How to Design with Purpose with Lisa Vogt

hi I'm Lisa welcome to my class studio in this video I'd like to talk you about how to design with purpose when you approach a project you might be thinking okay I want to make a flower or I want to make a sunset or I want to make you know some sort of scene or I just want to make a geometric piece but what can you do in the background in advance of creating a subject matter that makes the project and the imagery more impressive stronger and more engaging so I'd like to demonstrate different ways you might approach a project the background and the design to make it more interesting a lot of people think when I create something that's uh a free flow which where you take the glass you pile it up high you melt it till it it compresses and it flows and it creates a whole new piece of glass a whole new combination of colors a lot of people think that that's just random there's nothing random about it there's always purpose and planning so I'd like to do to show you a few different ways you might want to approach your background so I'm going to take this white board here I'm going to draw a square on it this is our project here okay I'll going draw a couple of them out here now these are not perfect squares sorry about that but we're uh you know we're working with what we got so when you approach a project when you decide how you want to you know apply that background material and your colors you might want to consider uh doing your colors so that they're horizontally you know in orientation or relation to each other that'll make the artwork a lot stronger than just having them random another option might be having your colors work diagonally across the art like this so you go dark to light or light to dark think about an underwater scene we've all seen those beautiful scenes where the light there's a beautiful focus a light source at the top that comes down well that might have something that looks kind of like this so you would have a a light here and kind of dark here and then medium and then really dark down here and that's how you would lay out your colors in the background and then after this is fired you might add some sea life a sea turtle a a dolphin um some coral and some coral fish and really colorful beautiful fish would be spectacular in there this would uh be very well suited for a sunset another option would be to do something where you have like a focal point here and then maybe a spiral of color maybe this is light and it spirals to dark or dark in the middle and spirals to light that could be create a nice Vortex which would give your artwork a nice sense of depth this is kind of there's infinite number of combinations and ways you can do this it's very subtle in the finished piece of art but it does show a higher level of Planning by the artist and a higher level of sophistication in your artwork and it makes it more engaging more interesting and that's kind of what we're always looking for is to keep something fresh and new and interesting so let's do another option here suppose we wanted to do our artwork suppose we want to do like a watery scene we could do something like this you know where the pieces kind of you know come like this and our color so this is basically representing where your colors would change and how you might want to go a gradient from uh maybe this this is the ocean this is the beach right here maybe this is in Tans maybe this is in blues maybe this is in sunset colors maybe it's dark blue to light blue maybe this is a horizon and it's light blue to dark blue you know so you can use these different shapes and different ideas and directions to really make your art more exciting so let's see another option might be you know to just kind of do something like this um you know something like this and maybe have a focal point right here maybe a light source right here this is the brightest area of the art and then you kind of work around it and then maybe this is really dark and maybe this is really dark so that you're creating a an area in the art where the viewer's eye will go so you have a real a lot of control over how someone interacts with your art simply by how you lay out your design your pattern and the colors that you use so let's make a few more examples here all right we got do three more so the idea here is what I'm trying to get across is to apply artistic things that you use in other areas maybe it's in you're decorating maybe it's how you place your food on your plate apply those ideas to your fused glass and it becomes a lot more exciting to build and a lot more exciting to look at so another couple options another option might be to work your design vertically this way so that it works this way across the arch so you might go um maybe Reds to yellows to clear and white which we have an example of that you might want to do something uh you know where it's just kind of random pieces like that you know overlapping kind of circular could be cool and create a different sort of look of course you could do you know geometric you know something like that like a grid work and all of these different methods and approaches to your background will give you a different look can be really really exciting this is one of the projects I have under construction I'm titling it tree of Tranquility there's no tree here yet but there will be so this is a backdrop for the tree that I intend to apply to this and then refire to attack fuse so it may not be super obvious but this particular background kind of models this type of application this type of approach except that I've got my light source on this side so what I've done is right here is kind of my light source I have a little bit of I'm sorry it's right over here here we go my light sources over here there's some white on the back of the art then I go lighter Amber then a little bit deeper Amber then I go into some Reds and then I go into some blues and some really dark colors up here so this is very much like this approach here where we have a specific design idea in mind a specific pattern Direction method of applying things that make the art more interesting and more exciting this spectacular piece was made by Kathy in my Advanced glass fusing class and she applied let's see this I don't even know if I can reach it this over here she applied this method to her art where she ran her colors