Week 1 - Week 14 : 3 Aug 2021 - 28 Nov 2021
Tan Yi Yun
0345559
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
0345559
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Final Compilation and Final Reflection
Click on the links to view the design process :
EXERCISE 1 : Gestalt Theory and Design of Contrast
 | |
|
Horse and Koi , one is mammal while another one is fish, one lives on land and the other one lives in water. They are different, in terms of size, shape, habitats, food... but these do not stop them from being friends. It is interesting to imagine the friendship between the little koi fish and the strong, spirited horse. Both are my favourite animals and I love the idea of combining both of them in my artwork.
 |
| Figure 1.2, Final submission - Contrast, "A Pot of Life and Death", Week 4 (14/9/2021) |
Life and death, the inseparable concepts that everyone will encounter. Especially during this pandemic, we witness how fragile human lives are. Instead of using real human, plants are the best to represent life and death in a more calming manner. Black and white contrast are being applied in this artwork, as white resembles life and black resembles death.
EXERCISE 2 : Balance & Emphasis, Repetition & Movement
 |
| Figure 1.3, Final submission - Emphasis, "Where?", Week 4 (14/9/2021) |
Reflecting my own feelings, this gloomy and contemplative artwork is expressed in a simple way, no fancy stuffs —— only 3 colours, and simple human figures. Choosing chrysanthemum as the "parachute" is not intentional. But in fact, chrysanthemum is traditionally viewed as a death flower. People are falling from the sky from nowhere, having no idea where to go. Where are we going? Am I the only one who is conscious in this world?
 |
| Figure 1.4, Final submission - Movement, "Acrylic Fluid Art", Week 4 (14/9/2021) |
Sprinkling and pouring paint on the canvas is just soothing and mesmerising. Each piece of acrylic fluid art is unique because the paint creates various irregular lines and markings on the canvas. Layers of acrylic paint are poured, which then react with each other when combined to create organic movement and free-flowing abstract compositions.
This is my first time experimenting with different forms of art and I really enjoy creating abstract painting.
EXERCISE 3 : Harmony & Unity, Symbol & Word and Image
 | |
|
A cat (-bun) and a (roundy) bird are resting on the mushroom-like tree canopies. Warm colour palette is used to portray a warm, cozy afternoon. All of the elements (animals, trees, fruits) come together in a unified way. The different levels of tree canopies and the colour usage add variety to this piece of art, keeping it from looking monotonous and boring. The resonance of similar organic shapes, as well as the repetition of colours, are harmonious in this work of art.
I would like to stand under the trees and immerse in this peaceful atmosphere for a moment, would you?
 | |
|
This is an arbitrary symbol I created to remind myself about rest. The heart is placed in the centre, it represents our mental health, our heart, our emotions that need to be take care of. The lightning symbol, resembles "charge", is purposely joined with the heart to make it looks like a heart cracking, further emphasis on the importance of taking time to heal your heart. The circle around the heart indicates the circulation or recharging.
In this fast-paced technological era, people tend to overwork, staring at screens all day and night until they forget to rest. Many are not aware that rest is vital for mental health. Sometimes, we have to unplug ourselves from the busy world for a moment.
Take time to rest, recharge and restore.
PROJECT 1 : Self-portrait
 |
| Figure 1.7, Final submission - Self-portrait, "My Contradictions and I", Week 8 (15/10/2021) |
I expressed my feelings, my thoughts, my preferences, my past experience and even my current struggles in this artwork.
Holding a Chinese calligraphy brush, I am painting of my self. I forgot the last time I smile. The veins are slowly wrapped around me. Where is the end? I couldn't find yet. The unknown fragments, the smoke, the glowing bubbles, they are the past, but they are here now. The flowers are blooming. It is difficult, or impossible, to grow on ice. Is this a resemblance of growing in the adverse and hard situation? No matter what, the ice will melt one day.
Humans are full of contradictions, so am I.
PROJECT 2 : Sense of Place
 |
| Figure 1.8, Final submission - Sense of Place, "外婆家" ("Grandmother's House"), Week 10 (26/10/2021) |
This is a familiar place —— my grandmother's house. It is located at Penang. My grandma's house is huge and spacious, maybe because it is a corner house, or maybe I am still a little girl in the big family.
