Habits of The Creative Mind
Class Exercise on Looking and Seeing
Left Hand Portrait
6 Word Story
Image Reflection of Two Queens
During our last class, I discovered many different things when it comes t
o analyzing images. This was made apparent in the discussion of the royal portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation photos. One thing that I learned to look for in a photo is the rule of thirds. In the rule of thirds, the places where the artist or photographer want you to look are often placed on the lines that dissect the image into thirds or the points where these lines cross. In Elizabeth I’s coronation painting the scepter and the orb are located on the crossing points of the lines that make up the rule of thirds. In Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation photo, the rule of thirds puts less emphasis on the objects that she holds and the queen herself. Queen Elizabeth II borders a rule of thirds line but is not position in the crossing point of these lines. Another item I learned to look for is visual movement lines in the photographs. There are many lines of visual movement in both images of the queens. For Queen Elizabeth I, the lines seem to direct the viewer to look at the queen’s face as compared to the lines in Queen Elizabeth II’s photo that seem to trail off into other parts of the photo. Frame magnetism plays a large role in the painting of Queen Elizabeth I. Her ermine cloak seems to fill up the entire frame. In Queen Elizabeth II’s photo there is frame magnetism at the bottom of photo from her ermine cloak. The smaller amount of frame magnetism in the photo seems to make the queen seem less powerful as she takes up less of the space of the photo. This portrays the queen as less important than her surroundings. Another factor in analyzing photos is looking at the symbolism surrounding the subject. There is a lot of symbolism in the objects being held by the queens. The orb symbolizes Christianity but is less prominent in Queen Elizabeth II’s photo. The scepter and ermine cloak also have important symbolism behind them. The ermine cloak represents purity and the scepter represents authority. In Queen Elizabeth I’s painting, her ermine cloak is larger than that of Queen Elizabeth II. This implies that Queen Elizabeth I was viewed as a purer queen. The scepter being more prominent and placed in the rule of thirds in the painting of Elizabeth I suggests that she held more authoritative power then Elizabeth II.
5 Day Observations
Day 1:
The object I have chosen for my observations is a green apple. I have chosen this object because it was the first object that came to mind when thinking of a possible object to choose. I took the apple from the fridge inside my dorm room. The apple is on the smaller side and is missing its stem. The apple has a few specks of brown on one side. The apple is firm with no soft spots or brown hues. This is probably going to be difficult to write about the apple because I think there will be a lack of serious change over the five days.
Day 2:
The apple is very similar to day 1 of observations. I have noticed that there are few more brown specks on the apple in different places then before. Upon closer inspection of the skin of the apple, the apple is slightly bumpy under the skin. The skin is not perfectly smooth. I cannot not think of other things to write about the apple because not much has changed I its overall appearance. This makes it difficult to write for time I am supposed to look at the object I had chosen. I had not anticipated how slowly the apple would change in its appearance. I cannot find other things to make comments on other than the appearance as it is just an apple in my opinion with nothing remarkably interesting going on.
Day 3:
I am starting to wish I had chosen a different object, but I am already three days in. The apple has started to soften up in one place because I had dropped it on my desk. The apple still has its sticker on the side. I’m running out of ideas for the outside of the apple, so I am going to cut it open. I hope that this will give me more to write about, as well as speed up the process of decay. The apple is a yellowish white on the inside and is a little damaged where I had previously dropped the apple on my desk. The apple will turn brown soon due to the oxidation caused by exposure to the air.
Day 4:
The apple has oxidized now and is a light brown on the inside. I have noticed more brown spots on the outside of the skin now. The color of the skin of the apple does not appear to be as vibrant of a green compared to when I first started observing the apple. Comparing the halves of the apple to each other I noticed the halves were not at all symmetrical. This made me think about all the symmetry in nature. There are symmetries in nature, but it is very difficult find pieces of nature that are perfectly symmetrical. Everything has its flaws. I feel it would have ben easier to write about a leaf of flower because I could write about where I took them from. I have no idea what orchard the apple came from, only what store the apple was bought from.
Day 5:
Continuing from day 4, I am still thinking about where the apple came from. How long has the apple been sitting in the store? If I didn’t buy the apple, where would it have ended up? The time is almost up for this assignment and I am starting to lose thoughts about what to write. I am going to go back to describing the appearance of the apple and its physical characteristics. The apple is now a darker brown color and has softened up quite a lot over the course of this assignment. I felt this was a difficult assignment for me since I had picked an object that I didn’t really have an interest in. This made it hard for me to find this to write about. I struggled to find things that truly interested me in the object.
Rabbit Hole Presentation