The set I chose is the South Sea Bubbles playing cards from Harvard collections. The 52-card packs were illustrated with scenes depicting individuals before and after the crash. In this project, I wanted to bypass the meaning behind the cards but focus on the graphic components.
Week 1
The first few iterations I tried with sorting them by the number of people present in the cards, and also cropping the illustration to only focus on different faces and peoples’ facial expressions, the third one I was focusing on their body languages of the action pointing, and isolate them, rearrange them to tell a new story.
I experiment with 3 ways of cataloging. The first one is just simply use the method of sorting and sort them in the number of characters presence in the card. The second one is use cropping and isolating each character’s facial expressions in order to study the graphic language and emotions. The third one is by isolating the characters action of pointing at something and rearrange them to tell a new story.
Week 2
In the final work, I decided to look more closely into the visual grammar of the illustrations and investigate how different stroke can be used to create different shadows and patterns.
I sort them into 6 big categories. Combined with cropping, I further categorize them into different uses.
I found out the horizontal strokes are used to create shadows on floors, skys, walls, and Table. Verticals are used in windows, celling, tables, and walls. Diagonals are used in windows, clothes, faces, walls and furniture. Cross strokes are used in clothes and fabrics, floors( mainly outside), and some furniture, walls and window. Discontinues strokes are used in clothes, environment such as mountain, water and ground. Dots are just mainly used on faces. I also found out that different shadows create by different strokes are in different shapes and depth as a result brings more perspectives to the illustration.
After cataloging the use of strokes, I was thinking of how I can use what I have learnt and put them into use.
As a result, I used these information and created some quick studies. I combine the researches with my first round of iteration, “pointing at”, and took a step forward, use the graphic grammar I learnt from this project to fill in the blank spaces, and piece two illustrations together and forms a new story and looks like they are fighting over something. I also used the same graphic grammar to create some of my own illustrations of insects since I was wondering how these visual grammar can be used in art and design.