Design Project: Sketches スケッチ

Alright, the other posts on tutorials and exercises are done with, so the following posts starting from this one will be about the design project! This time, the theme is about "How technology affects us".

This post starts with the sketches of ideas I first came up with for the project.

1. This idea is about the evolution of technology. Every evolution is placed in separate room, and they're all in a box, which is held by a (our) palm. It kinda shows that technology has grown by the hands of humans too. Outside the box comes the threats that we might face as we indulge ourselves in technology.

2. Next, this idea is also about the evolution of technology, but more to the music industry. It is about how the radio has transformed to records, albums of artists, to TVs, and even voice synthesizers. The voice synthesizer highlighted hear is the Vocaloid voice system, where I have drawn the first of the Vocaloid 2 generation, Hatsune Miku in the sketch.

3. The sketch below is about how technology takes over the world, where the all-seeing eye is controlling everything. Androids have started to live on Earth, where the Earth itself starts to die and burn as the nature is no longer supported. And.. yeah, this idea is pretty philosophical. ははは

4. Last idea! This sketch is about "Mothering the Eye, or Eyeing the Mother." It's symbolized by the mother (Mother Nature) and the eye (technology). The title is such that there're two sides. Technology is taking over our lives slowly, and causing us to forget where everything has come about. Thus, it's "Eyeing the Mother" as technology is watching out for a chance to take over everything, including nature. On the other hand, nature is trying its best to embrace the fact that technology does exist alongside its own existence, thus "Mothering the Eye", which is also symbolize by the mother holding the eye close to her body.

And... the sketch that got approved is sketch no. 3 ! Here's a lineart of it (with mistakes because I didn't use the artliner for quite some time already ==).

That's all for this post about sketches! The next post will be about the background process for the project, do be patient >A<! Cheers~

Pop art ポップアート

Pop art is one of the latest art movements there is, and is the movement that has given birth to other movements such as graffiti and street art. 

In relation to this unique movement, we are to make a pop art using our own photo, so I picked this photo of mine to play with (there are more things to paint on compared to other photos that I have):

And here is the outcome of making the original photo into a pop art:

That is all for this post!! Cheers! OwO)/

Photo Montage 写真モンタージュ

In this post, I made a photo montage (or collage, whichever you call it) to display skills in Photoshop. I had made collages when I first learnt Photoshop in high school, so this task is pretty simple for me. Made it in only half an hour xD

At first, I thought of making a photo montage about Akihabara, the haven for otaku culture and technology geeks. However, I had difficulties finding what I wanted to include in the montage, so I scrapped the idea off and go for plan B.

Plan B is Sheffield, which is located in United Kingdom, near the outskirts of busy London. As much as I love Japan, Sheffield is my next choice as my cousin Geo Law who I idolize so much, lives and works as a graphic designer there (you can see why I idolize him; it's plainly because he made a career out of his talent to draw). Below is my montage and its following description:

I have this impression of Sheffield being a very calm and slow-moving city, in contrast to London beside it which is always rushy and busy. This impression is symbolized by the flying pigeons in my montage. (Yes, those are Photoshopped)

In order to preserve the beauty of the antique UK history, I added the pocket watch at the back of the montage.

As Sheffield is a calm place, it has many coffee shops too, and even my cousin had designed the interior of several coffee shops there. That is why the cup of coffee is present there in the montage.

The main point of the montage can be clearly seen, which is of that unique illustration of the lady. It practically sums up what I like about Sheffield: my cousin. Yes, that illustration is made by Geo himself, and that is why it is made as the main point of this montage.

Hopefully this montage is able to communicate my feelings and thoughts about Sheffield ! That is all for this post! Cheers!

Art Appreciation: Inside the Well

On the 8th of June, the class had visited the National Art Gallery and scaled all the floors of the building and looked at the art pieces displayed there. We are told to pick a painting or sculpture that we took interest in, and describe the piece in a blog post. For this, I have chosen Latiff Mohidin's "Telaga Tujuh II" (literally translate to: "Seventh Well II"), which is an oil on canvas work from 2005.

