2D Assignment 2 : Point – of – View

I had a lot of conflicting feelings and thoughts regarding this project when I first stared.

Happiness differs greatly from person to person, and I had a hard time finding the angle from which I wanted to focus this project on. Similarly, it was hard for me to decide on a style that I thought was apt.

I personally prefer darker themes, but I don’t necessarily agree with the colour palette for my own works. The style, therefore, was a huge block for me when I was in the midst of the conceptualisation process.

My personal favourite works were from the Nursery Rhymes last sem, and I wanted to combine these darker themes into my work and subsequent style.For reference:

Untitled-3

 

Trying to create/define my style was definitely something that I couldn’t do within the shortperiod of 4 weeks so for the purposes of this project, I decided to with a quirkier style that hinted at some sort of impending doom.

 

For the following part of the post I’ll be taking you through my process and random drafts I did along the way.

Here are my 6 lines:

  1. Happiness from the point of view of a lover is being one with their other half.
  2. Happiness from the point of view of a introvert is being alone.
  3. Happiness from the point of view of a condom is having a fulfilled life.
  4. Happiness from the point of view of a armpit hair is being beautiful.
  5. Happiness from the point of view of a toast is getting a perfect score.
  6. Happiness from the point of view of a ADM student is sleep.

 

 

BRAINSTORMING

Process Work-01 Process Work-02

“Character” Design:

I’m really bad at drawing and I don’t quite have my own style yet, so this was me trying to settle on a character that I could use throughout my 6 works!

Process Work-03 Process Work-04

My “evolution” of characters

Final character:

Process Work-10

My initial idea was to make the female character a harbinger of happiness so I choose bright colours and a quirkier dressing sense for her! I thus tried including her in all of the compositions.


 

LOVER
Happiness from the point of view of a lover is being one with their other half.

 

Initial Drafts:

I actually got this idea when I was watching Leonardo Dicaprio’s Revenant. It was a scene in which Leonardo Dicaprio was stranded in snow, and he carved out the insides of a dead horse so that he could sleep inside of its dead body and use it as a warm make-shit shelter.

My first attempt was thus to draw the female character inside of her boyfriend.

 

Process Work-06Process Work-05

 

I thought this didn’t look very polished or clean, so I decided to change the design to the following:

Final2D PROJ 2 FINAL-01

 

I had a lot of fun with this, and thought it would look nice as a GIF, so I did:

Untitled1

(GIF – Please right click & open it in a new tab if it doesn’t work!)


 

INTROVERT
Happiness from the point of view of a introvert is being alone.

Initial Idea – Suggesting that the female character is there by showing only her face and part of the lines of her robe. Inspiration was drawn from Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak.

Process Work-09

I scraped this idea because it wasn’t very quirky.

Final:

2D PROJ 2 FINAL-03

The idea here is that introverts want to be left alone and have their own private space. The only way this would be possible would be to be away from all sorts of social contact. So space it is!

As mentioned earlier, I wanted a sense of impending doom in all my pieces, and in this image it can be seen through the crack in her helmet. There’s no spaceship in view, and she’s not connected to anything else. Therefore, her eventual fate is death!


CONDOM
Happiness from the point of view of a condom is having a fulfilled life.

Initial Idea:

A phallic looking mini balloon pump attached to a condom, filling it.

Process Work-12Variations on types of pumps to use:

Process Work-11

I couldn’t bring out a sense of doom with the previous composition, so i changed it to a condom in the process of being thrown away after it’s temporary happiness.

2D PROJ 2 FINAL-04

In the dustbin is a condom box, a used condom, tissue papers and the girl’s yellow socks.


ARMPIT HAIR
Happiness from the point of view of a armpit hair is being beautiful.

I wasn’t so sure on how to start on this one, so I just did a few sketches first.

The figure on the left is a copy of Sailor Moon’s transformation. I wanted to make use of a female character that is idolised/considered pretty and wanted to replace the ribbons in Sailor Moon’s transformation with armpit hair (quite gross, i know hahaha).

Process Work-13

Got a suggestion from Leon from the other class (thanks Leon!), and decided to go with Rapunzel since she is know for having very long and desirable hair.

Process Work-14

I initially attempted to keep the background simple so that it wouldn’t stand out too much from the the compositions, but my friend mentioned that it looked more like a well than Rapunzel’s window.

Including the rest of the building:

2D PROJ 2 FINAL-05

Final:

Centralised to fit in with the rest of the compositions.

Included a shine effect and cartoon stars to the hair to make it look funnier. Added it “I am beauuutiful” because it finally feels as desirable and pretty as it’s head counterpart!

2D PROJ 2 FINAL-08 


TOAST
Happiness from the point of view of a toast is getting a perfect score.

I got this idea from a toaster. There’s always that struggle to make sure your toast lands on your plate when it pops out of the toaster in cartoons, so I thought it would be funny if a toast’s life goal was to score a perfect landing once it’s ejected.

