Process – Portfolio Site

Full Egoistical Exploration

For this project, we had to learn to use translate colours to evoke sentiments in the viewer, conveying our true meanings.

Each layer of images become a deeper, more in-depth view of myself as a person, taking the viewer on a coloured trip down my personal psyche.

Inspirations and Research:

I’ve always wanted to explore the many detailed delicacies of using an analogous or monochromatic colour scheme. The lack of fancy colours require intricate detailing to bring the picture together to harmonious completion, and the story is in the details. Watercolour is a very good medium for these sort of portrayals. The very tinted colours of watercolour portrait create colour compositions which flow seamlessly together.

The Art of KiDChan- *children +coloured+*

Watercolour and acrylics can also be used to create more dramatic colour compositions. The high tint, low tone hues resulting in fresh and bright colour compositions with a clear contrast.

I also wanted to play around with complex hues like tertiary colours. An example would be purple, which creates really intensely popping colours when paired around with green, orange or black. Due to the very different makeup of the colours, when placed in a triadic composition, they vie for dominance and often confuses the viewer’s eyes if the quantities of each colour are not aptly measured and portioned.

This may be used stylistically to create a piece which bedazzles the viewer’s eyes but at the same time leaves them confused without a clear place to focus on. Below is a personal attempt that I have done in the past

Ang. 2015- *A cacophonous symphony in man-made natural beauty*

I learnt that if i wanted to have a clear sense of direction when using this colour scheme, I may use the 70/20/10 rule to weigh out percentages of colour usage.

S t u p I d.ly

My process consisted of me trying to replicate the watercolour effect on digital mediums. This caused many of my paintings to have shadings, which veered my squares away from clean-cut colours. This caused some confusion during my presentation as some shadings had caused the original pure colour to be mistaken for something else, ruining the composition’s colour scheme.

I had not slept well for a week up to the presentation, sleeping on an average of two hours a day and I didn’t sleep for the presentation. This caused me to jumble up many presentation points, even wrongly labelling the colour scheme. 1000% screwed up the presentation, I bid bye to my dear 20%

Poor time management was an issue. I painted all my pieces and spent an extraordinary amount of time on them, almost neglecting other subjects. I should have been like my peers and used flat vectors to make simpler designs- effective as they not only save time but get the message across clearer. Also, colour schemes are more easily perceived if flat colours are used.

For the first row, I investigate the cool feeling of familiarity increasingly being encroached by conflict.

Me: Closed Off

The first piece uses complementary colours opposite the colour wheel to give a sense of unease. Supposed to be jarring and highly conrasting, the strong greys wash out the pure bright reds and greens, creating tones that seem to blend together seamlessly. This creates a colour which had lost its unique hue and integrity as a colour. It is now neither clearly belonging in the realm of complementary colours nor can it identify itself as analogour colours, as they seem similar due to the heavy usage of greys. This stylistic choice depicts my feelings of apprehension to this project, as I did not have a clear sense of direction, my integrity wavering between revealing an unadultered, pure side or presenting a manufactured self.

Unravel

This piece uses triadic colours red blue and yellow hues which have been been added with whites, becoming soft tints. These tints create very child-like, dreamy atmospheres to evoke a childish sense of safety, as a bed to lull me into self discovery. The yellows start to travel from the top left corner, creating a leading line into the focus of the painting, which is the coat. The highly detailed colouring on the coat also attracts attention, presenting to the audience the metaphor of having layers of self-insulation from realising the truth.

Vulnerability

The final piece of this is done in complementary colours red and blue in higher contrast, so as to depict the strong sense of disjunct opposition in colours. In comparision to the first square, which uses similar colours, this piece has a different approach and contrast is further emphasised through the use of the dark hues of black. This conveys the sense of conflict.

These pieces use a black as a majority colour, creating a strong sense of framing and contrast, directing our eyes specifically to the points of intended interest.

Isolation speaks the tale of how I feel secluded and isolated from the world because of my weirdness. My realm of existence seems to be multicoloured in my eyes, whereas the world of others was droll and dull. It aims to illustrate the conflict of fitting in or staying out.

