Skai's Thoughts

Assignment 6: Wow

2007-04-16T03:24:00.000-07:00

To wrap things up, the final assignment was relatively easy: to find a good and a bad poster. This wasn't that difficult, considering there were pretty professional ones out there. The real problem came from finding a really bad poster. And somehow, I think I hit the jack pot. This is the best (worst) poster that I could find.

Yep, you didn't see wrongly, this poster actually exist, and I didn't create it. The Good poster is another wonderful work by Tim Burton, named the Corpse Bride.

I suppose the difference in quality is really apparent, huh...?

Assignment 5: To Conclude

2007-04-16T03:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to admit it's been literally months since my update, due to the onslaught of projects galore. One good thing from all that is from the endurance you could build up, I suppose. However it literally drained my dry, so my post for this assignment is short.

This is the card that I made. Surprisingly, I got pretty good comments all around. People said the use of colours were great and formed a really nice contrast withe orange glow, which was the essence of the project: the use of colours. Some points I should try to change were: The initial size of the chair was too small at the back of the card, I could enlarge it, so that the front and back were symmetrical, forming a nice blend and closure from the back. Also, the insides of the card were not that nice, and the front has enough message to transmit what I wanted to say across, so the inside should be removed.

This is another nice card I made myself with my little figurine. I like the simplicity to it. What do you think?

Assignment 5: A simple card..

2007-03-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

Well, well, this had been a really interesting lecture I must say, and I really like this week's assignment. A Love Card! Wow..

haha well, the brain storming is a big headache to really list it, because I'm a Piscean, and Pisceans are known to be hopeless romantics. So well here are some of them:

- Beach
- Waves
- Stars
- Constellations
- Soft toys
- Cute little animals
- Simple love songs
- simple love stories
- deep insightful touching stories
- love song lyrics
- bearbears
- He/She views

Notice these are really generic themes, because I don't think it would be viable to list out all the nitty gritty details of all my ideas and even some that I have already done in the past.

Well, In the end I quickly zoomed into the essence of this project: I wanted the card to say soemthing about me. Something that says about my love values, my love perspective, as well as my devotion to someone I love. For that, I am going for a very mild, somewhat sweet and simple idea. I thought of a song which I really like:

歌曲：爱情复刻板
Song Title: Love Template
歌手：可米小子专辑：hey hah
Singer: 可米小子 Album: hey hah

老唱片听到一半突然有了灵感
I suddenly had a bout of inspiration, as I hear this old record
整理之前的混乱爱原来不难
Realising that it was not that difficult afterall, to clear out my thoughts.
Love is not that difficult, somehow, suddenly.
它存在太多虚幻终究是古老模样
Love consists of too many illusions, but ultimately, it is the same old concept
原来你要的是那么单纯而简单
So, all along, what you wanted had always been this simple and innocent..
在雨天为你撑着伞
To shelter you during the rainy days...
星期天陪你到海边踩踩沙滩
To walk with you on the sandy beaches on Sunday..

要给你最传统的浪漫闪着烛光的晚餐
I want to give you the most traditional romance, a simple candle-lit dinner
神奇的力量打开你平凡认真的心房
A miraculous power opening your loving, tender and serious heart
要给你最古老的幻想
To give you the oldest and simplest fantasies
扬起白色的风帆晒一晒久违的太阳
Sail you on a simple white boat, and enjoy the long-forgotten sun
我的求爱复刻版不用包装
My ideas on love need no packaging or beautifying,
呵护你不会偷懒
Just simply to protect you, to take care of you, and never be lazy in doing so.

无所谓老掉牙不需要时髦想法
It doesn't matter if one day you lose a tooth when we get old together, you don't need any fashionable new thoughts..
没创意不需害怕真心看见了吗
You don't have to be afraid if you aren't creative, just take a look, can you see my sincerity?
山顶上公园的花卡片那句情话
The flowers in the garden on top of the hill, that simple line in that card,
真爱的表达还是热咖啡能催化
Those feelings are simple expressions of my love and how I shower you with love in my own ways.
天黑了陪你走回家
To walk you home when it's dark..
清晨的信箱会看见我的鲜花
To let you see those flowers early in the morning at the mail box..
要给你最传统的浪漫吹着晚风到天亮
I just want to give you the most simple, traditional romance, to enjoy the cool night breeze with you from dusk to dawn.

