Graphic Form Project 2 Part 2: Zine (´･ᴗ･ ` ) (Research & Process)

Early Concept Ideas

This was the first two pages I created for this concept – based on how I could tell the information in the signs at the wetland reserve. I wanted to tell the information of the nature reserve through containers at the reserve. (Or was it the information of the signages of the nature reserve through marks at the nature reserve?)

Anyway, I think I overcomplicated the criteria for myself and got myself so confused with the zine criteria. I had a difficult time working with this, so I decided to take a step back and review what I could do with a zine and with my location.

Early drafts

start over with my concept based on my 7 senses – which I felt was closer to heart.

Research for 7 Senses

I decided to think about the fundamental elements of a zine (8 pages, etc) so that I could tap on the elements of this zine’s criteria and go on to personifying the 7 senses.

I decided to draw inspiration from the moon gates that you can find in China or Japan. These doors are found in gardens and I think it’s interesting because of how it controls what you can see of the garden and how it creates a very curated scenic view!

Image of a moon gate (Japanischer Garten).

Image of a moon gate by Alec Finlay.

I also did some research on parts of the eye and how the eye worked:

There was an interesting article I read about ‘forbidden colors’: red-green and yellow-blue. This was an excerpt:

“While most colors induce a mixture of effects in both sets of neurons, which our brains can decode to identify the component parts, red light exactly cancels the effect of green light (and yellow exactly cancels blue), so we can never perceive those colors coming from the same place.”

I decided to experiment with these basic colors for my concept later on.

Zine-Making Process

Conceptualizing

As mentioned, I had alot of difficulties working with my initial concept and decided to revise and start the conceptualizing stage over. I decided to piece the format and each piece together a little by a little, standardizing that the ‘focus’ would depict the physical sight I saw/experience I felt, while the ‘peripheral’ would express my emotions towards that impression, emotions and the location.

Early revised concept:

Motion blur for movement!

Creating Focus: Photo Manipulation

Started off with making trippy images out of the photos that I had of the most impressionable parts of the wetland reserve!

From this:

To this:

Lily Pond (Hear):

After that, I used Audacity to play an MP3 of the video of the lily pond sounds, and screenshotted the soundwaves of the place to impose it and create a pattern for ‘Hear’!

Golden Orb Spider Silhouette (Touch):

I made a spider wallpaper. 🙂

And the aquarium image I used for ‘Smell’:

Warping the image of berries (Taste):

Proprioception (Spatial):

All:

I was really surprised when I placed all the layers together and they looked like a painterly Sungei Buloh! (‘o’) I did receive feedback during consultation that it looked too green – like it was too much slanted towards the pages ‘Balance’ and ‘Hearing’ because it was very green and yellow.

However, I do want to slightly draw it back to my visual experience at the location, so I wound up trying to work around the proportion of green instead.

During the early consultations, I also made the choice of including words because I was worried about how the zine has to be a ‘show-don’t-tell’ book – but I was informed that we’ll be explaining our zines, so I decided to just take out the explanatory content completely.

Early draft with caption

Creating Peripherals: Mark-Making

I couldn’t take anything from the site for mark-making, so I decided to take more photos and recreate them instead!

Honestly they look nothing alike HAHAHA.

The wings that took the most effort but also looked the most hideous.

This one’s based on the shadows of leaves!

My hand is my mood – icky.

I THINK IT’S READY???

Also – other marks that I tried with gouache and rope but didn’t work out so well.

Ripple marks didn’t end up being very suitable either. :’)

Intended to draw a structure to impose for every piece but it didn’t work out very well aesthetically, so I just extracted the flower in the middle to use as a mark instead.

It was pretty challenging working with the concept and timeline, but I had alot of fun. To view the outcome of this project, go to ‘Project 2 Part 2 Final Design’! 🙂

Links

Project 2 Part 2 Final Design: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-part-2-zine-2/

(Previous) Project 2 Part 1 Process & Final Infographics: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-locale-2/

References

Moon Gates: https://insteading.com/blog/moon-gate/

Image of moon gate: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Japanischer_Garten_IGA_Rostock.jpg

Parts of the Eye: https://lookafteryoureyes.org/how-your-eyes-work/parts-of-the-eye/

2D Project 1: Final Strips (Fin) (´-ω-｀)

It’s been a really long few weeks but we’ve finally arrived at the last part of Project 1!

A shot of the final 18 pieces!

This post will talk about what went on behind each emotion too! (‘u’) But first – I want to thank this project for the wonderful experience! I feel like doing the 18 emotions have exposed me to alot of mediums and possibilities through personal research and talking with friends about their take on the emotions.

