Project Ego

We have reached the last project for Foundation 2D. For this project, we are to create 12 image compositions (4 sets of 3), where one image representing yourself adds with another image that represents a situation which will then form another image.

Me + Situation = Imagined outcome

For this project also, we are finally allowed to use colour. With that said, we have to show our understanding of the use of colours and the colour theory in our compositions.

Me and the Situations

So before we go into the compositions, we have to decide what or how to represent “me” and what sort of situations to put “me” into. To think of the different representations of myself, I think of how I see myself in life, my hobbies and my interests. And to think of the situations, I thought of things that happen in my life, short or regular, that I think would have a good way to represent or situations that have created an impact in my life.

4 representations of “me”
  1. An empty canvas – I chose it to represent my interest in art and have always been involved in art since I was very young. Empty, because I am still looking for a style that truly represents me.
  2. The sculpture “Kouros” – I learned about this sculpture in an Art History class. The sculpture is one of the early attempts to create a human. It is imperfect and can be improved, which represents me – imperfect and can/willing to improve.
  3. A camera – This item would definitely represent my hobby which is photography.
  4. A sloth – Well, this is the best default representation of me. When I am not designing or out taking photos, I very much love to sleep and sloth around, literally. I am also a late bloomer. It used to take me a much longer time to grasp something compared to others.
4 Situations
  1. Family gatherings – No matter how much I hate it, I have to go through it. Every year. Most of the time I will wait for time to pass and I just cannot wait for it to end.
  2. Shopping – Either window shopping or with the intention of buying something, retail therapy is one of my favourite pass time. I will normally put in the effort to dress up to go to town and meet up with friends to chill till evening.
  3. Travelling – It is a yearly event to travel with my family and it becomes a time to unwind and just not think about work or school.
  4. Sports – I really hate playing sports. I could just be one of the most unsporty guys out there. I really hate it since young and I really really hate PE lessons.

Draft

The Designs

There are 4 sets of 3 designs, 12 designs in total. Each of the 4 sets, as mentioned earlier, has a design that represents “me”, followed by a design that represents a situation, which is then followed by a design that represents an imagined outcome.

I am also going for the vintage-style digital collage, inspired by Hannah Hoch’s works. So my designs will have several images which if combined creates another image. The images will also be blurred slightly and have grainy noise added to it to add to the vintage look that I am going for.

I am going for an achromatic colour palette as I feel like I have a dull life at that colour palette would the best way to represent it. It also adds contrast to the background which will be coloured. The background will be coloured instead of the objects to represent how each situation and element represents and contributes to my life in general rather than the objects specifically.

First row

The first “me” is represented by an empty canvas. It represents my artistic side as well as me still looking for a style that represents me. In a way, I’m an open empty canvas.

The first situation is shopping, represented by shopping bags. It is something that I do occasionally during my free time, either for window shopping or with the intention to actually buy something.

The imagined situation is actually me, what used to be an empty canvas has now been painted on, representing me having found a style. So what contributed to the style are the other elements in the design. On the right side are paintbrushes which represent my friends who normally help to influence the style that I go for. While on the left are artist’s palettes with handles which represent shopping bags, the “paint” that style or design the canvas.

Second Row

The second representation of me is with the Kouros status. I learned about this statue in art history class which is one of the first attempts by artists to create a sculpture to represent a perfect human being. As nice as it looks, it is still imperfect and there are many more improvements that can be made, which are the many improvements that take place throughout history. Which in turn represents me in life. I am still not “ideal” or “perfect” in a way. What I am now can be further developed and further improved over time.

The second situation is travelling, represented by the aeroplane windows. It is a family past time to travel overseas together every year. There is a view of the Nyhavn in Copenhagen through the middle window to represent my most recent travel there, which will then follow up to the next design.

For the imagined outcome is that me, the sculpture, end up carrying all the luggage bags during the trip. This actually happened during the trip with my family to Copenhagen where I was the only child there and I had to carry my parents and my own luggage bags.

Third Row

For the third representation of me, I have chosen the camera because it is the best way to show my passion which is photography. So I combined the camera with human legs to represent “me”.

The fourth situation is with my relatives. Either during the festive season or during family gatherings, socializing with my relatives especially distant relatives is not something that i like to do.

So for the imagined outcome is me, represented by the camera and legs like the first frame, is hiding behind time. In a way, I am waiting for the time to pass.

Fourth Row

For the last design, I chose a sloth to represent me in my default mood. Sleeping and just being lazy is just me when I am not doing anything. So in the design, there is a sloth with sleepy eyes and mouth sleeping on a pile of pillows under a blanket and a couple of Zs floating in the air.

The last situation I picked is sports. It was one of the lessons during primary and secondary school that I really hate and makes me realise that I am not a sporty person and that I cannot do sports.

So to represent my hate for sports, I put the sloth in a situation where the sloth became the ball and is being kicked around with a worried and terrified face.

Project Ego – Research

We have reached the last project for Foundation 2D. For this project, we are to create 12 image compositions (4 sets of 3), where one image representing yourself adds with another image that represents a situation which will then form another image.

Me + Situation = Imagined outcome

For this project also, we are finally allowed to use colour. With that said, we have to show our understanding of the use of colours and the colour theory in our compositions.

Colour Research

Different colours play a part in giving different meanings in design. It can be used as a symbol to represent different emotion in art.

  • Red – used to represent danger, anger and violence. It can also be used to represent love and passion.
  • Orange – used to represent creativity, passion, energy & endurance
  • Yellow – Life, energy, hope, wisdom, happiness
  • Green – Growth, health, envy, inexperience
  • Blue – Calming, freshness, purity, hygiene
  • Purple – Royalty, wealth, power
  • Black – Death, mourning, witchcraft, evil, fear
  • Grey – Boredom, decay, old age
  • White – Peace, purity, goodness

Knowing all these, I will implement the colours into this assignment to represent the different emotions that are represented in each artwork (square).

Artist Reference

So we are to look for 3 artists with styles that we could use in our works and pick one from the 3 that we would like to use as a reference.

I was planning to do digital collages for my works as I feel like trying that out and it would be interesting to see how it is used to represent the different elements in each composition.

Man Ray

The first digital collage artist that I found in Man Ray. I find that his works are mainly real images, somehow overlapped or manipulated with another image, creating a really interesting composition. Some of his works look like it is a double exposed photo.

Max Ernst by Man Ray (1934). Image from https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/423056958727760690/

Eventhough I think that his style looks great, I think it would be too much of an effort to recreate it into my compositions.

John Stezaker

I really think John Stezaker’s works are unique to himself. Most of his works are a composition of two or more portraits or faces and combined seamlessly into one face or portrait.

Marriage L by John Stezaker (2007). Image from http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/john_stezaker.htm

Marriage VIII by John Stezaker (2006). Image from http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/john_stezaker.htm

As much as I think his works look great and unique to his own, I think it will be hard to express other elements in the composition that does not involve portraits or faces.

Hannah Hoch

The last of the digital collage artists that I came across is Hannah Hoch. Her style of collage is mainly combining different cut-outs of images and creating another image from them or just creating a composition from it with each cut-out representing an element in the composition.

Flight by Hannah Hoch (1931). Image from https://www.artsy.net/artwork/hannah-hoch-flucht-flight

Hannah Hoch will be the artist reference that I will be using for my works because I feel that it is an interesting way to represent the elements in each composition and the overall look and feel gives a unique look to it.

References