Needful things: Making images talk

Procedure:

• Subject: Select an object or activity or location (telephone, running, Bus stop, car, cooking etc). Try not to select an existing subject (eg. Toilet or well known sports symbols)
• Create a representative image of the object (you may choose either iconic or indexic representation)
• Distill the image through process of abstraction. (atleast 5 levels of abstraction from realistic to abstract)
• Indicate at what point in the abstraction process the object looses its specific identity and communicates generic meaning. Select that image and develop it into a symbol.

• Details:

– The process of abstraction is one of distillation, the reduction of multiple visual factors to only the essential and most typical features of what is being represented.

– Abstraction toward symbolism requires ultimate simplicity, the reduction of visual detail to the irreducible minimum. A symbol, in order to be effective, must not only be seen and recognized but also remembered and even reproduced.

The subject to be immortalised ... the humble snail ! Actually its not really humble since it's the biggest snail around , the African Giant Snail to be exact but we can overlook that ...

For the snail , I think the defining feature of it is the shell . So in my process of abstraction , I want to retain the essence of the shell and slowly simplify other areas like its body.

The first picture I started out with

High level of detail , as realistic as possible to the real deal ... Painstakingly drew the "scale-like" texture of the body and gave the shell random brown markings to give it a "crawling in and out of dirt" look.

2nd level : Reduced the body texture to give it a cleaner look , the shell has less markings , image looks more 2D than 3D now due to elimination of the "flaps" below the snail.

3rd level : The eyes have shortened , shell loses one layer and all markings now making it simple and clean , body has shortened as well . Image has a simplistic cartoonish look now.



4th level : Eyes totally gone , shell markings totally gone as well with basically the outline only . At this stage I feel the drawing loses its specific meaning and enters the generic stage as the shell doesnt look like a shell anymore . General perception is that it looks like an over-turned ice cream cone ... People wanted me to keep the eyes , but the eyes would easily make it look like an animal considering the shell outline was still there . Eyes would make it obvious it's a snail so it had to go .



5th level : Abstract stage now . I've reduced each level to separate forms , approaching a symbol look . Weirdly , this symbol doesnt really evoke a snail image when I think about it , I think its due to the thickness of the 3 shell layers compared to the thin body layer . Hence one more stage ...



6th level : Cant get more simple than this . Yet I feel its easier to see a snail with this form than the previous one ... Go figure huh ...

Final collage of the de-evolution of my snail



That's it folks ! I'll make a photoshop version later , I just found out how to scan images , thank god !