Project 3: Ego

Who am I?

That was the main question I had in my mind while doing this project. It had a similar self-discovery journey like the Emo project but I enjoyed this creative process even more because of the use of – COLOURS and of course, my own imagination.

INSPIRATION

I’m quite a colourful person. I LOVE LOVE LOVE colours in artworks so when we were allowed to use colours for this project, I L.I.T.E.R.A.L.L.Y SQUEALED. 

My Colour Theory

MATT MILLER

mat-miller

I love his colour scheme because of the fantasy, whimsical feel it has to it and even though there is a lot of colours, they somehow complement each other to create one piece that flows together. The use of pastel and neon colours allows the focal piece of his work to stand out and brings life to it due to the vibrancy.

Colours I have identified and used

colour

PROCESS + RESEARCH

Me

Since I’ve taken the mbti personality test, I’m an INFP but recently it’s been swinging to ENFP although I still feel that I’m mostly and INFP. From that, I used it as a basis to further discover what morals and characteristics I have. Listed them down and chose the four that currently represented my emotional state this year. 

(To read up about INFP https://www.16personalities.com/infp-strengths-and-weaknesses or ENFP https://www.16personalities.com/enfp-strengths-and-weaknesses)

The reason for choosing animals to represent me symbolically as these are some of my favorite animals and upon researching, animals have their symbolic meanings too. 

I had no idea how to use illustrator so I did it the traditional way by first getting the base outline of my image followed by tracing my idea onto tracing paper with details then scanning it onto photoshop to colour. 

process

 

 

2d1

Stag – It’s senses are very acute and they see extremely well in low light, giving them the ability to understand the deeper symbolic meanings of things. They can hear a twig snap a very long way off. They are intuitive, often seeming to possess well developed, even extrasensory perceptions. Sometimes their thoughts seem to race ahead, and they appear not to be listening, to be somewhere else.

2d2

Seahorse – A relatively calm, and mild-mannered creature, the seahorse is seemingly content to roam the seas. Content to be who they are, and not feeling the need to change, the seahorse can be a symbol of inflexibility or stubbornness by wrapping its tail around the nearest object in order to anchor itself in turbulent waters.

2d3

Swallow – Everlasting love and loyalty, related to the fact that swallows mate for life

2d4

Polar bear – Fierce and strong yet playful at the same time. They pursue what they want deliberately and powerfully and are not afraid to show aggressive behavior for defensive purposes.

Furthermore, I included symbolic objects such as lotus, oyster shell, studs and feathers, each representing a feeling/ characteristic.

Feathers (stag) – Truth

Spikes (seahorse) – Defense

Oyster shell (swallow) – Protectiveness of love

Lotus (polar bear) – Enlightenment 

Settings

Next, my settings is all done using paper cut and slightly pop art style. Also, with such intricate illustrations, I did not want it to clash with another intricate setting. Thus the paper cut style allowed me to retain a clear perspective. Although my settings represents the habitats of these animals,  they also reflect my natural state of emotions – I’m only myself when I’m in my own surroundings that I belong in. This is the part where the I in INFP represents my introverted self because I tend to be quiet and shy in a strange environment. Furthermore, it’s all about nature as I find peace and beauty in it as nature is something that is beyond our control. 

forest

Forest – somewhere I can be alone with my thoughts because it is so quiet and peaceful that you can hear the cicada’s mating call and leaves crackling underneath your feet

waves

Waves – beautiful when calm but challenging and deadly when stormy as the saying goes “a calm sea never made a skillful sailor” thus acts as an obstacle

oening-to-sea

Caves – I’ve been to a cave before during a school field trip and it was not only peaceful but it can be claustrophobic in the darkness so opening it out to see represented freedom 

artic

Arctic – the coldness and harsh silence takes a toll on your body but seeing the beautiful northern lights is relaxing and calming and is an out-of-body experience and makes me reflect about my life as something so beautiful is also natural yet we all have doubts about ourselves

Me/ Reaction

truth

1

Truth – a feather from the stag is floating down the sky into the woods to reflect honesty to my own self during reflection in the woods 

love

2

Love – a rose petal also symbolising love from the swallow is drifting down from outside a dark cave because to me as long I’m loyal and have freedom in my relationship, this love is strong enough to make bring me happiness during dark times

stubborn

3

Stubborn – although I may appear to me mild-mannered, but when faced with obstacles or force, I’ll fight for who I am and thus represented by a spike to defend my own individuality during challenging times. This can be also seen as defiance to change as my mum calls it

compassion

4

Compassion – represented by the lotus underneath the northern lights as I’m carefree and playful most of the time but when things are brought into perspective when I’m relaxed, I’ll start to see how privileged I am and start being more understanding to others

CONCLUSION

I REALLY REALLY REALLY ENOJED THIS PROJECT because I could finally express myself in my own way and style and it pushed me to do my best in a short time span to create works that I never thought I could pull off. I really loved how everything turned out.