FMP: Evaluation

This project has been tight for me in terms of time and I think that this is the main factor why I think my final outcome is lacking. My final piece consists of three illustrations depicting different figures that are supposed to represent three types of power that humans desire: authority, freedom, and strength. I think my piece is lacking because whenever I see this hanging on the wall, it feels very lightweight in terms of the concept and in some cases in terms of its visual structure which is why I decided to include my statement on the final exhibition. In my opinion, I could’ve chosen a better concept for my project that concerns mythology other than empowerment; I could’ve focused on the fact that classical mythology has a great influence on our modern English terminology and society itself. For instance, the word narcissism originated from the ancient Greek mythological figure Narcissus whose character has become associated with the tendency to admire oneself. If I did this I would probably have more impact on modern society as this has a bigger reflection on today. I think this was what was lacking in my final piece – reflecting on today’s society; although empowerment is very present today, I don’t think my final piece did its job to express an impact because not much of what I illustrated reflect modern society and its modern traits. What I could’ve done is intertwined modernity and ancientness so that way I’m able to keep the theme of mythology and at the same time reflecting today’s society. In terms of the structure/composition of the piece, some of it is lacking, especially the middle second illustration because half of it is black which makes the whole image less busy and vaguer for the viewer. Although I attempted to make the piece uniformed and consistent, I think I was able to partly succeed at this because I used mandalas for all three illustrations. What I think is making the illustrations less uniformed are the figures themselves. For instance, the first illustration was based on one of the works of Sarah Bonati, while the other two are based on the ancient Greek statues that I found at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Ashmolean in Oxford. The reason for this is that I wanted the poses of each figures to represent the themes that they are meant to represent. For example, the first illustration represents authority and control and I used one of Sarah Bonati’s illustrations because I thought that it was a perfect fit for the theme as it was symmetrical and had a direct stare towards the viewer. I decided to emphasise the stare for the first illustration because I want the viewer to have at least one interaction with the piece; I wanted it to reflect its theme of authority and control by directly piercing the viewer with its gaze. The other two illustrations don’t have the same interaction with the viewer because unlike the first one, they both don’t have the same piercing gaze which is another problem that this piece faces as it doesn’t make the whole work uniformed as the viewers can interact with it as small pieces rather than as a whole. What I could’ve done is instead of illustrating different figures representing different themes, I could have done similar illustrations to the first one but change their appearances and poses thereby creating a variety of personalities but at least making the piece uniformed. It may still make the viewers interact with the piece in parts but it would have made my work more interesting with this type of variation. Despite these limitations, I think that my piece was able to combine human and non-human qualities which was my challenge when I was in the second half of this project. I decided to look at anatomy because I thought that this is where I can see both humans and non-humans and I used this to combine the style of Eric Lacombe which is borderline realistic and abstract. I decided to use Eric Lacombe’s style in my illustrations because I thought that they looked modern but at the same time keeps that realistic image of the animal which is what I wanted for my final outcome. I think it worked for my final illustrations because I was able to use Lacombe’s style to reflect the anatomy of animals which created the illusion of it branching out of the figures’ muscles therefore enabling me to create a hybrid creature which was my interest for this project. Overall, my project was partly successful because I was able to project my plans and intentions from my sketchbook to my final piece, however I think my illustrations could have been better if it was more uniformed thereby making my piece whole.