Design for Good – Assignment 1: Research Portfolio

Here is a google folder for Research Portfolio and Final poster Design:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BzI9C2SMqBClTtNpNE7jzyMCv1jea6p6?usp=sharing

Final Poster Design:

Graphic Form – Locale CPJ

Project 2 Locale CPJ:

Play In The Rain @ Yishun Zine

Zine concept

Using the zine, introduce the fun and playground of Yishun to the reader. Lastly, I wanted to create a playground that allows people to play in it even though it is raining, thus naming the zine as “Play In The Rain @ Yishun”.

A. Zine Direction

From the research presentation, I have a clear direction of what I want to do for my zine. Previously, there are two directions for the style of Zine — technical architecture style or graphical zine, I have made up my mind to go towards the latter. Targetting towards more younger readers, I started by looking at illustrations style that will suit my zine.

B. Zine Layout Visual Research

As the zine is to create for children and young adult, I decided to look for inspiration from children illustration books and illustration artworks. As my theme is “Play In The Rain”, I also focus on illustration with more raining related elements, such as umbrella, raindrops, clouds and more. From the zine visual reference, I noted some elements that I wanted to implement in my zine:

Bright and saturated colour themes – grab the attention of the readers
Simple graphic illustration – not complicated or too abstract
Texts are arranged in a little portion each time, usually come in a small textbox
Graphic usually takes up to 2/3 of the spread

B. Zine Planning & Ideation

I did some sketches to plan out my zine layout design and what element to include.

I created a lifesize rough sketch version of the zine visual layout on 2 pieces of A4 paper as to what Prof Shirley has told us to do. I realised it helps me to visualize the visual hierarchy and decide on whether to use flat vectors of illustrations on the spread. After much consideration, I decided to work with 2/3 images spread with small vectors or illustration as a visual decoration.

C. Zine – Working Process

1. Deciding on the colour scheme

Inspired by the layout visual references at the top as well as the playgrounds from Yishun, I have come up with a vibrant and bright colour scheme. The colour inclusive of blue to create the rainy mood, yellow and orange for the main illustrations and vectors within the zine. The colour orange and yellow is also one of the main colours spotted in the playgrounds in Yishun.

2. Layout Design

Version 1:

Moving on from the sketches, I created this zine layout in Indesign and implemented some changes. In this zine, I will recreate a playground that allows people to play in it while raining, thus this zine also works as a small design booklet. In this version, I initially wanted to give it a more “drafty feel”, so I used cardboard as background for one of the spread and another spread to mark out individual fun elements to include in the collage of the final playground design.

However, the cardboard spread does not seem to blend in with the other pages of the zine. It may due to the colours as well as it being too much of a realistic style whereas others are more focused on vectors and illustration. The spread with “welcome to Yishun” is also messy with its layout and after I tried to insert a picture into one of the boxes, the picture seems awkward and weird in that area.

3. Font Used

As it is for young readers, I decided to use a san serif font with a more round and “balloon” effect for the title to give it a fun tweak. So I discovered the font – Chocolate bar as the title and another font, a year without rain, as the text font.

Version 2:

Changes made:

change the corkboard background to a texture photo that I took during the visit to Yishun, as well as placing a yellow rectangle box on the left side to match the colour theme.
Also changes the spread of “welcome to Yishun” and made it into a mix of pin-up board with write out an explanation

In this version, I did the write up in the form of a pirate captain calling his crew on an adventure to Yishun to find those hidden treasure, the Playground.

D. Final Zine Look + Artist Statement

As I lived near Yishun and I always think that Yishun has its own charisma and filled with warm and friendly people. The result of Google search for “Yishun” really gives me a shock as I never once see Yishun as such a horrible place. To change the impression of Yishun in the younger generation, I decided to create this zine to change the impression of Yishun for the younger readers. Besides introducing different playground of Yishun, I also wanted the readers to have fun and be creative, therefore I came up with a theme of “Playing In the rain” to help their imagination run wild.

