Research and Reference

Picture taken from Iconofgraphics.com

Referral Artist: Ludwig Hohlwein (1874-1949)
Referral Art Movement: Plakatstil 

The First work of art considered "plakatstil" by Lucian Bernhard.
Image taken from: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/09/73209-004-77C18F2C.jpg

Taken from  http://giam.typepad.com/100_years_of_illustration/ludwig_hohlwein_18741949/

The Plakatstil (or poster style)  movement revolutionized the way posters looked.  Before this movement poster art was basically art noveau.  Ludwig Hohlwein was not the pioneer of Plakatstil but he is normally credited as the second person to popularize this style.    

The Plakatstil movement was a huge leap away from the traditional art in many ways. Plakatstil focused on using simple illustrations to convey a message.  To do so, plakatstil utilizes colors and texture get people's attention.  After looking and reading through many plakatstil works, I have come up with the elements and principles of the plakatstil design.

Flat colors and taut lines
Taken from http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2009/350/c/c/Plakatstil_Black_Beauty__by_kaylaross.jpg

Elements of Design:

1. Lines are solid and taut.
2. Shapes are simplified and defined
3. Direction is normally oriented vertically.
4. Size of the subject is bigger if not the only object in the poster.
5. Texture is smooth.
6. Color (Hue) used are flat colors.
7. High Value contrast between colors.

Balanced and centralized picture
Taken from:  http://giam.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/lh_sudana.jpg

Principles of Design:

1. Good Balance
2. Gradation tends to lead eyes to the center of the artwork
3. Repetition is not really used in plakastil as normally one subject is used.
4. Contrast always leads to the center or where the subject of the artwork is located.
5. Harmony is not really important as the focus is to bring out the message.
6. Dominance is given to the subject.
7. Unity is used to make the picture smooth.  

These are only my explanation on the elements and principles. The Elements and Principles of Design were taken from: http://www.johnlovett.com/test.htm

I like Hohlwein's art because all of them have a realistic yet abstract style.  Though the colors used are not the subject's original colors, Hohlwein is still able to portray reality.  The mere simplicity of the Plakatstil style is the reason why I love the style so much.  

Taken from http://giam.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/gipsyx.jpg

  

The Phases of my Life: Interests, Dreams and Aspirations

Thinking to my childhood, I realized that my interests, dreams, and aspiration are all connected to the world of fiction. During my early schooling days, I spent countless of hours reading up topics that interested me in encyclopedias (Mainly due to being without internet connection).  I read up on animals, especially on dinosaurs, mammals, arachnids, and many other species.  This knowledge that I collected was then used to help me create characters. In my early childhood days, I remember playing "make-believe" with, and many times even without the need of, toys.  Basically, I was interested in the "make-up" of the world - how everything: plants, animals, peoples...etc could fit in such a small world.  I began to imagine.  It is through this imagination that my dreams and aspiration were developed.  

"Artwise", my life so far can be divided into three parts:

The Cartoon Phase

(4 - 8 years old)

Inspired by Medabots

My earliest interest was in the arts.  At an early age, I started drawing.  I began with the basic stick figures, and then gradually adding clothes on them.  Sadly, I do not have any remaining pieces of my early drawings.  Slowly and surely, I began to add more realism into my drawings and before long, I was drawing portraits of cartoon characters such as those from the television series Medabots, from the comics of Sonic the Hedgehog, and video games like Megaman.  I then moved on to creating original pieces and characters, one of which was actually published on the StarTwo section of the Star newspaper.

Inspired by Megaman

The Comic Phase
(9 - 14)

Cover page of Link8, a group of  original superheroes

Later on, I moved from the cartoon phase into the comic phase.  My art became more realistic, but more creative.  My inspiration were superheroes from the pages of Marvel comics and also Jedi's and Sith lords from works of Star Wars, and I drew and created many characters of my own.  It was at this stage that my imagination was used to it's maximum potential and I came up with many characters (as many twenty a day).  My dream to publish a comic of my own was born in this stage and though it has not happened yet, there is still a part of me that still dream of this.  At this age because of the limitations of this country, my philosophy of work became to be: Earn as much money as you can as fast as you can so that you can retire early, start a publishing house, and publish your own work (This philosophy has changed now, but the dream to publish something has not).  Some of my better works will be posted:

The Raiders, a group of supervillians 

Sometimes when I have nothing better to do, I  try random things

A 3-page story on "Gentleman Ghost".

An Idea for a giant robot: "Lone Samurai"

Cover page of "Bulwark"  (Inspired by Ironman)

Cover page of "Giga-Kid"

Two drawings of the "R-4-Rangers"

Cover page of "The Immovables"

Cover page of "Tracker's Troop"

Cover page of "Tech-Wave"

Cover page of "Spirit

The Creative Phase
(15 - present)

A book idea: The Legends of Brack: Hood of Niadris

I soon realized that there was no way that I could actually create a comic without a basis in writing.  It was when I started exploring the world of words that my real creative phase began.  I began with writing stories but abandoned most of them because of the weak plot and started planning before writing.  During these few years ideas for many novels, movies, comics, and poems flooded me.  I started a blog to begin jotting down ideas and publishing some chapters and prologues to ideas.  I continued my drawing but the superhero craze had died down a little and I started drawing sketches of whatever that I could see from the room view to my reflection in the mirror. My aspiration is to see my work published.  It is one of the reasons I took up psychology.  My thinking was that, by getting to know more about people, I would be better at writing a more realistic story and it seems to be paying of.  By thinking more of plots, my dream has altered from merely publishing comics and novels to also maybe producing videos or even directing a movie.  Some of my sketches:

A scene in the Legends of Brack: Hood of Niadris book

Self-Portrait 28-03-2008

Self-Portrait 03-05-2008

Self-Portrait 25-06-2008

Self-Portrait 05-10-2009

Self-Portrait 05-06-2011

Now to fuel my creativity and to help me achieve my aspiration, I have decided to learn the art of design.  My dream at the present moment is to see my work published or produced...hopefully in the near future.

URL and Title Picture

The URL

The first step to creating this URL was to come up with something interesting.  

Why pioneer? 

I believe that everyone is a pioneer in their own way. After all, our entire life is our's to explore.  I have accepted my job as a pioneer and hopefully I will be also a pioneer in the field of design.

Why Inspired? 

This is an easy to answer question. Basically, I hope this blog will inspire me and also inspire others.  This blog will be my treasure chest of creative inspiration for the next 14 weeks at least.

The Title Picture

I knew I needed something that is of good quality, so I rummaged through my archives and found this photo taken last year at a dinner.  I also knew that this title picture had to at least show some form of designing so I used photoshop to edit this picture.

Photo Credited to Ng Hwee Ling.  

Then I started by cropping out everything but my eyes and their surroundings. I later chose two colors (Yellow and brown) and used the brush tool to fill in my eyes and hair.

I filled in the shadowy areas first then moved on with the rest of my face by using a lighter color tone. 

I was pretty satisfied with the results.  For the eyes, I used black and white. After I was done coloring in, I used the blur tool to make the colors mix more. I later colored off the background:

This is the result.  (The background color was chosen to fit in with the blog's background.)