Picture With A Story

Escape. Something he had been dreaming of his whole life. Everyday, he would sit by the fence for hours, dreaming about the day that he would be free. Life had never been easy for him the moment he was born. When he was about five years old, he learnt that his mother had passed away when she gave birth to him. A few years later, his father was involved in a fatal car accident which killed him on the spot. Following that incident, his luck got worse as he was sent to foster parents who mistreated him. Rather than treat him like a son, they treated him like a servant, making him do menial chores such as washing clothes, washing the dishes, cleaning the house and among other heavy chores. All these chores for an eight year old! Everyday, he would have the same routine where he had to perform all his chores. If not, he would receive beatings from his foster parents or sometimes they would go to the extent of starving him. Every moment, he would sit down by the fence, thinking how his life would be if his parents were still alive. Would he be suffering like this? Would he be happy? All the endless possibilities. But one word has always been replaying in his mind ever since he arrived here. Escape. One day, he knows that he will escape and be free of this suffering.

My Favourite Colour

Source : Google Images

One of my favourite colours is blue. Many things in life are the colour of blue such as the sky and the deep sea and even gemstones. On the optical spectrum, blue is located in between violet and green. There are many shades of blue ranging from dark blue to light blue. There are even beautiful shades of blue mixed with green that create the colour turquoise and aquamarine. Blue is one of my favourite colours because it has a calming effect and reminds me of days where we can relax by the beach staring at the blue sea and cloudless sky.Blue promotes the feeling of tranquility and quiteness, encouraging physical and mental relaxation ( The Colour Blue, n.d.).Blue represents a lot of things from a psychological perspective. For instance, blue can represent authority: a darker shade of blue would represent more authority ( The COlor Blue, n.d.). Blue also can mean peace and calm and it can induce the feeling of calmness within us  by reminding us of peaceful still waters in a lake or the rhythm of water running through a stream. Blue is often used whenever we want to induce an environment of calmness and peace. The colour blue has a very therapeutic feeling.On top of that, the colour blue is also often associated with honesty and loyalty. 

The principles and elements of design

Principles of Design

The first principle of design is balance. It is important to have balance in your design as it gives stability and structure to your overall design. Balance is decided by how we place our elements in our design. For example, a big circle in the middle could be balanced by placing two small circles at the side.

The second principle of design is proximity. Proximity is defined by the dictionary as the nearness in space or time. Proximity helps to create a relationship between the elements in a design. It serves as a focal point, such that the elements need not be placed beside each other, but would still be visually connected.

The third principle of design is alignment. Alignment helps us to create a visual connection between the elements in a design. It helps to give order and organisation in our design so that our design would appear neat and not cluttered. Alignment can also serve as a guide as to where to place our next element.

The fourth principle of design is repetition. Repetition is where individual elements are repeated again and again in a design. This repeated order helps to create association between the elements and gives the design a sense of grouping between the elements.

The fifth principle of design is contrast. Contrast can be defined as the total opposite of a an object. For instance black is the opposite of white. This shows the contrast between colours. Another example of contrast between direction is , horizontal is the opposite of vertical.

Elements of Design

The first element of design is shape. Shape is defined by the dictionary as the characteristic surface configuration of a thing ; an outline or contour. Examples of shapes are circles, squares and rectangles.

The second element of design is line. Lines can be used to create various shapes and this happens when both ends of the line join to meet each other . Lines are very useful in designing as lines can show movements and a line can be curved or straight.

The third element of design is direction. All lines must have a direction. For example, Lines can horizontal or vertical. Direction can also determine movement by which the speed at which it is changed.

The fourth element of design is tone. Tone in a design shows us the lightness or darkness. Tone allows us to give solidity, weight and volume to our design. For example, a yellow tone is light whereas a blue tone is dark.

The fifth element is texture. Texture is related to how a surface feels, whether it is rough, smooth, regular or irregular. 

Abstract Design

We were asked to create an abstract design using photoshop. To create this abstract, i experimented with the tools and layers. I used the elliptical marquee tool to create the circle shapes and then filled them in with different colours. I then used a brush tool to form the strokes surrounding the circle. For the background, i created a few different layers. I used the gradient effect for the first layer which transited from black to white. The second layer was where i had drawn my circles. For the third layer, i used a rainbow gradient and later i used the eraser tool to erase some parts so that the layers beneath containing the circles, could be seen.