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2012 sep 2013 may
DECUE WU
Decue Wu was born in 1990 and hails from China. Before entering MICA’s Illustration Practice MFA program, she majored in Digital Media Art at a university in China. Decue is working on fashion illustration, pattern design and comics, and is constantly exploring new techniques and different media in which to develop ways to observe and enhance her creative process.
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1) Fa5hioni5ta Fun! /Pattern Workshop /Publishing Project Lost & Found 1st Year MFA ILP Exhibition
/Four Workshops and Lightroom & Archiving Workshop /Three Workshop Reaction /Image Harvest /Art Market /Mocca /Stop Motion
2) Other Project5: /Sketch Book Project The Curious sketch book show /Hand Lettering Hand Lettering show
/Words on Wheels /Made & Sold /Alphabet book
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Fashion
illustration
is a recurring theme in my first-year projects at MICA. I love fashion illustration and feel passionately inspired by the beauty, volume, shapes, colors, pleating and patterns of the collections. To me, fashion is not simply about the beauty of clothes; it reveals fashion-as-art and illustrations as creators of sartorial masterpieces. Fashion illustration serves many roles in society. Designs record the history of a time and place, from a social and cultural perspective. The great fashion designers drew inspiration from many sources: architecture, interior design, painting, sculpture, literature and the science. Then then incorporated their sparks of imagination into their fashion designs. Those obvious and hidden elements attract me to the beauty and mystery of fashion illustration. Since I was a child in China, I have been an avid follower, and illustrator of fashions, when I came to America, I decided to continue. My research of the the American market for fashion illustration, revealed that many fashion industries such as publications, fashion houses, advertising have a significant demand for talented fashion illustrators. Many notable fashion illustrators add their own element into the illustration while showing the designer’s vision. They also document the fashion show as editorial illustrations for magazines, newspaper, and other publications. Although I am still developing my own unique language style for my illustrations, my direction is clearer because of the created artwork, especially those that combine practical experience with innovative ideas.
For the other projects, some of them are related to the fashion theme. Some of them just gave me opportunities to think and try different kind of illustrations and experiment in different media and techniques as a creative illustrator. It has been very helpful and meaningful to find new ways to express myself. For example, I have learned about comics, lifestyle illustration, and hand lettering among others; each has broadened my mind improved my skills as a professional illustrator.
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I was prompted to create these funky patterns by several great designers such as Dali, Charles Jourdan, Elsa Schiaparelli. I combined some daily objects to make an interesting relationship with fashion stuff like animal-shaped shoes, fruit-shaped sunglasses, telephone hat, animal-shaped bags and others. I experimented to arrange the objects into a nice pattern which required a lot of patience. I learned a lot from the workshop because it was practical. It was a fun process, and it also helped me to envision design patterns as another tool of fashion illustrator.
n r e t n pat o i t a c i l app
n r e t n pat o i t a c i appl
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Fashion, which is seasonally
driven, is an interesting subject for a calendar. My publishing project was to create a 2013 calendar with the fashion illustrations I created in the first semester. All illustrations were selected from my favorite fashion designers’ collections, such as Raf Simons for Christian Dior, Junya Watanabe for Junya Watanabe, Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent Paris among others. The pictures depict previous shows and the latest styles. Each image is arranged to match the month or the season. The calendar is constructed so that the first six months are on one side and the last six months are on the other side. The two sides have been stitched together.
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selectLost & Ied four imfrom f o u n d ages the calen-
1st year mfa ilp e x h i b i t i o n
dar illustrations to display on the fall exhibition Lost & Found.
They were Celine FW12, Dries Van Noten FW11, Alexander McQueen SS10, and Jil Sander FW12.
4 workshops: -
paper engineering book binding letter press sewing
Lightroom & Archiving workshop: lightroom assists me in managing large quantities of digital images. Also, it can add credits to the images in order to be a professional illustrator.
The idea I selected to make hand-made, book-shaped clutch. The techniques I chose were sewing, paper engineering and book binding. I was fascinated and inspired by Olympia Le-tan’s book-clutch handbag, so I decided to make a bookshaped box as a package to contain my fashion calendar and cards. I embroidered the fashion illustration, which is designed by me, on the cover. I also made a calendar pop-up card and a calendar using the perfect binding technique inside the box. The concept of fashion illustration by sewing is very innovative, it is based on drawing on paper, and it also relates to the fashion products market.
- paper engineering - book binding - sewing
workshop 33 workshop reaction reaction
i m a e g
The Images Harvest Project is t er the old work we did before, to recreate the artwork with n
a h rves t
to consid, and then new ideas.
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image
harvest
I completed several sketches for ten ideas that helped me to reconsider my older work. Most of sketches are relate to the fashion theme, such as paper dolls, paper accessories, pattern design, fashion pop-up invitation cards, embroidered fashion illustration, life-style drawing, silk-screenprint pattern and so on.
It was a valuable experience to slow me down to re-connect to the old work, and to develop new ideas based. Actually, in the latter projects and even the future, this project reminded me to rethinking creative ideas, to introspect myself, and to produce new artwork.
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INSTRUCTION
I chose one idea from my Image Harvest Project ten ideas: the Phenakistoscope disc. I did some research and found an interesting way to combine illustrations in order to make a Phenakistoscope paper device. Phenakistoscope was an early animation device that uses sequential motion drawings which are divided by certain angles on a spinning disc. People can use the particular machine to look through so that they experience the illusion of motion. I chose the simple idea because it does not need a machine, but the audience can view animation through the mirror. The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slots at the disc’s reflection in a mirror. I created two simple animation: one of them is about a model dressed in a classic Yves Saint Laurent Mondrian Dress throwing high heels; the other one is a model dressed in an Yves Saint Laurent Pop-art Dress tossing her shoes. I think it was an interesting gift to sell at the art market; it was also a new, funky way to explore the fantasy elements of the fashion industry. I also gained sales experience at the market.
art market
zine / personal prints
O P P 0 S I T E
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For Mocca, I did an illustration for Mocca zine with my classmates in the program. The zine’s theme was Opposite Attraction. I also created some personal-style fashion illustration prints which were inspired from the fashion campaign and collection sold at the market in the second semester.
