Since a zine is basically a magazine but smaller…… Is that what the MAGA means….????

(Definitely incorrect, if you did the research.)

Welcome to the end of our 2D journey, which I’ll repeat, the last project will be based on the recent projects we’ve done throughout our foundation year. My concept was officially announced as JOURNEY WITH PEN, a remake of my POV project but expanded and extended. I gotta to say that the whole process is crazy and fun as I’ve never rushed so many digital illustration within a short period of time before! The project reminded me the joy of my own hobby and while whacking the whole work out, I enjoyed every single pages of illustrating. Without further ado, let me lead you through the work, CHRONOLOGICALLY. Let’s start with the good old visual journal, shall we?

20160414_183510

My plan on my zine.

I thought of using 5 A4 papers to form the accordion booklet format I planned as it’s hard to find any paper that has the length to fit the width of 6 A5 papers. (Refer to the booklet figure in the image.) When I started planning the narration for the 8 pages given, I realized that I have the advantages of utilizing the Inside Cover Pages for both ends, because there’s no need to leave them blank for a zine. I’ve figured to give my zine a filling content, why not just include these inside cover pages as the space for my contents? Therefore I added a beginning or prequel to the main narration. This page included my line: A PEN from the point of view of CIVILIZATION is A TOOL OF COMMUNICATION.

20160414_183518

Following the first Inside Cover Page is the main contents of my zine. With the space to extend and expand my previous work, I’ve given myself the opportunity to include many of my eliminated ideas (due to the incoherent concepts. ) into the zine’s body content. During the planning, I found the contents are still lacking some excitement or attraction for the readers. Then an idea popped up as I pictured what if this is a mass publication? I then recalled the book “Wreck This Journal” by Keri Smith, a book series that is an extreme case of interactive books since “Where’s Waldo”. Yes, interactivity was what my zine needed. Thus, I added many instructions in the main content pages that won’t let the readers “wreck” my zine. (Yes, I am not that extreme for this.)

Soon after this, I start designing my zine front and back covers. I decided to keep the front simple to surprise the readers with the rich illustrations. With the same consideration for the back cover, I felt it would be too empty for it because I didn’t included any images in it. So I placed a little surprise for the back cover as well with the help of the glorious Google Translate.

20160414_183526

With a little drafting of my verbal narration and I’m done.

During the group consultation, Ms. Joy and my fellow classmates suggested me to consider more on the printing materials to ensure the bonding of the accordion booklet won’t influence too much on my zine’s final appearance. Thanks to the reliable paper distributor Fancy Papers and the kind people in Poster Connection @ Sunshine Plaza, my zine is completed.

To be continued……

Like, how the heck its inventor came out with a word that sounds so rad and futuristic??

The final project of this semester is a 8-paged ZINE. For me, this sort of looks like a project that requires us to compact everything we’ve learned in 2D into a small book, with the space of trying new stuff as usual. The project enables us to insert any recent projects we did throughout the academic year into the zine. Obviously under the spirit of holy market spoiler, no one is going to just copy and paste their recent work into the zine. Till the time this is composed, I’ve already saw a few of my fellow classmates posting complete research on the ZINE itself. Imagine what they can do by just introducing their title sequence!

Therefore, I’d not like to waste your time and tell you what a zine is. I meant a book with such rad name should have got you google it a while ago. What I’m going to show is the idea I’ve developed for the project. As we are able to insert recent projects into the zine, I was thinking this might be a chance to make use of the composition I left out in my last project, Point of View. The zine is my chance to expand and extend my ideas about the PEN. I view this as an opportunity to make something that’s finally not assignment-based work. (Yasss, this project is damn free to work around.)

My current concept: Create the world’s thinnest narrative book with simple eye-catching illustration style with the tone of children books. What differs this work from the recent project is that the compositions’ orientation are partially altered and the medium of coloring will be shifting to digital coloring as well. Due to it’s narrative nature, I’ll be facing challenges of fluent narration and planning that makes the book worth re-reading. As many of the composition is enlarged, I would like add more interesting element. Not to mentioned I’m now required to add words to the work which made it a typography work, too.

20160403_211558

This time, I’d like to make it more relevant to the public therefore I will be removing the ME elements from the previous project. This decision will leave out many spaces for unused or new compositions, expanding its potential to become a fresh new work itself. With a children book tone in mind, I need to declare that the book was not made for children who haven’t grasp on the concept of an accordion booklet layout, which is the style I am going after. The layout will extend the total length of my zine and potentially resembles the shape of a pen. (The same consideration I did in the teetorum idea.)

Originally I was going after the art direction of Dr. Seuss or the illustrators style I found on previous project. Then I came across this artist which was shared by my high school classmate on social media.

wakemeupathappyland_00 thegirlwithoutaringfinger_07-08 lyraswhisper_17-18

The artist’s name is Josef Lee and he writes and illustrates what he claimed “Bedtime Stories for Adults. Stories about Life, about Love, about Stuffs.” I have to apologize to Ms. Joy who tried to search “adult bedtime stories” after I described his work without remembering the artist’s name. The mentioned keywords are pretty risky to lead us to unwanted sites. Resume to Josef Lee. Not only the artist’s storytelling is so random yet compels emotionally, the artist changes his illustration style drastically after every work, giving his audience a fresh new look every update. What Josef Lee inspired me is his narrative, illustration styles, and also his willing to change in every new update. This prompts me to include such quality into my zine.

I’m currently pausing in compositing stage, there’s so many to considered before jumping to execution, so please wait patiently for further updates of this Zine project! See you soon and thanks for reading!

