Week 11 - Week 14 : 2 Nov 2021 - 29 Nov 2021
Tan Yi Yun
0345559
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
0345559
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Week 11 - Week 14 / Final Project : Visual Analysis
LECTURE
Visual Literacy
The basic definition of
visual literacy
is the ability to read, write and create visual images. It is a concept that
relates to art and design but it also has much wider
applications.
It is a method of understanding design that focuses on the visual elements
and principles. In its strictest definition - a description and explanation
of visual structure for its own sake. Yet, its purpose can also recognise
the choices that a designer made in creating the design, as well as to
better understand how the formal properties of a design communicate ideas,
content or meaning.
Visual Analysis
Visual analysis is a critical part of visual literacy, a skill that helps
people read and critically interpret images, whether in a museum, on social
media in entertainment, advertising or the news. Practising visual analysis
sharpens critical jusgement skills and helps people seek our answer instead
of passively receiving information.
How does Visual Analysis work?
There are 3 phases :
Phase 1 - Observation
Phase 2 - Analysis
Phase 3 - Interpretation
Observation
Means closely looking at and identifying the visual elements of a design,
trying to describe them carefully and accurately in your own words. Do not
read beforehand about the design at all. It is about looking, thinking and
finding good language to communicate what you notice.
We shall not assume the subject matter/ the meaning behind them, and
most importantly, use our own words to describe it.
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| Figure 1.1, Phase 1 - Observation, Week 10 (30/10/2021) |
Analysis
Analysis requires you to think about your observations and try to make
statements about the work based on the evidence of your observations. Think
about how the specific visual elements that you have identified combine
together to create a whole, and what effect that whole has on the viewer.
Answer these questions : How your eye is led through the work and why? Apply
the Design Principles knowledge you have learnt throughout these
weeks.
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Figure 1.2, Phase 2 - Analysis, Week 10 (30/10/2021) |
In this stage, your observations, description and analysis of the work are
fused with facts about the design work (and in some cases the designer) and
historical context that you find in trustworthy published sources. Answer
these questions : What is the meaning of the design? What was the purpose
for it to be created?
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| Figure 1.3, Phase 3 - Interpretation, Week 10 (30/10/2021) |
INSTRUCTION
Final Project : Visual Analysis
We are to utilise our understanding of design principles found in the
design work. This project requires the students to assess, investigate,
document and analyse a design material (billboards/ illustration/ television
commercial/ movie clip) of our choice. We should notice, size, placement,
purpose, effectiveness, as well as aspects of design principles found in
that work.
Thereafter, we are to produce a work of design, inspired or influenced by
the one they studied on, or as a reaction to it. They should also apply the
knowledge of design principles in their design.
Part 1 : Visual Analysis
Visual research
Marco Mazzoni
The colour pencil artworks by Marco Mazzoni attract my attention. I
seldom encounter this surreal kind of artworks that are produced using
colour pencils. They give me the feeling of tense and gloomy by looking
at their expression. I think this is because of the black that acts as
the moodsetter in these 3 artworks.
I did a little bit of research and found that Marco Mazzoni is a
Milan-based Italian artist, originally from Tortona. He is known for
working exclusively with coloured pencils, making highly intricate
drawings of flora and fauna that pertain to the ancient art of
healing. Each drawing is saturated with metaphors that tell their
story.
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| Figure 2.1, Coloured pencils work by Marco Mazzoni, Week 10 (30/10/2021) |
Takashi Murakami
In Figure 2.2 (right), I was attracted by its exaggerate facial features,
so I decided to find out more of Takashi's artworks. I found that he has a
unique art style, which are extremely colourful and has repetitive
motif.
According to the article published in
The Broad, Takashi Murakami is one of the most visible and important Japanese
artists working today, and he is known for disseminating and promoting pop
art strategies in ways unforeseen by American critics and artists.
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| Figure 2.2, Artwork by Takashi Murakami, Week 10 (30/10/2021) |
Yosuke Ueno
I think Yosuke Ueno's art is cute because of his cartoonist characters (as
shown in Figure 2.3). His imaginative world is wild and adventurous . He is
a Japanese artist who is known as a specialist of symbolism and innocence.
He always start a new work without any detailed designs because he hope for
a piece to complete itself beyond his imagination.
