Reflection 02/09/19

  •  A world without sound wouldn’t make huge influence on area of illustration. Because we mostly would depend on our eyes when we’re making works. But a world without sound means there’s no music, then some brilliant design of album covers would vanish.
  • During the pair discussion we had, me and my partner was figuring out the problem that how would a world without color be like. I found this very interesting. Because we thought instinctively a world without color would probably be black and white. But we realised black and white are also considered as color. Then we came our with a guess that, a world without color would probably look like 2-Dimension, there’s only contour left for things.
  • I could expand the research by read some other people’s thought about the topic “How would a world without…”. By absorbing others idea, it could trigger me to generate new ideas.

Reflection 09/09/2019

Today’s workshop I was actually quite frustrated, because I have very little experience in 3D, but I enjoyed the process of making my work. I think the necklace quite fit into the body depends on its purpose is to be held to myself. The details are not delicate enough, the result came out just like my drawing but it’s lack of aesthetics. Also, I think during presentations in the future, I need to talk more about my idea, my purpose of making the work. 

Reflection 10/09/2019

How did you approach working in a team?

I would usually give my ideas at the first place, sometimes both my teammates have their own idea. In this kind of situation, we would try to gain the usable point in other ideas, then combine them together. Sometimes, I would fall back and listen to others concept, and giving advices to them instead of give my individual idea to them, because it sometimes make thinkings confusing if there’re too many elements.

 

What strategies did you discover to combine ideas into experimental looks?

When I was experimenting ideas on model, we would usually find out some flaws, because the experimental looks usually won’t be the same as we imagined, so we would first have some experiments so we can approach the result we are most satisfied about.

 

What have you learnt about styling?

I learned that styling is not only about putting clothes on the model, we also need to think about the combination. It’s same as drawing, you need to have a theme of each piece. Also, I learned that I’m not good at styling.

 

How did you use photography to transform your ideas?

Under different angle how the picture is taken will have big difference. Sometime we want to shot a particular parts because is the focal point of the whole piece.

 

What were successful used by others?

Many other students managed to make beautiful works. Some of them are good at using color combination, some of them are good at using simple fabric to make interesting type of clothes.

Reflection 18/09/2019

Which introduced structures or forms from the presentation did you find interesting and why?

I found myself interested in the piece “Fruitopia” made by George Wooley very much. I like the organic shape of the shelves. Because fruits themselves have various colours, so it’s interesting when the colours are put together.

Which structures are you most aware of in your surrounding, how and where do you notice them?

I’m most aware of all sorts of wire nets around me, for example it could be someone’s piece of work or it could be the fence of a random house. I always would pay attentions to fine details when I’m walking down streets, so the I found the negative space of wire nets sometimes are weird depends on different type of nets.

How do you find yourself naturally drawn to respond to these structures? In which subject area could you explore that?

I found myself always would pay attention to weird shapes I could find surround me. I think it’s possible to find this structure in all kinds of area, but I want to explore it in area of graphic design the most.

Reflection 24/09/2019

Did you face any challenges working in 3D if so, why? (Compare to working in your sketchbooks)

Because I’m not good at doing 3D, so it’s quite challenging for me to make the 3D working as the way I want it to be. It’s better for me to combining a 2D work into a 3D piece. So I enjoyed the process while we are drawing our 3D piece.

Identify 1 person from todays bibliography and explain how their work relates to today

Because today’s workshop is about textile, we are focusing on texture, surface, shape and etc. Alice Anderson’s project of copper wire relates to the focus on texture and surface in today’s workshop. She used copper wire to wrap up daily objects like guitar or telephone. The surface of her works are made by copper wire, so when you touch it, you are touching the object but not actually contacted with it.

Reflection 01/10/2019

How did you find the use of your smartphone as a medium? Consider the local and wider implications of the use of such a mediated device.

Using smartphone is a way of recording things you see and transfer it into a video, also it can be a way to display our digital outcomes.

In what ways has this advanced your understanding of how a camera lens observes the world around you?

There’s one part in our video which is hand crawling on the ceiling, when we overturn the video, it looks like the hands are crawling toward the camera cuz the camera is very close to the hand and moving with it. This made me find out what we see through the camera is quite different from what we see in our daily.

