UNIT 4 - S P A C E D

The Brief

Spatial solutions are a growing demand/opportunity for the designer/image maker. In response to this; time, interaction, non 2-D and spatial solutions will be the focus of the next 2 projects. This will in turn affect the way you percieve what Graphic Design and Illustration can be.

You are asked to conduct individual research for a given theme.

My theme choice: Weather

Weather and Moods

After choosing weather as my theme, I thought about the most obvious and immediate links when someone thinks about weather relating to art and that's of course to do with how weather has this connotation to our moods. For example, the sun or sunny weather is mostly connected with happiness and joy whereas on the other hand, rain is usually linked with sadness and in between is grey clouds, fogs, mists etc which is usually this gloomy or boring feeling that we have. 

When it comes to weather and our moods also, this can be split into four parts which are the seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
And this can be a mood scale as during spring and summer, the days are longer, full of brightness and warmth whereas Autumn and Winter is gloom and coldness and the nights are longer. People also tend to be more active and socially interactive during the Spring/Summer seasons and in Autumn/Winter we prefer to stay inside out of the cold and rain. Thinking about this, I wouldn't say this was just a human behaviour but more of a mammal behaviour. 

Reaper With Wheat Field and Sun from 1889, by Van Gogh
This painting is bursting with the colours reflecting the sun and compliments the surroundings. It's a calming serene setting which portrays the simple life in the countryside, a feel good artwork when the viewer looks at it.

Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth from 1842, by JMW Turner
This painting is somewhat the polar opposite compared to Van Gogh's, it displays a sense of distress and panic as it seems like the boat is being attacked by the powerful winds.

 Weather and Colour

 It's pretty obvious that the weather's connotation to colour goes hand in hand with the reasons for it triggering our emotions also. By this I mean, grey clouds and skies usually make the day seem gloomy and boring because the colour grey itself is used to represent a dull feeling in art. Moreover the bright blue skies and yellow sun give off the jovial feelings usually as those colours are bright in general and brightness itself plays a factor in this. For example the cycle of the day lowers in brightness from day to night which in turn effect our moods also, during the day we generally want to be active and out doing something productive whereas in the dark we want to relax and be inside, this also links to the seasons where the days are longer during summer and shorter during winter. 

Seasonal Tree - This artwork represents the contrasting difference between winter and summer from brightness to colour but one more thing I've noticed is the tree itself, nature changes along with the weather, the mood of nature itself goes through a change from being a dead lifeless twisted tree to a beautiful blossoming one.

Another point to add in this matter is the effects of saturation and warmth that we use in imagery which is also linked to colours and the weather. Saturation is the colour in something, the more lower the saturation is, the lack of colour there is. Warmth is like the temperature of the artwork and is usually indicated with the colours of blue for cold and orange for warm.
  

For example, here is a picture of London taken by myself, this is completely unedited so far.

Here, the saturation and warmth has been lowered. As you can tell, this gives this gloomy dull feeling and somewhat shows it must be a colder season or a cold day at least.

Whereas here, the saturation and warmth has been highered and does the opposite in terms of making the image itself look brighter and more colourful.

But these images have been edited and colours have been manipulated in order for it to look and portray a certain weather and mood. However, how does it look when the saturation and warmth isn't edited by me but instead is changed through nature.