14.2.2022 - 25.2.2022
Final Project
Content
Final Project
Instructions
Visual Analysis
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| fig 1.1 @Alzi米's works |
The artist that I have picked for my Visual Analysis is Alzi米 on Twitter.
Her works mainly consist of fanarts of games ( mostly Fire Emblem & Legend of Zelda, which both I love A LOT). She does both traditional and digital art, and while both are amazing, I find her digital works to be extremely phenomenal. She really manages to capture the ambience of the scene and portray them very well in her works. Even more so if you've played the games and understood the context.
Enough fangirling, here's the piece I decided to use for my analysis. (Never have I anticipated writing essays for design but here we are)
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| fig 1.2 "一支不怎么优雅的舞" trans: A clumsy waltz |
Observation
If I were to name this piece, I think "Take Me Dancing" would sound perfect. This piece is an illustration of a merry scene of villagers dancing, with the focus on a dancing couple. We can make out villagers of all ages & genders in the crowd. The piece mainly consists of darker neutral colours with a brown and blackish hue.
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| fig 1.3 blueish hues used at the buildings |
Besides the buildings in the background that are coloured in with grey-ish blue hues, most parts of the piece are made up of warm colours, which contributes to the cozy atmosphere. I would say that the piece has a cottage core aesthetic to it, and all the people besides the main couple are wearing similarly styled clothing, tying them together. The main couple is drawn in more detail than the others so they stood out more.
Analysis
The artist has successfully implemented emphasis towards the main couple in the artwork. There is a hierarchy present as well, where you will first focus on the main couple, then on the flames followed by the rest of the villagers and the buildings at the back. Despite a strong contrast present between the brightly burning flames and the darker, duller surroundings, the artist has taken advantage of the usage of foreground and background to stress what she wanted to emphasize. In this case, the couple was in the foreground while the flames and everything else was in the background. Hence, despite the strong contrast, the viewer will still focus on the couple first. Harmony and unity were also implemented where the same colour groups were used and several elements like the dancing villagers and buildings were repeated, giving the piece rhythm and movement.
Interpretations
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| fig. bonfire dance |
Bonfire dancing was a common practice in the past often used in traditional rituals and celebrations. One of the most common rituals performed was warding off witches by lighting us a pyre.
I believe the artist used bonfire dancing to represent a celebration, where the characters have returned from a quest after claiming their victory.
Extra reading & references :
Visual Analysis & Idea Exploration
One of the things I love most about Alzi's art is the way she plays with the lighting in her pieces. Her pieces tend to have a stronger light source that illuminates the rest of the piece. I wanted to create something similar, too.
I plan to use a cool and dark colour scheme for my piece, something I've never attempted before. The piece was also inspired by a Taylor Swift song "Out of The Woods".
To challenge myself more, I decided to do the piece digitally as I've only attempted to make a complete digital art the grand amount of 1 time. ( see: exercise 2 ) If time permits, I want to try animating the piece and create a gif with the fire moving. Idk, I'm feeling a lil ambitious rn. I better get started.
Alzi has an anime art style and I too, am comfortable with the anime art style so I decided to stick with my usual art style. I can't comprehend so many new challenges at a time. Baby steps.
Progress
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| fig 2.1 1st sketch |
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| fig 2.2 2nd sketch |
My main theme going on here is that "monsters turned out to be just trees". Flipping the piece vertically, it gave me more space to add some shadows to the piece. Now I look at it, the shadow of the girl didn't make sense. What was I doing?
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| fig 2.3 bad ideas bad decisions |
And so I started adding colours. The shadow is still wrong but iT's JuSt tHe DrAfT I'lL AtTemPt tO FiX iT lAtEr. (spoiler: it was a terrible attempt, but an attempt nevertheless)
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| fig 2.4 It's Tuesday already |
The glow up of the girl from the sketch?? Friendship ended with round brush. Soft round airbrush is my new best friend now.
I really need to stop procrastinating or my overly ambitious ideas would never see light. And who am I if not overly ambitious?
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| fig 2.5 The sky |
The sky might've been my favourite part of the painting. Had a blast smacking all the shading onto my flat colours, but I do admit everything felt a bit rigid. I really need to brush up on my digital art skills.
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| fig 2.6 eyes eyes baby (girl stop) |
If my favourite part was the sky, my least favourite is the eyes. I can't seem to get it right. I've tried different variations all of them looked so out of place. I can't NOT draw them, since they're part of the whole deal going on here, but man, I sure did HOPE I could just forget my concept and give up on the eyes.
✨THE ANIMATION✨
This is my first time attempting to animate anything at all and news flash! It's already Thursday! If you're still seeing this part of the blog then it means that I've managed to conjure something up enough to pass as a sad excuse of animation. Fingers crossed.
Update: I did it. It's not perfect, but I did it.
Final Outcome
The Monsters in Me
GIF
Video ( Campfire crackling ASMR 🔥)
audio source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQPdYRh3CME
Rationale
The real monster is me.
The main concept of this piece is that the biggest monsters are our own fears. On the upper half, we can see eyes amongst the trees and the girl staying close to the only light source, in hopes of keeping her away from the monsters. On the lower half, however, we can see in the shadows that the monsters turn out to be just trees, and from the girl's shadow, we can see that her inner demons were the monster all along. In the gif, the shadow's eye is faded and is the only one that doesn't blink. I want to show that we may not always see our inner demons but they're always watching.
I think the main design principle here would be contrast, with the flames being bright, contrasting the otherwise dark surroundings. The main focus of the piece would be the girl and the fire, with them in the foreground and the trees in the background. There is a hierarchy in the piece too, where I want the viewer to see the upper half first before the lower half so they could see the whole picture and its story. All the eyes in the trees are looking towards the girl, too. The eye of the actual monster is looking at you.
Lecturer Feedback
Mr Charles has prompted me to think about what I was trying to convey with the piece. I gave it more thought before arriving at where I am now, which is very very different from what I initially had in mind. Feedback and advice are important, kids.Reflection
My 2nd attempt at digital art how are we feelin'? I'm not the proudest of my work but man am I proud of myself. Thank you design principles for forcing me to step out of my comfort zone. I've had my iPad and procreate for months but haven't done a single completed digital piece and now I've done 2 in the span of 7 weeks.
My colouring still feels stiff and rigid, but I'm slowly experimenting with more brushes and functions in procreate. Animating was not as complicated as I thought it would be, but it does require a lot of patience. I like it a lot, and I think I'll try it more in my future works. With that my final project is finally done! That was 2 weeks of procrastination hard work! Cheers!
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