A T T R A C T
inspired by jil sander fall winter 2011 ad campaign, 2013.
inspired by yohji yamamoto spring summer 2012, 2013.
inspired by christian dior fall winter 2012 couture, 2013.
inspired by jill sander navy ad campaign, 2013.
inspired by prada srping summer 2011 ad campaign, 2013.
inspired by christian dior fall winter 2013, 2013.
stop
f a s h i o n i s t a
motion
It was my first time to make a stop motion. Although I gained film-editing experience at my college, it was still a challenge for me to connect the images smoothly to make a fluid animation. The idea I was inspired by my favorite designer Hussein Chalayan who was an innovative and experimental fashion designer. He loved to explore unusual ideas like using hi-tech applications to make dresses that change while on the runway. He made the runway show more like a stage performance for the audience. So I took the idea of changing clothes on the runway and developed it by designing the paper-cut dolls. Also at the beginning of the motion, I took the idea of art market Phenakistoscope disc to emphasize the title of “Fashionista Fun!�. The critics advised me to exaggerate the dresses in the animation to present more fantastic expressions for the stage.
f u n !
sketchbook project
The Sketchbook Project curated by Brooklyn Art Library is a global, crowd-sourced art project and interactive, traveling exhibition of handmade books. Every sketchbook has its specific subject; when we finished the one page of illustration for our sketchbook, we exchanged the sketchbooks by turns with the classmates in the program. By the end of the first semester, all sketchbooks would be handed in to Brooklyn Art Library collection. It was very interesting to see different artwork for the same subject; some of my classmates really inspired me to try the different art forms illustration, such as collage, paper-cut, embroidery and popup art. It became sort of a sketch journal to me, one that connected my personal daily life with the subjects recorded in the book.
cover illustration for stranger theme sketchbook First page illustrations for stranger theme sketchbook
s t r a n g e r
atlas
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c h a p b 0 0 k
d o c u m e n t a t i o n
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j o u r n a l i s m
dwelling catalogue
sketch book show
w rds
n wheels u n t i t l e d
The MTA has collaborated with Baltimore City Public School and MICA Illustration Practice Program to celebrate poetry and art in transit. The artwork we created with the selected poems were published and displayed as posters on MTA buses in Baltimore.
Green
by Julie Lopez Grade 3 School: Holabird Academy Teachers: Leanne Riordan and Erika Savage
Green is happy. It is a piece of gum, Or my teacher’s eyes. I see it at Patterson Park on Mondays. It feels exciting. Without green, we would not have green
ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN: DIYOU WU / MICA IN ILLUSTRATION PRACTICEPRACTICE ‘14 ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN: DIYOU WUMFA / MICA MFA IN ILLUSTRATION ‘14 ILLUSTRATION & &DESIGN: / MICA/ MFA ILLUSTRATION PRACTICE ‘14 ‘14 ILLUSTRATION DESIGN DIYOU / KEVINWU VALENTE MICAINMFA IN ILLUSTRATION PRACTICE
A Joint Project of: Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School KIPP: Uiima Village Academy Maryland Institute College of Art Midtown Academy The Mount Washington School
A Joint Project of: A Joint Project of: Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School KIPP: Uiima Village Academy KIPP: Uiima Village Academy Maryland Institute College of Art Maryland Institute College of Art Midtown Academy Midtown Academy The Mount Washington School The Mount Washington School
It was a very fresh and exciting experience to me, because the two poems I cooperate with, were from eight to ten children. The poems were so innocent and pure; they reminded me of my childhood when I was creating the artwork. I needed to push myself into the innocent atmosphere and emotion to create the sweet artwork. I also had to consider issues like identifying the public audience on the MTA bus lines. The most memorable part of this project was the party we had with those adorable children in MTA building.
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I did some h
especially for the
I enjoyed this project very mu
In this project, I did a s
tences with each other’s w
I just combined
order to make t the shape of al
drawn lettering
was a very exciti nation to create
After our program exhibition team a
hand-drawn lettering before,
e botanical alphabets I designed in China.
much; it led me to think about different directions of letter design. series of hand-lettered words based on constructing sen-
For some letterings, d fashion illustration as well,
in the model’s positions similar to lphabets. I personally love handwork in my program.
g versus computer techniques.
It ing project for me to widen my imaginew ideas between shapes and objects.
this project, also held a show in the Fox Building, on the third hallway floor.
Made Made Made Made Made Made Made
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sold sold sold sold sold sold sold
Made Made Made Made Made Made Made
& & & & & & &
sold sold sold sold sold sold sold
Made & Sold project to me is kind of another Image Harvest Project. I did a comic-style personal journal a couple of days before the workshop and then I decided to explore it as a made & sold project. My comic was about my experience of the recorded snow storm in Boston; it mainly documents the influence of the events with my personal homesick emotions. In the story, I also narratively presented two comparisons of American life-style and Chinese culture. For Day One assignment, I re-arranged the story and gave it an instant book. For Day Two and Three, the assignments challenged me to design buttons and packages for my inspiration. I took the major characters and emphasized the main moment-to-moment scenes into the button design, and also created new packages for the products. The overall experience was very practical.
instant book
c o m i c s
application
b u t t o n p i n
alphabet book
o f o r o w l
Designed by Decue Wu illustrated by Decue Wu email: dwu at mica dot edu
designed & illustrated by decue wu