In summary, this project is about Typography. We have to create our own fonts, and use that for our names. We have to create it in such a way that it reflects a job that we want to have in the future.
I made use of Bahaus movement as part of my references. The simple use of Sans Serif, and the lines, basic shapes (trianges, circles and squares) are art of the trademarks of that movement. Kassily Kandinsky, a Bahaus artist is one that inspired me to make use of simple lines, and play around with them to make out a typeface.
I have little background on using digital softwares, so I had to rely on my drawing skills. Other mediums used are water colour and pen. And some photoshop in terms of scaling.
The following are in order, and my final pieces are right at the end of each order.
Taken from Pinterest. The use of simple lines and and placement of the lines portrays the feather-ink pen that was used back in the day. It is not literal but by looking at this, the form is there.
I was advised to use pen nibs, papers, writing fonts, and typewriter to show the job as a writer. Eventually I used this for later work.
Tried Hannah Hoch for this portrait. It was a lot of work to cut out and paste, but the outcome was ok, I guess. It doesn’t match the job as poet/writer.
At first, I wanted to work on poet. So I kind of explored the use of llipstick and used pen to show words “falling” out of a mouth. Like a sea of water gushing out of a person’s mouth. And lips being sewn together as well.
Again, working on “poet”. Drew words on the “water” falling out. It turned out a bit weird.
Ji Lee (South Korean communications + graphic designer)
playful with use of letters, match up with meaning
simple fonts, but bolded
Credits to Ji Lee for his work
This was before I knew what Typography was all about lol. It was some first skteches I made to show mother.
Different sketches I made.
Trying out water colour to paint a realistic picture of a preganant belly. The message would be clearer, as told by a classmate.
I was told the baby crib (1) does not speak “mother” . Instead it was babysitter. The 2nd one was not obvious, as told by others. I thought the “j” would show a person cradling a newborn, but it wasn’t obvious. Someone told me the “j” looks more like an alien lol
Adding baby crib to connect the idea of baby to mother. But I was advised that this could be seen as “babysitter” not “mother”.
After showing the previous clip to class, I was given some feedback to work on it. It’s mainly characterization and adding of clips, and also following the pace of the intro. Some liked to fast pace of the clips so they recommended it. On the other hand, the alter ego I potrayed was relevant but needed more scenes to portray her 100%. The alter ego is basically a lady who works full time yet manages to keep up with her role as a housewife/mother, as portrayed in kitchen. I had to add scenes of her ironing her working clothes + switching off gas pipes + receiving phone texts from her.
A peer recommended me this local literature play called Emily of the Emerald Hill. I only watched the above video to get a gist of what Emily, this middle-aged yet youthful looking Peranakan lady, is all about. Judging from the clip itself, she comes off as a rather, brash, outspoken and very expressive with her words and thoughts. I noticed her body language spoke more about this character much more than what she’s talking about. The flamboyant, yet feminine hand gestures, the dramatic rolling of eyes, the primadonna behavior and eye movement all made her someone as wanting to be in the spotlight ( figuratively).
I would put in some body language gestures and expression to show the alter ego in my video.
“Be the very devil of your wife and mother.. Bind them, wrap them… The husband, the son and the daughter-in-law must all depend on you, so YOU can control them… So the whole world knows your worth! “
– Emily of The Emerald Hill
Besides the feedback, I worked on making a piece of background noise to fit the video.
Jamaliah is my alter ego. I used her as my main character and I was the supporting role. No one could better fit the role of that alter ego other than my real mom lol
My idea is to portray this character as someone systematic, in-charge, confident, within her role as being a domesticated housewife. A little about this character – my mother works full time in a hospital, raised 5 kids, oldest among her siblings and has been with her husband for almost 3 decades. Hence, my mother’s upbringing and her overall mindset best fit the lter ego character.
Inspiration:
The movie “Ilo Ilo” was my first Asian movie I’ve ever watched. I really liked how the character of the Mother, happens to be domesticated by her household duties at home, but yet she’s the leader of the pack. From the way she always outs her hands on her hips, her stern voice, her stoic nature, her talking down on her husband after he lost his job and etc etc. It resembled the traits of my alter ego, so that was interesting.
As much as she’s known to be bossy and likes to snap the wits out her own husband,son and maid, it was most likely her way of dealing with them. And I thought I tried to incorporate that in a subtle way through “Jamaliah”, the alter ego.
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Potential character: Mother
Dress: Baju Batik ( Batik dress)
– Pounding sounds of stone mortar, batu lesung
– Baju batik
– Hand motions
– Sounds of sizzling oil on wok
– Close up shots of eyes
– Naj asks to help out with wok
– Naj pounding of batu lesung
– Mother pushes hand away and pounds ( transition from my hand-mama’s hand)
– Dialogue:
“Da ma nak gi kerje skrg malam, nanti da lambat ni. Tolong mama tutup srika dgn gas”.
