Zine- All-in-one

zine

This post will include all the usual components of my previous posts (everything will be condensed into this single post).

Research

With Project 2 completed, I was fairly certain that I had fallen in love with collages, so with this new project, I decided to take the same direction and showcase my collages in my zine. However, I didn’t want to just have the images in the zine and leave it as that, I also wanted the user to experience the joy and essence of collage. What is collage? How is it done? I wanted to portray these in my zine without words.

Collage is all about layering of images to create a scene, depending on how the layering is done, a completely different image could be created, one with a different story. When I was working on the previous project, I was often faced with the dilemma of which images to layer and whether or not I should even use the layer, I guess I wanted the user to experience this as well, for them to put themselves in my shoes and try it out, though admittedly it’s not fully possible for the full experience.

I’ll just show some examples that I found while researching for zines which stood out to me.

[Image Above] Two facing pages that interact with each other.

[Image Above] Page on the left. I would consider that somewhat collage as well, I like the use of minimal colour, emphasis is placed on the coloured images.

[Image Above] I believe finding this little booklet inspired me throughout this project. Each page layers on to the next page, just like how a collage works. I knew immediately that I wanted my zine to have an element like that.

[Image Above] I just like the clean look of this, no text, just images, each with a white border.

My artist reference for my collages remained the same as project 2, Eugenia Loli. I’ve added a few more of her works below because I just love looking at her work, they are absolutely brilliant.

Eugenia Loli- No More Galaxies for Today, Timmy!
Eugenia Loli- Postcard from New Iceland

I did find another reference whose works also really intrigued me but his works didn’t shout out to me as much as Loli’s works did. His name is Joe Webb. Here’s a link to his website. http://www.joewebbart.com/

Joe Webb
Joe Webb

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The concept

I really enjoy looking at collages which have a space/galaxy theme. I decided to carry this theme forward in this project. Since collages allow me to tell a story of some sort, I decided my zine should be quite similar to a picture storybook.

I didn’t want to add in any text as I felt it would distract the reader. The beautiful thing about collages is that you get to interpret the scene and image on your own, there are no restrictions. Depending on whether or not a title has been given, you can pretty much come up with your own story and make it as absurd and farfetched as possible.

I decided to use my works from project 2 for the zine because some of them did have the space theme. I didn’t use all 6 compositions as some of them had different perspectives and wouldn’t fit in.

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[Images Above] These are the four compositions that I brought over from project 2. The third from the right does not have a space theme so I had to change the background, making sure it still was relevant to the characters in the foreground.

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[Image Above] The two cupids in the background didn’t fit into the composition anymore because of the story I had in mind. It is also a black and white image which no longer stands out with the black galactic background, in fact they looked rather dull.

[Image Below] The space image I decided to go with has two galaxies which mimics the lovers in the foreground.

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The story-Suburbia in space

The concept of my story surrounds the idea of life in space. What if the human race took over another planet? What would they do? I wanted my zine to portray the main aspects of their journey and life in outer space. Hence, I gave my zine the title ‘Suburbia in Space’. With just the title, I hope the audience would get some idea about the story, that it’s about society living in space and subsequently form their own interpretations of the compositions with the title in mind.

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Layout

I used accordion bind for this zine, I feel like it makes viewing the images a lot easier and the viewer gets to see the story in its entirety when the zine is opened up. Planning: With 8 pages to work with and two of them being the cover pages, I was felt with 6 pages for my story.

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An extra tab has to left on the left page for attachment to the previous page. After trying out many different tab widths, the tabs I finally used were 1cm in width which is large enough to hold securely but small enough so it doesn’t spoil the aesthetics of the zine. Each page is A5 in size, two pages together (297 x 210mm) with 1cm tab meant that I had to print them on A3 sheets to ensure ample space.

The video below shows how to do a very basic accordion bind which I referred to. There are more comprehensive videos that I found as well. I’ll just leave them here too.

Below: A more detailed, comprehensive way to make an accordion bind.

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new compositions

For this zine, I needed two extra compositions and a cover page.

