For this week's @sndbox’s creative crypto art competition I chose Kandinsky.
About the artist
Kandinsky wrote one of the seminal works on visual language Point and Line to Plane, published in 1926. In this book he describes the meaning, use and interaction of these 3 basic elements of visual communication using a particularly poetic writing style.
This book was my go-to for the foundations class I taught at the local university. I might have read it at least 10 times and I still keep it handy for design inspiration. The work of Kandinsky truly speaks to understanding of the visual elements as living creatures dancing and cohabitating in the space, the plane, their ultimate playground.
Kandinsky was also part of the faculty at Bauhaus in it’s second installment at Weimar. He taught several kinds of drawing and painting courses at that time. He was a pioneer of Abstractionism and his paintings are not only unique and highly expressive, but also display an unmistakable voice.
Process
I started by using basic elements that I found characteristic of his style: a contrasting and gestural curve, several horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines in a suspended balance, circles as contours, semicircles and plain circles.
Vector graphics
I started my process in a vector-based software where I could repeat the Ripple logo and add several geometric shapes. I really wanted the Ripple logo to become a subtle addition to the visual symbolism of this piece and I did this by deconstructing it into several circles.
The images show the steps I took to create the basic composition.
Raster graphics
After I was happy with the composition I moved on to a raster graphic’s software to apply a noise filter. I added several layers of color and a multiply transparency effect to get a handmade look. I repeated the composition about three more times to add complexity and visual interest.
Granted, my result wasn't nearly as complex and expressive as Kandinsky's pieces, but the point of this stage was to achieve the look and feel of a painted artwork. I finalized by adding brushstrokes in several colors to create some depth in the background.
The final piece is shown at the beginning of the post. I hope you enjoyed this process and I wish everyone good luck in this competition. It's always a challenge to emulate our most admired artists and I hadn't done this until I started joining these competitions. I feel like this is a great visual exercise to get out of our comfort zone and learn from the masters.
That's it for now. Have a great day and keep on Steeming. Thank you for reading and feel free to comment below.
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