Translation: ” Ok, I need to leave for night shift. I’m gonna be late. Help me switch off iron and turn off gas”
– Give Salam, “Bye”
– Mama closes door and gas pipe
– Washes batu lesung and carries it
Speed: Fast motion
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The one above was my initial plan. But I was short of time and manpower. The lead actor was also working full time so it was necessary to do things as fast as possible. So instead, I just filmed scenes in kitchen.
I named the clip “Batu Lesung“. It means stone mortar in Malay. It’s seomthing you use to pound little ingredients like garlic, anchovies and onions together before you stir fry them. Nowadays, modern people use the eletric blender but there’s something special about this “batu lesung”. It best describes the character , from the concrete material, it’s heaviness, the sound it makes, and its function in today’s modern day living.
We had to analyse real life or fictional characters whom we admires the most. We had to understand what are the traits or qualities these individuals possess that make them unique or likeable to us.
Literature/Fiction:
Protagonist From “In The Quiet” By Tan Mei Ching
Terry from “Ilo Ilo”
Captain Miller From “Saving Private Ryan”
Public Figures:
Yousef Erakat
Simmi Singh
Steve Harvey
Lana Del Rey
People I know:
Father
Mother
Mimi
2 Profiled Characters:
Jamaliah ( Mother)
Terry from IlO IlO
I chose Jamaliah because she resembled qualities of my ideal alter ego – strong-willed yet traditional-minded. For filming, I plan to make use of the kitchen to best portray this alter ego.
Jamaliah is my alter ego. I used her as my main character and I was the supporting role. No one could better fit the role of that alter ego other than my real mom lol
My idea is to portray this character as someone systematic, in-charge, confident, within her role as being a domesticated housewife. A little about this character – my mother works full time in a hospital, raised 5 kids, oldest among her siblings and has been with her husband for almost 3 decades. Hence, my mother’s upbringing and her overall mindset best fit the lter ego character.
Inspiration:
The movie “Ilo Ilo” was my first Asian movie I’ve ever watched. I really liked how the character of the Mother, happens to be domesticated by her household duties at home, but yet she’s the leader of the pack. From the way she always outs her hands on her hips, her stern voice, her stoic nature, her talking down on her husband after he lost his job and etc etc. It resembled the traits of my alter ego, so that was interesting.
As much as she’s known to be bossy and likes to snap the wits out her own husband,son and maid, it was most likely her way of dealing with them. And I thought I tried to incorporate that in a subtle way through “Jamaliah”, the alter ego.
__
Potential character: Mother
Dress: Baju Batik ( Batik dress)
– Pounding sounds of stone mortar, batu lesung
– Baju batik
– Hand motions
– Sounds of sizzling oil on wok
– Close up shots of eyes
– Naj asks to help out with wok
– Naj pounding of batu lesung
– Mother pushes hand away and pounds ( transition from my hand-mama’s hand)
– Dialogue:
“Da ma nak gi kerje skrg malam, nanti da lambat ni. Tolong mama tutup srika dgn gas”.
Translation: ” Ok, I need to leave for night shift. I’m gonna be late. Help me switch off iron and turn off gas”
– Give Salam, “Bye”
– Mama closes door and gas pipe
– Washes batu lesung and carries it
Speed: Fast motion
__
The one above was my initial plan. But I was short of time and manpower. The lead actor was also working full time so it was necessary to do things as fast as possible. So instead, I just filmed scenes in kitchen.
I named the clip “Batu Lesung“. It means stone mortar in Malay. It’s seomthing you use to pound little ingredients like garlic, anchovies and onions together before you stir fry them. Nowadays, modern people use the eletric blender but there’s something special about this “batu lesung”. It best describes the character , from the concrete material, it’s heaviness, the sound it makes, and its function in today’s modern day living.
“The Spirit Twin” is a short story, about a girl who finds a doppleganger – someone who looks exactly like her. But the differences between the girl and the doppleganger is that the latter is faceless and floats on air. The girl befriends her overtime. However, as we look into the doppleganger’s world, she happens to yearn her own real life identity, a real body, and to simply live like the girl she met. She plans to trick the real girl into suicide, so she can take over the girl’s body.
It’s pretty relatable to many of us. The lack of personal space and people making body contact with you is just gross.
2) Me + At a party = Dying
I’m not a party person….
3) Me + at dance practice = peer pressured to talk native
I speak English a lot, even among Malays. And back then that resulted me in Malay peers and even instructors telling me off for not speaking native. From the apparent “slang” I talked, the way I laughed, the words I used and basically the lack of malay-ness that didn’t come out of my mouth – resorted to me being judged. My reaction to this is feeling “force-fed” and pressured to fit in.
Moral of the story: i still love talking English
4) Me + at a wedding = Thinking
The unpredictable thing that comes with this. Sometimes you wonder if you lose a sense of self, once you make the leap. Do you still become a person of your own mind, or do become someone’s wife? And no this isn’t about arranged marriage or any of that crap. Just passing thoughts…..