Below are some images of my working process.

  • Cover Page

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  • The Beginning

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  • Moving Along

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additional-flips

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This was an initial idea. I took apart an old composition and layered it over another. The image on the left is the base image, the one on the right is the final image with the overlap of another page.

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[Image Above] This image was supposed to be printed on another page, cut to the edges and overlapped on to the base image. The audience then gets to decide if they want to keep this page down over the base image or open this page and reveal the actual base image.

The meaning of the image changes depending on whether or not the top page is there or not. Without the extra page, the base image is on its own and it shows a giant attacking a city. However, with the overlap of the other page, the story changes. The giant is now attacking children.

  • Layering

I decided that the above layering made the image too complicated, so I went with something more simple. Below are the two compositions with physical layering. A common factor with these two is the presence and absence of the human element. With the added page and layering, the human element is gone. In relation to the story, it represents the environment before and after the invasion of humans on the planet.

[Image Above] From the left: Base/main page, overlapping page, final image with overlapping page.

[Image Above] From the left: Base/main page, overlapping page, final image with overlapping page.

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final

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Final layout-pages 1-4
  • The Story in Sequence

The story I had in mind while making this was based around humans taking over another planet. Starting from the images above, from the left.

Page 1: Cover page. Page 2: Looking for a new planet. Page 3: Taking over the planet by force. Page 4: Changing the environment to suit their needs

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Final layout- pages 5-8

Page 5: Finding love. Page 6: Starting a family. Page 7: The whole cycle repeats with the new generation finding a new planet and galaxy. Page 8: Cover page

This is just my interpretation of the images, the viewer is of course free to make up their own story especially if they decide to view it from right to left.

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  • Double Cover Pages

I was made aware during on of my consults that the direction in which the viewer reads an accordion bind is beyond my control. The viewer could decide to read it from left to right or the reverse (unless you specifically say so and force the viewer to read it in one direction). I didn’t want to restrict the viewer, I want to keep the story open. The story thus also flows both ways especially since there are no words to govern the direction or order they are to be looked at.

  • Binding problems

Pages bound in an accordion bind are attached by an extra tab. Depending on the thickness of the paper, some adjustments had to be made when attaching the extra page so that the images aligned when the zine is opened. The extra page had to be shifted out for perfect alignment.

  • Scoring

The paper I printed on was above 170gsm, it was about 220, so scoring took quite a while. The thing about accordion bind is that every page has to be scored and that requires some time. Even with the scoring, the thickness of the paper proved to be a challenge to work with as folds did not come out as clean as I would have liked. The whole reason I chose paper of such thickness was so that the zine would hold its form and stand, which it did.

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Epilogue

I am extremely glad that I decided to go with collages in Project 2, it not only paved the way for project 3 but also made me realise that I enjoy everything about making collages, I’ve fallen in love with it. I am pretty certain I’ll be creating more collages from here onwards.

Point of View- Final

POint of view

final Works

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Final Presentation for critique session

In terms of presentation, I decided to go with a white border for each of the 6 pieces of work. I could not use black in this case as it would probably merge into the space backgrounds and you would not be able to distinguish them as easily. I felt that the white border helped to bring out the colours of the image and stand out. It brought emphasis to the image. It also helped to give a more finished look to the works.

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[Images Above from the left]

  • A butterfly from the point of view of the superstitious is a bad omen
  • A butterfly from the point of view of a bee is competition
  • A butterfly from the point of view of a child is a game of catch

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[Images Above from the left]

  • A butterfly from the point of view of a flower is cupid
  • A butterfly from the point of view of a scientist is the chaos theory
  • A butterfly from the point of view of a caterpillar is the future

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I arranged the works according to the perspective held in each work. In the first piece, the main figure is rather close to the viewer. The distance between the characters and the viewer gets progressively longer. The compositions also increase in depth (the background extends further in into distance).