It was an extremely educational and enjoyable project, and while there were some hiccups and difficulties, I feel like I’ve gotten over them and came out stronger and with better clarity after this!

Some of the difficulties I faced and my takeaways:
Material Harmony: Pairing the wrong medium with the wrong canvas, for the wrong emotion: I tried gouache painting on thin balsa wood for Passion, but it didn’t spread well at all, and couldn’t recreate the original piece!

Material Choice: While working with ink, I found out that some of inks I own were not pure black at all. When they were mixed with white or diluted, they became purple or blues instead. I had to rework them or repaint when they became too much purple or blue. Lesson learnt – play and understand your materials more before directly applying them!

Selecting too many similar emotions: I realised halfway through, after the consultation, that I may have done in myself when I picked 9 emotions from Joy and 6 from Love – when I was supposed to pick 3 from 6 different categories. I quickly rectified that by reshuffling the emotions and finding emotions more suitable for the ones that were ill-fit, and it turned out for the better!

Variation: There was a limit on the school resources as well as the newsprint and A3 papers ran out. I had to eventually tap into my own materials and also buy some.

However, I’m still able to attain a reasonable level of variation in marks I made and maybe even more so since the school materials running out has pushed me to think more about using what is around me – such as reusing transparency films and gauze that I already had at home.

I felt like I’ve learnt to be more creative, and I’ll definitely explore more in my own time! I’ve learnt alot about materials during this project I never thought I’ll abuse (like gouache paints and transparency films), and to be more flexible with my emotions.

I didn’t want to work on many negative emotions when I first started as I felt like I wouldn’t relate to them as much as I would to the positive ones, and felt that I had restricted my play ground by alot just by thinking that.

As I worked and reworked more on the emotions, I started to feel that sometimes working on a variety of positive and negative emotions would turn out better – as the general look of all the 18 emotions together would have the positive emotions working together with the negative emotions to complement each other!

And not all emotions are completely negative – some are temporary, and some exists in duality to positive ones. I’ve learnt alot from my research and to keep my mind open as well!

And now I’ll elaborate more on the individual emotions and the thought that went behind them.

Passion

Definition: a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something
Method/Medium: Black and white gouache, painted with wool on newsprint, then edited on Adobe Photoshop
Behind the piece: Doesn’t it look like people dancing in pairs from the top, captured in motion? I used black and white gouache for this, painted on with wool in a fanning motion! I have attempted to recreate this on wood as well, but it didn’t turn out so well as the gouache was not able to spread smoothly on wood, hence I’ve decided to take my line to Photoshop instead.

Tenderness

Definition: very loving and gentle; showing affection and love for someone or something
Method/Medium: Copic multiliner on 250GSM white paper
Behind the piece: I wanted to convey how tenderness would cradle something gently, and hence the fluid lines! I believe that tenderness is a healing and positive emotion, hence the white strips against the crosshatched background that could stand for wounds or scars!

Adoration

Definition: strong feelings of love or admiration
Method/Medium: Payne’s Gray watercolor paint on 300GSM watercolor paper, with white gouache (flecks)
Behind the piece: I feel that adoration is a huge, sweet emotion contained in a tiny, simple and pure form, and wanted to convey that through the use of painting a texture that resembles the sky or galaxy contained in bubbles!

Zest

Definition: great enthusiasm and energy
Method/Medium: Black marker, copic multiliners and diluted black gouache on 250GSM paper
Behind the piece: I feel that zest is a very firey and a very lively emotion (and after my research, it started feeling a little fruity as well). I wanted to convey that through imitating the tendrils of a fire and plants, but emphasizing on the life and bounce of the emotion as well!

Zeal

Definition: a strong feeling of interest and enthusiasm that makes someone very eager or determined to do something
Method/Medium: Pink watercolor concentrate, chinese ink and white gouache on newsprint, then edited on photoshop
Behind the piece: Almost similar to zest, zeal is a firey emotion to me as well. But instead of feeling like tendrils, I feel that zeal is passionate and there is an urge to leap forward – hence I selected the part of the mark where the Chinese ink is being thrown forwards and looks like it’s leaping forward to burn at something!

Optimism

Definition: a feeling or belief that good things will happen in the future; a feeling or belief that what you hope for will happen
Method/Medium: Payne’s Gray watercolor paint on 300GSM watercolor paper, with white gouache
Behind the piece: I feel that optimism shines best when there is contrast, thus I placed white gouache bubbles that stood out from the background dyed grey and black. I didn’t dye the background completely black as I believed that optimism was something you only realize during grey and difficult times, and it doesn’t have to be absolute depression or despair!