 

 

Yes, the current progress I’m gonna show is my concepts. Through the brainstorming of the point of views, I found I’m easily restricted by the 18 points I brought up. Well, it’s the easiest to start from, which soon enough caused me some trouble.

types of pen

Selecting a suitable pen for each compositions.

Concept 1

First concept I thought up is based on the professions. After rereading my POVs in the previous presentation, I found some of them could not easily visualized with illustrations, especially from the subject RED. The PEN is rather visual to express as I compared it as other objects. Therefore I’ve filtered the 18 points into 8, not only because they can be visualized but also because that they are from my daily observations, comprehensions, and imaginations.

I listed out the following subjects and their POVs towards a pen that would likely to be in the final project.

  • A PEN from the point of view of CHILD is PENCIL YOU CAN’T ERASED
  • A PEN from the point of view of CALLIGRAPHER is MUSIC INSTRUMENT
  • A PEN from the point of view of WRITER is PAINTBRUSH
  • A PEN from the point of view of DRUMMER is DRUMSTICK
  • A PEN from the point of view of PENTURNERS is ART
  • A PEN from the point of view of LAWYER is GUN
  • A PEN from the point of view of STUDENT is ARSENALS.
  • A PEN from the point of view of ME is MIND PROJECTOR

Reason to select a PEN: A pen to me is ambiguous as it shows what I think. Either an image, a story, an answer, or a plan can’t be confirmed until the tip glides through the paper.

20160312_155745

Material contain spoilers. (If you can read it ;P)

I’ve paired them up in order to see if there’s any comparisons or contrasts shown, in such that

  • Children vs Students (They’re stages of growth everyone must’ve been through.)
  • Calligraphers vs Writers (They create things beautiful to the eye and the mind respectively.)
  • Drummers vs Penturners (One uses it not for its original purpose, the other made it as an art.)
  • Lawyer vs Me (This pairing make no sense, at all.)

The problem with concept ONE is it lacks a convincing theme, and it’s difficult to think of something to tie them together. Based on past experiences, it’s better not to push too much into a concept that can’t work or only work reluctantly. Therefore, I had to brainstorm another concept.

20160312_155649

Spoilers alert!

Concept 2

Perhaps I can direct the project into a narrative or transitional? This is what I thought. Ms. Joy suggested building my concept on current affairs, using pens a metaphoric medium. However, due to my lack of sensitivity on the mentioned theme, a self-exploring theme might be a more suitable theme that I am able to handle.

Focusing on stages of growth in the first concept, I based this concept on the object: CHILD, STUDENT, and ME. Thus, the new concept: EVOLUTION OF ME (Maybe) is formed. Why the bracketed maybe? This is because my current stage stop on ME, it’s only half way there. (NOT in terms of biological life-time.) The next half has to be hypothetical, hypothetical about what comes after ME?

I wrote ARTIST first under the obvious reasons. The word ARTIST is generic, it can be painter, designer, musicians, calligraphers, performing actors, and so on. Meanwhile, feeling the previous statement for ARTIST isn’t suitable, I came up with a new statement:

A PEN from the point of view of ARTIST is A SWISS ARMY KNIFE.

Then, I added WRITER in a generic term. It’s an alternate term for creator, any ideas: a film, a piece of music, literature, installations, or biopics, they all started with writing. Therefore, this stage of our creative career is the stage when we are creating our legacies, or masterpiece. The fun part is, this stage can coexist with the ARTIST stage.

What follows is TEACHER, an educator. Not only we’re leaving something behind, we have to leave our skills, ideas and wisdom, things that are hard to be inherited completely. What can we do about it? We teach, we pass it to the next generation. Thus:

A PEN from the point of view of TEACHER is STICK & CARROT and A WAY TO PASS DOWN OUR WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE.

However, even in such concept, there are some composition created aren’t consistent with the whole project. Some of composition created left me uncertain as I felt they did not do the statement justice. The uncertainty worries me, so I created another concept on the same transitional theme.

Concept 3: The Journey of pen WITH me.

A theme with a hypothetical transition for the future, this future is more realistic, and less philosophical. (Am I philosophical for the previous theme……?? HAHA) Parted with three time periods: past, present, and future, this theme focused more on myself personally instead of the generic profession. (Which kinda opposed to what I said in past posts.)

New components are added such as new object: MY FACE and FUTURE ME. With the new objects, new statement are formed:

A PEN from the point of view of MY FACE is A FACE MASSAGER

A PEN from the point of view of MY FUTURE-SELF is A TEETORUM

A PEN from the point of view of FUTURE ME is A BELL JAR.

The concept was said to be more curated, but the theme is still young and there’s a lot to think in terms of presentation and compositions.

I try to be secretive for my statement explanation as not only I try not to spoil everything in case the statements are selected, and also I wanted to let the illustrations speaks for themselves.

 

EXECUTION

For style, I’ll be referring to the artists/illustrators I’ve found for the previous presentation. I’ve experiment with the styles and with the tools I find interesting, a brush pen. I’ve would wanted to try different types of pens for the work too just to emphasize my works.

art style attempts

Art Style Attempts

The project will be a combinations of various artists’ styles that can be seen in first glance. I’d love to try an illustration with

  • Jacqueline Bissett strokes for the main character.
  • Adam Lurkam’s style for the main character designs, and Mia Nilsson‘s for the supporting ones.
  • Chrissy Lau and Rohan Eason styles with detailed background illustration.
  • Maguma’s or Alexandra Ball’s 2 dimensional compositing.
  • Andy Gellenberg’s solid coloring if required.