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Final Works
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Final Works

Challenges

The largest challenge that I faced during this project was looking for appropriate images. I mentioned a couple of difficulties in the last few posts about finding good images but with low resolutions or appropriate, high resolution images that are cut off at certain areas. I had to improvise throughout the collaging process, change my original plan to fit with the images that I had. I realised I could not have a fixed idea or plan or I would have a problem if I could not find the pictures In needed (it would have left me stuck and unable to proceed). I guess what I’m trying to say is that the project of collaging has taught me to be a lot more flexible and to improvise when necessary.

These challenges have enabled me to think of more creative solutions for the images that I have found and think about how to best use them. After doing the three compositions, the process of generating ideas became easier. I found it easier to think of ideas. Looking at an image could get me thinking about many ways I could use that image, I was no longer restricting myself to just the original plans I had in my head at the start. It made me a lot more spontaneous.

Other minor challenges would be the type of vintage images. They are not all of the same quality (depends on how old they are). The way they look also depends on which source they were from. An image from a comic cover is different from an image from a postcard (e.g. their colours are rendered differently) So I had to make sure these differences do not cause my compositions to look odd or messy. I found that I had to analyse each image and just try out different images together to see what worked. Colours needed to be adjusted here and there to fit with the other images, so that nothing stood out too much.

Comments

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Comments received after critique session

It’s always really nice to receive feedback on your work. The comments were very encouraging as usual. Many liked the colours and it was interesting and wonderful to see that everyone had their own favourite composition out of the six. To me that meant that there wasn’t one particular piece that stood out and stole any attention, each piece had its uniqueness and was special.

FInal thoughts

I have really enjoyed doing collages. I have to admit it was really fun. It allowed me to come up with surreal and interesting/ varied compositions. Looking for images was a tough process but through the process of looking, I found many weird and interesting ones that were really quite funny. The sense of satisfaction gained when I do find an image that I can use is indescribable (I get so thrilled at the number of ways I could use the image in my compositions). I am really happy at the way my works came out and I would definitely continue to do collages for future projects.

 

Point of View- Process 3

PROCESS- BUtterfly effect

“A butterfly from the point of view of a scientist is the chaos theory.”

The way I usually explain the chaos theory is: Small action–> almost unrelated effect

My initial plan involved using some sort of vintage image of a someone doing chores or just simple daily actions and that leading to a natural disaster or something like that. For example, using a hairdryer that leads to a hurricane, or someone watering plants leading to a flood.I found a couple of beauty advertisements of ladies using hairsprays (see below) and thought I could relate that to causing a desert storm of clouds and rain.

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It was difficult trying to find high resolutions for the images and vintage images of hurricanes, floods and storms are hard to come by. So I had to tweak my idea a little bit. It still involved a simple action that would lead to something that seems totally unrelated to the initial action.

So I figured pouring of drinks is quite simple an action and decided to find images for that. And drinks got me thinking about water, floods and waterfalls.

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[Image Above] This, I thought was quite cool (I mean the background). Placing and positioning the nebula background in the right place, where the cloud is at the point of contact of the drink and waterfall. It is almost as though some sort of chemical reaction is taken place, like smoke rising.

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[Image Below] I decided to go with a cleaner space background, it was less distracting. I’d also prefer the black to the coloured background (see the previous few images).
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After incorporating the drink with the waterfall, I felt that the image needed more. So water. What uses water? Where do you find water? Keeping in mind that it should be something that isn’t food/drink related or natural (like a waterfall). Preferably something manmade. I thought swimming pools.

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Adding swimming pool scenes to foreground

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Problem: Cut off umbrella

[Flanking Images] The incomplete umbrella: I made the decision to remove all blue portions of the umbrella to make the image (of the umbrella) more complete.

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PROCESS- Looking into the future

“A butterfly from the point of view of a caterpillar is the future.”

I have saved the best for last. The whole project started with me wanting to do this particular composition. It was inspired by Eugenia Loli’s Farscapes and I was so excited to try it out myself.

To represent the future and its unknown and mysteriousness I chose to use a galaxy image. Actually I was going to use a black hole but it just resulted in the composition looking like it was missing something. For the only black hole image that worked, it was not large enough to be used.

