Category: Project 2 Forrest Gump

We had to present our 4 quote composition designs to the class.

Gattaca
“You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back.”

Presented:

 

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The Help
“Every morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, “Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?””

Presented:

Critique:
– The sunburst is quite distracting. Maybe you can lighten it.
– The girl is very small and the owl head can barely be seen – the owl head blends into the background due to both being very dark. Make the owl-girl bigger so that it can be seen.
– Posture of girl comes off as arrogant.
– Liked the use of the tarrot card motif.

 

Further Edits:

Looking at the comment about the little girl having an arrogant posture instead of a subservient or neutral posture, I went to search the internet to replace it. I scrolled and scrolled till I finally found an image which I think would suit. It is of a girl crying(below). I wanted to use the picture, however, the size is small and resolution is terrible. It became very blurry after I tried to expand the size. I had to take into account that it looks very pixelated on my computer screen already.

With regards to the comment of the owl-girl being too small, I enlarged her figure so that she has more presence in the composition now.

Next, I tried to improve on 2 points. Even though the owl-girl is bigger and more visible now(so she does not blend so much into the background), I wanted to try to further make her more visible. Combining with the comment that the sunburst ray like effect seemed quite distracting and out-of-the-blue, I wanted to make the idea of why I chose to use this effect more obvious. Firstly, I originally intended it to correspond to the phrase “every morning” in the quote, to represent the sun. Anyway, I tried to make a circular white space around the owl-girl. Firstly, it makes the owl-girl more visible as she is in a white background now so she does not blend into the surroundings, and secondly, to make the idea of morning-sun more obvious by literally having a circular sun with light rays shining out.

Not quite sure how I felt about the ray lines continuing to extend to the center(despite faintly), hence I tried to clean it up some more in the next one.

I had second thoughts about the size of the circle, I then made the circle diameter bigger to surround the owl-girl fully ever so slightly.

Likewise, I’m still note sure about the faint lines leading to the center point as it feels slightly distracting. So I tried erasing it off.

It feels too abrupt though, in that the rays of light suddenly disappear into this massive white circle. I tried to decrease that “visual shock” by leaving an outer rim of faded lines before fully erasing it away.

Final design:

 

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Forrest Gump
“My mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’”

Presented:

Critique:
– The chocolate idea can be more apparent. There is no show of what the choc is or where. Although (everyone) not sure how to either.

 

Further Edits:

I went to google on images of chocolates. These are some results of what I got.

Looking at these images, I’m still not quite sure how to best doing it without it being too literal. Some ideas I can think of is to use the the texture of the gold foil wrapper of Ferraro Rocher chocolates in the black circle.

However, I don’t really like it as it is far too much texture present – especially with the 8 boxes and their motifs, it complicates the composition too much in my opinion. I still prefer my composition I presented for class(a simple black circle to tie the composition together). I think it is so hard to incorporate chocolates as they literally come in every shape, pattern and size. There is not much of a recognizable form except for the block-y kind(last chocolate picture), which is very cliche in my opinion.

 

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Inside Out
“Take her to the moon for me okay?”

Presented:

Critique:
– The ray of light highlights the imagery – which is nice.
– Like how Bing Bong is sad yet the overall composition is very happy and fun – the contrast.
– Bing Bong can be more obvious.
– Bing Bong can be bigger and sadder in posture.

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Overall critique:
– Like the overall use of symbolism

As mentioned in my posts earlier, I encountered a lot of problems with printing of my design. I kept getting areas which the paint didn’t go through despite varying the amount of ink used, pressure and speed.

So one day while I was talking to a senior, he started talking to me about his silkscreen printing module in NIE as he wanted opinion on his new composition design. I asked his opinion on why I kept failing at getting a good print.

Hence we went to Google and watch Toutube videos of people silkscreen printing.

In the above video(and several other videos watched), their method of printing is that they first do a light sweep. This is so that the ink partially goes through or is at the surface of the holes. Then, they would do a hard sweep to push the paint through to print.

I’ve personally not tried this method. However, I noticed that their inks used seem to be more dilute, whereas the paints in the studio that we use are very viscous. My senior told me that in NIE, they add a medium to the paint to make it more “thin”, such that it goes through the holes smoothly. I think this is the difference, and possibly why I am having such a hard time. To further prove my point, the previous 3 trials, I used the ink from the bottom half of the bottle, hence they are most likely to be thicker. In my last trial, and the most successful one, I used a brand new tub of ink. When I opened it, I could see a thin layer of medium on top. I mixed it gently a bit before using it. I believe that using the medium mixed with the ink portion closer to the surface helped in smoothness of inks going through fully(without any holes).

