Phony, Phony, Phony...
Exhibition Text :
In my piece "Phony, Phony, Phony..!" I explore through Tsumiki's song an illustration of putting upon yourself a personality those want to see of you, while not being able to truly show yourself, even when being yourself is troubling. The piece depicts someone with a blank aura surrounded by a colorful scene she cannot understand.
Artist Inspiration :
My artist inspiration is the song “phony” by Tsumiki, in which will derive about the details of the song later. First I took obvious inspiration from the illustrations shown throughout the song, mostly the mask that appears onto the girls face. The mask covering that sad expression she usually appears on gives an amazing example of hiding to the people your true self and revealing something fake instead. Another thing was the amazing use of purple and yellow as I enjoyed the combination of both colors, though my piece does derive from specifically those two colors. Still the song itself played a huge role into why I felt inspired by it. Another thing was how the character wears a general unisex outfit which combined with the feeling of not knowing oneself which is what I wanted to take from the inspiration as well. |
The song itself strays from specific lyrics such as “I can’t even understand the simplest of things: what even am I?” And “there’s no flower in this world more beautiful than an artificial one.” Surely these are translated from the original language but the song plays a deep role into this confused identity and role someone has in their life. The lyrics add depth towards the singer as they compile solitude and a lonely feeling. This is what I wanted to accomplish with my piece, a deep emotion hidden behind that mask and a feeling of separation upon the reality among them: what even are they? Most of the imagery behind the song's illustrations are different in comparison to what I put into my piece from the song. The sound created within the song is also very intense and give off a stressed out mood, which adds towards the feeling as
|
There's also a variety of different imagery within the song as in x-marks, an umbrella, a smile, and much more. I wanted to add to effect of the line of the rain pelting upon their umbrella which adds to the sad mood of the piece. I love the subtle and strong imagery within the song and how it plays a role into a theme with the lyrics, and I wanted to include several themes from within the song in my own piece. Although I did find the song using a classic resource that had given me similar inspirations in the past, as the Project Sekai : Colorful Stage's cover of the song includes its own themes with the characters it includes singing the certain piece, as they contain identity struggles as well. i wanted to do something similar, as if they are in a cover as well. |
|
|
Planning Phase :
My first planning page per usual derived around the overall character design, there wasn't really much difference about this one compared to projects of the past. The character wears a similar light blue sweatshirt compared to the inspiration and along herself carries a bag that's composed of various differing masks that will be more in-depth in later pages.Though I didn't of course want to copy the mask entirely, so each time I overall drew the mask differently each time I had created it. I wanted to show a happy expression appearing on the mask as it depicts the fake personality being shown towards the world, covering her true identity, one she doesn't even understand. Towards the right I wanted to draw the character unmasked as it would show their normality and because I thought it would be nice. The character also has generally long hair colliding with the lack of care given towards herself. All that was left was to basically expand onto various differing ideas. |
The second page expanded on more ideas within the background of the piece itself. The idea of having the word phony rung throughout my mind, but I felt that was a bit too obvious to show the meaning of the piece, which could already be insinuated. I tried including separate details within the song as the umbrella and the smiling face, but the main one that struck was the umbrella. As i enjoyed the raining atmosphere that would be included within the piece, I included it as a main part within the planning. Another idea was the obvious mirror reflection where the character would stand reflected towards the mirror of herself with the mask, showing the struggle of identity. Another idea was giving the bag more character but I felt that added too much of an unrealistic feeling even though that's what all my pieces strive for. No one can actually wear a full out mask depicting different personalities, well they can, but most people actually metaphorically ask into a different persona of themselves.
|
The last page of planning was an expansion on the idea of overall character. I combined a more dark outfit towards the character to enforce this dark aroma towards them. This was also to enforce the idea of having this dark feeling around the character that would clash within the bright mask around their face. The mask in the symbol was along with my various differing designs within the mask. Another thing playing part was the rain that would fall atop throughout the background and onto the umbrella. The rest of the page aligned with separate details of the face to enforce the roll of character and how each piece differs from the others, it's exported through the differing personalities being enforced within the differing masks. Now was moving onto the actual project itself.