E. Challenges & Reflection

Through this project, I have my first try in using Indesign and designing as well as a deeper understanding of graphic design. I appreciate how this project is a combination of both outdoor (exploration) and indoor (process of creation) experiences. To be honest, I personally think I do not prepare enough time to walk around and get inspired by the location. If I would spend more time in the location, I wanted to explore other directions for the zine and explore a style with more focus on typography and layout instead of graphic.

In the beginning, I have difficulty deciding how my zine should look and what type of style I should focus on, thus I listed down my aim for the zine and expand it to who my audience is. This helps me to make the decision of pursuing a more playful and colourful theme. During the process of designing the layout, I also encounter challenges in finding useful reference as most magazine designed for children or young adults are always more informative and are mostly infographic. I started looking at children illustration books and storybooks and study how they organise their text and image. I am happy with how my zine turned out but at the same time, I feel like I could challenge other layout design and be bolder in having white spaces. I would also like to explore deeper the layout/ farming of images in the future.

F. Comments/ Feedbacks

Missing map of the playgrounds in Yishun – I did not include a map in the zine for the playgrounds that I visited in Yishun
The text font is slightly hard for the reader to read, perhaps switching to another san-serif font
Spread the text out instead of cramping it into a long text column

Interesting comment from Joy:

The reflection at the last spread felt like the saddest part of all since it was all blue & blurry as if the kid cannot bear to leave the playground and grow up.

I find this perspective of looking at my zine work is interesting. Initially, I did it with the blue and blurry effect to recreate a water reflection of the playground after the rain. It also juxtaposes the sadness and unwillingness to leave the playground after the fun. However, Joy’s perspective helps me to dive deeper into linking it with growing up and force to leave the playground.

FV Assignment 2 (Part 2B) – Untrashed Bag [Process]

FV ASSIGNMENT 2B: UNTRASHED BAG

Bag Research

During the research, I am focusing on looking out for bags that gives a mood for spring/ summer playfulness. I am inspired by this bag as it has some interesting elements.

Interesting Element:

Racetrack shape sides
The bag is only connected to its left and right sides, and the centre part where the main body is wrapped around the racetrack-shaped sides
The patterns and texture feels like the picnic basket and is giving out a spring/ summer feel

Material Research

I tried to create interesting patterns from materials such as aluminium cans, jute yarn and chopsticks. The patterns are not exactly following the bag inspiration above but instead to test if the patterns could be repeated to make an interesting “fabric” for the centre body.

Preparation

Bag Prototype

This prototype is made with a smaller measurement:

22cm (Width) x 24cm (Height) x 10cm (wide)

Thinking about spring and summer, I actually thought about a picnic in the park or field. However, for me, a picnic means a bigger bag as there are many things to prepare or bring along. Thus I wanted to design a bag with a volume enough to fit an umbrella, lunch boxes or drinks and even an iPad.

I created this prototype with 3 parts. 2 x racetrack-shaped cardboard and long rectangular cardboard as the central body. The 2 racetrack-shaped cardboard acted as the left and right sides of the bag. The long cardboard will wrap around three-quarters of the two sides.

Sketches

From the prototype, I realised the dimension I used is creating a long silhouette and giving the bag a more sleek feels, which is not what I am looking for. Thus I increase the width of the bag and decrease the height. In this way, the bag will turn out to be a wider rectangle and shorter, forming a more ‘cute’ aesthetics.

Isometric, Viewpoint (measurement)

Making In Process

To create a long fabric for the central body part: Crochet

After research and experimenting with material and patterns, I feel like crochet pattern form a more interesting texture. It is interesting to see the cardboard colour in between the spaces, creating a contrast between the large white colour block, making it less heavy visually. I also replace jute with plastic as it is more flexible and elastic.

Making plastic yarn

Plastic yarn tutorial here

Cut the plastic bags into loop strips and tie the strips one after another to form a string. Roll the string up into yarn to use for crochet later

2. Crochet – Single crochet stitch

Crochet tutorial here

While crocheting, the yarn may finish off and thus I have to continue making more yarn and connecting to the crocheting yarn.

3. Preparing two racetrack cardboard as a supporting frame for the bag at the sides. Holes are cut along the border to make it easier for the needle to pass through when sewing it to the central long body later.