My first draft was just of a bread flying out of the toaster, and during consultation someone suggested that I turn the scene into a cheerleading competition instead ( I’m sorry i can’t remember who, but thank you!!)

2D PROJ 2 FINAL-07

Dressed up for cheerleading (ノ≧∀≦)◞✹2D PROJ 2 FINAL-07

Final:

Added in soya sauce, sriracha, salt and pepper as audience/judges.

Toast getting into a cheerleader formation and getting a perfect score of 10. 
2D PROJ 2 FINAL-06

Gif:

TOAST

(GIF – Please right click & open it in a new tab if it doesn’t work!)


ADM STUDENT
Happiness from the point of view of a ADM student is sleep.

If you’ve noticed, the female character actually kiiiiiind of resembles me (hair), and I did this on purpose. In the first part of my post I mentioned that the female character was supposed to be a harbinger of happiness, and I wanted the last frame to be a sort of end to this whole series.

In short, I initially wanted all the other characters to be a part of the girl’s imagination and that she can finally sleep (and be happy) once she stops thinking about these sort of weird ideas (cause assignment is submitted!!!).

Buuuuut, I decided to abandon this idea because it didn’t sound very fun. (I originally wanted to make the last image different in composition and colour the whole A5 page to show the change!)

Final:

An ADM student (hinted at because of the macbook) is seen wearing a polar bear onsie with eye bags under her eyes, ready to hibernate and sleep off her exhaustion. Calender states 17 March because that was our submission date for this assignment.

2D PROJ 2 FINAL-07


REJECTED IDEA – CLOUD

Happiness from the POV of a cloud is relieving itself. 

This was one of my original ideas, but i felt it was the weakest idea out of the rest so I decided to exclude this during presentation:
Raining

(GIF – Please right click & open it in a new tab if it doesn’t work!)


With that, I conclude this post.

This assignment was really fun as I got a chance to figure out what I liked and what kind of direction I would like to take for my future assignments. It was challenging in that sense and I definitely spent a lot of time on the design of the characters even though they are all pretty simple. I wouldn’t say I am 100% satisfied with it because I feel it is still lacking a lot, but at least it’s a small step forward! 🙂

 

4D Project 2: Sound

Sound Clips:

Track 1: Horror Scene

Track 1: War Scene

Before starting on the project, I first made it a point to go to youtube to listen to different movie and game trailers to get a better sense of the ambience and atmosphere for each situation/genre.

Track 1: Horror

I did a quick google search, and here are some of the trailers/soundtracks that I referenced:

(list clown / creepy videos)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFLKPMLdR2c

(American Horror Story Freak Show Main Title)

tumblr_nd64ckhzwh1rq0qjio1_500

Scene/storyline:

The scene opens with the character being caught in the rain late at night. Seeking shelter, he enters the first building that he sees. It becomes quiet, and something behind her drops to the floor. She hears a sharp whistle, and a jukebox suddenly starts playing as she hears someone breathing heavily in the room. She turns behind just in time to see a clown laughing at her. Before she is able to react from the shock, the clown lunges at her, ripping her body apart. His laughter reverbs and the scene cuts back to the exterior of the building.

Breakdown of Sound Clip/Explanation:

Initially, I wanted the scene to happen in the character’s bedroom. She would have woken up from her sleep only to find that the clown from her nightmare had come to life. However, I realised the idea was a bit hard to execute without visuals and decided to change the idea. The clip was also supposed to start off with a soft rain sound (to suggest that she was sleeping soundly during a rain before being woken up).

I believe most people feel comforted, cosy and relaxed when they hear rain sounds, and I thus wanted to invoke this false sense of security before the events in the scene unfolds.

I then added in the creaking floor boards so that listeners would know that she had entered a older house since we normally associate creaky floor boards with old, large houses.

This was then followed by a low hum that ended with the sound of something crashing. This was intended to contrast with the otherwise quiet and monotonous sounds that preceded it. I then overlapped the jukebox, clown laughter and deep breathing (which was recorded by me) to create more depth to the sound. I then added in various gore sounds to imply that the character was attacked and mauled by the clown after being discovered. The sound that fades out, and the rain sounds fades back in again to give the impression of the camera panning out of the scene and into the exterior of the building in the rain.

I also added in 3 ambient sounds that stayed constant throughout the whole clip. The clips were static noises, a indoor basement room tone and a brass metal sound.


Track 2: War

These are some of my reference videos:

Scene/storyline:

The scene starts from a wide angle/bird’s eye view of the war that has just started, and war cries and various monsters can be heard engaged in battle.

Various weapons can be heard. These include catapults, swords, box and arrows and spears. The soldiers wield weapons, while the beasts fight with their own strength.

The focus is then brought to one particular battle between the 2 chiefs of the individual groups. One of them is struck down fatally with a sword, and he dies, and the scene ends as he takes his last breath of air.