|
: Process :
The first initial thing I do within each project is create the line art using the drawing I had crafted, then I move onto the coloring of the character. Like I said through my planning, I used similar colors when creating the outfit of the character and the mask they wear. I always dedicate a whole layer to starting one single color around the entire form, for example, in coloring the shirt I would use a light blue around the entire form of the shirt. I would then grab the color and make it darker in some manner and color around area's of shading, which would then use a blur function to make the lines seem more real. After all that was finished within each piece of outfit, I quickly colored the umbrella and went on towards the final background of the piece. The mask itself was very short as it follows similar but a different form while also using bright colors compared to the rest of the body.
|
My first idea of the background compared towards a New York like street view, in which would contain a background that looked quite unfocused to put more focus on the character. I took an average building color of blue and would put it within the form of many buildings. Another idea was after I would create a layer below that background and create dim clouds in which influence the raining background.The reason that background had not worked out was personal opinion over what I wanted thee background to be. Within that, I wasn't into how the blur was working out, and that's when I decided to completely restart. I redid another background as in a street view. I added black lines around the background to add shading which would use the similar blurring function I wanted with the other background idea. Next was moving on towards the color of the background and a future idea in place.
|
When I was working within coloring the background I wanted to influence the idea of a colorful world around the dim character I took a spray paint brush and took a variety of different colors around the rainbow and blurred them all together. After that was finalized, I created a circle around the character and wanted it to look almost dim as the moon. I took a cloud brush and placed along gray and dark colored clouds, but another thing was the brightness of the mask which distracts from the surrounding dark colors. only that fakeness is bright and shown off, while the rest of the character is very dim. I created a layer above everything else and worked within a variety of different water brushes, which enforces almost a painting like vibe towards the piece, in which I really liked. The rest aligned within making certain areas lighter using white and certain area's darker using a transparent-ish black, which they all used the blurring function. That was all left towards the piece and it was finished.
|
Experimentation :
A normal aspect of my experimentation revolves around character design, and I guess the mask design itself as well. Looking through my planning pages all the forms of the mask were drawn differently to avoid something way too similar to the inspiration. Although I did go through different designs of the main person of the piece, drawing their face was basically pointless to be honest. Still dealing within character design I wanted long flowing hair but a more unisex outfit, the first one didn't exactly give that but my final design was alluded to what I wanted to have be my main focus within the piece.
|
Next thing I experimented with was the background, and as clear to the eye the photo to the left was before the cracks were set in place. Also something I had to change a lot was the lighting within the piece as I wanted something dim but also a bright background around the character to show a creative world that they were not fitting in with. The background was an entirely different story, as I put more into words through my process about the background it went through various and various changes to get to the street view seen towards the final piece. The cracks were included specifically because I wanted to show the cracking state of mentality that is going on behind the characters illusion. As the mask brightens out's against the rest of the character it distracts from the problems they hold within and disrupts it from the world entirely.
|
Critique :
Similarities :
Differences:
- My piece and Tsumiki's song connect within similar images within the pieces, the characters portrayed are wearing similar outfits and a quite similar looking mask upon their face.
- My piece and Tsumiki's song have similar colors in various aspects such as the characters outfits, hair, and mask upon the face, they both wear quite large clothing pieces as well.
- My piece and Tsumiki's song use similar imagery in different aspects such as the umbrella in which connects towards a specific lyric of the song.
Differences:
- My pieces background is extremely less simplistic and more clashing with various colors in a street like viewpoint compared to the simple varieties of a dark purple.
- The character portrayed wears a differently designed mask while also holding a bag that contains a variety of masks in which contrasts from something that doesn't appear within the song.
- The character also doesn't appear that shy in my piece compared to the one in Tsumiki's, as my character is pretty talkative but holds a fake personality that they can't stick towards.
