assignment – Justin

EGO – I (EYE)

CONCEPT

Being a ~~hobbyist~~ photographer with a visual effects background, I have decided to do my compositions with the style of photo manipulations, incorporating photo-realism. I might also have been inspired by the Thai movie that I have watched recently, HEART ATTACK – a movie that revolves around a freelance digital photo manipulation artist.

First, I have carefully planned out each composition to depict ENGAGEMENT, ARTICULATION, PERCEPTION on each columns. I have used an image of a mouth, implied or not, to show articulation and an eye to show perception.

I have also planned each equations to fit a colour scheme of the hues of the golden hour, specifically red, orange, yellow, blue, blacks + the sun as light source.

BREAKDOWNS

VENTUROUS + SILENT = ME

As an venturous person, one might think that I might be a more outgoing and outspoken person, however, I am less verbal and more introverted. I have used complimentary colours of orange-brown and blues to show these conflicting characteristics of myself.

As for the last composition, it shows that I am venturing towards my goal, as depicted with the target cross-hair of the rifle scope. An implied sight is used to show perception.

PASSION – FEAR = A BETTER ME

In the first composition, I have used a tree to represent life, and fire to represent the burning passion in me. The lanterns that are attached to the tree is to imply that with passion, it will bring me higher and further in life.

As for the second composition, I have used an image of a werewolf to show fear. I have used a hand that is reaching out towards the light to show the goal but the cringed hand is there to show hesitation due to fear.

In the last composition, I have used a oil lantern with the eyeball as its source of light and a fiery passion that is still burning in me.

The colours I have chosen to use in this equation was red and black as these themes of passion and fear is usually intense and dark.

CONCEPTUALS x EXPRESSIVENESS = AN IDEAL ME

I have used an egg yolk to show the process of birth with a light bulb to symbolize ideas. Compositing them together was to depict the birth of concepts.

As for the second composition, I have placed a mouth onto a loudspeaker to exaggerate the concept of expressiveness. The light in the background was used to create impact.

In the last composition, the egg has hatched out of the light bulb, showing the breaking out of my comfort zone. Concept/creativity is born and expressed with its superimposed eye and mouth.

In this equation, I have used primarily yellow to invoke joy/cheerfulness to inquisitiveness/mental activities in the mind.

RISK + CONFIDENCE = ME IN 5 YEARS

In RISK, I have set it in a sea context as it represents the sea of uncertainty. The boat was actually composited to show smooth sailing even thought there might be obstacles and dangers ahead, as represented with the shark heading in its direction.

In CONFIDENCE, I have used an image of a face as a landscape in the foreground. As you already know, being less verbal and expressive is my weakness, hence, I have composited a man doing a confidence jump over the mouth (obstacle). I have also composited lightnings in the background to further amplify the emotions.

In 5 years, I hope to see myself in a career, working on maybe the next vfx (sci-fi) film. This composition, when compared to the first composition of VENTUROUS, is a complete inverse of colours.

For this equation, I have used primarily BLUE hues as it is a colour of success and confidence. It was intentional as I have carefully planned for the very first composition, VENTUROUS, to imply the phrase of “into the blue”, and wanted to end the last composition by literally seeing blue.

REFLECTIONS

Even though the major challenge was the difficulty in finding high resolution images and the time consuming process (usually 2-3 hours searching for images, up to 6 hours compositing the composition together for each squares), I found myself enjoying the process as I try to achieve photo-realism in each and every composition.

Another challenge was that each composition was a concept itself and I had a really long and stressful time deciding on the elements/symbolism to use in portraying each composition. Nevertheless, I feel that I am slowly becoming closer to my ideal, conceptual, me!

Assignment 2: Rhymes Final

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND

a tragic bus crash story

loosely based on an actual public bus accident that my grandfather encountered

CONCEPT

(FROM TOP LEFT IN A CLOCKWISE DIRECTION)

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND
In this composition, my interpretation of the “wheels” are the steering wheels instead. From a first-person perspective, you see an impending bus crash from the inside of the bus driver’s perspective. I have made use of the many grabbing hands to show movement in the steering wheel.

