Week 4 – 4 February 2016
Hello there! ^^
This week’s post focuses on my work-in-progress.
Thank you Miss Joy for organising the informal critique on progress-peer review!
I’ve learnt greatly from four of my other my classmates as we throw our ideas/opinions around the table. Once again, thank you June, Pei yi, Lewin and Jacob for your interesting feedbacks! ?
You people are awesome! ?
Part 1: Work-In-Progress
Before the informal critique, I prepared several sketches and prints to gather opinions and thoughts from my classmates. I’ve been working on various technique/methods to establish an appropriate form for the background as well as the typography. Below are some of my work-in-progress mentioned during the critique,
As mentioned in my OSS update last week, my concept involves representing my attributes/personality Typography Animalistically.?
I find the idea of using animal to represent my attributes/personality interesting because I find our relationship with animals are connected. Methodologically speaking on the assessment of human life history, the chimpanzee could possibly be our last closest common ancestor. In addition, we are connected with Animals because they give us warmth and support. For example, Food and Furniture products.
Part 2: Celebrities on ‘Spirit Animal’
The following is a video clip from ‘The Real Daytime’ where a group of ladies discuss about their ‘Spirit Animal’. I find the discussion by the ladies expressive and relatable for example Tamera describes herself as a lioness because of the attributes such as being Fierce, Strong, Graceful and Loyalty. She later narrowed it down to Loyalty which describes her most.
Part 3: Different Views and Opinion
Created by Brieanna Watts Elmore, the website (Link Below) generates your ‘Spirit Animal’ based on the questions answered. [Please take it with a pinch of salt]
I answered the questions and I got a ‘Wolf’ as my ‘Spirit Animal’. ?
While the description might be true, it varies from different websites and sources.
To explain, different people have different views and opinion on animals.
Let’s take Wolf as an example. ?
On the positive side, a wolf could symbolise the deep connection with your intuitions and instincts whereas on the other hand, a wolf could also means the lack of trust in someone or your own feeling or actions.
This brings the question to my composition; How do I illustrate the wolf so that it conveys the attribute/personality that most can agree on? The answer to this could be the use of gesture and emotion that my wolf adopts. By doing so, my animal illustration could be more relatable and more expressive.
Part 4: Trial and Error
As I was drawing and trying to incorporate typography into my composition, I realised that I am doing it wrongly. My initial Idea (See below) involves my name ‘Eugene’ to be widely spread out onto the 1) Human, 2) Gun and 3) Roots of the Trees. As a result, the overall composition became a mess and unreadable.
Because this project emphasis on Typography, I realised the need to make it more readable and more relatable. For such, I brought my focus on the Gun (See below) instead of spreading across the composition. By doing so, the gun became the main focus which carries a certain meaning.
I have also tried creating a draft for my wolf animation. Unfortunately, I have never tried creating 2D animation before as my specialisation is in 3-dimension products. However, I chose to do this because if I don’t try when will I start trying? Haha!?
Yup, my friend question me the reason why I troubled myself to do something that I am not familiar with. Basically I feel that in life there’s no easy way out. The learning process is never easy however as long as we put our heart into it, we can reach greater heights!?
This project is indeed an eye-opener for me – Challenging myself by using new medium. Hence, I went to research on many tutorials and try making one by myself. My first attempt was a walking human which walk quite weirdly when animated (The piece I showed some of my classmates and my some of my x-classmates). I also did a draft of an animated wolf with my name engraved in it (See below).
During the informal critique, I was given great pointers by my classmates such as to replace my existing idea with the one I did previously – Typography for ‘Hello, my name is’ card. The approach was to use my name and bend it to form the shape of the animal.
Part 5: Dadaism or not?
I also mentioned the use of Dada in my composition.
I was inspired by Liu Xue Anthropomorphic Sculpture and I planned to combine myself with the animal. The approach would be replacing my lower part of my body with that of animal.
Liu Xue
The reason for my approach is the idea of ‘You are your own worst enemy’ – because we control our own emotions and we decide which path to take. Hence, the animal is actually myself too.
Joy mentioned that she was worried that my approach would result in the ‘animal’ becoming disfigured/unclear and suggested I follow the initial idea instead. Once again, thank you Joy for your valuable feedback! ^^?
Part 6: Creating Setting
Lastly, I mentioned about the use of background.
The image below is the background, I drew it with Photoshop which will be used for my composition. (Not the final yet, I’m still working on it).
I worked on Split Complementary Colours; Red-Orange, Blue and Green.
Part 7: My Approach
After the valuable feedbacks I’ve gathered from the informal critique, my next approach would be as followed;
1) Explore various forms for ‘Animal’, – Include gesture as well.
2) Draw and Scan Animalistic Typography
3) Give the background a ‘Hue and Saturation’ make over, – Make sure it does not overlay the main element.
The End! ?
Thank you for reading this long post! ?
Appreciated & Happy Chinese New Year! ?
