Design Principle - Project 1

29/5/19 - 12/6/19 (Week 9 - Week 11)
Chan Qian Hui 0334447
Design Principle
Project 1 - self-portrait

---

PROJECT 1 - SELF PORTRAIT

For our first assignment, we were required to create a portrait of our own self using any medium as we like. The portrait have to portray who we are and it does not have to be literally how we look like and also not necessarily have to show our faces.

I started by choosing characteristics which I wanted to portray through my self-portrait. After going through my personalities, my friend said that I'm very similar to a dog. I'm fun, playful, energetic, cute and warm. Besides that my friend also said that my cheeks are very similar to a dog's cheek.

I wanted to use a collage to create my own self-portrait because it seems more fun as we can cut and put things together using our own hands. The concept also matches with my playful personality.

References :

I started with researching how people used collage techniques, compositions, mood board and design principles used.

Fig 1.0 research artwork

Fig 1.1 research artwork

Fig 1.2 research artwork

After having a grasp of how applying the techniques into a collage artwork, I started sketching out my ideas for the portrait. I also realized how I wanted to make the personality of my portrait to be obvious and straightforward people could tell what kind of person I am by only glancing at my portrait.

Sketches for ideas :

Fig 1.3 idea sketches for portrait

So I decided to go with "A dog-like girl" for my self-portrait.

The personalities which I'm trying to portray are : dog-like, playful, fun, cute
The design concept which I'm going for : A Photo Collage, straightforward and simple

After getting the idea for my portrait, I started taking photos of myself for the portrait and researching elements which I wanted for my portrait.

Original photo of myself :

Fig 1.4 my own portrait

I chose this photo because it was really cute and it goes well with the dog theme.

Photo elements which I wanted to include in my portrait :

During the process of selecting the photo elements, I decided to choose the dog breed, Shiba Inu as my main element, because Shiba Inu is my favourite dog breed. It also known for being "meme dog" which means that they're funny and dorky. They are also known for their really chubby cheeks which is the same as my facial highlight feature, my stretchy and chubby cheeks.

Fig 1.5 Shiba Inu's stretchy and chubby cheeks

Fig 1.6 Shiba Inu picture for ears (top) and dorky pictures of Shiba Inu ( bottom )

Fig 1.7 other photos of Shiba Inu which I researched and compiled

Fig 1.8 A pattern of Shiba Inu doodle for background

Before I printed the pictures, I adjusted the size of the pictures with my own photo to match the size in Adobe Photoshop so they would match my facial features.

Process of creating the portrait :

Fig 1.9 tearing of photos instead of cutting to create a rough effect

Fig 1.10 matching the dog cheeks to my own cheeks

Fig 1.11 adding dog ears to my photo

Fig 1.12 testing out compositions for photo elements

Fig 1.13 Testing out composition of photo elements (torn out)

Fig 1.14 Testing out placement of other photo elements

After testing out the photo elements that I have, I decided to keep it simple with equal number of parts of the dog elements on my portrait. This is because it looks more balanced due to the design principle symmetry that is in the dog photo elements. 

Final Portrait :

Fig 1.15 Final portrait (A dog-like girl)

In the beginning, I realized that my portrait is quite empty and I thought of adding more photo elements in to the portrait. But I realized that there is already a pattern behind the portrait and adding more elements would disturb the pattern. Besides that, it would also disturb the symmetry principle that the portrait have if I added too many extra elements. 

So I decided to kept it like this to keep the idea simple and straightforward. The composition is clean and the viewers won't be confused by too many elements in the portrait.

Details of the portrait :

1. Design Principle : Harmony

Fig 1.16 colour palette used in portrait

The harmony is achieved by the overall colour scheme of the portrait. I only used warm colours such as brown, orange, yellow and red. Thus all the colours used in the portrait falls in the same colour palette and it looks harmony.

2. Design Principle : Symmetry

Fig 1.17 the center line of the dog elements which are in symmetry

The design principle symmetry falls under the dog photo elements added to the portrait. Equal size and numbers of dog elements are added to 2 sides of the picture. Thus creating symmetry in the portrait.

3. Design Principle : Pattern

Fig 1.18 Pattern used as background

The background of the wallpaper was made by repeating a piece of artwork which I found online. I transferred the artwork to Adobe illustrator and connected the artwork into an A4 pattern.

 4. Other Elements

Fig 1.19 Leading lines and triangle shape of portrait

- Direction of dogs create a sense of direction, guiding viewer's eye to center, which is the cheeks

- Overall shape is triangle, wider base, smaller top.
- The image is slightly tilted to create dynamic which is playful

Feedback : I was glad that during feedback session Ms Sherry and my classmates were smiling and laughing at my portrait. Ms Sherry was able to tell that I was having fun doing the artwork and I was able to show a fun and playful image of myself and few of my classmates also told me that it was cute.

Overall, although simple, the portrait was able to achieve what I was aiming for, showing my playful, fun and cute personality in a straightforward way.