For this exercise I was asked to create a number of limited time drawings of an object of my choice. I chose an object that is easy to understand and interesting to draw. You can’t really not understand this object as it is so different from every other object and because it is seen in the start of every PIXAR film I think almost everyone would find it familiar!

Above are four different drawings of my lamp each using a specific amount of lines in order to create them. I have also said how many lines were used to create each drawing.

Next I wanted to to try and minimalise the object even more with even less lines. The first drawing out of the four shows a simple drawing of a lamp using 9 lines to create, next I used one line to create a smooth bubble outline of the lamp, for my third drawing I used 1 line and 2 triangles to create the lamp and finally for my forth drawing I used 3 lines and used no shapes when creating the lamp, even though the drawing shows 3 lines I think you can still sort of make out what it is? Or maybe that is because I am looking at the other drawings to the left of it. If it was a stand alone drawing I might not be able to tell what it is? It could be the edge of a sheet of paper sticking out of a stack of paper or the pointy nose of a sad person with a definite brow line? It’s strange to see where you imagination takes you! Below are my outcomes:

I wanted to go a bit further for this exercise and see if I can try to minimalise the object any further than using just lines. I wanted to try and used different shapes and media, below are my outcomes. I used coloured paper for the first one and sticky notes for the other. I feel like there is an 80’s vibe when I look at the second one!

Trying out different exposures to see what image the eye is most drawn to: for me its the last image.

How few marks/shapes do you need in order to get a clear sense of what is happening in the image?

Just one! I think it doesn’t matter what the image is (unless it’s very detailed) you can try to understand what the image is and the brain will just create an image for you anyway, especially if you have seen the item or object before it gets stored in your memory.

My mothers perspective, I recorded her response and have written it below:

Me: ” Would you be able to understand what this image was of it you hadn’t seen the photo of it and why?”.

Mum: “It’s a very simple image of a lamp, it looks like the image from PIXAR, even that one looks like a lamp (pointing to the drawing of the minimalised lamp) because it’s got the lamp head and the base and springs”.