Ego in Different Settings: Final Work

Hello! Project 3 is finally over and 2D is finally done with! 🙂 It was a tedious and scary project because it seemed to involve so much within a small timeframe but we all pulled through! Here’s a runthrough of my process and final result.

INSPIRATION AND BRAINSTORMING

Art direction was something I pretty much struggled with as I wasn’t comfortable with my usual art style. Normally its pretty sketchy so I didn’t think it would go together with colours well. So I thought about simplifying shapes to make the colours stand out, and I drew inspiration from Dorris McComics, who is the artist behind the Blobby series!!

My main idea is that each figure takes the form of a blob, including me, while I shift colours every row. Each row has a singular main colour as I wanted it to have a uniform feel. Here’s my final presentation to get a gist of it:

Final Presentation, Ego.

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Forrest Gump: Final Work!

Hey guys!! Here’s my final write up on my final work for Foundation 2D Project 2: Forrest Gump. So far this was the longest project we’ve had and I think it really shows haha. Here’s the earlier post that detailed my research and brainstorming for quotes:

Forrest Gump: Research

Anyway no more rambling, let’s get straight into it!!


[ T H E M E  :  S C I E N C E   F I C T I O N   F I L M S ]

dunzi dunzi dunzi dunzi

In my previous post I did mention that I had like a sci-fi theme in mind, so I just went with that because the sci-fi genre is the genre that I’m the most fascinated (and confused) by and I just really love them. I actually was also considering doing a series starring quotes from Quentin Tarantino films instead because I’m a really big fan of his film direction and aesthetic, but in the end that was more limiting so I decided on the sci-fi theme instead.

I decided to go with a more serious and sullen vibe for the pieces, and wanted to bring in the reoccurring theme across many sci-fi movies of human nature, and ‘what does it mean to be human’. (I suddenly thought of Ex Machina and now I’m sad I didn’t research on it help) I also wanted to involve the design principle of unity and variety, so I decided to use hands as a motif across all my pieces. My general approach for formulating the visual interpretation of the quotes was to draw upon the themes of the movies and at the same time, look at the literal aspects of the quote.

was not supposed to put this in but i legit love LOVE harrison ford yall

[ G A T T A C A ]

“You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton; I never saved anything for the swim back.” – Vincent Freeman, Gattaca (1997)

Forrest Gump: Gattaca print, Niki Koh

This was the first print that I did for the project. To be honest I spent way too much time on it – almost 7 hours?? After that I decided to reduce the intensity in the designs for my subsequent compositions cos I honestly didn’t (and still don’t) have a lot of time HAHAA.

Plan for Gattaca print

The literal aspect of the quote that was in the final print was the usage of water as a nod to the word ‘swim’, in the form of a stormy, dark sea. The original hands were supposed to be cupped, but none of the cupped hands I found online looked good when in threshold, so I substituted them for a pair that looked like they were praying or giving something up, as a reference to the phrase ‘I never saved anything’. The themes I drew from the film to put into the print was the theme of intergalactic travel, as the film’s plot is about a man who is genetically disabled, but still dreams of pursuing a career in space due to his extreme passion for it. Hence, the numerous mythical representation of constellations located within the circle of stars in the print.

Gattaca (1997). Image taken from www.joshldavis.com

Initially I also wanted to place a rocket within the cupped hands but I figured that would result in too many elements within the print.

Initially, the print was like this:

First draft of Gattaca print

The feedback that I had gotten was that there were too many cluttered figures in the circle and it was hard to figure out what they were. (Also I forgot about following the dimensions and it was really big LOL) However because I didn’t have time to edit the print before silkscreening, I decided to just silk screen this original print on the bag, which I will go into detail about later!!

Yup but for the final presentation I decided to put less figures into the circle and increased their scale so they would be more obvious. The difference isn’t very big though so maybe my efforts were futile?? :’)

Nevertheless, this print is the one which I liked a lot as well as a bunch of other classmates too so I’m glad about that!! (A friend told me it looked very bengz though lmao she’s not my friend anymore humph)

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My Line Is Emo: Final Work!

Hello people!! Monday was the presentation for the final work for the first 2D project: ‘My Line is Emo’ and so with all the feedback and past experiences in making my lines, I’m reaaaady to conclude the project with a final write up about everything! 😀

[ FINAL WORK ]

My Line is Emo: Final Work by Niki Koh

 

[ THEME  + PROCESS ] Leaving Tokyu Hands

So during the holidays I decided to work at a shop that I frequented a lot called Tokyu Hands (at Suntec), and I really learn’t a lot and made a lot of good memories and friends with my coworkers there. Despite trying to continue on with the job for a month in NTU, I decided that I couldn’t work and study at the same time and decided to quit and left like a week before this presentation. Lotsa tears were shed okay :’) and there was a lot of emotion involved, so I decided to focus on this current event in my life as the theme behind my work.

However, I wasn’t really sure about how to exactly execute this. I had a strong concept behind my ideas but I had no idea how to put these ideas out on paper visually. I made a mindmap to try and consult Joy with the previous experimentations I had done last time:

Mindmap for My Line is Emo, Niki Koh

Joy’s feedback was that since I had such a strong theme behind my lines, why not try to incorporate as much of that theme into the work itself as possible, by using things from the workplace to create marks? Like my name tag (which I had to give back so), my shoes, receipts, coworker’s hands….and I thought the idea was really good (and I also wondered why I hadn’t thought of that HAHAHA). So on Hari Raya Haji I went back to Suntec to try and hunt for materials. However, all I managed to get was sample paper that the customers wrote on to test the pens, and a receipt from MY OWN PURCHASE LOL sigh >$20 flew away from me. So I had to try and make do with those materials and other things that I already had, and actually I managed to pull it off okay!

Also, I thought it was a requirement to have one emotion from each emotional category but apparently that wasn’t the case LOL so I could’ve gone with other emotions but instead I limited myself. :’) But I think that’s okay because it made me think harder about how to portray certain emotions that I wasn’t very sure about.