DESIGN PRINCIPLES - WEEK 11 TO WEEK 14 (VISUAL ANALYSIS)
Design Principles
- Final Project: Visual Analysis -
This is our final project of this module! After watching the last lecture that briefed us on this, I was clear as to what I need to accomplish. It was a rather heavy assignment. Hence, we were given a month to complete it. Weekly individual consultation during tutorials will carry on as per usual for Ms Maria to gauge on our progress and suggest us on areas to improve. Although this project was heavy, Dr Jinchi provided us a weekly rooster on what we should complete by the end of each week to better pace ourselves. This blog post will be compartmentalised in a weekly update as well.
To summarise, we were tasked to select an artist of our choice and analyse a selected piece of art work from them in three phases:
1) Observation > State what we see on the artwork, just a surface level overall scan.
2) Analysis > Analyse the design principles used in the selected artwork of the artist: Balance \ Gestalt Theory \ Contrast \ Harmony \ Proportion \ Movement \ and so on. Include details of their drawings/illustrations as well: Line \ Dots \ Zig Zag \ and so on.
3) Interpretation > Final phase where we are to uncover and interpret using our own understanding and words of what the artist is trying to say in his/her artwork: Feelings \ Story \ Concept \ and so on.
Now that the phases are done, which will be completed in two weeks, we move onto the last two weeks where we will ideate and develop an art piece either inspired or a continuation of the previous chosen artwork.
What Visual Analysis aims to do is to help us better understand and recognise the artist's intention in their art work; how the properties/principles of design communicate ideas, content and meaning to the viewers. With technology being prevalent in our society, we are constantly being bombarded with visuals. This project enables us to sharpen our critical judgement skills and and help us actively seek out answers instead of just passively receiving information. Vice versa too, we want to be able to convey our message to the public as well.
Week 11
(2/11/2020 - 8/11/2020)
In this week, we had to complete Phase 1 and Phase 2; Observation and Analysis. I browsed through a bunch of different artists on Instagram and narrowed down to about 4-5. They all had unique and distinct art styles which helped showcase their skills and identity as an artist.
Figure 1 - Figure 1.3 - Screenshots of various artists' work via Instagram
I have been a long admirer of Polly Nor's work ever since I came across her most famous illustration a few years back:
Figure 1.4 - Polly Nor's illustration via Instagram
On the first week, I have not gotten the chance of beginning the first two phases. I waited until Friday to show the potential artists first before starting.
Feedback
As Ms Maria looked at what I had, she too gravitated towards Polly Nor and Petra Eriksson but more so on Polly's work of the family. She mentioned that throughout the consultation no one has chosen an artist like this and suggested me to go with Polly as my selected artist. She too enjoyed the mysteriousness of Petra's work but Polly definitely stood out more.
I heeded her comments and went along with Polly as my artist.
Week 12
(9/11/2020 - 15/11/2020)
This week, I was more prepared as I had to finished all three phases before consultation. I decided to create a Google Slide doc to properly organise my thoughts:
Figure 2 - My Google Slides Doc
Figure 2.1 - Figure 2.3 - My Google Slides for Phase 1-3
Feedback
As I shared my initial slides with Ms Maria, she gave me several comments mainly towards my Analysis:
1) Include principle of Balance
2) Positioning of the sofa, boxes, shelf etc; able to see balance in colour/positioning of things (plants/shelf, etc). There is a good balance in composition which makes the whole artwork organised despite it being messy.
3) Perspective; good job in showing perspective. Looks like the illustrator was trying to show what she saw from her perspective.
I understood the first two comments, and as for the third, I actually included that in my Observation and Interpretation. Polly Nor's work was fairly easy for me to understand as it reminded me of reading descriptive writing books. It was metaphorical yet direct and because it is an artwork, it painted a visual for me to understand what she was trying to say to us, her viewers.
Once we finished discussing the phases, I moved on to explaining my ideation for my final project:
Figure 2.4 - My Sketchbook
In summary, I had a vision of a vending machine of human body parts. One thing about Polly Nor's work is that she emphasise a lot on the metaphorical meaning of human masks; how we wear these skin suits to cover who we actually are. The parts we are embarrassed about, or parts of ourselves that we ourselves are afraid to confront. In other words, our inner demons and its desires. I wanted to create a piece inspired and continued from that. So this vending machine is called 'The Devil's Wardrobe' where our own demons will go shopping for our next masks or fronts. Very similar to the Imposter Syndrome.