No Discrimination for my non-chinese viewers, so I included my own translation to the lyrics. The translation is copyrighted to me, so please do note that ;P Lyrics courtesy of baidu.com. This is a very, very sweet song in Chinese, and I apologise if the translation is bad. ( You may email me your version of translation, and I'd credit you fully :D) Well, As you can tell, I really appreciate a simple, and sweet romance. So I thought of using one of the lines in the song. In particular:

原来你要的是那么单纯而简单
So, all along, what you wanted had always been this simple and innocent..
在雨天为你撑着伞
To shelter you during the rainy days...

I wanted to show a simple idea, that if everything else fails you, if you feel the world collapsing around you, if you feel that you are alone in the rain, let me shelter you from the rain, let me be your support. I'm not rich or handsome, but at least, these simple things are things I can do..

So my idea is simple.. a guy, holding an umbrella, sheltering a lonely girl, in the rain... It's pretty symbolic, and might not be immediately apparent at first. The colour scheme would be blue, with a touch of warm colours around the guy and the girl. I wonder how this would turn out...

Asugnment 4: An Impression Made

2007-03-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

Well, The class received it pretty well, to what I feel. Itt sparked off a big debate on how the picture should be viewed. Comments include:

- It might be making a big anti-nazi statement
- It looked like Bush
- Looked like a movie poster: Add some text below to diminish that effect
- Is Hitler the most evil person?

In the end, people commented that using Hitler might be abit targetting on the anti-nazi theme. In my context, I would think My poster would appeal to the American Culture. But point noted. Some people suggested using an array of different evil people. This I think would be difficult, because I had originally thought of adding nuclear weapons behind hitler, but removed the idea because it was too cramped... I wanted the message to be simple and straight forward, uncluttered... too many figures would make the image too "full", taking away essential negative space and lowering the overall aesthetic appeal. What do you think?

Many people also suggested using a more generic figure to represent evil. To this, I have done a simple sketch of a mad scientist for it, and would photoshop it in as soon as I find time. Your valuable comments would be appreciated in this case, because in my perspective, I feel that the message is no longer as apparent with the use of the scientist. However I also realised one thing in design class: This is not an art class, where the artist reserves the right to remain truthful to his or her own ideas and expressions. Design classes generally require the designer to alter his initial designs to suit the audience, the context as well as various factors before coming to the final design. So well, I might not find the poster as appealing, but if it satisfies the objective better, that would be the ultimate goal at the end of the day.

Your valuable comments on this subject is greatly appreciated.

Assignment 4: A poster

2007-03-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

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...

Hitler First look.

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:

From Assignment 4:...

Overall, I am satisfied with how it turned out, although it might be a little plain.

What do you think?

Assignment 3: A wrap up

2007-02-16T08:24:00.000-08:00

Presented my assignment on Monday... well was a little disappointing again because I had to present at the small classroom when everyone had left and I had to skip a lesson, but besides that, I got pretty nice comments about the bearbear idea...

Yep, in the end decided to present the bearbear idea, since I wasn't so sure on which one to present at that time. Ultimately, I'll probably still submit the simple love story into the portfolio. Still, peeps who have yet to see my story, do take a look and give me your comments. ^^ Thanks.

Assignment 3: Some silly bearbears

2007-02-16T08:04:00.000-08:00

haha~ Well, after doing the actual assignment, I was in the mood to have some fun, so I invited my gf over to my place, and we started to mess around with the bearbear idea. Well, we started to brain storm for ideas and finally decided on a simple idea. Here, this is for your enjoyment ^^ Hope you liked it, and do comment, if you think its interesting~

Omg... I failed my test... T_T From 3: Bearbear s...

Sigh, heading out for some time on my own.. From 3: Bearbear s...

Bearbears are crowding around to see... From 3: Bearbear s...

... And July bearbear has decided on an operation! Briefing time! From 3: Bearbear s...

Gathering materials and brain storming... From 3: Bearbear s...

Cutting stars... Look at the left bear counting stars, isn't he adorable ^^ From 3: Bearbear s...

