Design Principles / Project 3 : Visual Analysis
2-11-2021 - 26-11-2021
Esther Vanessa [0350751]
Design
Principles
Project 3 : Visual Analysis
JUMP LINK
LECTURE
Visual Analysis
- Understanding design that focuses on the visual elements and principles
- description and explanation of visual structure for its own sake
- can also recognize the choices that designer made in creating the design, as well as to better understand how the formal properties of a design communicate ideas, content, or meaning.
- Critical part of visual literacy (which is a skill that helps people to read and critically interpret artwork in museum, social media, or any other platforms)
- Practicing Visual Analysis sharpens critical judgment skills and helps people seek out answers instead of passively receiving information.
- How does it work
- Observation
- Closely looking and identify visual elements of a design, trying to describe them carefully and accurately in your own words
- Looking, thinking, and finding good language
- Analysis
- Requires to think about the observations and combine them together to create a whole, and what effect that whole has on the viewer
- Interpretation
- Observations, description and analysis of the work are fused with facts about the work.
- "What is the meaning and purpose of the design?"
- Can try and link/compare with more artwork to reinforce points
INSTRUCTIONS
TASK
In our final project for Design Principle, we are to conduct Visual
Analysis and continue with making an artwork that is inspired by the work
we've chosen.
After watching the lecture video, I went online and looked in Behance,
Pinterest and Instagram to look for an artwork, or a specific artists which
their works I like. I also tried consulting my designer friend because I
know that it is always good to ask for advice from other people.
I went through a bunch of artists on Behance and Instagram. Since the
beginning, I'm always interested in Illustration so I set my art hunt on
illustrations. The first target is
Monez, an Illustrator based in Bali, Indonesia. I love their visual style of
art, however I cannot settle on only one target. The next target is
Bonnie Pang, an Illustrator from Hongkong. However, Bonnie's art are mostly set of
comics so I continue with my hunt. The third target is a little bit
different as it is motion graphic illustrator that goes by the name
DeeKay. His art is very much cute and very interesting. On Behance, I found an
Illustrator that goes with the name
Jungsuk Lee. His art is also very pretty and pleasant to look at. The last artist I
have on the list is
Lenny Wen. She is also an Indonesian Illustrator, and is of Chinese-decent. A couple
minutes on her blog is enough for me to immediately choose one of her works
for Analysis. The thing that sets her artwork apart from the rest of the
candidates is how she created her artwork that is visually attracting to me,
the way she uses her colors and composition.
The artwork I took is the following,
Visual Analysis
A. Observation
Artwork is on landscape orientation and the color palette used is very
bright with dominance in the magenta purple hue. It also involves green
and yellow hue which is the complementary color of magenta and purple. The
strokes applied from the artist are short, strong and bold. The different
direction of the strokes is also visible and the play of color is strong
in which both simulate shade and highlight. The build up of strokes
creates volume and depth in the artwork. There are lots of elements and it
seems busy but everything ties together really well. It can also be
observed that the expression of the characters present in the artwork look
very serene happy and cheerful. Even the dragon, who pretty much take up
the most space in the artwork, is looking very happy to be there. They are
also in such close proximity with each other and looks very cheerful
together.
B. Analysis
It is very obvious that there is
harmony in the artwork, especially
how the color and elements tie everything together. There is also
a hint of movement from the left
side of the artwork to the right part, this is simulated by the “clouds”
created by circular strokes that is present throughout the artwork,
simulating the flow of the art. The artwork is also rightfully
balanced and has a sense of
unity within it. This is present
because there is an emphasis on the
girl and how the creatures are surrounding the little child as if
they’re “hugging” the little girl. Colors are chosen really carefully to
be bright and colorful, giving out happy and heartwarming emotion. The
unity is also enhanced by the fact that they are really close together,
as it ties them into one. It is very imminent that the illustration with
the shorter strokes is to give out a more “hand-drawn” “colored pencil”
vibe. From thorough research form her Instagram, I found out that her
artwork is sketched initially with pencil and then transferred to be
drawn digitally using Photoshop, however this work was drawn digitally
since the beginning.
C. Interpretation
This illustration artwork named "Journey to Lunar New Year" by Lenny Wen
is posted on February 10, 2021. She is an Indonesian illustrator
based in Austria. She has started illustrating since she was young however
would only start full-time illustrating in 2016. Although her art style
may look like it caters to younger audience, she stated in her Instagram
that she wants her art to be consumed by the general public, regardless
the age. She did research and found out that art style that consists of
bright and eye-catching colors would intrigue both kids and adults, as
they give out a heartening, touching emotion and feeling, and also would
be more pleasing to the eye. She explicitly mentioned in her website that
she wants her art to be "whimsical, spooky, funny and nostalgic that has
storytelling, imagination and emotion behind it". Most of these are interpreted nicely in the work I respectively
chose.
This artwork was specifically drawn to celebrate Chinese New Year, with a
caption written that even if times are tough and we could not meet our
family during these times, she wants us the viewers to still enjoy the
time. The creatures in this artwork are the 12 Chinese zodiac characters.
