Category Archives: 2016 Foundation 2D 1 – G4

2d: Sketches, and Final Technique

These are my final sketches I used for my equations.

I originally didn’t want to draw and just use photo manipulation but I decided to just challenge myself and put my drawing module to good use. I almost cried doing and I’m happy it paid off.

I still wanted to play with light in order to take my design further, So instead of the dissolving of pills and melting of ice cream (way too much work and experimenting) I decided to just use tracing paper which was my original idea that was never recorded.

So what I did was to print 2 sets. One normal paper and one tracing..

For each design i chose an object to cut away to let the light pass. This is to allow emphasis in my message to my audience.

Although cutting each frame took a long time, it turned out great and this is my first try.

REFLECTION:

I still remember my first assignment for 2d. It was really tough for me as visually communicating my ideas was a first for me. However, this assignment made me realise how much I’ve learnt and how much I have developed and refined my skill in trying to communicate visually. It gradually got easier and I could even help my friends. I also felt less lost in managing how to composite my frames.

Sketching was really tough on me and almost took me the whole day especially bodies with really hard poses. I could draw the legs but never the arms and proportion of the head is always wrong haha. I found that my main problem was just patience(short attention span) and I just wanted the picture to be developed quickly but with drawing you really need the time to slowly figure out proportions and design on composition.

As for colours, I enjoyed learning to use the colour for what object using the monochrome colour scheme. If some objects looked dark toned it just felt weird and i had to learn how to adjust.

I’m really happy I managed to push myself in terms of technique although it was straining on me. I’m thankful I managed to pull through

2d: Colour Schemes

Leave a reply

I wanted each set to be different colour moods to suit the meanings of the equations.

For my first equation:

SHY + TALKING TO STRANGERS = DREADFULNESS

I wanted to show a sense of vulnerability because I feel vulnerable when I feel shy and when I have to open up to someone to make friends or just simply to order food.

I had a dilemma of whether I should try blue or pink. When I started doing the design in all blue I find that there was an annotation of sadness but pink may seem too girly. So I went ahead with the blue.

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN + DROWNED IN HOMEWORK = LONG HOURS OF NETFLIX

For this equation I chose purples as I couldn’t find a colour that suited the uneasiness to unrest that I felt in this equation. Green to me felt too lively and representation of nature.. blue felt too sad.

PROCRASTINATION + DISTRACTED IN MY ROOM = LATE SLEEPING TIMES

I chose nudes because I felt it gave off a calming vibe which is exactly what I feel when I procrastinate as I don’t have a sense of urgency till the deadline is one week away.

HUNGRY + MY BIRTHDAY = BLOATED TUMMY

I actually worked backwards and started picking out colours for this equation first. In my first post I mentioned using split complementary colours.

Wrong choice.

It was so hard for me to have colour harmony and to ensure all the colours looked balanced. Maybe because I’m a beginner but when I started using monochrome colours I felt it was much easier to control and design with.

For this equation I decided to use warm red tones to represent hunger/food. Red also used in a lot of food restaurants as it is a stimulant for hunger.

2d: Sketches

Leave a reply

I used Daehyun Kim again as my reference. In his artwork he uses the same character again and again to tell a story or visually communicate a narrative or meaning.

In my sketches I tried to use the same technique but some still need more pushing.

My Sketches:

I felt that this set did not have the dynamism and the creative story telling that Daehyun Kim has in his work. I decided to link my ideas to an object that everyone would associate to. However, I still wanted to be creative with it and not direct/literal.

Shy – like a flower (late bloomers are usually shy)

Talking to strangers – people trying to enter my personal space/bubble

Dreadfulness – feeling trapped, helpless, uncomfortable

Short attention span – impatience leading to the urge of wanting things to be done fast, speed/motion

Messy room piled with homework – “drowning” in homework, wanting to escape from it, compulsory hence it pulls you down and you have to deal with it

Long hours of netflix – being immersed in another fictitious world, getting lost in stories

Procrastination – when you delay your priorities and opt to sleep while time passes you by quickly

Me distracted in my room – hypnotised, in a daze, like a magician who hypnotises his audiences with his watch

Late sleeping times – eyebags

Hungry – wanting food in my mouth all the time

My birthday – candles, cake, balloons, blowing the candle, whimsical and playful, joyful event

Pregnant/Bloated tummy – mom, tummy, baby, womb, umbilical cord, a new born baby wrapped like a burrito

My 2nd try at sketching:

2d: Techniques

Leave a reply

In my last post, I did lots of research on this “shining light through soapy water bubbles” technique.

After that, I researched on how else I could achieve this oil slick look/iridescent water.

Water + soap

Milk + soap + paint

Water + oil + soap etc etc etc

I even searched up on possibilities with nail polish

But then I got really sick of it after hours of researching and felt I was going off topic.

I wanted to do something with colour that I can incorporate in my design (split complementary). But still using the shining the light through it technique.

Then I thought what if I melted different colours of ice cream? This is what I found. Melting of ice cream and shots taken using a macro lens.

It looks pretty mesmerising!

