Forrest Gump – Progress

—————————– WEEK 1 ———————————–

This week I will do the design for silkscreening.

You never had a camera in my head!   — The Truman show 1998

My idea for this one is many eyes and cameras looking at the character, while inside the character’s head there is a small kid trying to hide himself in a corner. In this image I want to show that the person is struggling to hide his real thought even the world he lived is full of camera and people’s eyes.

So here is the first draft.

When the time I trying to put CCTV cameras inside I kept thinking of how to make it more interesting, then I came up with the idea that combine the camera and eye, means the camera pop up from the eyes which represent the audience who are watching the Truman Show. This can make the image more illusion. After that I also make the silhouette of the person larger to emphasis on the man. In the endthe picture become like this.

—————————– WEEK 2 ———————————–

After consult with the lecture, we realised that the small boy covering his face by hands and sit in corner is not so obvious, so I just focusing on the face part. During I adjust the picture I found out that the silhouette of the man can merge with the little boy’s head so can apply gestalt in it.

Then for the composition, I make the silhouette smaller to fit the rule of third, then change the direction of the gradient shadow as well so it follow the direction of cameras. Here is the final version of this.

Ok, next!

And it’s gonna get easier and easier to sit alone with images on a screen, given to us by people who do not love us but want our money.  The End of the Tour 2015

This quote is talking about how people addict to television, those entertainment provided to us make us lazy to thinking and “dying” mentally. So in this one I want to show many broken televisions are piled in a desert, on the top of them there is a skeleton sitting on a chair and laughing. In order to show that the entertainment is given by “people who do not love us but want our money”, I choose to add hands that are coming out from the TVs and crabbing money. So the first version looks like this.

Since the first one I use rule of third for the composition, this one I want to try something looked symmetry.

Beside the technical part of making those illusions, one big challenge for this image is how to place all the elements so that they won’t mix up with the complex desert background.

—————————– WEEK 3 ———————————–

This week we are working on silk screen print.

Here are the procedures of how to make the silk screen in dark room. First we put one layer of photo emulsion on a clean screen, after it was dried we place the transparency with our design on top of it and put inside the machine to expose, then we use water jet to wash off the exposed part and after take it out from dryer we get a nice screen with our design and it’s ready for printing now!

The screen ready for printing

We use tape to cover the edge part to avoid ink coming out, and four coins are places at the corner so the frame won’t get too close to the paper or bag and smudge the printing.

Doing the silk screen print first time 0u0
Ummmmmm… Not so bad?

Some tips for printing process, control how much ink u put since we can see the left corner is merge together. Then when the brush goes down it need to be fast so the force will be even and ink won’t overflowed as well.

For the images designs side, I adjust the height of sky in background, so the horizontal line lies on the one third part. So below is the final version for my second quote.

And move on to the third one.

Somehow everything comes with an expiry date. Swordfish expires. Meat sauce expires. Even cling-film expires. Is there anything in the world which doesn’t? — Chungking Express 1994

In this one I want to use the principle of dominance, I will place many cans orderly with different icons on each one, then one of them will be opened up and become smelly because it’s expired. So the first draft is looked like this.

And I realise the contrast is not big enough, so I put a spiral shape on the top of the can to show that they are still sealed and unopened. Then for the opened one I will add some shadow inside to attract people’s eyes. Then the smell icon I will turn it to white to make it obvious as well.

I’m still finding interesting icon to put on the cans so it can shows that “Everything comes with an expiry date.”

—————————– WEEK 4 ———————————–

This week is recess week, and we still have one session to practice on screen printing. I found out for my design the bottom part needs more ink, so I turned the frame and start with the bottom part, the outcome looked better than the first one, here is the best one I have during this session.

The right side is smudged because when I left the screen up it smeared on the right part accidentally. For this one all the details are showed inside. Now I got a bit confidence on next week lesson when we will print this on our tote bags. = w =

And I also worked on last design for this project.

I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. — The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999

For this one I want to show someone put on a mask of famous or powerful person to hide himself. My first thought is a person in suit is putting on a mask and behind the mask is nothing. But it’s a bit simply and weak. Then I think maybe can put the person in front of a mirror, over his shoulder we can see in the mirror he is putting on the mask, but actually behind the mask is empty. (We are able to see this because the picture is take from his back)

Then I got inspiration from one illustration of Joker, the character in DC comic.

http://media.comicbook.com/uploads1/2015/04/joker-cosplay-3-129777.jpg

I want to make the person stand in front, at back is the wall that hangs different famous masks. At first I want to make the person looking at the masks which shows that he is choosing which one to take today, but then it turned out not so good because the person is too small; those heads have more weight in comparison. To highlight more on the person itself, I bring it front and make it bigger, then I put it on the right bottom corner and here is the first draft.

At the sleeve part we can see there is a stick but without a hand, I create in this way to hint that the person is actually “nobody”.

For me this is still not strong enough, the lion head is around the same size as other animals heads behind. I try to make the person larger but then the sleeve part will goes out of the image which is not allowed because it has important message inside. In this case I want to add in leading lines to points to the person to emphasis it.

Now the problem is whether I should put the animals behind as middle ground so the image has more layers, or combine them into the background which make the highlight stronger.

—————————– WEEK 5 ———————————–

This week is the last session for silk screen print ;_; I will miss it

Finally try to print it on tote bag.

Great it looks fine!
This is the best one I have for test out on newsprint paper.

For the design part, here is my final one for the third quote from Chungking Express.

I have found enough icons to put on the tins and I adjust the position because the quote is too long and need more space at bottom.

I also did some changes on the last design. I add some more animals’ heads around the man and the leading line behind I change to a spiral shape because I want to create a illusion atmosphere since the man is trying to prevent to be someone else. I also raise up the position of the stick so the lion’s eyes are look at it, which guide the audience’s view and make the flow smoothly. Below is how the final version looks like.

That’s the end of this project, looking forwards to the final submission day. I will miss this project >w<