2D Project 3 – Ego (Research)

THOUGHTS ON CLASS ACTIVITY

For the first class activity, using materials given, we were tasked to mind-map a summary of our personality, traits and attributes of ourselves. Some attributes I’ve written down were that I am adventurous, open-minded, sociable, care-free, meticulous and philosophical (haha). Later on, we passed this piece of paper to our classmates and they would write something else that describes you/ add on to your work. My classmates wrote that I am pleasant, funny, nice, friendly, sweet, caring, I have nice vibes, I’m chill (NOT TRUE), good time management ^^, and that I had a lovely design style. I felt really touched to see all that! Thank you friends :’) Overall, I thought it was a really fun way to get to know yourself/ your peers more. I think that this exercise was rather personal too and it was nice to see the class expressing themselves openly.

The second class activity follows the same concept. However the question given to us was what our predictions were for the year 2020. Upon graduation, I would want to travel and start a career in the design industry (possibly in UK – I adore this company: Stranger & Stranger), save up for my future house and have strong relationships with my loved ones. Personally, I felt that I haven’t really thought much about my future and I have to definitely set more goals because 5 years is a short period of time! 🙁

Thirdly, we had to come up with some attributes that we would like to add (+), remove (-), and multiply (x) from ourselves. Some things I wrote initially were… (+) I want to be more positive and always think about the big picture. (-) Overthink/ worry less. (x) Be more enthusiastic with everything I do, strive for excellence. This is all I got so far but I’ll be brainstorming more for the next consultation. 🙂

5 COLOUR THEORIES

Monochromatic Harmony – A monochromatic colour scheme uses a variety of lightness and saturation of a single colour harmoniously.

Images from – aunatural.tumblr.com and http://design-seeds.com/home/entry/leaf-greens2

Analogous Harmony – Analogous colours are located next to one another on the colour wheel. The colours green and blue are analogous. The colours are matching and are pleasing to the eye. When choosing an analogous colour scheme, one colour will dominate and the second colour supports it.

Images from – saatchionline.com and colorpalettes.net

Analogous Harmony Warm and Cool – Warm: Strong, energetic, bright colours. E.g. orange, red, yellow. Cool: Calming, soothing, mild, muted colours. E.g. blue, green, purple.

Images from – amandapowellsellars.weebly.com and blog.lili.farm

Complementary Hues – Complementary colours are opposite one another on the colour wheel. For example red and green. They are highly contrasting and vibrant. They are used to draw attention to something in particular.

Images from – http://www.applearts.com/content/bicycle-morning-shadows and https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/design-seeds-1753322/citrus-brights-4258012874

Split Complementary – Split complementary colours uses two colours adjacent to its complementary base colour. The third colour to eases the eye despite the strong visual contrast.

Images from – http://www.thejungalow.com/2012/08/elephantastic.html and https://500px.com/photo/32575387/steps-by-yiannis-pavlis

ARTIST REFERENCES (COLOUR + STYLE)

I found several illustrations with colour schemes and styles that I really like. Will be looking out for more! 🙂

Mimi Kim (Los Angeles, USA)

Tobias Hall (London)

Owen Davey

Mar Hernandez (Spain) – Beer bottle label

Katerina Pytina (Russia)

2D Project 2 – New Dingbats

2D Project 2 – Old Dingbats

2D Project 2 – Rhymes (Final)

INITIAL SONG CHOICE + CHALLENGES

Initially, I wanted to work on the Christmas songs, “Winter Wonderland” or “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” as Christmas is my favourite holiday of the year and it has great significance to me as I celebrate it religiously every year. I truly enjoy the whole essence of Christmas as it brings my loved ones and I together after being away from one another through the year. Hence, my initial dingbats were based on a Christmas theme.

When we were told to change our chosen songs to rhymes, I couldn’t decide to work on either “Hickory, dickory, dock, a mouse went up the clock” or “The sailor went to sea”. I concluded that “The sailor went to sea” had more potential to play around with compositions and ideas. I think that I am a rather process driven, because most of the times I think of how I want the final outcome of the artwork to look like, what kind of style it will possess and how it flows. At the start, I intended to come up with something similar to retro nautical posters of the 1930s because the duotone effect could give the vintage feel. However, I thought that the overall style should be more of a collage, rather than a poster design. Furthermore, I felt that it was easier to create a sense of flow from the composition of collages of different stories combined.

