“My Line is Emo”

MyLineIsEmo
The Walls have ears, the Lines have Feelings

“My Line is Emo” is our very first assignment in 2D. Above are the 18 outcomes I had created to represent emotions. In order from top to bottom, they are:

  1. Excitement
  2. Carefree
  3. Indecisive
  4. Emptiness
  5. Lost
  6. Loneliness
  7. Sadness
  8. Dreamy
  9. Anger
  10. Tormented
  11. Horror
  12. Worry
  13. Fury
  14. Fear
  15. Joy
  16. Hurt
  17. Grief
  18. Accomplished

My personal favourite emotion would have to be loneliness, which shows a big white dot trying to reach out to others (the cluster of little black dots on the extreme left of the strip), but is unable to do so.

And with the completion of this assignment, I am feeling the very last emotion with the highest degree!

Now time to finally get some rest!

Goodnight
Goodnight

 

 

 

Mark Making & Memory Drawing

MARK MAKING

In the past few weeks we had been learning how various tools could be used as mark making tools.

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Here is a carrot
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Here is a carrot as a mark making tool
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Vegetables! Caution: not for human consumption

This exercise made me realise that even everyday objects were potential mark makers – several of the objects I used were things that I were about to throw, but I kept it them for experimenting. I was actually very surprised by the various results and the randomness of them during our experimentation.

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One can only imagine what patterns this object makes
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Experimentation with both edible and inedible objects
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Pictured above: the everyday objects I used

Even a roller could produce various effects with just the ink, and it appears to be the most basic “mark making” tool compared to other objects with more complex shapes and textures.

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Playing/Experimenting with the roller to create interesting marks

I was able to produce gradients with the roller, but it was not something I could control easily.

Additionally, I was also glad to have the chance to use our penknife to cut this!

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We would later use this as a mark making tool itself, by carving intricate patterns on it and painting its surface with ink to create something like this:

20160819_111503For those that don’t know what it is, it actually is a stormtrooper helmet design (abstracted with lines). It was inspired by my notebook:

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I love Star Wars

cool

MEMORY DRAWING

Another thing we had learned was how to generate ideas for our assignment. One method was memory drawing. I was unsure of whether it would produce something I would want, but I was open to try it and see what it would produce!

I closed my eyes and with my eyes shut, held the pencil and thought of a memory relation to an emotion to produce a possible outcome. The result looked like a bunch of random lines which intersected to form shapes, but it was not as random as I expected and it produced some interesting features.

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Happiness Memory Drawing

After the drawing, a few distinct shapes or features can be picked up and I intend to play with one of it for using in my final “emo line”. Memory drawing is a technique I had not done before and it was definitely eye-opening to give it a try in class.

I also wrote words next to these features of the drawing. They are mostly words which come to mind on the fly when I look at the drawing. They may remind me of other things or hopefully inspire me if I take a second look.

 

A Turtle on the Beach

This story is about an object that is close to my heart, and the object is none other than a turtle.

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Say Hi

But this turtle is more than just an object, it is a representation of something bigger.

When I was young, in Primary 4, they used to have these “assemblies” on Wednesdays where everyone in the school would gather in the hall, and usually someone from outside would present on stage to us – the items vary a lot and usually have no relation to school – from sex education, to performances.

One day there was man who came in, and a huge projector screen draped down behind him. He sat in front of the projector and he took out a sheet of blank paper.

He took out a pencil and we all could see on the screen what he was drawing – and it was a turtle. Turns out the guy is a cartoonist!

He began to draw another variation of the turtle, explaining “If you want to make the character cute, you draw the head bigger than the body”.

I was fascinated.

He then continued to draw more turtles, illustrating how changing the eyebrows and the eyes convey different moods and emotions.

Around me, people were getting bored, but I was just sitting there listening. I took out my book and I remember trying to follow his drawings and taking notes. “Head bigger than body”

When I got home, I started to draw turtles, inventing my own emotions and style. I started with characters, then I would cut out these characters and form a story with the different turtles – a turtle was happy, he met a girl turtle, he got rejected, he became sad, then he went on to train up and be strong, but the girl found another turtle. I started to draw comics based on these and I still am drawing comics now with turtles as my characters. Since then I’ve used turtles as characters in comics and even in games that I made.

So this turtle is a representation of me. Without it, I would be a very different person and I might even question whether I would be here at ADM.

It’s all thanks to the cartoonist and his turtle that made me the way I am today. I still draw turtles today, and use turtles in the comics that I draw and even used a turtle as a main character in a story driven game I had made.

And so, on my trip to the beach recently, I decided to bring my little friend along.

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I think back to the time we first met each other, curious and excited.
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And the strong friendship we had forged in the time that we had spent together.
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It has been years but here we are. There were tough times, but together I believe we can conquer what is to come!