They either can be done with wet mediums or digital post production. Perhaps it’d be like the decision of my previous project, regarding mediums attributes.

20160312_155815 20160312_155822 20160312_155834 20160312_155848 20160312_155854 20160312_155811 20160312_155838

After the group consultation, some composition attempts, and the execution trials, I was advised to not adding too much complicated components in the works to make my main characters stand out more. Simplicity is the best brilliancy I supposed. We’ve also decided that computer scanned watercolor medium can be used to avoid any technical issues.

Next week, the project will be completed, so I have to keep it spoiler-free, but please look forward to my selected concept.

Thanks for reading!

When it comes to 18 of them, which one should I add the s? POINT? Or VIEW?

How to think of 18 point of views of any subject? First, start with something not specific. Then, find something everyone can related to, so perspective ensured to exist. Followed by something I have different point of view from the common point of views. Thus, I came out with something I extremely relied on as much as my computer, le PEN.

My definition of a pen is, it produce lines of any ink, it can fill up any given 2-dimensional space, it has a hard tip for user-friendly, and it is not a pencil. Yeah, this is somehow a little unnecessary explanation but I just want it clear before I put out my list of POVs. Feel free to read and I’ll see you at the bottom of the list.

A PEN from the point of view of CIVILIZATION is TOOL OF COMMUNICATION

A PEN from the point of view of CHILD is PENCIL YOU CAN’T ERASED

A PEN from the point of view of CALLIGRAPHER is MUSIC INSTRUMENT

A PEN from the point of view of WRITER is PAINTBRUSH

A PEN from the point of view of MONK is MEDITATION

A PEN from the point of view of DRUMMER is DRUMSTICK

A PEN from the point of view of PENTURNERS is ART

A PEN from the point of view of CRITIC is SWORD

A PEN from the point of view of PHILOSOPHER is ENGINEERS TO SCIENTISTS

A PEN from the point of view of PAINTER is CHISEL

A PEN from the point of view of BUSINESSMAN is SEAL OF APPROVAL

A PEN from the point of view of LAWYER is GUN

A PEN from the point of view of STUDENT is BOW AND ARROW

A PEN from the point of view of GAMBLER is CHANCE

A PEN from the point of view of SCIENTIST is CAMERA

A PEN from the point of view of POLITICIAN is WMD

A PEN from the point of view of INVENTOR is IGNITION

A PEN from the point of view of MUSICIAN is ACRYLICS

A PEN from the point of view of PROCRASTINATOR is MOTIVATOR

A PEN from the point of view of ME is MIND PROJECTOR

Had fun? You may heard of some of the sentences as they are universal facts. What I am trying to do express is I focused on human occupations since pen is such an important tool to these particular aspect require a civilized system of communication we called written language. IT is fun to explore and conclude generically how such small tool can be a great deal when different users is holding it.

Since we’re in a course that emphasized on conceptual results, it’s never too troubled to think of another idea. I thought of the most used color in human civilization, or rather this continent of the world, RED. Due to how much man-made culture had utilized it, red is almost everywhere. As a matter of fact, RED is in our blood. So, spare some time to read through my POVs of the color, RED.

A RED from the point of view of KID is LEADER

A RED from the point of view of TEACHER is AUTHORITY

A RED from the point of view of CLOTHING LINE is UNISEX

A RED from the point of view of TECHNICIANS is DANGER

A RED from the point of view of PARENTS is VIOLENCE

A RED from the point of view of CHINESE is PROSPERITY

A RED from the point of view of ALCOHOLICS is WINE

A RED from the point of view of FEMINIST is STRENGTH

A RED from the point of view of DOCTOR is BLOOD

A RED from the point of view of NATURE is SEDUCTION

A RED from the point of view of ADVERTISERS is EYE-CATCHING

A RED from the point of view of CHEF is DELICIOUS

A RED from the point of view of DESIGNERS is FF0000

A RED from the point of view of EYE is ATTENTION

A RED from the point of view of FRUIT LOVER is SWEET

A RED from the point of view of FOOD LOVER is HOT

A RED from the point of view of SCIENTIST is 620-750

A RED from the point of view of LOVERS is COMPASSION

This time the POVs are covering different aspects in cultural phenomenon instead of focusing on human occupation. This is because I found RED was already part of the universal, therefore I inserted other object to interact with the color, like the nature and eye. I’ve also included specified groups of people like alcoholics, feminist, advertisers, and lovers to give it a different tone to the collections.

However, as an unspoken and unexplained law of the human mind stated, when you are able to think it, someone else must’ve thought it. Apparently, there are other fellow course-mates had the same idea. So, in order to let my work stand out, and not a “just-another-similar-thing”, the style of execution is vital.

20160228_153131

In terms of style, I’ve looked through the web with websites like 9gag and a modern artist related site call the Illustration Web, which is like a dating site, except, this is for freelance graphic artist/illustrators and commissioners.

