Turvy

TURVY LEARNING JOURNAL NO2 OF

THOAMS WEI JIT LONG

This is the second learning journal of Thomas Wei Jit Long 15069483D

The name of this journal is

Turvy

This Journal records the experience and encounters faced in the first semester of Visualisation Skills, taught

by Manfred & Charles, spanning from 31st September to 18th December, 2015.

Printed in Hong Kong.

First Edition December, 2015

W O R K

t h i n k

s l e e p

PREFACE Why Turvy?

Turvy is inspired by a Roger Hargreaves character Mr. Topsy-Turvy, whose character does everything backwards in an awkward sequences. As a part of my two-part learning journal of my first semester in Polytechnic University’s design course, I named the two journals Topsy and Turvy respectively. These two words combine together to convey the meaning of confusion or disorder, which to me is the genuine description of my impression of this term’s studies.

Something about me: entering the stream of Design has been my dream for as long as I can remember. I would be riding a bus to Jordan and think to myself ‘wow, studying in that ark must be like living in a dream.’ Little did I know in a few years I was able to become a pupil in this academy, and less so did I know the irony of studying in my dream is that I won’t be doing much sleeping in this dream. Sleepless nights became our working hours, and slumber transformed from a necessity to a bliss. But there is a difference. The tired night were no longer filled with tasteless revisions from the past, but with joyous effort and a new-found sense of accomplishment. I am very delighted to recollect my turvy experiences, flawed works and what I learnt through this journal, and I am proud to say that ‘I came, I saw, I made mistakes.’

Hope you enjoy my journal.

Thomas

content PROJECT

Blind Bird Body Brand Building

18 30 46 64 72

LEARNT

Skills Time Attitude

88 90 92

P R O J

E C T S

1

blind

It was a pleasant surprise to be receiving a gift from your teacher at the first day of school, and in our case, a 6B pencil. We are tasked to drawing blindly without seeing our paper. I took admittedly more time to realise that this is for real; reluctant at first, then slowly understand the reason behind the exercise.

21

first class The memorable exercise that introduced us to the idea of de-learning is the Blind Sketching. We began with first using our habitual methods to draw Charles, and the only limit was time. Then things became interesting. We were progressively given more regulations, rules to our drawings, such as we couldn’t look at the paper we were drawing. The top two images from the left shows the my progress of de-learning, from a very controlled sketch, to a one where only my instinct were left to guide me to draw.

It may not look very appealing, but it is authentic.

23

places For the first assignment, we were tasked with sketching 30 places. I might have focused slightly too much on the story element. The story behind my sketches is, in fact, the story of me, all the places that mean something to me. I actually travelled to all those places, and stood there, one by one, and sketched. It was tiring, often frustrating, especially knowing afterwards that I missed the overarching idea of the project, but the process when very unique, almost soul searching, hence it was well-worth it.

25

places 2&3 After the first attempt, I attempted to change completely of how I sketched. I started to time myself, and stop to observe how much I drew every time the timer runs out. Initially I had great pressure - I was yet to be able to accept that this assignment was not accounting for its aesthetic, but for the speed and manipulation of a pencil. I was still unable to let loose completely. I got extremely frustrated. This was the first time where I felt the overwhelming defeat, not caused by anyone else, but by myself. The results of the second and third attempts were unsatisfying, and this training will be continued, probably for the rest of my life.

27

people The biggest concern of sketching other people is the fear of being spotted. With that in mind, I skilfully chose people with their heads buried in their cell phones, and just sketched, which evolved to be the theme of my sketches. Alike the sketch for places, I was unable to relax at the beginning of the exercise. However, slowly, and with the guideline of not looking at the paper, I became carefree, using merely ten to fifteen seconds for each sketch.

The whole experience was very interactive, as if the pedestrians have became my intimate models for this sketch.

29

2

BIRD

Our second theme was the sketch of the movement of birds, and relief model. We were first tasked with drawing the small movements - any movement - of the bird. Then we had to create paper relief models that resemble or inspired by the sketches.

I witnessed my transformation from being unsure of what to do to becoming able to find peace in this practice, through repetitive exercise.

33

TAKE OFF I had the Bufflehead in mind ever since the announce of the project. The way it takes off flying is utterly unique, and fascinating to depict. The Bufflehead quite literally runs on water before taking off, and my sketch capture the moment where the bird takes off at the last few second, as its feet sprints on water and flaps its wings. I mainly used 2H pencil to accomplish this piece, and the first allnighter I pulled for this subject.

35

dive A great idea came to when I was conjuring up the second sketch, which is to draw a very special kind of bird - penguins. I’ve always loved penguins, so drawing them was rather easy for me. I must add, upon learning that we would have to redo vthe sketch, I feel quite astonished, as if everything that I’ve done had been disproved. It took me sometime to understand that this is necessary for showing our growth, and later, redoing became a ritual for me.

