Aster: Graphic Form Gallery

Project 1

I expressed the characteristics of 4 ideal jobs interwoven into 4 characters, based on Japanese game concept art!

Link to Project 1 Outcome: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphicform-project-1-part-2/

Project 2 Part 1 (Locale)

I did research on Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and created 4 pieces of infographics with the collated data featuring anthropomorphic characters and a layout inspired by the reserve!

Link to Project 2 Part 1 Outcome: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-locale-2/

Project 2 Part 2 (Zine)

Based on Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, I created an 8-page zine personifying the emotions and experiences of the 7 senses!

Link to Project 2 Part 2 Outcome: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-part-2-zine-2/

Graphic Form Project 1: My Name (‘▽’人 (Final Designs)

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Concept
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✿ To push the fun and fantastical side of the occupations to their limits, and to convey a Utopian fantasy.
✿ Gamify characters and weave letters of my name ‘A S T E R’ into clothes and strength for them!
✿ Letter forms are expressed as weapons and equipment for these characters.
✿ Letters are my perceived naive/first impressions of the jobs.

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Art Direction
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I wanted to start Project 1 for Graphic Form off by working on something that would give me cheer every time I worked on it – so I decided to use games as a general focus. After looking around at the different types of drawing styles (storyboard art, animation art, etc) that goes into making a game, I decided to go with game concept art. I feel like game concept art is like the face of the game itself. Characters are usually the biggest pull of selling a game or comic – they are the face of your game!

In this project, I wanted to express my impressions and wonderment at other occupations akin to that pull of a 2D, fictional character. I wanted to give each piece an orbit and pull people in, even while they are unreachable, fictional beings. I felt that the best way to do this would be to embrace the comic style – leaning towards the Japanese manga style. I understood that the risk of working with this would be that it could possibly end up extremely cringeworthy. I decided to try putting together the typical game concept art poses with some poster-style, Art Noveau artists that I’ve done research on – Alphonse Mucha and Aubrey Beardsley. Combined with the recent presentation I’ve done on Russian art (Suprematism and Constructivism), I hoped that it would help put together four pieces that integrates drawing and design flawlessly.

I’ve come to feel that doing four pieces in this project is an amazing blessing as well – there is a great power in the number 4. Alot of things in stories, mythology and lore of games come in fours – 4 Heavenly Kings, 4 Heavenly Beasts (e.g. Suzaku,Seiryū), 4 Fiends (e.g. Taowu, Taotie) and more!

Each piece is inked traditionally using copic pens and markers of various sizes. Some techniques include layering cross-hatching, wavy lines and straight lines to create monochromatic depth. I hope the organic nature of the traditional mediums would help to bring out the idea and liveliness of the characters.

The pieces are then scanned and digitally edited to bring out the letters in them with color.

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Final Designs
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► The Dragon Dancer
Symbol of Courage

Overview:
The Dragon Dancer, to me, represents a figure of power. I wanted to portray them as a warrior class. Red is typically the color of heroics and adventure. It also represents fire and valor, and a highly symbolic color for Chinese culture. The background is circular and with shards – an implication of the dragon pearl of wisdom that is used to ‘lure’ dragons during dragon dances.

Letter Form Elements:
♦ A is in her braids, a representation of heroics. As a kid, I’ve watched a few Chinese period dramas and braids stood out to me alot as a child, becoming a symbol of valor.
♦ S is for the dragon, the highlight of the dragon dancing art.
♦ T is for the sword, symbolizing courage and power.
♦ E is for the belt on her thigh. Belts famously symbolize serpents and eternity. I also wanted to show discipline and restraint due to the amount of practice that goes into training.
♦ R is shown in the legs, to denote grace, lightness and the quick-footedness of dragon dancers.