In my memory, my grandma's house is always lively. Although my family and I live in Johor, we still drive there two to four times a year (10 hours drive, it is crazy!). We also celebrate Chinese New Year every year in Penang, but this year is an exception. This is the one and only time I didn't celebrate Chinese New Year with my relatives. I miss everything in Penang, the food, the people, the cheerful atmosphere.
The Chinese poem expresses the feeling of missing and sending the best wishes for the relatives far away. It means "we hope that we can stay together forever, no matter how far apart we are." I think it fits this scenario as I really wish we could have a gathering at my grandma's house after the pandemic is over.
FINAL PROJECT : Visual Analysis
 |
| Figure 1.9, Final submission - Visual Analysis (Design), "The Awe of Nature", Week 14 (23/11/2021) |
Rationale
There is a girl praying in the forest. She sits in the lotus pose of meditation in front of the hollow of a gigantic tree. Mystical and majestic, tree is seen as ancient beings. A great energy is believed to flow through them, mystically connected to human spiritually. In this artwork, the tree is portrayed as a sacred tree. Its boughs and buttress roots are growing in all directions, symbolise the full potential of its power on living creatures. There could be an altar in the glowing, mystery tree hollow. The sunlight penetrates through layers of leaves, is a metaphor of spirituality, creating the miraculous scene in a forest. The artwork is meant to evoke a sense of awe and transcendence for nature.
Design Concept
This artwork is inspired by Miwa Komatsu’s art expression on life and death and her vision of art will become a place of prayer. I admired her works truly reflects her connection to nature and its life cycles. After carrying out investigation on her art concept, I decided to go with the concept surrounding nature.
Whenever I am spending time with nature, to look at the sky, to watch the sunset, to walk at the park, I always have a certain emotion that is hard to describe. Now I realise it is the feeling of awe. No one can command nature except by obeying nature. I want to elicit the self-transcendence emotion, which is the feeling of awe towards nature so that human can realise their insignificance. When we aware how small we are, we will be grateful for the small things in life. We tend to focus on ourselves and easily stressed-out when we are not capable enough. It is important to evoke the feeling of awe and so, we can shift the attention away from ourselves, and see the people surrounded us. Experiencing awe will give an expanded sense of time, enhanced feelings of generosity and compassion. Getting closer to nature will recharge your body, your soul and evoke your feeling of connectedness with the world.
Design Principles
Approximate symmetrical balance is shown in this artwork. The composition and the weight distribution are nearly the same in both sides of the art.
The gigantic tree is placed in the centre, showing emphasis. The light source from the back also highlights its importance. The trees and foliage at the background are also growing upwards and towards the centre of interest.
Besides, the light sources coming from the back lighter creates contrast against the darker colour of trees to demand maximum attention. The tree hollow against the girl also has a contrast between light and dark. Contrast of size between the gigantic tree and the small girl further enhances on the smallness of human.
Movement can be seen at the boughs, roots and water flowing on the tree. The viewers’ eye is drawn on the centre on the art, and view along with the direction of the boughs. Then, the water flowing down will guide the viewers to look at the tree hollow and the rear view of a girl sitting in front of it. This also leads to a visual hierarchy where viewers will first look at the largest object (the tree), followed by the girl in front of the tree and the foliage at the background.
The colour scheme is more to the Earth tone. Most colours are toned down to get a realistic-looking colours. The repetition of lines on the trunk forms visual texture. There is also repetition of trees at the background to form depth.
FINAL REFLECTION
What have I learnt in this module?
Through this module, I have an in-depth understanding of design principles. I only know a few of them in my previous study of art in secondary school and foundation. Gestalt theory is very new for me, although I have heard once or twice during my foundation, I am not sure what it refers to at that time. This module gives me a better understanding of design principles. Since all the exercises are made for us to focus on one design principle, I learnt to apply my knowledge and express it as the most dominant design principle in my design. For the projects, I learnt to apply and identify the design principles as covered in previous exercises.