When I first heard that we were going to do silkscreen printing, I was super excited!! I think it’s super cool to be able to print using this method. I have been following Fictive Fingers on Instagram. They are a pair of Singaporean sisters who sell their silkscreen printed design bags and pouches. Their works are lovely. But I never understood how they did it. They always showed their before process – the conceptualization stage, and the after product – the printed cloths or the bags that they sewed. Only in recent times did they show themselves sweeping the ink across the silkscreen, but never the in-between stage of transferring the design. Hence I was super psyched! Furthermore, we were told we got to print on a tote and not just paper!

 

CONCEPTUALIZATION AND IDEAS

I realized, through doing the other 3 designs for the quotes, on how much I’ve grown, if I may say so myself. While doing the Gattaca quote, I was very confused and lost. I roughly knew what kind of direction I was supposed to do but I wasn’t sure and I didn’t feel like it would fit my quote to juxtapose human and animals as many of my classmates did. In turn, I opted for a “cleaner” design with very minimal textures. After the first printing and looking around at my classmate’s designs, I was drawn to their use of nice textures such as multiple thin lines. I learnt from them how to search out specifically imagery in those style by typing into Google search “engraving _____”. I tried to apply a different style from my Gattaca quote by juxtaposing an owl’s head onto a little girl’s body. It took very long to decide on my animal character so that it would bring out qualities I wanted the little girl to have and align with the quote. It honestly felt quite liberating as I understood the style, in my opinion anyway, and that I managed to apply it AND that I was satisfied with the results. In the third quote, I didn’t juxtapose an animal with a human, but rather letting the objects/subject matter speak for themselves. I continued using the engraving style lines to add texture. I quite enjoy this exploring, even though it was very difficult for me to understand and step outside of my comfort zone.

 

I’ve also learnt to look at the quote and pick out the keywords to emphasize on in my work.

 

TECHNICAL

Photoshop was a nightmare for me. I’m still bad at it. However, I feel that I know what I’m roughly doing with it overall now. I think I’ve become quite prolific with using the Curves and Threshold function now! I keep using these 2 to help make my image black and white in the right amounts of each. Curves help me create the amount of contrast the image needs especially if the original is in mostly mid-tones. Then I would use the Threshold function to make it black and white. I would adjust along the scale accordingly to how much positive and negative space I like/need.

 

Printing with silkscreen was another major nightmare for me. But I’m very glad to say that I’ve finally conquered it! The first part was easy – applying the blue light sensitive chemical, to positioning the transparency, to exposing it in the machine and lastly to wash it off with the water gun jet. The next part was super tricky and I kept tripping up. I kept encountering problems making sure my entire square was inked evenly, there were many bald spots that the ink did not go through. I tried different methods such as varying the different amounts of ink used, the speed of pushing the paint across, the amounts of force used when pushing the paint across and the number of coins below the wooden silkscreen frame. It was quite troublesome too in the sense that I would print 2 or 3 copies before I had to wash the screen as the ink would clog up the tiny holes in the screen. Furthermore, when I finally thought I got the hang of printing perfect or almost perfect prints on the newsprint, I realized that the way the canvas absorbs ink was different and hence would affect my printing methodology again. Urgh. I printed on canvas 8 times. The first 6 times were all failures, all overly smudged and lost of imagery and details as I would make more than once swipe of paint. It was also starting to get quite unnerving to hear shouts of happiness by other class students when they successfully screenprint as I stood there frustrated with failed attempts. I came back again on another day with a few of my classmates and yessss I finally managed to do it.

 

OVERALL

I really enjoyed this lesson despite the different difficulties I faced. I’m also thankful I got to learn how to the silkscreen printing, something which I really wanted to try since secondary school but did not have the means and knowledge to do so. If there’s a chance next time, I hope to do this again.

“Take her to the moon for me okay?” – Inside Out (2015)

The next clip will give some idea about Bing Bon(the pink elephant). Basically he’s an imaginary best friend, the main character Riley(a female human) has, or rather had. She use to “play” with him, and they have many lovely memories, when she was younger, but as she grew older, she became busier and interests change and Riley ultimately forgets about him. In the clip, Bing Bong mentions abit about the “adventures” they had together.