It is an artwork which uses a lot of brush strokes (like Van Gogh's works) to create swirls and lines. The painting has a mixture of dark purple and black and white and blue and yellow strokes (ultimately purple) that make up the background, just like its name, where it is inside a well. Along the sides there are brown strokes down and each side has another brown line branching towards the centre of the well. I believe those play the role of creepers in the well (you know, those wells with lots of roots and branches crawling down its sides). On the two 'branches', there is a green swirl on each of the branches. In the middle of the canvas, cutting across the space is a brown-colored stroke which symbolizes a vine. In the top middle part of the canvas, there are two white swirls seen.

The meaning I obtained from this painting is that it is set in the inside of a dark abandoned well, with creepers growing all inside it.

The feelings that came washing over me as I stared at the painting was this aura of mysteriousness. The dark purplish background instills an empty and mysterious feel to the canvas. I believe there is also Gestalt behind this painting, where the two white swirls look like eyes there stare back at the viewer. However, I also see a symbolism of life thanks to the green swirls, where green color and also leaves ultimately symbolize life. The green swirls lend a piece of hope as it shows that it can still continue living on in the dark, murky and creepy well.

That is all for this post on the painting that caught my eye during the trip to the National Art Gallery. Till next time, cheers!

Art Movement 芸術運動

In this post, I am to pick an art movement that I am interested in, research on it and write about it. For this case, I have picked pixel art as I love games, and many games that I have played are in pixel form. Besides, pixel art is an incredibly interesting art movement, so it makes me want to learn more about it and well, write about it too !

Pixel art is considered as a form of digital art, where objects are created or edited in the pixel level, which is the tiniest entity in a single object when it comes to digital art (almost like an atom to a piece of metal). Basically, pixel art is mainly used as graphics for most old computers, consoles, graphing calculators and mobile phone games.

Below is an example of old computers' GUI which, obviously, is pixelated. (It's hard to find screenshots of it, but attached is an example of a program used.)

MPX Linux

Pacman

Yes, Pacman is a well-known pixelated game played on PC. Next is an example of how graphing calculators' screen can show pixelated art (It's so amusing *_*):

Bird on graphing calc

Isn't that cute? Next comes gaming consoles, especially those like Gameboy Advance and Playstation (1):

               

                      Pokemon Red

Pokemon Fire Red

Who can forget about Pokemon? =u=

Maria Super Bros

Also, not to forget, there's also the pixelated GUIs of mobile phones used in the past (and some still used now) [As I said before, it's hard to find real shots of the items on the real devices, so here's a screenshot of the exact same game but from an Android phone]:

Snake on Android

"Pixel art" is a term published by a couple of researchers from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center named Adele Goldberg and Robert Feagel in the year 1982. With that being said, the concept has actually been created 10 years back. For example, pixel art can already be found in the SuperPaint system by Richard Shoup back in 1972. Besides, mosaic arts, bead arts, cross-stitches and the like are cousins to pixel art. Just as how pixel art works by pixels, those traditional arts work by boxes (mosaic), beads and so on.

Here's an instance; take Pikachu:

  

   

From left: Pikachu pixel art, Pikachu cross stitch, Pikachu beadwork

Don't they look somewhat similar?

In pixel art, there is also such thing called as spriting. This is where pixel artists create 2D pixelled items - be it characters, or objects - which will then be integrated into a larger scene. These 2D pixelled items are named sprites. Sprites are especially important when it comes to video games, as the system cannot compute too many pixels at the same time. Making sprites beforehand makes things much easier, and programming will be easier too. Here are examples of character sprites and their integration into games: 

Final Fantasy Human Character sprites

Final Fantasy II: Fighting Behemoth

Even now, there are still games that still use pixels as pixels have brought a big impact so far in terms of graphic interfaces and games. The following are examples on games played nowadays which utilize pixels:

The mass multiplayer online interactive game Habbo Hotel is a good example of how pixel art is used in games:

Habbo Hotel

Minecraft, which has been played by many players globally, appreciates the existence of pixels as much too, and places them in a 3D form which gives it a more modernized feel and enable players to navigate as how they do in first-player shooter games:

Minecraft

Tetris has been around since the olden days, and it has been revived when a programmer adds this game to Facebook's list of games and applications. Surprisingly, there are so many players who play Tetris that it is almost uncountable. As we can see in Tetris' boxes, it is inspired by pixel art; and in fact, the olden days' Tetris IS played in pixels! Here's a shot of Facebook's Tetris Battle:

