Typographic Portrait

Final Work

My name is Min Hui and i behave like a mouse.

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I always leave half-eaten food behind, just like a mouse.

My name is Min Hui and I am a sweets traveler.

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I have a sweet tooth and i would like to travel around the world to look at works of art. The child-like colours also depicts my child palate.

My name is Min Hui and I am a Chemistry Student.

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I used to be a Science student and i really enjoy studying chemistry. In the composition, i morphed the symbols into my name. The images can be flipped over like a book, showing the different experiments of art methods associated with science.

My name is Min Hui and I need to gain weight.

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Whenever, i visit my relatives on Chinese New Year, i am always told that i am too skinny and that i need to add more. Thus, my new year wish is to gain weight.

Here, i used collage of food images on transparency. The different layers of transparency suggests the idea of gaining weight. The black rectangle is the screen of he weighing scale.

Project 3 Colouring my Life

Process

Many questions and thoughts pop up during the initial idealization of my project.

What colour are you? Which colour do i want to be?

How do i view myself? What do other people think of me?

 

After much consideration, i decided with the following equations:

Insecurity + Neat and concise = ME

Stepping out of Comfort zone  – Rigidity = A BETTER ME

Imaginative x playful = AN IDEAL ME

versatile + spontaneous = ME IN 5 YEARS

ME

Insecurity + Neat and concise

E1

Creating swirls       Impasto

Black layer

Insecurities

The first square depicts the many insecurities i have when faced with new challenges. I tend to have many worries and thoughts when doing things, To express this, i created uneven, bumpy and rough textures using impasto. Paint is squeezed onto the surface of the canvas, then spread with spoons to create messy swirls that represents my inner turmoil.

Also, i created 2 layers. The first layer is a coloured layer that depicts my inner thoughts. Red represents my anxiety. Yellow represents instability of my thoughts, Orange shows my frustration with things and blue depicts my over seriousness with work. The above layer over is a black surface that suggests the negative impact it has on my actions. The black layer does not totally over the coloured layer below. The coloured layers can be seen through the little holes of the black layer to suggest how my inner worries can be seen through my actions.

A2 NEAT

The second composition shows that i am a neat and concise person.  To portray that, i decided to with a clean and orderly design that emphasis on geometry.

Horizontal and vertical lines of equal thickness are arranged systematically to suggest my hate for messiness. Also,  primary colours like red, yellow and blue are used to suggest the harmony and orderliness.

Building Grids

Colour Grids

Taping Grids       Painting the grids

The last square shows that my neat and concise personality is caused by my insecurities. If you look at the work above, you see the overall structure first then you see the colours. The structure represents my neat and concise personality and the colours are my insecurities.

The work is created by building up many layers of coloured grid squares to the extent it looks black. The layers of square grids are constructed by taping on the canvas with masking tape then painting over with acrylic paint. Each layer of square grid is positioned differently and painted with different hues of colours.

 

A BETTER ME

Stepping out of Comfort zone  – Rigidity

E2

As a neat person, i always keep my drawings within its boundaries. It is never messy. However, this caused my work to be stiff, rigid and somewhat lacking in expressiveness and style. For this equation, i decided to use flowers to represent a better me as they are very natural life form.

Thus, in the first composition, i depicted a better me to be someone who steps out of her comfort zone. The comfort zone is the orange, green coloured area bounded within the 3 white corners. The purple flowers are not bounded within the coloured region but grows slightly outside the borders naturally.

To become a better artist , i really need to get rid of the rigidity and stiffness in my work that constrain my development. Here, rigidity is represented by the intertwined plants in a overall square format, somewhat reminding you of a cut up bush of plants.

A better me is someone who is more expressive. Thus, i depicted a close up of a blooming sunflower that focuses on the natural and rhythmic curves of the petals. Warm colours like red, yellow and orange are employed to show the positive and energetic expression.