Breakdown of Sound Clip/Explanation:

The setting of the story is supposed to be a mesh between fantasy and war. The original idea was to have two contrasting groups go to war at one another. One such example would be magic wielders vs melee fighters. However, I realised that it would sound very messy and confusing without any visual aids. I thus decided to focus on a war between two different melee groups.

To bring across the idea that the war is set in a fantasy world, I added in various monster growls and grunts and overlapped it with other war noises. Other war noises included horses galloping, soldiers’ war cries, bow & arrow sounds and the clashing of swords.

It was difficult to think of ways to wrap up the war scene, and I thus decided to end the scene by zooming into someone dying. This gives the impression that someone important/crucial to one party has died, symbolising the end of the war.

To illustrate the idea of the main character dying,

Rather than being the ‘main’ war scene in a movie, I imagine this clip as a flashback of a past battle/war that ended in a way that was rather swift and uneventful (as compared to the climax of the movie). If not, it could be used as the opening of the movie to establish certain contextual knowledge/history about the parties involved in the war.

Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 9.18.41 am


Art History Essay: Introduction

Link to my proposal here.

Buddhism originally originated in India and spread to China as early as the second century B.C during the Han Dynasty, where Confucianism and Taoism beliefs were already a well-established school of thought for the citizens. Going against the already their values of relating oneself to family and the community, Buddhism instead focused on creating awareness of one’s self and attaining enlightenment. It was thus seen as selfish, and was not immediately accepted in China. It started gaining traction during the fourth century in the north part of china, where non-Han Chinese ruled. China descended into a period of instability and disunity, and people were looking for ways of salvation. Buddhism drew influences from various elements in Taoism and Confucianism and eventually flourished. This is especially evident in the later Buddhist sculptures such as those found at the Longmen Caves, where more than a thousand Buddhist sculptures can be found. It can said that through the sinicization of Buddhist art, it became more accessible to the masses and thus more popular.

Essay Proposal

 

Chosen Question:

What is Chinese Buddhist art? Compare two sculptures and address the question of change in art and religion when Buddhism arrives in China. The images need to be from lecture or from the Asian Civilizations Museum.

 

Introduction Paragraph:

  • Buddhism originated in India
  • Spread to China around the 1st/2nd century
  • Gained traction during the late Han Dynasty, and experienced new heights of popularity in the Tang Dynasty.
  • This is especially evident in later Buddhist art such as those found in the Tang Dynasty.
  • Bring focus to the Buddha Vairocana in the Longmen caves (983CE)

    Thesis Statement:  Buddhism successfully became more accessible and assimilated into Chinese culture and society through sinicization.

Screen Shot 2016-03-10 at 11.14.38 pmSeated Buddha, Gilded Bronze (338CE)

Screen Shot 2016-03-10 at 11.15.01 pmBuddha Vairocana, Longmen Caves (983CE)

 

1st Paragraph:

  • Comparison between early Buddhist art and late Buddhist art
  • Chosen artworks:
    • Buddha Vairocana, Longmen Caves (983CE)
    • Seated Buddha, Gilded Bronze (338CE) (Earliest known Buddhist art)
  • Visual Analysis between the two
  • Comparisons:
    • Buddha Vairocana is more naturalistic and realistic (perhaps reflecting Taoist beliefs?)
    • Materials
      • Usage of limestone in the Buddha Vairocana – softer and rounder, allowing for more serene and realistic depictions of the figures
    • Scale
      • the Buddha Vairocana is 17m tall and on a very large scale (why?)
      • Perhaps a testament to its influence and significance such that people are willing to pour in the amount of money and time needed to create it.
      • Contrasts with the Seated Buddha, which is on a much smaller scale.

 

2nd Paragraph:

  • Contextual Analysis
  • China was in a time of turmoil and instability, and people were seeking other forms of salvation (need proper citation!)
  • Buddhist beliefs and practises were rejected because it was the opposite of pre-existing Taoist and Confucianist thinking
    • Both were focused on the individual’s relation to the family and community, while
    • Buddhism focused on being aware on one’s self and enlightenment
  • Buddhism thus had to undergo several changes
    • It eventually gained the acceptance of scholars, and was influenced and partially ‘fused’ with existing taoist beliefs
    • (Reference to visual analysis and link the cultural/religious growth to the aesthetics of the Buddha Vairocana)
  • Another sign that it had assimilated/was accepted in China:
    • Most statues were commissioned by emperors/empresses to gain good karma
    • Highlights the strong presence of Buddha such that even royalty participated in it

 

Conclusion

  • Re-state/summarise the cultural influences on Buddhism (and therefore) Buddhist Art.
  • It wasn’t just Buddhism that changed when it arrived in China. It developed a mutual relationship with Taoism and Confucianism, and they influenced and changed the other.
  • Buddhism underwent changes to suit China, and sculptures became more natural and realistic.