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► The Oceanographer
Symbol of Wisdom

Overview: The Oceanographer is represented by the blue of the water and ocean. I drew inspiration from steampunk and industrial revolution fashion as well so that I could express the impression of technology and science that the occupation gives off. The circles at the back are meant to represent ripples, depth and mystery.
A fun tidbit: her gear is modeled after a jellyfish because frilly jellyfishes look like royalty under the sea, commanding the ocean!

Letter Form Elements:
♦ A is for a trinket, to represent trinkets found at the bottom of the ocean.
♦ S is for the eel, to symbolize sea life forms that you can find while exploring the ocean.
♦ T is for her staff that is based on a compass. It is to show the importance of navigation and exploration as an oceanographer.
♦ E is for the antenna on her head, as I wanted to show that treasure-seeking, thrill-seeking and curiosity should be characteristic of an oceanographer.
♦ R is represented by the diving goggles and the ability to see underwater.

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►The Shepherd
Symbol of Compassion

Overview:
The Shepherd is expressed in green – linking this job closest to nature and greenery. The background is heavy on the top, and intended to look like the structure of a tree. Compared to the rest, the Shepherd is the most demure and rigid, as I wanted to express her strength and rigidity of the earth. I also wanted to show her unfaltering bond to the earth, resulting in a less free form.

Letter Form Elements:
♦ A is represented in small-case as a bird standing on her finger. The bird is to express the job’s proximity to life and animals, as well as their gentle and nurturing characteristic.
♦ S is expressed in the sheep’s horn – an animal that is characteristic of this job.
♦ T is expressed on the high boots, to show the weariness and trudging on rugged earth and soil. I stationed the legs to stand in a more rigid pose compared to the other jobs as I consider this a job that is very ‘grounded’ and closely linked with Mother Nature!
♦ E is a scarf. I’ve gone to a Mother Farm in Chiba, Japan a few years ago. The association of a shepherd herding sheep on a mountain leads me to think that it would be very cold on the mountains and the impression of shepherds wearing thick clothes.
♦ R is expressed as a staff. A staff, or a cane, is a tool for hiking and getting around on rugged terrain. A long staff is also a show of guidance and leadership.

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► The Weather Reporter
Symbol of Fairness

Overview:
The Weather Reporter is expressed in yellow because it represents the sun, which would make a good pair with the blacks in the image which could contrast as night. Yellow is also the lightest color out of the 4 colors I’ve selected – perfect for representing a happy, fickle and whimsical image that I have of a weather reporter. The background depicts a sun and the moon.

Letter Form Elements:
♦ A can be found on the lining of her skirt. I have an impression of weather reporters as serious ladies in formal A line skirts. I decided to take this in a more literal sense as I wanted to experiment and interact with letters forms more physically as well, not just metaphorically.
♦ S is in the background, which represents the sun and moon. It expresses the nature of a weather reporter’s job as the sun is very obviously connected with a sunny day, and the moon’s tidal forces affect rainfall.
♦ T is in her tiara. It’s not something that immediately comes to me when I think about what a weather reporter should look like. However, I feel like a tiara is a great symbol of power and authority, but yet also fickle like the needs of a young princess. I wanted to show how I used to think that weather reporters were all-knowing – as if they could control weather.
♦ E is expressed as the frame of a wing. The wings of a bird are sensitive to the littlest change in winds. Birds are also known to predict weather through pressure. I added in gambling chip patterns to the connectors that are the joints of the wings, to represent that the prediction of weather is like a gamble – it changes on a whim.
♦ R is expressed in the arm, folded in an akimbo. It’s a gesture that widens your stance and conveys a powerful mood. I wanted to express the influential nature of the weather reporter as they are very trusted figures on media.

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Challenges
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The main challenge was definitely compositing the image as a whole and fusing all the letters and meanings into a cohesive piece.

On top of making a cohesive piece, being visually attractive is also important as that is a big part of game character design – they have to make characters that you’d like to play as!