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| Figure 2.3, Artwork by Yosuke Ueno, Week 10 (30/10/2021) |
Miwa Komatsu
When I was researching, I suddenly thought of an artist that I have
followed quite a long time in Instagram. She is
Miwa Kotmasu, one of the fine artists that I admire. I like the way she dipped herself
into paints, draw with her heart and soul and truly expressed herself
through art. There is a unique beauty on her white dress after she finished
a painting, unlike some of us (like me) who is afraid of paint stains on the
clothes. She had won several awards and held her solo exhibitions since
2013.
Her way of painting is unique as she prays both before and after drawing.
This is a way of expressing her hope that the "paintings will become a
place of prayer for many people."
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| Figure 2.4, Miwa Kotmasu, Week 10 (30/10/2021) |
Miwa Kotmasu's live performance
I noticed that her artworks are mainly surround on nature. Her work often
explores themes such as life and death, gods and spiritual beings. Her work
also has a unified aesthetic sense. I decided to analyse and interpret one
of her artworks for this project.
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| Figure 2.4, Art by Miwa Kotmasu, Week 10 (30/10/2021) |
Chosen Artwork
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| Figure 2.5, "All May Become Dragons", by Miwa Kotmasu, Week 10 (31/10/2021) |
Observation
This is a fine art in a landscape format. Rich colours are used, mainly
yellow, red, and green. There are also subtle used of violet and blue at
the lower part of the piece. The overall piece is composed by organic
lines. The outline of the illustration is generally even and thick, while
thinner lines can be found within the space created by the outlines, that
make the overall piece looks like an embroidery art. The focal point is a
dragon, surrounded by other animals such as fish, turtle, bird, which are
all pointing towards the centre. It took me awhile to notice that there is
a red smiling sheep creature at the left, and a blue crying sheep creature
at the right.
Analysis
The strongest design principle shown in this artwork is
approximate symmetrical balance. The weight distribution of the
visual elements is even, for example, the violet fish-like creatures are
horizontally reflected. There is repetition of lines throughout the
artwork, such as the dragon’s horns and the smoke coming out from its
nostrils, that also forms a visual texture. It is obvious that the
dragon is larger than other animals, which creates an emphasis. In
addition, it is the only creature painted in red so that it immediately
grabs people’s attention. The other animals are pointing towards the dragon,
which also guide the viewers’ eyes to the centre. The overall composition
shows a sense of unity as all the elements are arranged accordingly
and thus, oneness is formed. This artwork also has variety in terms
of colour and size. There are a variety of animals, all in different
colours. For instance, red dragon, violet fish and blue birds. The size of
animals ranges from the largest dragon to the smallest tortoise and fish.
Besides, the visual hierarchy is shown, with the dragon as the
starting point, followed by the smoke coming out from it, that leads to the
fish creatures and finally the birds on the top, which also creates a
visual movement.
Interpretation
This painting is done by a Japanese artist Miwa Komatsu in 2017. The
materials used are acrylic and gofun on canvas.
Her works are designed under the theme of mythical creatures. They are not
inspired by the long tradition of Japanese subtlety in painting, instead,
they are more to American pop art, graffiti culture or popular artists
such as Takashi Murakami or Jeff Koons. She uses her personal, as well as
traditional Shinto symbolism to direct her viewers to a more harmonious
and pure living, building upon the Japanese notion of communication with
nature as being an integral part of human life.
This painting depicts a dragon with huge eyes because she wanted to
reflect that shinju (Shinto creatures) can feel our heart and feelings.
The aggressive-looking creature is both auspicious and frightening in
Shinto teachings, and her work clearly tries to harness that contrasting
nature. Their big eyes of seeing the soul, include her desire to eliminate
the bad things hidden in the soul and protect the place as a
sanctuary.
In my opinion, the animals look like they are worshiping the "God" —— the
dragon in the centre. The Japanese dragon represents balance, freedom and
good luck. It is known to be spiritual, powerful and mighty, also seems to
have the supernatural power to control all living creatures in the
world —— from fish, tortoise, sheep, to birds in sky. The red smiling
goat and the blue crying goat might represent the emotions that we have,
and all is under the dragon's control. As the title of this piece is "All
May Become Dragons", I assumed that the message behind it is to believe in
God and perhaps one day, we can get closer to God's spirituality.
Reference :
Part 2 : Design
Research
My design direction is determined after long consideration. Initially I
wanted to create something about faith and belief, but I was a bit hesitate
because I didn’t plan to go for religious expression in my art. I did some
visual research on “praying” and picked some of them to be my mood board
#1.