Bears in charge of colouring.. From 3: Bearbear s...

Reviewing the final product... From 3: Bearbear s...

I'm home... From 3: Bearbear s...

Hm... eh? What's this? From 3: Bearbear s...

There. ^^ Hope it's as interesting for you as it is for me when I made it. I'll probably frame both up, because I really like this idea too. ^^ Comments are deeply appreciated.

Assignment 3: Love that almost was...

2007-02-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

This assignment is a tricky one to tackle. In the idea generation phase, I was stuck for quite a bit on good ideas and generally couldn't decide.

Ultimately here are some of the ideas I came up with:

- My pet is lost

I lost my pet! Where is it? I'm going downstairs to find it... where can it be I wonder.

- A Late Night Snack

I'm a hungry man. Where are the cookies? And who turned the mains off?

- A Simple Love Story

Everyday I stood from afar, looking at her... She's leaving, and I got to stop her..

- A Bearbear Story

When I left the house, little bearbears come out to play...

After much thought process, I narrowed down back to 2 - the love story and the bearbear story. The love story because it really appealed to me, and the bearbear story for its simplicity and its cute and fun-to-do nature. Designer's choice yet again...

A brief Thank You...

2007-02-16T07:33:00.000-08:00

To those who have posted some comments on this blog, be it passer-by's or people from the course, thank you ^^

I'll post some interesting pictures up soon for the assignment 3.. so stay tuned!

Assignment 2: A finished Furisode

2007-02-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

There.. That's done. After much labouring with many design issues, I've finally decided on a few design which I think I'm happy with, both the abstraction and the generic.

The kimono forms of abstraction and the symbol

The class reaction to my Furisode was strangely silent... There wasn't a compliment or a comment... Just a question about the Furisode. Well it was a little awkward and I guess a little disappointing, but I guess I cant expect everyone to like kimonos... If you do have any comments about my kimono but didn't say anything in class, do feel free to comment on it. ^^

Many alternate designs I scrapped

These are the design I wanted to put on the kimono, which I eventually scrapped. The aim is focus on the kimono rather than the designs. Still, if you're interested here's a peek at it. Nothing fanciful though.

Some cranes and stuff that friends suggested.

Well I'll see you soon in a hopefully better third assignment.

Assignment 2: Kimono Frenzy

2007-02-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

Well, after much research on the traditional kimono, I have gathered ample knowledge to start work. Not much could be said for the drawing process, though I was satisfied with how the drawings turned out. ( On a side note, a kimono without the human figure in it, especially the ones I drew, felt eerie... like a headless ghost >_< )

Kimono I drew as conceptual sketches.

I went on to refine and drew a satisfactory kimono as shown below. And beside it is a kimono photo that would appear in the final cut.

The final Kimono I chose to do and headless kimono O_o

What I feel that is worth mentioning is the final abstraction process. In fact it was the most time consuming process, ( besides the brainstorming for ideas) and I ended up with a lot of different versions of my abstractions.. I guess most people might have encountered the same problem. Well, it boiled down to a matter of choice again. Maybe I'll print all of them out, just to display them in class when we ask for opinions and such.

Hm, should i add a shadow for the kimono? Hmm... design seems to incooperate alot of decision making..

Assignment 2: Abstraction as a form of Art

2007-02-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

Well, the classroom assignment sounded fairly simple... to design something that you can identify with iconically and indexically... so me andDan came up with some basic ideas about stuff, like common objects... Then I thought about water... islands... and ended up with... SHARKS! I like sharks, they give a powerful image and are a form of beauty. Personally I wouldn't get close to a shark unless we're separated by aquarium glass, but I thought it was still a worthwhile idea.

Yeah, the only problem stemmed from the fact that I couldn't draw them properly in such a short time. Gonna have to research on them to draw them I guess.

Since then, I have been plagued with design ideas. What should I do as a form of abstraction? I did alot of brainstorming, and here are some of the ideas I came up with:

( in no order of preference, )

- vehicles
- cooking utensils
- stationery
- weapons
- animals
- Buildings
- Fishes
- Sharks

A scary Great White

After which I decided on sharks.,since I already drew them once in class. So I toiled and researched and drawn a nice shark.

I like the shark end product..

