9:46 PM
For this project, we decided to do a storybook instead of a comic, to target children from ages 6-9!

In this story, Timmy the little tortoise has never left his home before without his parents by his side. Suddenly after all the nagging about staying off the grass and to dispose of his litter properly, Little Timmy decides to go wandering off in the city, despite the dangers his parents had warned him about!

Read our storybook to find out more as Timmy learns to be an environmentalist during his little adventure! You could borrow the book from me personally as I printed out a copy to keep for myself (:

Here are the initial sketches (click on them to get a bigger view!):


In this project, we aimed to use interactive learning by injecting 'flaps', activities such as a maze, etc, so as to allow kids to retain the moral of the story through these tiny quirks!

The language used in the book was simple, and sentences were non-complex, bearing in mind the readers are little children, so as to keep them engaged with words they know how to read!

Also, the colour schemes were bright, so as to attract the attention of the children with the pictures!

Here are the colour schemes included in our storybook:


colours of tortoises were kept light, and pleasing to the eye!
colours of the fox were a slightly darker shade of orange and brown so as to suggest intimidation:


For the penguin policeman, we used a brighter shade of blue for his beret instead of dark blue, to make him seem more friendly and approachable:

The colours of the home are lighter to create a comfortable feel for the home, both soothing and relaxing:

The colours for the nature were more bright and sprightly, to create a livelier feel of the outdoors

For my part, I drew up two characters, which were the fox and the penguin!

Here are some of the sketches:





We finally decided on the second sketch of the fox, as it looks more intimidating, while the first sketch looks cuter and more friendly, which did not fit the role of a bad guy.

Here are the final CG works:
the fox took alot of effort to do up, as it had many layers, over layers, with alot of details especially in the facial expression.

The penguin was slightly easier as it consisted of the use of simple shapes and less details

1:29 PM
Here's a look at the major overhaul i did for assignment 1, after consulting Siti.

Initially, I just changed my images to look more 3-d, but Siti suggested maybe I could add a background, and Voila!


I really really like how it turned out, and makes me feel like i'm on CandyLand! The light colours were meant to give it a light feel and a carefree mood! Which is really symbolic of my character!

12:42 PM
YAY! finally, something which I think I would enjoy pretty much. For this assignment, we have to pay special attention to colour schemes and colour palettes! Which is great, because for me, it's all about the colours that brings out the intended visual effect.

So, when it was mentioned that the theme was Amazing Asia, i immediately thought of the Nokia advertisement whereby there was a sketch of this entire town, which i thought was pretty funky. However, I was thinking that many people were going to do on maps, and places.

Hence, drawing from my South-east Asian Module I took last semester, I thought about the interesting cultures in Asia, and what it had to offer. And i found that performing and the arts were very distinctive features in Asia that attracts tourists! Moreover, they would provide my postcard with a sense of vibrancy, through the use of colours. Hence, I decided to do a series of masks in Asia, presenting the cultural diversity, as well as the variety, through the use of more than one colour.

Thus, I did vector images of a korean mask, a chinese mask as well as an indian mask, which I thought was a good range to play around with. I decided to put them on square backdrops to make them look more modernized and pop-art-like.

The colours which i chose were also very contrasting to add to the pop-art effect, which I hoped would encourage people to pick up the postcards and take a further look at them.

In the end, I chose to use the colour scheme 'Neon Lights', with the concept that the streets are filled with people, and that Asia is no longer the traditional Asia that people think of when they recall a mask from Asia. In fact, it is one with such culture and diversity that keeps on evolving. Also, as the concept for my postcard was to publicize an arts event/gallery that would be held at the Singapore National Museum, by artists from all over Asia, conveying its marked change.

Here's a look at the colour schemes, you can see that i tried as best as i could to use contrasting and bright colours so as to make the masks stand out!


Here's the front:

and here's the back!


although my tutor, Siti, commented that masks are quite common, I have no regrets, cause i really like the simplicity in the design and how the colours convey the meaning!

(:

12:11 PM
Argh. Poster!!! One of the things I'm not really keen on right now, given the fact that i've been designing too many!!! especially for RadioPulze.

Okay, not that I hate designing posters, but the numbers right now are just overwhelming..

So, this theme is on Save, Prevent, Kill...

Meaning to do up a poster with a slogan:
1. Save....
2. Prevent...
3. Kill... (deforestation, or something. not in a bad way like: kill a person)

Yes. I really liked the sample of the Environmentally friendly one that was showed in lecture! But I wasn't going to copy the design obviouly. So basically, I thought of children. I love little children, and I actually thought of Child Pornography. However, I found that it was quite difficult to portray that, and it is not that close to heart after all. Then my idea moved on to the Prevention of Abuse. Child Abuse, to be specific. Considering in Singapore, many families face financial woes and parents take out stress from work on their kids.

So Yes! I did this.

Firstly, what came to mind was for me, the image. For me, an image speaks a thousand words, and I believe that if it were a photo which can derive so much sympathy and empathy for its reader, then it would have achieved half the goal in driving to mind that we do not want such things to happen around here.

I was thinking of using an actual child for this, like a toddler. But it's unfortunate that I don't have a little cousin who could help me with it! So I decided to seek help from my younger sister to be my model! I made her sit in various positions, with her knees up, and heads to her knees. such that it seems like she's crying. And i wanted the emotion to be conveyed through. So i kept telling her to clench her hands and feet, and to make it seem like she was in pain. My normally shy and undramatic 15-year old sister, actually pulled it off quite well!




I was pretty satisfied with the photo. I wanted to use the frontal view initially, but on second thoughts it looks like some 'The Ring' character or something, so I decided against it!
Then i decided to have a figure of a man in the background holding a cane, as if about to cane her. But i find that perhaps my shadow could have been better. I tried so many times to adjust it, but it just kept going more and more out of shape, so i decided to leave it as it was.

I used a dark background with shadows because it was symbolic of evil, and how a child engulfed by darkness and is traumatized when facing abuse.

At the same time, red was used for the Title, as it was eye-catching, serves as a warning, and at the same time, depicts how blood is shed whenever there is abuse.

My classmates didn't exactly have much to comment on it, but I might decide to change the layout around a little, but here's how it looks for now!

11:50 AM
Hmmm! I was quite excited by this assignment! Since it's on photography! and i enjoy photography a lot (:

I kinda came up with an idea of how to do it, but i needed a girl and a guy to be my couple!

*excited excited*
but my hopes were kinda dashed.

The girl and guy had schedules that totally clashed!
there goes my brilliant idea! ):

So i had to hurry adapt and change my plan cause my assignment was due the next day.
(yeah they only informed me the very last minute that they couldn't make it)

):

So, I decided to ask my dad for help and be part of my photoshoot. and thinking of me brings me to the topic of food!

Generally, warmer tones and vignetting were used so as to create a feeling of happiness and joy at the beginning, the feeling of warmth.

Following that, a normal white balance was used for the next few frames, whereas for the ending, to depict contrast and anger, more reddish hues were used.

I shall not reveal the story right now, but you'll have to figure it out for yourselves! (:

enjoy!

*NOTE: follow the numbers!!

9:22 AM
The other day in lecture, Ms Jing had us get into groups and we were to come up with simple illustrations conveying clearly two themes that we picked!

Sherman, Youshen and I chose Cracked, as well as Power.
Here are the two illustrations!!


Cracked (okay I have no idea why blogger changed the colours in the file, anw, the grey parts were black, whilst the blue ball creature is actually red in colour, whilst the cracks are in yellow! ): )

Power (omg, the colours are changed again!! ): i'll try and get it fixed soon! anw, the creature in dark blue is supposed to be in red, whilst the tiny creature was in yellow!)

10:30 AM
For the second assignment, we had to think of a situation or picture, so as to abstract it into a symbol, which everyone can understand at just one look. It had to be done such that no words were used to communicate the idea across, hence we needed to have good representational techniques in conveying our idea across in just one symbol.

For my part, I decided to do a symbol which depicts a dance studio, which can be placed in the campus compound, perhaps at the Centre for the Arts (CFA) or the University Cultural Centre (UCC). So first off, I had to start by taking a photo of my friend from Dance Synergy!

I requested for her to pose for me at the bars, and then vectorized the photo using Adobe Photoshop, changing it to a black and white vector image.



I actually did a pictogram that was pretty much abstract in the sense that, it made it more difficult to further do an abstraction all the way to the 5th frame.

The second frame consisted the dancer, the bars, as well as the mirror. However, her reflection was removed so as to simplify the entire orientation of the pictogram as it looked far too cluttered to convey an idea across simplistically.

From there, I removed the mirror as well as the reflection of the bar..

Then the fourth pictogram was of the dancer herself, which I found was pretty much sufficient enough.

Lastly, I simplified it to just a pair of ballet slippers.

Some comments I received during tutorial was that, my abstraction process was not consistent enough as the ballet slippers suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and that I might want to add it in. I think it really made sense, as to how I shouldn't be adding new things to a process of reduction and abstraction.

Thus, judging from the comments that I received in class, I would have to re-think my first abstraction.

Hence I will update when I'm done editing!!

EDIT:

I'm done with the edits! now you can check out my new abstraction process and compare it to the previous one!