Color Field #4
Idaho Falls, Idaho
2013
Anybody think the drip actually adds to the composition in this photo? I find it (and that chunk of junk in the gray area on the right) quite distracting. Should I take it out? What would Mark Rothko do if he let Jackson Pollock with one of his dripping paintbrushes too close to one of his own paintings?]]>
Color Field #4
Idaho Falls, Idaho
2013
I think the two components add to the competition. The fact that their shadows make them 3-D might be what makes them distracting. I am wondering what removing the shadows so they are flatter and blend in the rest of the composition would do.
Betty, the shadows certainly make them stand our more but I still think they’d be distracting to me without the shadows. It would be an interesting experiment to see if that’s the case. Maybe I’ll look into that in my infinite spare time. Hah, more likely to end up in the “wish I could take the time to do that” bin of dusty ideas.
Larry, I understand why you find these two marks “distractions.” They are more defined than the rectangles of color. I would be fine with your removing them.
On the other hand, a case could be made that the drip forms a line in the Mondrain tradition. Because it is almost parallel to the division between the yellow and green patches, it is less distracting to me than if it ran at a different angle. The chunk of gray on the right could be seen as a smaller version of the isolated patches of yellow in the other rectangles. I find it the least distracting of the two.
How much impact these two “defects” have on the image could also depend on how large the image is. At web viewing size, I’m not really bothered. At 16×20 I might feel differently! 🙂
BTW, I really like the colors in this picture.
Kathy
Thanks Kathy, another interesting “what if” idea (what would it look like if they were angled). A comparison of as is, removed altogether, shadows removed a la Betty’s comment, and angled versions of the image would be a could discussion exercise for a composition class, heck just for me to consider.
Correction: I meant composition, not competition 🙂
I noticed that competition/composition mixup Betty, just didn’t mention it as I was trying not to be so anal about editorial stuff (at least for my readers, I try to be that for myself).
No recommendations. You are the artist. I’m not sure Rothko would be happy with Pollack’s interference!
Take a look at it with the left side cropped in to just over half of the width of the yellow. To me, just changing the placement of the 3D elements in the composition integrates them. I do not, however, know your views on cropping your original frames.
I am teaching a 2D Design course this semester, and this might make for an interesting discussion.
Thanks Janet. I’m going to take a look at just that. A comparison of these different ideas will appear tomorrow. I wasn’t getting done what I was supposed to be doing today anyway so decided just to play around with all these ideas. Part of the freedom of being self-unemployed!
Oh, and Janet, I’m a no-crop atheist–I don’t believe there’s necessarily anything sacred lying around the edges of my images.
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