Assignment 2: Making Images Talk (Abstractions)

Right. After that whole Classroom exercise on Iconic and Indexic representations, we had to start on Assignment 2. According to the calculator example that he gave us in class, we had to 'distill' a chosen image from a realistic to a abstract form. Following the example of the cat that he showed in class, I decided (based on the Classroom Exercise) to make it easy for myself and to pick an animal to draw as well.

I decided to work with rabbits. So I started doodling...



Then my initial sketches became this...



I showed this to the class in tutorial - they said it was alright. The last representation that I drew still maintains its generic meaning, though it still is obvious that its a rabbit. The levels of abstraction are described below, using the final picture. As it was 'approved', I directly transferred it through Freehand, and this is the final product:




First: Realistic drawing of a rabbit.
Second: Cartoon drawing of the full rabbit.
Third: Cartoon depiction of the rabbit's face.
Fourth: I removed the rabbit's whiskers.
Fifth: I removed the rabbit's eyes, leaving just the nose and mouth.
Sixth Level of Abstraction: I removed everything but the outline of the rabbit's face. Seeing as the ears are the defining feature of rabbits, it still conveys the generic meaning of a rabbit.

I guess this means that even though the classroom representation didn't go that smoothly (see previous entry), I managed to get the basic ideas of abstraction and was able to put it down well on paper.