Final Project: Too Fat?

In society today, beauty is very much judged based on a person's weight. The half on the left shows a girl who weighs a little above average. There are always thoughts and insecurities because of her fats. People tend to talk behind her back and gossip about her. They look at her with judging eyes as they discriminate her. Her expression shows sadness. The half on the right shows a girl who is at society's ideal weight. She is on the cover of magazines. Cameras flash her way no matter where she goes.

The title of our final project is "Technology and it's Effects on Humans". Technology of liposuction and cosmetic surgery has changed the perception of beauty of many people. Everyone is trying to look like what society deems as perfect, which are portrayed by the girls on magazine covers. Society not only judge themselves and try to be perfect, they also discriminate those who aren't, just like the half on the left of the artwork. People are slowly forgetting that beauty isn't just on the outside, but on the inside as well. The girl as a whole, is the same person, with the same heart and soul. Despite that, just because of her weight, she is treated differently. Technology has caused inner beauty to be overshadowed by outer appearance.

The "Making" of the Final Project

Step 1: Scan the hand-drawn model and cut the background away.

Step 2: Color the model using brush. Layers were used.

Step 3: Making a collage background of magazine covers on the right and fat-discriminating pictures on the left. Add shadow to the background to enhance the focus of the model.

Step 4: Scan the hand-drawn gossip girls and cut the background away.

Step 5: Color the gossip girls with brush. Layers were used.

Step 6: Place multiple copies of the gossip girls on the original artwork. Adjust their positions and change their opacity to blend with the background. Add a layer of shadow to create a darker mood.

Step 7: Scan the hand-drawn camera and cut the background away. 

Step 8: Color the camera with brush.

Step 9: Place multiple copies of the cameras on the original artwork. Adjust their positions and change their opacity to blend with the background. Add a layer of glow to create a lighter mood.

Step 10: Add a new layer and render lens flares on the cameras. Adjust the shadows and glows once more to suit the mood of the artwork as a whole.

References

Source for magazine covers:

http://stupidcelebrities.net/wp-content/old_pictures/leann-rimes-shape.JPG

http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/100603/who_1406_cover-medium-160f56l.jpg

http://photogallery.indiatimes.com/celebs/celeb-themes/hottest-magazine-covers/photo/15385206/Shriya-Saran-looks-super-sexy-on-the-latest-cover-of-Maxim-magazine-.jpg

http://ll-media.extratv.com/archive/images/news/1210jen.jpg

http://blog.quiksilver.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2011/08/OK-Magazine-Sept-5-2011-Cover.jpg

Sketches

The final project of the course is to produce an artwork under the theme "Technology and it's Effects on Humans". These are the sketches that I have done based on the topic.

Sketch One: Time

During the ancient times, people look at stars to tell the dates. It then evolved to a sun clock whereby the shadow of the stick is used to tell the time of day. The evolution continued to an analog clock, a watch, a digital clock and now, we even have holographic clocks. I was going to design an abstract based on this concept of time evolution.

 Sketch Two: Distance

Telecommunication has improved our living standards as we are able to now freely communicate with people all over the world regardless of the distance. Through technology, families and friends can continue to maintain a close relationship with one another.

Sketch Three: Marriage to Siri

Siri is an iPhone App that Steve Jobs has brought into the world of telecommunication. This man has a great vision which was to change the way people use phones. He succeeded in his evolution of touchscreen phones which replaced the button-phones and now he has done it again with Siri. The concept I had in mind was the obsession of people nowadays with their gadgets that they can just live with the gadget as a live partner, in this case, literally.

 Sketch Four: Princess

For this sketch, I was thinking more towards the contrast between the historical times whereby beauty was free and innocent, and now everything is controlled and robotic. The half on the left shows a princess-like side of the girl but the right side is robotic and firm. My concept was how different people have become because of technology. You would never see girls in suits back in the days, especially when females did not have equal rights as males.

Sketch Five: Weight

This is the sketch chosen for this project. It is based on the society's concept of "beauty", and how unfairly people look at a person, just because of their weight. On the left is a woman who is overweight and sad. On the right is a woman who is fit and confident. Even though they both have the same hair, eyes and even wear the same clothes, society will never treat them the same. I plan to put backgrounds which will portray my meaning more in depth so stay tune for the result!

Pop Art

This is a pop art of me, by me. I feel awkward using my own photo.

Reference
Source: http://www.melissaevans.com/tutorials/pop-art-inspired-by-lichtenstein

Montage

I did a cute skeleton this time for my montage. The hair, eyes, nose, mouth, neck, body and arms are different pictures merged together to form one collage that is seemingly connected. The ribbon is to deceive the viewer that the creepy skeleton collage is childish and innocent, but the matter of fact is, it is not.

