Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Design Principles: Final Project - Visual Analysis

11.6.2021 - 2.7.2021 (Week 11 - Week 14)

Wendy Seto / 0348805
GCD60804 Design Principles / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Final Project: Visual Analysis



INSTRUCTIONS




PRACTICAL

1. Visual Analysis

Our final project for this module is to do a visual analysis of a visual narrative, it can be anything from posters to illustrations. Since I enjoy watching painting breakdowns, why don't I do one for this project? I am the kind of person that prefer simplicty, I appreciate little things so much. When it comes to photography, I love taking street pics. Capturing the reality of people walking here and there, talking to strangers, dancing in the middle of the streets, having lunch together, helping each other makes me happy. These moments are priceless, because those people in the pictures didn't realize that they were actually making memories. Same thing when it comes to art movement, I prefer realism.

One place where I can meet a lot of people doing various kind of activities in modesty is the traditional market or better known as pasar. Pasar has impacted my life in many different ways as it was my childhood. I used to live in an old town area where the largest pasar in the city is located. Have lived there for at least 13 years since I was born, there were too
 many memories that I can't really remember most of them. 

I also took some pictures when I was visiting the pasar recently. Here is some of them.


fig 1.1 pictures I took at the pasar recently

I also did a shoot there last year as an awareness for the covid-19 outbreak.

fig 1.2 "A Message From Bali" covid-19 awareness video

For the visual analysis, I decided to explore this painting of a pasar in Bali that is hanging in my parents house's living room. 


fig 1.3 the "pasar" painting hung in the living room

fig 1.4 scanned version of the painting

Sadly, I have no clue whos artwork is this. I tried to do multiple image searches through Google but can't seem to find the exact same painting. These so called "visually similar images" don't even look visually similar with the painting I am searching for.


fig 1.5 google image searching results

After a while, I finally found some similar paintings displayed in marketplaces like shopee and bukalapak.


fig 1.6 a similar painting found in shopee


fig 1.7 a similar painting found in bukalapak

I am pretty sure that the one from bukalapak was painted by the same artist as mine, as you can see both of them have the same painting techniques applied. Nevertheless, I am still unable to get any information about the painting I am about to analyze.

Observation

This painting is showing a landscape of a traditional market in Bali, Indonesia, we can see that from the obvious gate design on the back. The colours are dominated by warm tones like yellow, green and brown with a touch of cyan and magenta in the details. I really like the colour combination here, colourful but not too much. There is a variety of line, shape and texture used to produce the whole masterpiece. The painting itself is showing an everyday situation in the pasar. There are people with similar backgrounds walking around carrying their goods, various stalls providing different qualities and of course regular human beings who come by to search for their needs. There is a huge tree in the middle of the scenery as well which looks a lot like a banyan tree. The artist remained the artwork borderless to let the viewers know that there is a lot more outside the frame. Overall, it is a pretty crowded painting with a strong intention. 

Analysis

Looking at the banyan tree that is placed in the middle of the painting, this artwork is symmetrically balanced. Talking about the visual plane, this painting has a foreground, background, and multiple middlegrounds. The highlights in the background and the shadows in the foreground create a beautiful contrast. This painting is emphasized right at the tree trunk and the stall in front of it as they have a deeper shadow compared to the rest. A bunch of repetition were applied for different elements of the painting, from the people figures to the strokes that represent nature which creates unity. Moreover, we can see that the people is moving in two directions, the tree branches and leaves are pointing towards the ground and the two penjor in front of the gate is facing each other. These give a sense of movement. Lastly, everything in this painting is very well wrapped together that we can feel the harmony within all the colours, elements and compositions.

Interpretation

Realism or sometimes also known as naturalism is an art movement of representing an artwork or subject matter truthfully, precise and accurate as it is. Realism refers to a mid nineteenth century artistic movement characterised by subjects painted from everyday life in a realistic manner, or generally also used to describe artworks painted in a photographic way. The term realism was founded by a French novelist, Champfleury in the 1840s. Later, the term realism in art was exemplified in the work of a painter, Gustav Courbet. Going deeper into the painting itself, it is a portray of a scene in the Island of Gods, Bali, Indonesia. This painting was done in a Traditional Kamasan Style. Between 1920 to 1930, Balinese painting was limited to religious matters revolving on serialized stories about religion or classical Hindu-Bhudda culture. It was used as display for temples or collections by local rulers. The paintings characteristics are busy and crowded textures along with a complete story from beginning to end. The artist also managed to include a strong Balinese architectural principle to make his or her intention clear to the viewers. The split gate shown in the painting is called as Candi Bentar, this type of gate is often used in a nista mandala. Nista Mandala is the outer zone that connects a pura compound with the outer realm and the entrance to the temple directly. Based on this, we can conclude that there is a pura behind the pasar pictured in the painting. Moving on, the banyan tree is also one of the most important element here. In Hindu mythology, this tree symbolizes longevity and is believed to provide the fulfillment of wishes and material gains. Therefore, the artist chose warm colours for his or her painting not without reason. Warm tone has the power of creating a happy and cozy atmosphere that is inviting. These colours can deliver the feelings of excitement and passion which represent the merchants hard work and integration. 