 

AN IDEAL ME

Imaginative x playful

E3

Alice

An ideal me would be someone imaginative as i find it hard to generate ideas. To me an imaginative person is someone who sees the world beyond the actual reality and challenges the boundaries of reality. To portray this, i referenced to Alice in the wonderland. Elements and characters are placed on the extending hair to show the limitless imaginations. Also, the added tint of purple gives a mysterious touch to the composition.

Experimenting with watercolours

splatters 2        Watercolour backg

Playful

An ideal me is also someone who is fun and playful. I find myself to be a boring person as i am work oriented. So i wish to become someone who is more fun loving and not overly concerned with work.

For this square, i decided to use cats,who have no worries in life and are not bounded by commitments, to be an ideal me. I wanted create a light background wash to the subjects to suggest the overall mood. So I experimented with various colours using the wet on wet watercolour technique. After trying out many combinations i decided to go with the pink, yellow and light blue combination that gives a childlike and lighthearted atmosphere.

scraps

IDEAL ME FinalCat 2Cat

For the last composition is a surreal setting of the cats’ imagination. The subjects used in the composition are painted individually, then digitally manipulated together,  Pattern and variety is created with the fishes dropping from the sky. Similar to the first one, a purple gradient is added to the skies and cloths to create a mysterious and foreign feel to the setting.

 

ME IN 5 YEARS

versatile + spontaneous

E4

Paint Splash    Splash Paint

Splash Paint

Versatile

In 5 years, i see myself as a more spontaneous artist, someone whose artwork is influenced more by emotions rather than logical thinking, Thus, i did an unplanned and all over composition for the first square, I played around with the paints by splashing, dripping and flinging them onto the paper.  After much experimentation, i overlaid them in Photoshop. Initially the composition only had blues and greens as i wanted to portray the idea of working spontaneously and at the same time with control. But later on, i added hints of orange and yellow to suggest the energy of a spontaneous action.

Chameleon

 

Also, in 5 years, i imagine myself as someone who is versatile. I used 2 elements to represent adaptability: water and chameleon. In the second composition, the chameleon hides itself in the waters.

 

 

 

Final Project

Final 1

final 2

Overall, i had fun experimenting with colours. It is quite an interesting project. I have come to understand myself better and what i hope to expect from myself in the next few years.

PROJECT 3 Research

Colour Theory

RED
Positive: power, strength, warmth, energy, desire, passion, love
Negative: Danger, Aggression, visual impact,

Red is an emotionally intense color. It is visually striking and brings text and images to the foreground.

Red 3

BLUE
Positive:  serenity coolness, reflection, calm
Negative: Cold, emotionless

Blue is the colour that gives a soothing and relax feel. Also, Blue has the the tendency to cause things to recede to the background, as a result blue objects to not appear as close to red objects.

Blue

YELLOW
Positive: Optimism, confidence, self-esteem
Negative: Irrationality, fear, anxiety

Yellow is effective for attracting attention as it highlight the most important elements of your design. Lighter shades gives off happiness, reminding people of summer and the sun. Darker shades like gold, add more weight to the subject, giving a sense of antiquity.

Yellow

GREEN
Positive: Harmony, balance,  environmental awareness, equilibrium, peace
Negative: Boredom, stagnation, blandness

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VIOLET
Positive: luxury, authenticity, truth, royalty
Negative: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority

Purple is often associated with royalty and usually communicates the finest possible quality as well as time, space and cosmos. However, excessive use of purple can suggest introspection and the wrong tone of purple causes the subject to come across as cheap and nasty faster than other colours.

Purple

ORANGE
Positive: Physical comfort, food, warmth, fun
Negative: Deprivation, frustration

Orange

PINK.
Positive: Femininity, love, sexuality
Negative: Inhibition, emotional claustrophobia

Pink

GREY.
Positive: Psychological neutrality
Negative: Lack of confidence, dampness, depression, lack of energy

Pure grey has no direct psychological properties.

Grey

BLACK.
Positive: Sophistication, substance
Negative: Oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness.

Black 2