Josiah – Forrest Gump

1.

rocknrolla2

Visual Elements:

The quote means that beauty is a lure to death. The angler fish is frightening and also a representation of that lure to death and the lure of the angler fish is a flower, which is the representation of beauty. I used a hibiscus flower as it represented acknowledging beauty in Victorian times. The pistil of the hibiscus is a line that draws your attention towards the flower itself – just like a lure.The halftone of the angler fish gives it a level of depth as it looks like it is in the shadows. This is in contrast to the flower that is clear as day. The painting frame is a nod to the film, where a character says the above quote in response to not wanting to give up a painting. Coincidentally, a painting is also a symbol of beauty. The frame gives depth to the image within which enhances the feeling of being lured into the void that is death, hence the use of a black ‘canvas’.

Design Principles:

Unity/Harmony – Perspective is used to show depth or distance between the frame, the angler fish and its lure.

Symmetry – The symmetrical balance of the composition gives off the feeling of calm and patience; like being stalked by a predator. “It’s quiet…too quiet.”

Similarity/Contrast – Contrast of the negative space and the angler fish make the subject pop out, like from the shadows.

Dominance/Emphasis/ – The flower is at the centre of the frame and the halftone of the angler fish makes it recede into the back. This makes the flower the centre of attention.

Hierarchy – The frame and lines leading you into the elements within it. The angler fish has the subject of the flower within it. Each of these things lead your eye to the flower in the centre.

Scale/Proportion – The flower is a lot smaller than the angler fish. This is to make the angler fish seem larger and therefore increase the sense of danger and tension.


2.

iron-giant

Visual Elements:

The quote is about sacrifice and letting go. I started out with the image of a nut, used to hold all the elements within. The wolf is a representation of the Iron Giant. It is leaping out of the sphere that is breaking apart. It leaps to the void to protect the innocent boy. The boy looks on at the wolf. The way the boy looks at the wolf feels like a farewell. The sphere at the centre of the composition is a representation of the world. The sphere is breaking apart. It is literally about the world that is about to be destroyed, leaving the Iron Giant to protect it. It is also about how the boy’s world is about to be shattered because the Iron Giant is about to leave to sacrifice itself.

Design Principles:

Symmetry/Asymmetry – While the composition looks almost flat and symmetrical, the breaking of the sphere breaks the symmetry. This adds to the feeling of unease at the loss of something precious. It also makes the composition more dynamic.

Hierarchy/Scale/Proportion – Apart from the broken bits of the sphere directing your attention to the wolf, the size of the wolf is much bigger is also leaping out. The lines of the principle axis of the wolf leads you to the boy who is looking towards the wolf, forming an imaginary line.


3.

lightnessofbeing2

Visual Elements:

The composition is almost all in pixelated halftone. This makes it feel as though freedom is a blurry mess and it disorientates. The American Bald Eagle is a representation of freedom and it looks down on us and makes us feel small. The sunset brings about a sense of freedom but the sharp lines cut through the cloud, pointing towards the eagle almost as if to say that freedom is painful. Lastly, we have the feather which are shaped like crosses, implying that freedom is a burden.

Composition:

Unity/Harmony – The repeated use of the feather cross gives a sense of unity. The different sizes of the feather crosses gives a sense of perspective and depth to the composition.

Scale/Proportion – The size of the eagle makes it the first thing you see.

Similarity/Contrast – The different sizes of the feather crosses. Most of the images look clearly halftoned except the feathers and maybe the eagle.

Balance – While the composition is hardly symmetrical, there is a sort of balance in elements in the composition that gives a sort of symmetry to it.


4.

buddhaeditfinal

Visual Elements:

The quote is about ‘taking it easy’; very much like inner peace hence Buddha being in the centre. Buddha is seating on mandala ‘carpet’ – a subtle reference to the film where the Dude’s rug is ruined. The mandala is a spiritual symbol in Indian religions for the universe. In a way, the worldly issues of the world are beneath the Dude. The roundness of the bowling ball and the balanced composition gives off the feeling of peace; there is no tension or turmoil. The textures of the ball gives off a hippy, psychedelic feel. This is to set the mood of the composition as being very spacey (as in the Dude being spaced out). The three holes in the bowling ball are meant to represent the 3 marks of existence – Impermanence, Unsatisfactoriness or Suffering, and Non-self. The marks of existence are all behind Buddha. In a way, this says that the Dude is not bothered by these things. The shades on buddha makes it much more obvious to see that there are no worries.

Design Principles:

Balance – The composition feels balanced even though the three holes of the bowling ball give it a little bit of asymmetry. At the centre of it, Buddha. This is very similar to Early Christian/Romanesque Christian art where the Christ is at the centre of attention.

Hierarchy/Scale/Proportion – Buddha is the most prominent element in the piece because it is huge and in the centre. Behind Buddha is the bowling ball and the in Buddha’s palm is the bowling pin.

