ARCH400 - Project 1B: 2D Composition

From the assignment sheet:

This assignment focuses on creating an abstract two-dimensional composition based on the painting and analysis of the painting (1.A). To create the 2D composition students will have to diagram their ideas on trace. Here, the original subject matter of the painting disappears, and students will have the freedom from representational qualities found in the original art piece. In order to achieve a successful composition, students will have to diagram and make decisions relating to geometry, planes of existence(background, mid-ground and foreground figures), light and shadow, hierarchy, etc

The painting from Project 1A was the same, and we were required to crop the image into a 5" x 5" square. I used the following cropped portion of my painting for this project:

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

My analysis started with the establishment of a grid utilizing the cave opening to create the prominent vertical axis and the front most figures to create the prominent horizontal axis. The primary and secondary lines are instrumental in creating the two rectangles outlined with reciprocal proportions.

The main elements of the painting can be broken down into simple geometries with the void being a triangle that continues off the page. This section of the image also has much more simplified layers with a clear foreground and background. The mid-ground is comprised only of the two triangular shapes in the upper corners of the image and serves to frame the background.

The figure/ground and static/dynamic relationships stay the same as they were in Project 1A. The void is also the same, but it becomes the prominent light source casting a filtered light onto the figures in the foreground of the image.

The complete sheet: