anna hrabowyj

2d design blog

[neonstarsign]

“High Life“

Unity Project (2020)

[annahrabowyj]

I believe this piece to be extremely successful. Firstly, the perfume bottles all show unity, as they each are the same item, and hold the same purpose, they may just be different brands or shapes. This creates an overarching feeling of unity for the whole piece, and it is the first thing I noticed about the artwork. However, there is also unity within other parts of the piece as well. I appreciate the glowy shadows or reflections at the bottom of the perfume bottles. This makes the bottles feel almost like skyscrapers or buildings on a city skyline. This idea ties very well with the top of the page, where the night sky is made of gems. The common theme of luxury and city life adds an extra element of unity, besides the obvious yet well functioning perfume bottles. The colors in this piece add to the success in my opinion as well. Each bottle is differently colored but they are spread out and organized in a way so that they almost match the glowing reflections at the bottom. In the night sky at the top, I see that two different pieces of black paper were used. Whether or not this was intentional, I feel like it is successful because that break allows our eyes to kind of fill in where there might be something in the horizon or the ombre in the sky at the end of sundown. Perhaps my favorite part was the moon. The crescent shape is created using rectangles surrounding the outer edge. This gives off art deco vibes in my mind, and that feeling of luxury again ties into the city feelings and the expensive perfume bottles. Overall, I think Jordana did a wonderful job and I personally really enjoyed the piece.

[annahrabowyj]

Rhythm Posts

[annahrabowyj]

Space Triptych 

[annahrabowyj]

Color Exercises

[annahrabowyj]

Color Heritage Project

[annahrabowyj]

For this piece, I chose to represent my Ukrainian background. Ukraine is an Eastern European country, where my parents are both from. My mother was an immigrant, while my dad was born in the US but his parents were born in Ukraine. Ukrainian culture and traditions have always been a huge part of my family, and we speak the language at home as much as we can. Ukraine’s flag is blue and yellow, which is why those are really the only colors shown in the piece. I edited a photo of myself to be high contrast and posterized it, so that only shades and tones of blue and yellow were used. The lightest parts of my face are filled in with a sunflower pattern. This is where I added a bit of my personal touch to the piece. Not only are florals very important and prevalent in Ukrainian fashion and textiles, but sunflowers are my favorite flower, so I chose those instead of something more traditionally used in Ukrainian patterns such as azaleas or daisies. In the background I used stripes, like how blue and yellow are horizontally placed on top of each other in the Ukrainian flag. Here I inverted the colors, with yellow on top, just because it seemed to make the composition a bit more balanced. I included water mainly because I love swimming personally but also to represent the distance that I physically am from Ukraine. We have a seven hour time difference, so even when I have the chance to FaceTime or Skype with my family overseas, the time difference really makes us remember how far we are unfortunately. Then on the top in the yellow stripe I included the Ukrainian Tryzub, which is a symbol for the country’s coat of arms, showcasing a golden trident. While the focus of this piece was on Ukraine, I tried to include other aspects of my life and myself, like swimming, flowers, and a nice selfie to tie things together.

[annahrabowyj]

Value Scale (pen crosshatch)

[weimerz1]

Value Project

[annahrabowyj]

This piece shows a floral ring along with a little lady bug in the corner. I believe this recreation was very successful because of how accurate the placement of values were. Firstly the metal flowers on the ring was what really drew my eye. I believe the bright part contrasted with the darker parts without much of a gradient or transition between them there really made it feel metallic and shiny, just like in the original image. The gemstones in the centers of the flower look exactly like the image and look genuinely sparkly. Perhaps the most successful part of the piece is the shadow of the ring, which looks like the exact tone as the original image, and it looks like it was made with a hands on technique instead of collage which was a very smart choice. I wish the stick under the cute little ladybug was thinner, but I understand that it probably is more difficult to collage such a tiny thin piece of paper. I also wish there were more small dots on the second / bottom flower, like there were in the picture, but again I think doing this in person it might be physically hard and tedious to replicate that so accurately. Overall, I think the piece was great and was a fairly accurate recreation of the original advertisement's values.

[annahrabowyj]

visual texture post

[annahrabowyj]

texture #2

[annahrabowyj]

actual texture post

[annahrabowyj]

texture #1

[annahrabowyj]

5. 2d design in everyday life

[annahrabowyj]

unity daily post

[annahrabowyj]

6. 2d design in everyday life

[annahrabowyj]

balance daily post

[emma-2d-design]

Focal Point and Emphasis Project

[annahrabowyj]

In this artwork I see a hand holding a yellow triangle, which may be either a ray of light or piece of gold, in what seems like a coal mine. I appreciate the clear idea and story in the piece, because it seems like in a dark hopeless mine, somebody finally had found their treasure. The focal point is clear for several reasons, including the difference in color, texture, and value.

Firstly, on the whole piece there is a dotted texture, which seems like an attempt to represent a rocky natural feeling inside of a cave. This carries throughout the background, even overlapping on top of the graphics on the left and right. This texture is missing in the hand and the yellow part however, and it makes the viewer immediately look at it as it draws attention. In the golden ray, I see what I think are dollar bills outlined in a slightly darker shade, and the hand is completely flat and untextured. The money aspect adds to the story behind the artwork, showing that they found gold in the mine, while the flat hand adds to the graphic cartoonish feeling going on. That difference in textures ties things in and adds to the piece while also standing out.

The focal point is also different in terms of color and value. The background and other elements in the piece are fairly dark and dull, with very few highlights and pretty much no stark white. While the triangle spikes coming from the top and bottom add some dimensional light, it still does not compare to the brightness of the white hand and yellow ray. This causes the viewer to immediately focus on that. Furthermore, that yellow triangle under the hand is the only color in the entire piece, so it again draws the eye.

I think the most successful part of this piece was the light and glow that comes off of the focal point. Around the hand there is a slight yellow glow that fades out, and this really adds to the sense that this found gold or riches was really miraculous and important and should be looked at. Also even in the background especially towards the bottom right corner, it is slightly brighter, as if the gold is shining and really glowing. This too adds to the emphasizing effect in this piece. 

One thing I questioned while looking at this piece was the black dripping graphic on top of the gold triangle. This seems to me like it is “dirty money” or something, but the other aspects of the piece lead me to believe that all is well and this is a good thing or a miracle. The dripping makes it feel greedy or like the money was not deserved. I was a little confused there but other than that I really enjoyed the piece. I feel that the piece was very successful, the quality was high, the effort really shows, the style is cohesive and strong, and the emphasis is clear. Great job Emma!

[annahrabowyj]

Final Project (individual images of each page)

[annahrabowyj]

Final Project

A story about self discovery, in which the abstracted character gradually learns that they love themselves even in a crowd of different types of people. (created using Illustrator)

Page 1: line

Page 2: text

Page 3: color

Page 4: shape

Page 5: balance

Page 6: texture

Page 7: emphasis

Page 8: repetition

[annahrabowyj]

actual texture post

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visual texture post

[annahrabowyj]

proportion post