Design Principles Project 1 — Self Portrait

27.9.2022 — 12.10.2022 (Week 4 — Week 7)
Rachel Madeline Purwanto / 0356994 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Design Principles
Project 1 

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❥INSTRUCTIONS

Project 1: Self-portrait

• Contemplate on your life experiences, which includes your culture, your family, your friends, your school days, your favourite hangouts, your favourite music, food, musician, etc.
• Observe your surroundings - people, vehicles, buildings, plants, signages, nature, and activities.
• Record these in sketches, photography and/or video recording.
• Study all the visuals that you had collected.
• Select visuals that you find relevant and interesting to you, which you can translate into a design work to create a portrait of yourself.
• Remember to apply design principles in your work. For materials, you may use any of your choice, but do consider their suitability to best express your idea.

In your PROJECT 1-SELF-PORTRAIT post in the blog, include:

1. a recap of Project 1 brief

2. your design process:

2.1 visual references (designs that have inspired your own)

2.2 idea exploration and description

2.3 final outcome in PEG and a short rationale

2.4 feedback given by the lecturer

2.5 reflection on the particular week

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❥DESIGN PROCESS 

1. Brief Recap

The first week requires us to watch a pre-recorded video touching on the details of Project 1 and to create a mindmap about ourselves consisting of information such as hobbies, personalities and others that might be of use in the self portrait. A self portrait refers to a portrait of oneself produced by the artist themselves. The self portrait doesn't necessarily have to be an illustration of yourself, it could be something that reflects you as a person. 

2. Design Process

2.1 Visual References

Fig 1.2 Inspiration for Self-portrait https://pin.it/6DlslUx

Fig 1.3 Inspiration for Self-Portrait https://pin.it/ZeF5qyx

Fig 1.4 Inspiration for Self-Portrait https://pin.it/1SCvY6D

Fig 1.5 Inspiration for Self Portrait https://pin.it/2YWAawn

Fig 1.6 Inspiration for Self Portrait https://pin.it/4ogtcta

Some of the references above express the figure in doodles which was what I was kind of aiming for, for a part of my self portrait to portray things I like and are in my life. 

Fig 1.7 (Inspiration for colours and butterfly eye idea) What nature looks like from a butterfly's eyes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/hx0gp2/this_is_what_flowers_look_like_to_bees_and/

The colours above represent how a butterfly sees the world since they are able to look at more colours than the human eye, which might reflect on how I have a different perspective on the world, thus the butterfly wings drawn on my eyes.

2.2 Idea Exploration

Fig 1.1 A Mindmap about myself

My mindmap mainly consists of the things i might consider including in the self portrait such as my personality, my favourite things categorized into hobbies, tv shows, musicians, favourite colours etc. 

Fig 1.2 Inspiration for pose https://pin.it/2uzcSt5

For the second sketch, I was trying to go for a sitting pose that portrayed the conflicting emotions between daydreaming and feeling overwhelmed so I tried to combine the second pose from the top row and the second pose from the bottom row.

Fig 2.1 Sketch Idea #1

This is my first idea for the self portrait, but I felt like lacked the expression of myself more so I decided to refine that sketch idea to create the second sketch.

Fig 2.2 Sketch Idea #2

I was more fond of the second sketch since it had a clearer execution that could portray myself further. I decided to go for a doodle approach to express my personality as a daydreamer or someone who is in their own world as well as use pastel bright colours for the top part of the doodle, which will be filled with things that I like or are meaningful to me in different categories such as my favourite musicians, cartoons, hobbies, etc. 

For the lower parts of the portrait, darker colours with several elements coloured in ultraviolet/neon colours are used to express more of the negative emotions and reality or the world from my perspective (in the boxes as well). Combining two of those parts, contrast is portrayed through these ideas. The eyes being closed with a butterfly wing expresses how I see the world in a different way in a way a butterfly does, and how I daydream and delve in things that I like as a distraction from reality. The closed eyes compared to the eyes surrounding the focal point and the bright colours that will be used for the doodle portrays emphasis. 

The main design principle being used here is contrast. Even though my overthinking might be negative at times, it could be also be seen as something positive, as a distraction from the real world. I used to be anxious a lot in the real world, thus daydreaming or doing things I like such as listening to my favourite idols or watching tv shows are activities for me to escape reality.

Fig 2.3 Sketch Idea #3 after feedback

In accordance for last week's feedback for the second sketch, I decided to apply that into the sketch and draw a frontal pose of the figure, but personally I still preferred the second sketch because the perspective of the third sketch is less expressive and unique so I decided to try and digitize that.