Then I found two other videos of the same concept: pills and using milk and paint

I might go with one of these mediums, but I will have to experiment soon with what might look best.

2d: Revised Ideas + Research on Techniques

1 Reply

REVISED IDEAS:

SHY + TALKING TO STRANGERS = DREADFULNESS

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN + MESSY ROOM WITH PILED HOMEWORK = LONG HOURS OF NETFLIX

PROCRASTINATION + ME DISTRACTED IN MY ROOM = LATE SLEEPING TIMES

HUNGER/LIKES TO EAT + BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION = PREGNANT TUMMY

Are my ideas too predictable?

Techniques:

From my last post, I referenced Januz Miralles. I found that his artwork showed lots of emotion in a literal as well as metaphorical way.

The swooping action of paint and the body language of the characters interacting with this made up element were the reason I felt much emotion of his paintings even there was so little play with colour.

Along with Januz, I found similar artists that used this method.

Seung-Hwan Oh

An experimental photographer and microbiologist working in Seoul, South Korea. In his recent series, Impermanence, “…he cultivates fungus that he applies to his film. Through this process, the microorganisms slowly devour the film…the intended result is what appears through disappearance…”. Having worked on this series for over 3 years, Hwan Oh has been able to carefully control the fungus specimens as they eat away at the film, the images are at once magical and frightening, as the deep blues and striking silvers gnaw away and fracture human figures and faces. Within the decay appears a certain sense of majesty as art and science intersect to create some seriously stunning and psychedelic pieces.

2. Drømsjel

Berlin based artist Pierre Schmidt aka Drømsjel’s mind or better yet, face altering work is almost like walking through a garden in the 1960s but instead you are the garden possibly going through a little psychedelic experience.

3. Januz Miralles

(REFERENCE from my last post)

The next few artists got me interested in the play with light.

I could shine a light from behind and allow these substances to show its beauty naturally.

I thought that this could be incorporated in my digital design.

It could emphasise the emotion in the graphic element of my design.

4. Sven Meyer & Kim Pörksen

Sticking the bottle cap filled with water on the loud speaker, the artists managed to translate water into a 3 dimensional sculptural mass from sound.

5. Benjamin Muezzin

With this project I wanted to explore the notion of the third dimension, with the desire to try to get out of the usual frame of a flat screen. For this, my work mainly consisted in exploring and experimenting a different device for displaying images, trying to give animations volume in space. The resulting machine works with the rotation of two screens placed back to back, creating a three-dimensional animated sequence that can be seen at 360 degrees. Due to the persistence of vision, the shapes that appear on the screen turn into kinetic light sculptures.

6. Nicky Assman

SOLACE is a cinematic installation that investigates the mental process and physical activity of seeing. At regular intervals a handcrafted apparatus creates a soap film as a spatial intervention. Through precise lighting the inner movement of the soap film is revealed, showing a turbulent choreography of iridescent color and fluid motion. As gravity slowly gets a hold of the membrane the viewer can be fascinated with the phenomenon, until inevitably the fragile film bursts.

2d: Artist Research + Ideas

1 Reply

COLOUR

There are four main colour schemes I can go with:

Monochromes Harmony

Analogous Harmony Warm and Cool

Complementary Hues

Split Complementary

I wasn’t sure about what each term meant so I decided to do some self learning. I found very useful videos explaining what they are, how to use them, the pros and cons.

Below is the link to the playlist but the ones related are videos 6-8.

Video 6: Monochrome

Video 7: Analogous (Warm and Cool)

Video 8: Complementary and Split Complementary

I can’t decide between Analogous and Split Complementary.

First, Analogous Colours. As it was mentioned in the video that they are very naturally pleasant to the eye. This is because analogous colours appear in nature – for example, the trees (greens, yellows), the ocean (blue, bluish-greens, bluish-purple)

Depending on the intended mood of my design, I am planning to switch between warm and cool accordingly to get my message across.

I could also use the meaning of each colour to further help me bring my idea across better. For example, yellow could mean happiness, pink could mean love etc

Here are examples of Analogous I found:

Tomer Hanuka

2. Gustavo Peña

3. Redd Walitzki

4. Pedro Covo

I could find less cool toned analogous than warm ones. I like that it creates a certain distinct look with using this method. Creates a strong mood/atmosphere with the colours.

However some artists have works with split complementary colours. They seem to be analogous and they use the the one of the split complementary colour to highlight something in the picture. This could be a technique I could use in my work.

Tomer Hanuka

2. Josan Gonzalez

These illustrations are more complicated and more dynamic than analogous. However, they bring a strong sense of where we should focus in because of the complimentary colours.

TECHNIQUE

As for the technique, I was thinking of doing manipulating of photos as I am not good at illustrations.

Here is

my inspiration:

Januz Miralles

A filipino photo-manipulator who approaches his body of work with a painter’s state of mind by digitally smearing, blending, and forming elements with his virtual palette knife.

I feel that using this technique would show my strengths. I can also envision my ideas using this technique plus added analogous or split complimentary, I think it would look interesting.

