forrest gump – silkscreen pt.#1

silkscreen!!

it was an enjoyable lesson today because we finally started to get our hands on silkscreen.

we had our transparencies printed out and had to stick it on our screen coated with the dried blue emulsion.

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then we had to put it in this UV machine to expose our prints.

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lastly we had to use a jet spray to wash off the parts that were exposed so our prints can be seen.

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silkscreen isn’t new to me, but the pre process was because i learnt the printing technique back in polytechnic instead of photo emulsion, which is easier and more efficient. yay, cool stuff.

forrest gump – movie quotes

this week we had to prepare 4 movie quotes for our upcoming project 2 on compositional visual studies using digital methods. im actually quite enjoying the process so far because

1. we get to do digital work (which i usually prefer because its more liberating)

2. we get to silkscreen our own totebags!

ok so lets started –

quote #1

“to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.”

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this quote is from the movie 500 Days of Summer, but also extracted from the song There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths.

apart from picking this quote because i like it (and the movie), i think it is a fun one to play with because of the imagery present. also i think it is interesting because of the oxymoron present that creates a contrast in mood/theme/emotion.

quote #2

“i had a dream my life would be so different from this hell im living”

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this quote is extracted from the great Les Misérables. i think it will be create something great out of it although the imagery to this quote aren’t as obvious as the previous one. however i think it will be a fun challenge to look for and create something interesting to suit the adjectives, hence eventually a composition from the quote.

quote #3

“live long and prosper”

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star trek! this is definitely one of its classic quotes known to most of us. i would think this will be a more challenging quote to work with because it will be difficult to ruin a visual (spock and his hand in this case) that is familiar to people. but i guess thats the challenge?

quote #4

“if i like a moment, for me, personally, i don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. i just want to stay in it.”

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i enjoy this quote because i can relate to it and believe in it. this quote is adapted from the secret life of walter mitty (which was really beautifully shot). the imagery to this quote are quite obvious so i think it’ll be fun to work with especially since i believe in the quote too.

emo – how did they come about?

Infatuation

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“an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone or something”,

in my emotions post, i talked about how infatuation was linked to the heartbeat. in my final print, i took the visual image of the line that represents the heartbeat into context. since the meaning of infatuation is “…intense but short-lived passion…”, the intensity of the line breaks halfway, to represent the short-lived element to it. the intensity is represented through the messy, dense lines.

Sentimentality

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“of or prompted by feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia”.

 my emotions are raw and they flow like the ocean waves. hence i took this feeling and created a visual image of wavy, messy lines because they’re unpredictable; uncalled for. thick wavy lines are started off first to represent the wave of energy of sadness. the energy dies down hence the thiner and faint lines towards the end as they represent the sense of nostalgia that i do enjoy feeling. 

example: you find an album of old images of your childhood. *gasp* (wave of energy), old photos that i dont remember!” then you start flipping through the album.. *aww* (tenderness, nostalgia) those were the old days that i miss…” 

the lines were created using the end of the straw that i brought on the 2nd 2D class. the sharp end of the straw was dipped into calligraphy ink and was dragged onto the piece of newsprint paper to create my print.

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Desire

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“a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.”

desire to me means to want something so badly that you’d go reach for it and grab it. 

the act of reaching out and getting out could be used literally in my print. this wax pen was perfect for it.photo-16-9-16-02-46-03

since desire means reaching out, there has to be a starting point. hence, i created my print by bridging out more lines from the starting dot, to represent the determination to want to get out and go grab for it.

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Relief

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“a feeling of reassurance and relaxation following release from anxiety or distress” 

this was created using the marble technique (which was really fun to do). the black area represents the anxiety and distress, whereas the empty part area represents the sense of relief and relaxation.

(the marble technique was uploaded in the previous post but we shall refresh our minds again)

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  1. drops of calligraphy ink are added into the sink of water
  2. swirls are created by moving the drops with a stick
  3. newsprint paper is used to absorb the patterns

Optimism

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“hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something”

as circles are not structured shapes and are free in the form, i feel that circles are a good positive representation for this emotion.

the lines that start off anticlockwise represent the negativity that looms the mind; that prevents you from feeling positive. the lines are dense and thick to show its strong power. slowly, with determination, the circular lines (clockwise) start to break free, and slowly it becomes sparse, to show the immense energy of feeling hopeful.

Bliss

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“perfect happiness; great joy.”

bliss to me reminds me of a person whom is calm and at peace. wavy lines and circles are a good positive shape for this emotion because they are free form and provides an image of tenderness and positivity. hence my visual representation of bliss is represented through a mixture of them. the patterns depict ocean waves which are often described as calming elements, and that is an image im trying to achieve.

Amazement

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“a feeling of great surprise or wonder.”

to me, swirls give me the sense of wonder. an example would be the glitter we usually see in disney films

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so i took this idea of swirls for my print. i also did a mixture of black and white for an effect and play on colours, to give the sense of different and get people wondering how the grey came about. it also adds a softer image compared to pure black and white.