4. Connecting the crochet plastic ‘fabric’ to cardboard. This allows the bag to stay in shape as the plastic crochet fabric is too soft to hold the shape of the bag.

5. Connecting the side to the central body. I choose to use jute to sew as it corresponds with the yellow sides and also creates an interesting contrast with the plastic texture. I double layer the jute to form a thick seamline so it adds on a more childlike aesthetic to the bag, giving it a younger aesthetic.

6. Attaching the strap and top handle, also making a button to close the bag.

Final Bag

FV Assignment 2 (Part 2A): Material Exploration

Part 2A (group) – Recycled Material Exploration

Team: Jia Wen, Song Fei, Cerine (me)

Material Study #1 – Aluminium Can

Material Study #2 – Plastic packaging

Material Study #3 – Straw (Folding Method)

Material Study #4 – Fabric (unwanted clothes)

Fabric with pattern sew

Fabric with plastic wrap

Fabric with plastic pocket

Material Study #5 – Cotton buds

Cotton bud with plastic strings

cotton buds with wooden chopsticks

Material Study #6 – Papers

Tracing paper with cardboards

Tracing paper with hot glue

Material and Pattern study #6 – Jute

Used Jute to explore patterns

Graphic Form: Image Making Through Type

Graphic Form: Image Making Through Type Research

Preparation 1.0

Typography Research and Artist Reference

After knowing this project, I started by creating a list of jobs that I imagine myself as, linking it with my interest and personality.

Artist Reference

Process Part I

Concepts That Do Not Make It In Top 4

I like to explore different art styles and as an ex game environment artist, I am more familiar with realistic drawing style with the use of textures. Most of my works are of a dull or dark colour scheme but I would like to try something a more bright or contrasting colour scheme for this project.

Concept #1 Exorcism

Concept #2 Horror Game NPC

I searched on the elements or things that are related to the jobs and tried to applied it to my name. However, after consulting with Prof. Shirley, I realised I interpreted the brief wrongly. We are supposed to apply the same elements throughout all the characters instead of recreating the character to become the elements.

Process Part II

Top 4 Jobs – Visual Elements Research & Ideation Sketches

Job #1 Monster Groomer

Ideation sketch #1

I drew the sketches based on the elements that I gathered, taking typefaces that are more cartoony and playful in nature. However, after my consultation with Prof. Shirley, I realised that I made the same mistakes of using too many elements for the character. I then decided to pick only two to three elements for my characters.

Ideation sketch #2

I chose this font as it is curvy and gives off a sense of playful feeling. The height of each characters are not fixed, thus making the fonts seems more dynamic. The teardrop of the type is also designed to be slightly curving up, causing the comical feels.

Intially I tried to achieve the hairy style by using the roughen feature in Adobe Illustrator. The result is great and I love how it turned out. However, as I decided to use this piece for my silkscreening, I needed the typography to be with clean lines and as little change in colour as possible. Thus this style is not suitable when I need to convert it to black and white for silkscreening.

Job #2 Chinese Vampire

Ideation sketch #1

Font: Microsoft YaHei (Default Typeface in Photoshop)

I chose this default fonts as this font remind me of those old Hong Kong Vampire movies.

Before I start, I already made up my mind for thr character to be in 3D perspective. Thus readjust the word in perspective view and extrude it with thickness.

Job #3 Demon Bulter

Ideation sketch #1

As bulter reminds me of old fashioned English aesthetics, thus I wanted a font with more vintage and script style. I chose this font as it has a thick line, which makes it easier to work with. There is also a tiny ‘ear’ which I can replace by the demon horns.

The idea of Demon is demonstrated through the horns, while bulter is expressed through the icon within the lines of the characters.

Job #4 Space Toilet Cleaner

Ideation sketch #1

I wanted a font which has a futuristic feels as well as more round. This font satisfy my requirement and it also carries a more cartoon feels to it.

At the beginning, I have this idea of doing a cubical toilet in space, thus I sketch it in 3D perspective and floating in the space. However, after consulting with Prof. Shirley, I realised that this is not workable as it did not match the rubric which is to start with a font type. Thus I chose my font type and used Adobe Illustrator to make it into 3D perspective.

