+++
slug = "project-cartography"
showonlyimage = false
draft = false
image = "portfolio/project-cartography/featured.avif"
date = 2024-04-09T03:42:58-04:00
title = 'Project - Cartography'
description = "In this project, we began with observational drawings of a cinder block and sphere to practice rendering light and shadow."
summary = "In this project, we began with observational drawings of a cinder block and sphere to practice rendering light and shadow."
weight = 0
+++

## Introduction

In this project, we began with observational drawings of a cinder block and sphere to practice rendering light and shadow. We started with pencil sketches and then divided them into only black and white by charcoal to explore edge quality and shadow mass at their highest contrast.

{{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p1-fig1.avif" width="768px" caption="Analog Charcoal Drawing" >}}
{{< load-photoswipe >}}

## Construct Light Logic

Here we uploaded the photo into Photoshop and started to construct horizontal line and vanishing point in order to correct the perspective. After that we used it as a  base to build back the light and shadow masses of this still life using Photoshop tools.

{{< gallery >}}
    {{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p2-fig1.avif" caption="Construct Horizontal Line" >}}
    {{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p2-fig2.avif" caption="Construct Vanishing Point" >}}
    {{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p2-fig3.avif" caption="Construct Light Logic" >}}
{{< /gallery >}}
{{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p2-fig4.avif" width="768px" caption="Digital Skin" >}}

## Apply Texture

At this stage, we started to apply the 3 best chosen texture we photographed to the cinder block. We explored Photoshop tools such as blending modes and clipping mask as well as the transparency. 

{{< gallery >}}
    {{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p3-fig1.avif" caption="Texture 1" >}}
    {{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p3-fig2.avif" caption="Texture 2" >}}
    {{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p3-fig3.avif" caption="Texture 3" >}}
{{< /gallery >}}
{{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/p3-fig4.avif" width="768px" caption="Three Personal Photographs of Texture" >}}

## Final Layout

{{< figure src="portfolio/project-cartography/final.avif" width="768px" caption="" >}}

## Reflection

This was my first time doing a task like modeling in photoshop, and it gave me a whole new perspective on how to explore horizontal lines and vanishing points to properly depict perspective relationships. I was very surprised when I stretched the canvas really long in photoshop in order to reach the vanishing point. At the same time, I also finally formalized the relationship between the horizontal line and the object. I set the horizontal line too low at the beginning, while in reality, the horizontal line should be at the same plane as my eye level. When I started applying texture into cinder block, I realized for the first time the importance of transparency, how easy it is to blend into the environment. In the final layout, I tried to apply the golden ratio principles to achieve a balanced and aesthetically pleasing result. This cartography exercise stretched my skills in new ways and gave me a deeper appreciation of using perspective, texture, transparency, and compositional principles to create realistic depictions.

## Comments

{{< comments >}}