Tetris Battle

Mass multiplayer online role-playing games like Maple Story and Ragnarok Online utilizes the use of sprites really well:

            

              Maple Story               Ragnarok Online

Ib is a horror game produced in Japan. It is indeed made in pixels, but it can still give the eerie vibe around it (I stopped right after chapter 2 because my heart cannot take it anymore). There are also other Japanese horror games which are pixelled such as Mad Father and Corpse Party. Here are screenshots for Ib for some illustration:
           

            Ib main menu                  Ib gameplay

Indeed there are many games that use pixels, and I can give more examples but this post is starting to get too long. XD Usually, the music that go along well with pixel art is usually 8-bit music! (These two are a couple made for each other >w<).

In any case of interest, here's a link to Baxalah's - a pixel artist who just LOVES pixel art - tumblr. He shares other works from pixel artists, as well as post his own pixel arts in his tumblr. Do open the link if you're interest, and enjoy the 8-bit music which is integrated in his tumblr too!

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆ http://baxalah.tumblr.com/ ☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

(**≧∇≦)/

That's all for this post ! Cheers!~

Disclaimer: Quite an amount of the notes such as definitions and history and facts are paraphrased from Wikipedia. It kinda hurts me inside to study from Wikipedia, but what other choice do I have, aye?

Pattern Design パテンデーザイン

Based on the design elements and principles I have researched, learnt and wrote about, I had created a pattern to apply the knowledge I have learnt.

In this pattern, I have obviously used the principle of repetition, where the sakura flowers are repeated in their respective rows. There is harmony in this design as similar shapes are used. However, it would have looked pretty boring if the flowers are exactly the same. In order to solve this problem, I used variation, where each row of sakura flowers are different from another row, which is illustrated in how the flowers are rotated and the pattern directions in the large sakura flowers.

The elements I used in this design are mostly made up of shapes and lines. The sakura flowers are the shapes I used, and the lines in the large sakura flowers are.. well, lines. The colors I used are also harmonious, which are red and pink, as these two colors are placed pretty close to one another in the color wheel.

Below is the pattern design that I had made:

That's all for this post. Cheers!

Photo Interpretation 写真判読

For this post, we were all instructed to choose a photo and interpret the photo and try to find the meaning or story behind the particular photo.

At this moment, I will be interpreting this photo:

Source: "untitled_55" by dihaze

In my opinion, this photo symbolizes calmness, peace, softness, beauty and loving. The bluish background exert a very calming, peaceful and non-chaotic atmosphere and makes me feel very cooled when looking at the photo. The softness of the photo can be seen in the usage of blur effects in the photo, and the lightly blushed cheeks. In addition, the lady is giving out a very soft type of facial expression, where it's very soothing and gives out a pretty neutral feeling when looked at.

Beauty is symbolized by the flowers on her head. I say that this photo has a loving atmosphere as the makeup the lady has on and the roses on her head are pink, which can symbolize love and care. Also, her soft expression is almost the same as how a mother looks at her child: full of love.


"A picture speaks a thousand words."

Colours 色。

This post will be all about my favourite colours, which are: black, red and green.

1. Black
Black is seen to be a secretive, mysterious, suspicious and powerful colour. By powerful, I do mean it. Look at the villains in most shows or animations, those dark characters tend to be able to bring down the main characters first before suddenly being defeated after the main characters received a shot of hope and energy. For example, Maleficient in the game Kingdom Hearts (also seen in Disney's Sleeping Beauty) assisted Riku, whom she managed to convince to join her side, all the way to the end where she almost gained full power over the worlds before realizing that a key item is missing. Was that black attire or the black scales when she turned into a dragon a coincidence? Maybe not, as her heart is as dark and powerful as her very own attire/scales.

In psychology, black is said to symbolize protection from emotional stress from the inside. It helps in keeping everyone and everything away from oneself, thus providing comfort and alone time to the individual (Scott-Kemmis, 2009). It's like the moments when you just feel so stressed out and want to be away from people, and you lock yourself in an empty egg (or cupboard lol) and all you see is black, black, black.

