My primary intent for this project was to capture the essence of one of my reoccurring dream environments.
In this dream, I am at a beach which feels very familiar (likely a combination of different beaches in NJ and OR). I am distracted by the unnerving nature of the water, which appears jagged and has an odd sense of depth which defies logic. Overtime throughout the dream, there is an increased sense of danger as the waves grow larger and threaten to crash over the ocean but recoil at the last second.
Back in January/early February, I envisioned this project taking the form of a pop up accordion book. However, this format caused me a lot of stress and I ended up overthinking and not taking much action… I struggled a lot with fitting the different elements/scenes/“shots” I wanted to include in this project into the accordion book format. The first half of the process of this assignment was incredibly difficult for me and I was sort of overwhelmed with the urge to procrastinate and stay stuck in the brainstorm/mock up phase out of fear.
I eventually figured that a triptych of tunnel books would probably be more manageable for me, and switching to this format helped me gain clarity and confidence that I could create something that I could find satisfaction in. I wish I had switched to this format earlier… there is a lot that I would’ve done differently in these tunnel books, but there are some elements which I am particularly happy with.
I also decided to illustrate in gouache instead of through digital tools. The majority of my art/design for both school and work is digital these days, and I was feeling burnt out and uninspired drawing on a tablet. The process felt very disconnected so I switched to gouache to give myself a break from working digitally and revisit a medium that I consistently enjoy working with. I think this was a good move in that it helped me find some joy in the process of making again… but the downside is that it takes much longer than illustrating digitally.
