Design Principle/ Project1: Self-Portrait

 Project1 : Self-Portrait

Week4 - (25/01/2022-  )

Riko Matsuyama (0351470)

Bachelor of Design in creative media

Project Brief

In this project, We draw self-portraits by applying the various principles that we had learned through these weeks. Before drawing, we have to understand ourselves. Who are you? Who am I? What am I? And Your favorite things, food, music, season, hangouts, and color. Another one is your culture, experience and you're around the environment. 

Fig1 : proust questionnaire & easy questions

First of all, I tried to do the Proust questionnaire that Mr. Charles recommended. There were some difficult questions, but it became a good opportunity to know myself. Also, I did another question that came up after researching.

I also tried 16 personalities tests. It was ISFP a year ago, but it was changed to INFJ.

☺Visual Research 

Fig2 : my favorite

 I collected my favorites and sketched. Then I thought 4 design structures. The teacher taught our an example of animal self-portraits in class. So, on Instagram story, I asked my friends in Japan what if I'm an animal? 

 

Before asking, I thought I was an alpaca or a sloth myself. So It was fun to have a lot of friends who answered alpaca and sloths. This time I chose alpaca and I sketched :)

Fig3 : sketchs

Fig4 : saxophone

I thought it was the left that could convey myself better.So finally, I decided on the left one.

Fig5 : last sketches

First of all, about saxophone and ice cream. When I thought about my favorites, it was ice cream, saxophone and music. I belonged to a wind orchestra and marching club and I played the saxophone for six years. I think my youth memories are my friends and my club activities. Music and musical instruments are a big part of me as they make up one-third of my 18 years of life. And I like ice cream, especially, I love the flavor of Baskin-Robbins' popping shower. I put ice cream on my head.

Fig6 : saxophone 

Fig8 : club activity 

When it came to drawing me, I wondered what kind of person I was. My friends tell me that I am an interesting, kind and healing person. The left side is the normal facial expression to show to family and friends, and when there is something fun or happy.

 

Fig9 : two different face

However, human life is not all fun. As a result of self-analysis, I am a very annoyed person. When I sketched, I was also worried about my daily life and future. I expressed it on sketch. On the left side is myself when I'm in trouble, sad, or hard circumstances.

Fig10 : process 

On the other hand, human life is not all fun. As a result of self-analysis, I am a very annoyed person. When I sketched, I was also worried about my daily life and future. I expressed it on sketch. On the left side is myself when I'm in trouble, sad, or hard circumstances.

Fig11 : add shadow

I used the 'balance' and 'contrast' of the elements of the design principles.

Fig12 : background

I added background. The background score is something that actually exists. This is the melody line of the song "The last letter from Murdoch" that inspired me to become interested in musical instruments and performances.

 

It's my favorite song because it naturally makes me feel better when I listen to it when I'm depressed. My hobby is listening to music, so I usually listen to Wind music. I feel that my student life has been enriched by encountering this song. Also, I like to close my eyes and listen to the tones of various instruments.

Fig13 : sketch

I will make use of the feedback, so I will add feedback in the middle 

so that the process is easy to understand.

Feedback

Mr. Charles said, ice creams on your head, but yet you're not it. It is external. You have both things happening at the same time, yet the ice creams are on top. So there's a difference between what happens internally and what happens externally. But ice cream is something that you love. Very beautiful contrast. It's quite balanced actually with the ice cream you balance the ice cream in the face. A very dominant object and they are almost equal in weight but once one becomes a lot more dominant is I believe, this saxophone. 

The musical notes as the background, which is very much a big part of your life. You can see lots of musical notes, but what's happening on the left side? There are no musical notes, which is a little. If you're not feeling too happy, does that mean that you stop listening to music you know so there that it's very interesting but you, but that's not always the case because you don't? A very you don't use a very large space to show that there's no music because you just. For you, it's just not an option. Whatever the case, you still need music.

So where the saxophone takes lead for you? Because it's a very big part of yours. You know the kind of instrument that leads you in your work.I would have mentioned that that's excellent, would have needed thicker lines or anything, but you didn't need it. 

 you did put a little bit of shadow here and there and that would have worked as well. perhaps line weight may not be the necessary thing because you compensated with shadow,  like Gray marker shadows, light shadows here and there. It makes it differentiated the the the objects. Between each other, so you can see the overlap, you know very clearly. 

Continue the project with feedback from the teacher

The saxophone represents myself, but the ice cream is just what I like. I wouldn't be able to answer when asked if ice cream has any deep meaning. So I thought it might not be suitable for this project, and I removed it. I've removed the ice cream, but the red and green dots are used.

In my image, red 🔴 →Passion, liveliness, anger, danger

Green 🟢 → Safety, harmony, freshness, healing, nature

So I expressed that the two opposite feelings are mixed in my head just like the background and my facial expression.

Fig14 : head

Next about background. The teacher pointed out that there is no score and music on the left side. Then I realized that I listen to music when it's hard and sad. I added a score because my opinion and the work were inconsistent. 

Fig15 : background image

Also, It is a little lonely because there is no color in the background, so I adopted rainbow colors.　Because music have various colors and I thought rainbow colors can express it.

 However, my work looks a little messy overall.

Fig16 : sadness color palette 

Fig17 : happy color palette 

Fig18 : final outcome

So I referred to the two-color palettes and set different backgrounds on the left and right. I put in several colors, not just one.

reflection

I had drawn myself a little interesting with my friends, but since it was my first time to do a self-portrait  project like this, I found it a little difficult at first. The self-analysis I did at the beginning had many difficult questions, and I couldn't answer all of them, but it was very interesting. Also, I think it was a good opportunity to know myself. I didn't fully understand the purpose of the project, so I'll be careful about the preparations a little more. I also wanted to create a work that would have an impact on the viewer. In the future project, I wanted to find more ideas in visual research and sketching. Also, I thought it would be nice if I could put in a little more design principle elements.

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