Principles of Design II

And there was also another crash course in Adobe Photoshop. The assignment required me to create a collage, that is, a picture with different elements brought together in a unique way to convey a certain meaning. My collage is special, in that it is to be viewed from two perspectives is shown below. The accompanying essay is attached below.

This essay will present the concept, inspiration, elements and important features, as well as the experimentation carried out in the process of creating my collage.

The concept behind my collage is to show that the Earth is in turmoil. This is the result of intelligence used for wrong purposes. Mankind has so used his intellect to plunder resources from the Earth. Henceforth, there now seems to be a rejection of what is right, good and proper, to embrace that which is wicked or corrupt.

I was inspired by the book of Genesis, of the Bible, specifically, chapter 2 verse 17, which states “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (BibleGateway.com 2007). There are perhaps several versions of interpreting what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is. My understanding is that the tree represents perverse knowledge. It is the knowledge of that which seems good but is evil. It is this cunning tree that mankind chose to partake of, that is killing the Earth.

The collage is made up of six elements. The first two elements are made from the same tree, albeit being finished differently. The blue tree represents knowledge (the good) and the orange one, the evil thereof. They are connected via the tips of the branches to show their unity. The mountain-meadow landscape and dark clouds form the basis of peace and conflict. There is an empty rift between them with the stars of the universe for the background. A solar eclipse forms a pupil and iris in the middle; God is watching. The overall round shape of the terrain and clouds thus represent the Earth. The important thing you need to comprehend about this collage is that it can and should also be viewed upside down, that is, by rotating the collage by 180 degrees. Only then, will the full message of the collage be understood as the feelings and emotions are different from both view points. One view feels more harmonious and the other, more discordant.

Much experimentation with the elements yielded positive results for my collage. My initial idea was to use lightning instead of a tree to represent the evil but it seemed out of place with the other elements. I tried using the same tree I used for the good and through texturing, changing the hue, saturating it for style, applying some FX, with dodge and burn, it worked better than I expected. I experimented with masks to produce the rift and the once white clouds became sinister dark clouds after trying the blending modes. Some blurring was also added for depth. The elements were originally square and I decided that masking it to a circle would enhance its depiction of the Earth along with a little radial blurring of the stars.

In conclusion, I have created a collage that can be viewed from two angles and along with its elements; symbolize the good and evil of perverted knowledge. I have also shown its concept, source of inspiration, elements, important features and the experimental processes for its creation.