37

surge The last of my bird movement series has been infused with by far the most input out of the three, simply because I had more time to work on it. I started immediately after the suggestion is given, that I should continue on the journey of the penguin, acting as a sequel to my last piece. I gathered my references instantaneously, and drew one or two penguins each day. Each of the penguins took about an hour to finalise, certainly making it easier for me to answer the question of how long have I been working on it. I am very proud of the outcome; the composition, the curve and the details have been specifically worked on, and I am delighted on how it turned out.

39

layers My first relief model centred on the study of different levels of layers stacked together, which is a rather literal adaptation of the requirements of the assignment. It started with a plain sketch of the silhouette of a swimming penguin, then I used a light box to trace the image, only contracting the border lines. I eventually ended up with five different layers that make up the shape of a penguin. However, this idea was too literal to suit the abstract requirement, and lacking on the potential of exploring the 3-dimensional aspect of the project.

41

curves My final relief model is a replica of my third bird sketch, of which I wish to copy the curve that the penguins preform in the piece. I used folded paper strips and glue to create a tactile curve, as if to show to invisible water current around the penguin. The curves are placed at the middle of my model, acting as the main attraction of the piece. I must admit that time was against me in this project: I was unable to balance the making of the frame and the making of the relief model. I was only able to finalise the model at the last moments before submission, causing the model to look rather empty, but still, undoubtedly and quite literally filled with blood and sweat.

43

frame The making of the frame is a story of its own. After the eyeopening and expensive pursuit of wood and glass in Mong Kong, we rush back to the studio to create our frame. At this time, I still have not finished my relief model. I was stressed out, and it didn’t help that in the assembly of the frame, nails, glass, everything went wrong. When the security guard came in and told us to leave, I broke down. However, with unimaginable grace, I was able to finish the frame.

Might not be perfect, but this frame was truly special. Next time, I would create the subject first, then make the frame for a better measurement.

45

3

BODY

We shifted our focus from the study of birds to a study of something much more familiar to us - ourselves, our bodies. We dissected the body, and we reconstructed, or rather, expanded on our bodies. We pushed our imagination from coming up with different ways to use our bodies to finding different uses of our body parts to applying different functions on our bodies. Everything from our craftsmanship to final presentation were judged at the very end of the project.

49

biometics We were first tasked with exploring our body, especially on our 5 senses, and how they might be able to take on the function of different body parts. I used various props and invited a friend to be my model to demonstrate how my ideas play out. I tried to create a sense of symmetry on my pictures, while some of them are able to translates greatly, some turned out to be rather forced. The photo-taking was both awkward and very hilarious, and it’s worth for just seeing the weird other classmates.

51

idea My initial pitch to Charles involved the extension of hair, and that elongating our hair could act as a storage for us. My other idea was to create a chair that is attached to our bottoms. Charles liked both of them, and so, he wanted me to combine them. I then development the two ideas into sort of a chair that could be placed onto the head, and flipped down to becoming a chair for one to sit down. Charles saw the humour in this concept, and I proceeded on making the device. Little did I knew the potential difficulty of this project.

53

model I proceeded to creating a model that resembled my final work using cardboard, blue-tack, and toothpicks.

I found it particular that while I tried to explain my idea to my fellow classmates, they never seem to really grasp onto what my idea was about.

But with the new model, their understanding was form almost immediately. I understood that not matter how well versed you might be, you’re still no match with a simple model.

55

process Doing this project alone meant buying or finding the appropriate wood and metal, drilling the holes (which took unexpectedly long due to my accidental purchase of stainless steel), sawing the wood, and assembling the rack with nails and glue, all by ourselves. Problems that arose in the production are too much to count, the primary one being that the structure was not tough enough to handle the force of the drop - nails were apparently not enough to hold the structure together, but surprisingly glue worked out fine - which prove to be an issue even to the very end.

57

final The final product had a vintage wood feel to it, of which I was very fond of, and a industrial feel to it. The wood and metal components created a new contract within the device itself, making it inviting the sit upon while looking tough enough to actually work. People would first put on the device like a backpack, and then flip the box onto their head. A storage compartment is on the right side of the box. To sit down, the box is to be rotated to facing down, then let go, and gravity will bring the box down. The metal joints are designed not the touch the ground upon impact, but slowly arrive to the floor when you sit down. Of course, this is the very ideal situation.

