Design Principles - Week 4 Entry (Submission of Project 1

24/01/2022 - 30/01/2022 (Week 4)
WONG JUN ZHE / 0353613
Design Principles / B'Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 1 - Week 4 Recap

LECTURE

Introduction

To start off the topic of "Sense of Place", We shall first understand what a designer's role is. A designer's job is to solve problems with the power of effective visual communication. There are countless types of problems that designers solve: whether they are personal goals or community events; corporate functions or world changing projects, designers solve them all through creative ways and visual communication.

Importance of Observation

Good Observation depends on whether one is being observant. This refers to being attentive to one's surroundings, while capturing and analyzing every detail.

As a designer, it is important that we develop new and creative ideas. A great and effective way to do that is through observation. Examples of sources of observation include artifacts, daily routines, physical surrounding, etc. In fact, many well-known designers get their ideas from nature through observation.

Observing means to receive information through our senses (touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste) of a subject matter in its natural setting. Our senses are important as they help us receive, feel, understand, interpret and analyze things. By observing, a designer can identify a problem and therefore come up with solutions.

Sense of Place

One can have a sense of place by first thinking about a unique place deep down in our hearts. This place could be a place that one spent a lot of time in, or a place that would never leave one's memory. After having a place in mind, one can start documenting the observations by taking photos, writing diaries, talking to relevant people, creating mind maps, etc, to start expressing the sense of that place.

The sense of place can be expressed through countless mediums, including photography, collage, digital illustration, traditional art, sculptures, etc.

PRACTICAL

Self Portrait

Concept

Inspiration

When listening to the lecture about self portrait, the fact that a self portrait does not necessarily have my face in it blows my mind. I find it very interesting and decided to try it out. Here are some photos I found on Pinterest that gave me the inspiration of combining animals and human to create a self portrait.

These following designs are produced by Polina Bright, an artist from Sydney, Australia. She specializes in watercolour and gauche paintings. In my opinion, she does an exceptionally outstanding job in creating designs with both humans and animals together. Here are some of her designs that inspired me to produce my self portrait.

Below are some photos of tigers which I used as references.

Initial Rough Sketches

First, I decided to do a head pose study and experimented with different angles and positions. At the end, I chose the directly front facing position as it gives out a feeling of 'determination', 'focus', and 'intense concentration'.

Composition Sketches

Composition Inspiration:

These are the three initial composition sketches I came up with:

I reach out with my hand to give a sense of chasing or capturing something. However, the hand is overemphasized. So I decided not to go with this.
*Chosen* A barrier with a hole. The person (me) wanting to go through it.
Human hands covering my face, giving a sense of me stopping myself from a breakthrough.

Artwork Progression

For the tiger, I am using watercolour as the base, and coloured pencils for the details. Im going for a more realistic style for the tiger. As for the hair and human body, I am using different shades of pencils to apply values. This contrast between black&white values and colours can really emphasize the tiger's face.

I started off by drawing the sketch using a pencil.

Then, I painted in the base layer using watercolour.

I then rendered in the details using coloured pencils.

I filled in the humane parts using B, 2B, 4B and 8B pencils.

Lastly, I scanned my artwork and uploaded it into my computer to draw the 'wall with a hole' object, as well as some minor colour adjustments.

Here is the initial final outcome:

Concept

A tiger signifies bravery. In 2022, my aim to be brave and chase after my dreams. I want some sort of 'breakthrough' in my life. Therefore, the composition that I've decided on gives a sense of breakthrough, with me wanting to go through the barrier/obstacle in front of me. The design has a strong emphasis on the tiger, which I find very interesting as this is my biggest goal in 2022 represented by a self portrait design.

Reflection

Score: 3.5/5. Overall, I am satisfied with how this self portrait came out, especially with the contrast and emphasis going on in the design. I also love the kind of intimidating and fierce look of the tiger, which makes the whole artwork look majestic. However, here are some points that I think I can improve on:

adding more texture on the 'wall with a hole' object may make the design more interesting.

Lecturer's feedback

"In your final design, the tiger feels like a foreign object to the body without any connection between them. In your references, the tiger looks much more attached to the human body. Think about how you can promote some kind of connection between both."

Final Outcome after Improvement (14/02/2022)

After receiving my lecturer's feedback, I tried to make connections by colouring and having black stripes on the body just like the tiger's to illustrate a connection between them. It gives a sense of unity and that the human body has devoured and possessed the powerful strength of the tiger's.

In addition, I replaced the black wall with chains. The main reason for this was because the black wall covered too much of the drawing. The chains plays the same role as the wall, to portray the obstacles in life, while also making the design look much interesting and not too simple.

All changes to the artwork are done digitally.

Before improvement

After improvement

PDF File

Reflection after Improvement

Score: 4/5. Overall, I am satisfied with how this self portrait came out. I think it looks much better after the improvements. It shows a much more united feel, and the chains made the design look much more interesting.