These characters are so close together it looks like they are good
"friends" with such smile and most of them are holding a significant item
that is symbolic of Chinese New Year, such as the dog zodiac character
holding the iconic fire crackers, the rabbit holding the Chinese lampion,
the monkey holding the Chinese dumpling and the pig with the iconic
mandarin fruit on top of its head. I personally think that these are
created with a reason to show that they are indeed one, a group, one
unity.
The girl is also bringing classic traditional Chinese New Year cake or
"Nian Gao" with the Chinese letter ‘Fu’ on top of it that symbolizes luck,
usually present in the cake we know in real life. Interesting thing about
this new year cake is that it’s actually called "Kue Keranjang" in
Indonesian, which roughly translated to "basket cake" in English, hence
the fact that the girl is actually carrying the cake like a basket on her
back. There are also Ginkgo trees with their leaves present in the art. These
plants symbolizes hope and peace in China, and is also commonly present in
Chinese arts.
It is also important to note that the artist purposefully chose the setting
to be in the skies with a lot of clouds and mountains (drawn intentionally
using classic Chinese painting style) as it is actually where all these
zodiac lives in their world. The movement in the clouds and how the
characters are moving reflects well with the title of the art "Journey to
Lunar New Year" as it does look like they're moving somewhere towards
something, which I can safely assume towards Lunar New Year. Overall,
this artwork feels really nostalgic, immersive and brings back both
familiarity and feel-good emotion that we, as Chinese decent, would feel
during the festive.
Creating my own artwork
For the task, I went ahead and look and research at more of Lenny Wen's
work.
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| Figure 1.1 Night at the library by Lenny Wen |
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| Figure 1.2 Alin in Wonderland by Lenny Wen |
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| Figure 1.3 My Quiet World by Lenny Wen |
As I have mentioned before, most of her works speak to me and evoke
nostalgic feelings for me. They speak to me as I also used to read lots of
books that contains such illustrations as a kid and all the colors would
be so bright and attractive in my young eyes. It still, very much,
entertaining to my 20 year old self. It inspires me to also create an
artwork that is nostalgic to me. I have actually brought it up before in
my previous blog posts that I enjoy reminiscing and making an artwork that
defies time and immortalize a moment/feeling. Hence, I came up with an
idea to create an artwork excerpt from one specific memory in my life.
|
| Figure 1.4 Sketch |
|
| Figure 1.5 Progression |
During feedback session, I realized these characters are slowly turning into cult-like drawings. It doesn't really represent what I want to visualize. It lacks the mood and overall lacking unity. That is why change the whole concept. I am still sticking to the Christmas theme solely because it's almost Christmas and holiday season, and I still have lots of memories that I want to visualize and reminisce.
This particular sketch I made is about a lonely Christmas I once had back
in 2020. It was not too long ago. However, I remember it being too far away
from home, so cold and lonely yet at the same time it was warm. I was not
alone for the most part of the Christmas as I was having a dinner with 3 of
my friends. But after they went home, I had to sit alone in the living room
looking out at the freakishly cold window (as it snowed the next day). The
living room stayed warm but at the same time it was cold because I was left
alone on the night of Christmas.
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| Figure 1.6 Initial Sketch |
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| Figure 1.7 Creating the Christmas tree |
I changed a few things afterwards, rendering the artwork and polishing a few bit without changing too much of it.
After one more feedback session, Sir Charles also suggested if I created an alternate version of the day.
Rationale of the work will be explained under the final work.
Final submission
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| Figure 1.8 Final Submission Ver.1 |
 |
| Figure 1.9 Final Submission Ver. 2 |
I also tried balancing the artwork by adding the person looking out the window and I personally think it also added a softer and hopeful tone to the drawing. Other than that, there is definitely a sense of unity tied by the soft lighting.
On the alternate version, I wanted to portray the day before the night. It is still Christmas, but I remember Christmas as the day where everyone just wakes up a bit later than usual, just because it's Christmas. I wanted to show the beginnings, the morning of it. That in the beginning it used to be the pixie and me as a memory, while later at night the pixie will go outside and run errands, bringing hope and nostalgia.
FEEDBACK
On Visual Analysis
- Observation could be longer
- Observe the expression of the characters and why they're in such close proximity
On Artwork
- It looks a bit lonely (which coincidentally that's what I want to portray, so thank you for noticing sir!)
- Could try animating it or doing an alternate version in which the outside is still daytime.
REFLECTION
I took quite some time working on this last project. Mainly it was sort of hard to look for a certain artwork I want to analyze. Nevertheless, with consultation with friends, I finally found one that actually piqued my interest and made me fall in love with it. It is also challenging formulating an artwork with no sort of foundation/goal (or at least that's what I think at first, then I realized the artwork I'm making is more about a reaction and inspiration). This above anything, has to be one of the longest time I took to work on a project. I was in the middle of a burnt out state but with constant push from Sir Charles I could think of something that's actually better and has nicer meaning.
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