 

Preliminary ideas:
~ “moon” – literally just using the moon to represent it. Anyway, we commonly associate the moon and stars as hopes and dreams. It’s a night, makes it a bit more dreamy in a way too.
~ Implicitly, through looking at the context that the line was said, one can deduce that there is this great sadness and sense of loss. Loss in terms of memories and opportunity(to fulfill dreams since they are forgotten).
~ As it is a very sad scene, I decide to use a saddest picture of Bing Bong I could find (he’s a very happy person, so it was hard).

Bing Bong has a very faded away quality here, which matches the background in my opinion (and the story context too where he fades away). I chose a background with the sea and sky as it gives off a very ephemeral quality – how the waves are never exactly alike, the clouds in the sky are constantly on the move etc.

As I placed a spotlight above Bing Bong to highlight his misery, I decided to make him less “sketchy etchy” and more solid to complement the harsh spotlight cast on him.

Peter Pan motif is the embodiment of dreams, adventures, never growing up. In addition, there is a lot of imagery of the moon throughout Peter Pan.

Lightening of the background

 

Final design:

I chose the Peter Pan motif which included Captain Hook fighting off the crocodile, as composition wise, I feel that if I do away with it, there would be an uneasy open void that breaks the flow. By including Capt Hook, our eyes are guided in a slight curve from Bing Bong, to Capt Hook, to the ship, to Peter Pan and the children, and lastly to the moon.

I made the background lighter too so that Peter Pan characters would be more visible and would not blend in into the surroundings.

Video scene of the prior event leading to the quote I’ve used – “You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back.”

INSERT SCREENSHOTS OF MOVIE

“My mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’” – Forrest Gump (1994)

 

Preliminary ideas:
~”never know what you’re gonna get” – element of surprise – jack in the box
~multiple jacks in the box figures to represent chocolates
~”my mama always said” – mother’s hand is holding the box? – very wrinkled and worn hands
~too hard to illustrate chocolates(literally) as they come in all shapes and forms
~”life” – time – future? – cycle

I started off with a simple design of a circle to represent life(cyclical movement/pattern through time), and jack in the boxes to represent unexpected events(surprises) at the different points of the life.

I wasn’t sure if the plain circle itself would communicate the idea of life (movement through time), hence I decided to experiment by adding in a clock. Here, I placed the clock smaller than the black circle to signify an embryo within the egg(egg yolk within the egg white kind of idea). However, I feel that visually it does not work out.

Moving on, I expanded the clock to cover almost the entire black circle, just leaving a small border to “tie it together” and aesthetic purposes. I think it looks quite intriguing. I quite like it. However, I’m not quite sure yet so I’ll play around a bit more.

This has a very hypnotizing feel to it, due to the repetitions and the clock face. Which I quite like. However, it feels like all the elements are clambering for attention as they are of “equal darkness”.

In this, I tried to rectify the earlier problem I had with the imagery by lightening and use thinner lines for the background. I feel that it still has the hypnotizing feel although not as strong as the previous one.

I thought about it and felt that it was not necessary to have those flowery ornamental details of a vintage clock. I decided to go back to a simplified clock, with just a black circle to signify a clock face and two hands to show the time.

I also decided to change the jacks into motifs that relate to the life story of Forrest Gump, the different and rather unexpected episodes in his life.
~ Carrot: Inspired by the quote “Me and Jenny were like peas and carrots”. Jenny was his bestfriend and confidante since they were young.
~ Tank: To signify his time during the army where he fought in the Vietnam War
~ Table tennis paddles and ball: After getting injured during the Vietnam War, he picked up table tennis while at a veteran hospital. He was so good at it that he could play by himself against a wall, with other people, and even in China! He became famous because of this, earning him many sponsorships.
~ Prosthetic leg: His in-charge during the Vietnam War was Lieutenant Dan, whom Forrest saved after a bomb exploded near them. However, Lt Dan lost both his legs.
~ Shrimp: During his service, he met this guy Bubba and became best friends with him. Bubba had dreams of owning a shrimping company. He would tell Forrest the different ways you could eat shrimp. They made a pact to do it together after coming back from Viet War. Sadly, he did not make it. It shows how fast things can change.
~ Toddler: Forrest’s son!
~ Hyena: Hyenas are often thought of as bullies of the animal kingdom. They don’t hunt for their own food but rather scare and steal the food away from other animals(even lions!). I felt this would a good symbolism to represent the bullying Forrest endured throughout his whole life due to his low IQ and EQ.
~ Running Shoes: A running motif(pun lol) throughout the movie. Forrest finds out that he’s a fast runner. Runs away from his bullies taunts and treatment. Runs away from the bombed area during the Viet War while saving his team members. Runs a very very long marathon. “Run Forrest run!” – Is a line used throughout the movie.