(Feel free to google the names in the collages.)

stylised characters

The medium I have in mind are illustration, which was greatly (almost over-)used by everyone else. Perhaps it is because many point of views included human characters, and illustration is the most practical to express human figures. So, I would like to try some stylized designs of my human characters. The styles I found interesting is these particular artists, as they did their characters in an unconventional ways to prove their styles are unique and hope that they’re recognizable. Although like how classical art were considered common in their time, (I heard there are plenty of artist had the same styles as Vermeer in his period.) their names hardly stand out, but their efforts and attributes of creating a special characters are worth to learn.

attractive lines

Next I have to consider about lines and how to shape out my compositions. There are plenty of illustrators love to used insanely intricate lines to wow their viewers, and yet some of them can do by performing instant strokes to form a figure. Less is more? It can’t be decided objectively.

interesting composition

Compositions is the key to this project. There’s a need to be abstract yet able to communicate with audience instantly. Even if the work cannot show a literal context, it must at least keep the audience interested. At least, this is what I see from the art above.

unique coloring

Lastly, the color. For either subjects I had in mind, I planned to use different coloring methods. For PEN, I planned to use digital coloring, or the complicated coloring styles from the images. As for RED, I intended to make the compositions black in white and only color the red objects, or maybe VICE VERSA.

In conclusion of my research, there are still a lot more to test and possibly I can decide once I came up with the experimental drafts. My fellow classmates have given good advice that ended up into my explanation above. Since I love illustration works too so I am excited to see what will be the end results, or at least, end decision.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

You’re God**** right. —- Walter White, Breaking Bad. (Not a fan yet, just because it kinda fits.)

Project 1, TYPOGRAPHIC Portrait Problem has finally ended, and there goes my first presentation of the semester.

So, to make up the whole progress, I’m gonna start from where I stopped.

20160215_204502

I’m not a big nerd on architecture, so I decided to stay as an interested audience of the art of buildings and cut off the composition from my set to fit the 4-frame-project. Moreover, filling up the building’s shape did not work as strong as my other compositions in terms of subtleties, and fine tip pens are not challenging enough either. Cutting away the pedestrian paths and underground tunnels are due to the potentially overcrowded components. Since its idea was started from the escalator itself, so I just simplified it as the medium is a tough tool to control as well.

TYPOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PROBLEM

My Name is

20160218_182525and I’m a logical person.

During my city exploration, I was unable to use internet data or GPS due to my financial restrictions. Thus, all I can rely on from getting lost are the locality maps from the MRT stations, and the STREET SIGNS on my way. This method of navigating shows my logical attributes when finding my way in the city.

20160217_202406 20160217_210626

Once I am familiarized with addressing format of a town, I won’t worry about not finding the certain locations as these street signs aided me big time. Also, I think I got my directional sense from my dad, so retracing my route was never a problem either. (Unless the scale and complexity of the city was too overwhelming.) I’ve paired the idea with collage making, the medium used by DADA when they first establish. Therefore, I considered it as a form of real life photoshopping as it requires certain amount of logic to piece every component together. The street signs are chosen based on all the streets I’ve been during my stay in Singapore. Some were photographed on the spot, some were screen-shot from the blessed Google Street, therefore resulted the major difference in their brightness. To find my name, just simply spell out the missing letters that were replaced by the white boxes, and you’ll be logically reading my name, just as the piece intended to be.

20160217_230055

However, it certainly has flaws. From the feedback of my fellow classmates, they were distracted by the sign posts thinking that my name hide between the negative spaces. After my clarification, they liked the idea of hiding what I wanted to show in this typographic portrait.

My Name is

20160218_182512and I’m not afraid to be weird in front of the citizens.

Why the caption? This is because I often (not always) ask stupid questions when I’m exploring around the city. I am thankful to every pedestrians who’ve helped me when I was confused or oblivious about the directions. (Yes, despite how confident I sounded just now, that do happens.)

20160216_221417 20160216_221350 20160216_221435

There are different faces in every trip, and I definitely can’t remember how they all look like, that’s why I chose to design them in monochromatic black-clothed figures, which symbolized how rare we meet each other again. I wanted to present many identities, therefore I scratched through all my memories on the streets, in the train, or in certain locations. The figures are designed with identifiable common gestures. There are arranged in a way that you are able to see my surname LOO for a certain distance, which achieved how unrecognizable I was in a big city. The medium I used for this piece is water color. Mistakes made by water color can be easily covered or blended out, thus suiting my piece of not afraid to ask the wrong questions. (Mainly also because I am less likely to see these individual again.)

How my classmates mistaken it as a printed work was a compliment to me, even though some have commented that this was a little out of place among my whole project. Moreover, not everyone are able to see the hidden surname in it. Perhaps a better design need to be implement for a better effect next time.

My Name is

20160218_182423and I’m a confident person.

That’s some big words to say. I believe my confidence are shown clearly in my previous piece, but the confidence is difficult to build. It requires many assuring factors and abilities to form my confidence, just like how the Singapore MRT connects the cities. (This is not an advertisement.)

20160215_204449 (1)

Testing for the right hue

I resembles confidence with MRT not only due to they’re confident that no station was wasted in terms of utilization, but also due to how confident they are with their arrival time estimation. Back in Malaysia, it was until the 2010s that our public transport placed the arrival time in their clocks as they are constantly late and delayed in the previous decades. Singapore MRT did not disappoint me with its estimated arrival time almost every time. (Yes, almost, because there was some breakdowns.) I picked the piece to represent my middle name JUN as this attribute only can be seen by people who began to know me.

20160215_205544 20160215_210617

The piece was drawn by Sharpie and Faber Castell’s markers. Their ink penetrates the paper easily therefore it needs to be used lightly. Using it tested my limits in controlling their color tone, perfecting the circles, (I’m still a human after all.)and maintaining the straight lines without any ruler. (Many illustrator are able to do this, so I considered an challenge from my idols.)

20160215_210225

The feedback for this are mostly positive, so I was relieved the whole composition worked out. The bigger challenge is to make it recognizable to the viewers but avoid making it too complicated.

