The master-apprentice model has been around for decades and even centuries. Dating right back to Rembrandt, when he took his first pupils and introduced new methods to his teaching. His approach was traditional, but began using unusual elements, and while he taught the pupils the rules of art, he added some of his own. This curious nature resulted in his work becoming synonymous for showing development and innovation. Rembrandt would not allow his pupils to work from live models until they had copied drawings, prints and paintings, including his own work. It was only after this, were they allowed to design and make their own work.
This model is still used today as a way of learning, as we learn the best from those who have worked before us. As the first task in this module, we were tasked with using this model to recreate a set of icons. Out of the two sets, I decided to recreate four from each which would challenge me in using Figma, which I had only become familiar with last semester, to create more complex shapes and structures. I used my knowledge from the last module of point, line, plane and broke the icons down into simple elements and built up from there.
There was certain parts of some of the icons I struggled to achieve or maintain a clean cut edge as they were difficult to make using geometric shapes/ So if found myself working with the tools available through trial and error to try and achieve the best outcome for each.
I found using the grid layover very helpful in making sure all the thicknesses of the icons stayed as close to equal as possible, as well as making sure elements that were on either side of the icon were level or centred. Overall I am quite pleased with how my icons turned out. I feel I recreated the blue set more effectively as I struggled to get the curved parts of the pink set in some of the icons. I found this task quite fun and informative into how you can build forms and shapes using the simplest of forms.
Following the icon task, we had to follow the same process, but this time recreate a larger and more complicated cityscape image. I chose the Amsterdam image because I felt it would be the most challenging with all the colours and outlines throughout. I took it section by section, and as I worked through it, I was noticing more and more smaller details, like shadows. I took the decision at the start to have all the outlines at two pixels width, which was my plan to create consistency throughout. I struggled with creating some of the features, in particular some of the curved roofs and the curves along the bridges. Overall I am happy with the final outcome of my master apprentice task and I think it does look similar to the original image, but there are some edges and dimensions that are slightly off or not perfectly straight. My recreation is the image on the right.