(still pro-marriage btw)
As you noticed, the Renaissance them is portrayed throughout my works. Mostly Bosch settings are used and this famous Arnolfini painting is used as my setting as well! Credits to these artists because I used their works….
Me + after presenting my works = DONE FOR THE SEMESTER yay!! 🙂
After consulting Ms Ina on my samples: here are potential works I might use for finals.
I’m bad at being organized. I’m not so simple-minded. So sometimes when I’m on PS I’ll be exploring new patterns and play around with overlays and editing, that the outcome is so different from what I idealized. But towards the end you get a final gist of my themes in this Project Ego. And the ways to describe myself.
Me + Dance team = Struggle to fit in
Samples of “struggle to fit in”
I made use of Bosch paintings as backdrop. I played around with the overlays on my portraits and oversized it, to portray that feeling i wanted. I thought the black face was really cool.
The ones below people are some patterns I found quite disturbing. They’re similar to Bosch’s theme, whose paintings not only about naked people running around. but some surrealistic elements and disturbing human features in there.
This showed another side of my ego
Me + At dance practice= talking unnecessarily with girls, chit chatting, trying to fit in
Another side of my ego = shyness in social events like weddings and stuff like that. I thought of using batik patterns and hiding myself at some parts, as if trying to blend into the pattern.
This idea was not my best. But batiks are still pretty still. Instead, I was advised to use this cracked glass (below) to show a shyness. I made use of this eventually.
So, for this project, it was about me. We started out making thumbnail sketches of “Me + a social setting = My reaction”. I’ve made plenty of sketches below.
The ideas I had were quite narrative and literal. It had to be “abstractified”, so I had a hard time trying to make it more abstract. With the help of metaphors, symbols and some Photoshop here and there, I managed to make out some thumbnails. Ms Ina advised me to use some famous Renaissance paintings or portraits and incorporate that into my thumbnails as well. I’ve made some in the form of putting some of my faces in there.
I added cracks in this portrait. It was subtle. That “cracking” part was to show a kind of fragility in myself. I’m not made of glass or anything like that, but I guess this is about me being emotional, in a way. I also added drapery effect over my face, to show my sense of shyness, or hiding behind a curtain. It’s like another way to hide my true identity. Getting rid of the face completely was also interesting as well. I liked this part the most, because it’s unusual for a famous portrait of a female, to have no face.I used ice and out some random pics of myself in there. These dices of ice are meant to show shyness and uneasiness. And the place where I usually go through this are.. weddings! I thought ice and melting ice was symbolic, in a way. It does show how I “freeze up” in a social setting like a wedding. It’s not always uncomfortable when I’m there, but it can make you uneasy at times.MRT trains as the social setting. It’s the place where you are being squeezed in , and invaded by random strangers, especially during peak hour. I added this galaxy background and put that as inner part of the train, I thought it gave off a cool effect.
In the meantime, I’ll be exploring more ways to “abstractify” my ideas about “Me + Setting = My Reaction” and wait for feedback from Ms Ina on the current images I have, as above. The next processes I’ll post soon, will probably be improved versions on current thumbnails, and the use of colours for them.q
A young person wanting to be taken seriously. Yet this person is wailing like a child.
So I basically edited some photos like little girls and cute babies online, and found the following.
I also took images of people looking like they’re “prying into people’s lives”. People watching over you, being watched, looking out the window.
Grouchy, vintage engraved illustration. History of France – 1885.
As you can see 2 kids peeping through the curtain. The curtain reminded me of a section of medieval dresses as seen here( below). The curtain reminded me of the dress’ opening. So I wanted to try merging stuff together – like this pic at the bottom of a ladies’ dress.
From looking at all these, I had a few compositions in mind to rep the quote: “It’s called privacy. I’m not 12 anymore!”
– compilation of people looking out the window, so these come in form of boxes, with people looking into viewer’s eyes
– baby wailing in agony of people watching over him
– baby wailing with small rpepttion shapes of people “raining” on the background
– owls “spying” on you
– merging a subject being watched + a subject who’s a watcher
This was the idea of a baby with “prying” people surrounding him. I wanted to use checkered pattern, and add in a bit of shuffling of it, as a way to contrast. Besides that,the repeeated picture of the ladies looking out the window is a way to portray invasion of privacy. In response to that, the adult baby goes “It’s called privacy. I’m not 12 anymore!” *wails like a baby*
But the composition did not work out though.
As you can see 2 kids peeping through the curtain. The curtain reminded me of a section of medieval dresses as seen here( below). The curtain reminded me of the dress’ opening. So I wanted to try merging stuff together – like this pic at the bottom of a ladies’ dress.
After getting some one on one feedback by Ms Ina, I had to make mae changes to my final compositions. Here they are:
This was one of my finalized works, from Process part 1.
