What is 2D Design? ART-101

Dimensions like length, width, time, and mass define things in the world. They are absolute systems.

Design-wise, everything starts from a point in space with no value or dimension. Once you start making adjacent points into a series, you now have a one-dimensional line. You have an X-axis.

If you have an X-axis and a Y-axis (height and width), you now have a plane. It’s “work on paper,” even though paper technically has a width.

If you have an X, Y, and Z axis, (height, width, and depth), you have a 3D object.

Elements and Principles

Elements and principles are used in successful design/art.

Elements are:

  • color

  • form

  • line

  • shape

  • space

  • texture

  • value

Principles are:

  • Balance

  • emphasis

  • movement

  • proportion

  • rhythm

  • unity

  • variety

The picture plane is the flat surface the picture is on, whether it’s paper, canvas, a computer screen, or something else. It’s usually rectangular, but not always. Early art was on cave walls, and David Hockney had many interesting shapes for his artwork.

Rectangular artwork has been around since ancient times, though. In Sumeria, palm-sized clay tablets were rectangular, and in Egypt, papyrus was woven into a grid-like shape similar to modern 8.5” by 11” sheets.

Framing

In many 2D designs/art, you want to give the illusion of depth, which is not the same as actual depth. For example, this can be accomplished by the framing of an object getting smaller in the distance.

Framing also helps the artist to choose what is included and what isn’t, which changes its interpretation. For example, pictures of the “Tank Man” in 1989 China can have different meanings based on how zoomed in or out they are.

The Vantage Point is where the viewer is in the image and is what changes in the Tank Man pictures. If you move the vantage point, the frame changes, including different things, which can change the interpretation.

The Composition is how the subject and other objects are arranged in an image. In photography, this is accomplished by moving the camera, which leads the photographer to choose what the composition is.

Orientation is the direction of the frame, influencing the composition. They are usually portrait, landscape, or diagonal. In film photography, there are different formats, like 35mm and medium formats. In filmography, there are different aspect ratios. In printmaking, there are folio, quarto, and octavo based on the number of folds in the paper.

The frame determines the subject, relationships with other objects, vantage point, and composition.

What you leave out of the frame can almost be as important as what you leave in!

Selective Framing is the practice of using the frame as an intentional tool for the picture.

Style

Representational Style is art that shows objective reality.

Non-objective Style is art that is abstract, or not showing reality.

Misc

A gallery tag usually consists of the following:

  1. artist

  2. work name

  3. material

  4. year

  5. size (length, width, height)

The Rule of Thirds is that in an image gridded into an imaginary 3 by 3 grid, the subject or action is near one of the four intersections.

Art(ists) to look at

Patty Maher

Carly Zufelt

Rene Magritte

David Hockney

Michael Benai “Lines in space”

Lascaux Caves “Great Black Bull”