Exercise 2.2

Multi dimensional thinking

using an A2 sheet of paper, start by making random dots across the paper with a pen or pencil, like a dot to dot picture. Once the page is filled, start to connect the dots to make shapes, like squares, circles and rectangles. Once the page is filled again start to think about how to connect the shapes together and make into three dimensional shapes, as if you are designing a landscape, city or park.

I started this exercise by putting the dots onto the paper, I did this in a random fashion not thinking about where the dots were to be, and also left some gaps. I used a black thick liner pen so the dots could be seen for showing in this blog. I just let my pen dot over the paper without thinking, some areas had lots of cluster dots and some areas had more open and less dots.

I then drew some squares, circles and triangles by joining the dots, they didn’t create perfect examples of these shapes but the dot placement wouldn’t let me, which was the purpose of the exercise, you had to work with what you had got. At this point I had no idea of what this might turn into!

Then I started joining the dots and shapes up to make a scene, because Christmas music was playing in the background the picture soon turned to presents, a snowman, some bunting, and a Christmas tree. As it was December 13th, my home had the decorations up, I felt Christmasy, and this is just what flowed out of me.

Also a snow globe, some holly leaves, a bauble, an orange slice, a Christmas pudding, snowflake and a star. A bit of a random scene, but all the elements were there to create something from it. It is a bit like a puzzle, you could re-arrange the drawings into a proper scene, the Christmas tree with the presents underneath, the bunting hanging from up high, the star above in the sky, and the Christmas pudding and snow globe on a table.

It was interesting afterwards looking back at how the picture turned out, especially the Christmas tree, its not a traditional Christmas tree and looks a bit like an ice cream, but actually I really like it!

This exercise made me think about how other illustrators or artists have used dots to create pictures, I researched this in Google, but most of the illustrators and artists had set ideas on what they wanted to create from the dots. i.e finished art pieces, so I Googled ‘dots to create pictures (randomly)’ and I found some art which was drawn by children, from an exercise similar to this one. ‘Create monsters from dots’ (dot monsters).

teachkidsart.com

I thought this was a great idea to help children with their imagination, creating dot monsters from dots, joining the dots randomly to create a shape, then adding scary teeth, or spikes, or fur, a grizzly smile, an unusual outfit. This is perfect for kids to create new and unusual characters from, and would also help illustrators and artists think outside the box, and more abstractly, and that not all monsters should look a certain way!

Reflection

I thought that my Christmas drawings could be good rough sketches and a starting point for more descriptive drawings and illustrations, but it gave me another perspective of not all drawings have to be a certain way.

The dot monsters research gave me ideas of creating characters for children’s books, and also a good moral for a children’s book, that not everyone should and does look a certain way. I liked the freedom of the exercise, and the creativeness of it, it felt free to just draw, but also helped with creativity and imagination when pulling all the elements together.

I think this is a good exercise to use if you have art block or are struggling with some ideas, it gives you the freedom to just play, like flow and play, yet it culminates into something as a starting point.