2D Project 2- Forrest Grump (Final)

The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake.

For this project, I want to make a social commentary about the increasing trend of pursuing unlimited wants. The 4 compositions will come together to form a circle about this neverending vicious cycle.

This composition is greatly inspired by The Great Wave of Kanagawa by Hokusai. For this composition, I wanted to do a relation to the original movie, The Little Mermaid, hence, the more cartoonish theme to the whole collage. In this, we have a recognizable figure, Ariel, I blanked her face so as to play on the viewers’ ability to recognise Ariel and I also wanted to link her to the perspective of the viewer. I made it a cycle on how the fishes wanted to have a face and be able to talk like Ariel while Ariel wanted legs. I made the waves seem like 1/4 of the circle here and to create this disorientated sense to reflect the emotional state of the elements like how they iaren’t satisfied with their current state in life.

This composition I focused mainly on the pursue of materialistic wants. Here, we see that the girl being attracted to some flowers which I interpret as beauty. We see a flower carpeted floor leading to the galaxy background behind with things like house and gems along the way, suggesting that the route to materialistic wants is never ending. I used some words “BIG GIRL IN A SKINNY WORLD” to suggest that many people these days aren’t satisfied with how that look and they conform to the social standards of being skinny, therefore, this is like a sarcastic comment about this social observation. I used the girl bending over for the next 1/4 of the circle.

Here, I focused mainly on the way many people are fixated in getting what they want so much that they fail to notice the potential dangers and hazard along the way. This composition I did some reference to a common folklore that everyone knows, The Frog Prince. Yet again, this is another sarcastic commentary that logistically speaking a frog will never turn into a prince. We see the frog so fixated to get the crown which I meant power here that it failed to notice that its falling of the cliff into the ocean and the upcoming crashing waves. I used poker cards here to signify that we are betting our odds. I also used bubbles here to show a sense of fragility in the whole situation and the another 1/4 of the circle.

This composition I made the whole scene to be similar to the ocean bed (dark and gloomy) to signify a “sunken” situation. Also I used a broken lifebuoy and fishes to represent the last 1/4 of the circle. We see the fishes surrounding this unknown “object” to show that whatever we are pursuing may result in our downfall and trapped situation if we lost the bet. This is when we thought of being free from all these sticky situations like a fish which I signify as freedom.

To see the circle more clearly, these are the finalised compositions.

2D Project 2- Process

This project proves to be quite tedious as I met alot of thinking blocks along the way. Initially, I wanted to use 4 different quotes to make a social commentary of how we pursue unlimited wants and they are:

1) Heavenly Forest

“I wonder if anybody’s nice enough to stop.”

2) Harry Potter

“After all this time?” “Always”

3) X-Men: Apocalypse

“Everyone fears that which they do not understand”

4) The Little Mermaid

“The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake”

For the little mermaid’s quote, I was pretty inspired by Hokusai’s great waves, hence, I decided to incorporate the waves in my collage. Initially, the plan was to have this “imaginary” cycle of how the fishes wanted to be like Arial- have a face and able to talk, and I will do the same vicious for the three other quotes. However, after I consulted Joy in my first consultation, she proposed a suggestion of having one quote and to expand my vicious cycle to a larger scale. Also, to have 4 collages come together to show a circle so that it resembles a cycle.

On my second consultation, I had my 4 collages done but after consultation, I realised that there were many problems like some collages being too dark and the hint for the circle being too strong. Hence, I decided to redo my collages.

The silkscreen printing process was another problem like my other classmates. When I tried silkscreen printing for the first time, it turns out well. However, when I wanted to print the design on the bag, the prints turn out to be either too dark or too light. After 5 trys and 2 tote bags, I was able to get the right tone I want on my 6th trys. YAYY!! Lesson learnt: Use ample ink and glide the ink on the screen with minimum strength.

Proceeding on with my collages, I went onto tumblr for inspirations as I was pretty much experiencing major blocks and couldn’t fork up any ideas. These are some of the artworks I took inspirations from. All in all, I managed to overcome the blocks and come up something.

4D Project 2: Sequentially – Impossibilities of Being

For this project, I have 3 transitions:

There is a forlorn person trapped in her mental state. I used a darker shade of black and white to represent her current emotional state – dark and eerie.

Then, we proceed on to her flashback, where she view herself as a chirpy and happy girl. Here, I still used black and white to represent a flashback, however, in a lighter tone to represent a lighter and brighter emotion.

Finally, we see this girl moving out to nature. Here, I wanted to express a blurred line between reality and dream. Is this a dream? Did the girl really get out of her depression? The surrounding of a forested area also further enhance this. I also used a signifier like the white heels to express freedom. When she took off her shoes, this represents that she has come out of what was restricting her previously.

Lessons to note:

There were too many similar photos used
Planning every detail when shooting might be a better idea
More contrast between first transition and second transition
Can explore more techniques

4D PROJECT 2- PROCESS

Coming to a conclusion for this project isn’t an easy feat as I have consulted Lei twice with 2 different story plots and ended up with an entirely different story as my final plot.

Initially, I wanted to go with a vlog style whereby I will depict a day of my life. However, the interesting thing about this idea is that I will be in a role-playing game and live as a character inside the game. However, after exploring further with this idea, I realised the infeasibility of this as I do not have the skills to create animated characters and I couldn’t find an interesting perspective to incorporate real life photos and animated illustrations together. Also, I met some difficulties trying to materialise a concrete story which then led me to my next idea. Hopefully, as I attend more 4D classes, I will learn to pick up some animation skills.

Inspired by a Chinese game called 倩女幽魂

On my second consultation with Lei, I had a concrete story in my mind. I decided to go with a pseudo spin-off of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

In the story, a girl fell into an alternative space called Marshland when she got the golden ticket from eating a packet of marshmallows. This story depicts the journey of the girl as she proceeds on in Marshland, she learns to adapt to the place when she found out that wasn’t able to go back to the real world anymore.

Below are some storyboards that I have drawn:

However, yet again, as I dipped further into the story, I wanted to tap into real photography whereby I am able to relate and recount my story through photos instead of drawing cartoonish characters. At this point, I was out of ideas on the theme to follow and story to come up with.

As I was doing some researching for my 2D project on movies, I came across these two movies, Heavenly Forest and Gone Girl. This two films instantly inspired my story and perspective for my final product.lain in the final.

Throughout this project, I have learnt to judge my abilities before curating an idea or product and that knowing my limits is utterly crucial in creating a product.