The topic I chose to base my work around was mental health issues (specifically depression and anxiety) given that I wanted bring attention to a current and serious that many young people experience and often have trouble coping with. Furthermore, I wanted to communicate with the viewer the hardships that these people face which is not always noticed by those around them. I also want to highlight the stigma attached to mental health in Asian and African communities. Given that I wanted to bring attention to the issue of mental health amongst youth my target audience was young people as well as their families due to the fact that the family members and teachers will be the one who will see the young people (children or students) very often. I thought that this target audience would be appropriate as family member may be able to recognise how someone may be acting to determine if they are having any struggles with their mental health and will then be able to intervene and help. The target audience influenced my final design as a shattering effect as a metaphor to show that someone who has mental health problems may feel emotionally shattered, and by displaying this on the exterior of the person in the image, I was able to successfully communicate my ideas and make the viewer think about the impact mental health has on young people which cannot always be identified. When I was formulating my ideas at the beginning of my project I was inspired by the work of Dawid Planeta, Tsoku Malea, Edward Honaker (who have all previously or are still suffering with depression and/or anxiety) and Christian Sampson who did not personally suffer from any mental illnesses but wanted to create awareness surrounding this topic. I was particularly drawn to Planeta’s work due to the way he used photo manipulation in order to illustrate the fear that comes with depression through the disproportion of the people compared to the animals/ruins. The people are miniature while the animals/ruins are much larger which successfully is able to communicate with the audience the fear that comes with mental illness. Malea’s work and ideas behind his work heavily influenced me as he shone a light on the stigma attached to depression by some people in the black community, showing this in his work through the use of subtle image manipulation. For example, in a piece titled ‘a nest for birds’ he edited in doves to represent lost thought. Moving on Honaker’s work also gave me some inspiration due to the way he manipulated his face in the images, using the liquify effect or making it look like his face has been scratched out. This inspired me as it was an effective way of representing how those who suffer with depression (and/or mood disorders like himself) may feel disassociated at times, and it is sometimes difficult to depict the emotions of someone dealing with mental health issues so through the manipulation of his face, Honaker was able to display this. Sampson’s work inspired me the least due to the fact that his interpretations of mental health issues communicated very cliché images to the viewer and did not accurately represent how a people with mental illnesses feel – I was more inspired by the work of the other 3 artists who use symbolism in their work in order to tell their story about mental health, which was displayed by unique image manipulation.
Maela
Honaker
Planeta I used my research well as looking into the work of Planeta, Maela and Honker and their use of image manipulation inspired me to create a piece that had a metaphor in order to make the viewer understand the message I was trying to convey. My initial set of primary images were not as successful as wanted them to be thus after creating my outcome I decided to take another set of images which were not as clichĂŠ so that I could appropriately manipulate the image to display the issue of mental health. This resulted into another outcome, which was my final design. The quality of the images was vital for my work as the unsuccessful images made me work look ineffective which did not communicate with the viewer well, unlike my improved final outcome. During the preparation time, my second initial idea was the most successful as it was a detailed piece of work that had an idea behind it. The final outcome of this idea also looked more realistic than my first where the shattering effect I decided to pursue did not look effective. Thus, using the same concept in my second idea I was able to improve this as well as include more elements in my work which contributed in improving my design. Additionally, I turned the idea into a GIF which enhanced the overall design due to the fact that it created a continuous narrative as a scene was illustrated because of the flashing of the
GIF which gave an eerie atmosphere as it portrayed lightening – bringing out the setting. My first initial idea was unsuccessful partly because of the primary images I used for it which did not help with the development of my ideas since the images included a girl standing in a dark setting. Although, creating this idea allowed me to develop it and create a second idea which was visually more appealing.
Second initial idea For my first idea, the product outcome was a book but when changing my idea, I also changed the product due to the fact that majority of young people of my generation would be more inclined to watch a movie rather than read a book. When putting my final piece into context I decided to create a movie poster because I believed that this would be the most appropriate product to reflect my ideas about mental health problems amongst young people as a large amount of youth watch movies thus this would be a way of publicising and bringing awareness to the issue. Furthermore, movie posters are displayed are large billboards around the world and can be seen, when on the train, car or if one is just walking so this would be an effective and quick way to reach the population.
When editing my final outcome I believe that I pushed my creative boundaries given that I experimented with new photoshop techniques and tools such as
the healing brush tool which was a useful tool in bringing back the background of the image after using the polygonal tool to manipulate the image. The brush healing tool assisted me in creating a piece where the exterior of a person was shattered, where you can see elements of the background due to the crack in the person. Additionally, I used the viveza 2 programme which allowed me to enhance my image and make it more saturated so that the different tones in the image stood out more, making it look more effective. I experimented with the use of radial gradients in order to enhance my design as well as to make it look more like a movie poster. The gradient around the edges of the piece added depth to my work which made it look better. It also made the image darker as the setting of it was too bright before which did not match the idea behind the piece. Also adding text was also easier as it stood out more on the dark edges.
My final outcome If I had more time on this project I would research into the work of Peter Hovarth as I like his use of collage and the overlapping of images in order to convey the human condition through story telling through his pieces. I would use inspiration from Hovarth to push my creative boundaries and try out new ideas by using collages to displace familiar images and create a meaning with them. In order to explore this new idea I would take new set of images which I could overlap with each other to create a story.