Design Principle : Final Project

30.10.2020 - 29.11.2020 (Week 10 - Week 14)
Jocelin Agustia (0345436)
Design Principle / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Project 3 - Visual Analysis & Research

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LECTURE

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. The visual analysis consists of 3 phase:

1. Observation

2. Analysis

3. Interpretation

Observation - closely looking at and identifying the visual elements of a design, trying to describe them carefully and accurately in our own words. observation is about looking, thinking, and finding good language to communicate what we notice. In this phase, there is no need to write down the meaning, or the objects in the illustration.

Analysis - This phase requires us to think about our observations and try to make statements about the work based on the evidence. Think about how the specific elements that we have identified combined together to create a whole and what effect that whole has on the viewer. 

Interpretation - Phase 1 and 2 are fused together with facts about the design work(and in some cases the designer) and historical context that we found in trustworthy sources. What is the meaning of the design and what is the purpose for it to be created? 

Visual Analysis

figure 1 Piano by Wlop 

figure 2 Piano by Wlop

figure 3 Piano by Wlop 

Piano by Wlop

Observation

Figure 1 - This illustration called ‘Piano” by Wlop is made in a landscape form; it has an interesting perspective view which is worm eye, eye bird view, and side view. The use of colors is simply from the same families, but it could create a very interesting illustration. Here he used many organic and geometric elements (lines, leaves, circle, tube, etc.).

Figure 2 - For the second angle, which is the eye bird view, it is also made in landscape form. With this angle, Wlop created the main focus to the character's hand and also he used a lot of organic and geometric elements (the piano's string and the shape of the piano). 

Figure 3 - This third angle completely erases the character's body from view as we can only see the character's face and the inside of the piano. Wlop also uses many organic and geometric elements and the same family colors. 

Analysis

Figure 1 - Since he created this from the same color families, we could see that this creates harmony. Look at how the fishes were together making those movements and merely creating a sense of unity. The character’s hand also shows the movement of playing the piano. With the piano‘s strings creating repetition. Overall, this artwork could make us feel peaceful and calm.

 

Figure 2 - The second angle focuses more on the movement of the character’s hands and also the details of the piano that is formed by repetition. This angle also creates hierarchy as we, as the viewer would look at this piece of artwork from the top and slowly moving to the character’s movement.

Figure 3 - In this side view, we could see the character’s expression, calm and undisturbed as if this is her own private space. Movements of the jellyfish going up, and the fishes movement is wandering around the tank/aquarium.

 

I simply cannot take my eyes off of this artwork. Truly beautiful.

 

Interpretation

This illustration is actually from one of his characters from the indie comic he made called “Ghost Blade”. This piece contains a pleasant feeling because one look at it we could already feel it, the character seems to be one with her surroundings. His style has always been this semi-realism style, but with 3D elements such as the piano, which was made by himself in blender, a 3D software. I do not find any of this piece in his comics, so I guess the purpose is to immerse viewers into his artwork. The more you look at it, the more impressive it gets. Besides that, I feel that his works could make people think just how amazing art is, as they can express sorts of feelings. Lastly, the detail of his drawing is just incredible.

figure 5 White by Wlop

White by Wlop

Observation

This illustration made by Wlop is called White. The colors in this illustration were mainly in a warm tone, but he also used a cool tone for this illustration. We can see that it is positioned in the center. There are many geometric and organic elements in it (at the buildings).

Analysis

Because he used a little cool tone for his character’s clothes which is in blueish or greyish color, it made it seem as he wants to emphasize this character. Looking at the movement of the flowing clothes, we can see that in this illustration, it is currently windy. The birds flying around also have movements in it; they were flying in every direction in the illustration. When we look at the building, which is the castle, There are many repetitions that are happening there, especially on the use of geometric shapes (square, lines, triangle, etc.). Other repetition can be seen on the character’s accessory, the birds, and also the statue’s wings. The illustration also has radial and symmetrical balance in it where we could see on the building’s walls and windows (the patterns). The texture on the bricks also made us know what the building is made up of. 

Interpretation

This is yet another illustration by Wlop, a comic artist, illustrator, and 3D animator. Whenever I see this illustration, I feel that the artist is trying to convey ‘freedom’, because the dove in this illustration is often used as the symbol of peace. By looking at the expression of the character, we could see that she is in peace of mind and the doves around her make it seems like her surroundings are peaceful. The use of doves also reminded me of the sound of a church’s bell when it rang, and the doves will fly everywhere. The winds dancing around the character’s clothes also made us feel the winds coming to us, a relaxed and calm feeling.

