The Old Maid

For our final project we made a list of: 5 specific events in your life, 5 people who have influenced your creativity, 5 inanimate objects that you keep around your workspace, 10 activities you do to stimulate creativity and 1 thing that hinders your creativity. Our challenge was to "personify" everything listed and create playing cards much like that of The Old Maid game. My game is called Mistress of Self Doubt.

The Mistress of Self Doubt represents the internal battle of thinking nothing is ever good enough and doubting you can branch out and succeed at different artistic styles and aesthetics.

This set of cards represents influential people that have influenced my designs.

This set of cards represents important objects I use on a regular basis.

This set of cards represents influential events that have shaped my design aesthetic.

This set of cards represents activities that help me stay focused and provide inspiration to my designs.

The card box was designed in a morose style representing the effects from the Mistress of Self Doubt.

The back of the card is a tartan pattern reflecting my Scottish heritage and the influence my country has in my life.

  

The Bard

For our assignment this week we have been hired by the Royal Shakespeare Company to develop a program cover for one of Shakespeare's plays, I chose Macbeth. The program cover was designed by my pseudonym, Gladys Hoachin.

Gladys did not want to use obvious symbolism from the play such as witches, crowns or daggers. She chose to create a rough, stylized forest which relates to the prophecy given to Macbeth by the three witches that he will remain safe until "Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane Castle." However, this prophecy depicts Macbeth's demise when the English army advances on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam wood. The hand drawn text of Macbeth is supposed to represent the roots of trees. Gladys chose red for the background color for a number of reasons: it represents anger, revenge and the blood stained battle field where Macbeth is beheaded by Macduff.

Simplification Through Symbolism

This week  in class we discussed symbolism and simplicity. First we created a list of 10 quotes that had visual potential, from those 10 we chose 3 to develop into ideographs. Here's mine...

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

This is an old proverb that means it's better to have a lesser but certain advantage than the possibility of a greater one that may come to nothing. I basically simplified all of the words in this quote into symbols. I think the universal sign of 'equals' is what ties the whole ideograph together.

"Walls have ears."

I think everyone knows this quote means that someone is listening in on your conversation, and you don't want them to hear what you're saying. I depicted this in the most literal way. I think the lines by the ear help to convey the 'listening' element better than just the ear by itself. I added the white lines in the rectangle in a brick pattern to help show that it is a wall, otherwise it just looked like...well, a black rectangle.

"Small leaks sink the ship."

Most people take this to mean small flaws can spell mayhem for great things. Just as a little water dripping into the hold of a ship will eventually fill it up and sink the ship or, a little lie may cause a big problem. This is a literal composition of the quote.

Between Ugliness & Beauty



Lantern Bug

Look at this ugly beastie! Well, most people find insects repulsive but I think he is absolutely beautiful. This is a Lantern Bug from Brunei and he has wings that have an intricate pattern and vibrant hues of bright green, yellow and red. He's go-jus!

War

All wars are ugly and bring death, pain and suffering. However, if you have ever visited a war memorial here in the USA or Europe you will know that they are beautiful places of peace and serenity.

Oil Spill

There have been many major oil spills throughout the world and we are all aware of the huge environmental impact they have, especially for birds and marine animals. That was the ugliness that I wanted to convey in this sketch. The connection is when light hits the oil and creates a rainbow effect of beautiful purples, blues and maroons.

Blood Diamonds

Diamonds are prized and desired by many across the globe. These precious gems have become a symbol of wealth, power, love and beauty. However, to those who mine and extract them, these most desired gems are a symbol of pain, suffering, injustice, terror, fear, war, sorrow and even death. Blood diamonds, as they are called, bear a history associated with war, atrocities, death and slavery.

Emotional CYRK Poster

Intimidation by Gladys Hoachin

The challenge for this poster assignment was to create and convey a specific emotion. The style and rendering

of the artwork had to be done under our new pseudonym. Gladys decided intimidation was the best and closest

emotion that related to her personality.

Normally, I like my work to be clean and precise whereas Gladys loves chaos and mess. The position and stance of

the lion was a deliberate attempt to help convey the emotion and add depth to the artwork. A black background was

used for a number of reasons such as the color psychology associated with black and to reinforce the lion as the

focal point of the design. Gladys added texture and ink splatter marks to the poster to age and 'roughen' it up. The white

diagonal line was used to create motion, movement and perspective.