"Trapped" by bluecafe3

The picture above illustrates the point on building barriers to enclose self from the surroundings. Physically it may seem very torturing as you can't see anything in the dark, and is squeezed tied in the small, dark space. However, you can feel a sense of comfort when you take a break from the ever-too-colourful world by retreating into the black and dark world for a moment.

"Concept: The Black Stag" by Panimated

Black symbolizes mysteriousness as well as coolness and in some cases, clarity. In the picture above, it is indeed clear that it is a stag facing us as its silhouette shows clarity in determining its true form (revealing the shape precisely; therefore enabling us to figure out its structure). Black is also a cold colour, as it is the disappearance of all light sources, and a stag (or just deer in general) is a calm creature. That symbolizes the coolness this shade of colour has. This painting also has the element of mysteriousness as we are able to see the silhouette at the front, but little do we know if it is a lion cub, or panther, or lemur. The feeling of confusion the dark silhouette leaves us with gives out this aura of mysteriousness.

2. Red
Red is a colour of passion, love, seduction, hate and anger. Red is also a colour which can build appetite, such as in the colour of apples. The colour red also symbolizes boldness and strength within a subject.

In my eyes, red symbolizes blood, hate and revenge. Red objects such as lips, roses, or even red flags, are seen in my eyes as related to actions and feelings of hate and revenge, and are bathed in blood. Seeing red makes me feel agitated and aroused, which allows large amounts of energy to be built up inside me, enabling me to do work at a faster pace.

"Rose Red" by stuntkid

In the painting depicted above, I see a bold and strong Rose Red (who is the sister of Snow White btw). However, I see her with a twist in it. In my eyes, I see Rose Red as a strong lady, but is highly envious of shy and demure Snow White who is loved by the public. Due to her high levels of envy, she finally murders Snow White, and her hair and rose-covered dress, which are already red, are stained with a brighter shade of red from her sister's blood. Hence, it symbolizes strength, boldness, hate, anger, revenge and also a burst of strong energy (it takes a lot of willpower and strength to actually kill off a close relative).

"Background 18" by ElenaDudina

In the photo by Elena above, it beautifully symbolizes boldness and strength of the colour red. The colour red on the ceilings, floors and pillars are very glaring, which gives a vibe on boldness. Strength can be seen in the pillars which stand strong, in addition to the colour.

3. Green
Green brings upon the meaning of life, energy, rejuvenation, and nature. It is often associated with harmony, growth, freshness, fertility and safety. Beside, it is also linked to envy, greed, money, and ambition (Bourn, 2011).

Green is a very harmonious and peaceful colour, and it feels really great to the eye. I feel very calm and cleansed inside out when I look at the colour green. It really takes my breath away. Below is a photo I snapped when I was in King's Park, Perth back in 2010:

When I looked at the grass there, it literally took my breath away, and the only thing on my mind was to lie down on the grass, roll around and relax (ahh enjoyment).

Besides, green can also symbolize hope, adventure and renewal.

"Stairway in the green" by gokate1

In the photograph above, it pretty much says that green gives us hope and leads us to newer and better lives. The surrounding green forest in the photo also shows tranquillity, where as the lady goes up the stairs towards a better life, she feels the sense of achieving nirvana.

In addition, green can symbolize greed, envy and shame, in contrast to it symbolizing freedom at the same time.

"I never meant to cause you trouble." by saratheresee

Implying what I have said earlier, this photo shows the shame of a girl who had caused a commotion with a closed one. The commotion may be caused by envy or greed, as the shade of green in the background is duller than other shades of green, and has this pressure on them which makes one feel like they had committed something wrong when they look at this shade. The photo also has an element of freedom, as the girl heads towards the greener parts of the forest; and the broken tape tied to her ankles symbolizes the breaking away from shame and guilt.



That is all I can explain for my three most favourite colours. Thanks for viewing, and have a nice day.

References:
Bourn, J. (2011). Color meaning: Meaning of the color green. Retrieved from http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-green
Scott-Kemmis, J. (2009). Understanding the meaning of colors in color psychology. Retrieved from http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/meaning-of-colors.html

Design Principles デーザインの原則

Design principles are applied to artworks to create a balanced and harmonious piece, after the use of more basic structures called design elements. Design principles consist of balance, gradation, repetition, contrast, harmony, dominance, unity, movement and variety.