Process Part III

Top 4 Jobs – Making Process

Job #1 Monster Groomer

I started with implementing the hairy element of the monster to the type, while also try to add in elements such as sharp teeth and tongue to make it more “monster”. After discussing with Prof. Shirley, I decided to use the hair roller to represent groomer.

After consulting with Prof. Shirley, I removed the confusing elements such as the blue hair and the mouth design for letter “C”. Instead I substitute the mouth element with horns. To bring out more of the groomer side, I also added some foams on the type and bubbles at the two corners,

Black and white version for transparency printing

Job #2 Chinese Vampire

Adding in colours and textures to the type. I chose to make the background yellow as this is the colour of the talisman, creating a strong contrast with the type. A thick outline is also used for the type to make it feels like the old Hong Kong movie where the Chinese character will have a thick outline.

I also added in a focus dark ring upon the type, thus making it feels like the viewer is looking at the vampire through a camera lens. Later, I also added a colourful noise to make it like the old Hong Kong movie graphic quality.

Job #3 Demon Bulter

Initially, I started with a vertical landscape, adding elements into the types. However, the arrangement of the character is too separated and it looks very empty.

After discussing with Prof. Shirley, I decided to change it into the horizontal arrangement, and play with the diagonal lines in the types. When the diagonal lines of the letters “L”, “S” and “Y” are linked together, it formed a very interesting visual composition. I also have a heavier emphasis on the letter “C” by making it bigger in size.

Job #4 Space Toilet Cleaner

I tried to bring out the idea of space by including astronauts and making the letter looks like it is at zero gravity and floating around. I decided to use the idea of toilet squad instead of the toilet bowl as it is more interesting and easier to twerk around. The letter “E” and “I” is also turned into a toilet brush.

After consulted with Prof. Shirley, I decided to remove the astronauts as it grabs too much attention from the name. I also tried to play with a more funky colour for the toilet squad and try to see if I can make it more “neon-ish”.

Process Part IV

Top 4 Jobs – Final Outcome

Monster Groomer – The colour palatte is lean towards more blue and green in the background and a little of red in the type to make it pop in the foreground. As blue and green colour gives off a fresh and clean impression, thus coorespond to the job groomer. The type used is also more playful and dynamic to bring the active personality of monster.

The words “雪盈” are designed with the colour of costume wore by Chinese Vampire in the old Hong Kong movie. With this in mind, I wanted to use a bright background to constrast with the characters in the foreground, making it as though it is jumping closer towards the screen. A layer of noise is also overlay at the top to receate the graphic quality of how old Hong Kong film would look.

This work is create with a concept of Old English aesthetic. As the letters are in black and white to represent bulter, I also implemented animal’s horn materials to the curves to signified the bulter is demonic. I chose a red background as it is the colour of demon as well as the colour used by nobility in the old English times where having a bulter is popular among them. A bronze frame with pattern is used to represent the plate that the bulter hold when they serve their master.

The decision to use toilet squad instead of toilet bowl came from the toilets that are along Malaysia’s express highway. Whenever I travel back to my hometown at Perak , which will Took about 6-8hrs long. The toilet cubicals are mostly design with squat seat instead of toilet bowl. With this, I link it back to my space toilet being those toilet design for long travel break, So I decided to use squad toilet. I tried to recreate the toilets along the Malaysia’s highway by using the same colours(red and beige) for the toilet squat and floor tiles. As blue is two thirds of a tetradic color scheme, but also work fine with pure red while being toned down in hue. This will also formed a strong contrast with the black background and makes it more visible while printing.

Finale

Reflection

I enjoyed this project as it challenge me to simplify things by only using 2-3 elements to bring the ideas or concepts to the viewer. Although at the beginning, I am still sticking to my old mindset of wanting to include all possible visual elements and make the most complicated yet pleasing composition. However, after receiving help from Prof. Shirley as well as deeper into my research and brainstorming, I managed to grasp the objective of this project and cutting things down.

After this project, I fully understand the beauty of type design as it do not have to be complicated, but yet minimal design could also bring out the ideas or concepts once the correct visual elements is used.

Assignment 1: Axonometric Drawing

Lego Pistol

Final Lego Design

The lego is created using monotone lego bricks. I am inspired by a lego pistol tutorial online and created my own version of the pistol.

