Thursday, September 5, 2019

2D - Shape Study - The Art of Syd Mead


As mentioned in my previous post, one of the things that drew me so strongly to many of Syd Mead's pieces was the vibrant colors. Taking that inspiration, I approached the shape study process by first finding a piece by Syd Mead with color theory and language that really drew my eye. That thought process brought me to this piece, one of his concepts from the mega project in Singapore. I loved the more simplistic design brought to life by strong use of shape, composition, and colors.

Original Piece by Syd Mead



Moving on with that piece, I quickly took the piece into photoshop and began to break down the basic shapes used in the concept. I particularly enjoyed the combination of straight lines in perspective with several archways giving the viewer a sense of form and space to the environment in this piece, so those were what I used as my landmarks for the breakdown in this project.

Sketch Analysis of Shape and Form




From there, using both my sketch and the piece itself as reference, I began to block in the basic shapes used in the piece, seen in progress beneath, with the start of my shading.

Color Blocking


After that, I went into more detail with shading in the piece, referencing the original concept the whole time for both my colors, and brush work. I love how Mead's work seams to breathe with the way you can visualize his brush strokes and how even flat color seems to have some variation inside of it. I used that for my basis in all of my selections with shading, and detailing, all the way up to finishing the study.

Finished Piece - With Reference Sketch


Finished Piece



As a whole, this study was incredibly beneficial, not only for the understanding of color theory as I sought out to study in this piece, but also for shape language, composition, and simplification in executing environments while still conveying the emotion and feeling of the scene. I look forward to conducting more studies in the future!

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