Assignment 2: Nursery Rhyme


Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

 Many theories have popped up around the world with what this nursery rhyme really mean? This amongst the rest is the one we are most familiar with, it suggests that the rhyme narrates a mother gently rocking her baby to sleep, as if the baby were riding the treetops during a breeze; then, when the mother lowers the baby to her crib, the song says “down will come baby.”


FINAL 4
297 x 297a(small)Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop.

297 x 297b(small)When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,


297 x 297c(small)
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,


297 x 297d(small)
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

PROCESSES!

1. Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop, 

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I tried to explore a few angles (as seen in the 16 exploration design below) of how the baby could be seen “on the treetop” and settled for a top view as it was more interesting. After creating the first design, I realised that the baby was not as prominent in the design as everything was using the halftone effect thus adding the crate to have a treshold effect.

Thinking that I was done on the second panel, the baby looked really weak on the test print which I had again and felt the need to just change the baby to one that has a darker shade not be overshadowed by the rest of the treshold designs.

2. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,

process1

Created first with the spiral design, I love how interesting it has started out with, and the graphic look it portrayed. Trying to play with how the spiral looks, I tried to create a more dynamic feel with shifting the centre point.

Feeling that the focus point being in the centre creates better symmetry, I revert the spiral design back to the middle. With the rhyme being played in the aspect of trees, I included leaves to create a dynamic feeling of wind being blown in the form of a whirlwind.

3. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall

process3

 tree-wood-texture-2

Trying to not do a very literal example of the nursery line, I decided to play with the texture of the tree as seen over here, and create a crack on it as well. This crack also acts like a tunnel or hole that the “cradle will fall” into to have an interesting element to the meaning of it.

Trying to not literally use a cradle, I tried with a baby first, but settled with a pacifier. Adding the graphic element at the background also acts like a flow of direction for the design, almost like a speed bump seen in games.

3. And down will come baby, cradle and all.

process4

Trying to envision the cradles as falling leaves, I realise that the message was not brought across as clearly as I wanted to, thus I incorporate some of the features of a real leave onto the cradle; the stem, tip of the leave, etc.

The background lines are added next to accentuate the graphic look I wanted in this series, also creating a sense of chaos with the different thickness and directions.

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Here is a look into how I included the leaves into the cradles. As you can see here I also played with the looks of the threshold and halftone to explore which looks better, but in the end chose the threshold as it was a better fit to the look of the design.

Assignment 3: Re-telling Myths

FINDME3

SYNOPSIS:
ELIJAH is a young man who because of the death of his parents develops severe depression which triggered a rare psychological condition that causes him to slowly lose his eyesight, hysterical blindness. This said to be the purest form of distancing oneself from reality and was documented to be the mind trying to protect the person in some way or another.
Elijah doesn’t talk and stays in bed all day, his aunt and uncle who took over him after the incident agrees together that he needs to see a therapist. Elijah not happy about their decision snuck out of the house despite his failing eyesight. He goes to a coffee house and tries to read a book, it goes to no avail and that’s when his eyesight completely shuts off. Panic-stricken over this sudden occurrence he appears overly agitated but remained conscious of his surrounding to make a ruckus. A man notices this happening and swipes Elijah’s phone and wallet that was on the table away. Elijah tried to leave the place and was accused of feigning blindness to avoid paying for his food, a woman, JANET, came to his rescue.
Janet is a psychology student and after learning Elijah’s story wants to help him regain his vision. She brings him home despite his refusal and starts on her little project. She found out that his parents did not die from an accident but rather a joint suicide which Elijah was supposed to partake. Overcame by the memory of his parents he grew extremely agitated and throws a tantrum, Janet realizes she took more than she could swallow.
After a few days, Janet sets up her mind to continue on what she has started and decided to do things that Elijah have enjoyed in the past in hopes of triggering a happy emotion. Elijah does not respond to anything from the experiment but slowly grew affectionate towards Janet. The more he spends time together with Janet, the better his eyesight becomes. He chokes up his confidence to ask for a date with Janet one day only to find out that she is engaged.
Trying to act like it doesn’t affect him, he demands to return back to his aunt’s home. His eye starts to deteriorate again. Janet faced with the sudden confession realizes that she actually does love Elijah and calls off the engagement with her fiancé. She goes to find Elijah to tell him of her decision but was hit by the news that he has tried to kill himself. She decides that avoiding him would be the best for him and left his house with tears.
Elijah survives his suicide but has returned to being completely blind, this went on for 2 years with no improvement physically or mentally. One day, he finally decides to take up the suggestion of seeing a therapist. His aunt, instructed by him dropped him off to the clinic alone and left. He registers his name and waits patiently at the tiny room lighted by a fluorescent tube. His name is called and he enters the room, a hand leads him towards a sofa and whispers, “I found you”. Elijah recognizes that voice to be Janet’s and smiles.
END.