ROUND AND ROUND
In this composition, it shows the external events that are happening in the bus, as it literally go round and round like clockwork. (hence the gears)The bus is spinning round and round; the old man is crying; the lady is screaming; the man is spinning around screaming; the sound of heartbeats; and objects, represented by the fish out of the water, is flying around.

ROUND AND ROUND
In this next composition, it shows the internal events that is going on in someone’s head, as represented by the dissected head and brain background. Family, food, religion, money, best experiences and memories goes round and round, represented by the ring.

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND ALL DAY LONG
Now in this composition, the bus is already overturned and stopped. It is a third-person perspective now. Everything has rolled out of the bus, round and round. I have used the “teeth” of the wheels, layered with a spiral dingbat, to show the wheels going round and round, all day long. I have made use of everyone’s dingbat that are either round in shape, or if it contains a face.

When pieced together, the final composition of all 4 images form a full circle, keeping a flow and linking them together. (I wanted to incorporate my photosphere in my previous post) This might have also helped enhanced the effect of the tragedy. I have chosen to use black as the primary background colour as I wanted it to feel dark and tragic.

ORIGINAL DINGBATS

SKETCHES

CHALLENGES FACED

The biggest challenge I had, I think, was the choosing of the concept of my rhyme. As seen from my previous posts, I was actually trying to push for a social commentary style concept of the issues that I see in my commute. However, I took a step back to see my original rhymes I have shortlisted: the wheels on the bus and the crooked old man. The crooked old man reminded me of my grandfather who was affected by the accident, who had problems walking/unstability for a period of time after the accident. It really pushed me away from my original concept and made me conclude with the concept of a twisted and dark reinterpretation of the wheels on the bus rhyme.

Another challenge was the lines: “round and round” as they were very vague – it could mean anything! After coming up with a mindmap of what could go round and round, I have finally classified them into external and internal, using the dingbats that my classmates have created.

I am fairly familiar with all the technical jargon – so nope, no problems there.

REFLECTIONS

PERSONAL THOUGHTS
I thought that this project was very interesting as I have never thought about using Photoshop to do mono-toned photomontage style compositions before. As a digital person, it was definitely much easier than the traditional assignments that we have to do. I really liked the idea of sharing dingbats!

TUTOR THOUGHTS
Joy liked how my last composition juxtaposed the chaos with orderly circular objects that was arranged neatly. She also liked how I made use of a personal experience to incorporate into a concept, as well as how went back to my original shortlisted rhymes to come up with my final concept.

CLASSMATES THOUGHTS

comm — A picture speaks a thousand words

Assignment 1: Lines

OPPOSITES

inspired by Cai Guo Qiang’s explosion art where he creates organised chaos; beauty in destruction

As mentioned in my previous post, I have came up with 3 concepts: Adjacency, Opposites, Contrast. I noticed that they were quite similar, and thought that I could combine them into 1 – OPPOSITES.

CHALLENGES FACED

Originally, I have organised the 18 emotions into 6 categories – Rhythmic, Soft, Lines, Messy, Dark/Murky, Organisation.

As seen from the final layouts that we could use, there wasn’t any that could fit all 6 in, hence, I had to further re-categorize them and finally ended up with 4 – DARK, SOFT, MESSY, ORGANISED.

CONCEPT

The main concept is to place each emotions based on their visuals or their meanings beside/adjacent to each other to show the stark contrast between the 2.

I have also further grouped them into row categories based on their visual elements.

I have also tried exploring/experimenting with using opposite meanings, objects or techniques to further expand on the styles/concept.

EXAMPLES

sloven: using cleaning metal sponge to explain messy
awkward: related to silence, so opposite is noise which led to “film noise”
aggressive: writing praises, compliments aggressively
distracted: opposite is focus, so out of focus is bokeh in the camera
fragile: instead of using fragile object, I used “durable” mats like the cloth and drew wireframes to show the fragility
indecisive: decisive (decision tree) so I flip it upside down and it becomes roots
embarrassed: this is a head hiding upside down like ostrich
systematic: inspired by Cai Guo Qiang’s organised chaos, I thought of a traffic jam at a highway, still orderly even though chaotic

REFLECTION

I have found the assignment really insightful as I have learnt how abstraction is not really random art but much thought have been put into the process. I have also learnt more about myself as to how I interpret different emotions as they are really subjective. I felt that I could have experimented with more techniques that can help push my concept even further.