Artist Reference for lego build

I am inspired by this simple lego gun on Instructables webpage.

Raw Drawing

After deciding on the perspective of each lego bricks, I drew it on the isometric grid paper. I also scanned the drawing into Photoshop to make it cleaner and illustrate better.

Lego Instruction Design

Reference

As my lego pistol is more complex and has many pieces of lego, I decided to follow the two references above with a simply illustrated lego build for each steps. This helps the person who builds the lego by providing them with visual assist and refers to the position of each brick through the illustration.

Final Illustrated Lego Instruction Design

Foundation 4D – INTER

Ideation

With current technology, the Internet has become an essential thing for a human. Everyone chose to go online to rant, complaint, celebrate and to share their life through social media. There is this small group of audience who also turned to online for help, asking for help by expressing their suicidal thoughts and their depression online. This happened a lot especially during this pandemic period, where everyone is forced to spend time either alone or in an environment that stressed them up. It is also during this time when news of people committed suicide rises, including popular South Korean Idols and actors.

Thus I wanted to do something to remind people about how they can help or destroy life just by what they casually said online as a stranger. As online identities could easily be fake and anonymous, thus people could say whatever they wanted to say and not even have to be responsible for it. This is also one of the reasons of how cyberbullying is getting worse over the years.

Concept

As a result, I wanted to explore how far people would go to either help or destroy one person who has suicidal thoughts through the Internet. So I am using a locked room to signify the sealed inner world of the suicidal person and zoom meeting as the “online platform” where people can reach out to the person. Plots such as suicidal posts and suicidal notes are also lying around in the room to help with the narrative. Commands can be given through Zoom meeting and the player will then react to it. However, the reaction to the commands will be revert or of the opposite of it. Initially, I wanted to give people 5 minutes to try to give me any commands and control me around the room.

Final Props

Suicidal Post

Suicidal Letter

Photos with friends

Treasure Box

Overview of the Performance

One of the cameras will be facing the mirror view and I will hold another phone camera on my hand as the first-person perspective. In the beginning, I will start by blindfolding myself while seated on a chair. I will let the audience know that they are supposed to help me escape my “depressed room”.

Things lying around the tables include:

Printed Facebook post
Suicidal Letter – Write about the stress, anxiety and depression

Bonus reward:

Inside a box – Need to be unlocked, every item revealed helps to unfold my eyemask a little bit, symbolising the escaping from depression

Lying around the room (on one table): Family photo, friends photos
Hide inside a locked box: Caring conversation from friends

Commands that the class can use:

Directional – Front – Left, Back – Right, Left – Front, Right – Back, turn around – squat, squat down – turn around/ reverse
Side command – Pick up, use the item (keys and scissors)

Ending –

1 – Escape

While at the last stage, off the light and open the door. Walking out and close the door behind. After that, a short message for the class.

Thank you for helping me out, dear strangers over the internet, whether I know you or not. Thank you for paying attention to my abnormal and fragile behaviour, for reaching out to me and told me how to do and what to do to get out of the depression that I locked myself in. I can’t describe how thankful I am, and I am truly grateful for you to know that they are still someone who cares about me in this world and know the pain that I am in.

2 – Not Able to Escape

The light went off and the camera will be placed on the table. Play a piece of funeral music and announced,

Thank you, everyone, for attending my daughter’s funeral today I believe she has tried her best to give everything to being a good daughter, good sister, a good friend and good classmates to everyone. I know she has been facing problem all along but if only I could help her in time, maybe she wouldn’t choose to end her life to escape the pain.

Final Performance

Reflection

This project helps me to get out of my comfort zone as I am not someone who likes to perform in front of a group of audience and I am not someone who likes to reveal my fragility in front of a crowd. However, I did not spend enough time planning the stage and how to go about for the performance and I felt that the narrative of the performance was not clear to the audience. Due to the lack of planning, I also forgot to time the performance and was initially not able to performed the part when the audience did not help the player to escape on time and resulted in the player committed suicide. I should have spent some time rehearsing the stage as well so to be able to predict and avoid certain incidents during the formal performance day itself.

