“Creating Art & Music” is an introductory course designed to introduce creative activities in the context of art and music. Thus far the course has been taught at the middle school, high school, community college, and university level (with appropriate adaptations for each level). Each week, students in the course are posting their projects in this strand of the Snap! forum. Here’s a link to the course materials:
This week’s module is titled “Exploring Color”. In it, we will explore the works of color field painings created by abstract impressionist painters like Clyfford Still, Kenneth Noland, and perhaps most famously, Mark Rothko. We will also explore different methods for manipulating colors in snap using Color Filters.
The assignment for this week is to begin by creating color field painting using the pen and motion command blocks. Then, write a program that will procedurally generate that painting. Possible extensions include writing a program that will select variables from a list to randomize the appearance of the painting or creating color filters to create different versions of the same painting.
Save your program to the cloud, share it so that others will be able to access it, and then post the link as a reply in this strand.
Please provide contextual information for your project, letting us know whether you are replicating an existing painting or choosing to create an original work. If you are creating an original work, please let us know if any particular artists or works of arts have inspired your creation.
I have created an original work inspired by Rothko’s paintings. The primary aspects that I incorporated into my work include solid bars of color. I also made some personal creative choices and wanted to create a checkerboard-like design.
I tried to use some of the stuff we did in class to create a design that is unique but simplistic in nature. I took inspiration from Rothko’s painting using blocks of color. I decided to try to change the shape of the brush I’m using though to add my own personal twist.
I created an artwork inspired by Rothko’s blocks of color. My idea going into this assignment was that I wanted to make a piece of art that felt slightly unsettling. This is why I chose the main colors to be red and black and have them blend into one another. I converted all the bars into costumes and then stamped them onto the canvas. I would like to add a personal twist to the artwork, but I am unsure what to do.
I want to use the costume and stamp to create the movement of a ball. I tried playing with lists for the ball to travel different distances. I might experiment with finding a way to change the color of the costume so that I can add some more pops of color.
I originally created a checkered pattern using two different colors. Instead of changing the stage color, I planned to fill the empty spaces with another set of squares. However, this created two layered checkered patterns, and I liked the way they looked together. I then changed the background to black so the colors of the squares would stand out more.
edit: I abstracted inside the the checkered patterns and made a stamp row of 4 block.
In this project I wanted to play around with the larger squares found in a Rothko painting while incorporating a little more complexity. I modeled my shapes to create a pattern somewhat akin to the fibonacci spiral. I would like to try to add more texture to these spirals so that they appear more visually distinct. Additionally I would like a way to try to create a loop to make these shapes rather than constantly duplicating the same cells.
As a long-time Marvel fan, I knew what I wanted to make the moment I read this assignment: color field painting throws away everything except color, so I wanted to see whether the Avengers were still recognizable with the drawing taken away. I built it entirely from the pen and motion blocks—my rectangle block sets the pen size to the height and moves forward by the width, so a rectangle is just a very fat line—and made it paint itself using glide, so the columns grow one at a time along a single continuous path: down, right, up, right, across the stage.
In order: Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Thor, Spider-Man, Black Widow, and Quicksilver.
When we were going over this in class, my first thought was, “This is similar to pattern recognition images that were popular a couple of months ago.” So I decided to do South Park as it’s a show I like watching. I started building it by making a rectangle and changing each color manually for each character. Something I know I want to do, but forgot/need a reminder, was working with different colors and putting it into a list so it can be pulled. I also want to try doing stuff to the background, but am lacking in the creative department
I created this geometric color artwork using custom blocks for the background, grids, and bars. I experimented with contrasting colors, repeated shapes, and spacing to make the design feel balanced.
When I was reading over the module outline and thinking about how this unit focused on coloring, I began to think of different concepts that would be well represented by a gradual shift in color, and what came to mind was a sunset. I also thought it was a nice continuation of my first project because that also focused on an aspect of nature. My execution of the plan was quite simple, I just created different blocks that gradually went from the darkest color to the brightest, and in the end I think the representation of a sunset looks solid.
During class I had the idea I wanted to work with “portals” and try to show change in direction and I thought this week with the practice of color I thought it would fun to try working with fading colors. I dont have it down yet but I want to fade out the color of each bar the further away it gets from each portal. Im still trying to work with costumes and im wondering if its possible to change the color of a costume or if I will have to make multiple costumes with different colors that I would just have to cycle through.
I wanted to make a city landscape at night time so I first created the skyline background. The initial focus for this part is to properly set the block once It has filled one layer of the sky then it moves down properly. My next goal is to set up actual buildings on top of the sky line to resemble the buildings. I then plan to add windows to these buildings.
I wanted to create a project that focused on contrasting colors. I filled the background with a random geometric background with squares that were cool toned, then I carefully chose where I want my warm toned blocks to be around the canvas. I decided to also make some bigger blocks transparent so you can see the background still, and the thin lines less transparent so it catches attention. My next goal is to see if I can make these bigger blocks 3D, fille the background with maybe another shape or make it less random.
I wanted to create something simple that had a clear pattern. I decided to create a chessboard/checkerboard. I drew the rectangles by having a custom rectangle block and abstracted that to rows and combined them into one function called All Rows. I would like to introduce some more color to it, but I’m a little unsure of what would be best.
Edit: I added rainbow inner squares, which makes the whole piece a little dizzying on the eyes.
I think your idea very cool. I know you mentioned that you were going to add windows to your building. Have you thought about adding stars in the sky maybe using the ghost effect to get different brightness levels?
I really love the rolling ball idea. You mentioned adding a pop of color. I think it would be cool if once the ball bounce from the rectangle that it changes the rectangle’s color as well.
I like the portal idea and how the blocks look like they are moving from one portal to the other. For the fading effect, maybe you could use the ghost or brightness effect and change it a little after each block is stamped. That way, the blocks could automatically get lighter or more transparent as they move farther away from the portal instead of making a different costume for every color. I think that would make the movement between the portals stand out more.
I like how the warm colors stand out against the cooler background, especially with the transparent blocks. I think trying the 3D idea could be really interesting. Maybe you could duplicate some of the larger blocks, move the copy slightly to the side, and make it darker or more transparent to create a shadow effect. I think that would add more depth while still keeping the contrast that you already have.