But then, I gave up the idea. Why, you may ask... Well it's really a question of preference. I wasn't satisfied with the idea of sharks... really. It didn't give me a good enough feeling. Yeah... I depend alot on feeling when I design and draw, so when the idea of a shark came up, I thought it was good. But after I drawn a nice, satisfactory shark, I looked back, and I didn't fancy the idea so much. Well, firstly, it's a pretty common creature. It wasn't unique... And plus I already drawn a (horrible looking) shark for the classroom assignment, so I wanted something more out of it. I wanted a unique idea.

So brainstorming session again.

This next brainstorming session was more fruitful, and I came up with a list of pretty unique ideas.

- Mask ( from Bleach =P)
- Toilet Bowl
- Treasure Chest
- Helmet
- Snowflake
- Castle
- Mythical creatures, eg. Dragon, 9 tailed fox
- Guns, weaponry
- Horror eg, ghosts
- Skull
- Kimono
- Shooting Star
- Coffin

(The ones in bold are ideas I liked )

Yeah, a pretty long list. Well, I could keep coming up with ideas, but then I wouldn't have time to illustrate it and finish it. As Dr Reddy mentioned in his lecture, you gotta finally stick with one design, and go with it, or else you'd never finish anything. Yeah, so well, what did i choose in the end?

Kimonos for research

Kimonos. Why Kimonos? Question of choice again... The rest just dont seem to fit... especially presenting a skull in class? A coffin? Hm, might be abit of an extreme... There will be a group who likes it, and people who don't. I was looking for a more neutral, milder and more gentler idea. The other ideas were scrapped for various reasons. So here we have it... The kimono idea. I really hope it turns out well, since it's pretty unique and I think... not many people would do it? Hope so >_< Oh and if you prefer my shark rather than my kimono... Gomenasai. It's not that I don't like my shark, but I was just looking at something more... unique.

Assignment 1: A finished Me

2007-02-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well, upon showing my drawings to the class, I guess the general response could be said as... agreeable. Fantasy wasn't really that much different, so there wasn't much to comment on, while the Restrictions had 2 comments: to remove the cone and to perhaps, use the idea of the cage on what of the letters. And also to include that do not cross tape somewhere. Well, I'm truly glad someone appreciated my restriction design and said it was easy to see on first glance.

The final design of drawing first, and then sketching took a very long time to complete, partly due to my urge of wanting to be perfect, and partly due to my apparently (very) inadequate skills in photoshop. Well at least I learnt quite some things there. Drawing the roughs out took a long time, but the true problem came in scanning and photoshopping the entire image.

Fantasy Final

The Fantasy image felt simple until I realise the difficulty in trying to make a realistic colouring/shading combi for the scythe. And that was the beginning of my problems. The hat was ok, but the dragon was simply... Oh My God. I loved this dragon ( which I named aptly, Alucard for my favourite anime character) but illustrating him was a pain in the... In the end I had to redraw the entire dragon with mouse which was much harder than it looks without stylus or those tools. Rippling the effect came later with some online tutorials which I was pretty happy about, and I managed to curl a few of the letters together with the dragon tail. After that I went with a white background cause I loved the colour white and gave it some misty cloudy feel as background, and finished off the letters witha shading of blue. All these took incredibly long... maybe like 3 days? Mainly due to my lack of photoshopping skills. But the effect was nice... I liked the rippling effect especially.

Restriction Final Sketch and the completed edit

The restrictions part I finished faster because I learnt alot from working on Fantasy. Simply define each letter, then illustrate them all, and colour. The difficult part came in details again... I realised the chains which I added was extremely difficult to copy over... so bad news... back to.. mouse drawing again.. Each chain by chain... That was a painful process which still chills me, so I won't recount it. Needless to say, I endured through and ended up with a rather nice effect. (which sadly, I actually liked better than my Fantasy) I bordered it black to contrast with Fantasy, and filled the inner with smoke to give a very congested, choked feeling. Added a signboard with a no food and drinks sign ( no, I DONT HATE TRAFFIC SIGNS) and called it a day. The effort was excruciating, but at least, I guess the class appreciated my efforts ( I think). Still, Please comment on it if you think There's more places that could be changed.