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Figure 3.1, Mood Board #1, Week 12 (13/11/2021)
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I am inspired by Miwa Komatsu's art expression towards life and deaths.
She introduced spirituality and symbolism into her art. I want my artwork
to be meaningful and is able to evoke certain emotion, just like Miwa
Komatsu's belief of art as prayer.
Some keywords came into mind, such as "pray", "nature", "respect", and
"spiritual". After conducting a research (as shown in Figure 3.1), I
narrowed down the scope and concluded my design direction —— The awe
of nature. To be honest I didn't know much about the meaning of "awe" and
hence, I went for more in-depth exploration and analysis of this
emotion.
Awe, transcendence and nature
Awe is defined as a mix of fear, reverence and respect. Awe
happens when we realise the insignificance of our own existence. For
example, star-gazers are awed by the vastness of the universe.
An article about environmental psychology states that the wilderness is
one of the most widely recognized sources of transcendent emotion. Various
recent studies have demonstrated nature’s power to induce intense
emotions.
Self-transcendent emotions like compassion, gratitude, and awe,
refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human
consciousness, behaving and relating, to other species, to nature, and to
the cosmos.
Figure 3.2 shows the level of awe-inspiring increases when the
connectedness to nature increases. Figure 3.3 is Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs, that shows 7 steps to achieve self-transcendence, the highest level of human needs.
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| Figure 3.2, Relationship of connectedness to nature and awe-inspiring, Week 12 (13/11/2021) |
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| Figure 3.3, Seven steps to self-transcendence based on Maslow's pyramid, Week 12 (13/11/2021) |
Reference :
Experiencing awe in nature has a powerful effect on emotional
well-being
https://www.earth.com/news/experiencing-awe-in-nature-has-a-powerful-effect-on-emotional-well-being/
Transcendence and Sublime Experience in Nature: Awe and Inspiring
Energy
Experiencing Awe in Nature Makes You Kinder, Scientists Say
Awe makes us happier, healthier and humbler
The Science of Awe
Design Direction
In short :
- My design is inspired by Miwa Komatsu's art expression on life and death,
and her vision of art will become a place of prayer.
- My concept is to create a digital art with a theme of "The Awe of
Nature".
- The purpose is to elicit the feeling of awe towards nature, to realise
our insignificance.
- To evoke self-transcendence emotion, be kinder to others, be kinder to
the world.
- That leads to the feeling of grateful for the small things in
life.
- Be humble and shift attention away from ourselves.
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| Figure 3.4, My design direction, Week 12 (13/11/2021) |
This somehow similar, or like an extension of my previous artwork,
"Celebrate Your Smallness".
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| Figure 3.5, "Celebrate Your Smallness" by Tan Yi Yun |
Description :
I feel small.
People always feel too small to leave an impact. But, being small is a
fortune. I am small enough to stare at the sky, small enough to view the
majestic cities, and small enough to love this world.
Dream big, and spend time celebrating your smallness.
Visual Research
With a clearer design direction, I went for another round of visual
research. This time I focused on the majestic trees.
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| Figure 3.6, Mood board #2, Week 12 (13/11/2021) |
Design Process
I started to sketch my ideas using Clip Studio Paint Pro. To set up the
mood, I quickly painted the base colours.
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| Figure 3.7, Idea #1, Week 12 (13/11/2021) |
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Figure 3.8, Base colour for Idea #1, Week 12 (13/11/2021) |
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Figure 3.9, Idea #2, Week 12 (13/11/2021) |
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| Figure 4.1, Base colour for Idea #2, Week 12 (13/11/2021) |
I have done 2 sketches. Both has giant trees, with tree hollows, and a girl
is praying in front of it. After gaining feedbacks, I chose to work on Idea #2. I picked some of the colours from reference
photo and adjusted until I get what I want. Colour palette #1 is more
desaturated compared to colour palette #2, but I will combined both because
I wanted to add some saturated colours as the highlight.
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| Figure 4.2, Colour Palette #1, Week 13 (19/11/2021) |
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Figure 4.3, Colour Palette #2, Week 13 (19/11/2021) |
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Figure 4.4, Colouring progress, Week 13 (21/11/2021) |
At this stage, I turned my art into black and white to remove the distraction of colours because I wanted to focus on the subject and compositions. From here I can see that my art is lack of contrast, so I tuned the curves in Photoshop and observed the difference. I also realised the sunlight from the back is not obvious.