My Name is

20160218_182410

and I’m a curious person.

An escalator form a bird eyes’ view is how I express my curiosity. During my exploration, most of the MRT are either in the elevated or placed underground. Thus much of my exploration time was spent on this particular transportation. It is the fundamental portal I must go through to see a new street, a new surrounding, and a new city. Within half a minute taking the escalator, my curiosity towards the scenery I’m gonna witness elevated as well for the next 30 seconds. For this new found attribute that’s been hidden a long time, I paired it with my YUAN as it probably can be seen by people who knew me well or solely myself.

20160217_215642

To suit such special attribute I found in the escalator and myself, I’ve chose the method of print-making. I’ve cut a template out of a slightly heavier paper and cover a piece of an alphabet shaped paper with the template. I believe my curiosity is not as black as the machine’s original color, so I chose my acrylics as the coloring medium. Acrylics are way thicker that water colors but their saturation resulted a ideal tone for this piece. The thicker they are, the easier it became a disaster. I had to redo a couple of times before I am happy with the end results, and the disaster happened during a desperate times. (the night before submission, my friends.)

20160218_013038

Some of my classmates are intrigued by the idea of taking a new perspective for the neglected machine. The overall project was appreciated and I am happy for what I’m able to do with my new limitations. (not doing the film things.) Ms.Joy has commented that the work accomplished its purpose for leading the viewers to a new perspective of my hobby, and it can be further enhanced by placing the piece in different spots.

The work was a success for me despite the aesthetic aspect of my classmate works are better. However,  I could learn more in contextualized my future work from the beautiful works of my classmates, through this project. (Perhaps a better time management would be good as well.) As always, I am looking forward to everyone’s next project.

Thanks for reading!

My concept for typography portrait has finally progressed and an idea worth anticipating is formed. YAY! My new concept is: CITY-BOY, where my personalities are shown in the forms of urban facilities illustrated by various traditional mediums.

City culture is one of the things that KL and Singapore had in common. It shows how far human being had advanced and how human community thrives for a better living. The city shows a more distinct variation of forms and views for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like natural sceneries as well but natural landscapes shows the trails left by the elements; cityscapes shows the trails left by the human society. Therefore I find the city interesting when you can deduce human nature in through their physical creations.

I wanted to explore subtleties again in this project after inspired by Ji Lee’s “Word as Image”. Subtleties wasn’t shown in my last concept even though Ji Lee was one of the artist I’m trying to refer. Therefore I want to make sure that his subtle manipulation of words was in my new concept. While doing so, I also want to try out more traditional mediums since the LINE project in order to step out from my photography media.

vernacular typography

Vernacular Typography

I searched for a few sites related to my new ideas. Most of the city/urban typographies shown are the ones produced by citizens for occupation/marketing purpose. Vernacular typography.com and The Journal of Urban Typography tumblr documented many handwritten signs, sprayed signs, billboards, and gold signs in NYC.

tjout

The Journal of Urban Typography (tjout@tumblr)

There’s a form of city typography created with special fonts on beautiful city photos. These Instagram-worthy photos did not fit my concepts very well. Later, I caught a glimpse of collage typography which impressed me with its dada-ish and constructivist style.

city typo 3 city typo 2 city typo 1

collage typography

Collage typography, advanced? version of Constructivist Typography

Some of the G-1 folks also gave me some instant suggestions. (As in what pops up in their head after hearing my title.) Since my arrival in Singapore, I’ve always feel that every outing trip to the cities is like going into a new world. There’s a different atmosphere for each city so I have to think of something that conclude my explorations along with traits I hope to show. I shall choose the aspects of the city that I approached the most. Therefore I picked the following aspects.

visual journal 1

  1. Street signs
  2. Public transport
  3. Architectures
  4. People
  5. The public paths: Pedestrian roads, escalators, and tunnels.

street signs escalator

These aspects are the ones that show up in every of my trips, and they represented some new traits I’ve never presented. I’ll explain their relevance in the future.

I match these new traits with the traditional mediums’ specialty. Collage making is paired with STREET SIGNS; Sharpie art with PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION; water colors will be the execution for PEOPLE; fine tip suits best with ARCHITECTURE; and print making is matched with THE PUBLIC PATHS.

visual journal 2

I wrote the properties for the designs only as I haven’t figure out the details until I have enough resources and experiments. Other problems included my demand of traditional materials, (tools and paper types.) how I plan the color choices, (again) and how to fit/cut my concepts into the newly announced 4-frame-format. Despite all of the above, trials and execution time will be the greatest challenge for this project. Perhaps my future post for this project will include a lot of my fails attempts. Hope not. (Crossing fingers.)

Thanks for reading my renewed conceptualizing stage. See you in my next progress post!

(Imitating dramas narrators in the title.)

First stage of conceptualization!

Due to an unattended class trip for 4D, I went to visit SAM with 2D inspiration searching as another reason. Turns out there is some interesting reference worth exploring.

Based on my last research/exploration on the Internet typographers which impressed me, my initial concept for the typography portrait are:

  • Subtle changes on fonts to match the content.
  • Performs object typography.
  • IF required, the object typography will be made of photograph collages.

20160130_164100

The first group ideas of all the portraits varies in styles. They included

DSC_1035

Green Zeng’s Siapa Nama Saya?

DSC_1043

Dawn Ng’s Mamashop and HDB Corridor.