This piece uses triangular (tetradic) colour scheme, using yellow-orange, yellow-green, red-violet and blue to create an intensely hyper-coloured piece that is very much in contrast to my other equations. This gives a strong sense of activity and invites intrigue. However, as all the colours are cold-toned, it creates a sense that the hyperpigmentation of colours does not symbolise a happy mood. This aims to disorientate the viewer as they realise the intent behind the usage of colour is not what they had expected. This evokes the sense of disorientation in my piece, allowing the viewer to feel like a deer in a confused realm of multicoloured headlights.

Stranger

This piece uses split complementary colours of orange, blue-green and blue-violets to depict the resistance to join the crowd despite repeated drags and coaxes. The strong opposition of majority cool colours against one warm colour further highlights the tension and opposition.

Implosion

This piece uses tetradic colours of orange, yellow-green, red-violet and blue, depicting the internal implosion of personal weirdness.

Using triadic hues of Orange, Green and Violet, I create a playful, imaginative colour scheme which opens itself to exploration as it plays well into the colours of the colour wheel.

This evokes the sense of openness to discover and delve deeper into myself.

A wide variety of styles are also used; from graphic design flatlay, to pop-art, to advertising or fashion-esque. These further emphasise the willingness to explore beyond set boundaries.

Experiemental

The motif of the octopus is constantly used to reinforce my attempt to climb out of the bottle, which is an image of how I bottle up my emotions.

Discovery

Even as I delve inside, looking into the bottle in an attempt to squeeze myself in it, I try to change and become free of the bottle. Looking through the bottle allows me to see the other side, becoming a way to gain clear insight, discovery and introspection.

Expression

The tentacles grow to occupy largely most of the surface of the square, presenting my hopes that one day, I will be as free and comfortable to roam and be myself.

This depicts my self hatred. It is a journey of intense emotions. Each individual section is made of a different colour scheme.

(Left) Angst, Contortion:

The first on the left is split complementary, consisting of yellow-green, blue-green and red. This creates a sense of “split” tenseness, illustrating the building up of discomfort and unease.

(Middle) Inferno:

The middle is an analogous colour scheme ranging from yellow-orange to red. These colours are all tinted with a reddish-orange hue, creating a feeling of monochrome. This creates an intense colour scheme where all colours converge on being extremely warm, illustrating the burning suffocating intensity of the emotion

(Right) Catharsis, Loathing:

The right piece uses a triadic colour scheme of red-orange, yellow-green and blue-violet in high contrast. This is further emphasised by the use of the black and white negative space. As purple is a tertiary colour, it is more complex and thusly, in addition to the above listed reasons, the colours of the right section look most unnaturally popping. This is stylistically intended to show a warped sense of catharsis, which is a strong release of emotion, which usually garners attention.

All in all, the three compositions are stitched together into one piece which depicts an analogous colour scheme. This illustrates the entire transformative process of my inner pain and anguish. The detailed shading further draws the viewer in due to the intensity of the colouration

Due to Technical issues in my hall’s wifi, I was only able to complete updating some parts by 12 28. The information had been typed, but the final publishing was lacking in material. WordPress lagged and earlier versions consisting only of the final presentation was uploaded. Other parts of research and process were buffering while uploading, and I faced the spinning wheel of uploading for 20+ minutes. Very unfortunately this means a late submission. The wifi server was overcrowded and fell down, unable to be connected, even if i moved to the common study lounge in my hall where wifi would be guaranteed to be assured. I hope my lateness can be understood and I won’t be further penalised.

Forrest Gump- Process: Ideation and Exploration

Women in Media

I’ve always been very intrigued by the images of women in media. More often than not, the media focuses and worships them based on their sexuality. One example is Marilyn Monroe. Her photos have been mimicked and re-shot by different actresses, like Britney, Paris, and Lindsay. Monroe was, in a sense, the original tabloid queen, her image and likeness still retain marketability. Coincidentally, all these women live their lives under the scrutiny of the media, and their sexualities are weaponized, willingly or not, selling their images for their self-sustainability in the entertainment media industry.

Women can technically be emblematic of the media, precisely apt because she is the image of constant obsession and fixation in media. In a world where women’s sexuality is weaponized, women attempt to take control of some of their objectification as a method to attack and survive. This draws parallels as to how media will use vicious methods against its competitors to ensure their livelihoods and survival.