59

jo in ts

wo o d

The stainless steel pipes

The wood strips are all

are drilled and pierced with

hand-cut, which translates

a bolt with a aluminium

to a very organic materials

strip wrapped around the

but with uneven qualities.

joint to ensure smooth-

They are joined together

ness while the metal arm

with nails and glue.

rotates.

backstrap

structure With the wood frame mainly

The backpack of the device

constructed with nails, the in-

is also mounted directly

tercrossing parts in the middle

to the metal frame to two

acts as extra bracing to ensure

bolts to withstand the force

the firmness of the device,

of the drop from the head

which can actually withstand

from the legs.

the weight of a person.

61

Presentation Again, unsurprisingly, I managed to finish the project at the neck of time, not even being able to print the double exposure at the start of the project. But the walk is where everything the could go wrong, again, goes wrong. The force of the drop was proven to be too big, and the structure was almost torn apart by the drop. The lock of the compartment fell open upon impact, and in the end, I was still unable to put the box back onto my head. I was extremely disappointed at how to device turned out, especially after all the time invested on it, not to mention having the Kacey Wong present as the judge and the guest of honour. The visit to the podium brought my spirit back to me, but it was Kacey’s speech about the will to succeed that captivated me to move past this failure and simply, preform better in the next assignment.

63

4

brand

This assignment seemingly came out of nowhere - we need to create our very own style of lettering. We were asked to clear our tables, and pick up a pencil. Something that we haven’t done for some time.

Then we were tasked with writing a page of lyrics, and I must admit that I fell almost in love with this assignment. It was like an escape from the huge projects and take a breathe in the smaller projects.

67

Lyrics I was listening to Coldplay’s song when I was lettering the lyrics of its chorus. By the time I finished lettering, Viva La Vida might have been played for three hundred times. This exercise was an interesting test on ones patience and stamina, because we all have the ability to write good letters, but not all of us have the patience to craft each word slowly and painstakingly. There were times when I was like ‘let’s just stop here’, but I kept on pushing, and created a typography of my own, a brand of my own. Oh and the singing was pretty fun.

69

5

building

The morning that Alvin came brought a lot of challenge for me. A series of sketches followed by a section of Temple Street, a foreign form of drawing to a foreign place. But as I visited different places to sketch, my confidence in sketching increased. As I need to confront the fear I had since the sketching of places, the exercise from the beginning of semester, I was able to train myself in drawing more precise, faster, and smoother.

All these that I’ve learnt and trained add onto the final piece, which is the section of Temple Street.

73

sketchES S k etc h es of

P o ly U We followed Alvin to the podium of PolyU to sketch. I was nervous and retained, unable to relax and observe closely of the details, especially with all the people around me. I remember feeling the sense of unease as the time when I when sketching the places - the sense of the inability to accomplish certain task.

75

S k etc h es of

Tang Hall I’ve never been to anywhere near Ping Shan, so this trip was rather eye-openning. The nature was very inviting for sketches, and I felt free when I drew. Ignoring the suggested time for our sketch, I actually sat in one of the halls for two hours to sketch one picture. Although not following the rules, I was able to find my passion in sketching again.

77

S k etc h es of

Medical Museum With the past experience, I was much less nervous as I visited the museum. This time, however, I forced myself to follow the guidelines on time. My sketches got faster, and I understood the level of details I should or should not go into. Unfortunately, the museum had to closed shortly after we arrived, but the experience we garnered was more precious than one or two sketches.

79

One point I have always wanted to draw my home, and now I had the excuse to do so. One-Point perspective was knowledge taught back in primary school, so I initially underestimated the difficulty of the assignment. The lounge and the room sketch had me moving table around the house to suit my designated perspective, but to examine my house this in-depth was utterly interesting.

81

Temple Street Temple street was an amazing places for new comers like me, and the most captivating aspect of the street is the mysterious fortune-telling stands. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the process of fortune-telling, the set of the booths, the decorations of the stands, the reaction of the clients and so on.

I decided to draw a section about this part of Temple Street, revisiting the street again and agin just to familiarise myself with every small detail there is.

The interior of the stand could be seen in my section, together with the fashion of the stall owners, the waiting pedestrians and the environment of the whole fortune-telling street.

83

l e a

r n t

skills •

How to draw like a designer

•

How to sketch like a designer

•

How to handle wood properly

•

How to use appropriate tools

•

How to draw a section

•

How to create a typeface

89

Time •

Expect time x3 = Actual Accomplishment time

• Give yourself more time to prepare •

Prioritize your works

•

Be on time

91

attitude •

Be meticulous

•

Be well dressed

•

Be risky

•

Be respectful

•

Be resposible

•

Be ready

93

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

And so I dream of going back to be.

Epilogue

It’s when I’m weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs Broken across it, and one eye is weeping From a twig’s having lashed across it open.

I’d like to get away from earth awhile And then come back to it and begin over.

Birches Robert Frost