The patterning in
part 9 shows promise. I don't use color often in my sculptures but sometimes I try. What pattern would these wheels create if I filled the outer crescents with color panels? Only one way to find out!
I liked the direction the patterning was taking in part 8. I realized that the simplest form of this wheel is just 4 circles, two large and two small. The blue parts were added to complete the circles. The hollow lines represent parts I removed. Check out the animation below, complexity from simplicity.
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In part 7 the light wood spokes obscured the patterning that really interested me, the action around the outer and inner rings. In the drawing above I removed all the spokes but the two I show in blue above. The hollow lines represent the removed spokes. The resulting pattern is shown in the animation below.
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I like what is happening in part 6 but I find myself drawn to the pattern created by the rims of the wheels. What happens if I make the wheel two tone, switching the part with spokes to light wood and leaving the inner and outer rims alone?
No, I don't like what is happening here. Too much "noise" in the patterning. This needs more work. I like the rim motion, the spokes need to be dark wood or not there at all.
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The changes in part 5 showed some promise. I like how the outer rim adds to the motion by making it feel more contained. Now, what happens if I extend the rim line until it connects with the opposite rim? The changes are shown in blue in the drawings above and the motion effects below in the animation.
I like the way the outter rim lines cross and at times seem to grow and shrink. Is there some way to expand on this visual effect?
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The changes in part 4 did not excite me. I moved the inner curve line back to its original position and added an outer rim. The thought being "I like the inner circle curve let's try it on the outside."
Much better! I like the way the outer rim confines and defines the spoke pattern while reflecting the secondary motion of the off axis inner circle. This is worth some further exploration.
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I wanted to explore the motion in the center of the part of the pattern. I made a slight modification to the lines connecting the wheel parts together, sliding one end outward to the end of the spoke. The old lines are shown as dotted and the new ones as blue.
The animation above shows the effect of the change. I don't like it. It makes the motion at the center more regular and less interesting.
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The first animation convinced me that this was worth pursuing further. The next step was to add some reality by tying the wheel parts together and adding a simple circular base to hold them to the wall. I redid the wheel drawing in Illustrator and the changes (shown in blue above) were automatically brought into After Effects with the centers aligned.
The difference in the animation is subtle. A new pattern has emerged in the center of the sculpture that overlays the initial pattern. This is what draws my eye now. Note: The blue coloring is only in the drawing to show changes, the animation shows them in the same "wood" color.
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I do my drawings in Adobe Illustrator. I located the old Pegasus file and copied the part of the wheel that matched the part hanging on the wall. I duplicated and flipped it while guessing at a center rotation point to start with. I created another layer in Illustrator and placed mirror image copy of the test wheel on it. I saved the drawing and opened it in Adobe After Effects. I set the rotation effects so the layers or wheels would rotate in opposite directions with the approximate motion I wanted. This is the initial result. It is very busy but there might be something to work with.
To continue to part 3: Click here
I'm often asked where I get my ideas. In the following series of blog posts I'm going to detail a recent experience of recursive inspiration.
Many years ago I threw some damaged sculpture parts into the wood recycle bin at the Ashford transfer station. Several weeks later we were all amused to find these parts displayed in an artful arrangement on the side of a local barn. Recycled art art!
Two years ago we repainted the outside of the studio. I had some extra
Pegasus parts and decided to follow my neighbor's example by painting and attaching them to the front of the building. End of story I thought.
Jump forward to the summer of 2008. I walked by the painted parts as I had hundreds of times before but this time it occurred to me that this arrangement might make an interesting patterning wheel to use with my "
Focus" type mechanism.
I've learned to save good ideas in a way that I'll be reminded of them later. I took a photo of the wall with my trusty iPhone, mailed it to myself, and left it in my mail inbox. This way I keep bumping into the photo when I clean out my inbox. I don't do this all that often so the "bumps" come at random times. I recently discovered the email and photo when I was updating my email notification list for the
Falling Water sculpture. That "discovery" started a design sequence that I'm going to detail in the next few posts. They will chronicle the evolution of an idea. Stay tuned!