Tag: Black and white

I’ll be first working on the Guardians of the Galaxy Quote:
You shouldn’t have killed my mom and squished my walkman! 

Starting off, I worked on part of the quote “Squished my walkman”

I made an literal representation – A hand stretched out, holding a Sony Walkman (used by Starlord in the movie) in cracks, and pieces of it dropping down.
However, I felt that I wasn’t utilizing the full quote, as I left out the part of “killed my mother”.

Therefore, I came out with a second version.

For the second version, I added in gunshots and showing it being cracked.
But I felt that there is no representation of Starlord’s mother.

I explored the different abstract ways to represent mother/motherly love/love for mother.
I linked to how mother expresses love for their children, and the noble things they do for their children. Daily chores, such as cooking, cleaning are actions of love.
I also linked to Mother’s day, and the common gifts we purchase for the event. There are gifts such as necklace, earrings, or items our mothers need/want. Another common gift is flowers. Flowers are usually represented a way to show love, to girlfriends and mothers.
Thus, I decided to represent Starlord’s mother with a flower. I used a carnation flower, a flower most associated with mother’s day. It is said to be an emblem of mother love. I used a white carnation, as it’s given to mothers that passed on. I placed only one carnation, to show that Starlord only has one mother, and she is irreplaceable in his heart.  Exploring further, I came out with my third design. I used a white carnation with blood dripping down, causing a pool of blood at the bottom. This is my abstract breakdown of the first part of the quote – “Killed my mom.”

I used sound waves to represent “squished my walkman”, as music from the walkman generates sound waves. I attempted to use photoshop to make it look more squished up but I realised that it doesn’t look as squished as I expected.

Thus, I came up with another design!

My fourth design, uses the same flower, except a change in the background which represents “squished my walkman”.
Instead of sound waves, I used musical notes, as music from walkman has musical notes! Influenced by Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, I wanted to deform the musical notes to suit the text from the quote, just like how Salvador Dali liquefied the clocks to have a melting effect.

With the use of photoshop, I “squished” the musical notes, and upon viewing, it does have the “squished” effect. I arranged the musical notes in a random order, but realised that there is no focal point as it is messed up everywhere. Also, after consultation, I gathered feedback that it is hard to tell my carnation stalk from the rest, as there is too much black and white contrast. I headed to push on further to make the design better.

My fifth design, I changed to a different view of a carnation stalk. I feel that this stalk is way better than the previous, as it is easily depicted to be a flower. I also arranged the musical notes into a better arrangement, putting it at the bottom half of the page, and giving the effect that it’s emerging out of the pool of blood.

I feel that by giving the effect that it’s emerging out of the pool of blood, it depicts the story of Starlord way better.
The walkman, is a important asset of Starlord, as he had the device ever since his mother was alive. In his “Awesome mix”, there is also a song that is unique to Starlord’s parents’ love, and he is always hearing it. The walkman, is just like a representation of Starlord’s mum, which is why he carries it everywhere, and is insistent in not replacing it with a upgraded technology device.

By showing the musical notes emerging from the pool of blood, it can be inferred that the walkman existence and importance is because of Starlord’s mum.

However, I used color halftone on the musical notes, and felt that it didn’t really blend in with the pool of blood as the blood is fully black.

I went further in exploration and finally came out with the final design for the first quote!

Stay tuned to my final post!

Till then,
Flazéda!
jamz
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