Delight

Definition: a strong feeling of happiness : great pleasure or satisfaction
Method/Medium: Payne’s Gray watercolor paint on 300GSM watercolor paper, with white gouache (flecks)
Behind the piece: I feel that delight are like fireworks! It’s a slow emotion that blooms happily and comes up to your cheeks and throat when you see something that you really like – and it’s child-like! This piece was done with stroking watercolor horizontally upwards – to represent the direction of the emotion, as well as to give an earthly, festive feel. After the verticle strokes, I decided to use black and white gouache to create ‘fireworks’ that looks like flowers as well. I took some inspiration from the Japanese word “花火” (Hanabi), which also means fire flowers!

Elation

Definition: great happiness and exhilaration
Method/Medium: Payne’s Gray watercolor paint on 300GSM watercolor paper, with white gouache
Behind the piece: I wanted to convey elation as an emotion that almost completely overshadows the negative and dark emotions – hence the struggle of the blacks and greys, against the percentage of white in the background and within the space of the bubbles.

Surprise

Definition: to strike or occur to with a sudden feeling of wonder or astonishment, as through unexpectedness
Method/Medium: Black and white gouache mixed with some glow-in-the-dark powder, painted and dabbed on 250GSM white paper
Behind the piece: I feel that surprise is a sudden interruption to the norm, but a pleasant one; like a warm and light bursting in your chest when you feel it!
This piece was based off on my previous draft of ‘Hope’ – where I realised halfway through while reworking on this, that it seemed more like a little spark, rather than light at the end of a tunnel. I also didn’t feel that Surprise had the aggressive properties of a spark, so I made the center powdery by dabbing white gouache instead, and mixing out some greys as well to try to convey a warm, blooming sensation!

Loathing

Definition: a feeling of intense dislike or disgust; hatred
Method/Medium: Black and white gouache and watercolor paints, pressed between transparency film
Behind the piece: I pressed gouache paint between two pieces of transparency for this one, and was surprised by how it turned out! Loathing to me is a swirling emotion that is unconscious in nature and yet could co-exist and achieve duality with something positive, sometimes maybe even melting into it – it’s when you feel an extreme hate for someone, but sometimes even believing that you are right – hence the progression of light thoughts into dark thoughts, but with a few bright emotions swirling in the darkness.

Hostility

Definition: deep-seated usually mutual ill will
Method/Medium: Black printing ink spread on a linoleum sheet with yarn patterns and tissue flecks, then pressed onto A3 white paper
Behind the piece: Hostility resembles the jaws of a predator, or the fierce nature, so I melded both into one image! Do you spot the owl? (‘u’)

Resentment

Definition: a feeling of anger or displeasure about someone or something unfair
Method/Medium: Black printing ink; remnants when an A3 white paper stuck onto ‘Hostility”s piece was torn from it and repurposed digitally.
Behind the piece: This piece was born when I tore a piece of white A3 paper that was stuck to Hostility. There were root-like patterns and I immediately thought of Resentment. I feel that Resentment is an unconscious emotion that creeps up to you and exists together with a light mind. It’s an unconscious dislike for something or someone, and it’s almost stifling, suffocating and gives you the goosebumps!

Heartache

Definition: emotional anguish or grief, typically caused by the loss or absence of someone loved
Method/Medium: White gouache and medical gauze on black texture paper
Behind the piece: I feel that Heartache is an extremely depressing emotion that is desperately looking to heal itself and restore itself to its original form, chasing after the shadow of what it was!

Abandonment

Definition: a feeling of utter loneliness and neglect
Method/Medium: Black and white gouache pressed between transparency film, with wool glued to the top
Behind the piece: Abandonment is the feeling of loneliness and stagnation, rendering one blind to all the other things happening out there, thus I used wool to hide, putting a barrier between the honest emotions and the viewer.

Gloom

Definition: a state of depression or despondency
Method/Medium: Chinese ink on newsprint, digitalized
Behind the piece: Gloom is drippy; the feeling when you just want to do nothing else but sink into the floor. I don’t feel that it’s quite like sadness, but like a feeling of unhappiness and unsatisfaction instead.

Trapped

Definition: unable to move or escape as a result of obstruction
Method/Medium: Copic multiliner on 250GSM paper
Behind the piece: I wanted to portray the feeling of being caged and trapped in the unknown, and to create a sense of confusion, nonsense and unrest.

