Abstract Design and How to Create It

Amor Fenn

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486139845
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Students, designers, and craftspeople who want to create their own abstract patterns and designs will find this profusely illustrated guide one of the best books available on the subject. After an introductory chapter dealing with the geometric basis of design, the author goes on to discuss implements and their use (T-square, compass, dividers, ruling pen, etc.), borders, textile patterns, nature study, and treatment.
Over 380 illustrations include many diagrams, designs for title pages, border patterns, allover patterns, textile patterns, and historical examples from an extraordinary number of cultures and periods: Assyrian stone carvings, Greek and Roman jewelry, 18th-century English silverwork, and more. Thorough and comprehensive, Abstract Design and How to Create It will be an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to learn the principles and techniques of creating nonrepresentative designs.

ABSTRACT DESIGN

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

THE object of this book is to deal with elementary pattern and its construction. The design of structural work or formative processes is not dealt with, though experience will show that the underlying factors are much the same in all cases.

Early attempts usually fail through having too much variety. With painted ornament, usually a personal performance, more licence may be allowed, but a good deal of restraint is aesthetically essential to good decoration. An extremely simple unit may by its repetition give an elaborate effect of pattern. Students are advised to analyse patterns that appeal to them and endeavour to determine the factors to which the effect is due.

The desire to be original is an early obsession, but originality is a misapplied word, since we can only deal with that which has entered into experience—a more appropriate term is personal or individual—and this is the main quality that gives distinction to an artist’s work.

Invention is involved in design to a certain extent, but rather in adapting and arranging than in evolving anything that is entirely new. At no time has anything been produced that had no resemblance to nature in some way or another, often remote certainly, and often curious and with symbolic significance; such strange combinations, for instance, as the Assyrian winged and man-headed bull, which were attempts to represent certain qualities in a symbolic way.

Repeating patterns are constructed on a geometric basis. The design may be frankly geometric in detail, that is, such as can be directly executed by the mathematical instruments, or floral or other details not so obviously abstract may be employed, and in many cases the geometric structure on which it is built may not be directly apparent. In a perfectly free all-over pattern the geometric element may merely consist of the general line to ensure repetition; the unit may be planned on a rectangle, a square, or a diamond, and any further geometric element may not appear. In many patterns the dominant lines are obviously drawn with the aid of instruments such as those where the undulate line is employed either as a stem, or to define and emphasize shapes.

Good effects are obtained by grouping details into deliberate geometric shapes, such as the circle, square, or triangle, and these should be arranged so that the recurrence of them also forms pattern. The shapes may be rigidly adhered to, or they may be modified with the detail to disguise to some extent the plan on which the latter is arranged. As a general rule a design that is to be repeated indefinitely should when seen at a moderate distance suggest pattern in the dominant shapes which on closer observation are seen to be composed of smaller detail. The Persian design illustrated No. 344 is an example of this. The dominant detail is in the form of a conventionalized pink composed within the limit of a circle, and the general plan is that of the diamond.

Reference to the illustrations will show the influence and importance of geometry in design, and the recognition of this as the general basis and in some cases in the detail will be found a saving of time, and will avoid aimless floundering about, only to arrive eventually at the same point. It is desirable, therefore, that in practice a geometric structure should be the first step.

CHAPTER II

IMPLEMENTS AND THEIR USE

THE evolution of a design is a compound performance, con sisting in the first place of the idea, and in the second of its methodical working out as a concise detail suitable for the process of reproduction for which it is intended. This methodical side of the work involves careful attention to drawing and arrangement, and is necessary if the design is to be of any particular use.

Although the idea may be a matter of impulse, the final drawing of any pattern intended for some process of reproduction must conform to the conditions imposed by the process; and this drawing which is a working detail must be mathematically exact with regard to dimensions and its intended repetition. The meticulous procedure essential to a working drawing is generally foreign to the impulse which is so desirable in the inception of a design, and possibly a great deal of the original feeling may be lost in the necessarily protracted period of working out; but the endeavour should be to preserve this feeling throughout, and so retain the virility of the design in its final expression.

There appears to be an inherent superstition that all drawing to be really artistic must be freehand, and that the aid of mechanical implements should not be sought. Practically it does not matter how a drawing is done if only it is well done.

It is not immoral to rule lines that are intended to be straight, and the desirability of doing so is particularly apparent when a number of parallel lines are associated, as in borders and framings.