Foundation 2D – Forrest Gump

Foundation 2D: Forrest Gump

Artist Reference

Artush Voskanyan

A surrealist artist who uses his artwork to create an optical illusion for his audience. He took his inspiration from famous Italian artist of the 16th century, Giuseppe Archimboldo, who is known for using objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books to create imaginative heads portrait.

Artush Voskanyan’s surrealistic artwork, The Cat. Source from Saatchi Art.

Roy Lichtenstein

An American pop artist who works defined the premise of pop art through parody. His works are greatly inspired by popular advertising and comic book style.

Collage Art

Collage is pasting different photography or pictures from magazines, newspaper clipping, paint and more objects on another piece of paper or canvas. It is a technic where artist mixed different mediums, texture and pictorial images sticking together to create new artwork.

Collage artwork, *Naughty Angel* from Pinterest

Tattoo Sketch

A tattoo is a form of body modification where a design is made by inserting ink, dyes and pigments, into the skin layer to create a permanent marking on the body. A tattoo can be with just black outline and with black shading, or it can be colourful tattoo as well.

Quote #1:

Sometimes it’s better to keep the genie in the bottle.

– Ed Warren, The Conjuring

The Conjuring is an American supernatural horror film of a paranormal investigator couple, Ed and Lorraine work together to help a family who was haunted by a dark presence in their farmhouse.

Concept Ideation

Final Concept

This concept is about how the wife is a genie to the husband, who can magically keep the house tidy and clean and always prepare warm and tasty food for the family. However, there is another different meaning for the wife. To the wife, being a housewife signified their life being locked up at home. They are like genie, who need to obey their ‘master’s order’.

Images Used In Composition

Progression

Using this picture in my composition as the background as I wanted to create an impression of the husband being a working businessman.

Experimenting with bottle design and house icon

I also used the hair of another picture to blend in and made the man more united with the style of the background. I also used some line shading from the same picture to give the man a bit shading.

I found this bottle matches the style and I added an outer glow effect to make it looks more magical.

Final Outcome

This picture portrays a man showing off and boosting his wife to his colleague. The wife is kept in a bottle with a house and her child.

In this composition, I applied the design principle of proportion between the two men so to make an interesting visual composition, as well as creating depth in the composition. The principle of unity is also achieved by using a bottle that is more linear that fit in the picture as well as duplicate a similar pattern for the suits.

The meaning behind this composition is inspired by how society depicts the role of a wife and mother, especially the husband. To the husband, the wife is like a genie who is to be kept at home, worrying and planning for the family. Man always like to boast about how well behaved their wife is, how well they are managing the house, but I find it contradicting as the wife is the one who gave up their jobs and careers for the family. However, to the husband, the wife became their possession instead of an individual human being. To the man, especially those with traditional thinking, believes that once the woman is married and with children, it is better for them to resign and stay at home to care for the family. Thus, I arrived at this composition of “keeping the genie in the bottle”, where the genie is represented by the wife and bottle that contained and locked them up is her house and family.

Quote #2:

He was gonna violate me with a duck foot!

– Mob Member, The Lone Ranger

Adventures of a masked hero, who is an idealistic lawyer, and his Native American partner.

Final Concept

I chose this design because it is interesting and I am going towards a more pop art style for this composition.

Reference Image

Images Used In Composition

Fonts used – Shaka Pow

Progression

At first, I tried using the same composition of “Jaw” poster as a reference. However, I realised the shark’s and the diver’s style do not unify with each other, thus I worked on another composition design.

Instead of following the center composition of the “Jaw” poster, I shifted both the shark and diver to 2 corners opposite each other.

I also changed the shark image to a more comical style to make the pop comic style more. The expression of the shark also looks more similar to the grievance after being slapped by the diver’s duck feet.

After consulting with Zel, she said that there is lack of element that shown the shark was slapped and I can add in the sound bubble like the comic. Thus I added this “slap” bubble element in after doing some research on how comic depicts sounds and action.