vertically and did a spectacular job of transitioning from red to Yellow to the whites and the blues over here and this was modeled after another piece of art that she has she wanted to make a complimentary piece that went nicely with it but didn't copy it you know she did her own work put her own effort into this her own Vision into it did a really nice job pulling this off so the background she had the her colors running vertically transitioning nicely and then added this little hint of a tree to give you a sense of a focal point something for you to focus on something for you to really draw your attention in and then when you step back you get a nice sense of an abstract imagery but it has something a little concrete to it these little bitty tree limbs give you something really nice to look at and engage you and make the artwork that much more special so back to the background thing when you're building a background you know we knew we were going to do a tree on this piece but in the planning before we even had that tree applied on there she put a lot of effort into deciding how to run those colors where to put them and how to make a background that was really really spectacular so loving this piece great job Cassie and here is another another really beautiful student piece this is made by Pat and she applied this type of technique on her background she has her colors running horizontally across there's a little bit of a motion here here She has a little bit of motion a little bit of wave here she went really nice and dark really rich color and then to blues and yellows some greens more yellows and then into the Reds really did a beautiful job and a really nice way of applying color in a directional uh application that really makes this art different from the last one equally as spectacular but different so I hope you're starting to get a sense of you have control as the artist it's amazing and really exciting that you have so much control as to where the viewer looks how they um interact with your art simply by how you apply and uh engage and how you complete and start that background now we knew we were going to put a tree in this one as well but prior to the tree going in she had all of this backdrop created to make that tree even more exciting the nice thing about a focal point or a subject matter is it grounds the artwork for the viewer they have something solid and like an anchor for them to really hold on to it engages them more than something just plain and Abstract also um she did a very nice job of putting her subject matter off to one side not smack dab in the middle that's always important that your subject matter creat some sort of um tension in your art because it makes it more engaging and more exciting to look at so if you put just a straight tree tongue right up the middle not nearly as exciting as having this how it originates from the bottom it comes up and then moves across the art and then draws you in and encourages your eye to move around the art and really like it and enjoy it and really have a spectacular time with it so great job Pat all right so this beautiful piece was made by Monica in my Advanced glass fusing class and she did a phenomenal job of using two different techniques kind of this one and this one now she lives in a coastal area so she gravitated towards sort of a water themed piece of art and her her design kind of runs horizontally but there's some variation some flexibility and some softness to where her colors are combined and where they intersect so she has like blues and greens down here nice job of doing some really deep colors down here transitioning into green then she moves into some yellows and reds kind of like so this is kind of represents water an abstract version of water abstract version of a Sunset and then an abstract version of a sky up here where she has introduced some white to represent kind of a cloud feel so really beautiful job transitioning the colors introduction of some nice dichroic which they all have dichroic in their pieces which you know of course I encourage that like crazy and then she didn't want to do a tree didn't feel natural for this piece of art or for her you know decorating style or where she wanted to you know maybe display this piece so she decided to just kind of add some abstract pieces that kind of Lent themselves to the water feel these pieces kind of look like maybe little caps of waves and these to me represent little sparkling uh details where you might have the sun reflecting off the clouds or off the um you know just off different things in the sky which gives it a really nice focal point for the viewer to Anchor their eye to makes the art a little more more valuable a little more meaningful to look at because you have these things on here and you're thinking to yourself that's really nice if the artist just didn't do a backdrop for me but also added some other details to make it even more interesting and engaging so great job Monica another beautiful piece thanks for joining me I hope this gives you a little insight into how you might apply different techniques and approach your art in the future to give it a more exciting and meaningful background that will accentuate and enhance your artwork and your overall presentation of your pieces so really pleased with these pieces the students made I'm really very proud of them they did a great job they really went above and beyond and expanded their techniques so that's always wonderful and really exciting for them as well as for me so enjoy that very much please make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to get all my new videos when they come out you'll get notification right away we would love to have you also please consider becoming a premium video member we have new content coming out all the time exclusive videos just for members has step-by-step video instruction beginning to end really in-depth detail there you get a full-size printable pattern ebook you get firing guides all sorts of stuff whole package and beautiful projects that you are just going to love so again thanks for joining me and until next time happy fusing [Music] [Music]

Channel: Lisa Vogt

Views: 753

Keywords: glass, fused glass, glass fusing, lisa vogt, art, artist, how to, learn, design, glass art, fused glass art

Id: Pj38qIPZXW4

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024