Ellina Jung
Digital Grisaille
Prompt: Unifying science, aesthetics and technique, cartography communicates spatial information. We were instructed to use our analog drawing of a still life as the foundation to map out an invented comprehension of light in Photoshop. We used photography to better comprehend, explore and manipulate value, light logic and surface textures digitally. Although we are not creating a map in the traditional sense, we applied the concepts/science of light, aesthetics and technique to communicate the way light falls upon objects and how we translate that to the viewer upon a two dimensional surface.
The first step towards creating my digital grisaille (which is a style of monochrome painting) was creating an analog drawing on paper with charcoal. After sketching the general proportions, I identified each shadow and light mass within my reference model and used compressed charcoal to fill in the shadows. We had freedom with the background, so I chose to incorporate both light and shadows to elevate the pragnanz/closure within my figures. In this practice of developing such a high contrast drawing, I realized how visually important the Gestalt principles can be in a body of work, while still paying attention to the hardness and softness of certain lines and shadows. When it came to creating the final composition on Photoshop, my focus was on making my layout as interesting as possible while still showing the process from drawing to digitalization. Centering the composition around an industrial and futuristic aesthetic, I incorporated elements of perspective and text to produce a layout that I was satisfied with.