Designing Beyond the Box

Design? Maybe the first thought that comes to mind is fashion or models on the runway powdered with dozens of different types of makeup and elaborate styles of clothing. Sure, simplistically thinking, but design applies to all fields such as; engineering, architecture, science, so much more and it’s not all related to designing fashion; art is another subject that requires that field.

In the book, Basic Watercolor techniques, the two authors (Greg Albert and Rachel Wolf) introduce the “Principles of Design” and start off with, “All good paintings are done on the basis of good design… A design is the blueprint or pattern for the painting” (48). This is very true for myself and I believe to be also true for many others. To me, a design is a sketch or the rough draft before the final outcome. I followed through with this idea with a sketch that I made of a woman;

Sketch

Watercolor

I then drew another sketch from the same idea, but I changed a few details and painted it over with watercolor. It was my first time employing the method of informal balance, “Most pictures are created with informal balance, one in which the elements aren’t mirrored top to bottom or side to side, as in formal balance” (Albert and Wolf 48). It was a new and exciting way to paint, and more importantly it was a very fun way to paint. It’s the concept that a human’s face isn’t that color, but when looking past of what’s in front you, the result is entirely different. The mindset of looking at the beyond and at the full spectrum of colors, helped me develop a new style for me to paint.

This type of informal painting made it more interesting and eye-catching, and it’s to realize that the formal style or what I call the straightforward-method is bland and boring. It also made me question the reality or what is really there. Then, a surprising and a somewhat humorous thought popped up in my mind when I was thinking about the fine lines of looking at the beyond, it was what Voldemort said from the series, Harry Potter, by the author J.K. Rowling, that unexpectedly fit and connected to my thoughts, "There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it" (Rowling 211). Perhaps it isn’t about the topic of painting, but it fits the theme, that there’s more than just what you see in front of you,

 and to be creative is to look outside the box. 

Would you rather follow what’s in front of you or think outside the box?

Albert, Greg, and Rachel Wolf. Basic Watercolor Techniques. Cincinnati, Ohio: North Light Books, 1991. Print.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York City: Scholastic, 1997. Print.