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Instructions

figure 6 Inspirations in Pinterest

I want to combine both artworks by Wlop and since I am interested in Harp I decided to illustrate a harpist. The scenery will be in the clouds. Just like the reference, I will have a horizon and the land will be the reflection of the clouds with the harpist sitting there. There will also doves flying to the harpist led by the tune she played.

figure 7 First Sketch (12/11/2020)

figure 8 Second Sketch (19/11/2020)

figure 9 Third Sketch (19/11/2020)

figure 10 Fourth Sketch (19/11/2020)

After receiving the feedback, I made another 3 sketches, and the one I liked the most was the picture in figure 8. So I continued on that sketch and made some adjustments. 

figure 11 Revised Design (26/11/2020)

After revising I need to do it again because there are some mistakes to it, I interpret wrong what miss said. And I also disliked how the background turned out so I decided to redo it. 

figure 12 Sketch and Lineart in Clip Studio Paint

I first sketch in Clip Studio Paint (CSP) and then do the line art, I am more familiar with CSP if I want to do characters. Because there are a lot of brushes that I could choose from and the pens are more natural for me.

figure 13 Skin Coloring

figure 14 Hair and Dress Coloring

figure 15 Sleeves Coloring

figure 16 Jewelry and Harp Coloring

After the line art is done, I then started to color the character's skin, hair, dress, sleeves, jewelry, and harp. It is actually quite difficult as I have never colored instruments before, so it is challenging. Since CSP has a lot of brushes, it made the process a lot easier, especially for jewelry.

For the background, I want it to have a look as if it was a painting so I decided to use Procreate to paint it because I am more familiar with paintbrushes in Procreate rather than in CSP. 

figure 17 Background 

figure 18 Adding Lights

figure 19 Adding Character and Doves

figure 12 Final Touch

Here, I added some sparkles and shadows of the character and the harp by using distortion to make it have a perspective look on the gorund. Before finishing, I made a little adjustment to the background because at first it was very bright and so the character doesn't stand out that much.

figure 13 Final Result

This design used a lot of repetition in it. It could be seen on the doves, the music notes, the harp, and the background. Harmony was also on the harp, background, hair, clothes, and doves. I used the same color family to create them. This design also has movement to it, it could be seen on the character's movement as if she was playing the harp tuning a beautiful melody. 

The music notes in the design were not randomly drawn, It was a song called Twilight Red Dragonfly by Foxtail-Grass Studio that was released in 2012. It is a song I chose to use in this design as I want this to be a calming piece. 

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RATIONALE

  figure 14 Rationale

This design is inspired by both of Wlop’s artworks that I posted on the blog. I combined both of his artworks together into one design creating a new one. What I want to convey in this design are freedom and peacefulness. Thinking that there are many obstacles in the world hindering us from our success, many painful memories, and others. I wanted people to have the sense of being ‘relieved’ when looking at this design so they can let go of everything that is bothering them for a moment to enjoy peace and freedom. This was also made because of the situation now, where we can’t go out freely and being stuck at home as if we are being prisoned. I dislike that feeling, I used to like staying at home but because of this pandemic, I learn that I can’t really stay at home the entire time. So, with this design, I hope I could reach people’s hearts.

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FEEDBACKS

Week 11 

Miss told me to change and add some sentences to the visual analysis. 

Week 12

The figure does not need to have decimals just change it to figure 1, figure 2, and so on so I won't need to use 1st Angle, 2nd Angle, and 3rd Angle. Miss also told me to explore more on the composition, try out different angles.

Week 13

The character should be moved more to the left, give more space, and make them smaller. The background should also be given some details. Sketch 1 and 3 are good.

Week 14

Miss said that she likes the effect I made on the ground and told me to scale up the character and the harp. The edge of the harp could be moved to the center a bit.

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REFLECTION

Experience

I learn a lot during these 14 weeks in Design Principle, this module made me realize that there are a lot of principles applied in artwork and many of them without realizing or not, there are actually principles in it. I used to only make design without having meaning to it because I thought that it is not important, but many famous artists in the world always have meaning behind their works.

Observations

This design made me do a lot of stuff that I have never done before. Like the college task, that was my first time cutting something out from an object. What fun about this module is that during the first few weeks we need to do our task in the traditional way, other modules require us to do it digitally but it was different here. It is quite exciting because it's been a long since I drew traditionaly. 

Findings

Miss is very kind to every each of us which makes me feel comfortable and enjoyed her classes. Every feedbacks from her made me learn new things. The only thing that hindered me from this class is the time because I realized that the final projects really need a lot of time, especially because of my art style. But, even then I still enjoyed this class very much.