“Knits for Nature”- Final Project
Yuting Zeng, Deforestation, Adobe Illustrator, 2 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, The red wall in the Forbidden City, Adobe Illustrator, 2 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Open door in Heaven, Adobe Illustrator, 2 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, DNA Web, Pencil drawing & Adobe Illustrator, 2 May 2019
For this assignment, we have to make some visual responses based on readings that we did for homework. Basically, the readings talk about framing the view from a window, so I worked with something that is close to my personal experiences from the past. I pictured some views that you wouldn’t normally see from a window, and I used the Adobe Illustrator to finalize the mockups. There is one reading related to the relationship between humans and animals, and it talks about a spider knows how to weave a web because of their genetic inheritance. It reminds me of human’s DNA which is also inherited from the parents, so I made a DNA web to reflect the idea of genetically related. I think it was an interesting way to transform ideas into visual responses so sometimes it’s easier for the audience to understand the context.
Progress update for the final project:
Yuting Zeng, Progress on the sketchbook, 6 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Progress on the sketchbook 1, 6 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Progress on Adobe Illustrator, 6 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Progress on the final project, 9 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Progress on the final project, 9 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Progress on the final project, 9 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Progress on the final project, 9 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Knits the Nature, 9 May 2019
Yuting Zeng, Knits the Nature Installation, 10 May 2019
Reflection:
For this project, I created a group of penguins as my characters in this journey, and they are wearing sweaters for protection because an accident happened back in 2001. In this work, I want to remind people how nature is important to us, and it’s our responsibility to protect the environments and animals in nature. This piece brings focus on a group of penguins and the story behind them. I brought this journey into realization by using different materials to build up characters(the penguins), the environment that they lived in, and showing interactions between characters within the background.
I used a combination of pencil drawing, acrylic paint, wools, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and collage with laser cutting. I applied a combination of my own drawings to create the basic shapes of my characters in Illustrator, and I used “pen tool” to transform my drawings into shapes. I further developed this piece by using different elements to set up the background, then I used laser cutting skills to define those configurations on the plywood board. Upon outputting my digital file, I worked in analogy methods of collage, acrylic paint, and wools for adding textures of characters and the background.
I’m inspired by news that I found from the internet which talks about 438 penguins were affected by the last major oil spill near Phillip Island in 2001. Penguins often die from exposure and starvation because even a small amount of oil can kill little penguins. Oil separates and mats feathers of penguins which allows water to get, and it makes the penguins feel freezing and less able to successfully hunt for food. I would like to do as much as I can to help those penguins.
I really enjoyed doing this final project because it helped me to transform my ideas into an artifact that brings positive influences to our society. I applied different types of techniques that we learned throughout this semester, and I really appreciate this art piece and a chance to exploring areas that I was not familiar with.
