The Art of origami

#paper_folding #folding_art #crafting #mental_activity #calming_activity #mindfulness #origami_art, #new_perspective #patience #blintz_base, #boat_base, #bird_base #square_base, #boats, #boxes #birds, #geometric_art #peaceful_hobby

Origami is an enjoyable activity that helps to develop hand-eye coordination and attention to detail, encourages peer support and fosters relationship building. It can be used it to support and enhance geometrical reasoning and mathematical learning.

Origami is not just a solo practice—at the end, you have made something personal that you can give to someone that you care about. Origami can light up our imagination and sense of joy like any other mindful activity.

Before being able to reach meditation through origami, you must first get to know the folds by heart. After this initial learning stage, you are then able to fold with a meditative and focused approach. Origami is not about folding the most complicated model, but about using origami to meditate and achieve "perspective, persistence, patience, and more practice."

By OJ. Morreale

Blintz base

Square base

Boat base

Bird base

Boats in the Ocean Movie

Guide to Gestalt Theory

The Gestalt Principles of Grouping and Hierarchy

GESTALT THEORY in art Gestalt theory, a theory about perception, holds that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It describes our ability to: Recognise patterns and make associations; group objects that are close together into a larger unit; relate and group objects of similar shape.

• Gestalt principles explain how the eye creates a whole (gestalt) from parts.

The power of white space for grouping derives from the Gestalt principle of grouping. Here are the six principles identified by the Gestalt:

1. Proximity. Elements that are closer to each other are more likely to be grouped together. You see four vertical columns of circles, because the circles are closer vertically than they are horizontally.

2. Similarity. Elements with similar attributes are more likely to be grouped. You see four rows of circles in the example, because the circles are more alike horizontally than they are vertically.

3. Continuity. The eye expects to see a contour as a continuous object. You primarily perceive the Continuity example above as two crossing lines, rather than as four lines meeting at a point, or two right angles sharing a vertex.

4. Closure. The eye tends to perceive complete, closed figures, even when lines are missing. We see a triangle in the center of the example, even though its edges aren’t complete.

5. Area. When two elements overlap, the smaller one will be interpreted as a figure in front of the larger ground. So we tend to perceive the example as a small square in front of a large square, rather than a large square with a hole cut in it.

6. Symmetry. The eye prefers explanations with greater symmetry. So the example is perceived as two overlapping squares, rather than three separate polygons.

Exploring Patterns and Composition.

The fundamentals of pattern recognition:

Pattern collections are very personal style statements and fabulous opportunities for self-expression. We are looking to develop their skills with color, texture and personal style.

Dots, Lines, Grids, Patterns.

Every pattern begins with just one dot. Dots are the smallest element of patterns. They can be combined, manipulated, etc, to make stripes, and then stripes in turn can be combined and manipulated to make grids. Grids form the repeat of our patterns. A Grid reveals system to create a structural pattern.

When several dots with a single shared characteristics are arranged in a stripe, the dot has been repeated, even if other characteristics of the dots are different. When the repeated dots have more than one feature in common, the most dominant common feature is selected to describe the repetition.

When all shape of dots move together they create lines. The more interesting your dot is, the more interesting your pattern will be. Strips could be in geometric forms or organic. Strips can be very iconic figures such as zebra strips. Strips can be very solid so make sure you have a good idea how to emphasise them in a grid.

How to build a basic pattern: by repetition of geometric shapes

We can build a pattern by using tessellation of four main geometric shapes; squares,rectangles, hexagons, triangles.

Only those certain shapes tile seamlessly and they are easiest to work with.

Making Tessellated Designs:

You can manipulate basic tessellated shapes to get a creative result by repetition.

For example of a tile design by using contrast of straight vs curve lines ;

1. Create two repeating pattern tiles that illustrate opposing forces. (such as Straight vs Curved lines)

2. Each tile should be 5" x 5 " square.

3. Use two different colours only.

4. Explore formal contrast to to inform your composition and conceptual contrast to inform your concept.

The Stages of Strong Composition

1. Figure & Ground Relationship

2. Structure (grid)

3. Focal point (contrast)

4. Balance

1. Figure and Ground : Figure and ground relationship is about the way our eyes travels though the art work. What's in the front what's at the back. The main aim is to create harmonious relationship between figure and background. A real artist works effortlessly between the figure and ground to create amazing patterns.

A)Reversible: Figure in ground, your eyes goes back and forth easily and intentionally what's in the front and the back. They are vibrant and gives energy to the artwork. Reversible figure and ground relationship has equal visual weight in both sides. Figure has same visual weight as ground.

B) Ambiguous: Figure is enmeshed in ground.

C) Interwoven: Figure informs the ground and vice versa.

2. Structure: Division of space. When you are creating a composition, you are dividing the surface that you are working on different areas. There areas can be composed organic or geometric shapes. Imagine dividing a square into 5 x 5 little squares and you have different elements to divide them in 25 different squares. This is called spot repetition.

1. Start by dividing your foundation into a square grid. ( example, 5 x 5 cm)

2. Place motifs that each one gets a row and column itself. Vary each motif rotation to make a tossed print.

3. Once the units are in place than you can improve by increasing the variations of scale, rotation, colour, size, thickness contrast.

1. Grid for structure

2. Tossed print with grid structure.

3. Final tossed print

3. Focal point (path): Exploring opposing forces. Let's brainstorm a lot of forces of contrasts.

By Size,