Later, I also used this zoom effect to create an emphasise to the slapping event that had happened

Lastly, I added a white border to the “Slap” by applying the outer glow effect

Final Outcome

A fun and interesting approach to the keyword of “Duck foot” and “violate” as I interpreted it as the shark feeling “violated” after getting slapped by the “duck foot” of the diver. I also inspired by the poster of “Jaw”, which is a 1975 American thriller film about a man-eating shark. Thus using these elements, I created my composition referencing to pop art and 90s comic style. I included many 90s comic and pop art elements such as sharp and clear lines, large patches of black and white as well as polka dots. I also applied the design principles of balance by placing both elements at each opposite ends of the composition. The radical line border is also used to emphasise on the shark and the “slap” bubble.

Quote #3:

I’m just a musical prostitute

– Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhadsody

The film is about the story of the legendary British rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury, leading to their famous performance at Live Aid.

Final Concept Design

Images Used For Composition

Progression

First digital composition of the concept, however, the middle finger do not blend into the composition with it pointing down. Thus after consulting with Zel, I decided to remove the middle finger.

Changing the image used for the rock hand sign and also collating 3 different images of lips and tongue to create the licking mouth. Colour halftone effect is also applied to both the lip and the hand sign to make it blend in with each other.

Guitar element is added to push the keyword of “musical” more and also to correspond to the rock hand sign.

A triangular geometry design is used as the background to bring out the idea of “as above, so below” rule of composition for tattoo design.

Final Outcome

This composition is created as a tattoo design as well as a front cover design of a musical album. The rules of balance are applied while placing the guitar at both left and right of the hand sign as well as the triangular geometry design at the back. The triangular geometry at the back also creates a movement for the audiences’ eyes to look from top to bottom or bottom to top.

This tattoo is simple with the licking lips representing the “prostitute” and the rock hand sign and guitar to represent “musical”. The licking lip not only to represent the meaning of prostitute but also to signify the meaning of “musical prostitute’ being used as a term to mock the music industry nowadays. As the musicians are like a prostitute that did the music for money, fame and sex instead of music and talent.

I chose to go with a lot of images with splash effects as this element brings out the crazy and rebellion feelings of rock music. I also included a crown at the top of the hand to pay tribute to the one who said this famous quote, the lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury.

Quote #4:

My father used to say: plant your feet and stand firm. The only question is where to put your feet.

– Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

A film which talked about the 16th president of the United State as a vampire hunter. He set his mission to eliminate all the vampire when he discovers that the vampires are planning to take over the United State.

Final Concept

I decided to go with the idea of a “human-plant” planting feet. However, according to lecturer Zel, my concept is a lack on “father” element as well “where” to plant the feet.

Images Used In Composition

All images from Pixabay.com

Progression

Forming a tree with human body parts, mainly focusing on feet. The brain is used to represent the soil and heart as the branches to form the trees up.

Repeated the trees to form a small hill. This will be used as the background.

I used a human photo as a reference and collage with different flowers and plants. I also took some line shading from other artworks to create some shadows and shading on the Father.

I did another small girl to emphasise on the “Father” element.

I thought of how the quote sounds like someone is saying a story to their child. Thus I make it looks like a page from a children storybook.

Final Outcome

I used repetition of the trees to create a background of a hill. The “Father” and the girl are also placed proportionally to create an interesting composition. So in my attempt, it is a literal interpretation of ‘plant your feet’, which I takes the word ‘plant’ as an action of planting as well as the creature that is planting. As I am using feet to represent the plant, I I collage many different types of plants and flower into the ‘human’ in this composition, while using human parts as the ‘plant’ as a contrast.

Reflection

At the beginning of this project, I have challenges breaking through the normal interpretation of the quotes with more literal meaning that still tie closely with the quotes. However, after consultation, I am able to pick some keywords from individual quote, breaking it down and use of to create interesting compositions and concepts.

I enjoyed this project as it helps me break through the boundaries of thinking inside what is given. With this saying, I have also master the skills of breaking bigger information up to smaller bits and pieces and start branching out from there. I have also push my limit to try collaging a composition with more than 10 images and harmonize it in the whole pictures with different Photoshop effects and blending layers.

Reference

IMDb https://www.imdb.com/?ref_=nv_home

Rotten Tomato https://www.rottentomatoes.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein