art teasers

NM2208 Final Project

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:31:28 GMT

Finally, for the last post, I'll be talking more about my final group project with 4 other girls, Shu Hsien, Karimah, Min Jie and Sharon. We decided to illustrate and write a storybook catered to children aged 6 to 9.

We went ot the library and to our horror, the storybooks were quite advanced for children in the 6 to 9 year old section, so we had to think of a better and more interesting storyline to grasp the children's attention.

We decided to split the work and I was in charge of all the landscapes and background, as I cannot draw human facial expressions as well as the rest of my groupmembers.

Our story had the moral of "don't judge a book by its cover" and we decided to have animals as well as humans in the storybook.

Here're some of my sketches for some of the landscapes (do click on the pictures):

My very first initial draft of what the forest should look like. It was supposed to be scary so I shaded it with a gradient to make it look scarier as the male lead enters the forest. However, I realised that the pathway should narrow gradually instead of broaden gradually and I came up with the rest of the drawings below, which are the final ones to be used for the storybook!

For the picture with the cave, I modified the cave that Shu Hsien drew and added creepers to make it look even scarier. I also elongated the cave and enlarged the cave opening, added my trees, bushes and signboard.

The picture with the bear and the boy was drawn by Shu Hsien and Sharon respectively while I added the landscape and the claws to make the bear look fiercer.

This was also modified from Shu Hsien's illustration of the scary looking forest with a pair of creepy eyes.

This is the top view of the whole village, which will be used in the introduction of the story.

Now here's our storybook!

Here's the cover page for our storybook. We tried to incorporate the cave entrance here but it didn't turn out as nice as we thought it would.

Now I'll just show u the rest of the pages. Just click on the picture to see the zoomed in size =) Enjoy!

NM2208 Assignment 5

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:57:12 GMT

Finally, our last assignment, the postcard.

The theme this semester was "Colourful Asia", and we were supposed to use the colour theory we learnt in lecture and apply it to our postcard, giving it a few colour schemes with meaning.

For me, I decided to have the title of my work as "Asia: The Melting Pot".

Let the pictures show you what I mean (click on the picture to see it's actual size!):

I've drawn a pot, with swirls of different colour, to indicate the melting of different cultures, as Asia is so culturally diversifed. I've also added some Asians around the pot (they're not going to be cooked because there's no fire at the firewood area) in their traditional clothing. From the left, we have Vietnam, Japanese, Thailand, Malay, Korea, India, India, Mongolia, Malay and Chinese. And the pot is of course, to portray the meaning of a "melting pot".

Each colour scheme comes with a meaning. I'll explain them here.

The Earthy one shows that Asia cares for the Earth. Just by looking at our efforts in keeping the environment clean and green by using CNG and other alternative forms of energy. It can also mean the many tropical rainforests and greens we have in our environment.

This is similar to Muddy, especially in Southeast Asia, where mangrove swamps used to be everywhere, but is now diminishing. We can take this opportunity to urge people to protect mangrove swamps, as well as increase their knowledge in such natural environments and habitats.

For the Blues and the Grey, it is to symbolise the economic bleakness we are facing now with the financial downturn. The Blues can also symbolize Asia being surrounded by water. Asia is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, South China Sea, as well as the Indian Ocean!

Flourescent is to symbolize the vibrancy of the night life and lights in Asia.

And Rainbow is again, more true-er to Southeast Asia where we often see rainbows after the rain in the tropical climate.

My chosen design, is the Ethnic one as everyone's wearing the colours that represent their ethnicity. Also, the colours are bright enough to capture passers-by's attention to get them to take a closer look at the card.

The above is how the card will look like.

NM2208 Lecture Assignment 2

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:36:47 GMT

For this assignment, we had to choose 2 adjectives from a given list and draw 2 picture related to this. Due to time constraints, here's what my partner, Shu Hsien, and I came up with.

Our first one was "Crash". So we depicted a vehicle crashing into a wall, leaving some tyre marks and having the "boom" sound effect.

The next adjective was "power" and we decided to use this muscular arm with a fist to show the power. If we had time, we'd draw a table and show the fist banging on the table to indicate authority, which is also a form of power.

NM2208 Assignment 4

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:29:24 GMT

To me, this was one of the toughest assighments that I've done because by hook or by crook, I needed to use photoshop and I haven't completely made friends with this software yet (except to whiten teeth and blemishes in editing photos using dodge). So I seeked help from Eng Chye, who's going to take this module next sem and score and A!!!

The theme was to save something, and I chose to save the abused, and came up with an idea of a poster to stop domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is something very difficult to define, as there's a thin line between punishing and abuse. So I decided to define them by taking pictures of the "weapons" commonly used in cases of abuse.

Here's my first draft:

I added UNICEF and UNIFEM as joint partners in this campaign as they're well known organisation to protect the rights of women and children, who are often the victims to such abuse.

However, I was reminded that we cannot possess guns in Singapore, and the NUS logo was not very visible when I printed it out. Also, I felt that the tagline was too long and CORNY (why am I so corny!!!). And I couldn't really think of a reason for the spotlight, I only put it there to emphasize the tagline.

So I changed the poster to this:
I removed the gun and placed it with a feather duster. Wanted to look for the traditional chicken feather one and the cane that our parents and teachers used to use on us but I couldn't find it at my boyfriend's house. Yes, that's his hand although the skin tones are different in different lightings (camera trick LOL).

I've also decided to make the two sides more balanced by introducing another spotlight, as well as shifting two hands to the other side. The double spotlight is to make it a more convict feel, where in movies, such spotlights shine everywhere and two of them meets at random to create a stronger light effect.

The tagline was also changed and the main message was to stop domestic abuse. I've targetted this poster at not only those who are abused, but also to those who abuse, so if they realised that it's them holding those "weapons", reality might hit them that they've got violent tendencies etc. and seek help from my hotline.

I'm sure this can be further improved given more time to find those traditional "weapons" to make it more Singaporean.

I removed the gun and placed it with a feather duster. Wanted to look for the traditional chicken feather one and the cane that our parents and teachers used to use on us but I couldn't find it at my boyfriend's house. Yes, that's his hand although the skin tones are different in different lightings (camera trick LOL).

I've also decided to make the two sides more balanced by introducing another spotlight, as well as shifting two hands to the other side. The double spotlight is to make it a more convict feel, where in movies, such spotlights shine everywhere and two of them meets at random to create a stronger light effect.

The tagline was also changed and the main message was to stop domestic abuse. I've targetted this poster at not only those who are abused, but also to those who abuse, so if they realised that it's them holding those "weapons", reality might hit them that they've got violent tendencies etc. and seek help from my hotline.

I'm sure this can be further improved given more time to find those traditional "weapons" to make it more Singaporean.

NM2208 Assignment 3

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:04:35 GMT

And here's my favourite assignment, the photo story!!!

I really had a lot of fun taking the pictures and without furthur ado, I present to you, "Hrmph, Guys!"

Frame 1:

He's like singing to her, and with the lens flare effect, I was trying to portray him as singing something cheesy like, "you're the ray of light in my life", or "you are the sunshine in my life". OMG so corny!!!

Frame 2:

And she heard him and is looking down appreciatively.

Frame 3:

So now, our lady lead is smitten by the male lead, so I put little heart shapes beside her head.

Notice that the above 3 photos are in sepia, or warm brownish-red hue. It's to let the romantic feeling overwhelm the person who sees this.

Frame 4 (SFX: jang jang jang!!!):

Then, female lead number 2 comes out and, out comes the thunder, lightning, and an overcast sky. A thunderstorm is approaching!!! And everything becomes really grey.

Frame 5:

She's so angry that she splashed water at him. I've given colour to the water bottle to show and highlight the action. I've also sharpened the water droplets to make it clearer and contrasting to the dull background.

Frame 6:

Here, she continues pouring water onto the male lead, kinda sadistically. Revenge is sweet, or so they say.

Frame 7:

Female lead number 1 was too shocked for words. Here, I gave the two female leads colour against the black and white background to show their rivalry. Female lead number 2 wears a satisfied expression after emptying her bottle of water.

Frame 8:

Our male lead, drenched, apparently, still does not know what mistake he's made and is clueless.

Hrmph, guys!!!

********************

Special thanks to my subjects for this assignment, Kian Wee (who let me splash water on him), Xueyi (who poured water many times to let me capture the right shot) and Yuejia (for tolerating me as I experimented with her having different poses)! We did this in really a short time because we need to study for our mid term tests. You guys were great!!!

So now for the final placement and stuff...

I put everything together, added numbers (hopefully you all can see here). And did the vignette effect!!!

To make it look like a photo within photos, and decorate it minimally so it won't be too plain!

I put everything together, added numbers (hopefully you all can see here). And did the vignette effect!!!

To make it look like a photo within photos, and decorate it minimally so it won't be too plain!

NM2208 Assignment 2

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:43:45 GMT

Next up would be my pictogram, which is a small 15cm by 15cm sign that we can hang around the NUS community. So I decided to have one on the CCTV, since NUS has many of those, albeit small and not usually noticed.

This could be put anywhere near offices, or even places where students smoke (which is in front of the "No Smoking" signboard). It can be seen as a warning sign, hence I have it in a bright yellow background.

Before getting into our pictogram, we're supposed to do a 5 step abstraction process, to give us some inspiration on our final prototype as well as to look at our thought process in how we arrive at the final prototype.

Here's my first draft for the abstraction process and my pictogram that I derived from it:

Basically, I just deleted some lines, and realised in class that that's not the way to go.

And this was my final product from the above abstraction. There were quite a number of mistakes. Firstly, the pictogram size is fixed at 15cm by 15cm but this was more of a rectangular shape so it's no-go. Second, the class commented that there was no human in my abstraction so why's there one in the final prototype? I thought about it and that's why, I came up with the human security guard in my second draft!

Sorry the pics are a bit LQ (low quality), but that's why the page's loading faster see. And here's the final one.up, it's not entirely the same as the one in the abstraction as I removed the 3-D CCTV from the third part of the abstraction and replaced it with the simpler 2-D one, taken from the 4th part of the abstraction.

Yup, it's not entirely the same as the one in the abstraction as I removed the 3-D CCTV from the third part of the abstraction and replaced it with the simpler 2-D one, taken from the 4th part of the abstraction.

Hope this one's better!

Yup, it's not entirely the same as the one in the abstraction as I removed the 3-D CCTV from the third part of the abstraction and replaced it with the simpler 2-D one, taken from the 4th part of the abstraction.

Hope this one's better!

NM2208 Assignment 1

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:42:05 GMT

This is our very first assignment, which was much easier than the previous sems. Nonetheless, it really got me thinking of what to do because what really represents me is erratic unpredictability and OMG, a sudden brainwave struck me only now!!! Suddenly I thought of using weather but duh, I've just like done the second draft of my final CG.

To follow procedures (blah), I shall show you my 4 rough sketches (ideas).

This obviously is because I like music, but it was super common for the module and I can't think of other musical symbols for my name. So this is not going to be developed.

Here's the second one, about cheerleading. I didn't use this because NO ONE COULD FIGURE THIS OUT!!! LOL. Anyways, the first person has G, E and N, where the head is the G, the E are the arms and the N is the leg. The second is like doing a cartwheel in mid air so the legs and one arm is the E and so on. I've shaded the alphabets and heads black so it could be clearer but unfortunately, it's still not good enough.

Moving on, this one is for me being a shoe whore. Actually I love everything about fashion; shoes, clothes, cosmetics and the likes. Only gripe is the lack of time and money to indulge in things like that. Anyways, this one is pretty obvious, I'm using the lace and the "mouth" of the shoe to make up my name. I actually received the most compliments for this one, but it's kinda tough to develop it into 2 sketches, so I let this go too.

Ok this is the one which is: MOI LOVE PLAYING MAHJONG!!! Though I'm not a pro at that. The E is kinda not obvious. Oh well, shall show you draft 1 of my final product!

Here'e the one that I presented in class. Overall, it was quite bad. LOL. I'd wanted to separate the syllable for the pronunciation of my name but Siti said that people would think my name is Ge Ne Vi Eve instead. And it was slanted so that I can fit the 9 letters inside. I agree with my classmates that I shouldn't shorten it as it looks nicer this way. Also, they suggested using 3D for the tiles. I almost fainted as I can't use photoshop. Also, we can now use larger image size so only our name has to be of A5 size. A classmate also suggested that I texturize the MJ table so it resembles the weave kinda table. Luckily, illustrator has those functions that I need (3D and texturize) so I came up with...

There was also a suggestion about separating the names into two lines so I have more space. I did that, but to prevent people now thinking that my name is Gene Vieve, I inserted a little hyphen (I hope you all can see that it's a hyphen!!!) to indicate that point. Also, there's a mahjong table, plus one open drawer with coins. I hope the background isn't too cluttered.

So after consultation with Ms Siti, I was told that the thing actually has to be A5 =.= So I reduced this thing and changed the colour of the mahjong table to make it look less blue-ish. And here we go:

So here's my first assignment (like finally) so what I need now from you all is CC!!!

What on earth is CC???

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM!!!

NM2208 Lecture Assignment 1

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:17:28 GMT

Yay finally moved from blogger, which is kinda sucky to livejournal. Wonder why I didn't do that in the first place since my personal blog is also at LJ.

Anyways, we were supposed to draw out something in like 15 minutes, a machine that will enhance creativity so here we go...

Yup, it's a brain even though it does not look like one.

You're supposed to paste the 2 sticky pads to your temples (like those science experiment in movies) and creative juices are supposed to flow into your brain through some electro magnetic waves, to be converted into brain waves when they enter you complex brains.

What's inside it? Well, quite far-fetched but the creativity of all famous artistes are saved inside in terms of their thumbnails, drafts and works so those you can almost flip through their thought process to gain inspiration and to see how they use their creativity. Then voila, you can use that to come up with your own creativity thought process!

Whee!!!