is the car. I also simplified the car wheels brake lights and also the car handles.

For Stage 4, I further simplified the car wheels and removed more details, including the colour red from the brake lights. I also removed the white outlines of the details of the car.

This is the last stage of my abstraction, where I simplified the car wheels to 2 circles and also the shapes on the car itself, removing the sign and changing the shape of the car to be one of regularity (looking more like a rectangle, rather than having a more complicated shape.