Illustration: First Place

Hingyi Khong
UCLA Design Department, School of Arts and Architecture

Black Belt

Objective: The goal of this piece was to create a vibrant active dialogue on a 2-dimensional plane. Motion and energy were to be conveyed, using only the language of simple flat forms. The challenge of this encounter led to explorations of negative space and how it could be used as the primary form in the image. By associating the positive forms of the Martial Arts fighter and the negative space of the white background plane, the viewer is left with suggested forms and must finish the forms in one’s mind. It is here that suggested forms create movement on the plane. Without fully rendered bodies, the eye is free to create its own lines and wander away from the constriction of a closed space. A tranquil balance resonates from this piece, as the positive forms sink into and become part of the white background. Taking ideas from a textile patterning class, this piece began to evolve into a large scale repetition of forms. Moving into a large wallpaper scale de-emphasizes the single images, and in turn generates a field comprised of obscured images until closer examination. The obvious forms become hidden and take on new meaning as members of a graphic language and narrative. This dialogue is stressed and developed through the repetition of the forms, again emphasizing life and action on a flat surface.

Tools used: This piece was created through Adobe® Photoshop and Abode Illustrator®. After having taken photographs at a Tae Kwon Do exhibition, I used Photoshop to assemble and create single images that would then be imported into Illustrator. Taking on the brunt of the work, Illustrator allowed for the clean sharp vector graphics desired for the output of this idea. The diverse capabilities of the pen tool in Illustrator gave way to seamlessly recreating the images as my own. Constructing countless different Martial Arts forms through Illustrator, I began the task of organizing and arranging them into the large canvas of the wallpaper space. Even working on a large floor to ceiling piece was no problem, Illustrator made it simple to group and manage the many small components, avoiding any confusion usually encountered on a large scale piece. Illustrator’s overall capabilities were fundamental in the success of this project, making it easy to build the visions in my mind.