Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

Cracks in a wood log texture (Zela, RGBstock)

This is my first texture. This texture is a a cut wooden log showing the rings of the center and the cracks in the wood. It’s texture is rough and prickly where pieces of the cracked wood come up. It would also feel very dense and very hard. The coarse texture is very uniform on the photo, besides the cracks in the wood. These cracks would feel very hard and creates lines through the rest of the wood that contrasts with the texture of the rings. The wood would feel very prickly but also solid. If you rubbed your hand across it you could feel parts where the wood pieces are coming up and are prickly against your hand.

Up close photo of the structures in a leaf (Neven Krcmarek, free stock textures)

My second texture is a close up photo of the structure of a leaf. I like this photo because it shows in detail the structures of the leaf. The texture of the leaf would be soft and slightly waxy. It would also feel almost moist or wet, when you touch a leaf and can feel the water inside it. It would also feel very flexible but delicate. You could easily rip it but you can also bend it in a lot of directions without harming it. It would also feel slightly bumpy. All the different sections of the leaf would feel like small bumps. The white lines that run through the leaf would feel a little tougher and smoother although they would still feel soft.

Adolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk, published in Arbeiter-illustrierte-Zeitung in 1932. Grove Art: Photomontage

The world today is a far cry from the world of the 19th or even 20th century. The pace of life has quickened and with it art styles. The advent of photography allowed for a new form of art to be displayed, photomontage. Photomontage is not to be confused with Collage art which appeared around the same time in the early 20th century. Photomontage is the layering of purely photographic sources, generally into more realistic photo art. Collages expressed the same creative layering effect but used the more characteristically chaotic and medium blending method of layering different substances to create art. These developing art styles are a response to changing times at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. With an increased pace of life so did art change to represent this. Photomontage art was able to comment on the first world war and the chaos it inspired. It was later adopted as a means of propaganda and advertising as it assimilated into the art world. As such there are several artists who used it to criticize the political climate of the time. One such artist was John Heartfield. He pioneered photomontage as a satirical device in Germany and used it to criticize the Nazi regime such in his piece, Aldolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk. 

Whoever reads bourgeois newspapers becomes blind and deaf: away with the stultifying bandages! (1930) Collage art by John Heartfield. Information and translation found at The Art Story.

John Heartfield also had other pieces that commented on the political climate of the day, like his piece of the young man with his head wrapped in newspaper, “Whoever reads bourgeois newspapers becomes blind and deaf: away with the stultifying bandages!” This comments on the complacency that Heartfield saw in how people formed their opinions from the media they read. He also comments on photomontage itself in a way, as it was easily massed produced like newspapers, so he strove to show how it was used in propaganda and other bias works.

John Heartfield’s style uses unity to match strong lines and strong subjects together and harmonious elements to recreate the realism of traditional art. This is then contrasted as the reader analyzes the work more carefully, noticing the distinct turn and satirical meaning the pictures truly hold. Heartfield’s work is mean to invoke thought and inspire people to be critical of their world. This was needed and still in needed in times of mass information, propaganda, and the more modern day issues of “Fake News”.

Sources:

1.) The Art Story

2.) Grove Art Online: Photomontage

3.) Grove Art Online: Collage

4.) John Lovett: Design

Photographed by Victoria Henry-LeMaster, September 2018. Pullman, Wa.

Over a third of the photo is taken up by a gravel consistency wall, there are smaller and larger pebbles blended together to create the overall feeling. The wall is rough to tough and is rougher than cement. The different sizes and colors blend together to create a grey speckled plane of rocks, some tend to stick out of the wall more than others. If looking at it from above it would almost look like a cobbled road. None of the rocks are the same, if you run your hand against the wall it would mover over the bumps like a car on a gravel road. The lower third of the image hold green shrubbery. Almost like vines, the plants seem to be gripping onto the wall making an effort to climb up. On the right side of the image, the vines successfully hold onto the rocky wall and climb the side. The leaves seem to face every direction and have prickly sides. In comparison to the wall and its simplicity in every rock coming together to create something together and concise, the vines seem to be the opposite. Every branch that comes from the last goes in a different direction. There is one red leaf that seems curled and dry in comparison to the vibrant green and alive leaves of the plant. The leaves have a waxy feel on top but underneath they are almost prickly. The very coarse and rough feeling of the rock wall finds its way in the shadows of the leaves as well. The relationship between the two different textures creates a unique contrast between the light grey, rocky feel, and the dark green waxy leaves. There is no question between what is the plant and what is the wall, even in the shadows of the lush leaves where the wall pops out, it is still distinct, the difference in the texture.

Photo by Kelly-anne Cubley September 10, 2018.

Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, blue and Purple. Many strands of yarn make up a tassel and are intern woven woven in different patterns in order to make a new texture. Blue makes a prominent zig-zag pattern across the top of the image yet it also is woven throughout all of the other colours. Each colour leading up from a tassel creates a line that extends from the bottom of the horizon line upwards. Every piece of yarn makes up a single stitch, this in turn gives it a very bumpy look when zoomed in, however some stitches are longer and this makes that section feel smoother. Another way the arranges stitches make the image look smoother is be having more stitches per inch. Each tassel is made by only one color. The tassels do not lay flat and twist around other colors, this gives depth to the image. The stitches create valleys and hills and this brings the eye to the larger chunks of colour. Where the yarn meets the fabric, there is a horizon line and this creates a large contrast between the two halves of the photo.

Photo by Sean Mirts. December 26th, 2016.

During the winter on the Southern rim of the Grand Canyon, an elk appeared out of the nearby forest. Only poking its head out into an opening in the trees making the brown coat pop against the brush covered in snow becoming a point. The coat only has some light breaking through the trees onto it adding to the natural gradient from the nose down the neck. The elk’s eyes are a dark black with snow reflecting showing off the smooth spherical shape of the eye. Twisting branches around the elk’s head frame it and add depth and woody textures to the scene. Snow on the branches makes smooth white planes paired with the depth of field causes great contrast with the brown branches. With hints of green pine needles peeking out through the snow adding sharper lines.

Texture helps us recognize objects and relate to images we see in print, physical and visual. It is truly amazing how we can feel the image when we cannot even touch the actual object or material being shown in the image, just colors could make us get a feel of coldness or warmth, even emotions like jealousy and passion. Here are a picture that you will be able to feel because you would be able to relate from past experience.

Pine cone on cardigan. Photographed by Clara Mui

This is a photo of a pine cone on a cotton cardigan. The pine cone feels very woody, warm and has a sense of roughness on the edges of it. While the cardigan looks very soft and fluffy, but the color grey gives it a touch of cold feel. The pattern on the pine cone seems very repetitive, but it is actually layers of unique scales with small cracks on each of them to give it a sense of unity. The cardigan on the other hand, is mono-tone and made of cotton threads so thin there isn’t much patterns to be found here. Thus creating a smoother looking surface and a unison feel.

The cardigan has a very fluffy surface so it does not reflect much light, but with the pine cone’s woody yet oddly smooth texture, it’s quite reflective and looks somewhat shiny.

Photo of sailboats in Birttany, France taken by Claire Martin, July 2016.

The photo I am currently planning to use for project one is a photo I took back in 2016 of sailboats in Brittany, France. The three sail boats can be seen as focal points within the image as they draw the eye. The sails all have horizontal black lines within them in addition the harsh lines they create against the background. The land in the photo also acts as a line, separating the rough water and the smooth sky. The sails act as planes because they appear to be two dimensional in nature due to the angle at which the photograph was take. The white fluffy clouds stand out against the seamless blue of the sky. The water has a very rough texture in this image due to the waves. Additionally, the trees in the background have a very organic, uneven texture which stands out against the blue of the sky. The sails stand out as well due to their smooth, geometric nature against the rough waves. It’s interesting to compare the scale of the sail boats to both each other and different objects within the image. While all three sailboats were of relatively similar size, their position and distance from the photographer makes them appear to be very different sizes. They also appear to be very large compared to some of the houses in the background due to the same factors. The transparency of the sails is interesting as well as the closest sail appears darker while those in the background appear brighter. The transparency of the clouds also contributes to their interesting texture and patches of dark and light.

Photo of a chandelier at Versailles taken by Claire Martin, July 2016.

The photo on the right is of the charms on a chandelier. The faces of the glass charms act as planes because they at times appear almost 2-dimensional. The clarity and transparency of the charms provides interesting layers within the charms themselves and draws the eye. The lighting of the photograph illuminates the outline of the charm creating contrast between the transparent inside and the bright exterior line. To capture this image, I zoomed in on a chandelier at Versailles, meaning that while the charms appear quite large, they are actually rather small in scale. The position of the chandelier in combination with the position of the photographer makes certain charms appear larger that others when in actuality they are all the same size. The glass charms in this image are very smooth and as a result very reflective as well. The focal point of this image is the charms off to the left that appear to be a bluish-white, due to their bright color against the dark background of the image. There is also quite a bit of contrast between the bright chandelier charms, the dark background, and the brass of the fixture.

This Image has raw concrete with marks carved in and peppered with small dark marks. It is raw and solid but rounded off at the edges. It is rough and scratched Inside the sharp angle of concrete are more layers of jagged yet delicate leaves. Scattered amongst this area are thin pieces of grass resting on top of the many layers. At the base of these layers, a thick mixture of dark dirt and sharp fragments of leaves give the image depth. A mixture of warm fall colors contrasts the cold shaded of the concrete.