1. Balance

Balance is responsible for creating a psychological sense of equilibrium (Kovalik & King, n.d.). In design, balance is used to place the portions of an artwork into an aesthetically pleasing arrangement that is pleasing to the eye. A formal balance is created when both sides of a piece of artwork are symmetrically arranged, like a mirrored image. An informal balance is created when there is still balance in the artwork although the sides are not symmetrical. The following artworks depict formal balance and informal balance respectively:

「宇宙の海に月明りの灯台を」/「tearfish」

The painting above shows a formal balance, where axis of balance is diagonal. The Earth on the right is balanced out by the moon and Saturn on the right.

「sputnik」/「tearfish」

Now, the painting here has an informal balance, where the painting is not symmetrical. However, balance is still achieved by using more compact star arrangements on the left and adding some textures onto the background.

In addition, there are three main types of balance, namely: horizontal balance, vertical balance and radial balance.

2. Gradation

Gradation helps create movement and perspective in a drawing. According to Lovett (1999), gradation in size and direction helps produce a linear perspective, while gradation of color from warm to cool or of tone from dark to light helps create an aerial perspective. When there is a gradation of tone from dark to light, the eye will automatically follow or move along the shape.

3. Repetition
Repetition, as the word depicts, is all about the repeating and the placing of the same object over and over again across a space. Repetition can seem very monotonous and dull, but with the use of variation in repetition, it can become a very interesting piece. Here's a piece of art by a Japanese pop artist, Takashi Murakami, who uses a lot of repetition as well as a bit of variation in his pieces:

Source: Takashi Murakami

4. Contrast
Contrast is made where two totally opposite elements such as colors or tones are used to create a bright and vibrant image where our eyes will instantly focus on. Contrast in colors refer to the opposite colors on the color wheel, such as red-green, blue-orange and yellow-purple. In terms of contrasting tones, it will mean dark and light tones. Contrast in direction refer to vertical or horizontal lines.

5. Harmony
Harmony refer to almost similar objects placed together to create a harmonious atmosphere. Harmony can be created by combining similar and also related elements, such as adjacent colours on the wheel (red-orange-yellow, etc), similar shapes and so on (Lovett, 1999). In other words, harmony can be achieved by using repetition and rhythm (Kovalik & King, n.d.).

6. Dominance
Dominance is where an element, amongst all the other elements, stand out and catches the viewers' eyes (Lovett, 1999). It makes a piece interesting as it creates counteracting confusion and monotony. Besides, it also helps give emphasis onto certain objects. Dominance can be applied by creating a dominant direction, larger sizes or a single different shape.

7. Unity

Unity is used to illustrate the relationship between and amongst the elements which then helps all the elements to form a single entity with the same function (Kovalik & King, n.d.). In simpler words, unity works like a large board of jigsaw puzzle, where all the elements (every piece) are joined together by unity to form a single object of the same function (a puzzle with image).

Unity helps make a painting look organized and not messed up. It can be achieved by using similar shapes, similar patterns, proper use of spaces, or a common background.

8. Variety

Variety creates contrast to harmony and also unity (Kovalik & King, n.d.). Variation can be created by using strong or opposite contrasts, different size, perspective or angles on an object. Breaking a certain pattern also helps create variation, and liven up the mood of the artwork. All in all, variety is formed when there is a difference in the objects which can catch the viewers' attention (Kovalik & King, n.d.).

Source: "Kaifaan Nomads' Settles" - Espen Olsen

Source: "Sunset and Dinosaurs" - Espen Olsen

In both the paintings above, there is harmony and unity in the background, where similar colors are used and they compliment one another well. Variation is created in the sudden appearance of the bright-colored tents amidst the greeneries, and the dinosaur silhouettes amongst the layout of nature.


That is all for this post ! Cheers again!~

References:

Kovalik, C. and King, P. (n.d.).  Visual literacy.  Retrieved from http://www.educ.kent.edu/community/vlo/index.html
Lovett, J. (1999). Elements and principles of design. Retrieved from http://www.johnlovett.com/test.htm