Assignment 4 - Intensive workout

The deadline for our assignment is approaching. We even specially requested for the deadline to be extended for another week since we could not handle that much workload. Whenever we have free time between classes, our group would go to the design studio to work on our cutouts.

I was in charge of handling the cutout of the magician and his 'saw people in half' trick, which was a mighty challenge since it was twice the size of the other cutouts.

June and Jessica working on the feather girl.

Even though it was not Jessica's cutout, she still helped out other members to speed up their process.

June holding up a round piece of Styrofoam, which she cut out using a penknife from the face of her feather girl. I think she was too shy to be photographed :P

Kanis delicately pasting colored paper onto her juggler cutout. It was quite difficult to get the colors to match for a juggler since they usually don colorful costume, but we did not want to mess up the colors as well.

Things was steadily progressing, until one point which we felt that we might not be able to make it in time. Then we resorted to staying up until late to rush the project. Jessica and I live in the campus hostel, so we had easy access to the campus grounds. It could be said that we spend our 24/7 in school.

Jessica yawning out of exhaustion. Her phone battery was almost dead, and she did not bring her charger. Since:

Phone battery = Teen energy level,

Phone no battery =  Teen no more energy

Jessica helping me on the design of the magician's box. We were still doing our best for our structure.

Extra info! Both of us stayed back at the studio since 10am in the morning till 1am the next day, which explains the dark sky portrayed in the photo. So we actually worked for 15 hours straight.

Me helping out Jessica's clown, which outfit was the most difficult one of all.

We got so bored that we began to play with spare pieces of paper for the magician's expression, which coincidentally happened to be our expression and that time too.

Overwhelmed by stress and weariness, we stabbed the clown mercilessly.

RIP Clown

Departed on 2013, 2 Dec

Assignment 4 - Preparation

We were given two weeks to build our face cutouts, which seemed impossible to achieve because assignments for different subjects were piling up and they have almost the same deadline. It was a very tiring time for us because we have to juggle time to do different assignments and at the same time bring out the best for each and every one of them as well.

Thankfully, I was in the same group as June, Jessica, Shazreen, Kanis and Yasmin, who were extremely cooperative and could work together well as a team without issues. We took a bus to Sunway together asn bought supplies from Popular's. We had to get Styrofoam boards as a support for the cutouts, and it took all of us to get 11 boards and other miscellaneous materials back to campus.

Figuring out how to attach mahjong paper with Styrofoam board.

We figured out mahjong paper did not go well with Styrofoam. It kept on peeling off and was not sticky at all. We had to use double tape instead and I can declare with confidence that we used at least 10 rolls for this entire project.

Tracing our small scale drawings onto HUGE paper.

We estimated 5 feet and a half as average height for a normal person. It was quite difficult estimating how long our character's torso and legs should be, since we were limited to a certain height and we still had to make sure they are proportionate.

Yasmin planning the design of her cutouts. She is doing a feather girl for her cutout, which needs rather intricate designs for the feather and pattern for her dress.

Mineral water boxes collected from 7 Eleven, which staff was generous enough to give us enough for our structure.

Spare pieces of cardboard for extra back support. This was generously donated by June, who thankfully knows how to drive independently and whose house seemed to have many materials we need. She also brought extra mahjong paper too!

Serious stuff aside, we thought of having some fun :P 

We just only got started on the basic steps, and it is still a long way to go before completion. It will take us a lot of time and effort to create cutouts equal to or even better than our mockups.

Assignment 4 - Face Cutouts!

We are assigned to build a mock-up of the face cutouts, so that we have a fair idea on how the support works and how big it should be, since the prototype is a smaller scale structure of the real one. We spent three hours building it and we thought it looked fantastic even if it was tiny.

How many balls can you juggle?

It's a very good trick - wait a minute, is he dead?!

The magician's focus is elsewhere but his hat...

Life of the party! 

And together combined, we have a face cutout that looks like this

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TADAAAAAA ~~~

Can't wait to see this life size!

Assignment 4 - Color Theory (Change of Plans)

The ticket booth, formerly the one who will be built on carnival day, was sadly put aside.

Ms Lisa and the class decided that besides having just decorative structures, we should make them functional. Giving out cookies is claimed to be 'not functional enough'. After much consideration, we thought of making face cutouts.

Our plan is using a HUGE piece or several combined pieces of cardboard, draw carnival characters like clowns. magicians etc, cut out their faces and allow people to stick their heads there to take pictures. At least this idea has a bigger purpose compared to the ticket booth.

Sadly, people these days prefer taking photos than eating cookies.

Assignment 4 - Color Theory (Carnival Themed)

After understanding color terms, we are applying color theory into practice. We were asked to build sculptures with the color theory in application. We thought of several themes and narrowed it down to two, which were Carnival and Desserts.

Candy Crush candies, rainbow milkshake and macaroons? Yum!

