Compositional Ideas

The inspiration for this group of images was a project that I did in school many years ago. For this assignment, entitled Compositional Ideas, my classmates and I each created a series of ten small drawings. In order to focus on their composition, they had to be executed in high-contrast black ink, with no shading or cross-hatching allowed — all areas of the images had to be either black or white. Each had to measure only 1-1/2″ x 1″, with a pleasant balance between vertical and horizontal formats. They were arranged in a single row across a long stretch of posterboard, with generous margins in between.

This turned out to be one of my favourite projects; I found that the high-contrast style worked especially well with regular architectural elements, such as stairs, columns, and balustrades. I delighted in these patterns, with each repetition a little smaller, or at a slightly different angle, than its predecessor. I challenged myself to record even the most distant ones faithfully, which required such minute control of the pen that my hand cramped up many times over the course of the assignment.

I rediscovered my fascination with this graphical style this year, almost by accident. I had taken a series of photographs of a pedestrian bridge near my house, but found them all rather unsatisfying — there were too many trees in the background, and my main subject was completely swallowed up. I briefly considered burning down that small patch of woods and returning a few days later for a reshoot, but since the pictures were digital, I imagined instead that I could delete the trees electronically. I chose one picture to start, and though I applied great care, it soon became apparent that I was destroying the picture’s photographic quality. As a diversion, I pushed the contrast all the way up, and when I saw the results, I realised with a flush of excitement that I had suddenly recreated the spirit of that fondly-remembered art school project. I redoubled my deforestation efforts and worked late into the night to finish the picture. My pleasure was palpable: brushing out the interstices of the crossbeams was such detailed, painstaking work that I had cramps in my hand all over again.