Fright

Definition: a sudden intense feeling of fear
Method/Medium: Chinese ink on newsprint, digitalized
Behind the piece: I feel like fright is an extremely sudden emotion – going away almost as soon as it is experienced, but even when it goes away, it leaves a deep impression and traces of what just transpired

Perturbation

Definition: mental uneasiness
Method/Medium: Sea salt on Payne’s Gray watercolor paint and grey string on 300GSM watercolor paper, with white gouache
Behind the piece: I feel that Perturbation is the feeling of uneasiness, unrest and the feeling of being disturbed, and almost like sickness. I used sea salt to spread the paint – to try and make it look like a sickly emotion within the middle of each body, despite the outwardly alright disposition of the emotion.

2D Project 1: Extra ╮(︶▽︶)╭ (Part 4)

Between the last lesson on 13th, til 19th today, I had been reworking most of my strips – and even the emotions I have selected underwent massive changes. I’m going to have to edit my research on the emotions, but here’re the original list and the edited list!

Original List

1) Zest
2) Exhilaration (Removed)
3) Zeal
4) Adoration
5) Compassion (Removed)
6) Tenderness
7) Euphoria (Removed)
8) Elation
9) Delight
10) Hope (Removed)
11) Optimism
12) Eagerness (Removed)
13) Passion
14) Desire (Removed)
15) Infatuation (Removed)
16) Loathing
17) Hostility
18) Resentment

New List

1) Passion

2) Tenderness
3) Adoration

4) Zest

5) Zeal

6) Optimism

7) Delight

8) Elation

9) Surprise (NEW!)

10) Loathing
11) Hostility
12) Resentment
13) Heartache (NEW!)
14) Abandonment (NEW!)
15) Gloom (NEW!)
16) Trapped (NEW!)
17) Fright (NEW!)
18) Perturbation (NEW!)

I had previously selected 9 emotions from ‘Joy’ and 6 from ‘Love’, but after some careful thought while working on the final strips, I’ve decided to reshuffle the emotions into the 6 categories in the brief, and explore a little more!

Reworking ‘Adoration’

16th to 19th were busy days – reworking emotions onto a 257mm x 50mm strips, trying to recreate emotions on different canvases and failing a million times because certain paints just wouldn’t achieve the harmony I wanted – like wood and gouache for ‘Passion’.

Failed attempt to re-create Passion

The gouache paint wouldn’t spread smoothly on the wood and in turn making the strokes extremely dry and not great to work with. I’ve decided to stick to the original piece I had in the end – to scan it in and print it instead.Another thing I experimented with during this period of time was the backing. I managed to dig up some transparency films and tone papers, and used them for the following emotions: Compassion (Grey texture paper), Loathing (transparency film) and Abandonment (transparency film).

I felt like a scientist! (*v*)

Doing these strips traditionally gave me a huge sense of satisfaction since I’m weak to gimmicky stuff; I sure hope they’re working out well! (;u;)

Make-shift charts I made for my experiments!

Next are the 6 strips that have mostly retained their original form from the previous mark making sessions in the 2D studio – Hostility, Gloom (previously Desire), Resentment, Passion, Zeal and Eagerness (Fright).

For these 6 strips, I’d scanned a part of them, pieced them together, digitally edited them so that they’ll look like a proper strip and took them down for a little trip to Sunshine Plaza at Bugis!

On my way to Sunshine Plaza; it was so very hot on the way there. I’ll remember to bring an umbrella next time.

… After printing, it was time to cut all the strips! Hurrah! (;u;)!!!

And that was pretty much it! The strips will probably be ready for submission soon – and I’m a little sad because I really want to work with more mediums. Hope everyone’s really enjoying the process too! (=’u’=)

2D Project 1: Consultation! C=C=┌(;・ω・)┘ (Part 3)

We had a consultation earlier on Tuesday (13/9/16), and I finished up the last of the drafts for the lines then as well!

In the first half of the day, I quickly did up Elation and Delight since I couldn’t quite find something that fits nicely.

Elation (top) and Delight (bottom)

I tried to rework some lines as well into the actual submission format whilst waiting for my turn to consult, and here was my failed attempt at Tenderness – because lines that were too representative were a no-no.

