Category Archives: Foundation 2D 1 – G1

Ego: All in one!

Initially, I had wanted to do string art for my project. I wanted to try a much more hands-on, craft-kind of art.  So why not try doing string art, since I have a bunch of strings left from the string sculpture project in 3d! These were a few of the artist I was inspired from.

Rachel Furlough:

Her  works were once of the first I seen when I google ‘string art’. I like how she play around with the space -leaving the main object blank while the strings are used to bring the image out.

Image result for Rachel Furlough string art

Alan Dindo:

I love the intricate designs in his work. However, I think It would be really time-consuming to carry out something similar to this especially since we are tackling with other projects as well. So I might have stuck with a much more simpler design like Rachel’s work.

Anatomical string art! Alan Dindo: Brain:

Process (trying it out):

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Apologies if I didn’t take much picture of it. I was kind of frustrated with the results because it took too long just to achieve something simple looking as that. I might have underestimated the amount of work out into string art! The problems I encounter was that the strings kept being loosen and falling apart. Smaller details or part of the image were a pain to do. I had did the eye but it fall apart later on.

So from here, I decided that string art was not working out for me. I have decided to try using digital instead, because of time-constrain. However, I still wanted to incorporate the design of it on my work. Hence I tried looking up at geometrical works because they have that certain style I’m looking for and I could get inspirations from.

Animal + Minimalism = Animalism by Stephanie Cahyadi:

Animals + Minimalism = Animalism by Stephanie Cahyadi:

365 days of of devise:


Day 154: Geometric elephant * he comes alive in the shadows:

Josh Bryan:

While at first glance these stunning black and white portraits look like they were created in Illustrator, you'd be surprised to find out they're actually pen drawings. 20-year-old England-based artist Josh Bryan has a set called Triangulations where he's taken some well-known celebrities - like Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Helen Bonham Carter, and Johnny Knoxville - and created their likeness in abstract, geometric form. Hundreds of tiny triangles make up each face.:
This would be a really cool tattoo. Love geometric tattoos and love the portrait turned into a geo tat.:

 

Colours:

The colours for this project, I’ve decided to use them on in regards of the meaning of each colour. Like what does it portray -blue means melancholy and purple was nostalgia.
Because different colours evoke different emotions.

http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/12-colours-and-emotions-they-evoke-61515112 (brief explanation of colours and emotions.

I used a program called colour.co to get the scheme I had. (Link was provided by Lydia, thanks!)

Types of colour chosen or found insteresting:
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Process:

Image result for foxes

Reason why I choose a fox to represent myself was because due to the reference of the trilogy book His Dark Materials. (A.k.a the famous movie, the golden compass) This is where “Dæmons are the external physical manifestation of a person’s ‘inner-self’ that takes the form of an animal.”
A fox is like my inner self, they are seen as sly, dangerous creatures which are easily misunderstood as they are simply shy, peaceful and can be very curious.  More details about it can be seen in this link here!

How I did my work was Me (emotions) + Setting = Outcome
In order:

  • Melancholy + Overwhelmed = Broken
  • Contentment + Attentive to friends  = Spreading Happiness
  • Nostalgia + Alone with my thoughts = Reflection
  • Agitated + Being stressed = Determination

First Ego:
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Melancholy

I used the colour blue because upon research, blue was a colour primarily chosen to represent sadness. Animals can’t really show their feelings, so in a sense, I played around with the colour, in a way changing the entire image to show just how colour plays a huge part in changing the mood of an image.

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Overwhemled

Sometimes feelings pent up overtime and there’s a breaking point to it. Here I tried to show the limit of it with a shattering glass.

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Broken

I tried to portray myself (the fox) looking at a broken mirror with the iconic teardrop shape. This is the point of the result of after being overwhelmed, I tend to end up ‘broken’. Everyone will experience in a point of their life where they feel helpless and all they could do at the moment is to wallow. But eventually, life will go on and that moment will pass! Just like how my second ego is a more positive one.

 

Second Ego:

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Contentment

A happy looking fox is a fox being cozily asleep. I used the colours green and yellow as they are welcoming colours. Green symbolizes growth while yellow is a friendly, warmth colour. A combination of both colours is a way for me to show lightheartedness.

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Attentive to friends

I realize there are lots of talkers nowadays and little listeners. I am one who rather listen than talk. Sometimes, my friends just need someone who will listen to their problems and I’m willing to do so. It’s a way to help them have a outlet to let themselves out and get a form of relief -despite big or small.

