STUDIO PRACTICE

I SEE FACES - Character Design & GIFs

a brief practical activity in creating expressions and faces. It was
a really interesting and fun activity as we get to just play around
and explore different approaches in illustrating from
one character (soon evolving into various faces)

• When we were given the brief, I got really excited in terms of doing something different. I haven't seriously really touched upon character design before so I hope this would be interesting. 
• Honestly, I was quite worried since I didn't know any of the songs I had. I was just concerned that I wouldn't enjoy the brief due to the song and that I might not vibe with it. 

Malika Favre - In The Shade, The New Yorker

• Malika Favre is currently one of the creative practitioners I often look at. Aside from the simplicity, clear shapes and solid colours, I just like the subtlety and understated movement of the GIF. I honestly don't think that it's complicated or anything, though it makes the figure alive in some sense. 

Dominic Kesterton - for the New York Times on balancing health

• It was my first time hearing about him during the lecture a few days ago. And I actually really like his illustrations. There is this sense of comic-relief and simplistic charm. 

• Looking at his work and hearing form him, it made me reflect on my own practice. His illustrations and characters are super-simple with block colours (perhaps due to the way he works, with layers when printing etc) and shapes. Some of his works are quite ambiguous in terms of concept due to the minimal design. Though I could see a form of narrative from his work (even though it might not always be evident)

• It wasn't only recently that I began to have interest in working with shapes, collaging etc. It made me want to keep exploring this new territory of shapes, colours and simplistic (graphic-like) practice.

Don Cherry - Utopia and Visions album cover

• I decided to go with this song, in which I instantly fell in love with. There was something about this song that I find really enjoyable (I still don't know why). I may need to listen to it a few more times and get the vibe of it, before designing my character.