DESIGN PRINCIPLES - Project 3

on

17/06/2022 - 03/07/2022 || Week 12 - Week 15
Foo Hui Xin || 0351665
Design Principles || Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Project 3

1 || Lectures

Lecture 8 - Visual Analysis

Visual analysis
- a method of understanding design that focuses on the visual elements and principles
- a description & explanation of visual structure for its own sake
- recognise the choices a designer made
- understand how the formal properties of a design communicate ideas, content, or meaning
- critically interpret images
- helps people seek out answers instead of passively receiving information

Phase 1: Observation
- closely looking and identifying visual elements of a design to describe them
- about looking, thinking, and finding good language to communicate what you notice

Phase 2: Analysis
- from your observations, make statements about the work
- how the specific visual elements you've found combine together to create a whole
- what effect that whole has on the viewer
- how your eyes led through the work 

Phase 3: Interpretation
- phase 1 & 2 are fused with facts
- the meaning of the design
- the purpose of it to be created


2 || Instructions


1. Visual Analysis

Fig 1, "Wedding" by @Dino_illus

Observation
This design is in portrait form framing the entire figure of a girl. The main, noticeable colours at first sight, are red and white. These 2 colours contrast against each other and the entire artwork is not very colourful, with only 2 to 3 colours dominating it. There is no clear line art in the illustration but it looks effortlessly painted while still making sense of the shapes with the shadings and this makes the artwork feel ‘raw’ in a way. 


Analysis
The design is asymmetrically balanced and it is an open composition which suggests there is more to it. The emphasis of the artwork is on the figure of the girl in a white wedding gown held back by multiple hands of unknown faces and bound by a red cloth. The multiple hands show repetition and all of them are caving in and going into the direction of the girl in the middle, giving her visual hierarchy. At first sight, the eyes would focus on the top half of the girl in the wedding gown, then to the golden crown on her head holding the only colour of yellow/gold in the entire drawing, then to her black long hair pulled away from her in many directions to the hands around her holding onto her. With the eyes led through these elements, the viewer will also notice the red cloth also holding onto the girl because it contrasts against the gown and the hands. Lastly, the eyes will travel down the image after taking in everything, where the least details are at. The line art around the hem of the gown and inside the gown where her legs are visible are very blurred and the shapes become a bit more blended together, indicating that the bottom half of the artwork is not intended to be up on the visual hierarchy, but to be there to make the illustration complete and a whole.


Interpretation
The hands holding the girl back during her weddings seems to be restricting her, and well, ‘holding her back’. She is stepping into a new chapter of her life but is restrained, making marriage seem like she is stepping into a trap or giving up her freedom for a marriage. Her feet being off the ground, and not given much detail, seems to show how she does not have a say for herself, or she does not have control over what she does anymore as our feet are what that grounds us. She is simply being controlled by the disembodied hands around her and holding her against the red cloth. White gowns represent a woman’s chastity and purity and red in this context of swallowing her up may symbolise a warning because red is used to warn. 

Another interpretation is that the girl is breaking free from the disembodied hands and the red cloth, which are restraining her, through marriage. The next chapter of her life through marriage may be her salvation. Her feet, though not given much details, seem like she is taking a step out of the red cloth onto the overflowing white gown. The context of the colours used still stands because it applies for this interpretation as well.


Inequality addressed
Although uncommon in present time, there are still many societies where there are strong traditions of patriarchal families where girls are still getting married off at very young ages into families where their freedom are stripped off of them. These girls have no control over their own life, how they dress, how they behave, where they go, and so on. These girls are married off at a young age in belief that this is their purpose and so that they do not bring dishonour upon their families. Even though we have progressed so much in the recent years on gender equality, there are still many women suffering in these marriages everywhere around the world which is very upsetting to think of... I feel like this illustration of a girl being held back in a wedding dress represents some sort of message that addresses inequality in marriage.

2. Design

Sketches/Ideas

(Sketch 1 & 2 'discarded', because I misinterpreted the instructions.)

Sketch idea 1: The girl can be a string puppet controlled by hands (and her hair can also be part of the 'strings').
Fig 2.1, Sketch 1, Week 14 (30/6/2022)

Fig 2.2, Sketch 1 (Coloured), Week 14 (27/6/2022)


Sketch idea 2: The girl is being dragged into a sea of red by the disembodied hands and she looks helpless / is reaching her hand out in desperation.

Fig 3, Sketch 2 (Coloured), Week 14 (27/6/2022)


Sketch 3 idea: The bride's hands in handcuffs because getting married feels like getting arrested and thrown into prison.

Fig 4, Sketch 3, Week 14 (1/7/2022)

Sketch 4 idea: the bride who has a child-like figure is getting married to a man who does not mean anything to her, so he does not have colour or a face to her.

Fig 5.1, Sketch 4, Week 14 (1/7/2022)

Fig 5.2, Sketch 4 (Coloured), Week 14 (1/7/2022)


Final Outcome (Process)

Fig 6.1, Sketch + Lineart, Week 15 (3/7/2022)

Fig 6.2, Lineart, Week 15 (3/7/2022)

Fig 6.3, Colouring, Week 15 (5/7/2022)

Fig 6.4, Background, Week 15 (5/7/2022)

Fig 6.5, Final outcome for Visual Analysis, Week 15 (3/7/2022)

Rationale:
I took advice from the feedback I received and combined sketch 3 and 4 together. Instead of only relying on a 'child-like' figure since women can also be small sized, I had the girl figure hold onto a teddy bear which shows her innocence and how she is not of age yet. The white lilies in her other hand represents purity and innocence. The red background and the black figure contrasts with the girl who is in bright colours. There is also an asymmetrical balance to show that the girl is not in power.


Final Outcome (PDF)

Visual Analysis



3 || Feedback

Week 12
Dr Jinchi gave me a clearer understanding on how to decide which artwork to select for analysis. She says that I do not necessarily have to take a 'safer route' by choosing famous artworks with readily provided analysis by experts and professionals and that I could choose anything I would like to analyse.


Week 13
I had to provide the inequality addressed in the artwork I have chosen to analyse and was told to start doing my sketches.


Week 14
I was advised to go for the 4th sketch (Fig 5) but also include the 3rd sketch (Fig 4) into the 4th one. Dr Jinchi told me to add elements that shows that the girl figure is a child like letting her hold her toys because small figures does not necessarily mean that a person is a child. She also suggested that I could add words into the artwork to make it a poster which I decided against.


4 || Reflection

Week 12
I have yet to decide on a piece of artwork to do visual analysis on as I was unsure of many things, especially after seeing what my course mates have chosen. I was overwhelmed with the endless artworks I am able to choose from and was also worried if I could do a good visual analysis on them.


Week 13
I misinterpreted the instructions so I thought I had to make an artwork similar to the one I have chosen or to 'improve' on it which kind of stressed me out because my skills are still not up to standards and it would be almost impossible to produce something better than the chosen artwork from a respectable artist. I was relieved this was not the case though. 


Week 14
I was glad to have more breathing space for my sketches after clearing my misinterpretation. The final outcome came along smoothly and even though it is simple, I feel like it delivers the meaning well enough.

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