2. Visual Research

Based on the analysis I did, I want to create something that can represent my hometown as well. I wanted to challenge myself on applying the similar design principles to my artwork with a completely different art style. 

Lately, I spent most of my time listening to music as it is the only thing that keeps me sane. Here is one of my favourite artist, Surfaces. They have the ability to make songs "feel good" so whenever you are upset, just listen to them and I promise you will feel better. Surfaces has NO bad songs but yet so underrated. Well, sometimes we just gotta keep a "good stuff" to ourselves because people who do not appreciate it enough do exist and they might just simply ruin everything. Besides their songs, I also get inspired a lot by their album covers. They are all so aesthetically pleasing and I am just obsessed with all the colours and graphics. Therefore, I want to use them as my references for the final project.


fig 2.1 references: surfaces album covers

3. Idea Exploration

I searched for pictures that represent Bali and the Balinese culture and decided to use these three elements; the Candi Bentar, penjor, and the people wearing our traditional clothing also known as kebaya while carrying offerings on their heads.


fig 3.1 elements that I want to input in my design work

4. Progress

I started off by sketching the gate in the middle of the canvas to create a balance.


fig 4.1 rough sketch

Then I immediately jump to colouring with the colour palette inspired by Surfaces' album covers.

fig 4.2 colouring progress


fig 4.3 final design outcome.jpg


fig 4.4 final design outcome.pdf

This artwork I created is to represent the beauty of Bali and its very own culture. Even though I am not a Hindu, I really admire the culture of my hometown. The artwork is basically showing a Balinese lady in a Balinese traditional kebaya walking towards a gate with offerings on her head in a bright sunny evening.

I tried to apply the similar design principles as the painting I analyzed on part 1 and here is the result. I intentionally put the split gate in the center to balance the artwork, following with the 2 penjor in front of each side of the gate. There is a background (skies), mid-grounds (split gate and penjor) and foreground (the balinese lady). The mid-grounds and foreground are in silhouette to create a contrast with the background. From the directions of the two penjor, you can see that there are movements. 
There are repetition of shapes in the artwork too which is quite obvious. What different is that the colours I used are a mix of cool and warm tones. Moreover, I happened to add textures to the entire design with the oil pastel brush in Procreate. Finally, I decided to give some shadow effects to make the scene more alive. 




REFLECTION

I am pretty satisfied with the result as this is the first time I am doing this kind of art style. I got to explore with different brushes that I do not usually use and it was a lot of fun. My mom said the two penjor look kind of stiff and the sun should be more orange-ish, well I did try to fix them but i still prefer this one. I am happy to be able to express Bali through my work. This island was, is, and will forever be my home. No matter how far I am going, how long does it take, I will always find my way back. So much love for Bali and all the people in it, you know who you are.



FINAL REFLECTION

I stopped to draw when I enter high school and have always wanted to go back to drawing ever since but I always feel like I do not have the time. However, this module has helped me to realizing it. No matter I have the time or not, I have to draw because it has become my responsibility now.

Not gonna lie, I have learned so much from the module and Dr. Charles his self. Each of the exercises has challenged me in many different ways and triggered my creativity. I always thought I am a creative person, but now I am not sure anymore. It was really hard to come up with an idea when we were assigned a specific design principle to apply in our work. For example, when I am doing the repetition exercise, I cannot seem to create something emphasizing on the repetition itself. But later on when I am assigned to another exercise, I realize that I created a lot of repetition on my work. Sometimes the way our brain works is just so weird. It tends to overthink everything when actually we can do better if we are relaxed.

I also learned how to paint because of this module and it makes me really happy. Even though I am still very amateur in this field but at least I can finally paint something that my future self might be proud of. 

My favourite thing from this module is the weekly Dr. Charles's motivational talk. He has no idea how much it means to me. I was going through a tough phase right after the semester started. I have been feeling really lost and empty but his words have helped me a lot to keep going. Dr. Charles once said, "It is gonna get tough, nothing is going to be easy, but tell yourself that you are awesome and you will get through it." I really need to hear that. Thank you so much.

Seeing my classmates work always makes me feel like I do not belong here. Is it that they are just too good or I am just not good enough? Looking back at my submissions for the exercises and projects, I always ask my self, "why on earth did I do that?" Wait, does this mean that I have improved so I can have this thought? I am pretty sure that I thought my submissions were okay, but not anymore. 

One thing I want to change on myself is probably my professional procrastinating skills, I no longer want to be professional at it. I always finish my assignments last minute when I know if I start earlier I can provide a better result. Hopefully, I am able to control it next semester!

Last word, thank you Dr. Charles for guiding me these past 3 months. It was a hell of fun journey. You are a great teacher and I hope we can meet again some time in the future! 

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