Fig 2.4 Progress of Line art for doodle  

Fig 2.5 Progress on the colouring of the lower part

According to the feedback given, I decided to scratch the idea of using neon ultra violet colours for the eyes because it makes it look very cluttered and takes away the attention of the focal point. I decided to use one colour and reduce the size and the amount of eyes surrounding the focal point whilst maintaining the margin with the sides of the self portrait.

Fig 2.5 Progress of Colouring the base

As I was colouring the base colours, I realized the pastel colours of the doodle were somewhat fighting for the attention of the main focal point. I considered the feedback of the initial idea to keep the colours yellow and white for the doodle, but it looked unusual due to some elements requiring to be coloured in their own respective colours, otherwise they would be unidentifiable, like for instance, the girl with purple hair which is my favourite cartoon character. Without using a purple shade for her hair, she would be unidentifiable. Another example are the two flowers coloured in blue and purple which is significant to me and my best friend's friendship and it would lose the context and significance if it were coloured yellow. 

I did attempted on colouring the elements of the doodle with a yellow warm colour palette but it made half of the elements there lost its significance and context therefore deeming some of the characters i drew there unidentifiable. So instead, I tried to desaturate the colours of the elements of the doodle to reduce the chances of it fighting the focal point for attention. 

Fig 2.6 Comparison of yellow, orange, white colour palette with various pastel desaturated colour palette

2.3 Final Outcome

Fig 2.6 Final Self-Portrait Design

I went for a simple cartoon style because it fits my cartoon doodles and my admiration for cartoons. The design principles I was going for is contrast where 2 different sides of me is portrayed in the negative and positive things in my life. Lower parts of the self portrait were portrayed in darker colours with the eyes coloured in purple to express the negative experiences I had in reality and how I see the world from my perspective. These are also shown in the boxes as well. On the other hand I used pastel bright colours for the top part of the portrait which features a cartoon stylized doodle filled with things that are meaningful in my life and things that I like categorized into musicians, cartoons, hobbies, etc. 

Majority of the colours being used in the doodle is consisted of my favourite colours. The artstyle of the doodles is chosen as its the most effective method to express me being stuck in my imagination and in my safe place, with my thoughts that are all over the place avoiding reality, hence the closed eyes from the black space surrounding me. The butterfly wings extended from my eye represent how I see the world in a different perspective like how butterflies see the world differently in terms of colours. Minor elements such as emphasis between the focal point and the background and repetition were included in the doodle and the eyeballs. The closed eyes in the center is counted as emphasis compared to the eyes around the main focal point. For the boxes, the one on her right portrays the fear of people gossiping or badmouthing and the smaller box portrays people being double faced. On the left side of the main focal point, another box could be seen with red scribbles which portrays overthinking. 

2.4 Feedback

Week 5 — Mindmap was good as it focused on the things that I wanted to include in the self portrait. Narrow down the things that want to be included in the self portrait.

Week 6 — Ensure to add have visual hierarchy between the lower part and the top part of the self portrait, Try to sketch a pose facing front instead of a sideways pose but maintain that folding of knees in pose.

Week 7 — Lacks visual hierarchy and loses focus from the focal point due to the amount of things going on. Keep the eyes minimal and with the same colour and size so it does not take away the viewers focus from the main figure. Make sure the colour palette of the main figure contrasts the background and maintain 2 bright colours for the doodle at the top part as well as the main figure's clothes for them to echo each other. Colour the swirls around the doodle with the same colour of the eyes for them to echo each other.

2.5 Weekly Reflection

Week 4 — Once we've submitted our 5 exercises, Ms Yip gave us a briefing of our first project which requires us to make a self portrait using one of the design principles that we've learnt from our exercises. We were instructed to do make a mindmap about ourselves and present them on the next week. 

Week 5 — Since this week we were instructed to do a mindmap about ourselves, I brainstormed and considered the things that I might contribute to my ideas or include in the self portrait. At first I included too many things which cluttered the mindmap, so I narrowed them down to just the things that I might consider including in the self portrait. During the class, each of us received feedback on our mindmaps about ourselves.

Week 6 — This week we had to present our sketches and our progress on our ideas for the self portrait. After receiving feedback individually for each of our work, we started the process of working on our self portrait. I sketched some of my ideas and came up with a way of expressing myself whilst utilizing the contrast design principle. 

Week 7 — Friday this week marks the deadline for our self portrait so during class we had to show our progress and receive feedback for it then refine it. I wasn't really confident with how my work might look because there were too many things going on at once with a ton of vibrant neon and pastel colours clashing each other so receiving the feedback helps.