DESIGN PRINCIPLES

28/3/2018 - 27/6/2018 (week 1- week 14)

Alicia Lee Hui Min (0331719)

Design Principles

Exercises and Projects

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INSTRUCTIONS (EXERCISES)

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Exercise 1 - Contrast

Artwork for contrast

For this piece of artwork I decided to use colours to show contrast , I used red against blue to show contrast between a warm colour and a cold colour. I also decided to put two little kids in front of the circle to make them look like they were walking into the unknown together to make the piece more interesting. I placed the circle and the kids at the top right so that it is off centre and obeys the rule of third. Moreover , I also placed a line that goes through the circle in order to make the piece balance and not heavy on one side . This exercise gave me an opportunity to explore placing realistic things like humans against geometric shapes and it turned out pretty well and it also manage convey contrast nicely. The meaning behind this piece is that we are never alone even if it feels like we are all alone. There's always someone out there to walk this journey we call life together with us. In the pain and in the joy there will always be someone there for us.

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Exercise 2 : Gestalt

First piece

Second piece

These were the first two ideas that I had in mind. I changed it in the end because I thought that it might not have conveyed gestalt enough and that it wasn't very strong. The concept behind these two pieces was that I wanted to combine a mountain and a bear together though I'm not sure if anyone could tell that I placed the mountain at the mouth so that it looked like the teeth but at the same time it was also a mountain.

Final piece

In the end I decided to do a lighthouse as I could easily simplify it and make it gestalt. This idea was also inspired by a bible verse " You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16. I pictured a lighthouse shining on top when I thought of the verse and decided to use this idea for the gestalt exercise. I decided to frame up the lighthouse with a circle as it gave an illusion of looking through a periscope and I also used the colour blue to show some contrast between the yellow light.

During the critique session I received a comment that maybe I should have used a darker blue instead of the washed out blue. I did tried to use a darker blue but it ended up looking to harsh so I decided to change the colour to a lighter blue so that it comes off as a warm and soft light. I wanted the piece to be a warm tone because it fit the image I had in mind when I thought of the verse.

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Exercise 3: Emphasis

Final Piece

I chose to do emphasis and it can be clearly seen that the emphasis is on her hair as it is more brighter than the background though I think there's a bit of asymmetry to it. This piece again is inspired by a song, I always find myself doing pieces that are inspired by either songs or situations that I'm in. This piece was inspired by the song rise up by Andra Day. Particularly they were based on these lyrics.

And I'll rise up
High like the waves
I'll rise up
In spite of the ache
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousands times again
For you

I was inspired by it due to a women's conference that I attended a few months ago and  I suddenly stumbled upon the pictures from the conference and decided to paint this. All the plants represented all the anxiety and pain she went through but her expression showed how she was fighting and trying to rise above it with hope that things will get better.I wanted to emphasised her facial expression so I painted her hair , nose and cheeks orangey  red to lead the viewers eyes towards the girl and later on allow them to scan through the plants in the background. 

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Exercise 4: Texture

For this exercise, I decided to use acrylics in order to show texture. At first I wanted to do a thick acrylic painting as it would dry off and become hard which would show texture easily. But I felt that it was too straightforward and simple. Here are some of the samples of thick acrylic that I tested out.

Thick acrylic painting sample

So I decided to do a visual texture instead. I did some samples first to test out as I was completely new to acrylic and also painting on a canvas. Here are the samples.

First Sample

Second Sample

Finally after testing out on two canvases, I started to paint the final piece. Instead of using purely acrylic, I decided to use a water spray to spray parts of the canvas which later on created a smooth flow with interesting textures on it. I couldn't use a normal thick paper as it wouldn't hold the water well as I sprayed quite a lot of water.After drying the painting , I decided to add some gold metallic paint as it was a bit empty and for me the gold paint made the painting more eye catching in a sense where your eyes would look at the gold patches first.At the end of it I placed a quote that said "Breath in gratitude, exhale praise" which was what I needed as a constant reminder to be grateful for everything instead of focusing on the bad.I chose this quote as it was short and I could place it in the painting without it being the main attention.This was the final piece.