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Spreading Happiness

The result of this is making others around me have a brighter day. In the end, I would love to see smiles on my friends face, a reason why I don’t mind joking about. Why would one rather be gloomy all the time when you can be happy, even for just a moment? Life is too short to be full of remorse.

Third Ego:

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Nostalgia

Purple was a colour that represents nostalgia. There is a limitation yet once again working with animals as it is hard to show feelings. This is why I did a fox looking off into the distance while using the colour purple to set the mood. Because once again, the colour theory of where colours affects the overall emotion/mood of the image.

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Alone with my thoughts

I admit that the result of this image threw me off for a moment by how creepy it looks. But in a sense, it portrays what I want to say. I may come off as a bubbly person but I do tend to get lost in my own thoughts when I’m alone. Reason why the eyes are not shown here is because eyes are the windows to one soul.

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Reflection

In the end, what has happened has happened. The only thing I can do is reflect on it, move on and try to be a better person. My image shows a reflection of me shown as a fox because that is who I am still in the end. What happened won’t change me for who I am. I can only be true to myself.

Fourth Ego:

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Agitated

Anger in an animals can be shown thrown their defensive reaction. Some snarl and bare their fangs. Red is also a colour that shows anger and aggressive movements. For the first and second images, I started using much more jagged edges in the background while giving the a much darker red to imply movements, or at least a sensation of it. When you’re angry, it’s feels like shards of broken glass prickling.

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Being stressed

A stressful situation for me is like being at gun point. Similar to how a hunter aims before shooting. There’s this tension between the hunter and the animal, a.k.a the fox within that few seconds which I think portray well the feeling of being stressed.

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Determination

I do strive to be the one who make it out alive. Hence the last image of where the fox has bitten off the hunter’s hand. It symbolizes the determination to succeed and make it through the stressful situation.

Overall look (apology for bad camera quality):

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Movie quotes – The final designs!

Most of my explanation for each piece can be found in my research post. Each piece has their own style (Asian, Western, Aztec etc.) because I based it on the setting of each movie.

circle-of-life

Mufasa said this particular quote to Simba to explain how everything in life was connected in a circle. How they the rulers of the kingdom, were respected as such. And in return, they show the same respect back to the animals they rule upon, from the smallest ant to the biggest elephant.  He also states how there was a balance in everything -when Simba questions that they ate very animals that respect them. : “when we die, our body becomes the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.”

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This quote was said by Shang to Ping (Mulan) when he was training every one in the army to be a man.  While he was training them, there was a particular phrase everyone was singing (because most of the time, Disney movies involve musicals) on how to be a men: “We must be swift as the coursing river. With all the force of a great typhoon. With all the strength of a raging fire. Mysterious as the dark side of the moon.” These were the qualities needed to be a man. Taking this phrase, this is how I interpret of how Shang wants a Man to be like.

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This was one of my all time favorite, comedic, underrated Disney movies.  A Disney movie that does not have musicals! Here, I incorporated the characteristics of the characters into animals; The sly and cunning Yzma as a scheming-looking lizard and the dense and happy-go-lucky Kronk as a clueless-looking monkey. The quote was said from Yzma to her assistant, Kronk when they were about to enter their secret lab -to find a way to get rid of the Emperor. Apparently, Kronk pulls the wrong lever (this is an iconic scene which later was shown subsequently in their TV series) and Yzma falls down a trap, where there is a crocodile that lurks at the bottom. (She doesn’t die though!)

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This quote was sang (because Disney movies and musicals) by both Anna and Hans.  An open door is like a symbol of opportunity and for this quote, it was suppose to signify love at first sight. But during the movie, it was revealed that Hans doesn’t feel the same way and was in fact playing along the whole time, a scheme to get close to the princesses so he can take over their kingdom. The main focus I was aiming for was the interaction between the man and the woman. The placement of the hearts above the woman also symbolizes how deeply infatuated Anna felt towards Hans.

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Movie Quotes- Tote bags silk screen printing!

To be honest, I have no idea how silk screening was done until we got to try it ourselves! I was glad that I got to have such an experience and it was fun doing so, despite it being laborious as well as the pain when you do not get the print that you want.

So, Mimi had showed us other works of silk screens and it was fascinating to see them.  I was wondering how they managed to incorporate their designs onto a silkscreen. The explanation of the process was a bit confusing, but once you go through the process of doing so, it becomes clearer!

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Mimi showing works of silk screens

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Examples of silk screens

So my design that I have chosen was:
circle-of-lifeAt that time, this design was the first to be finalized and it came out really well, so why not use this design for silk screen printing. We had to print our work on a transparency sheet where it will be placed onto the silk screen. The silk screen will then be covered with emulsion before exposing to light. So the black prints on our work were areas which will not be exposed to the light, thus appearing on your silk screen.