I also learnt to manage my time well. Although this module has lesser workload compared to other modules, I have to cope with quite a number of assignments at the same time. It feels stressful at the beginning, but slowly I adapted to the situation and finished them one by one before the deadline. I avoid doing things last minute because if anything goes wrong, I would not have enough time to fix it.
What did I enjoy the most?
I enjoy expressing myself and experimenting with different art mediums in every projects. I like traditional art mediums like ink painting, watercolours and acrylics. Surprisingly I have used all of them throughout this semester. I also enjoy creating digital arts. It is fun to be able to turn my ideas into a real drawing, no matter what art mediums I use. I think I would need to spend more time exploring the potential of digital art.
What did I not enjoy the most?
I wouldn’t say I hate or dislike any exercises or projects. But if I really have to say something I am not enjoying, I would say it’s the beginning of the semester. It is because I was confused on what to do. The only instruction given is to read from the Module Information Booklet. Unfortunately, we don’t have any class in Week 2 due to the public holiday. That means the first time we can see our classmates’ work is only on Week 3. After viewing my classmates’ work and getting feedback from Ms. Jinchi on Week 3, I finally understand what I need to produce to fulfil the requirements.
What have I learnt about myself through this module?
I would say I know better of my “working mode”. Normally I would prefer to work backwards, which means I would sketch my ideas first and then go back to the visual research to search for related images. But I think this method wouldn’t always work especially in Design Principles because I think my designs are lack of personal ideas and expressions. I know I need to explore more and spend longer time to research on my design direction. Slowly I spend longer and longer time to do visual research and idea exploration and sometimes it went beyond my expectation. With thorough investigations and exploration, my final designs become unique and meaningful. I learnt to get serious in connecting with my artistic soul with my art.
What has changed and what has not in my learning journey?
My design thinking has definitely changed. I tend to do what I first thought in mind without thinking it deeply : What is the purpose? Why I couldn’t replace this with that? Why I want to pick this colour? I remember Ms. Jinchi always ask us “why” during the consultation. Most of the time I don’t have answers in my mind. So, when I write the blog, I really spend time to answer all the why(s). At the end of the semester, I can see my improvement in creating better designs.
I think my drawing skill has improved in this learning. I do have some experience working with inks, watercolour, acrylic and digital medium, but some of them I did not invest enough time to practice with. For example, before this I only create two to three original artworks using acrylics. I always want to create original artworks but I am fear of imperfectness. I seldom feel proud of my own works. But in this module, I managed to create and accept them with my heart and soul, and I am proud to say all these designs are “belong to me”. Especially in Project 1, which we get to explore ourselves, I searched for my old artworks and observed what I was trying to express at that time. None of the work is perfect, but because of their imperfectness, every work is unique.
If you would ask me what has not changed, I couldn’t think of any at the moment. Everything has changed positively. Maybe one thing that doesn’t changed is my passion towards art. Or maybe it changed too. I become more hopeful and more passionate about drawing. My contradictory personality hasn’t changed much too. But I believe only contradictions can produce friction and then sparks. Both must live together.
What could be improved in this module?
Before answering this, I would like to thank Ms. Jinchi in providing everyone detailed feedback in each of the assignments. Ms. Jinchi is one of my respected lecturers because of her patience in guiding us throughout the journey. She is responsible in teaching and pay equal attention on every student. This makes a student feels special if a lecturer would remember your name no matter how hard your name to pronounce. Once I was sick, she was very concern about my condition and asked me to see doctor if needed (I think she told me three times on the same day :D) (To add on : Yea I went to see doctor that day :D and I am okay now). This warms my heart and at the same time I feel more motivated to produce the best design I can. At Week 14, Ms. Jinchi was not feeling well, but still she continued the class and gave feedbacks to everyone as usual. I hope you feel better now, Ms Jinchi!
Back to the question, I think there is nothing much I could suggest to improve. The workload is okay for me. Maybe just provide a clearer instruction during the beginning of the class so that we can get ready to start our very first exercise. If possible, I think sharing an artwork during each class to let students identify the design principles would be great in helping students to further understand the theory, and have more interaction between one another (class unity hehe).
Thank you Ms. Jinchi for your hard work, hope to see you in campus next year!