What I initially had in mind didn’t show up as clearly as I thought it would. I initially planned to keep everything black and white, and use blacks to make the white areas pop out. However, it was very trying to not make a mistake while inking was also taxing.

On top of that, getting feedback from my classmates was incredibly useful! Right before recess week, I asked if they could spot the letter forms in the characters (most of them couldn’t). It became a much less painful process after switching to digital media for colors.

It was also much easier for people to see the letter forms too as they jump out at you.

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Post-Presentation Feedback
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✿ Instructor’s Feedback:
• Consider having a general overlaying message.

✿ Classmate’s Feedback:
• “I love love love your display and representation of your works!! And your technique is top notch manz. I think your concept’s also very interesting and looking at jobs from like a gaming/stats/character kind of view is really creative!! I also liked how you really incorporated little details to represent each occupation. And like how the letters are like seamlessly part of the composition. Good job!”
• “Very clear letter forms & god level illustration WTF y u even in school bro. LOVE IT 10/10. Also the shepherd damn pretty can I have her number pls.”
• “I like how you incorporated the letters into her equipment, ties in with how they are utilized.”
• “Love the fine details of your characters. You brought out the Japanese style really well!”
• “Can I just say how nice your drawing is!!!! Also, I like how you kept the portraits really simple where the focus is coloured yet not dull!!! Also, the amount of thought you’ve put into each element!!!!!!”
• “Gurl, your artwork is amazeballs! Can’t imagine the effort put into your pieces. Love the concept & the execution of the brief. Your creativity in this project really shows everything is well-thought out & they look great as individual pieces, and as a set! Good job!”
• “Your work is so pretty :’) You draw so well!!! The idea behind your works are so thought through. I love how you so effortlessly incorporate the alphabets into your portraits. Every single element has its own significance, I love!!!”
• “Very interesting concept of using games/job/characters to illustrate the fonts creating elements related to the job to infuse the fonts & accessories and also the background & foreground. Overall very harmonious!”
• “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DREW THESE! GOOD JOB ASTER <3”
• “Feels like a tarot card!! Looks cool. Good to have the letters used for different meaning. The composition is done well. The whole flow is done nicely!”
• “Your drawing is SUPER detailed!! Love how you incorporate the letters into your drawings but I don’t really understand the background (circles) of the oceanographer 🙁 (hmmm).”
• “Very beautiful! The monochrome to enhance the letters made the piece very pleasing to the eye. I like how the four pieces are very thematic and collectively bring out idea you wanted to portray. Very nice!”
• “Your drawing is damn damn GOOD! Why never go animation HAHA! Love your theme & concept. Alot elements in each concept & it blends so well!”
• “Love your animes! Super stylistic and dynamic. Good play with colours/no colours to emphasise types as well. Good job! :)”
• “Very avatar the legend of Aang with the 4 elements thing! Very curated. I admire your technical ability. :)”

✿ Self-Reflection:
Overall, I’m quite happy with how the pieces turned out! If I had anything I would like to improve on, it would be being more decisive and speeding up on the starting process of deciding the elements that would go in each piece. so that I have more time to work on the actual pieces themselves.

My see-sawing in deciding the occupations and elements cost me later towards the end while working on the digital aspects of the pieces. To me, it felt like I’ve betrayed a small part of myself by my digitization of the four pieces. I felt like it cheapened the pieces slightly and ate up the fine details of the actual pieces, in return for saving the letters and providing color aid for people who are viewing the piece.

While the simplicity of the backgrounds worked this time as the characters could pop with their help, I feel like I could better incorporate more thought-out backgrounds and better utilize negative spaces next time for future pieces.

I feel like I could brush up on my time management and find a better way to improve my technical ability when it comes to managing monochromatism in my pieces. This is something I would love to explore in my future pieces again.

Finally, I was worried deep down with how a set inspired by game concept art would be received – I wanted to be as true to myself as possible since I’m a big fan of games, comics and I -loved- drawing. (Honestly, my biggest goal in life is to work on a fun webcomic dedicated to my closest friends.)

