Beginnings.... Dots, Figure and Ground
The dot is all and nothing, beginning and end, birth, principle, origin, center, starting point and ending point. -Lewandowsky
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The Dot
We can define the dot as the beginning of all design. Out of nothing springs the first point. When we repeat dots, one after another in one direction we arrive at the 1st dimension.(The line) Kandinsky stated that the dot is born the moment a drawing tool hits the paper.He says that the dot embodies silence without an element of time. Plato appreciated the circle (two dimensional) and sphere (three dimensional) as idealized, perfect forms. Click on the above link to find out more about Kandinsky at the Web Museum, Paris.
As a first exercise, experiment with position and size of a single dot.
1. Create a 12" X 10" white canvas. Stroke a black border. Copy this four more times for a total of 6-10 frames. potition a dot perfectly centered, near the top, bottom, left and right sides... one in each separate frame. Associate words with each of these relative positions.
2. Next, vary the size of the dot, gradually taking over the frame from very small, to very large in 5 or 6 more frames.
From this........
To this....
Try experimenting with filters such as FILTER>DISTORT>WAVE or SHEAR, etc.
Now arrange pairs of frames and assign one dot to each one and label each frame with a paired antonym such as near, far..... heavy, light..... rich, poor.... be imaginative!
Back to Two Dimensinal Design Syllabus
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