Tenderness (Past Attempt)

…And in the later half, there was consultation and here were some of the personal notes, consultation remarks and takeaways:

1) Zest: was okay! May want to consider re-creating with black.
2) Exhilaration: was a tornado! Place it horizontally, and end the edges with solid, wet brush strokes, instead of dry brush strokes.
3) Hope: to be reduced to a single bubble so that it’s more symbolic and impactful!
4) Optimism: was alright, but the bubbles to be more solid white, less grey.
5) Eagerness: should be made of longer, bolder brush strokes in a single direction
6) Loathing: made of spherical swirls, and to represent boxed in hate. The way it rises and simmers should mean something! (Like hate bubbling to the top!)
7) Passion: was great!
8) Desire: was drippy; to recreate and have just the dripping parts in the strip.
9) Hostility: was great!
10) Resentment: was great! Are to represent tree/tree roots and the urge to strangle someone or something, or the sinking into flesh.
11) Adoration: made to look galactic and sweet!
12) Euphoria: to use paint to create feathers instead of using representative elements!
13) Tenderness: should not use flowers! Use dots and lines to represent flowers or the element instead!
14) Compassion: to do some sort of weaving with paper or fabric?
15) Zeal: is high energy and excitement, and was alright!
16) Elation: was great!
17) Delight: was great!
18) Infatuation: was great! But to be reworked in monochrome!

It was pretty chaotic since my stuff were on newsprints and all over the place, but I kind of managed! I also decided to take some photos for documentation here too – even of the marks that didn’t quite make it. Have an image bomb:

I received a 2-in-1 deal right here when I ripped these two papers apart. Now they’re Hostility and Resentment (‘-‘)

Made through throwing ink, dripping and scratching with ink respectively

Marks that didn’t make it!

Happy accidents!

And the initial drafts for some of the marks!

…And that pretty much sums up Tuesday’s consultation and progress! (;u;)

2D Project 1: Making more marks! (´ ꒳ ` ✿) (Part 2)

This week is the 2nd week of free-style mark making!

This time, I brought along some concentrated watercolors and a tube of white gouache paint in hopes of getting an interesting range of grays. I also brought a small sachet of wool.

In the first half of the session, I tried lino-cutting – a process where a design is cut onto a linoleum surface.

I’ve learnt alot about the tools used for lino-cutting!

Lino-cutting was an extremely valuable lesson as I’d learnt quite abit about the cutting tools, and how I should be handling and cutting the linoleum sheets. If I wasn’t wrong, I think Sheryl or Valerie gave me some precious tips on how to cut them. Thank you so much guys! (;u;)

However, the prints that came from lino-cutting weren’t quite to my liking as they were very rigid and time-consuming, so I decided to go back rolling things on some uncut linoleum sheets quickly enough. Maybe one day (not today), I’ll be able to do a little more venturing into the world of lino-cutting!

Following that, I returned to working with gouache, but worked some watercolor and wool into what I’ve experimented with last week.

The great thing about loose wool is that they’re versatile and can be poked into bigger chunks if I ever need to dip and paint with them! (‘u’)

In this set of lines, I’d used the wool for texture, to apply ink and to remove ink!

I’m pretty happy with how some of these turned out! I think I’ll be able to use some of these for the final strips! (‘u’)

This was another educational session as I got to compare the viscosity of watercolor concentrates, gouache, Chinese ink and printmaking inks. Since I’ll most likely be picking out quite a few lines to use for the final set of emo lines, it’ll definitely help to be able to control some of the aspects so that I can recreate the lines or improve on them for the final set!

2D Project 1: Mark making Practice! ヽ(‘u’☆)ノ (Part 1)

A little late, but earlier this week on Tuesday was a full day of mark making!

The point was to create textures, lines, patterns with whatever we could get our hands on. So I brought a packet of instant noodles, as well as a handful of almonds and macadamia nuts!

Learning point: Don’t ever bring food items that could get soggy again. Noodles were kinda a bad idea (‘-‘)

I also borrowed a container, a roller and experimented mostly with Chinese ink through the day. Halfway through, I started to mix some white gouache I found in my pencil case with the Chinese ink.

It became more solid – and definitely easier to work with!

(Pure Chinese Ink VS Chinese Ink mixed w/ White Gouache!)

A list of other things I tried or learnt:
-Throwing Chinese ink (It goes everywhere; please make sure no one is beside you; I’M SORRY NICOLE!)
-Drawing with a strand of Maggie Mee (It gets soggy really quickly and breaks)
-Mark making with, and throwing macadamias and almonds (Almonds roll and create a squiggly effect!)
-Dipping a seasoning pack with ink and drawing with the jagged edges – looks like water ripples!

-Also: cling wrap is your best friend
-3D stuff are not the best tools to print with (;u;)
-Any ink you put on your hand will come stay with you for the next 1 week or so.
-Personal reminder to take more photos and videos (;v;)