DESIGN PRINCIPLES / PROJECT 2 - SENSE OF PLACE

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 DESIGN PRINCIPLES / PROJECT 2 - SENSE OF PLACE

WEEK 7 - WEEK 10

Hussain Waheedh

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

0344802

Design Principles GCD60804AC182

Dr. Charles Group - Section 1


WEEK 7 LECTURE: THE IMPORTANCE OF OBSERVATION

On this week's pre-recorded lecture, Dr.Jinchi briefed us about observation and the importance of it in design. Observation is said to be an active act of acquiring information through the senses, of a subject matter in its natural setting. All professions need to observe subjects based on their profession. Observation is important to designers as it enables them to see problems as well as getting ideas for solutions to those problems. eg: Product designers need to observe human physique.



Figure 1.0.1 house designed by observation to match surroundings


Figure 1.0.2 Paintings by observation

WEEK 9: This week was independent learning and we had a pre-recorded lecture and feedback session by Dr.Charles uploaded to the Teams. The session was mostly regarding feedback for project 1 and Dr.Charles gave basic instructions on Project 2.

WEEK 10: On this week's lecture, Dr.Charles took us to his garden and demonstrated how to observe scenery and elements and interpret them to an artwork using one's own perspective. He sketched some of the ideas from his garden.

INSTRUCTIONS: PROJECT 2; SENSE OF PLACE
For our project 2, we were instructed to observe and use our sense of place to visually showcase our observations using artistic mediums. So for that I first spent a long time in my balcony to observe the surroundings and since I live near the beach the sight was pretty fascinating to observe. But I didn't want to go for the scenery but go with something more meaningful. I noticed the amount of old palm trees nearby. Some of them look really old and sick. It reminded me of the ongoing pandemic and the situation with old people right now all over the world. Lots of old people are dying everywhere of Covid-19 and I sort of felt a connection to that feelings from the palm trees. So I imagined each palm tree as an old person in their last days.

I decided that was the idea I wanted to go with. So I went online and looked for inspiration on methods of drawings related to palm trees.



Figure 1.0.3 Stippling above the sketch

 

Figure 1.0.4 Reference, Stipling landscape


Figure 1.0.5 Reference, stipled landscape

After some browsing, I came across various different styles of paintings and drawings but most of them were very fresh-beach looking ones and that wasn't what I wanted. Especially the saturated use of colour gave a different meaning to what I was looking for. But I found some landscape drawings using pen-stippling method and I found it very suitable for what I was going to make since it's black and white and all about details. I tried stippling years back and wasn't very good at it and now that I've come across a similar situation I decided to use stippling. 

I first took some photographs of the palm trees in front of my balcony for reference. 



Figure 1.0.6 Reference photograph of palm tree



Figure 1.0.7 Reference photograph of palm tree




Figure 1.0.8 Reference photograph of palm tree

I noticed the edges of the main stem of the old palm trees to be very rough and have various figures and I got the idea of using that to shape it looking an old person.

I got a blank sheet and using a pencil, sketched outlines of a tree trunk shaped like an old man and the palm leaves on top of it with a good composition.



Figure 1.0.9 Initial sketch.




Figure 1.1.0 Stippling above the sketch

Stippling is a slow and long process. It takes a long time to draw a single palm leaf. I spent around 3 hours to finish the whole work. I took some time-lapses of the process as well.



Figure 1.1.1 Stippling above the sketch

After every detail was filled, I was pretty happy with the result.

Here is a time-lapse video of some of the stippling process:


FINAL SUBMISSION:







RATIONALE: I've been sitting in my balcony everyday for a long lockdown and feel blessed for the things that I have and that in-spite of how bad the last few years has been for everyone and how many people we've lost, there still remains hope and we keep on growing each day. And I did this drawing of the beach thinking of the palm trees as as the old people we've lost to this pandemic as a way of saying homage to the beautiful lives they've led and somehow say a beautiful goodbye of sitting in the beach looking at the sunset. 
FEEDBACK: Dr.Charles said that the stippling and composition is very good but the thick strokes on the sea makes the sea more prominent than it needs to be and that affects the overall meaning of the design.
REFLECTION: I found that observing and looking into scenery and the objects within a scenery to be an eye opening process as well as a relaxing thing to do since we are too often lost in our phone screens. It has been a long time since I've done a stippling work so it was an exciting thing to do after such a long time. I was pretty happy with the result.







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