Against the exponential increase of accessible information in our fast-moving digital age, NM has to struggle aggressively against the tides of competitors in order to stay relevant.

“Suggestiveness”

Concept: News Media uses the element of desire and suggestiveness to sell its messages to its audience.

My piece focuses on society using suggestiveness to mask disease, presenting it in a circular state of decay. The disease is how News Media has lost its proper sense of respectability and is falling into the rabbit hole of gutter politics, by using vapid and aggressive ways to clickbait people into reading. Many images are used in this composition to depict the prevalence of images creating a cluster of competition.

The composition starts in a cyclical downward spiral, with a large focus on the top on Monroe, slowly dwindling down decreasing in size till the final image of a woman with a hairdryer. The composition highlights the exponential increase in violence in the suggestive images, from an increasing metaphorical weaponization of sexuality- women using sexuality to their own advantage, as evidenced by Monroe, to a literal weaponization of sexuality- as evidenced from the actual weaponization of the hairdryer, which is a traditional feminine symbol.

The spiral creates an element of interactiveness as the composition can now be turned around, highlighting how the violence of sexuality is used exponentially through media’s eye, using it as a weapon to sell its messages.

After the review, Joy said that this idea was too large and I needed to narrow down my scope to something more concrete. She explained that I needed to meet my classmates halfway and allow them to understand at least half of what I am talking to them about. My ideas and perspectives should only come across as hints or suggestions so to provide internal thought and reflection from the viewer.

Personally, I was feeling very conflicted about my topic too.

“Media uses women to sell itself, so what?”

After much more research, I decided to link it to the concrete relatable theme of Capitalism. Media uses these scintillating images for an important purpose beyond ensuring self-sustainability. It sells ideas. This comes as a particularly interesting topic which i explore more in my post here: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/yuol0001/forest-gump-final-presentation/

Emo-xperiment

I utilised only materials provided during trial sessions as I was more interested in the properties of acrylic paint. Playing with sentiments i experienced organically in that time frame, i broke myself free of rules and regulations that bound me to grounded realism, allowing myself to roam wild.

The obvious downsides presented themselves to me soon enough, as unfettered freedom and liberty without a clear goal or technique made me lag behind clearly in the quality of my work.

Looking at my peers who seem to be approaching their work methodically with a clear mind, I felt very insecure and self conscious. Feelings of anxiety, frustration and anger directed at the self caused me to try the impasto method for these two pieces, creating a rhythmic piece reflecting my mental state.

The black piece (bottom) was made by the impasto method, whereas the white piece is the secondary imprint of the black piece, created by pressing a piece of paper over the original and sending it through the press.

This created two pieces, one a multilayered black piece, showcasing my tumultuous emotions welling up in me, taking on threatening forms of various sizes. Another cleaner piece which accurately captures the wave-like surge of emotion that was coursing through me unexpectedly. The white piece was evocative of the “Great Wave off Kanagawa”, and sought to mimic it through my attempt of doing a golden ratio presentation in my final framing.

This “shattered” piece was made by rolling a clean roller over paper laid on semi-dry lino, creating an intricate intersection of bonds. This shows the temporality and fleetingness of a sudden emotion, as if shattering our real world as we become immersed in our feelings at the moment.

As I attempted various methods to showcase specific emotions, I felt insecure and worried because there was no guidelines I could rely on, unlike realism.

These are failed attempts at trying to portray an emotion. The leftmost is made up of paint splattered across the paper via the palette knife, and smeared with the angles of the knife. The method is choppy, violent but at the same time melodic due to the rhythmic curves made by curving the knife at intervals. It was meant to portray anxiety, but i didnt think it clearly cut the point,

The middlemost was a shockingly poor attempt at depicting happiness. Painting the lino board black, i aimed to place focus on the white squiggles. I popped children’s birthday explosives across the wet lino board and sprinkled salt over, in an attempt to recreate the joyous celebrations we often experience in childhood.

The last piece was an attempt at creating something “for arts sake”. I used tissue paper and did randomised blots on the paper, in an attempt to create something pleasing according to the rules of design. It later underwent transformation to become a beautiful farewell card, because sadly its purpose and artistic meaning extends only for it to become a decoration. It had no innate quality of its own.