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Different space backgrounds

I needed to add a road that leads from the foreground into the galaxy, away from the viewer. The road would represent the long journey ahead for the caterpillar as it travels towards its future.

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Left: Galaxy Right: Black hole
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Trying out various roads for the foreground
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Foreground with a traffic jam image
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Scanned images from a book
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Road image that I decided on

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‘Caterpillars’
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‘Reaching for a star’
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‘Reaching for a star’ close up

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Adding mountain layers
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Final Composition

Point of View- Process 2

Process- Competition

“A butterfly from the point of view of a bee is competition.”

In this post, I will be showing some of the screenshots and images created while I was working on the pieces.

For this particular point of view, I was thinking about how butterflies and bees both collect nectar, hence I saw them as competitors. The story/scene I wanted for this, was one with tension. I chanced upon this comic cover of a giant and I thought it was really appropriate for this point of view. In terms of size, the butterfly is much bigger than a bee. Hence, the giant could be a butterfly. It also just so happens that the giant is in the pose where she is grabbing something which is good (better than a neutral pose). Such a pose results in a more interesting scene. Since she is grabbing something, I figured she would be grabbing either the competition/enemy or nectar.

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[Image below] I thought this advertisement was pretty funny. One of the many interestingly quirky advertisements I saw while searching for images. I thought of competition of a lover. Two women (butterfly and the bee) fighting for the man (nectar). I didn’t use this in the end because I felt there wasn’t ample room to expand on the image. The image itself already screamed competition.

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[Next 2 Image Below] These are images from a book I found (the mountain one). I knew the bottom image would go perfectly with the giant image. A scene where the giant is attacking the town or trying to take something from there (town symbolises nectar).

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[Image Below] I’m sticking to the space backgrounds here too. Not only does it give the work a sci-fi look, I find that the black in the images also gives a good contrast to the coloured, vibrant images in the foreground and middle ground. In a way, it is present but does not distract or take the attention away from the immediate scene of the work. It complements the work.

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Trying out other town images

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Existing and emerging

[2 Images Above] These two images portray one of the challenges of working with collage and pre-existing images. The images usually aren’t in its full form (see very first image of the giant, her legs are cut off) and you also get overlap of images from the original image (e.g. the lamppost is in front of her right leg even after cropping). I am forced to think outside the box and come up with a solution to hide those areas without it looking like I hid the legs deliberately.

I actually would like to talk about the positions and importance of finding the right images. It just so happens that the existing shadow cast on the giant’s left leg now looks like it was caused by the hill in the town image. Take the mountain image as another example, the right side has a shadow cast, with the addition of the giant, it looks like it’s hers. Had the shadow been mostly on the right, I would have to flip the giant image. Light seems to be coming from the left, illuminating the left more, hence the space cloud is placed on the left.

[Image below] With the symbols for the butterfly and nectar (competition) already dealt with, I then went on to search for the bees. What could compete with a giant? Fighter planes. I imagine the planes (bees) protecting what they think is theirs (the town).

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[Image Above] There were two main images of planes I wanted to use. I tried to incorporate both into the composition but soon realised that the grey plane was a little distracting and having two types was too messy. I thus stuck with the beige plane due to its colour.

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PROCESS- Cupid

“A butterfly from the point of view of a flower is cupid.”

I wanted to represent cupid as a puppeteer, controlling and bringing two people together. But I also wanted to use the fact that cupid is usually portrayed as a child so I began my search with these in mind. The flowers would thus be represented by lovers.

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Space Nebula

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[Image Above] I wanted the nebula to be almost like a pair of wings for ‘cupid’ here. However, its form wasn’t too visible after adding the layer of the boy. In fact, at this point I realised this image of the boy with the machine was rather hard to work with. There were too many machine parts at the base of the image that would be difficult to work with and transition with. The chimney of the machine extends far up and it’s quiet dark in colour hence a space background would not work too well here.

