Tag: print

Forrest Gump Final

Compositions

The seaweed is always greener, in somebody else’s lake. – The Little Mermaid (1989)

The keywords are “greener” and “someone else’s”. To show “greener” I used contrasting values — black and white. I interpret “someone else’s” as something territorial. I chose a frog for my subject since they are known to be territorial. Instead of using an image of a pond or lake, I suggest the idea of water through the engraving pattern running through the middle of the composition. “Seaweed” is replaced by the wrapped tadpoles.

I placed the elements in a dynamic manner to prevent the composition from looking static. I applied the following principles of design: contrast, texture, rhythm.

 

 

Fish are friends, not food. – Finding Nemo (2003)

For this simple quote, I used sushi to merge “fish” and “food” together. I chose a penguin as their main diet consist of mostly fish. I wanted to convey irony, since the character in the movie who said this quote is a shark that eats fish (or attempted to). The sushi is half black, half white — to suggest whether the fish is friend or foe. To depict the “friends” part, I included a circle in the composition, which is actually a photo of the earth that I changed into an engraving in photoshop. Th earth is used to show that we are all on the same planet, hence the “friends” part.

The following principles of design are applied in this composition: Rule of thirds, balance, scale (big circle, small circle).

 

Anyone can cook but only the fearless can be great. – Ratatouille (2007)

“Anyone can cook“, means the dumbest of animals can cook! I used a panda in this composition as it is ranked the number 1 dumbest animal on some websites. “Fearless” is shown through the cloud motifs. I interpret that only the fearless would dare to reach for the skies, so the panda is in the sky. “Can be great” is shown through the stacked pots and pans. The panda is at the top of the pyramid. In this composition I attempted a more symmetrical design, with only the panda’s pose to offset the symmetry.

I applied the following principles of design: symmetry, hierarchy.

 

The past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it. – The Lion King (1994)

I kept the overall look of the composition dark to portray a dark past. “Run” is shown through the horse. The spears convey “hurt“. I arranged the spears such that they lead the viewer’s eyes to the horse. It also creates a more dynamic and less static composition. This design principle also helps depict the “learn from it” part. We learn from our journeys, hence I used the pathway to signify journeys. The white smokey path further accentuates the leading lines created by the spears.

The design principles applied are: Repetition, rhythm, scale, balance.

Final Print

I managed to get a perfect print on my third try! The engraving showed up well so I’m glad I added that into my design.

Reflection

The most challenging part of this project was to not be literal. I think I could have done a better job in choosing the images or elements. I think some of my designs thread on the fine line of being literal. I think for future projects, I need to try to see things from another perspective. Another problem that I had was, after arriving at one composition, I have the tendency to stick to it and run out of ideas to create a completely new one. Which is probably not good as an artist.

In terms of design principles, I think I have took risks in one or two compositions by steering away from safe design principles.  I focused mainly on avoiding symmetry for most of my designs. However I think I could have experimented with other design principles grouped under the gestalt theory, such as similarity and closure.

The silkscreen process overall was very good experience. It is something completely new that I had never done before, and the end result is satisfying after all the tests. I found that it helps to observe other people doing their printing. And try to mimic the actions of those successful. It was tricky adjusting the pressure exerted and motion of the hand. The amount of paint used matters too.

In the process of this project, Photoshop corrupted one of my files (ironically, while I was saving it). Though I managed to redo my work quickly, it was a reminder for me as an artist to always back up my work.

The outcome of the “class voting” was not surprising to me as I know which composition works well and which doesn’t. My classmates liked the frog and horse one the most. I think I’d need to improve more on idealization and conceptualisation more. I can start by making mind maps for my next assignment!

 

Forrest Gump Process

I document my designing and silk screening process here!

Compositions

  • The seaweed is always greener, in somebody else’s lake. – The Little Mermaid (1989)

As explained in the previous post, I wanted to show contrast in the image to convey the idea of “somebody else’s”. However, I made the mistake of starting off with a pretty literal choice of image which is the water / lake. The line going across the page made the composition very static. I chose a frog as my subject since it is known to be a territorial creature. After combining the two elements I could not think of other images to include. Hence I ditched this composition totally.

While looking for a suitable frog image to use in this composition, I came across a good photo so I imported it into photoshop and edited it to become an engraving. It was a happy accident that the background become a nice engraved pattern. So I thought of using it to suggest the idea of water, instead of literally using images of ponds and lakes. I erased some parts so that it’d look more graphic. The engraved pattern provided good separation between the black and white areas, so I decided to keep that in the composition. I inverted the colours of the seaweed so that it’d stand out against their respective backgrounds. But admittedly it was too literal. During consultation, Shirley suggested using something  else to represent the seaweed, like tadpoles maybe. Below is the design that I worked on before the final.

 

  • Fish are friends, not food. – Finding Nemo (2003)

My initial design was a bit too literal again since it is a fish, that seems to be a problem for me. I liked the irony of a fish eating another fish though. Composition wise, I like its simplicity. But I think this design would not have printed well so, rejected!

 

 

Since I liked the simple composition, I tried going for a similar concept. I tried replacing the fish with something else. I looked up animals that feed on fish. A lot of them were birds and bears. I didn’t want to work with a bear because I already have a panda in my other quote. I opted for a penguin and came up with the composition below. But I didn’t like the  final outcome. Something about the penguin puts me off. So rejected.

 

 

  • Anyone can cook but only the fearless can be great. – Ratatouille (2007)

Photoshop messed up my file for this composition! I pressed SAVE but it corrupted the file. The irony. So I redid my work, and thankfully, it actually turned out better than what I had originally.

THE CORRUPTED FILE. Sigh.

 

This is the new and improved design of what I had originally. I think the image is quite reflective of the quote. I didn’t chose this because it doesn’t convey the “can be great” part very well.

 

 

  • The past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it. – The Lion King (1994)

I used a  horse to substitute the word “run”. The difficult part about this composition was finding suitable images. I couldn’t find an angle that I like initially so I warped the horse image but that was a bad choice. It looked amateurish and bad overall. So I decided to ditch this.

 

After I found a suitable image and combined the elements of time and hurt, I worked on the “learn from it” part. I chose to create a pathway with knives because paths represent journeys and journeys are our learning processes! The next step was to think about the background. It was hard thinking about what elements to introduce into the compositions. The branches are supposed to show the passing of time too but it turned out to be very awkward in this composition.

 

 

I tried going for a simple approach too, by using a solid black path. But I’m not sure about all the abundance of white. I think it’s more interesting to have an actual background. So I rejected this too.

 

Silk screening process

The fun part! First, we had to print our design onto transparency. After we have coated our silkscreen with the blue emulsion, we let it dry. We then place our transparency with the design on it and expose it to light.

After scrubbing off the unexposed parts, this is what I got:

 

Pleased that it turned out fine. I proceeded to do some test prints on paper. At first I thought “Wow, so simple”…

 

 

I WAS WRONG. I attempted a print on my personal tote bag but it failed. I went over my design too many times because the ink wouldn’t distribute well. If we compare it with my final design, we can see that some of the tadpole in the black background and the engraved pattern didn’t show up. The bottom part of the design is faded. The white details against black backgrounds didn’t show up well. I guess the trick is to have the right amount of paint, and the right “feeling” as you drag the swipey thing down once.

 

Left: personal tote bag print, right: design

 

Placing the paint. We masked the edges of the screen with tape to avoid smudges!

 

Then using one swift motion, we drag the paint down. My second try, with the provided tote bag this time.

 

Is it a success?!

 

Final designs and final print to be revealed in final submission post!