I showed Ms Maria some reference picture and video to let her visualise what I was trying to do as I did not bring my sketchbook out at that time:
Figure 2.5 - Vending Machine inspo via Pinterest
Figure 2.6 - Vending Machine concept by @ghostboy.club via Instagram
Once Ms Maria was able to see what I was envisioning, she found this very interesting and told me to go ahead and pursue this idea. I clarified with her that we should be doing this in our own style with a hint of inspiration from our selected artist and she said yes. Ultimately, our work is our work unless we explicitly copy paste others and name it as our own. She also stated that we need to show our work in progress thoroughly as some of us have been lacking in that area, so I made sure I kept that in mind.
Week 13
(16/11/2020 - 22/11/2020)
Figure 3 - Google Slide (1) for Week 13 Progress
From the left onwards, I started out by selecting potential colours I would use in this art piece; a general mix of warm and cool tones with some muted undertones. As this is a peculiar, intense and possibly creepy art work, I wanted to evoke those feelings through the contrast of colours. I enabled the drawing guide as I will be drawing perpendicular lines for the outlines of my main composition: the vending machine.
Once I was happy with the shape and colour, I proceeded with the details inside the vending machine: different levels of body parts. I started out from the top to the bottom, following the anatomy of human body but decided to have some randomness of adding the wig options at the bottom. As you can see I sectioned out the layers to have better control of each drawing. I then outlined the coloured composition with a black sketching brush organically. Only two brushes were used here: Procreate Sketch Pen & Inking Studio Pen.
Figure 3.1 - Google Slide (2) for Week 13 Progress
Moving on, I outlined the body parts as well. I basically outlined everything in this composition. Throughout the drawing process, I did not like the proportion of the vending machine and how it was taking up all the space and left no room for other complimentary components. I went ahead and made a copy of this file first and started on a new one. My main Selection tools were Uniform Scale, Distort and Warp. It helped shift the once weird perspective of the art work into something that made sense.
I added some smaller details: the title of the vending machine, dots and lines on the walls and a stool. At first, I was thinking of adding graffiti on walls but it might take attention away from the main composition so that was left out. As expressed on the slides, I had trouble with the Anatomy part while drawing the "demons"/humans.
Figure 3.2 - Google Slide (3) for Week 13 Progress
Here, I did the necessary research to gauge on the positions I wanted to include in my art piece.
Figure 3.3 - Google Slide (4) for Week 13 Progress
Drew the first proper "demon" and I was quite happy with it! Added hair/fur on the demon skin instead of just lines to enhance its character.
Feedback
Overall, Ms Maria really liked my art piece. She found this to be really creative and interesting. She had several comments to help me improve better:
1) Have more positioning/gestures of different demons/humans of different scenarios
2) Have context for the purple monster; maybe keeping track of the sales he have or an invisible demon keeping track of the "bad" who wants to impersonate someone they are not
3) Demons who cannot afford the skins, begging in front of the vending machine
4) She suggested to leave the wall as it is, just add some cracks here and there
5) Add a scenario of a mirror where the demon stare directly at the viewer and its reflection too, but the reflection shows the true colours of the demon who is wearing the skin suit
Week 14
(23/11/2020 - 29/11/2020)
Figure 4 - Google Slide (1) for Week 14 Progress
After heeding Ms Maria's comments and suggestions, I got straight to work. Added different scenarios of demons/humans to enhance my art piece further.
Figure 4.1 to Figure 4.2 - Video Progress of my drawing via Procreate
By now, I am pretty much done with my piece. The only part I struggled with was where and how to add the demon/human begging in front of the vending machine. It was another anatomy issue I was struggling with but with some more anatomy research and many moments of just staring at my work, I managed to come up with something.
FINAL OUTCOME
Figure 5 - Final Outcome
I ended up really liking the turn out of this piece. It was definitely something different compared to my usual style, but then again the whole point of this module is to experiment and have fun with all assignments. This concept is totally different, it would be something I would write about instead so this was really refreshing for me.
Reflection
I loved it!
This whole project and module was unlike any classes I have taken before here at Taylor's, but to be fair, this was my first semester taking design as a minor. I went in without any expectations and came out super fulfilled with so much. At first I was intimidated because art is pretty subjective to be graded but I have learnt that there are areas we can control like the principles to enhance our work to appeal not only to ourselves but to our viewers. Most importantly, enjoy the process and constantly experiment! This is the only comfortable period in our lives to make good mistakes and learn as much as we can from them as students.
Although I have not met Dr Jinchi, she was super informative in the recorded lectures. She has taught me the fundamental basics of designs and gave good examples for us to understand. Ms Maria has been my lifesaver! Before the CMCO, I managed to attend the physical classes and for her to look at my work. Despite the individual consultation taking a long time, she always made time for us to patiently go through our work and provide constructive comments and suggestions for our work. I wished this module could have been on campus throughout, many of us would have enjoyed it. I did not get to meet all of my course mates, just a few. Overall, I loved this module a lot and I hope that there would be more design modules like this in the future in the course of my degree. Thank you Ms Maria and Dr Jinchi! :)
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