Project 3: My Existential Ego (Final Post)

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This is my final layout during the presentation. The layout is carefully balanced in terms of type, illustrations with symmetry, pattern, and mouth motifs. Now let me explain the equations row by row.

FIRST EQUATION

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UNORTHODOX
The unorthodox is represented by the colour blue of the lips. The background of pink is supposed to symbolise the normal environment in which the unorthodox blue tries to exist in.

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MEET NEW PEOPLE
The pink colour irises symbolises the judging eyes of new normal people.

I took a long time getting ready to exist

TRYING TO STAY NORMAL
The pink judging eyes of normal people results in the ego acting completely normal, represented by the entirely pink composition, in the public eye. However the ego can never truly hide its unorthodox-ness, as hinted by the hidden blue shadow of the type.

SECOND EQUATION

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SOCIAL CHAMELEON
This is represent by the two colours pink and blue co-existing harmoniously. It shows how the ego is able to be both colours as any time of interaction.

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MEET SIMILAR PEOPLE
This is shown by the two colours, similar to the piece above representing the ego.

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GO CRAZY
This is shown by how in the above two compositions a muted pink and blue is used with duller tone to represent the ego and people similar to the ego. But when they come together, they become vibrant and more saturated in the last composition.

THIRD EQUATION

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CYNICAL
This is represented by the extremely dark hue of the pink and blue used.

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MEET PEOPLE WHO HAVE AN IDEALISE OUTLOOK
This is represented by the very bright, sweet, and saturated tone of pink, blue and purple used.

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DESTROYS OTHERS’ IDEALS
This is represented but how the darker hues (cynicism of the ego) literally seep and cover the pastel pink background (the ideals).

FOURTH EQUATION

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LOW EMOTIONAL CAPACITY
This is represented by the de-saturated pink, blue and purple.

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MEET EMOTIONAL PEOPLE
The emotional people is represented by the vibrant and saturated blue and pink, as well as the “emotional roller-coaster”.

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CANNOT MIX WITH EMOTIONAL PEOPLE
The ego is represented by the pistol which has unsaturated colours and the emotional people by the vibrant lips and background.

To conclude, I really enjoyed this project and felt that I am on my way to developing a visual style that I am proud to call my own. Some challenges I faced was time limitations to clean up certain details of the illustrations. However, on the whole, I am glad that I managed to come up with a coherent series. Also, a large thank you to Joy for being so patient and giving me so much guidance and confidence throughout my entire 2D journey.

Hope to continue working on such projects in future!

(Disclaimer: There was a problem with the colour of the high quality images of the illustrations after uploading them onto OSS, thus, after multiple trials and methods, I only finally managed to upload these with accurate colour. Please pardon the lower-quality images)

Project 3: Direct Thought Process of My Ego (WIP)

The way I approached this project was really straightforward. As I am very result oriented, I did not experiment much composition-wise, but more so thought it through and planned it out in my mind.

I listed the character traits which I thought affected the way I interact with people and narrowed it down to the four main traits of being unorthodox, being a social chameleon, being cynical, and being emotionally empty.

Then to complete each equation I thought circumstances or people that might result in me showing my character trait. Some examples are

For UNORTHODOX
– When meeting new people, will become normal
– When meeting with societal judgement, will conform
– When meeting people who are not used to the peculiarity of art students

For SOCIAL CHAMELEON
– When meeting new people, will try to figure out what kind of person they are
– When meeting similar kind of person, will go crazy

For CYNICAL
– When meeting people who have idealised outlook, will destroy their ideals
– When meeting new people, will be distrustful of their intentions

For LACKING EMOTIONAL CAPACITY
– When meeting emotional people, will sympathise but cannot empathise

For each equation I selected the situations that make the most coherent sense as one of the four equations.

Thus I resulted in the following equations:

Character Situation Resulting Reactions
UNORTHODOX Meet New People Will try to be normal (Hide unorthodox-ness)
SOCIAL CHAMELEON Meet Similar People Go crazy (In a positive manner)
CYNICAL Meet People Who Have an Idealised Outlook Destroy their ideals
LACKING EMOTIONAL CAPACITY Meet Emotional People Cannot mix well with them

With these equations settled, I thought about how to apply colour theory to the different equations. I know that I wanted a coherent overall look for the twelve squares so it was a matter of deciding the overall colour scheme, then manipulating the value and tone of the colours to portray the meaning of my work.

Initially I wanted to use this colour scheme, like split complementary colours grouped together.

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However, after some research, I decided I was interested in the “pastel grunge” aesthetics. The colour scheme that suits such a style would be the rather dreamy pastel analogous colour scheme of blue, purple, and pink.

Thus, I did up a list of different tonal value of these three colours as a main colour chart guide for my illustrations.

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Lastly, illustration-wise, I wanted the entire piece to look like a coherent decorative series. Thus, I decided that the elements in the composition would not really represent the meaning of the equation, but more of the colours in the composition.

Here are some research photos I found online on pastel grunge that the aesthetic of my illustrations were inspired/based on:

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Basically a rather stylised, pastel, illustrated, teenage-angst aesthetics.

The only experimentation I did composition-wise was that of the mouth motif, as I decided to repeat it for every equation.

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I thought that adding a neon ring of light might make the composition more visually attractive. However, I realised that this move strayed too far from my general aesthetics, thus, I decided to stick to just the illustration of the mouth.

Trial Sketch:

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With this, I conclude my rather direct thought and planning process of this project. See you in the final project post! 🙂