The Beach

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The beach had always been a kind of peaceful retreat for me. When I was really young, my parents would bring me to the beach and some of my childhood memories came from that place. I remember there was one Art and Craft activity in Primary School where the teacher wanted us to draw a place based on what we feel. I said I was going to draw a beach and the teacher presumed that I was happy and joyful, which wasn’t wrong. To the teacher, the beach is a lively place where families spend time together, being happy and together. But my impression of the beach is more like a haven that I go to spend time with myself. A place where I can be alone. The beach and the sea is a very unique place and I believe everyone has different interpretations of the beach.

On the beach, I feel carefree, and when I’m there, I allow myself to not worry about the problems of life or its stresses. I can sit in the sand and just reflect endlessly. I clear my thoughts and get rid of a lot of “junk” in my head. Because I hadn’t gone to the beach in a long time (and actually failed to plan a trip there prior to the start of Uni), when I was actually there I saw kids building sandcastles and I actually had the urge to build sandcastles, just to go back to those happy childhood times.

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And here are some of the pictures I took when I was there.

The sea is a magnificent place. It has several different interpretations to people, just like how it was for my Arts and Craft teacher years ago. To me, I wanted this shot to show the vastness of the sea and how I can sit there reflecting and thinking endlessly.

MyWorld_04
Watching the sun set timelessly

Sunsets are special. They leave us in awe, are inspiring and the colours just evoke special emotions within us. While I was there, capturing other photos of the beautiful sunset, so were other people. The sunset is a timeless moment that suspends us. To me, looking into the sunset is like taking a peek into the future – it’s magical and you never know what will happen tomorrow and what possibilities await you.

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The final photo is of me looking back into my past which I have chosen to present with a long shadow that drapes behind us when we turn back.

Just to end off, this was a bonus picture I was taking, just out of fun:

MyWorld_02

I was playing with depth of field with this one. I personally liked it but I felt that it might not fit the assignment brief of it being “My World” as the world was not being made the focus enough.

Shoes

Above is also another shot omitted from the final three I had chosen, composing of a pair of brightly coloured flocks as the focal point and subtle footprints in the sand leading out from it toward the sea.

Learning Outcomes

This assignment made me learn that body language plays a big role in portraying a particular message, such as using it to convey friendship in the 3 pictures with my turtle.

Looking at some of my peers’ work and references below, I also saw how colours could be used to bring out and stir certain emotions within us, and how a colour palette can even be used to give your work a certain style or flow. It was definitely helpful and insightful to look at everyone’s work pinned up in a gallery-like way and see the different thought processes put into them.

References

To help me in my process and also post review work, I decided to look up some references on how I can improve myself. I looked at animated films for this work.

Pixar-Turtle
That turtle is famous, dude!

I had done some research and above you can see how the colours used in a Pixar film like Finding Nemo are more bright and vibrant to appeal to its target audience. After reviewing my original photos, I had realized that my colour palette was not sufficiently vibrant so I had to improve it.

LionKing_LiftingSimba

Above is a famous scene from Lion King when Simba is lifted into the air. You can see the reference in the third picture with my turtle where I lift my turtle into the air against the grand sunset.

As a reward for reading all the way to the bottom, I leave you with this (hopefully) inspiring picture of the sunset which I had taken on the beach on my trip there!

Sunset
Best reward ever, agree? No? Alright…

I was a little late and had to run with my tripod and camera so I had missed some potential shots with the sun higher up before setting below the horizon.

The Shadow


THE-SHADOW

Genre: Mystery, Psychology

As a person who takes a lot of time to warm up to people and talk to others comfortably, I think there’s a lot about me that people may not know or be bothered to know as a result. I believe we all have our own hidden stories and ‘shadows’.

If I made a movie about my life, the premise would likely be about a person who sits in the “shadows”. He’s alone, afraid to come out, and he has to find out why, maybe even dig deep into his past and confront the things he may be afraid to see. Will he one day find the key to the door that takes him out into the light? Or will he remain in his own shadow, cast into the darkness and forgotten?


The poster uses tones to create a stark contrast of the character who stands silhouetted against the lighter tone of the staircase behind him in the background. The scene resembles a narrow alley with a one-point perspective for depth.

Emotions

A list of tertiary emotions we have learned today:

1. Affection
2. Lust
3. Longing
4. Cheerfulness
5. Zest
6. Contentment
7. Pride
8. Optimism
9. Enthralment
10. Relief
11. Surprise
12. Irritation
13. Exasperation
14. Rage
15. Disgust
16. Envy
17. Torment
18. Suffering
19. Sadness
20. Disappointment
21. Shame
22. Neglect
23. Sympathy
24. Horror
25. Nervousness