in My Work, Project 2 Gallery, Project 2 Rhymes

2D: Quotes [Final + Reflection]

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#1: “Everything changed in a blink of an eye.” -Mustang (2015)

(English translation may vary as this movie is originally based in Turkish)

Mustang (2015)

Mustang (2015)

As this movie was set in Turkey, I decided to interweave Turkish designs into the image.

turkish-designAlso, I perceive Kaleidoscope as something that constantly changes its appearance ‘in a blink of an eye’. I interweaved more angular forms with the turkish design to get a unified design like this.

mustanggirlscircle-01

As I followed closely with the movie context, the girls are placed in the middle of the design as they are the main character of the show. I have outlined them on illustrator from the poster.

mustanggirlscircle  Print

I experimented with different shapes before deciding on the circcular layout as it seem more like eye, one of the keyword of the quote.

layout

Edit: This was my initial design (lol) where I took a very literal interpretation to the quote:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe sun is the pupil while the moon is the eyelid. It literally changes when you blink. This interpretation was down-right cliche. This design is utterly freakyyy. So I ditched it and decided to interpret it based on the movie 🙂

 

 

 

 

#2. “I like to look for things no one else catches.” -Amélie (2001)

(English translation may vary as this movie is originally based in French)

Amélie (2001)

Amelie is an eccentric girl who loves to notice little details no one else does. In the movie, Amelie takes note of a buzzing fly in the movie during an intense scene. I started with exploring different ways of presenting ‘catching with her eyes’ – cyclops eyes, fish net eyes, bionic arms coming out from the eye.

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Among all these, design of beams from the eyes was easier to work with as it give more space for the ‘things she catches’. The other 2 designs (Fish nets and bionic arm) seem a little too creepy. Amelie is eccentric, not creepy.

I decided to use the less well-liked insects as I think they are little things that most people would fail to notice or care of as compared to butterflies.

#3. “The more you look. the less you see.” -Now You See Me (2013)

This was my initial design-

chess

It was based on a Chinese saying 当局者迷,旁观者清 which means the chess player may not see as clearly/be as clear-minded as the onlooker of the game. Such a phenomenon is linked to the fact that ‘the more you look, the less you see’.  However, I felt this interpretation of the quote was a too complicated and indirect. Hence, I ditched this idea and analyse the quote again.

This is a paradoxical quote. Hence, I referenced works of paradoxical spaces by MC Escher. While viewing his works, I felt that circular optical illusions would highly work for my quote. I love the optical illusion it creates when you keep staring at it – just like how the quote talks about the sense of lost when you scrutinise/stare at the same subject for too long.

Hence, I started with the motif of an eye (since the quote is about seeing). Frankly speaking, I didn’t experiment much before I got this design:

eye

This design illustrates my quote in 3 different ways. Firstly, the circular layout makes it looks like an eyeball, the most symbolic organ for sight. Secondly, the eye gradually closes from the outer circle into the inner circle – signifying the change from looking to seeing nothing. Lastly, the circular layers of black rugby shapes creates an illusional abyss, signifying the sense of ‘lost’ suggested by the quote.

#4. “Ah, not everything is as seem.” -Karate Kid (1984)

Here is another paradoxical quote said by Mr Miyagi in the 1984’s version of Karate Kid. I decided to take the quote out of the movie context and instead, work on uncommon known truths to express its meaning. I recalled reading an article a few years ago about the dark truths behind nursery rhymes. The irony about nursery rhymes is that they are often recited to young children but many of these nursery rhymes hold dark meaning when they were first created. One, for example, is Rock-a-Baby which is familiar to most.

baby

Ever realised the phrase ‘when the bough break; the cradle will fall’ sinister? According to the article…

The baby in question is supposed to be the son of King James II of England, but was widely believed to be another man’s child, smuggled into the birthing room to ensure a Roman Catholic heir. The rhyme is laced with connotation: the “wind” may be the Protestant forces blowing in from the Netherlands; the doomed “cradle” the royal House of Stuart.

As such, I have also decided to reference illustrations from the Golden Age of Illustrations. These illustrations are done in black and white and holds a strong narrative in order to illustrate the story.

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Scanned from ‘Illustrated Children’s Book’ pg 18-19

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Scanned from ‘Illustrated Children’s Book’ pg 30-31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another reference I made was Goya’s Los Caprichos, a series of 80 etchings he made to condemn the universal foolies and foolishness of the Spanish society. As such, these images also holds strong narratives elements. However, the images often depicts gory looking creatures and majority were not useful for my design.

 Nevertheless, one of image proves to be useful – Capricho No. 24: No hubo remedio (There was no help). I did not read into the intention of this etching but I find the illustrations to accurately depicted the jealousy of people over the King-like figure.

No. 24: No hubo remedio (These was no help)

No. 24: No hubo remedio (These was no help)

I decided to juxtapose these 2 images on a book cover to represent the different perception of the nursery rhyme – the front cover was to illustrate the common understanding of the nursery rhyme and the back cover was to provide the back story of the nursery rhyme.

reading