At last, we chose Carnival theme over Desserts, even though I felt like doing both. And we are going to make it big. When the word 'carnival' is mentioned, people would usually think of merry go rounds, colorful erected tents, games and hanging triangle flags.

And that is what we will be doing.

The class is divided into 6 groups of 5 or 6 members each and we will be building carnival objects. Our group will be making a ticket booth, without selling tickets but would probably be handing out cookies. It will be about 6 feet tall because we wanted people to go inside that booth, just so to make it an interactive exhibition.

It's going to be a HUGE project. One of the other groups had to make a Ferris Wheel and I heard that they are making it 10 feet tall. We are going to light up everything and it will take place at night. Hooray!

For now, we will be thinking of the materials and the entire structure of the ticket booth. So until then.

What is Life without "Colors"?

Years ago, I was in kindergarten, primary school and then high school. When teachers mentioned colors, my mind was full of the words "colors", "colors", and more "colors". However, after I started this design course, when lecturers mentioned colors, I tend to think of these seemingly awesome art vocabularies: "shade", "tint", "saturation" etc.

I did some research and found a few of these frequently used words and phrases to describe colors.

Definitions

1. Hue
Color which can are obtained from different wavelengths of light – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, purple

2. Value
The darkness or brightness comparison of two or more different colors

3. Saturation
The intensity of a color from pure to gray

4. Secondary colors
Colors made by mixing two primary colors
- Orange, green, violet

5. Tertiary colors
Colors made by mixing one primary color and one secondary color
- Red orange, yellow orange, yellow green, blue green, blue violet, red violet

ource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Color_star-en.svg

6. Analogous colors
Colors that are on both sides of a particular color on the color wheel
- Blue green, GREEN, Yellow Green
- Yellow orange, ORANGE, Red orange
- Blue violet, VIOLET, Red violet

7. Tint
An act of adding white to a color to make it lighter

Source: http://www.color-wheel-artist.com/hue.html

8. Shade
An act of adding black to a color to make it darker

Source: http://www.color-wheel-artist.com/hue.html

9. Monochrome
A painting or photo with only one color of different values

Colors have temperature too! They can be considered warm or cold depending on different colors! 

Jokes of the Day:

"The room is really blue, can someone make it orange?"

"Hawaii is very red this time of the year."

"Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I need a fire extinguisher,

And a portable heater too."

Color Temperature

Warm colors

Colors that are associated with warmth and heat and stand out first to viewers

For example: Red, orange and yellow

Cold colors

Colors that are associated with coldness and look calm and relaxing to viewers

For example: Blue, green, violet

Colors can also be used to represent certain subjects like feelings or emotions. I'm not really sure if this is appropriate, but I'm feeling rather gray now (very sleepy).

Color Representation

1. Royalty and regality

Purple - because during Ancient Roman times, emperors wear toga which is purple in color as a symbol of their royal status

Source: http://www.partypro.com/mm_PARTYPRO_/Images/BULK-66109-PL.jpg

2. Freshness

Green - because fresh vegetables are green!

Source: http://adbot.me/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Fresh_Lettuce4519016a.jpg

3. Passion

Red - because this color associates with intense feeling and desire. Ever heard the phrase 'fiery passion'?

Source: http://thepapist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/heart-on-fire.jpg

Assignment 3 - Paper Cutouts (Final)

After two cuts, one sore finger and a permanent scratch on my study desk, I have finally completed the two paper cutouts with the theme Vintage Clocks.

Fig 1

This is a quarter section of a clock with a rather nature feeling to it. I managed to cut our little leaf patterns on the side. The background was painted because I thought that a single color of white or green would look rather plain.

Fig 2

This is a cutout of a grandfather clock. I painted it light brown to give it a wooden surface feeling. As you might have noticed, the roman numerals are reversed as I stuck the wrong side of the cutout on the bottom layer. When I realized that mistake, the glue had already dried.

Ms Lisa reviewed my paper cutouts this morning and she said she preferred clock Fig 1 than clock Fig 2. She said the inside of clock Fig 1 could have been left white instead, but nevertheless it was still alright. However, clock Fig 2 has rather poor composition as the edges of the clock touched the border of the A4 paper that it shows tension.

I know how to use the blade more efficiently now. Although it is not as amazing as how my mom chops her vegetables, but I can cut out finer details than before. I also learnt how to be more patient with my assignments.

I had to go through many trials and errors before finally completing a good, satisfying piece. I cut off so many roman numerals by accident that the back side of the cutout is actually a mess of hastily applied glue.

Determination is also the key. If I was not determined, I would have chucked the failed cutouts out of my window. You should also go for the impossible. When I chose the Vintage Clock theme, I did not realize that I would have to handle the roman numerals. When I found out, I spent ten minutes figuring how I could even cut those tiny figures.

All in all, the end product was satisfying, but there is always one thing that bothers me after every assignment hand-in.

Could I have done better?

Yes, I really could.