First year IDEA student, Joyce Chan, rolls with themes of self care and positivity
by Joyce Chan
Being a first year student in the IDEA program is both a reward and a challenge! The best part about working with other IDEA 22 students is having their constructive feedback and being constantly exposed to many different styles of illustration and design. The fact that we all came from very different artistic backgrounds gave us the room to grow and really helped us learn from one another! I am also really grateful to be in such a comprehensive program where we get to learn about creative thinking, photography and life drawing in our first year.
In particular, I really enjoy the Creative Thinking for Designers class where we learnt to generate ideas and develop art directions. We were also given chances to work both individually and collaboratively with peers.
A self portrait project that reflects our personal brand.
I have always been really interested in photo manipulation and I couldn’t wait to try it on this project! The initial idea for my self portrait was inspired by the quote from a book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life. Reflecting on how I get overwhelmed easily in my daily life, I decided to roll with the themes of self care and positivity.
“Our crisis is no longer material; it’s existential, it’s spiritual. We have so much f*cking stuff and so many opportunities that we don’t even know what to give a f*ck about anymore.”
Since this is a photography project for personal brand, I intended to use a collage of different visual elements like the bandage, sunflower growing out of my head (hmm.. maybe a little too graphic), and myself that ultimately ties back to my themes. Before editing it on Photoshop, I also picked the colour scheme, with mainly yellow (my favourite colour), to show my personality and my brand.
Other works
Black & White Line Illustration, Joyce Chan (IDEA22)
This assignment is about creating a dynamic composition with organic elements and characters based on 3 different present-day photo references. At the end, I created this illustration that features a female hunter and the fierce werewolf in the jungle.
Oil Portrait, Joyce Chan (IDEA22)
This oil painting features my friend's younger brother. I have always had trouble painting with the oil medium and it's great to get some practice with my choice of reference!
Study on Old Master, Joyce Chan (IDEA22)
Aha! This is our very first assignment for illustration class where we get to emulate and study masters' works from the Renaissance period. I chose Durer's sketch and it's really a lot of fun analyzing his amazing works and drawing style.