I was looking for pictures with a child to represent cupid since he is usually depicted and known as almost a baby with a bow and arrow. I figured this image would probably fit the puppeteer scene due to his hand position.

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The image of the boy proved too difficult for me to work around so I decided to look for an alternative. But in the meantime, I looked for images of lovers, couples and things like that to represent flowers. I’ve placed a few of the images I found below.

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[Image Below] I came across a Tarzan comic. It was perfect. The colours were good, high resolution and dramatic enough.

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[Image Below] This heavenly image of light streaming though the clods and through the mountains was perfect for this work. It goes well with the theme of angels, immortals and thus cupid as well.

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Cupids to be

[Images Above] I was looking for people (children in particular) who were looking down (supposedly to the lovers). I found lego advertisements that had exactly what I wanted. The children even had their hands partially out (to pick the toy) as though trying to pick up something. The only problem was the resolution. So I couldn’t use them. Luckily I found a better one (extreme right). The best part of it was that the two boys looked pretty similar, which could represent Cupid(Roman) and his Greek counterpart, Eros.

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Trying out different foregrounds

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[Image Below] There was something missing in my composition. It seemed a little bleak for a scene of lovers. There was nothing magical about it. I looked through some of the old magazines that I bought and found flowers.

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[Images Above] I realised the boys are holding figurines and the mountains cover the toys partially, so the question now was, should I cover the toys completely? Doing so would also cover their faces too.

I decided to just make the figurines only slightly visible, almost as though the cupids are about to add new characters to the scene. The scene then becomes a ‘playground’ for them.

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[Images Above] Again, I had to work with the images. The Tarzan image was cut off at places. Jane’s hand was incomplete. To fix this, I made it seem like the flowers were a lot higher and denser and her hands were hidden within the flowers. I did the same for her feet (even though they were not cut off) for a coherent image.

 

Point of View- Process

Process- overview

I decided to use Eugenia Loli as my artist reference because her works really made an impression on me (they are really beautiful). So I decided to create collages for each point of view. I stuck to a vintage theme similar to Loli’s work. In terms of materials, I used old, vintage images that are both printed and digital. Vintage printed images can be found from science textbooks, encyclopaedias, storybooks and magazines. For digital images, I started my search with advertisements and posters. My plan on how to use the printed material was to see what images were interesting and then scan them in for editing. The images below are just some of the books and materials that I gathered. I also used some of the textbooks that I had on hand.

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Book and Magazines
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Torn out images from the books & magazines
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Images inside the printed material I found/bought

I found a website with rather useful tips on how to create a good piece of collage work. http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/illustration/21-collage-tips/#10

From the webpage, the artists talk about the factors that they take into account when making a collage. Things like colour adjustment (colour balance, hue/saturation) and use of backgrounds are all important. They never do stick down the separate pieces immediately, instead they move the pieces about until the composition looks right.

My direction for this project was to try and use personification in all my works. To use other objects and subjects (various other ways) to represent butterflies and the other matters that are mentioned in the sentence. The way I decided to achieve this was by creating a narrative or a story for each point of view. I figured that collage would allow me to create a scene using a variety of images and it would be fun and interesting to create story. Even in Loli’s works, I see that majority of them aren’t literal, you have to look at the title and then you realise that there’s more to the image than what you actually see. Some of them are metaphorical, others just use the combination of images to tell some sort a story. It was a perfect opportunity to create works that were absurd, witty and surreal.

As mentioned in my previous post, in the last sharing, the idea that butterflies are more feminine was brought up, and I agree with that. Hence, I decided to use women to represent the butterfly.

(I will be showing my processes for two works in each ‘Process’ post. This will thus be the first of three.)

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Process- Bad Omen

“A butterfly from the point of view of the superstitious is a bad omen.”

I will be describing the way I created my first collage below. The statement for this piece is “A butterfly from the point of view of the superstitious is a bad omen”. This was my very first attempt for this project so it did take a considerably long time to find images to use. But as I progressed I did get the hang of things.