RHYME CHOICE + CONCEPT

“The sailor went to sea, sea, sea, to see what he could see, see, see.”

was easy after doing several developmental sketches. Firstly, from a literal point of view, I came up with things that could easily represent a sailor and his life at sea (e.g. ship, coral reefs, marine life, binoculars etc., as seen in my sketches) Hence, concepts and topics like the titanic, global warming and pollution, the vastness of the sea, or a sailor and his story, came to my mind. This rhyme concentrates a lot on the word “SEE” too, so I thought that the concept could circle around this idea of what he sees on his journey. Also, after drafting out my compositions, I decided that I wanted the boat to be the key factor in connecting the four compositions together. The boat is small and simple and just in solid black to create emphasis to the contrast and vastness of the sea. The subtle placement of the ship in every piece will evoke curiosity as it’s supposed to be the main focus, yet it’s “hidden” amongst the other “happenings” in the sea.

USE OF DINGBATS

After studying Dadaism and surrealistic art, I’ve come to a conclusion that they are wacky and don’t make sense most of the times. So it was fun and exciting to come up with things that are unconventional and bizarre. I had to remind myself that the more unusual it looks, the more interesting it gets. Hence, it was rather easy to manipulate my classmates dingbats into my concepts.

COMPOSITIONS

After my discussion with Joy, she gave me some ideas of how I could make my work more intriguing. My compositions show the ship sailing the seas, (people would think that the sailor is in the ship, for the first two compositions), or could the sailor be outside of the ship? (the third and fourth compositions showed a pair of hands holding a bottle with the ship in it, were those the sailor’s hands and could he been watching it from outside it’s confinements?) I like how Dada and surrealistic art is ambiguous/ sometimes confusing and I played around with that concept through the 4 compositions. I wanted to keep it mysterious and leave the audience wanting to find out more.

The first composition illustrates the ship in the midst of danger. A lunatic spider-octopus (SPI-DOCTOPUS) sea monster is about to devour a poor little helpless puny lamb. As if the spi-doctopus wasn’t scary enough, the huge waves and strong currents made it impossible for the ship to escape this chaos. Throughout my work, I explored with a lot of layering and textures in my work. Also to add to the surrealistic feel, I mixed several styles together for example, this composition has a mix of realism, vintage etching, cartoon, pop art, not forgetting the duo tone and posterize effect, all in one.

Miraculously, the ship managed to escape the drama and was even in perfect condition! After sailing through calm waters for a day or two, the ship decides to take a rest. Beneath calm and serene waters, mutated sea creatures inhabited the polluted sea such as the BURTLE (BEAR-TURTLE) or T-EAR (lol). Untreated waste such as plastic bottles get dumped into the ocean and sea creatures can become snagged on the plastic or mistake it for food, slowly killing them over a long period of time. Also, is that the sailor underwater? Or is he just a random diver in a suit?

The third composition shows a man holding a pair of binoculars, watching the ship as it sails the seas. Could this possibly be the sailor too? If so, who is he watching? Also, is he underwater?

The final composition shows a hand holding a bottle, of which contains the ship sailing the stormy seas. Maybe the ship was actually in the bottle all along and entire scenario (first two compositions) were actually happening inside it? I made it more surrealistic and confusing by adding 2 suns, one in the bottle, and one outside in real life. I played with the concept of a message in the bottle here too. Maybe the ship is actually stuck in that horrifying world (in the bottle) and is in need of some serious help? Perhaps it is trying to SOS to the outside world?

REFLECTIONS

Personal Thoughts

Overall, I really really enjoyed this project as it made me really think out of the box. Keeping it just black and white does have it’s limits too, so I knew that I needed to create interesting compositions to keep the focus on the subjects. This was elaborated using the different styles and textures as mentioned earlier. Though the use of our classmates dingbats makes it hard for us to visualize and work on the exact compositions we want, it actually trains us to “make do with what we have” and surprise ourselves with the unconventional art we can create from it. I’m glad I went through this exercise as it widens my perspectives of visual art.

Tutor’s Thoughts

Joy liked the use of consistent elements (circles, circular shapes, wave “shape”) as it indicates movement. The theme “bizaare” was used intelligently as well. She liked the use of different digital styles and the execution. She also thought that I accentuated the “dream-like” state of surrealism.

Classmates’ Thoughts

OLD DINGBATS + NEW DINGBATS IN SEPARATE POSTS 🙂

2D Project 2: Updates

“A sailor went to sea, sea, sea, To see what he could see, see, see”

My concept is based on “what the sailor sees” on his journey to sea. With a nautical theme in mind, I drafted out many compositions, playing with scale a lot to show different perspectives of the ocean/ how big the sea is. I’ve tried incorporating optical illusions in some of the compositions too.

I used the same ship in every composition to show a sense of flow in story. The subtle placement of the ship in every piece will evoke curiosity as it’s supposed to be the main focus, yet it’s “hidden” amongst other things. The first composition features a gigantic octopus + spider, which represents the sailor’s greatest fear – SPIDERS. The second composition reflects the effects of global warming and pollution e.g. mutated sea creatures. The final composition shows a hand holding a bottle, with the ship in it. This adds to the ambiguity of the work as the audience will be curious to find out if the sailor is on the ship or actually outside of it.

After studying dadaism and surrealistic art, I’ve come to a conclusion that they are wacky and don’t make sense most of the times. I guess that’s the beauty of it! I was excited to work on this because I’ve always been keen in this art movement as it gives us a sense of freedom to express our ideas.

Initial Sketches

Compositions

Sailor’s greatest fear; spiders

Effects of pollution; mutated sea creatures

Is the sailor in the ship or is he outside of it?

WORK IN PROGRESS…

4D Assignment 3 – Re-telling Myths

Movie Synopsis

John sat in the hospital’s visitors’ lounge. The doctor professed that Rose might not awaken from coma as the impact of the accident left her too weak. With a heavy heart, John regretted encouraging her to accede to the promotion which entailed her relocating to Hong Kong.

‘Till death do us part’. He replayed the promise they made the day she departed. Rose was his first and last love. She was beautiful inside and out, and had a smile that lit up the sky better than the sun for John. Her heart was of the purest gold. She was the one to pick him up on his worst days when everything else failed. They loved each other wholeheartedly and were to wed in the near future. ‘Till death do us part’. John went over those words again, tightening his upper lip and pushing ahead with hope clutched tightly as he makes his way back to Rose’s bedside.

The comatose patient and her beau, a sight the nurses had come to know and expect after John made his appearance daily, talking to their patient, telling her about his day and beckoning her to come back to this world, despite the weariness as she never responded. Desperately seeking an answer, John went home that night and tried looking up ways to communicate with comatose patients.

“Can comatose patients they hear us?”, “Can we talk to them in our dreams?” He read on and on but found no answers. It was nearing twilight. Just as he was about to relent, his cursor hovered over a link on his computer screen and catches his attention. “Patient miraculously recovers from coma: A time travelling miracle”. John clicks on the article with curiosity. The page opens up to a video of old lady with deep wrinkles and the brightest emerald eyes. Full of poise and grace, she spoke about ancient folklore, magic, and time travelling. John could not quite put his finger on it. Something about the tone in her voice gave him the comfort he needed.

Time travelling was a dangerous sport, without guarantee of returning to the present, possible memory loss, and in severe cases, death. Portals of time travel are dubious, unpredictable. Three clocks need to be synchronised which each other at midnight. The time traveller will have 24 hours to return to the portal or they’ll be stuck in that dimension forever.

John scratches his head in disbelief. “Is this a dream?” The old lady smiles and replies, “Dear John, do as I say and all will be good”. The old lady disappears and a map appears on screen, showing directions to an old abandoned house in the woods. Still dazed and confused, John follows her request, he knew that Rose’s condition was deteriorating day by day. John reached the abandoned house and decided he had nothing to lose, getting to work as he set the the clocks on the floor. He felt an overwhelming sensation of discomfort and oppression all of a sudden. Everything looked unnatural and out of this world. John was traveling through time.

He jolted awake and froze. “Today’s date… Today’s date…” It was 4th October 2015, the day Rose left for Hong Kong, 10 days before the accident. In a heartbeat, John was out of the house and in his car racing to the airport. Every traffic light took an eternity to pass, the minutes lapsing as quick as seconds. All the while his desperate attempts at getting a hold of Rose’s mobile were to no avail as he met with her voicemail try after try. He could only hope that by luck of ill fate her flight had been delayed.

Bursting through the doors of the departure hall, John was swashed by a sea of airport-goers, tourists and business men, pilots and air stewards alike. Everyone had a time and a place to be. Pulling out of the memory he knew so well the gate number they said their goodbyes at two months ago, he sprinted like life depended on it. Slowly the uneasiness he bore in his stomach quelled as he picked apart from the crowd the coat he gifted to Rose before she left. Rose’s petite frame was soon enveloped by John as he tightly embraced her. He was right where he was meant to be. Stepping back to behold his love, he was met by a look of puzzlement on her kind face. “I’m sorry but… do I know you?” Just as slowly as it left, the queasiness slithered back till it was reinstalled in his stomach. She doesn’t know him. Not a speck of recognition.

Ten days till the accident…

2D Project 1 – Lines (Final)

I chose each particular medium based on emotion or aesthetics (whether it looks good/ compliments one another well). For example, I interpreted “fragile” as delicate and gentle. Hence, my medium choice was pigment pen in 0.03mm, the finest point, because it creates the rigidity that I need, at the same time, giving you a gentle effect. As for “exhausted”, I interpreted it as weak and tired. My medium choices were HB and 2B pencils because the softness of this medium can be controlled easily, giving you a variety of tones to portray “weakness”. I also grouped the emotions according to the level of control I had over the mediums chosen. The emotions represented by the pigment pens needed the most amount of control, as I needed to draw more “harsh lines”. For example, “turbulent” was an emotion that required depth and controlled spontaneity, hence, I used pigment pens to show a light to dark gradation.

This project was a rather fun one as I enjoy drawing and painting. Certain emotions were challenging to evoke as they were hard to convey through simply drawing lines. However, what I learnt about this project was that a lot of patience is needed to create good art that speaks to the audience. I also tried my best to put my feelings and emotions into the drawings in the process of experimenting.

2D Assignment 1 – Lines (Research)

Week 1

We were introduced this assignment in the first week and were tasked to express the emotions given through drawing lines, making marks, creating textures etc. My work was very much focused on the process of evoking these emotions. I tried to incorporate my feelings into drawing the lines. I played around with a lot of thick and thin lines, tonal values, contrast in scale of shapes, and intensity of shading according to the “level” of intensity of the particular emotion.

Week 2

At the start of week 2, I researched more into artists whom uses the same technique based approach to create lines. I drew inspiration from some of the artists we’ve researched upon and others such as Neco Delort, an illustrator based in France. His work expresses deep emotions and I felt that it was very inspiring. He focuses a lot on textures and dynamic patterns. I was particularly drawn to harsh, bold and dark lines as they came off as more “confident” and expressive. We also had the chance to experiment with mono-printing in class and I really liked how subtle and sensual the “blurry” prints came out to be. This could portray anxious and “uncertainty” well.

Week 3 & 4

In week 3, I did more in-depth research of artists and their style and techniques. I’ve decided that my concept would be to focus on a medium centric approach which is more process, rather than concept driven. The particular mediums that I focused on are pen, chinese ink, charcoal, graphites and collages. Despite my concept being on exploring mediums and techniques, I also tried to get inspiration from music and book quotes/ references. I feel that music is a good medium of expression and could be key to developing a greater sense of depth in my work.

Nico Delort is one good example of an artist that gets inspired through sentences of books and music. His work “Winterreuse” is nonetheless one of Schubert’s most famous and acclaimed song titles. It features dark and deary, haunting melodies.

Other examples of Nico Delort and his work…

1) A rumour of angels” based on the book by Dale Bailey.

“I sometimes have a hard time describing with words what a story makes me feel —which I guess is why I became an illustrator— so I’m just going to say what really struck me here was the heavy, raw and burnt out atmosphere. Images of harsh light, scorching heat and swirling dust came to me as I was reading it and that’s what I wanted to transcribe in this piece.”

2) The Cave

“Harry could smell salt and hear rushing waves; a light chilly breeze ruffled his hair as he looked out at moonlit sea and star-strewn sky.”

Medium wise, Nico experiments with Faber Castell pigment pens and scratch tools to create defined and intricate marks on his canvas and artwork. I’ve also watched some of his process viedos and I noticed that he etches over black ink and that looked similar to white ink drawn on black. I would like ti experiment on this!

I’ve also found other Charcoal artists such as Judith Ann Braun, Adeline Chong and Wenjing Zhu inspiring. Judith uses 4 basic rules in her work; Symmetry, Abstraction, keeping her work square, and carbon medium. The similarity I found in their work is that they are all process driven. Adeline creates line and form through feeling and reaction from each stroke. Wenjing believes that by reducing details, lines speaks their language and stands out by their own; the minimal attempt enlarges viewers’ imaginary space.

Here are my experimental works… I used tools such as bubble wrap, twigs, plastic bags, toilet scrubs/ sponges etc. and many random things.

Experimenting…

Further brainstorming…