I apologise to anyone who frequents my blogs for the late update. Had been a crunch time last 2 weeks to churn out mid term assignments and tests, and as a result I did my assignment a long time ago but only just managed to get started on the blogging process. This week's assignment was on a poster: Save, Prevent, Kill.
Well initial ideas were plentiful:
Save: Promises
Tears
Your Breath
Money
Lives
Prevent: Crime
Discrimination
Cloning
Vandalism
Kill: Bugs
Well, after initial brain storming, I decided that kill was too strong a msg to carry across without being extreme: you generally have to kill an object that is real and exists, and any such msgs are debatable at best. Well, I went for cloning, for the simplicity of the idea. Human Cloning has alway been a big topic and as of this time of post, has not been fully recognised, even as scientific research. And the results for its full blown use is catastrophic. Imagine 2 hitlers, 3 Osama's or 4 Bush's running around... you get the idea. So well on with creating the images...
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Hitler First look.
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Well, Why Hitler? Many might ask this question. Well, the answers could be many fold. Firstly, Singapore, and in particular, the younger generation has been much influenced by the western (in particular, the American) culture. Many shows have protrayed hitler close or very close to being one of the most symbolic "evil" people of all time. That aside, Hitler is also prolific as one of the most improtant people in modern history for his actions notably in genocide of the jews as well as the starting of the second world war, which horrors have laid scars til this very day. Nuclear weapons were invented and used in that war, and brought a new threat to humankind. If you think about it, what would happen if someone were to start a war that involved the world and used nuclear weapons to that effect? The scary proposition of that idea is the simple truth to how close that idea might be true.
Well, enough ranting about history, other people whom I rejected were: Osama, Bush, COmic Super heroes, etc. Simple reason being this: All these people surely made their name known world wide, but their "evil"ness is pretty subjective and thus only affect certain people. The same could be said of Hitler of course, but it is undeniable that he caused despair to his people alone: he dragged almost the entire globe along in his aspirations. I can also see now that this would be a very debatable topic. And somehow, this is interesting to me. I wonder what others would see. This would surely arouse interest.
The drawing of Hitler was not that tough, though I'm still not that happy with how it turned out. The smile had to have a self-knowing, evil smile with a certain confident, madness smurk to it. That I think I managed alright. I wanted the background to be black, to be a solemn feel, and probably use red to emphasize the serious feeling.
Understanding Dr Reddy's lecture's points gave me pretty many useful insights on this. Firstly, I would bring the figure to the center, so that it is perfectly balanced, and probably mirror it in the center to give the picture its balance. The two figures would look outwards towards the viewer as a form of challenge, as well as too retain the viewer's attention to the poster. Contrast by colour is also used, with the brighter colours in the fore ground, and the black silhouettes of the other cloned figures showinga detail of the enormity of the cloning process. The nazi flag would serve as a secondary point of focus to show his revived aspirations taken literally from the grave. The words are simple: Save humanity - Prevent Human Cloning. Simple words to keep the viewers attention withinthe picture and with just enough emphasis on the top and bottom to keep the viewer focused to the central image. Care is taken to ensure that the details of the silhouettes do not accidentally lead the viewer out of the poster.
This is what I achieved in the end:
Overall, I am satisfied with how it turned out, although it might be a little plain.
What do you think?