 

Final Design:

Moving on from the last design, I felt that the clock hands might just be unnecessary. I feel that a circle is quite a strong motif for cycle and the idea of time and life. I also like the simplicity of a full black circle to “hold” the jack-in-the-boxes. Also, it did not feel right to have clock hands and not have 12 boxes to denote each hour.

“Every morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, “Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?”” – The Help (2011)

 

Preliminary ideas:
morning – giant sun circle thing
fools – animal emotive/joker of tarot cards
dead in the ground – coffin?
wise person (“me”)- owl head little girl’s body

I was inspired by Mathias’s first design whereby he did many repetitions of the same soldiers with farming racks. The sheer amount of repetitions made the composition very dramatic and intriguing. I wanted to try it too.

INSERT THE FAILED ATTEMPT

After trying it, I felt that it has made my composition to messy and overly crowded, losing the concise element. Hence, I decided to reduce the numbers.

Final design:

Components:
– Rays to represent the sun – “every morning”. They also serve to draw attention to the little girl(and her bravery to be strong and not let the fools bother her) as our eyes follow the lines of the linear perspective to disappear behind her.
– The men at the 4 corners are the Fool character of tarot cards. The placement is in such a way that it mimics the poker playing cards design.
– Owl to represent wisdom. It is juxtaposed on top of a little girl. The idea of being wise enough to not let the nonsense said by fools bother and hurt you.
– There is a black cat very close to the girl, facing away from the viewer, head buried in the skirt of the girl. Cat’s are often touted as scaredy-cats as they are fearful and get frightened easily. The cat here serves to show that part of the girl(or any person really) feels very insecure and afraid of standing up to the tyrant of fools and their hurtful lies.

17 October 2016
Still upset and unhappy about the way my tote prints came out on Friday, I went back to print again. I did a test print on drawing paper first. After which, I printed on a side each of another 2 new A3 Muji tote bags. The prints came out a lot better today. I’m finally relatively satisfied with the print and thankful.

In my opinion, I feel that this is due to the paint being more dilute this time round. As it is a new bottle, I stirred the contents a bit to mix. The paint on the top layers are generally more dilute in a sense due to the oil at the surface. This is the difference that helped me, as the paint went through the silkscreen smoother and easier. The consistency feels different from the times I done before. Previously, they were thicker and more viscous and probably why it was harder for it to slide across and through the screen.

 

Test trial on drawing block paper:

Next I did the a print each on 2 A3 Muji tote bags.

I chose to use the last print as my tote bag submission.

14 October 2016
My main reason for going through trial 3 was that I was unhappy with my results in trial 2. I did 2 test prints on newsprint paper first. This time round I printed on the other side of the official tote bag(the other side has already been previously printed in trial 2) and both sides of a A3 Muji tote.

In this trial, I printed on the other side of the tote school gave us.

Next I did the two prints on a A3 Muji tote bag.

As I came back on a Friday at another class’s Foundation 2D lesson time, their class was printing alongside me. It was very frustrating and demoralizing definitely when you hear then shout in happiness that their designs came out yet mine constantly failed.

12 October 2016
In the following prints, I ordered them chronologically according to which one I printed first.
Also, notice the slight difference in design printed. Amendments were made to the previous version(namely shorter but wider double helix structure and larger swimmer and rocket ship).
When printing, I was still encountering this problem whereby my paints will not go over the full area, leaving empty spaces. This is so even though I’ve made changes to the amount of ink used or the speed in which I sweep the paint across. I don’t understand how to overcome it.
To counter that, I would sweep paint over the design more than once. This results in a very blur and smudged image, losing much of the details and imagery in the process.

This one is quite interesting to me as I placed the silkscreen flatly onto another piece of newsprint to rest after doing a full print. Since I didn’t purposely sweep paint across, I was surprised to find an imprint on the newsprint from the residual paint.

 

Also, in this trial I painted the official tote Prof Mimi gave me on one side.

Next I did the two prints on a A4 Muji tote bag.

I found the black prints on the A4 tote quite interesting, there were like lines at constant intervals(as seen more clearly in the second picture). Only later did I realize that these were caused by the corrugated cardboards.