  1. Compositing my name with T-shirts, showing my identities as a Malaysia, who has an enjoyable memories in high school, came to NTU, getting use of uni-life. (Inspired by a piece (top) from the installation ONCE UPON THIS ISLAND)
  2. Using another piece (bottom) from the installation ONCE UPON THIS ISLAND, a photo with all my items of interest compositing some of my name’s letters while the rest are cropped out like the piece above.
  3. Arrange my downloaded movie files into my name via Window Explorer.
  4. Arrange clips into my name in an editing software’s timeline. Captured with screenshot.
  5. Collages of my name’s letter made of directional lines in Google Maps.
  6. Photo collages of cityscapes and school’s landscape with and without my friends.

You must be wondering, why didn’t I elaborate more?

After a consultation session with Ms. Joy, I realized (with the confirmation of Ms. Joy,) not only my concept, in terms of content, does not have a solid theme. Moreover, I exploit again on my interest in films, which Ms. Joy warned me to not exhaust the subject before I even enter my major courses. I was advised to find potentials in other traits of mine to explore, in many other ways, even in my current concepts. Such as, in what kind of lens viewers can view through? What sort of medium can I utilized rather than photos? Is it absolute to use human as the subjective?

Thus, I have new objectives to pursue for this semester, which are, try to explore other versions of me, what else can I show myself as? Try NOT to imply things that people knew about me into my work again. Give my audience a fresh new impressions.

Oh my, I have a lot to brainstorm this week. Hope I progress!

Our lecturer Ms.Joy commented on my previous and quoted, “What about, then, the role of ‘tinting’ due to their own upbringing or indigenous use of colours prior to commencing on these portrait photography works? How then does this insider, or even, inside-the-insider (since this is such an introspective project) internal ‘lens’ guide you in your compositions and/or colour usage? “. In Japanese photography painting, there was Felice Beato who expressed his view as a foreigner in Japan, and there were Kimbei and Enami who defined their works as a local. Their difference in nationality shaped a contrast of presentation in their works. Now, the country is myself, and I’m the ghost slash resident of my body. Therefore, you are able to see how the following work can be differentiate as how others see me, and how I see myself. Disclaimer: For those who didn’t read through the visual journal scans in the previous post, here’s a recap and elaboration of my concept. Sit tight, it’s going to be a long ride.

There’s always something on my face as it signifies my current commonness in the world. I’m nobody yet, I’ve not construct a final form, a true self to face the world. But I’m the lead character of the following frames, therefore the objects can be eye-catching to the viewers and leave an impression. Plus, it covers my face, so my actions speak the loudest.

ME

adaptable ADAPTABLE: I am adaptable, which I am proud of in terms of changing living location. Growing up in a hostel since secondary school, like everyone else, I developed a self disciplinary adjustment to suit myself in strange environment. Well, of course Singaporean post-army are trained better. (Explanation of each frame’s composition.)

  1. However, I never like to be put into strange environments, so is anyone. When I first arrived Singapore, I haven’t met any friends from either local or my home country. I don’t like to be alone, especially being at somewhere I don’t know yet. The RED ORANGE bench signifies a new community breed in the complementary BLUE, an insecure faith that can be either exciting or disappointing place. I am sitting awkwardly on the bench, in YELLOW ORANGE, unable to fit in yet as I am slightly different from the new community.
  2. Sometimes, I can be desperate to resolve my loneliness. I need someone to deal with the new life with me. But, usually, it doesn’t always go the way I want. The BLUE VIOLET dominated the whole environment and appeared to be darker than the previous frame. The ORANGE bench changed lighter in hue but the darker environment signifies a worsen situation I am in. A YELLOW me is trying to optimize my attitude towards the surrounding. Usually, my optimistic view takes time to construct. A really long time.
  3. My own color changed along the color wheel, indicating my change to be a better adapter as well. The environment turned VIOLET as it can be worsen or improved depending on my own perspective. The bench turned YELLOW ORANGE, offering a YELLOW GREEN me, an newly independent being a chance to settle in it.

+

stubbornSTUBBORN: I am stubborn sometimes, and always uses my own ways to complete certain task. Usually trapped by my own opinions and thoughts, my overthinking is so imaginative, it can be write down onto a script. I’m currently not flexible enough to go further as I am still letting my emotions to control many aspects in my life instead of my logic. After adapting the environment, which turned GREEN as it became ideal and comfortable, the ORANGE me is in a vibrant satisfaction, (As you can see through the tinting.) does not let go of the VIOLET bench, the past and old things I found favorable.

=

meME: One lucky sonofagun that managed to survive with a conformist attitude because he met great human beings throughout his life who help him through his worst moments. I’ve met so many great people that most of my life owe a great debt to them. My family, friends, ex-crushes, teachers, you name it. I caused most of my downs in my life but it was them who pushed and advanced me to a better place. The color changes in the frames are following the TETRAD order in the color wheel. The VIOLET background signifies my immense in my own favorites and my RED friend is the driving element for me to shift from the safe GREEN bench another environment. As the for the last frame, the BLUE background foreshadows my arrival to another strange environment.

BETTER ME

thoughtful

THOUGHTFUL: The painting used was my sister’s (www.sijieloo.com) painting Listening to the Orishas, acrylic on canvas. 36×36″. I regarded myself being not as thoughtful as a member of a society should be. I’m only thoughtful towards the categories I’m interested in. So thoughtful is the trait that makes me a better person, for the ones I love, and the ones who love me. Staring at an empty canvas with rich expression and thoughts projecting in the back of my head is how I wanted to express this personality. The mundane GREEN was lightened up by my thoughts and the VIOLET hue hinted inspiration possessed by me in a trustworthy BLUE shirt.

minus

minus procrastination

PROCRASTINATE:  I tend to do this a lot. By removing it, I can achieve more, be what I want and do what’s necessary for my better future, before giving myself too many excuses. In the frames, my enjoyments in the serene BLUE was taken away within the change of TRIAD colors. The pen is my necessities to advance forward in a climatic energized RED.

