Morewood and Fifth Avenue
Since I couldn’t technically leave campus without breaking a few quarantine rules, I decided to focus my study on the intersection of Morewood and Fifth Ave. At first glance, it may not look like much, but I think there’s more to it than meets the eye.
One corner houses the Rodef Shalom Congregation. On the adjacent corner, there are trees and bushes surrounding what I first thought to be a low-level apartment building, but upon further research discovered that it was, in fact, a dentist’s office. On the corner adjacent to that, there’s a dark red brick condominium complex. On the last corner is Mudge House, a Carnegie Mellon owned building that is currently being used for isolation housing.
09/01/2020
My first visit to this intersection was around 4:42 in the afternoon on September 1st. It was partly cloudy. Fifth Avenue is a four-lane road and Morewood Avenue is a three-lane road. Traffic is always heavier on Fifth. The space feels relatively open, not crammy.
Walking from Stever House, the first aspect I noticed were the two Pittsburgh police motorcycles parked on the sidewalk across the street from me. I also noticed the USPS mailbox on the sidewalk diagonal from me and the interesting rock wall by the bus stop, which I would soon come to love.
Since I was still on campus, I felt relatively safe in the space. That’s not to say I didn’t feel uncomfortable walking back and forth across the crosswalk taking pictures of random objects while policemen watched, probably thinking I was out of my mind. To make matters worse, I decided to ask for their names and why they were there (6 feet away, of course). Officer LaBella informed me that they were on traffic enforcement for aggressive driving, because apparetnly there have been several collisions at this intersection lately.
Lots of people passed through this intersection while I was there, a lot of them running or riding a bike. Most of the cars that passed through were average, 2008 or newer, except for the occasional Tesla. However, the coolest car I saw while I was there was definitely this one:
09/02/2020
I returned to the intersection around 1 in the afternoon on September 2nd. This time there were no policemen skulking on the sidewalk and it was a lot sunnier. I noticed more more noises this time: tires screeching, engines revving, the ocassional honk, someone talking on the phone as they waited for the bus, and someone else blasting “Bodak Yellow” by Cardi B from their car. I felt the sun burn my back as I attempted to do justice to the rock wall.
09/06/2020
I returned to this intersection and tried to think a bit deeper about it and what it means. Not many people stop here and park because this is where they want to end up. They pass through, they wait for the bus to take them somewhere other than here, and they go on about their day. This intersection probably doesn’t mean much to most. I realized that this intersection represents part of the journey, not the destination. I wanted my pictures to reflect this by focusing on the people moving through this space, whether that be via car, bus, bike, or on foot.
09/09/2020
I chose this particular image because I felt it best encapsulated my intersection. The bus and car show the theme of travel, but there’s not too much motion actually happening in the image. I was initially leaning towards the picture with the man riding his bike and the two cars, but because of the shutter speed, these subjects are blurred, so it would be harder to cut them out with an XACTO knife. I wish the image I chose had some people or at least a person in it, because there are always people moving through this intersection.
From crafting a relief composition, I learned that planning and thinking ahead is key. When working with a lot of layers, it’s easy to get lost and lose track of what is supposed to go where. I learned a lot about depth and how we show depth. When you eliminate the use color of color and shading, you have to show depth through shape alone.
For my process, I started by taping the tracing paper to my image and tracing it. I attempted to plan what subjects I wanted on which layer. Layer zero would be the sky and the road, layer one was the trees, sidewalk, and part of the synagogue, layer three would be the bus, car, road markings, and so on. Then, I flipped the tracing paper so that the graphite was facing my cardstock. I traced over the graphite I had drawn earlier, and the graphite transferred as mirror image onto my card stock. This worked in my favor, because once I cut out my shapes, the other side of the cardstock was free of pencil lines, giving it a much cleaner look.
09/14/2020
From crafting the grayscale composition, I learned more about how we perceive light, shadow, and depth. As opposed to the last part of the project, the grayscale composition is less focused on planning out layers and more about conscious decision-making for tonal quality. I used Photoshop to posterize my image, which made deciding which tones to go where slightly easier, although the posterized image was still much more detailed than I envisioned for my paper cut. Another tool that really helped me throught the process was the Select > Color Range tool in Photoshop. This feature allowed me to use the eyedropper tool in any area, in order to see which color was used and where else this color was present in the photo.
This time around, I spent more time tracing my image and I used a window so I could render more details easier. I also found that I was replacing my blade more often. I think this was because the
09/17/2020
I chose to highlight the color red in the bus and street lights. I also used my artistic license to add some red in the windows of the building on the left side. I added this to keep the color more balanced on either side, and it also added a bit of an ominous effect to the piece. I’m happy with how my color additions turned out because I feel like it draws your eye around the composition nicely.
Crafting the color composition reinforced my knowledge that I like color a lot. I was always tempted to use more color, and choosing only one color was difficult for me.
I kept the process similar to how I completed my first grayscale composition, but there were a few things I did differently. For the tree on the left side, I printed out a mirror of my image and taped it to the dark grey cardstock. I cut straight from the printed image, which made it a lot easier to see and cut. During my last grayscale composition, I had a lot of trouble tracing the image onto the darkest grey and black paper because the graphite wasn’t showing up.
09/22/2020
From the review of Project 1, I learned the way different aspects of the project, like point of view, cropping, translation of the photo, tonal values, color, and craftsmanship, contribute to the overall composition. In particular, my group focused mainly on craftsmanship.
Craftsmanship includes the effort you put in and attention to detail, as opposed to general composition. Poor craftsmanship can muddle or distract from the piece as a whole. In contrast, high levels of craftsmanship mean the viewer doesn’t have to work hard to understand the piece, you understand the message immediately. Keeping pieces neat and clean is necessary so the viewer isn’t focused on the imperfections, they’re focused on the information the designer is trying to convey. When making a papercut, we obviously had limitations as far as what we could cut with our XACTO knives, so making concious and intentional decisions as to what to cut is important. The more detailed the composition, the more sense of completeness the viewer may get from the piece. However, too much detail also walks the line of making the composition too busy or messy. Limited details can still be communicated clearly if the craftsmanship is high.
