Recitation 6: Processing Basics by Tristan Murdoch

Albers, Joseph. “b and p.” 1937,     Guggenheim Museum, New York.

I chose this image because it consists of shapes we learned to make in class. It seemed like a relatively simple design, but unique enough to provide a challenge. I attempted to directly emulate the image’s shapes rather than taking the liberty of creativity because I wanted to see how close I could get with my processing skills. 

The first step was to create the background color and the smaller blue square. After that, things got more complicated. I first tried to make the “b” and “p” using four smaller rectangles, but the brown stroke would cut through the letters. I opted rather to write in the coordinates of each shapes’ vertices. 

My version

For the brown centers, the lack of strokes allowed me to use simple rectangles.  As for the color, I was uncertain of how to create the grainy texture the original painting has, so I stuck with the regular fill and matched it as close as possible.

However, there is one glaring difference between the two.  The tan shape within the blue rectangle is not a rectangle; in fact, it appears to be two or three different rectangles that are slightly offset. Processing proved to be a very useful tool to realize this design. I’m sure there are many more uses that I am unaware of, but to the extent of my knowledge, I was able to fairly accurately replicate b and p. The code I used is below:

size(600,600);
background(#86521E);

noStroke();
fill(#3D4BA2);
rectMode(CENTER);
rect(300,300, 500,500);

fill(#C6B26E);
rect(300,300, 460,460);

rectMode(CORNER);
fill(#3D4BA2);
rect(463,323, 80,220);

stroke(#86521E);
strokeWeight(2);
fill(#E1E5B2);
beginShape();
vertex(150, 80); //first shape
vertex(250, 80);
vertex(250, 320);
vertex(280,320);
vertex(280,520);
vertex(150,520);
endShape(CLOSE);

beginShape();
vertex(330,80); //second shape
vertex(460,80);
vertex(460,320);
vertex(430,320);
vertex(430,520);
vertex(330,520);
endShape(CLOSE);

noStroke();
fill(#86521E);
rect(193,100, 15,240); //brown middle rect
rect(193,330, 45, 170);
rect(373,100, 45,210);
rect(373,310,15,190);

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