Reflection on working day 15/10/2019

On the working day, I researched on my project and I also figured out the narrative story I'm going to work on. I searched resources with key words like "color blocking", "black and red" and "illustration". And I found an artist I specifically like, Oleg Smirnov.

The idea of my project is sense of feeling lost, I decided I'm going to make 6 sequence pictures. Because I'm feeling very lost when I don't have any idea for the project, it's also a reflection on the current myself. I also designed a rough draft for the main character in my storyboard. The big and hollow he has make him look very lost.

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CONTEXTUAL REVIEW

The pathway I want to be diagnosed to is Illustration, and that’s the reason I’m doing the “Lost Letter” as my extension week project. After experiencing different pathway’s workshops during the diagnostic course, I’m sure this is the pathway I want to go to. After the diagnostic course, I’m very clear that my weakest is fashion and I got struggled when doing the workshops work with 3D because I’m most into drawings. Thus in this contextual review, I want to reflect on the previous workshops and explain my wish to go to the illustration pathway.

My favorite workshop, which is “Lost Letter”, the illustration workshop. We were using screen printing to create our picture. I haven’t got any experience with screen printing before, so it’s a very exciting and new method for me. Also, transforming a letter into an illustration piece is very innovative as well. At first, I thought the limit of only using black and red color is going to be dull, but after the
workshop, I figured out that these two
colors can create a very powerful visual effect. Another workshop I enjoyed very much was the Fine Art Painting, the “Revelation of Erasure” workshop. In this workshop, we worked on images cut out from newspapers or magazines. By erasing part of the original picture, we are going to them use all kinds of materials we prefer to replace the erased part. This way of making inspired me that I can somehow utilize it in other projects. Because I’m most into illustration and painting, so these two workshops are the ones that most intrigued me. Both workshops worked on changing the original form of the base picture. “Lost Letter” is adding a new structure to create a new image, and “Revelation of Erasure” is wiping parts from the original piece and replace it with another look. If I have to say, the “Lost Letter” workshop suited me better. Because I love creating new things, though the process of “Revelation of Erasure” is also creating a new look out of the origin pictures, I don’t quite get it as interesting as creating images from zero.

There’s an artist called Oleg Smirnov. He also creates artworks with only black and red. He is very good at using simple colors to create powerful images. Because my idea was about a sense of feeling lost, I want to research artists that have a calm and oppressive style, then I found Oleg Smirnov. His works inspired me a lot because of the sadness and depressive feeling coming out from his works. His works usually contain texture look like chalk, the textures are the key that makes the picture look sad. But he is using photoshop to create his artworks, so I was inspired to do digital drawings. There’s another comic artist named David Aguado. His comics are very short, the maximum I’ve seen was 5 pages. David Aguado is good at using high contracted color blocks to highlight the characters and important objects. Because we are only allowed to tell the story in six images in the extension week project, the story needs to be short but impressive so I thought he would be a very helpful resource.

At the start, my mind was limited by the workshop, so I only thought about how can I create an object with the letters. After realizing that the letter can be any form, it can even be a letter on a keyboard. Let myself self-manage the project make me feel freed and widened my mind. Because there are various possibilities to use the letters, I started to conceive the story first. I think it’s very exciting to visualize thoughts and ideas in mind and show them to others. I like thinking about fantasies and meaningful stories, I have a memo that I write all my inspirations and stories sometimes suddenly pop out in my mind. The illustration pathway was the first aim before I started the course. Then after the experience with different pathways, I was once hesitating between fine art painting and illustration. But after I focused on the extension project, I found myself still enjoyed illustration the most. This is something irrelevant but I also found out my least skilled pathway is the fashion and textile pathway. During the extension week, I thought a lot about how to make my artworks look more professional. If I have a chance to improve it, I want to refine the details in the pictures. I’m not very satisfied with the texture and the fluency of the story.