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Miracles in the red room of PAIN

It was cool to see our prints developing on the silk screen and then having to wash it to see our designs even more clearly. And the results:

edit2Brilliant!

So, the next step was to test print them. We did so on newsprint. We had to get help from  one another to hold our silk screen down so they wouldn’t move when we were pressing the paint against them .

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And the results were lovely. I really like how I could see all the small fine details. And it was a first try! I’m proud of it, hahah! But the question is, will it appear the same on the tote bags?

Apparently, printing on a tote bag was totally different. You need to know how much paint to put and the amount of pressure applied. My first and second try on the tote bag was not that great. img-20161014-wa0018img-20161014-wa0017 edit5First try. The printing was too light. Probably because there was not enough paint used.

img_20161022_001754Second try. Too much paint!

I had to get a new tote bag -thanks to Kai for buying for us new ones!- just so I can reprint it and get a satisfied result. And it was worth it because like they say, third time’s the charm!

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Movie quotes: Development of ideas and process

So my quotes, I try to base them off iconic images related to my chosen quotes and try to build up from there.

  1. “And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.”
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    6357841174627330901236578902_lion-king-circle-of-life

    From that quote, I’ve gathered that the lions are the rulers and respected by the rest of the other animals within the same place.maaaaasewhenyaaaa
    This was a rough draft. I know it is bad but bear with me. I tried following the iconic lion king pose and realise that replacing the animals with other animals did not really work out that well.  I also find that that iconic scene is overused so I tried expanding out from it.
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    So I tried the concept of using the sun with the animals walking in the foreground. Except, I superimposed a Lion on the Sun. Just like a ruler, it is watching over the animals. So how, the entire piece  felt a little incomplete to me, like it does not show the aspect of “circle of life”
    circle-of-life

    So i took a literal approach to ‘circle of life’ and made the animals and trees (life) revolve around the Lion. I was quite satisfied with this because it fulfills what I was looking for. It represents the chosen quote where the Lions are the rulers and they watch over the animals, and their life revolves around their ruler which they respect. In return, their ruler respects them as well, from the smallest to the biggest animal.

  2.  “Pull the Lever, Kronk!…Wrong Lever!”the-emperors-new-groove-title-card groove-artwork
    Because the movie was base on the Inca Empire, I want to add the style and aspect into my work. So I tried a boarder sense of style and looked through Mayan/Aztec/Inca designs to get inspiration such as the following below:ancient-patterns-with-mayan-gods-19509312 3a27b308-efb3-45a5-a065-36d851cbd167

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    pull-the-lever-kronk
    So this was my initial rough design. I incorporated the mayan/aztec/inca style to relate to the movie. Rasons why I chose the specific animals to replace the character:

    Yzma (the person that falls through the hole) is a cunning, scheming, skinny looking lady. I manage to find a lizard design which I felt showed that side of her. I then added feathers and curves to the side of the lizard head to represent her hair.

    Kronk (the person pulling the lever) is a dense, big sized henchman of Yzma. In a way, the monkey felt like a representation of him. “Monkey see, monkey do” is like Kronk simply does what Yzma tells him to without thinking much. I also added a hat like thing on his head just like what the original character is wearing.

    Somehow, the overall picture felt a little too plain, and the focus is off the characters, so I tried playing around with them.

    pull-the-lever-kronkk

    It still felt kind of empty to me and the focus was still off, so I tried the suggestion where maybe I could zoom into the characters .pull-the-lever-kronk3 pull-the-lever-kronk-2
    I felt like the designs were getting much more simpler each time I zoom in and the narrative might  be lost. So I had to think of a way to incorporate everything, like in my 2nd draft design, and make it feel full instead of empty.
    pulltheleverkronk
    And viola! Inspired by my previous quote design where I used a circle to capture everything, I did the same for this and I am quite satisfied with the result. I also tried to eliminate the empty space at the bottom by placing a monster. The monster represents the crocodile where Yzma will get bitten by when she falls through the hole.

  3. “Mister, I’ll make a man out of you.”
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    be-a-manThis was a rough design. I had wanted to capture the elements and show where this person is braving through them. I wanted to have this Asian style to it.  I also tried following the picture above where the characters are striking with a spear.

