It was quite time consuming to do four different styles on different mediums, but the experimentation process was fun and worth it 🙂

The first row I worked on was Birb Eats;  me as a small bird having difficulty eating “small sized” meals.

I used watercolours for this one, not really to add meaning to the piece, but more because I liked the look of this style and wanted to try it out.

What I found interesting and really aesthetically pleasing about watercolours is that when it dries, you can see rim of the marks made. The colour can also be very soft, depending on how diluted the paint is, which kinda helps portray that soft, dull colour I wanted for the feathers (because I see myself as a little dull, wardrobe-wise, so I guess the watercolour does add meaning after all).

I chose the colours red to yellow because they are colours that stimulate hunger, which is fitting for the topic of food. I was trying really hard to find triadic and split complimentary palettes that had both green and red in them, because I really wanted the burger to have lettuce in it. Alas, I couldn’t find that combination of colours in those palettes and had to forgo the green.

The second row was Plastic Gucci; me as plastic bag, looking at a fashion magazine and trying hard to look like those fashionable people, or bags, in this case.

For this row, I used a method which I could only identify as scrapbooking, because I used various materials such as cloth for the couch, patterned paper for the background, magazine clippings for the magazine, and plastic for, well, plastic bag me.

This style requires quite a bit of trail and error, mostly for the mini plastic bag. It took me about four to five attempts to create two good plastic bags, mainly because I didn’t have a template and had to figure out the right dimensions for them. The couch was relatively easy, because I’ve done stitching before, and this was a simple design.

And as for the Gucci bag in the magazine, it took awhile, but I managed to get the two G cut outs right on the third attempt.

The magazine took a bit of trail and error too, because the magazine is a little slanted, so they aren’t just rectangular clippings. I also had to look through several magazines to find pages that were pink-ish to fit the colour scheme.

The reason for using pink-ish colours was to symbolise beauty, and some purple for a little bit of vanity. This helps to emphasise on plastic bag me trying to look beautiful. However, the plastic bag itself is white, to show my pure, plain, and probably non-existent fashion sense.

The third row, one of my favourites, is Peanut on Fire; me as a peanut, placed under pressure and heat that everyone else seems to be handling just fine, while I alone catch fire instead.

I used simple vectors for this because it’s clean, and rounded off the edges to make it look calm and friendly, which contrasts nicely to the chaos that goes on in the panel above. I also chose colours from orange to yellow to show that energy when the others (represented by delicious popcorn) succeed, despite the heat they are under, rocketing off the pan as they pop. Yellow is also a colour that represents anxiety and nervousness, both of which I relate to when under pressure and in the midst of a lot of people.

To further emphasise on the stress faced by peanut me, I used a crumpled paper background for all three frames. Comparing the paper textures from left to right, the paper gets more crinkled, showing the increasing level of stress.

Overall, this row was easier to do, probably because it was digital and didn’t need a lot of materials and paints to create like the other rows. Thank goodness for Photoshop and it’s pen tool.

Lastly, we have Procrastinating Panda; me as a panda, procrastinating as always, and slaving away at the last minute, trying to finish all my assignments on time.

This was done in colour pencils, because I can make controlled marks with it, and the lines get thicker and and grainier as you apply more pressure. I also tried combining what I learned about mark making in this row, playing with lines and their meanings. For this one in particular, I used loops and scribbles.

The first panel is coloured in with small loops to show how calm and happy panda me feels, sleeping the day away. The colour I used is mainly blue, a relaxing colour. But we shift to the last panel, the blue colour changes to represent fear and depression; fear of not being able to finish my assignments on time, and depression as a general “there’s no hope for me anymore” feeling what washes over me when this happens.

The lines change from smooth loops to sharp scribbles. This represents the shift to a more stressed feeling as I work on my assignments.

The last panel is the most chaotic, as well as the darkest panel of the three, the scribbles dense and reflecting all my fears and anxiety.