So, bad omens. What are bad omens? I listed down all the things that I’d associate with bad omens and bad luck. I am aware that bad omens aren’t the same as that of luck but I assumed superstitious people would believe in both, hence I included bad luck.

List of some things associated with bad luck, omens and the superstitious: astrology, having twins/triplets, eclipses, Evil eye, black cats, walking under a ladder, opening an umbrella indoors, four-leaf clover, rabbits foot, horoscopes.

My starting image is an image of a vintage magazine cover. I was really excited to find an image that was big enough with relatively high resolution. Most of the images that I wanted to use were usually too small. So this was really golden.

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Starting image
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Cropping image
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Celestial map as background

[Image Above] Lines of the celestial map radiate towards the subject matter thus drawing emphasis on her.

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Messier 30- Globular cluster of stars from constellation of Capricornus (astrology)

Image of space background is a constellation which links back to astrology and horoscopes. I’d associate horoscopes and astrology with luck and omens too.

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I wanted the brightest portion of the image (greatest number of stars) to be on the right side of the head, away from the face. Emphasis is drawn from the outer edges of the whole picture inwards (from the darkest areas to the brightest center where the main subject is).

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[Next 2 Images Below] I was trying out different sizes of the main subject matter.

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[Image Below] Trying out a different background. It’s a celestial map. I didn’t use it in the end because the resolution was too low. But had it been high enough I might have used it. I really liked the colour of it, has a real vintage tone to it. It also echoes the yellow in her dress.

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[Image Below] Addition of black cat eyes, a coiled snake and lunar eclipse/blood moon. This was definitely experimental. I was just playing around with the images. I guess that’s the beauty of collage, you can really create quite absurd images such as the one I made below. A couple of things didn’t work here, the snake image was actually not a vintage image so it stood out (the colours and resolution did not match the others). In fact, the cat eyes were also not vintage but the main problem with that was that it was just too distracting and after cropping it, I couldn’t identify it as a cat anymore. It just looked like a pair of green eyes from some animal that didn’t fit in. Overall, the image was pretty messy to me, so I didn’t pursue the cat or the snake any further.

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Most of the images from here onwards invovle colour adjustments. Since the images are obtained from different sources, they may not necessarily go together, thus they have to be adjusted here and there.

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Changing the colour of the background (constellation)
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Adjusting background colours
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Adjusting background colours

[Images Above] I added a couple of new elements here. I duplicated the heads, flipped one horizontally and ‘attached’ (layered) them to the main body. I had to make sure the hair or heads did not start abruptly either. So I erased portions with reduced opacity. They represent the triples that are considered a bad omen in certain cultures. Seeing a moth is considered a bad omen too thus I added one on the main figure. The extra eye on the face on the left represents the evil eye.

The three moons, which are all supposed to be lunar eclipses. I made of various sizes to create variety and balance. But it’s also to show the different distances. I have also taken into account the shadows and highlights of the moons and how they relate to the space background. Placing the moons at the right hand side where there are bright stars, the moons then seem to be illuminated by the the lit background.

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[Image Above] I decided on another space themed background (digital image found online). It’s a constellation with bright stars on the right. It is darker on the upper left and lower corners. The stars on the right balance the left which is heavier due to the presence of the subject matter. I suppose the eye is also drawn from the woman vertically up to the bright stars on the right.

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[Image Above] I added a scanned image from a old book about mountains. It is an image of the Inca empire, it reminds me of the Aztecs as well. It just so happened that the mountain had a peak that was towards the side, so the heads would not block them. Also, I positioned the moons in line with the heads and the mountain so that they flow together. It is also as though the moons are interacting with the mountains. Hence, the different backgrounds are interacting and existing together. I also added another moon, a small one in the corner to balance the image.

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Addition of mountain layer (old space background)

[Image Below] I was toggling between the two different space layers. With a different background, the colours of the moons were adjusted accordingly. But I gravitated towards the one on the right.

