Compose Your Frame

By Beaux Yenchik

Though I quite enjoyed the original picture on this post, I found it fun in trying to create an image, as simple as it may be, that would match the requirements for the assignment. I also took it as an opportunity to allow my mind to stretch in various ways as I looked at normal everyday objects and sought to find artistic qualities in them. This is a skill that is not very well developed in my mind, but I feel I succeeded in identifying the various aspects needed for "Compose Your Frame."

In this image, I have taken the stairway that leads to my front door and placed a peculiar alarm clock in a spot that crosses the various vertical and horizontal intercepts that are formed by imagining a tic-tac-toe board on the image. I would have loved to have had my wife featured in the image, but the robot was my next best choice. 

When looking at this image, it presents several different characteristics of art in the image. To me, there is contrast between the bricks on the right and those on the left. Due to the way the light had entered the stairway, the bricks on the right were a little more illuminated than those on the left. I also enjoyed the contrast between the softer blue of the robot and the grayish steps. Though they are not complete opposites on the spectrum, it presented a nice "opposition" feel to the image. 

I placed the robot's head to be at the point where the right vertical line intersects with the highest horizontal line. I could have possibly adjusted the camera a couple centimeters to make it more evident, but just as it said in the video, rules are meant to be broken. When speaking about the rule of thirds, I find that concept in this image to be very interesting. In the lowest third, I only captured one stair, but as you progress up the picture, more stairs enter those thirds.

When talking about the concept of diagonal lines in this image, the two major diagonal lines are the ones formed on both sides of the stairs. It creates the illusion of a pathway that progresses out into the distance. The two lines start out wide at the bottom of the frame and work their way towards the top by becoming skinnier. The lines formed by the bricks on both sides of the stairs also have diagonal lines. They also seem to force the eyes along a certain path that almost contradicts the lines formed by the stairs. One set goes up, while the other goes down. I also identified the lines on the walls to produce an almost graphic vector, following the same general concept that Professor Young provided as his example.