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Figure 4.6, Colouring progress, Week 13 (21/11/2021) |
In Week 14, Ms. Jinchi told me that the tree I draw looks like Ficus Microcarpa (if she's not mistaken). When I googled it, I was a bit confused because the pictures I found are very different from one another. Figure 4.6 shows Ficus Microcarpa is a huge tree. But in another article, it shows that Ficus Microcarpa is a small plant. Maybe Ficus Benghalensis suits more towards what I am looking for. (It is interesting to do a little research on plants)
Ficus Benghalensis : The traditional banyan tree commonly seen in landscapes is the Indian banyan, though the same name is also applied to other species of fig trees. Banyan trees are one of the species sometimes called strangler figs because of the way they grow—they can sprout in the holes and cracks of an established tree and over time grow around the trunk, gradually strangling it.
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| Figure 4.7, Ficus benghalensis taken from an article, Week 14 (23/11/2021) |
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I was not satisfied with what I have in Figure 4.5. The colours set the gloomy mood, but I felt something is missing. I asked my friend for opinion, and she helped me to find some interesting tree illustrations. Figure 4.9 shows one of the illustration she sent me. Then I realised I need to brighten up the light source so that the huge tree would look spiritual and sacred. Also, the leaves are not connected to the branches. They seem to be a layer of leaves covered on top of the tree.
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| Figure 4.9, Tree illustrations taken from DigiPen, Week 14 (23/11/2021) |
I made slight adjustments on the branches and roots. Then, I added more shades for the leaves and covered the branches so that both can be connected. I also added more foliage to add layering and depth to my artwork.
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| Figure 5.1, Design process (Overview), Week 14 (23/11/2021) *P.S. There is lose of quality and colour change when exported as GIF* |
I continued working for few hours and finally came up with the final artwork, "The Awe of Nature".
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Final Outcome
PDF submission - "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.
FEEDBACK
Week 11 :
Ms. Jinchi gave me some suggestions to improve my writing. For the
observation part, she said the word "elements" could be replaced with
"animals". For the analysis part, she said overall the artwork does not show
strong contrast. It would be better to include the repetition of lines since
it is quite strong in this design. I could use variety in place of contrast.
Ms. Jinchi said my selected design reminds her of Akiyoshi Nakamura's art.
Although his artstyle is a bit different from what I have chosen, she
recommended me to look at this artist's works as well.
Week 12 :
Ms. Jinchi said it is interesting to have my own
interpretation. For the last paragraph of interpretation, I can specify the region for the
meaning of dragon, such as the traditional Japanese dragon because it may be
different for other culture.
She thinks my writing opens to a lot of interpretation in terms of the
design I can create. In her opinion, she thinks the key is to strive to be
as flawless as possible. Maybe I can create an art that has symbolic
representation. She lets me to explore and decide on my own.
Week 13 :
Ms. Jinchi said it is enjoyable to go through my blog. She can see my
direction because I have labelled all stages very clearly.
Tree is a good metaphor for nature, and its shape (roots and branches)
helps to express its majestic looking. She said both of my sketches tell a
different narrative. But idea #2 has a stronger depiction of my
idea.
Week 14 :
Ms. Jinchi told me that the tree she wanted to mention last week is called Ficus Microcarpa (also known as Banyan). Back to my artwork, Ms. Jinchi asked me to add more foliage so that it can be more dense. The tree and water is rendered well.
REFLECTION
This is one of the my favourite projects because not only I have the freedom to create what I want, but also having a longer timeline to work on the final design. What is different from previous project is that we have 2 parts to do (visual analysis and create our own design). Although I have done 1 visual analysis during my foundation year, I still haven't master the techniques to thoroughly analyse an artwork. This project has definitely helped me to level up my observation, analysis and interpretation skills. I also learnt about the purposes of visual analysis, which are to recognise and understand the visual choices made by the artists, and also to understand what they intend to convey through their art.
For the second part of the project, I wasn't very satisfied with my work during the process. I looked for more references and asked opinions from my family members and friends so that I can make improvements. Finally, I produced a work I can be proud of. I always wanted to create realistic arts and I think this time I gained confidence to draw on my own. It is not easy to create original art for me because I tend to "steal badly" from other artists to learn how they draw. I also did not use eyedropper to pick colours from my picture references because I wanted to make my own palette. Every time I draw, I felt like I am a colour blind (although I am not) and always unsure about the colours I have picked. This time I am happy to be able to conquer my fear in picking colours. The final results went beyond my expectation and I am glad to see my improvements.