Two space backgrounds
Two space backgrounds
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Trying out a different mountain (also from a vintage book)
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Adjusting background colours
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Adjusting colour of mountain layer
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Adjusting colour of space layer-increasing cyan
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Adjusting colour of space layer-increasing cyan levels (higher)
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Adjusting colour of space layer
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Adjusting the size of the figure

[Image Above] I decreased the size of the figures and included another mountain layer to add a focal point to the image (where the mountains intersect). (Note. the topic of the focal point was raised during consultation when my other three works which I presented all have a focal point in the middle)

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PROCESS- CATCH ME

“A butterfly from the point of view of a child is a game of catch.”

When I think of a child running around with a net trying to catch a butterfly, I think of a hero or a knight trying to save a damsel in distress. No doubt catching a butterfly is actually not saving it but I’d imagine to a child that’s exactly how they see it. Like they are trying to catch it to save it. Similarly, I will use a female (damsel in distress) to represent the butterfly. The child would be the hero. Other associations I had were more on the play of words, ‘catch of the day’, so fishing. Or sports, like cricket of baseball.

I started my search by looking for movie posters and comic covers.

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Comic cover and movie poster
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Catch of the Day
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Someone’s catching something
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Simple space backround
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Possible backgrounds-scanned images
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One image, two meanings-scanned image

[Images Above] This is a good example of how versatile collage can be. This image of a volcano crater works well both the right way up (right image) and inverted (left). The version on the left looks like a cave opening and you’re looking out into the sunset. The one on the right looks like a pit of lava, as it should.

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Experimenting with the background

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[Image Above] I encountered a problem where because the paper, on which the volcano was printed on, was quiet thin, the words on the next page were visible. The text is visible in the bottom orange section of the lava. To solve this problem, I just cropped it out, I believed it was the best option (see image below).

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[Image Above & Below] The above image didn’t look dangerous enough for me. I felt there was also insufficient interactivity between the crater layer and the figure layer, so I shifted the figure layer down (see below).

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With added mountains & volcano
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Adjusting volcano (no clouds)
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Adjusting volcano (clouds)
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Flipping volcano image

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[Image Above] I definitely wanted a volcano of some sort in this composition to add an element of the danger to the environment, but I thought this particular background was too heavy(might have been the colours). I was not able to create a smooth transition between the crater layer and the smoke from the volcano layer.

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[Images Above] I was trying out alternative images of volcanoes and lava.

 

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PROCESS- Envy

“A butterfly from the point of view of a moth is envy.” (Not used)

The associations I had with envy were green and after some research, yellow roses and daffodils (to represent narcissism).

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[Images Below] I started playing with the eye colour and tried to incorporate the phrase ‘green with envy’ into the image. I tried several different shades of green too.

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Dark Green eyes
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Green eyes

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[Image Above] I made one eye green and the other red. The red represents the anger that comes from being jealous and envious of something or someone.

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Lime green eyes

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[Image Above] I created a plain, simple background for this composition. But I did feel it was a bit flat so I added a spotlight to create depth.

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[Image Above] In the original magazine cover, the lady was holding a pair of sunglasses but I didn’t need the glasses in this case, so I had to replace it with something else. I thought of rope. The reason for this is due to the fact that she is enslaved and tied down by her own envy.

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[Image Above] I reduced the saturation of the roses in the back and slowly increased saturation towards the front. I guess I wanted to show envy building up which is represented by the colour yellow.

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[Images Above] These are some of the images I found that could be used to show that a moth is envious of a butterfly’s looks. I focused on images from beauty advertisements and pin-ups. I added them in to show that her envy is fuelled by the images of these beauties.

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[Images Below] In the middle image, I removed certain areas of the faces of the beauties.

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Editing faces and trying out different backgrounds

[Image Below] The image of the roses admittedly was not vintage so to give it that same look as vintage images do, I added a noise filter.

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When I did finish this piece, it looked quite different from the rest because the style was slightly different and it also had a plain background. I think if I did use it, it would have stuck out. It did not get as good a reaction as my other compositions did during our group consultations so I decided to not use this composition and do something else.