I was extremely pleasantly surprised and blown away by all my super kind classmates! Their feedbacks were extremely encouraging and their own pieces were extremely inspiring as well. I hope for myself to be able to learn from them and work on more pieces that will communicate well and light up peoples’ days. 🙂

Thanks everyone such a wonderful first project! Onward to the next assignment! (´ ∀ ` *)

Project 1 Research & Process: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-1-part-1/ ‎

Other Research: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/research-artist-and-unconventional-art-material/

Introduction Activity: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-introduction/

Graphic Form Project 1: My Name ( ` ω ´ ) (Research and Process)

ART DIRECTION & Research

This was a personal project and I naturally swung towards Japanese comics and game art upon starting on the research for this project! Japanese RPGs are my life and I really want to let my love for games decide where to swing for this project!

Seeing as I was assigned to the first week for the weekly presentations as well, I decided to incorporate extensive research of Russian Constructivism, Suprematism and De Stijl into my works as well.

I did some research on brushwork and practiced some calligraphy too to practice discerning line work and improving my line expression for this project.

I decided to base my Project 1 on interpreting real life jobs as a utopian fantasy much like fantasy jobs such as Mages, Swordsmen, Bards, and more!

PROCESS

Sketches:

Deciding the occupations was definitely the toughest part of this project – but I didn’t expect sketching and composition to take so much time! It took me the entire Chinese New Year break (at the rate of approximately 1 drawing a day, at least) to complete the pencil work and line art.

I proceeded to scan in the drawings and repurpose them into digital portraits for printing through Photoshop.

I initially planned for it to be monochromatic, but it didn’t turn out so well. After consultation, I decided to have larger percentages of color and…

It worked out decently – I think! 🙂

… now just need to repeat consistently for 3 more.

After finishing up the four portraits, I went down with Nic to Sunshine Plaza for printing!

Introduction Activity: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-introduction/

Other Research: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/research-artist-and-unconventional-art-material/

Final Designs: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphicform-project-1-part-2/

Experimental Interaction Project 1: The Journey (Inksea)

An Introduction to Old Legends and Myths [Article 3.2]

Legend has it that the first animals domesticated were squids.

More than tens of millenniums ago, an early man sunk down into the deep sea and was saved by a colossal squid. Instead of moving inland, humans started expanding seawards with the help of domesticated ocean lifeforms and sea farms.

They have built massive oxygen networks to inhabit the sea instead, building powerful machines that mainly run on hydraulic power.

Over the years, humans adapted with the development of sea-form traits such as membranes and gills. While they can still go on land, they can only stay for short periods of time before needing to retreat into the waters, due to their skin’s sensitivity to the harsh sun.

Images on today’s lifestyle [Article 7.5a]

Physique & Fashion

Common Pets

Automobile Advert

City

The Big Spill: A Dark Truth [Article 8.2a]

In recent 1880s, the eruption of new cities underwater is causing a great revolution. The population boom and careless handling of factories are causing a great deal of pollution, brought to attention with The Big Spill disaster in 1886.

The Big Spill disaster, an underwater ink factory explosion, caused a chain reaction of explosions and flooding in the North Atlantic Pipework. The disaster wiped out half the population living in the North Atlantic Sector and has forced the remaining affluent residents of the Pipework to relocate themselves to other sectors due to the compromised structural integrity of the remaining South Atlantic Pipework.

“The ink stopped leaking from the factories, but the aftereffects of explosion were horrendous. It’s been months and there are still many missing bodies,” says Ben Bean, 30, rescue worker from Corel Rescue Corps (CRC).

The tremors from the explosion are also felt in the South Pacific Pipeworks.

The Global Pipeworks Conference 1887 will take place on Feb. 15 to discuss the relocation of South Atlantic refugees and the reduction of ink-levels in the sea.

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’=)