=

better meBETTER ME: An anti-conformist. I was pulled away by responsibilities (The pen.) in an analogous colored path. I painted myself in BLUE as it doesn’t fit in the color set, meaning I won’t be settling down until I achieved what I want.

IDEAL ME

creativeCREATIVE: As a wannabe creator or rather an artist, creativity is one of the things I craved the most. The ideal me will constantly be able to see the world in many perspectives and always think out of the box. Creativity is so abstract that it can’t be obtained instantly, but to gain through training and gaining knowledge. The BROWN box is a discordance to the purple analogous series starting from BLUE VIOLET to RED VIOLET.  Yet a BLUE GREEN umbrella appears to harmonized the frame by forming a TRIAD, symbolizing my ideal flexibility within being creative. Without it, there will be stubbornness.

x

experienced

EXPERIENCED: An ideal me should always be prepared for any circumstances, be resourceful and thoughtful while meeting certain problems. This might take a long time to achieve as experience varies with time, but comparatively we are wiser everyday. It’s not necessary to boost my experiences instantly, but the more of it the more I can advanced. The color of wisdom BLUE VIOLET is painted on the umbrella, protecting the ideal me through the rest of the TETRAD color as they advanced from a safer minor GREEN obstacle to greater influential YELLOW ORANGE and finally to an intense obstacle colorized as RED.

=

ideal meUNIQUE: Perhaps an ideal me is a unique being. Recognized by all and ignored by none, or maybe on the contrary? Perhaps an ideal me can stand out from the crowd being unique for being extraordinary, for what I am? What I do? Or, What I left? The idea of that expressed with me in a creative RED VIOLET, still be able to stand within the COMPLEMENTARY YELLOW GREEN, with the previous items remaining the same for continuity.

ME IN 5 YEARS

Here’s the part where I was inspired by Edward Hopper’s walls that restrict his paintings’ characters.

minue stubbornminus STUBBORN: Me in 5 years is an ambiguous stage. Who knows? Maybe I removed my stubbornness, letting go what I’ve been desired for too much, embracing what I was given. DARK YELLOW GREEN wall as my spiritual obstacle, BLUE GREEN pants signifies my freedom, an ORANGE me embracing the sky without restrictions.

+

skilledSKILLED: Perhaps after 5 years of learning from the great people around me, I potentially surpass the teachings and be skilled enough to challenge the vast world. My color painting ends when the ME IN 5 YEARS left the window, as nothing can define myself who’s in the outside world.

=

me in 5 yearsME IN FIVE YEARS: There will be infinite possibilities occurring on me, maybe going up, maybe tumbling down. These possibilities are determined by, as I fly through the sky (outside world) with different colored wings. (Many version of myself. Sounds poetic?)

[To be continued…..]

Last time, I spoke about Japanese photography painters. These terms are surprisingly new to me considering I’ve read many photography magazine but none of them mentioned these innovating styles. Like George Melies, these pioneering “color photographers” are the ones who proved photographs can be colorful as well.

War photographer Felice Beato was one of the first photographers who introduced journalist photography. He shot and reserved hundreds of rare war photographs from the east where and when the Qings still reluctantly ruling China, including the Opium war between British and Munching China. Later before he settled in Burma, he opened a photography studio in Japan, teaching Japanese citizen to learn photography. And among these disciples, there are Kusakabe Kimbei and T. Enami.

2966216_orig beato beato artist-with-a-brush-photographed-by-an-artist-with-a-camera-ca-1915-28-by-t-enami-1340429480_org japanesedream4-560x403_440 beatofelice-beato-19th-century-photos-japan

Felice Beato captured a variety of Japan during the Meiji period. He was permitted to shoot many of the unforeseen Samurai Culture, reserving the image of the real Samurais and Japanese soldier, and introducing this little country beside China to the Westerners. Therefore, the viewers felt like tourists, observing Japan as a foreigner, just like Beato.

kimbei Kusakabe_Kimbei_-_Writing_Letter_(large) Kusakabe_Kimbei_-_22._Girls_Dancing

Kusakabe Kimbei’s worked in a different style compared to Beato. As a local photographer, he mainly explored the world of Japan’s female, including the geishas. Kimbei used plenty of color to create a lively atmosphere of geishas’ dancing yet with the same techniques, he depicted various woman in their unique characteristics, such as a mother was painted green as a soothing character, a young woman with pink pigments to embrace her youth.

japan-vintage-farsari-tenami FUZZY_SLIGHTLY_WARPED_AND_LAZY_DAYS_in_TENAMIS_YOKOHAMA_STUDIO.123201755_std enami6559fb9682_ot enami fuji

T. Enami or Nobukuni Enami, also captured the life of Japanese, but as a local. Through the lens of Enami, viewers are able to see the daily life of Meiji’s Japan as Enami shows not only the famous samurais and geishas but common citizens as well, giving us a glance of the working society.

enami6559fb9682_o 2966216_orig beato felice-beato-19th-century-photos-japan t enami fuji Kusakabe_Kimbei_-_Writing_Letter_(large)beato

As you can see, the three photograph painters used almost the same blue in their photographs, yet they depicted different environment and meaning in their photographs’ characters. Such as the serenity around Mt. Fuji, the symbol of honor in a samurai towards his master, the commonness in working labors, and even the intelligence of a writing woman.

japan-vintage-farsari-tenami

beato

Even depicting almost the same theme, you can see the different expressions through the use of color. Their motto was not recreate realistic colorization but sending subtle messages to people who view the photographs. Thus they didn’t colorize the skins and unnecessary items. A little color altering can go a long way.