Reflection :
This piece means a lot more to me than any of the other ones I had made throughout the past. One of my ideas before starting the piece was that instead of creating a character i was going to put myself into it as in a self-portrait. The reason that didn't happen is aligned with my lack of liking who i am myself, which goes along with the character I created for this piece. Anyway, the project itself turned out very different from how I pictured in within my mind, it was originally a lot more simplistic but when testing out the effects within Procreate's different brushes i went pretty overboard on effects. One issue I find within it is becoming too similar towards my inspiration, as the inspiration is pretty obvious when side by side, but I fear it may take in too much of the piece. The finalized piece went through many different changes along the way as well. As originally it was going to be a clear rainy street view in the background with various people walking by, that changed due to more time restraints. Although this sounds like I don't actually like the piece, which is hardly true. This piece feels different, my ideas, style, and creative choice all take turns from the more simplistic things I had done lately and I added a texture to the piece that I verily enjoyed.
When defining my skills within the piece, I believe I did a lot of new experiences within Procreate. The variety of different brushes that included different textures and added towards almost the illusion of a painting. My form and texture included different ideas that were added even before the initial planning pages, as in the circle of dim emotion around the character and the cracking of the world around them. I am completely happy within how the project was characterized into an emotion that fitted myself a lot better. Though if there is anything I need to work on it is background and object coloring. I am so used to coloring a simple character with a lot less descriptive background but I can obviously sketch a background. I just need the objects to look more real and shiny, and fit within the character's perspective. Although I am not saying my character coloring is perfect as I need to work on fixing hair and making someone look more descriptive within their forms of clothing and working with their surroundings. If I want to work within illustration I need to get more used to the background only so perhaps for my final piece I will did something within a background focus. Still for now, I am appreciative of how my skills have grown since project one.
When defining my skills within the piece, I believe I did a lot of new experiences within Procreate. The variety of different brushes that included different textures and added towards almost the illusion of a painting. My form and texture included different ideas that were added even before the initial planning pages, as in the circle of dim emotion around the character and the cracking of the world around them. I am completely happy within how the project was characterized into an emotion that fitted myself a lot better. Though if there is anything I need to work on it is background and object coloring. I am so used to coloring a simple character with a lot less descriptive background but I can obviously sketch a background. I just need the objects to look more real and shiny, and fit within the character's perspective. Although I am not saying my character coloring is perfect as I need to work on fixing hair and making someone look more descriptive within their forms of clothing and working with their surroundings. If I want to work within illustration I need to get more used to the background only so perhaps for my final piece I will did something within a background focus. Still for now, I am appreciative of how my skills have grown since project one.
Connecting to the ACT :
- Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
The first listen through the actual song was very beautiful as an experience, this was mainly because of the instrumental and loud vocals clashing within this powerful message of the song being simply illustrated.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My inspirations initial approach as the creator of the song Phony aligned within their own concepts and ideas of feeling separated from yourself, as most creators are writing songs that usually connect to themselves.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
The idea of isolation from oneself is something that many had dealt with even within myself, so it was nice to have a bigger song dedicated towards these emotions.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My research revolved around that feeling of being lonely and distinct from yourself, experiences within changing myself in reality was what I wanted to put a focus into.
5. What kind of inferences ( conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning ) did you make while reading your research?
I found it very cool how such crazy sounding songs can bring out such simplistic imagery and create a bigger image from within, as the lyrics are so deep so too is the illustration when looking closer.
Citations in MLA Format
“フォニイ (Phony).” CeVIO Lyrics Wiki, https://cevio-lyrics.fandom.com/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%8B%E3%82%A4_(phony).
“Tsumiki.” Vocaloid Wiki, https://vocaloid.fandom.com/wiki/Tsumiki.
“Tsumiki.” Vocaloid Wiki, https://vocaloid.fandom.com/wiki/Tsumiki.