The angles of enclosed shapes, such as squares, rectangles, and polygons, should be correctly formed, and this is of vital importance when such shapes are bordered by a number of lines.

Where circles, parts of circles, or ovals are used, these can be more accurately drawn by means of instruments.

Work of this nature is technically known as “Geometrical Drawing,” which may appear to many as appalling in its scientific suggestion; but it will be found in practice that very little knowledge of geometry is involved, and that most of the desirable results may be attained by easy methods and the use of very few instruments.

The consideration of these instruments does not seem to be common in early training, and few students appreciate their usefulness.

The most generally useful drawing-board for design is 30 in. by 22 in., known as an Imperial board.

It is as well when making any drawing to pin the paper properly on to the drawing-board-that is, at the four corners. Broad-headed pins are best, and should be pressed well in, so that the paper is held by the pressure of the head and not merely by the actual pin. They can be readily removed when necessary if levered up with the blade of a knife. In pinning the paper down make a practice of placing it with its edges parallel to those of the board, and not allow the paper to overlap the board, as this interferes with the accurate use of the T-square, and is in every way undesirable. If the paper is larger than the board, it should be trimmed to the required size.

For drawing horizontal lines the best implement is the T-square, so called because the head is at right angles to the drawing-edge. The object of this head, which is deeper than the blade, is that it can be moved along the edge of the drawing-board against which it engages. The T-square should have a bevelled edge, as this helps accuracy in drawing, and it should be long enough to reach the long way of the board—if longer it is all to the good, as the larger square is heavier and steadier, and therefore more accurate. The head should be kept true to the edge along which it slides. The upper edge should be used solely for drawing and not for cutting. The general impression appears to be that when a drawing has to be trimmed, the knife should be used on this side, with the inevitable result that the truth of the drawing-edge is impaired. When trimming is to be done, lines should be drawn where required, and the back of the T-square used to guide the knife if no other form of straight-edge is available. The blade of the T-square is usually tapered, at least in the better sort, and therefore the back-edge, not being parallel to the front, is not at right angles to the head. But for trimming this edge can easily be adjusted to the drawn lines by shifting the drawing. The T-square should be held firmly in position by the fingers of the left hand so that it cannot move, and care should be taken in using the knife that it is held parallel to the cutting-edge all the way, pressed through the paper at the start of the cut, and drawn slowly and firmly through the length of the line. If improperly held the knife may ride upon the T-square and injure it, or even come into unpleasant contact with the fingers.

The T-square is generally used from the left side of the drawing-board, in fact, this is inevitable if the square is tapered, and as already stated is the most workmanlike and convenient implement for drawing horizontal lines.

While drawing such lines, care should be exercised to keep the hand in the same attitude throughout, otherwise the angle at which the pencil is held may vary, and the result will be a curved instead of a straight line. Lines of slight curvature are sometimes deliberately ruled in this way when required. Lines at right angles to the horizontals may be drawn by using the T-square on the bottom edge of the board, but only if the latter be true; few boards, except those for architectural or engineering drawing, are to be relied on, and the vertical lines are best drawn by means of the set-square.

The set-square is triangular in shape—the two most commonly used are the 45° and the 60°. One of the properties of the triangle is that the sum of its angles is 180°. The 45° set-square has two angles of 45° and the third a right angle or 90°. The hypotenuse, or side opposite the right angle, is thus the diagonal of a square. The 60° set-square has one angle of 60°, one of 30°, and one of 90°. For pencil-drawing the best set-squares are of celluloid, as being transparent, the position of the required line is more readily seen, furthermore, they are thin and do not wear down the pencil-point to any great extent; but they should not be subjected to heat of any kind or they may warp, or otherwise suffer. Set-squares are also made of wood, the better sort of mahogany with bevelled ebony edges. These are the most suitable when ruling in ink, and should then be used with the bevelled side downwards, as this keeps the ruling-edge clear of the paper, and there is less chance therefore of the ink running and blotting the drawing.

Set-squares are more useful when large, 12 in. high is a very useful size.

USES OF SET-SQUARES.

It is obvious that as both of these set-squares have an angle of 90° either of them can be used to draw lines at right angles to horizontal lines by the simple expedient of placing the base edge on the T-square, and, as already stated, this is the most accurate method of drawing vertical lines.

USES OF 45° SQUARE.

The 45° square is employed in defining the mitres of square and right angular shapes. If for instance a square or rectangle is to have as a border a series of lines, these n...