Final Piece

The final piece wasn't inspired by anything , it was mainly spontaneous and it reflected what I was feeling at that current moment.I'm not sure what people interpret from this , during the critique some people said that it was like an ocean and that the gold paint where rocks.For me when I was painting this I wanted to convey the feeling of peace that overwhelms all the anxiety and stress. The anxiety and stress was represented through some of the rough painted parts and as you look at it, it slowly dissolves into a smooth flow which represented peace. Where anxiety dissolved because of peace and all the voices just melt away.The quote in a way relates to the backstory of the painting for me as constant praise gives me peace and it helps to just melt away every anxiety and stress.Because when you have a grateful heart, you tend to focus on the good rather than drowning yourself in anxiety and stress.Also the gold paint represented God for me as He was like the stones that guided my steps and kept me anchored in the midst of the storm. This is the meaning behind the painting , people may see it as an ocean or I don't know what else but for me it was a representation of my current walk with God.

I don't want to offend anyone with this artwork but this was just what I was feeling at the moment and mostly all of my artworks revolve around my faith. 

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Exercise 5: Hierarchy

First piece

This was my first piece where I drew a girl with white pen and place some gold leaves and dots at the side with some origami flowers to show hierarchy. The flower and gold leaves stand out more and are seen first by the viewer before looking at the girl. During the critique, I was told that I should make the girl smaller in order to show hierarchy better.But since I used the gold leaf material and it was stuck on with hot glue I had to change my idea thus I decided to redo.

Final Piece

I decided to redo and paint a person covered by plants instead.I wanted to show hierarchy.The orange flowers stand out more thus the viewer would look at it first then the leaves then only the human. It took quite a lot of time to come up with this idea as I kind of had an art block and didn't really know what to do. I think that in comparison this piece showed hierarchy more than the first piece.

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Exercise 6: Dots and Lines

At first , I wanted to do a paper cut out artwork but it didn't really work out. Later on I decided to do mark making with watercolours.I tried out gouache but it didn't really succeed at the beginning so I decided to use watercolours instead.Here is the attempt on gouache.

Gouache attempt

I used that texture of the watercolour paper to do mark making whereby I painted circles and strokes then I pressed it on top of the paper and I also used my brush to make some other marks. This was the outcome.

Paper used to print on

Outcome

Later on I tested out with more materials where I used a cotton bud, scrubbing brush, cotton ball, a rubber brush used for cooking. The outcome was much better than the first one in my opinion as it looked more vibrant and playful and fun while the first one looked more stagnant.

Final Outcome

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Exercise 7: Rhythm

I wanted to do rhythm so the first thought I had was floral patterns on wrap dresses so I decided to search up some clothes pattern here are some references. 

 


In the end I decided to draw a human together with the chosen floral pattern on her dress to show rhythm as it is repetitive. I decided to go with red as it goes together with her skin tone. During the critique , someone pointed out that her facial expression also showed movement as her eyes were looking in a direction where the blank space was and the placement of her figure suggested movement more as there was space for her to look at.My piece showed both rhythm and movement.

Final piece

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Exercise 8: Shapes and Forms

For this exercise I decided to do it digitally. At first I wanted to do a illustration of a girl in a train as it showed ground and figure but as I was doing it , it didn't turn out too well so I decided to scratch the idea and do something else. This was the train illustration.

Train Illustration

So in the end I decided to do a pattern in circles for shape and form. I was heavily inspired by the album art for blurry face by twenty one pilots.This is the album art.

Blurryface album cover

Using that inspiration I decided to make something similar but with pastel colours and different patterns that are commonly seen on clothing or anywhere. The colours are very soft and subtle which was very different from the inspiration whereby the colours were dark and harsh.I also used textures for certain circles to make it more interesting and less flat.This is the final outcome.

Final Outcome

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PROJECTS

Project 1
For my self portrait, initially I wanted to draw my face and add some florals behind but I felt like it wasn't meaningful and it felt very shallow so I decided to change my idea.In the end I decided to draw my silhouette with gold florals growing inside and the background is pages of my old childhood books.This is the final outcome.