Similarity/Contrast – It feels like two main elements. The bowling pin and the sunglasses seem to add to Buddha and not stand out from it. This is because these elements are representative of the character (they are of the character). The bowling ball is the external and therefore is contrasted with Buddha.

Unity/Harmony – The mandala is done in perspective to give a sense of depth to Buddha. This also creates a slightly unnatural and surreal effect because the bowling ball is supposed to be flat. So while it creates distance, it feels surreal.

 

The Tote Bag.

We printed our chosen composition on A4 transparency so that it be used for the whole silkscreen thing.

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Bam. In the flesh. We then did the blue chemical thing on the silkscreen in the dark room.

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You have to coat it evenly on both sides if you want the exposure to be done nicely.

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Definitely not wasting time inside the dark room.

After the blue chemical thing dries, you tape your transparency onto the silkscreen.

Place the ink side of the transparency onto the outer side of the silkscreen; that is to say, the side without the wood block.

Now do the exposure thing.

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After you do that, you have a piece of silkscreen that is still covered blue. Of course it’s still covered blue. You have to wash it off with a water jet, silly.

Also, silly me, I did not record the water jet process.                haha.

Now that you have your silkscreen print. You can apply ink and squeegee the ink onto whatever surface you want; even your face.

Don’t forget to tape up any excess exposed parts with tape (especially the edges. Then place a coin on all four edges of the wood. This gives you a better print. I don’t know. The elevation helps.

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I did all this knowing that I would redo. I just wanted to see how it would turn out. I wanted to redo mine because this was too small and I liked ‘The dude abides’ better. So I rushed off to the printing shop at North Spine and printed again.

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In the flesh

So back to doing all that again. Also, this time I recorded the process of washing away the exposed bits. (SFW)

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I then tried inking it out on paper a couple of times

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Do or die. Okay, I died a little, but here are the tote bags!

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They aren’t the best in terms of quality, but they are okay. It’s okay.

I also managed to sell one of them off for $8.

$3 for the tote bag. Not bad, I bought myself lunch.

Composing 4 Quotes

After looking through the quotes, I narrowed it down to just four.

I can’t bear this lightness, this freedom…I’m not strong enough. – The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988

The dude abides. – The Big Lebowski 1998

Oh beauty is a beguiling call to death and I’m addicted to the sweet pitch of its siren. – RocknRolla 2008

You stay. I go. No following. – Iron Giant 1999

 

 

I started with The dude abides as I had the imagery in mind already.

buddha2

I then modelled the composition around my main point of interest – Buddha.

From there, I threw in a couple of elements to create the following:

abide

The quote is about ‘taking it easy’; very much like inner peace hence Buddha being in the centre. I have also added the sunglasses to give Buddha more chill; Buddha has no worries. The roundness of the bowling ball and the balanced composition gives off the feeling of peace; there is no tension or turmoil. The three holes in the bowling ball are meant to represent the 3 marks of existence – Impermanence, Unsatisfactoriness or Suffering, and Non-self. The marks of existence are all behind Buddha. In a way, this says that the Dude is not bothered by these things.

 

The halftone on the bowling ball looked distracting so I tweaked it a little.

abide4

Also added in is a mandala ‘carpet’ that Buddha is seated on – a subtle reference to the film where the Dude’s rug is ruined. The mandala is a spiritual symbol in Indian religions for the universe.

Looking at the composition, the bowling ball does not distract anymore. However, it just looks really plain and boring.

Again, I made tweaks.

buddhaeditfinal

The bowling ball now has more texture to bring out the mood of the composition. The dude is pleased.


 

Next up, I worked on the Iron Giant.

I wanted to keep this piece simple so I went with blocky black and white images. The iron giant was a killing machine but was also gentle. I started with a vicious animal who has a choice to kill an innocent boy.

irongiant

The composition looked flat and just boring. I needed to add more texture to the composition. There was no avoiding it.

iron-giant

Now there was a little more texture to the composition. I experimented with mark making to create an atmosphere of chaos. I also experimented with a lamb – the symbol for innocence but the composition looked weird to me. It looked a little flat, still.

iron-giantsputnik

I tried adding in an image of the Sputnik within the circle of nut.The Sputnik was supposed to be representative of the Cold War. The Sputnik, hopefully, sets the mood of the composition as being militarily tense. However, I was not happy with this just yet.

iron-giantaway

I changed the circle in the nut to be a sphere that is breaking apart. To me, this really sets the mood for the composition. Right now, the tiger looks a little out of place and I want to make it more dynamic.

youstayigo

This is the final composition I ended with. I feel that this one is dynamic, sets the mood and evokes emotion.