References
Source: http://newx4.deviantart.com/art/Billy-Joe-Armstrong-SKULL-167612780
Source: http://angnatsiaq.deviantart.com/art/Skull-70042924
Source: http://ladyxanna.deviantart.com/art/Skull-206969607
Source: http://qtpie4753.deviantart.com/art/the-skeleton-304522864
Source: http://kurosama-76.deviantart.com/art/ANGIE-SKELETON-215800598
Source: http://ikate.deviantart.com/art/Skeleton-Song-335376306
Source: http://s1.favim.com/orig/5/cute-photography-pink-ribbon-Favim.com-159412.jpg
Source: http://84d1f3.medialib.glogster.com/media/c4/c4aa97dd7f3f4f45bbb3dc839573e3865b122e79750975d22e94ac5a4ee789a8/lollipop.jpg

National Art Gallery

On 8th of June, a class trip to the National Art Gallery was organized by our lecturer. Countless paintings were displayed in the gallery. There were a few that caught my attention.

Someone Forgotten (Dream and Reality)
by Wong Woan Lee

This was the first piece that caught my eye. It was an oil painting, colored in yellow and brown hues. An old man was laying down on the floor, with his body straight. He was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. His rib bones embedded his skin, which suggests poverty. His eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling. A family photo was laying beside him, just a little out of his reach. To his right, which was our front view, were three men, possibly portrayed by the artist to explain what the old man was doing other than laying down. The three men were staring at three different paintings. The painting on the far left were two little children behind a slightly opened door. They were staring at him with confused eyes as he reached out a hand to grab them. He was seemingly calling out for them. The painting on the far right showed a happy family watching television together. Among the family was the old man. He seemed happy and loved. The old man stared at the picture with heavy shoulders, possibly missing those times. The painting in the middle was like a paint-ception, a term that doesn't exist in the dictionary but formed that morning by my friends and I to refer to a painting inception. The painting in the middle was the view from the left of Wong Woan Lee's painting. It showed the old man laying down on the floor and also the three men staring at the paintings. At the window of the room, were two people staring at the old man laying down, presumably his children. The old man staring at the painting was crouching down, holding his head between his hands.

To me, this painting somewhat portrayed how lonely the man was, and how much he missed his family. It was like what happens to the old folks in Malaysia these days. They raised us with much love when we were little, but when we grow up, we just dump them in the old folk's home, alone and forgotten. That was the reality of the old man in the painting. The paintings that he was staring at were his dreams and longing to be reunited with his family.

Cry Freedom
by Eng Hwee Chu

This painting also caught my attention in the midst of hundreds of others. It was most fantasy-like. The painting centralized a girl with red skin and black hair. She was being tied to, back-to-back with another image of her, but this time in black. The girl in black was seemingly trying to break free from the bondage. At the bottom left corner of the painting was a man in white. He looked excited and full of joy. The background of this painting was dark and full of abstracts.

I'm not really sure what the painting means but what attracted me was the cry for freedom by the black silhouette. Her pain and sadness could be felt even though the artist did not give her a face. She was completely black in color. I felt that it portrayed a hidden desire for freedom whereas the girl in red was a facade that she puts on for the world.

These were the two paintings that caught my interest in the National Art Gallery. All in all, it was an exciting and beneficial trip.

Art Movement: Urban Art

Urban art is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life. It consists of both street art and graffiti. Urban art are usually showcased in public places and are often classified as vandalism or destruction of public property. However, in the recent years, urban art has become very popular. Some of these artists were sought our for to draw on private property. Most of these artists paint as a hobby. Their paintings usually show a particular interest, hold a special meaning, or to send out a message. These artists travel from country to country to spread the culture of urban art.
It has become one of my favorite art movements. The ones that I like most is the art that creates a sort of like a delusion. It looks three dimensional in photos but in reality, it's two dimensional. It's amazing how they can bring out a picture on a flat plane to make it seem as if it can stand out.

Some of the artists even put a real object that connects to the painting to make it look more connected to the real world. For example, the pole in this art that connects to the ground.

Similarly, the plates, bottles and et cetera on the painting of the table is real.

Lastly, this is my favorite one. It made use of the leaves of the plant to make up for the hair of the lady in the painting. It's creative and beautiful.

References
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_art
Source: http://sarcasticsarcasms.blogspot.com/2013/03/amazing-3d-street-art-40-pics.html
Source: http://bp.uuuploads.com/street-art/street-art-54.jpg
Source: http://api.ning.com/files/xHeFYx14hBQ5ed98QGRmY3xUcI7D936kemft7hvVoNfYPGAXFILG7*41VLsQsz-7*PxeYtvMh9AN8vz9VJOYUBQpHj6-sBeL/pavement.jpg
Source: http://www.opticalspy.com/uploads/1/4/4/9/144966/2705850_orig.jpeg
Source: http://photovide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/3D-Street-Art-13.jpg