Inspired by their work, I combine the motives I had from the previous and attempted to colorized my photos in different possible ways. In the meantime, after some research I finally found a color wheel that simply summarized how we have been using color to express different emotions and environments.

emotional-and-psychological-meaning-of-colourWith the help of Photoshop, I am able to create a few colorization style by selecting different layering of my pure colors. These methods included layering a portion of B&W photos with semi-transparent color. (Sneak peak!)

test work

This is just a test photo.

better me 4

Or tinting them entirely with the hue to create a film style from the 60s. Movies in the 60s tends to tint their whole scene into certain color to express atmospheric tension, before color correcter was invented.

better me 1

By color correcting the photo’s, we can still see the original colors, but the tint can be seen as well. This is what movies nowadays usually do, but in a more subtle way.

me 5

The color scheme used in film has to be created using real props with similar colors and software editing. Since I can’t do that much during the production, I figured why not express my concept in an eye-catching way by covering the details in the same color. This way, viewers can see the colors far ways and able to capture the details when they’re near to it.

ideal me 5

Also, I tried to recreate the effects of the mentioned photograph painters. This effects only show color of the key element in the photo, providing each of their own meaning in the image.

Lastly, the pictures below are my journal’s snapshot showing my thought process. Don’t worry if you can’t recognized my handwriting. I’ll type them in my next post when the final results are uploaded as well.

20151115_195943 20151115_195953 20151115_195957Adaptable + Stubborn = ME, a lucky sonofagun that miraculously met great friends and survived.

20151115_200006 20151115_200010 20151115_200016Thoughtful (In any aspect) – Procrastination = BETTER ME, an anti-comfort person, at least willing to be defy comfort.

20151115_200153 20151115_200035 20151115_200039Creative x Experienced = IDEAL ME, standing out in an extraordinary way, with what I am, what I do, and what I left.

20151115_200054Skilled – Stubborn = ME IN 5 YEARS. Freed from my limitation, with infinite possibilities awaits.

[To be continued…….]

Time sure flies fast, a week has passed and you definitely realized the previous post was filling last week’s spot.

So, ignore my imperfect blog maintenance.

cropped2

Excuse my handwriting. Side note: DIPLOMATIC was later changed to ADAPTABLE, I’ll explain later.

As you can see from above, these are my finalized equations for EGO. (Spoilers~)  I got to admit all these properties might seems hard to be hard expressed by my concept: Using aspect ratio 16:9 and frame photos like it was from a film shot, and present it accordingly like it has a story accompanied by linear perspectives. The photos are not shot in color but monochromatic, which will later colorized monotonously with Photoshop to present hand-painted photo effects.

IT is a long concept name and I’ll explain how they were thought out. Firstly I wanted to show my interest in terms of future major in the project (as suggested by Ms. Joy.) and film’s usual ratio 16:9 is the obvious way to present what I planned to do in my future career. Soon, I came across a video that analyze Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.

1024px-Nighthawks_by_Edward_Hopper_1942

I’ll focus on its visual rather than its message. That’s in another level.

Edward Hopper’s usage of colors was simple yet striking and memorable. It shows a simple perspective planned picture that we might see in real life. I then wondered if I could achieve this effect as there’s always too much complicated background colors I can’t alternate, and I am not such skillful painter either. Either way, I have to come out with something. So, I sketched out my compositions first.

20151108_151206

Somewhere in the pages you can see Wes Anderson’s name, a director who utilized perspectives, symmetry and colors to produce stunning shots.

Soon after, I remembered there’s once a time when filmmakers painted the films frame by frame to produce color films. The part of colorizing black and whites sprung from my mind while I was composing the final frames.

rsz_scientists

I must admit, it’s Scorsese’s Hugo that taught me about one of the pioneer of filmmaking, George Méliès

Ms. Joy suggested more artists who did the same to not film but photography during the consultation. She told me to study the following artist: Felice Beato, Enami Nobukumi, and Kasuka Kimbei. They are pioneers in color photography as well and try to understand how and why they choose their colors when they were given the ability to do so. I’ll present my research of them in my next post and now I have to move on to my equations first.

As I said, most of my properties given by my classmates are formed through experiences and mistakes, some only appeared to certain people. I’m not saying they’re not my sincere personalities, but there are some traits that portray me from the start to develop these latter traits. For instance DIPLOMATIC is a word I agreed initially, as I always performs as the middle man among friends and dislike unnecessary conflicts, basically try not to speak the wrong words. ADAPTABLE on the other hand isn’t born with me as well, but it does summarize my ability to cope various environments, which happens throughout my life. I’ve always considered my daily routine flexible wherever I go. The same statement goes with me among my friends as I am usually the one who compromise. It’s a good thing for trying new stuff, but too passive in a way that I usually follow along where life took me to.

As for the rest of the properties, they’re subconscious flaws that sometimes stop me from advancing. Sometimes I was slowed down due to traits I lack, therefore these traits ended up in the BETTER/IDEAL zone.

I am eager to show you my finalized frames but I rather show them in my next post. It is because they’ll reveal too much and were incomplete as well. I obvious won’t hide merely 10% of it. So keep on anticipating!

(To be continued….)