Art and Design A comprehensive guide for creative artists - Aaltodoc

Inset: halftone
dots obtained
from a section
of smooth
tones on a
shoe surface.
Here are some other ways dots can be used:
• Dots can be used to create a line
• Different sizes of dots can project movement
• Dot-strokes can form textures in visual direction
• Dots can also be used to depict distance within a
perspective.
How newspapers use dots
A closer look at newspaper photographs reveals a range of
shades made up of combinations of black or coloured dots.
In the dark areas, dots are large and they are combined that
almost none of the white paper shows through. In lighter
areas of a photograph dots are tiny and they are surrounded
by large expanses of white.
The continuously varying shades of colour dots in a
photograph convert into a pattern of different-sizes (of
dots) with a method known as halftone. Most newspapers
use a fairly loose texture of dots to reproduce pictures on
standard newsprint paper.
If dots are seen from a (monitor) screen, it may portray them
in 2 to 3 lines per millimetre and when it comes out of the
printer the attained results will show the same number of
dots per millimetre.
The whole idea about dots and the way they form
photographs is almost identical to what is known as dpi
(dot per inch)—induced by scanners and printers.
Dpi defines the levels of intensity, sharpness—from a computer-procreated
image. Certainly, the display screen
measures the number of pixels across and down; to
represent the actual resulting effect by using dots.
Mass, Volume and Space
These are elements of three dimensional art and design
such as sculpture. In Mujjuzi's (2010, 113) article about
Exploration of organic materials for sculpture production, he
explains how “... ring wires, binding wires and wire mesh”
can be used to generate “a solid body with mass and
volume” for a three dimensional shape from plant materials.
Distinctly, then, volume gives the impression of height,
length, width and depth on three dimensional forms. Wood
or stone disclose mass because they exist in solid form,
while a snail shell appears as space volume.
Michael et al (2007, 186) are more enlightening: “Mass refers
to volume or bulk of an object in a work of art and space
refers to the areas surrounded by mass.” Surely, a creative
artist can use the perception of form to create three-dimensional
objects on two-dimensional surfaces by using
shadows or tones.
Space is an important element of art and design. Two
dimensional artists mainly refer to real white space as
breathing-space. Such space is predominantly used on
lay-outs. Space reveals depth in a receding background. In
Trevallion et al.'s (2003, 18) Design and Technology; “Space is
an element, which when arranged according to the design
principles creates unity.” It also helps other aspects in a
design to exist.
Types of spaces
Creative artists execute artworks from more than two
types of spaces. Landa (2000, 76) believes, “Understanding
positive and negative space is crucial to designing ...” Here
are some of the ways in which negative and positive space
can provide scope for creative designers to execute design
artworks:
a) Negative space produces a silhouette of a contrasting
image. That is to say, a negative space is the
unoccupied area. It lies within the inhabited shapes of
spaces.
b) Positive space is usually found in areas that are
occupied by an image. It dominates our sense of
sight on a design. On three-dimensional artworks like
sculpture, positive spaces functions together with
negative spaces to cause a worthwhile display of forms.
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