18 EXPRESSIONS, 18 SETS OF LINES
Here I will breakdown and explain the design decisions I made for creating my final 18 sets of lines.
- EXHAUSTED – helplessly tired
Inspired by the natural form of a wilting tree, the upward movements of the lines shows a sense of wanting to rise up. However the almost immediate drop in the lines shows the lack of energy, instilling in the viewer a sense of exhaustion. Subsequent repetitions of smaller upwards and downwards movements gives it a sense of helplessness- as if the lines are trying over and over again to rise against gravity, but to no avail.
2. TURBULENT – dynamic and unsettling
The lines swirls and flows organically around and into each other’s path, mimicking the path of a dynamic fluid. The use of 3D forms accentuates the feeling of dynamism and complexity in the form. White paint was brushed on to bring out the lines to show direction.
3. SYSTEMATIC – organised and orderly
The repeating line patterns arranged systematically give a sense of uniformity and geometric 3-dimensionality. The shape of the lines mimics tabs found in a filing cabinet to suggest organisation.
4. AWKWARD – out of place, odd one out
The stark contrast between the use of repeating horizontal lines and a solid round shape creates a sense of unsettlement. The lines are not uniform, but they are directional and they point to the middle, as if confronting the round shape in the middle. The lines do not go beyond a certain radius from the round shape to suggest a sense of isolation and discrimination.
5. PSYCHOTIC – an unsettled and unpredicatable mind
I used layers of thin lines to create a dynamic and flowing image. Inspire by the painting “Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh, I created patterns of lines that flowed towards each other and interacted with each other upon contact. The psychotic nature from this image comes from the complexity of the repeating lines but also the flowing and melding forms.
6. EMBARRASSED – the feeling of wanting to hide
Dynamic lines were used in this illustration to create a girl’s flowing hair. At the side of the image, barely visible, is a girl’s face, partially covered by her own hair. We get a sense of disproportion as the face is usually the main subject of an image. This empahsises the girl’s desire to not be seen and remain invisible.
7. AMBIGUOUS – what is this?
The use of unspecific and varying shapes with different patterns creates a sense of visual ambiguity. The vast emptiness surrounding the shape creates a lack of context for the viewer to make sense of it.
8. ANXIOUS – unsettling uneasiness
The overall dark tones of this illustration creates a sense of negativity. The random, almost chaotic white lines cuts through the darkness, creating a stark contrast. We get a sense that an unsettles person could have made these patterns. If you were to look closely, you can see that the black paint is in fact scratched out to create the white lines. The scratching, like the scratching of a chalk board is analogous to an anxious person’s behaviour.
9. INDECISIVE – fickle minded
As the viewer looks across the illustration, they will notice a heterogeneous combination of designs without a proper transition between each phase of design. The use of differing shapes and patterns suggests the artist’s indecisiveness.
10. BIZARRE – odd and cringeworthy
This illustration is composed of many round orifice-like forms that are randomly spaced apart from one another. The radiating rings of disjointed lines creates a sense of depth. This creates an overall illusion of an alien-like texture that is not immediately recognisable, but somehow feel like it would be something you would want to steer clear from!
11. DISTRACTED – to veer off an intended path
This illustration shows a group of small lines seemingly moving from one point to another, like a group of marching ants. However we also see a smaller group of lines seemingly moving off in another direction, as if the lines got distracted. The organic shape formed by the big group of lines takes on the way pack animals move, most evident in migratory bird flocks.
12. AGGRESSIVE – easily enraged that manifests into violence
Similar to the anxious illustration, the dark background of this illustration suggests a negative undertone. The spikes that were literally scratched out from the background suggests violence while the varied and random orientation of the spikes suggests physicality and dynamism. Subtle shading was used to create a sense of depth creating the illusion that the spikes are layered on top of one another.
13. SLOVEN – execution with minimum effort
Lines with no sense of purpose or direction shows the artist’s lack of effort and motivation. The smudges also suggests the lack of caution.
14. FRAGILE – at the threshold of breaking
Wanting to stay away from graphically representing fragility with an illustration of something that is fragile, I used a medium (hot glue) that itself is fragile, though from afar, looks like a drawing on paper. The thin, criss-crossing lines creates a web-like form while some of the lines interact and tangle up with one another. We see fragility in both the visual lines and the medium that is being used.
15. SENSUAL – a seductive allure
Represented in pencil drawing is the realistic render of a silk cloth. Silk itself as a subject suggests feminine sensuality, while the drawing, consisting of soft lines and naturalistic flowing shapes also hints to a women’s shape and curves. The close up composition of the subject put emphasis on the texture rather than the subject itself which allows the viewer to have an open ended interpretation of the drawing.
16. SPONTANEOUS – to under-think and not be bound by structure
This illustration shows a regular line of rectangles being disrupted in the middle by an explosion of varying shapes. I like to interpret this illustration as a factory chain, where the worker in the middle decides to be spontaneous and break the rules of regularity and perfection. What results is a beautiful eruption of fragmented shapes and irregular lines, which is what make this illustration visually striking. I guess it is good to be spontaneous once in a while!
17. LYRICAL – beautifully musical
Music is very often made up of more than a single note. More often than not, multiple notes are used simultaneously, to create harmony, weaving in and out of each other to create rhythm and movement. With this illustration, the lines represents the notes moving alongside each other, working in harmonies. The organic, branch like nature of the lines represents the movements of the music as the song progresses and builds up from left to right.
18. NONSENSICAL – not making any sense
This illustration uses unmotivated lines with completely random shapes and forms. There is no specific point of interests while ironically every element seems to be screaming for attention. This composition shows the quirky side of being nonsensical by these playful and directionless lines.
