The Threshold Effect
The threshold effect being applied to an image.
A few weeks ago, I had the urge to create some new artwork. For my art, I like to stick to themes that I can carry across multiple projects. The problem that arises from this approach is that it can sometimes inhibit my creativity. Its not about creating a single piece of artwork, but a series. I was browsing through tutorials through YouTube when I happened upon one that intrigued me. The video described a school of design called Brutalism. To give some context, Brutalism is achieved through raw, unpolished, and often intentionally ugly visuals. While the designs of these postcards don’t follow Brutalism exactly, I took what I learned from the video and some of the ideals of the graphic design movement and made something my own.
For the start of this project, I wanted to create something singular and without the need for perfection. I wanted to go into the piece with the acceptance that I could create something that didn’t come out well and that it would be alright. This was just experimentation and doesn’t need to be perfect. However, once I created the first piece, I was struck with inspiration to keep going.
For the subjects of these pieces, I chose characters from a video game series I’ve been following and playing for quite some time. These are summoned “monsters” that appear in battle and perform large, devastating attacks before disappearing. Each of these postcards feature the summon, their name, and the name of their attack. To get the graphic effect of each summon, I used the threshold effect that I picked up from the YouTube tutorial. The threshold effect transforms an image into purely black and white with a slider that changes which pixels are black and which are white. Using this, I can pull out sections of the images I’m using to act as highlights, midtones, and shadows. This creates the three-color versions of the summons.
After creating the first postcard, I came up with a set of rules for each of the subsequent pieces.
The postcard had to feature the summoned monster using the threshold effect.
Each postcard would only use one color associated with the summon monster, although different hues could be used to create light and shadow.
The name of the summoned monster always appears behind the main figure in some way.
The name of the attack always sits on top of the figure.
There is a bar of texture that features something associated with the summoned monster (i.e., a bolt of lightning, flames, cracked ice, etc.).
I would like to note that the artwork used within each postcard is not my own. I pulled the images of the summoned monsters from a wiki page, since this was just a personal project. I believe the next step of this process would be to recreate each postcard using my own original art. That way I can say the entire piece is my own creation.
