16 quick idea thumbnails

After researching more into the different types of empathy, and how empathy can affect ourselves and others. I have come out with 16 different ideas that branch out towards different aspect of empathy-related topic. Some of the following ideas are from my own, some are from idioms and some are generated through random word generator that sparks inspirations.

(* looking from top left to bottom right)

1) The idea of being empathetic is a  never-ending process is represented in the form of never-ending flowing of water.

2) The idea of being empathetic is all about the mind’s well-being.

3) Being empathetic could be defensive sometimes whereby when an empath is being hurt before they could become defensive and reject on being empathetic anymore.

4) Being an empath could be about concealing as well since empath has to be the one that understands others, they tend to conceal and bury their own emotions, needs and wants to please others.

5) The first type of empathy-cognitive empathy. It is about understanding how others think. Helping in information relating and better communication.

6) The second type of empathy-emotional empathy. It is about understanding how others feel to build an emotional connection.

7) In this thumbnail, the idea is to show how people that lack empathy can actually drain empath. The thumbnails depict an empath as a power source charging someone who lacks empathy.

8) The third type of empathy- compassionate empathy. It is about going beyond understanding and through sharing the connection it makes the empath wants to take action into helping the other party in whatever way they can.

9) Similar concept as number 7 but represented in a different manner of narcissist sucking the soul out of an empath.

10) Working further on the idea of “sucking the soul out of an empath”. This thumbnail illustrated how on the surface narcissist is nice to an empath caged up in his control. While the reflection of shadow on the ground shows otherwise. It depicts the narcissist sucking the soul and shadow of the empath.

11) In this thumbnail, the idea is to show an empath feeling drown from being empathetic.

12) Being empathetic could also take the form of being burdened and unable to be free in wanting what you truly yearn for.

13) Empathy could also be a two-edged sword for an empath. They have both good and bad sides.

14) Empath could sometimes feel that they are alone too. They always tried to understand others but when it comes to them, they could feel that no one truly understands them or truly are by their sides since what they always give is more than what is returned.

15) Empathy could also take in the form of the idea of superiority or wealth versus poor. In the sense that people who are rich looks down and does not have empathy towards the poor.

16) Sometimes, empath could unknowingly expect people to be the same towards them in return.

I have further narrowed down the options and chosen on some of the concepts that have more potential to work on.  They are, standing in someone else’s point of view, narcissist (people who lack empathy) draining empaths and being empathetic can be draining.

Refine ideas and sketches

Concept 1 (standing in someone else’s pov)

For the first idea on the left, I wanted to show that instead of the idiom of saying “standing in somebody else’s shoe”. I wanted the illustration to be more relatable visually and including my own perspective of the theme empathy—understanding another person’s mind. Hence I have cut a person’s head open showing there’s a lot of wires to represent human’s mind are actually very complicated. I have also drawn another mini human within the head with a mini light bulb showing that the mini human(representing another party) trying to understand the broken wire(representing the issue that this lady is thinking of causing her to be upset).

The second idea, shows a person putting her spectacles for another person to wear to represent the idea of “seeing in another person’s point of view”.

Concept 2 (being empathetic is draining)

Both sketches show the same idea of how being overly empathetic as an empath can be extremely draining. Working on the idea of draining I have come up with 2 compositions. The first shows four hands representing other people, taking syringes to drain the content out from an empath’s heart. The second sketch shows within the empath there is an IV drip that is connected to the empath’s heart and transfusing blood(representing empathy energy) to the rest of the people around her with her facial expression looking indifferent to show how it had caused her to be so exhausted.

Concept 3 (Narcissist drains empath)

The final concept is about contrasting the behavior and relations between a person lacking empathy being together with an empath. Which leads to the idea of having a narcissist draining the energy of an empath. The above shows 2 compositions, the one on the left shows my initial idea of just making the empath doll-like laying down on the ground expressionless to show “drained”. While the narcissist is looking into the mirror admiring himself while attached to a wire draining the energy from the empath to show his vanity. However, I was not satisfied with the composition and went on to zoom in a bit more to their face since the contrasting facial expression between the two is quite an important part of this concept.

After some discussion with Prof Lisa, I have chosen the third concept of “narcissist drains empath” as it is the strongest concept out of the three, with the zoomed in composition as it is better in composition as compared to the initial one.

Reference Images

Prof Lisa recommended making the lady looking more drained and sucked by giving her sunken cheeks with protruding cheekbones. Hence I further looked into gaunt, drug addict and anorexic references.

Mood board

Regarding the color palette and mood board, I wanted to use something that shows clam and cold to give a feel of how empty and drained this piece is. Yet at the same time, I wanted to show a little sense of unsettling and danger to it to represent that how an empath being together with someone lack of empathy could be really toxic and never-ending. So I have picked mainly blue and red for my main color palette in this illustration.

Refine sketches & color blocking

For a more refined sketch, the feedback was to make the man’s back view looking grosser in reality so as to contrast how he sees himself in the mirror as perfect.  So I have made him having bald patches, face full of pimples and bumps, hair full of dandruff as compared to the initial draft. As for the wire cable, it was suggested that both the reflection in the mirror and in reality should both be in a heart shape to look more like a reflection. The cable, in reality, should also be frayed to further enhance the idea of how the reality is bad but both characters do not see it in the mirror. In the mirror, they see their relationship as perfect due to one being blinded by self while the other being blinded by someone she likes.

I have further put down the base color of the entire composition to have a sense of the entire look and what tones of blues should be used at which part of the illustration. I also wanted just the reds to be on the batteries and cables to highlight that it is the main focus and what is happening(draining empath’s empathy) is dangerous. Prof Lisa suggested to add tints of blue shadow on the lady’s face to gel better with the environment and that the extra mirrors at the background are not needed as my main focus already has a lot happening. However, I still felt that it might be a bit too empty in the background hence I thought of adding on some texture of wall to enhance the overall feel of the “dark” concept.

I have also felt that the man is not gross enough so instead, I changed the man’s battery to be embedded in his exposed brain in his skull. Having it stitched up at the back of his neck with some vein protruding. I have also added fallen hair and dandruff on his shoulder.

Final

Reflection

I felt that one of the most important take away is that good ideas and creativity happens when you are being random or doing something else that sparks inspiration. I was someone who initially is really bad with idea generation, however, I felt that this project has pushed me to be creative and learned different ways of generating ideas. Also, I have learned that in order to illustrate conceptual ideas it is very important to keep your mind open and never stuck with a certain perspective of issues. Some problems that I have encountered is that I felt the process of choosing colors and applying them on to your piece is a little challenging as you really need to plan it’s finished look. Another challenge is that the natural feature of this magazine of having a title at the top and subtitle at the bottom with a unique magazine size. I have followed a wrong size initially stated in the brief and managed to salvage it by finding the correct size and fill up the extra spaces with colors.