IDEAS

Here are some I came up with:

SHY + TALKING TO STRANGERS = DREADFULNESS

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN + HOMEWORK = LONG HOURS OF NETFLIX

PROCRASTINATION + NETFLIX = LATE SLEEPING TIMES

HUNGER/LIKES TO EAT + FOOD = PREGNANT TUMMY

MONEY CONSCIOUS + BIRTHDAY = LONG BIRTHDAY WISHLIST

2d: Movie Synopsis

Leave a reply

NOW YOU SEE ME

Charismatic magician Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) leads a team of talented illusionists called the Four Horsemen. Atlas and his comrades mesmerize audiences with a pair of amazing magic shows that drain the bank accounts of the corrupt and funnel the money to audience members. A federal agent (Mark Ruffalo) and an Interpol detective (Mélanie Laurent) intend to rein in the Horsemen before their next caper, and they turn to Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman), a famous debunker, for help.

Here Atlas is in the interrogation room after doing a magic trick where big amounts of stolen money from the bank was involved. He says this quote prior to making smart moves in order to get out of his handcuffs.

HUNGER GAMES

Set in a future North America known as “Panem”, the Capitol selects a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of the twelve outlying districts to compete in the annual “Hunger Games”, a televised fight-to-the-death. The film is centered around Katniss Everdeen – a 16-year-old girl from District 12, who volunteers for her 12-year-old sister, Prim, when Prim’s name is chosen – and Katniss’s fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta Mellark, with whom she has some rather dramatic history. Katniss is then rushed to the Capitol, where she undergoes intense training before being thrust into the arena to fight to become the victor of the seventy-fourth annual Hunger Games.

Here the Capitol’s President says a quote where he tells his game maker to make his eliminate all “hope” of surviving in the Hunger Games, in order to evoke fear in all his subjects.

MEAN GIRLS

Cady Heron, a homeschooled girl, lived in Africa for 15 years. Entering public school for the first time, she meets the “worst” of her classmates, the Plastics. She joins and eventually gets assimilated into the group of three unkind girls. But she later tries to bring them down.

Here one of the Mean Girls’ mom introduces herself to Cady where she tries to portray herself to be still the “in thing” and suggesting that she still can be relatable to her teenage daughter and friends.

MULAN

This retelling of the old Chinese folktale is about the story of a young Chinese maiden who learns that her weakened and lame father is to be called up into the army in order to fight the invading Huns. Knowing that he would never survive the rigours of war in his state, she decides to disguise herself and join in his place. Unknown to her, her ancestors are aware of this and to prevent it, they order a tiny disgraced dragon, Mushu to join her in order to force her to abandon her plan. He agrees, but when he meets Mulan, he learns that she cannot be dissuaded and so decides to help her in the perilous times ahead.

Here Mulan questions herself of her identity as she does not feel like who she is inside is portrayed on her outside.

2d: Final Changes + Submission

Leave a reply

I’ve received comments about these two designs:

The left one:

I’m not like a *regular* mom, I’m a *cool* mom.

Too many tattoos and they should be executed better.

The right one:

1st rule of magic: Always be the smartest guy in the room.

It is not clear the idea of “smartest”. May be a good idea to make the guy into a scientist(someone smart).

Hence I made the changes:

Lessen the tattoos and made it more obvious that the son and her have matching tattoos. I made the picture more contrast as there were grey tones.

I also put a old fashioned microscope and made the body of the character be seen more. He is wearing a science lab coat.

These are my final images along with my tote bag print and silkscreen:

2d: Printing the Tote

Leave a reply

For printing, I decided to use the quote:

When will my reflection show who I am inside?

I decided to use it for my printing because it is most clear in communicating the idea of the quote. I did two attempts, one being smaller than the other. Below are the transparencies:

The first printing went well. The fading tone in the reflection also somehow managed to come through. I was happy with it and received good and kind comments from my friends.

However, some said it may be too small for the tote bag. This is because I did not let the design take up the whole space in the square format.

There was also a problem of using too much ink and I quickly learnt you do not need so much ink to make the print. A little goes a long way.

Too much ink:

Too little ink:

Just nice:

The second attempt definitely required as it is so much more bigger more ink but again I had to experiment how much ink to use.

Below you can see the transformation from too much ink to too little ink. In the the category where there is too much ink, details are lost in the peacock head.

2d: Cool Mom

2 Replies

I’m not like a “regular” mom, I’m a “cool” mom.

Keywords: Cool, Mom

When I thought of cool, I thought of tattoos, cigarettes….. maybe like a biker mom?

But I realise “cool” is very subjective. The mom could be depicted as a super mom. A mom that can do everything.

Or…she’s delusional thinking she’s excellent at being a mom but in fact she is not? —-> leading to an uncared for child

One picture though, inspired me. The look in her eyes. It is as if she is ready for any task ahead of her but doing it in her style.

This gave me an idea to start on:

A mother caring for her child but in her own style. I added tattoos, shades, bandana and a cool hairstyle for her baby. I wanted to add a cigarette somewhere around her fingers or mouth, but the way she is posing doesn’t allow me to.