Strange to say this, but I look forward to the next assignment.

Assignment 1: About Me

2007-02-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

This assignment is a deceptively simple one. And one that I took quite sometime to think about what I wanted to add. In fact it was difficult to decide on one theme because there were just so many things I like... I like reading, games, movies, fantasy stuff, music, animes (like Bleach and Deathnote) among others. This is a big headache, so after brainstorming I sorta started idle doodling some about fantasy related stuff... Wasn't long before I got fully involved in the idea and got really serious about it... and settled on it... I love.. .Fantasy!

Fantasy Sketches

I really like my dragon in the first idea... well the curl of the tail that is. And i like that hat too... Looks kinda cute. I think the scythe on the second one looks nice... and the bow looks nice too. Well I won't choose the third one... Simply cause it's extremely difficult to pull off and it might not be very fitting... The last one was refreshing from where I saw it, but not many people even got the idea, much less like it, so yeah... Ultimately I decided on a merge between the first and second ideas. I do realise the first and second bear a similarity in that both have very distinct differences in the letters... And in that sense there is little sense of continuity. Well, I was actually gunning for weapons as the theme for the second sketch and a more generic fantasy feel for the first, but taking that into consideration, I added some notes in mind: to give the whole picture a continuity, either in terms of colour in the letters , or adding something to join them all.

But before I go on to the rough, I should think of the next part of the assignment: I hate.

It wasn't long before I came to a more satisfactory idea ( among others, which included things like, " I hate pink", or " I hate power puff" , but I honestly don't want any pink-lovers or power puff fans to dislike me from the first lesson) : Restrictions. I was thinking, piece-a-cake, i'll jsut draw signboards. Easy, right?

No. In fact after I started off I regretted it, because restrictions is an abstract idea. Drawing lots of signboards are like saying I hate traffic signs. Well I stuck with some, and ended up something as you see now.

Restrictions Sketches

I got surprisingly light hearted comments for the second sketch, and people actually liked it. So well, with that in mind, it was down to Roughs.

Well. in the end, for my Fantasy rough, I got 2 pretty similar designs, with various tones to the different letters. First rough was a more aggressive tone, with a poaching dragon, while the second one had a more docile sleeping dragon. I also added a ripple effect at the bottom to signify a floating feeling, that assigns a form of continuity btn the letters, having "joined" by the ripple design.

Fantasy and Restriction Roughs

Restriction wise was simpler, I just did some changes to the simple designs of the traffic lights, ad added something I came up with: the copyright symbol for the letter "C". In the end I was generally satisfied with the results of the font, for it conveyed a more light-hearted, "Ally McBeal" feeling... Maybe it's just me.

A beginning... And a little bit about myself

2007-02-01T19:12:00.001-08:00

A warm welcome, unsuspecting traveller! My name is Jack, and it's nice to meet you. Just a little something about me before you browse through what I have done, to give you an idea what I'm like, and hence, where I get alot of my ideas from.

I'm a Pisces, and I derive pleasure from reading ( Fantasy ), gaming ( generally RPG's, FPS's, Horror and most games with a solid story line ), watching Japanese Anime ( Bleach and Deathnote! And Naruto! Except the fillers, of course.) and generally I'm a fan of mild expression, being a more neutral kind of person. I love the colour white, and enjoy making thoughtful, and deeper works that provokes a meaningful expression, rather than just superficial colours and patterns... Meaning I enjoy making something that has more meaning compared to something that is of a more physical form of beauty. For example, I prefer Da Vinci to Michelangelo, and Claude Monet to Edvard Munch.

I've been thinking long and hard what to include in this blog, to make it less repetitive and more... personal for a reader (which includes myself in years to come) . This is what I decided:

1. I won't include sketches that are purely random in nature
2. I won't include details about sketches
3. I will add feelings and brainstorm ideas

Well, I hope this marks a pleasant journey through the interesting world of creativity and design. To be honest the work is tremendous but the satisfaction that is derived from a complete, admired piece of work is indescribable.

Please leave any comments you may have.. and do leave a little "good" if you think it was worth your time to have taken a peek. ^-^ And of course, I'm always for making new friends, so do feel free to contact me! I can be found on msn at lightyeargazer@hotmail.com.