 

The third composition I worked on is RocknRolla. The idea of being beguiled made me think of the angler fish. That is what I started out with.

anglerfish

This is the image that I was initially working with. I thought that it was pretty cool except that the side view felt a little flat. I wanted the composition to seem like it’s trying to beguile you.

anglerfishbig rocknrolla2

I had two compositions that I made. This one was fairly straightforward to me. It just made sense. The flower represents beauty and also happens to be the lure of the angler fish at the back. The frame of the painting also happens to be a representation of beauty and sometimes we get sucked into art.

I had to choose between the one that was more of a close up or one where you could see the fish. I entertained the idea that if the fish was a lot bigger, then it would feel like it was really close to you, increasing the sense of danger. Alas, it just looked like grass. In the end, I went with the wider shot of the fish.


 

Lastly, I worked on The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

This one was a little tricky for me. It was such a big undertaking of a quote and it means a lot to me. I can only hope that I do it justice.

I wanted to create a composition where lightness/our idea of freedom is bearing down on us. It burdens us.

crucifix

My first thought was the cross. When we say, “It is my cross to carry,” we mean that it is our burden to bear. With that in mind, I created this.

lightnessofbeing2

The American Bald Eagle is a representation of freedom and it looks down on us and makes us feel small. The sunset brings about a sense of freedom but the sharp lines cut through the cloud, pointing towards the eagle almost as if to say that freedom is painful. Lastly, we have the feather which are shaped like crosses, implying that freedom is a burden.

Another interesting thing that I noted was that when inverted, the bald eagle gives off different moods.

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In the first one, it looks like the eagle is looking beyond but in the second one, the eagle is looking down on us – just something that I thought was interesting.

 

BONUS:

Not that I was very free but-

tisscratch

Rosebud.

I am excited and nervous. I love films so it feels like the stakes are much higher.

I need space to think and gather resources so I’m dumping some quotes here.

 

say-what-again

Say what again! – Pulp Fiction, 1994


topgun

You can be my wingman anytime. – Top Gun, 1986


c

What is this? A centre for ants?! – Zoolander, 2001


wooderson

All right, all right, all right. – Dazed and Confused, 1993

Let me tell you this, the older you do get the more rules they’re gonna try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N. – Dazed and Confused, 1993


 

clockwork

Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. – A Clockwork Orange, 1971


james-mcavoy-filth-tra222

Same rules apply – Filth, 2013

Sometimes it takes a wrongdoer to show you when you are doing wrong. – Filth, 2013


firefly

I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar. – Serenity, 2005

Big damn heroes. – Serenity, 2005

I don’t care what you believe in, just believe in it. – Serenity, 2005

If you can’t do something smart, do something right. – Serenity, 2005

Do you know what the definition of a hero is? Someone who gets other people killed. You can look it up later. – Serenity, 2005

Secrets are not my concern. Keeping them is. – Serenity, 2005


clerks

I’m not even supposed to be here today. – Clerks, 1994


the-dude

The dude abides. – The Big Lebowski, 1998


chungking

Actually, really knowing someone doesn’t mean anything. People change. A person may like pineapple today and something else tomorrow. – Chungking Express, 1994

If memories could be canned, would they also have expiry dates? If so, I hope they last for centuries. – Chungking Express, 1994


Waking-life-projection-astrale

They say that dreams are only real as long as they last. Couldn’t you say the same thing about life? – Waking life, 2001


shaun-of-the-dead2

Go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over. – Shaun of the Dead, 2004


iron-giant

You stay, I go. No following – Iron Giant, 1999

Superman. – Iron Giant, 1999


nobody

Every path is the right path. Everything could’ve been anything else. And it would have just as much meaning. – Mr. Nobody, 2009

You have to make the right choice. As long as you don’t choose, everything remains possible. – Mr. Nobody, 2009


forever

You poop into my butt hole and I poop into your butt hole…back and forth…forever. – Me and You and Everyone We Know, 2005


evildead2

Groovy. – Evil Dead II, 1987


tyfs

That’s the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you’re never wrong. – Thank You For Smoking, 2004

The great state of Vermont will not apologise for its cheese! – Thank You For Smoking, 2004


blazing-saddles-480

Where are the white women at? – Blazing Saddles, 1974


La Haine

How you fall doesn’t matter, it’s how you land. – La Haine, 1995


unbearable_lightness_of_being_poster

I can’t bear this lightness, this freedom… I’m not strong enough. – The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1988


before-sunset

Memories are wonderful things, if you don’t have to deal with the past. – Before Sunset, 2004

Baby, you are gonna miss that plane. – Before Sunset, 2004


the-road

If I were God, I would have made the world just so and no different. And so I have you… I have you. – The Road, 2009

All I know is that the boy was my charge. And if he was not the word of God. Then God never spoke. – The Road, 2009


oldboy

Even though I’m no more than a monster – don’t I, too, have the right to live? – Oldboy, 2003


rocknrolla

Oh, beauty is a beguiling call to death and I’m addicted to the sweet pitch of its siren. – RocknRolla, 2008


keaton

“.” – Every Buster Keaton Movie