Reflection 02/09/19

  • A good pitch should be able to convey the artist’s concept very clear. The audience should understand the motivation and inspiration of the artist
  • I didn’t manage to do the pitch, I was absent on previous day’s workshop.
  • In this student’s work, I think it’s very interesting that she use the beads to represent the yellow and green gas. Also they way she transferred the control of government to gas mask is intriguing as well.

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Reflection 16/09/2019

Reflection(IN PAIRS):

Write down what you have learnt

I have learnt knowledge about fashion illustration, that it’s quite different from illustration. They don’t require so much detail, but you need be able to show the details by rough brushes, like the overall structure of clothes.

What do you like about your work so far

I’m not very satisfied by my work so far, but I think I’ve had ideas about how fashion illustration works.

What has potential?

I can pay more attention on the line works, instead of just drawing pale lines, I want add more change in it depends on the clothes.

What do you think of the illustrations on presentation on Moodle?

I think they all look amazing, each one of them have their own speciality. I particularly like Howard Tangye’s piece, l like the way he apply colours on the model.

 

Reflective Questions:

What is the purpose of peer to peer critique and feedback?

Critique from peer comes from a different perspective that may help you see the good and bad of your works from another angle. 

What was successful about the 3D set up and why?

The 3D set up is making our ideas becoming real and solid. During the process of making the 3D set up, new ideas would came out gradually. I think the 3D set up our group did today was pop and very cartoon styled. The idea of making colours blast came out during the making, this idea made the whole set much vivid.

Does switching between 2D+3D work aid your creative process?

Every time switching between 2D and 3D helps me see my work from another perspective. Also, it usually help me discover some new ideas. 

Reflection 23/09/2019

Where you able to adapt your idea and visual language to the screen print process effectively?

I adapted the letter “V” to an eagle’s head, the narrow part of the letter “V” I used it as the beak of eagle. The sharp shape “V” made between the strokes remind me about the eagle’s sharp head and fierce expression in their eyes.

How did the restriction shape your image?

Because the shape takes a big space on the paper, it hard to make small scale picture with little details. The letter would take big portion of my shapes.

What were the biggest challenges you faced during the workshop?

The biggest challenges that I faced during the workshop is the animation part. When I’m cutting the shapes on the cardboard, it took a lot of time to do that and the shapes won’t fit together. 

Reflection 30/09/2019

Your were asked to work in a team, how did that make you feel?

We first came to one idea, then we combine our ideas while we are making. Sometimes when I can’t find new ideas, my teammates could give me inspiration.

How did the decision making process evolve in your group?

We usually speak out our own ideas and try to combine the ideas with others. Also, we would give advices to others. We will make the decision until we all came to an agreement.

What was successful about your structure?

I like the unique shape of our structure, it’s not symmetry but still balanced.

What would you change about it? What would you add or remove?

Because our structure is not very stable, I would like to add some bamboos to make it stable and remove some bamboos that makes the structure less aesthetic.

Did you enjoy -  1. Working as a group? 2. Making the structures?

I enjoyed working as a group, but I didn’t quite enjoy making the structure because it’s a little bit dull.

Reflection 03/10/2019

How did you respond to the process of translating the text from your conversation into a typographic communication?

I think it's interesting because when you translate text into material, because the phrase was plain at the first place. After it's given a different material, it's displayed in a whole different way. The meaning of this phrase somehow totally changes from its origin or its meaning is delivered remain unchanged in another way.

What were your considerations in relation to choice of type, material & placement of your text?

I tried to use materials to reflect the text. My phrase was "walking on a glass floor", therefore I chose transparent acrylic sheet as material because it looks like glass.

How successful do you think your text communication was? Does it function as you intended?

I think it's not quite successful because the acrylic sheet has no colour, it looks good when it's placed on a black paper, but when you put it on the floor it can barely be seen. But I think somehow it works good because glass floor makes people worry because you can't see anything  holding you when walking on it. So walking on it is like walking on translucent air.

Reflection on Presentation Day 17/10/2019

After looking at others works during the presentation, I think I need to make my images look stronger. For example by enlarge the scale of my outcome and when drawing a scenario. Instead of focus on the main character, I am going to zoom out the whole look, make the main character become very small, so the space look wide and deep.

Reflection 17/10/2019

Group Discussion Feedback 

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