Digital Photography & Imaging // Project 2A: Self-titled

24/08/20 -23/09/20 (Week 5 - Week 9)
Caitlyn Aurelia Tjandra (0339381)
Digital Photography and Imaging 
Project 2 - Self-titled

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Week 5 (24/09/20)

Research: 

Ideation

For this assignment, we have to make a collage about ourselves. This project is an exploration to express our own individuality. Through this project, we are able to learn what we like and create a design that reflects our personality. Firstly, Mr.Fauzi has told us to do research and build our ideas. We were to write 100-300 words regarding our ideas. Here is what my idea would be for my design:

"My idea for project 2 self-titled is based on my culture. I am from Indonesia and I feel like I wanted to show the different amazing things that are related to my country. Indonesia is popular with their ethnicity and diversity. Every island in Indonesia has its own unique culture. Within their culture, there are a lot of inspiring arts. Indonesia is perhaps well known for its dances, drama, and sculpture. For example, in Java, people may know the famous pattern of batik, there is also a wooden puppet called wayang. Additionally, I lived in Bali, an island famous among tourists. Balinese people are famously known for their artistic abilities such as Barong, Kebaya, and the shadow puppet. I want to express this culture in my design. I have picked several references in which I liked how it was composed and while looking at it I had several ideas on how I’m going to incorporate several Indonesian cultures on it."

Reference

After our ideation, we were told to explore Pinterest and find a reference image for our work. We need to find the three best ideas in which here is mine:

Fig 1.0 Reference 1

This refrence was my favourite. I like how it was composed and how the elements are placed. My design would be inspired by this reference the most, I had the idea of incorporating this layout into a cultural theme. I liked how the background has the same nuance as the elements. The gold circle helps in creating a contrast in this image. Although, I dont really like the black line because I feel like it's too much. I like a simple and elegant illustration.

Fig 1.2 Reference 2

I picked this reference because i liked how the face is being played around here.  I also liked the minimalistic of the whole Design. This colour scheme is my style. I liked a tone down colour scheme, such as creme and brown which is why my instagram too has that theme. It doesnt feel crowded and flowed elegantly.

Fig 1.3 Reference 3

This reference caught my eyes from the contrasting colours of dark and light. The dark blue helps to stand out the yellow in which grabs attention. I also liked how the line was created to accentuate the top of the design. The moon also helps correlate all designs element. I feel like I wanted to incorporate the cirlce elements in my design.

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Week 6 (28/09/20)

Exploration: 50%

Sketches

Fig 1.4 Sketch 1

Fig 1.5 Sketch 2

Photography

Fig 1.6 Me 1

Fig 1.7 Me 2

Design Elements

Fig 1.8 Wayang

Fig 1.9 Pura Bali

Gig 2.0 Batik

Description

I wanted to explore and present my culture. I am indonesian and therefore, i wanted to show my Indonesian culture. There are a lot of artsy Indonesian elements that I have incorporated in my design.

In my sketches, you could see me in the middle, with batik background and other indonesian elements. I wanted to have wayang emerging from myself and pura in the circle back of my head. 

I took my picture with a barong mask that I made by myself. This helps enhance originality and at the same time portray the culture of Bali. The mask was put in a pose where I was using the mask half in half of my face and the other was me taking off the mask. This also help convey how in this society we have different faces. 

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Week 7 (5/10/20)

Exploration: 80%

Drafts

Fig 2.1 Draft 1

Fig 2.2 Draft 2

Fig 2.3 Draft 3

I just finished compiling the picture together, transferring all the design elements and pictures into one page. I haven't finished sorting them up into a final composition. I’ve tried to do several different tries before settling down to one final composition. 

After this, I wanted to make the circle smaller as it seemed a little bit too large. I like the second composition out of the third so possibly I’ll be using that. However, I do think it needs to be slightly brighter. 

Blending Mode

Although this week's a holiday, Mr. Fauzi helped us this week by posting a demo tutorial about blending mode. He told us to do use this as our touch up after doing our 80% progress. This would help improve the overall looks of our final work.

Fig 2.4 Watch Demo Tutorial

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Week 8 (12/10/20)

Finalizing Work

Process

Fig 2.4 Chosen Draft

Fig 2.5 Added Blending

Fig 2.6 Final touch up

Final Outcome

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Week 8 (13/10/20)

Bonus Work

Extra

After doing the final project, I wanted to do one more because I was having so much fun with it. This self titled collage is made by using a grunge feel while still having my culture shown on the work. I did a black and white with red contrast colour to emphasize each individual point that I wanted to pop out. I use graphic elements such as cats, eucaliptus leaf and batik. In this work I also incorporated some of my favourite Indonesian quoates as a typographic elements. The reason I did a cat is because my full name initial is CAT and my close friends also called me cat. Meanwhile, eucaliptus is my favourite fragrance oil. it is calming and surprisingly an aesthetic leaf. lastly, the reason why I did an orangy-red emphasize colour is that one of my favourite colors is orange.

Fig 2.8 Draft 1

Fig 2.9 Final Outcome

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Feedback

Week 5: 

Mr Fauzi ask me which of the three reference i liked the most. I told him that I liked fig 1.0 and also elaborate on how i have idea what to do with it. Mr Fauzi said that I could move on and it is good that i have an overall idea of what I wanted to do.

Week 6: 

- batik for background

- dress make all black (including buttons) to have contrast 

- it will take a long time to photoshop myself into kebaya

- good progress and shown elements and photography. Sir Fauzi is able to see what my design going to looked like.

Week 7

Good progress Caitlyn! You're good to go to finalize it and ready to submit later on.

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Reflection 

Experience: This project was really fun! I could show my  own creation and ideas. Mr Fauzi too has been helpful and encouraging. At first I was afraid on how I wanted to do my project. I had the image of it however dont know where to begin. I am glad that the overall outcome was good and I really liked it.

Observation: I observe that I was able to learn a lot of photoshop skills during this project. I was also able to show my culture and different cultures that Indonesia had. I really love how I could incorporate Indonesian Elements such as barong, wayang and batik. This helps people see how beautiful Indonesia is.

Findings: I find that the 50%,80% progress worked has really helped me in creating a fantastic outcome. I really liked how Mr Fauzi gave us a percentage progress feedback instead of sketches feedback and final work. I feel liked this way, Mr Fauzi was able to see my progress from basic elements to the final design. This too helped Mr Fauzi understand what I wanted to show/ achieved in my work much more profound and helped my design becomes meaningful.