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    From there, I developed from my rough draft to something much more acceptable. Still, I wasn’t pleased with it because of some reason, thought I manage to show each elements, there was this break of flow. Like they could not fit well together.makeaman1
    So I tried changing the person to this manlier looking vector I have managed to find. And the results were interesting. There is now this sense of balance. So I tried playing around with it.
    makeamanoutofyou
    And somehow it led to this, close to my final design. The person is overlooking each element that he needs to brave through in order to be considered a man. This aspect was what I was happy to achieve and I like how I managed to make the flames to slowly appear out from him. Though, the only part of which I was not pleased was the fact that I couldn’t find a good way to represent “typhoon.”  I tried to show strong gust of wind with the movements of the clouds.

  4. “Love is an open door.”
    frozen-2013-hans-love-is-a-open-door love-is-an-open-door_anna-and-hans

    I tried looking through vintage designs because I was going for a western style for this quote.  Like from the screenshots above, you can tell about the style of the movie setting. Apparently, each of piece of my work has their own style based on the setting of the movies.
    loveisanopendoord
    In my initial designs, I had wanted to do a gate. And the gates were heart shaped. I plan to put like a couple beyond the gate, showing their interaction to portray “Love is an open door.”
    loveisanopendoordd
    However, it did not work too well, because they end up seeming to be floating in mid-air. I was not sure how to solve this. And I realise, the gates weren’t that strong in showing the concept of “Love is an open door.”
    loveisanopendoor1
    So I went with a more literal sense, where it was obvious it was a door shaped in a heart form. Beyond that, you can see that it captures the interaction of the woman and the man. though the man figure is obscure. Reason was because I wanted the main focus to be on the girl. In the movie, the girl (Anna) was too captivated by the guy (Hans). Hans did not felt the same way towards her. The whole time he played along so he could achieve his goals. However, this piece felt like I could add more to it since it felt slightly empty.

    love-is-an-open-door
    Annnd, this was the result of it! I added more decorations and moved the couple out a bit more to the right. This time we can see the man more clearly, though the main focus is still on the girl. The hearts around her acts as  form of decoration as well as a symbolic meaning to show her love towards the man.

Movie quotes: Research and Inspiration!

tumblr_inline_mzvlbw0e4k1qjj500“It’s brillant, Brillant, BRILLANT!”
– Yzma, The Emperor’s New Groove

My four chosen quotes:

  1. “And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.” – The Lion King
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    Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.

    Young Simba: But, Dad, don’t we eat the antelope?

    Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.

    Synopsis of movie: A young lion prince is born in Africa, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own thus completing the “Circle of Life”.  -IMDb

  2.  “Mister, I’ll make a man out of you.” – Mulan
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    However, my image will be based on the following phrase  (because it is too long so I had to substitute it with the above stated quote. Both quotes are still linked.)

    “We must be swift as the coursing river,
    With all the force of a great typhoon,
    With all the strength of a raging fire,
    Mysterious as the dark side of the moon.”

    In the movie, these qualities were state on how it is to be a man.
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    Synopsis of movie:
      This retelling of the old Chinese folktale is about the story of a young Chinese maiden who learns that her weakened and lame father is to be called up into the army in order to fight the invading Huns. Knowing that he would never survive the rigours of war in his state, she decides to disguise herself and join in his place. Unknown to her, her ancestors are aware of this and to prevent it, they order a tiny disgraced dragon, Mushu to join her in order to force her to abandon her plan. He agrees, but when he meets Mulan, he learns that she cannot be dissuaded and so decides to help her in the perilous times ahead.  – IMDb

  3. Pull the lever, Kronk!…Wrong Lever!” – The Emperor’s New Groove
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    Synopsis of movie: In this animated comedy from the folks at Disney, the vain and cocky Emperor Kuzco is a very busy man. Besides maintaining his “groove”, and firing his suspicious administrator, Yzma; he’s also planning to build a new waterpark just for himself for his birthday. However, this means destroying one of the villages in his kingdom. Meanwhile, Yzma is hatching a plan to get revenge and usurp the throne. But, in a botched assassination courtesy of Yzma’s right-hand man, Kronk, Kuzco is magically transformed into a llama. Now, Kuzco finds himself the property of Pacha, a lowly llama herder whose home is ground zero for the water park. Upon discovering the llama’s true self, Pacha offers to help resolve the Emperor’s problem and regain his throne, only if he promises to move his water park. – IMDb

  4.  “Love is an Open Door” – Frozen
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    original