Final Outcome

This is the final outcome. The story behind this piece is that I'm a positive person and the flowers growing inside for me represented hope cause I'm a hopeful person and hope stands out in the midst of darkness just like how positive thoughts are trying to fight through the dark thoughts thus the contrast in colour and the application of the design principle contrast. I also used childhood books to place behind as the background cause initially it was too empty. Initially it was just to fill up space and I thought the theory behind it would be me loving to read but as I thought carefully I remembered that I love to reminisce a lot which justifies the use for my old childhood book. I don't just reminisce about my childhood but also events that left a mark in my life. Another story behind the flowers is that it shows growth for me that I'm still growing and maturing as a girl mentally and spiritually.The design principle rhythm was also shown through the flowers. I hope that my feelings got through this artwork as I was genuine when did this . 

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Project 2
For the second piece I decided to use my church as the chosen place. I decided to try out different ways of execution. at first I tried to illustrate the people first instead of collaging. This is the try out.

Trial

Trial

But as I did it, it didn't feel right and it looked a bit odd, so I decided to do a picture collage. I used pictures of people from my church and instead of using the architecture of the place I decided to use people as for me it was the people that made the place not the architecture. The mood I was going for was peace and joy, the pictures I used were dark as these were pictures taken during the worship session and its my favourite time during service , I love the sermons but during worship , its amazing how peaceful I feel and also how everything just fades away. I also used the words home at the centre because to me church was home .The pictures weren't taken by me , they were taken by the photographers from my church because its rude to take out my phone to take pictures during the service so I had no choice but to do so and the word home was a logo that was constantly used last time and I thought it perfectly showed how I felt there. In a way this was a collage but edited version, it took a lot of test try and also changing in the opacity and effects. At the end I added some light effects of bokeh fairy lights and duplicated some pictures with a lower opacity to give the blue effect on some of the pictures.This is the outcome.

First Outcome

Final Outcome

After looking at it for a while I decided to make some changes  to the design. Instead of using the mark , I decided to use words that someone had said about how they felt my youth was and he said " Church was home away from home". I really like how a short sentence expressed my feelings completely. I used a cursive font for these words as it gave a hand written feel which made it feel warm like how a home does. If you click on the picture and zoom in, you'll be able to see words which are lyrics from my current favourite worship song which is Touch of Heaven by Hillsong United. The design principle used in this piece is harmony as despite the different colours used , they all go well with one another. The second design principle used is hierarchy whereby you would at the words first before you look at the pictures. I've also incorporated the design principle contrast as the gold stands out from the dark background which catches the audience attention. I hope that this piece was able to convey all of my feelings properly.

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FINAL PROJECT

Process  

For the final project, Ms Sherry told us to get out of the house to explore the outdoors as we were going to need some billboard references in order to create a composition, which was our final project. I decided to use billboards that advertise food. It was hard to photograph them properly as I took it while I was in the car and it was in constant motion so the picture quality isn't the best.

Contrast, Hierarchy, Emphasis

Hierarchy, Direction, Placement, Figure and Ground, Perspective

Emphasis, Placement, Hierarchy, Ground

I also found some billboards for universities and decided to take some pictures of them for extra reference.

Hierarchy, Contrast

Contrast, Hierarchy, Placement

After analysing all the billboard pictures that I took, I decided to use elements in the billboard and also the environment and apply it into my final project. I used mostly the dutch lady billboard as a reference where I took elements of a room with people and also perspective. As for the elements from the environment I took inspiration from the warm environment as it was really sunny that day though it can't clearly be seen in the pictures taken. I wanted to create a composition that conveyed a warm feeling and at the same time showed little moments in life that people take for granted . I realised that many of us just complain and take small things for granted including me and I guess the message behind this artwork was also a reminder for me be grateful and appreciate the small moments in life cause they matter most. These are the sketches that I came up with for the final project.

1st Sketch

2nd Sketch

3rd Sketch

In the end I went with the sketch with the bedroom as it felt more relatable to others as we mostly spend time in our room to cool off and just unwind from the day. This is the inspiration I got and also some visual references that I used for the room.

 INSPIRATIONS 

 VISUAL REFERENCES 

This is the process for painting this piece.

Sketch

Final Outcome

I wanted to create a composition that conveyed a warm feeling and at the same time showed little moments in life that people take for granted . I realised that many of us just complain and take small things for granted including me and I guess the message behind this artwork was also a reminder for me to be grateful and appreciate the small moments in life cause they matter the most. And I also wanted the viewer to find  comfort as they see this piece and also help them to realise the little moments in life that matter. The design principles used in this piece were perspective, figure and ground, harmony.