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Surprise

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“an unexpected or astonishing event, fact, etc.”

the term surprise automatically reminds me of things that we use to create the feeling, eg confetti, fireworks, balloons etc.

i do like the element of fireworks thus i managed to create the sparkly, fireworks effect with the use of paint on a dry brush. the reason why i chose to do it on black paper is because it works better with the sparkly effect i’m trying to create. photo-16-9-16-02-48-03 photo-16-9-16-02-48-12

Astonishment

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“great surprise”

the emotions astonishment and surprise are almost similar, but there is a greater intensity for astonishment. hence i took the similar idea of using white on black paper. photo-16-9-16-02-01-24 acrylic paint is mixed with water and sprayed from a bottle.

compared to “surprise” where a dry brush was used to create the glittery effect, wet liquid acrylic paint is used here to create a higher intensity and thicker medium. also i decided to use the spray bottle because i do enjoy the messiness it can create through the splashes. those messy splashes represent the uncalled for great surprise element.

Ferocious

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“savagely fierce, cruel, or violent.”

with ferocious, there has to have a visual image of something fierce. i felt that the visual image of lightning is a good representation of something fierce, and violent. just like how we get intimidated by thunderstorms and lightning, the emotion ferocious can be used to represent that.

Outrage

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“an extremely strong reaction of anger, shock, or indignation.”

when you need to release your anger, you result to doing things that aid with that. in this case , outrage means to me venting my anger through something. hence using the brush to create a rapid movement is the most successful way to do so.

Jealousy

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“feeling or showing an envious resentment of someone or their achievements, possessions, or perceived advantages.”

the act of jealousy can be done through lots of harming negative ways such as destroying / sabotaging someone else’s work. in this case, to recreate the act of destroy, clean brush strokes of white paint is used to paint over black paper. white to represent purity; in this case an innocent person’s work. then, black paint is brushed over in thick dry strokes to represent an act of sabotage; feeling jealous over his enemy’s clean, well-done work.

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Hurt

“to cause pain or injury to (yourself, someone else, or a part of your body)”

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Cuts and blood splats are some visual representations of being physically hurt. The sharp lines represent the cuts while the blobs of ink represent the blood. The sharp lines are created by dipping the palette knife with ink and hitting the edges of the palette knife on the paper, while the blobs are by using the flat surface of the knife and smearing it on paper.

Lonliness

“sadness because one has no friends or company.”

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lonliness…. such a sad feeling to feel ain’t it?

in this emotion, i experimented with the marbling technique again but this time round with a different type of ink – acrylic paint! (can it work??)

it definitely didn’t give me with the marbling effect as the paint was too dense, so it sunk to the bottom of the sink.

i do like the grey background of my piece as it represents the dark, gloominess of one’s mind when they’re feeling lonely.

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by using rice paper, i felt it would be a better paper medium to use as it absorbs ink quicker than normal paper.

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adding acrylic ink into a sink of water

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to my surprise, there wasnt alot of ink caught due to the high density and solubility of the paint.

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however i was really happy with the results for this emotion because the little the better, right? i really like how the there’s just one lone dot in the middle, but an accumulation of ink blobs at the sides of the piece. this is a well visual representation of lonliness due to their contrast.

Agony

“extreme physical or mental suffering.”

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i experimented with water colour for this medium. A few drops of black water colour ink is dripped on water colour paper (for better results), followed by dripping drops of water over it and swirling them to create a messy yet beautiful pattern.

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the reason i used water colour for this emotion is to depict the teary / crying like effect when someone is dealing with agony. i quite like how it turned out in the end as it shows different black tones, just like how it represents the different types of pain when one is agonised. the lines are stretched out to represent the extremity of pain.

Anxiety

“a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome.”

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this emotion is recreated just by a dry brush. as anxiety means nervousness, the middle portion represents how one would feel when anxiety reaches the maximum. the dry brush creates a feeling of tension, speed (heart beat racing).

Hysteria

“exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement.”

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as shown in a few posts back where i posted on my marble technique process, this piece was created using it. i really like how this turned out as we can see how uncontrollable the movement is, just like how hysteria feels like. the emptiness in the centre represents how one cant control his emotions – from feeling hysteric to being fine and back to its original state.

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Distress

“extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain.”

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this emotion was created using by rubbing the paper-like string with ink onto paper. photo-23-8-16-09-45-27

sharp linea and black textures were created with this experiment. i like how it turned our because the way i intepret distress is that everything is in a mess, painful and unexplanable. the sharp lines created from the edges of the string represents the pain in distress; something sharp. the black messiness represents the extremity, messiness of pain.

emo – marbling

after tons of researching on the internet, i came across this image

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which reminded me of the marbling technique for nail art.

“marbling! why havent i thought of that!!??!”

couldn’t wait to start on experimentation on the marbling technique in studio today.

using the calligraphy ink and a sink of water, these were my results.

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dripping a few drops of ink into a pool of water.

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patterns are naturally formed from the movement of the water.

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newsprint over the puddle of water to absorb ink.

i got carried away and did a few variations. (it was so fun and inspiring to see the end results, especially when you don’t expect anything)

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i really like how they turned out. now, what do they make me feel…. hmm

emo – ink on brush

another session on monoprint experimentation.

i focused more on creating textures and patterns from brushes unlike last week where props were involved.

acrylic paint and calligraphy ink were both of my mediums used.

with no intention of creating a specific type of line work in mind, i went with the flow with whatever my hand took me with.

the results actually turned out quite well. there were some that i was satisfied with such as for the emotion “hurt” where i created sharp lines by using the edges of the metal palette knife. the patterns were inspired from the cuts and blood we’d usually get from a fall.

i also realized that dry inked brushes tend to give out better results for depressive emotions as it creates a raw, messy, clouded feeling.

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next: happy emotions.