ego: a colourful journey

a project where art and math meet

 

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ARTISTIC + STATISTIC = ME!

This is the character I came up with to represent myself – supposedly a polar bear, some claimed it a dog, another called it a wolf, so now it’s known as a polar dog wolf bear. And I suppose that describes me well. (I always suspected that I’m not made of only one species anyway.)

The first equation is made of two things that make up me. There were a few other ideas that I had in mind, but I decided to choose this particular one. Even though I am an art student and I like to show my ideas in the form of drawings or writings, I still love math (and a bit of biology and chemistry) as well as those IQ questions so I used this to describe myself.
 

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ARTISTIC

This composition has a lot of elements dumped into one box. The colours I used vary as what I am trying to convey here as an ‘artistic’ person is a colourful personality and imagination. However I still try to keep the colours in harmony, such as the colour combination of the paint splatters on the right side are triad colours, and the popper on the left side are split-complementary colours. I try to use a darker colour as the background to contrast the white character and brighter objects around the character, emphasising on them even more.
 

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STATISTIC

As the subject I am trying to depict here is the logical side of me, I use more dull colours to convey the (stereotypically) boring math and theories my mind comes up with.
 

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ME!

To show the combination of both artistic and statistic, this box shows the colourful side of science, as depicted by the objects above the character’s head. There are [1] the mixing of chemicals to create colourful substances (and did you know, you can create a purple mixture only from two colourless chemicals!) [2] microscopic red blood cells, as microscope images are commonly black and white, so colours are added for aesthetic purposes, and [3] a chameleon, the infamous symbol of colour camouflage among all the creatures.

For this composition, I use complementary colours for the background (blue and orange), as well as the objects (red and green).
 
 

IDEAS – FEAR = LESS PROCRASTINATION

If there is one habit I don’t like about myself, that is my chronic procrastination. So a better me would be me with less procrastination (because I think exterminating the habit completely is not possible, so less should be enough).
 

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IDEAS

The idea of this composition is, just like the first one, to be colourful, so there are many different elements put together. The colours chosen for the fireworks are complementary colours – blue and orange, and purple and yellow.
 

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FEAR

So, you all might be thinking “What the heck does fear have anything to do with procrastination?” Well! Not long ago, I read an article about the results of research on the roots of procrastination. It turns out that one of the reasons people procrastinate is their fear of rejection or failure. So in my composition, the door of the cage is open but the character does not step out, too afraid of the possible rejection from people who are different from them (shown as the brown-coloured bear at the corner).

Again, dull and darker colours are used as the subject is ‘fear’, not a very happy topic to bring up.
 

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LESS PROCRASTINATION

If you didn’t notice, the purple line actually looks more like a road and the flower drawings get better and better in terms of design and colouring technique. So what I’m trying to convey here is that with less procrastination, along the road I can improve my work better and faster.

The background colours chosen for this composition are complementary colours (purple and yellow). Aside from that, triad colours are used again in the bottle, scissors and pen (blue, red and yellow), and the crayons (green, purple and orange).
 
 

PASSION X DEDICATION = INDIVIDUALITY

An ideal me would be a person with individuality. Sometimes I think myself as a rather boring person. There is not many things to define me as (in my personal opinion anyway). I have a lot of things I like, and quite a number of activities I like doing, but passion is something I lack – aside from drawing anyway. I don’t want to be only seen as ‘that person who likes to draw’.

While I want to be recognised as an individual, I just don’t have the patience or dedication to stick to one thing for a period of time. So dedication is something I want to multiply along with my passion to get the ideal me.
 

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PASSION

This composition, like the first of the previous two equations, are meant to be colourful to show passion. The objects I drew above the character’s head are things that I used to like but never really went deeper than the basics of the activity. Some of them include video game, basketball, reading and writing. (And if you’re wondering why there is a knife stuck in a book… that is because I like to read and write murder/mystery stories.)
 

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DEDICATION

To show the subject of dedication, I decided to use the action of taking care of a plant. It’s almost similar, as to ensure the plant would grow healthy, you have to be determined and patient in raising them, as well as regularly watering them even after they grow. The same can be said with a passion – you have to be determined to improve in a particular activity, and then regularly do it so it would not be a mere hobby like any others.

I used complementary colours for the background (apparently the complementary colour of brown is blue-green!).
 

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INDIVIDUALITY

Aaand with one or two more activity I am passionate about, that would make an ideal me – an individual who isn’t just someone who ‘likes to draw’.

For the subject of individuality, I wanted to make use of ’emphasis’ in the principles of design. That is why I chose darker achromatic colours so that the brightly-coloured character would stand out more among the dark crowd surrounding them. The colour red is used for the cap as it represents a bold colour, representing strength and passion.
 
 

MY HAPPINESS + OTHERS’ HAPPINESS = ULTIMATE HAPPINESS

If there is one thing I want to be in five years time, that would have to be happy – as simple as that. (I mean not that I don’t want money, but you know… I always consider my happiness as priority.) So how exactly do I achieve happiness?
 

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MY HAPPINESS

My happiness comes from working in a job that I actually enjoy, not for the sake of high pay. And that job is, most likely, related to art so this is what I try to depict here. The colour yellow is used as the background as yellow is one of the happiest colour in the spectrum. (It also sparks optimism and creativity – important things for an artist!)
 

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OTHERS’ HAPPINESS

It’s always nice to see other people happy, especially more so with your closer friends. So what I would like to see in 5 years is that I would be making something – whether it be an animated movie, or a game – that could put a smile to people’s faces. The colour used here, again, is yellow. To define happiness!
 

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ULTIMATE HAPPINESS

So, with my happiness and other people’s happiness combined, what I get is me in 5 years – ultimate happiness!
 
 

reflection

After two black-and-white projects in a row, this final project was quite tiring; I mean I already knew that colours are complicated things to work with, but even more so with this project (probably because I’m actually graded for this HAH). But overall, I actually had the most fun with this project! It was great to know about colour relationships, which I think will prove to be useful and important in the future. And exploring myself made me learn new things about myself as well!

It was also really fun to watch my classmates’ presentations, and how each of them define themselves! A great conclusion to my first 2D course 🙂

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