Color of humor

I began with the idea that the color of humor is bright red, yellow, blue and orange. I imagined the colors of a clown. Isn't there such a thing as "blue humor?" That's for risque jokes, right? And there's "black humor," meaning humor that is macabre or darkly ironic. But I wanted slapstick humor, and that is the color of meringue pies.

I did great with the color but I could not for the life of me, come up with a humorous image that was not representational. I kept thinking that I had to see something I could recognize as funny. So while I was playing with colors, I accidentally came up with this image.

These figures remind me of poker chips, or bingo chips or winning the lottery. It looks like I've hit the jackpot. So although this is a lousy image of humor, it's a great image of good luck. And maybe I'll have better luck on my next assignment.

Depth and Character

This B&W composition is an examination of the effect that depth has on two dimensional images. I expected to get a 3D effect by adding shadows, but I was surprised to find that the figures with depth seemed more "real," or had more of an emotional impact than the flat figures. The flat figures began to take on a cartoonish appearance. The addition of beveling to the figures gave them another layer of depth.

The rectangles show both progression of size and perception of depth. They also give a feeling of movement to contrast against the static image on the right. The right image reminds me of an exclamation mark, though that was not my intent. I liked the boldness of the black figure and the angularity of the image. The angles in the exclamation point create emotion and suggest breaking out of rigid formality.

The dramatic contrast of color between the light gray left side of the exclamation point and the stark black right side, make a defining statement of light vs. dark, which leaves the rectangles free to explore the range of grays anywhere in between.

My last step was to add weight to the exclamation marks. When I made the bottom square solid, the image was too stark, stiff and boring. By making the bottom square transparent, the exclamation marks appear to be embedded in a jewel.