    Synopsis of movie: In the Kingdom of Arendelle, Princess Elsa has the power of freezing and creating ice and snow, and her younger sister Anna loves to play with her. When Elsa accidentally hits Anna on the head with her gift and almost kills her, their parents bring them to trolls that save Anna’s life and make her forget the ability of her sister. Elsa returns to the castle and maintain herself recluse in her room with fear of hurting Anna with her increasing power. Their parents die when their ship sinks in the ocean and three years later, the coronation of Elsa forces her to open the gates of her castle to celebrate with the people. Anna meets Prince Hans in the party and she immediately falls in love with him and decides to marry him. But Elsa does not accept the marriage and loses control of her powers freezing Arendelle. Elsa flees to the mountain and Anna teams up with the peasant Kristoff and his reindeer Sven and with the snowman Olaf to seek out Elsa. They find Elsa in her icy castle and she accidentally hits Anna in the heart; now only true love can save her sister from death. -IMDb

Artists Inspiration

  1. Banksy10-i-am-father d3159435b2cca3047194f43bca541083 banksy

    Though he is a graffiti artist, his stencils works are simple yet narrative and symbolic. Normally his works are very straightforward and you’ll get the meaning right away with one glance. That is something I hope to achieve in my work.
  2. Henn Kimtumblr_o52acvuzlx1unnnneo1_1280 de5c0de82693fb43ca37ae4ecf56d13d bd4f1fdb8231ecba4ffce79d3a870bab

    Her works relies on symbolism to carry out the narrative aspect of the work. She likes to superimpose original parts in her work with another object to give this quirky yet thought-provoking artworks. Sometimes you need to stop to think and ponder about her work though most of her work titles are a dead give away to what the art means, like the first piece “Head in the clouds”.

My Line is Emo – All in one

The entire project had been an emotional roller coaster ride, mainly involving the emotions frustration, angst, exhaustion and relief! Haha!

I’ve decided to document and compile everything into one post, so bear with me if it seems lengthy! But I guess it shows the process much easier in one post!


Mark Making:

We had to bring our own mark making tools for class. Initially, I had no idea what I should bring, so I decided to make some of my own! As class progressed, I realized that literally ANYTHING can be used as a mark making tool.
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Mark Making Tools

We also learned how to use a paint on roller and how to achieve a nice, full black print. We got to experiment and explore with different techniques using paint and chinese ink.

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Exploration of paint using a Roller

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This is only the beginning

We may have gone a bit too wild and started trying out endlessly possibilities achieving some form of mark making. But in the end, we made some really cool results!

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My Mark Making Loots! 2dpic6

Example of  a good Mark Making work


Monoprinting:

We also had the opportunity to do mono-printing! I have never done mono-printing before and have always wonder how they’re done, so this was an eye opener for me. We have to lino-cutting which is done by cutting the surface of a Lino, spreading paint evenly onto it and then run through a print machine.

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The amount of paint and pressure used can affect the outcome of the print

We got a hands on experience of trying the lino-printing, and these were what I produced!

2dpic9 2dpic10 2dpic11Dark is my soul which I have just touched

The main result were paint-covered hands.

Overall, who knew mark making could be fun? But we all know, that that’s just the beginning. Now all we have to do was link our mark marking and emotions together.


Memory Drawing:

For this, we had to tap into our subconscious to do automatic drawings. A simple way to do so is Memory Drawing. In Memory drawing, we have to think of whichever emotions we want to portray. For example , for a Happiness, we need to think of something that makes us happy or a moment in or life where we felt a strong feeling of happiness. And by doing so, we let our hands do the automatic drawings.

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Happiness

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Anger

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Sadness


Process Work:

How I started was that I did experimental works first. Mainly exploration of techniques and mark marking to see what I can achieve. After which, I might look at a particular print and see what kind of emotions it elicits or reminds me of. I would make notes in my journal about it so I would not forget what I have thought of.

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Experimental works

The next step for me was to categorize the prints I have done and other future-prints I might do into the main emotions; happiness, love, sadness, fear, anger, surprise. This allows me to view my ideas in a much easier sense and I can easily refer back to it for inspirations. I also in down my thoughts on how I feel about each emotions. I also tried exploring other forms of mediums and tools such as glue and strings.

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Categorized emotions + Further exploration

Last was to do various prints of them and then use the cropping tool method to see what kind of results I would get. I would do at least 5 strips for each of my chosen emotion and pick the best out from them to be used in my final project.

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Example: Sentimentality


Final Project: My Line is Emo

(cue drumroll)

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List of chosen emotions from Top to Bottom:

Tenderness Rage
Sentimentality Annoyance
Wacky Frustration
Psychotic Alienation
Excitement Surprise
Fear Melancholy
Anxiety Woe
Distress Misery
Conflicted Exhausted