Catherine McIntyre

While studying art, there are many different types of design called the elements and principles of design. These are line, value, texture, colour, space, shape and form (elements) and balance, proportion, harmony, unity, movement, emphasis, contrast, rhythm and variety (principles). When creating artwork, an artist should try to include a lot of the elements and principles in the piece to make it appealing and successful.

I am always on the search for inspiration and artists that appeal to both me and my style of artwork. While exploring the different worlds of new artists I found an artist named Catherine McIntyre, whose work focuses on a unique, other world theme. Her pieces usually incorporates body’s, either as a whole or just particular sections, like the mid section or skull. Her style is unique and graphic, and appeals to my own as i try to incorporate the edgy look just like her.

Out of the Dark

Photoshop

In McIntyre’s piece Out Of The Dark, there are many elements of design that can be seen in the piece, and are many different interpretations of what the piece is about. These elements include line, texture, colour, space, and form. To describe the piece itself I would describe it as follows. There is a figure, a women’s body, that looks as if it is falling down into the ground, deeper and deeper. This can be seen because there is rocks surrounding her, and, at her foot, it looks as if there is a fossil or a bird dinosaur. This suggests at how deep she is. The women herself conveys a very sadden tone, as if shes frozen in time too, due to the colour of her skin. As sad and cold as she looks, even though shes drowning in this, she seems to find the warmth in her self and is beginning to fly up out of it. The warm colours glowing out of her chest, and the wing structure protruding from her back suggest this. It can clearly be seen that the women is the focal point of the piece, and the way it is created depicts her story and how she feels.

As said previously, there are many different elements of design seen in this picture, The first element in line. Line can be seen in the piece in the falling women’s outline of her figure and the wings coming from her back. These lines help give shape to her and make her stand out, and allow the wings in her back to lightly begin to fade away as the line becomes lighter and more transparent. Although in digital art, texture cannot be felt, it can be implied, and in this piece there is a lot of implied texture. The background in which the figure seems to be laying/floating on looks like a bubbly rock texture. This could imply a meaning in the piece, depicting or hinting that she is underground, almost sinking down with her self. She could be sinking down with the way she feels about herself. This can be thought because of the colours in the piece. By using a cool colour scheme (blues, greens), it makes the figure recede into the page, and suggests a tone or feeling of sadness. With this thought in mind, although the figure could be sinking, by the use of the bright warm colours in the spots they are hints that maybe shes rising as she falls. The use of warm colours (reds, oranges, yellows) around her chest, to me, indicates that the women may have found herself within, and what and who she is. From this she sees the light in herself. This is parallel to the wing like structure protruding from her back; this aspect of the piece, not only adds the principle of movement by pulling your eyes around the page, but also shows how she is trying to fly away from the sadness she feels. The overall colour adds intensity to the artwork and brings out specific emotional responses in the viewers. Another principle that can be seen in the piece is space. There is both actual space. Atmospheric Perspective can be seen because of the use of colours, tones and shapes to convey the illusion of distance by changing the size and colours used. This can be applyed if the defintion is stretched in a way. Depth and distance can be seen in the peice because of the values and changing colours among the rocks, thus giving a deeper perspective. The second type of space that can be seen is actual space. It is created in a 2-D space that looks 3D because of the illusion of 3D objects. This can be seen because it can clearly be seen that there is rocks all around the figure and that shes falling down due to the changes in colour and texture, giving the 2D rock a 3D look. Form means that it is a three-dimensional figure as opposed to shaped which is two-dimensional, or flat. In this piece it can be seen that there is form, in both the women character and in the skeleton of the bird dinosaur creature. However, although this is form, it is only implied form because, since it is digital art, it can’t actually “pop” from the page. What is unique about form is it can affect ones emotions and feelings and it can catches ones eye with the way it stands out on the paper. In this piece the way the form is arranged effects the emotions in the face the form of the women is falling down into the sadness and darkness of the page.

Overall I love this piece and the story it speaks. I think that the story each viewer would get from it would be completely different and that’s one thing that makes the piece so unique and amazing. The piece itself if very successful and captures a large variety of elements and principles of designs throughout. I really like McIntyre as an artist and feel a connection in her artwork as we both share a similar style. I like all of her overall concepts of all her artwork and can defiantly see myself using both her and her artwork and styles in my own as a key source of inspiration.

Other images I liked by Catherine McIntyre: