Research (artist work critique) - Chris Shenglong Zhang

Class crit today, looked at Chris' current work.

My thoughts on his painting 'Searching'

Discussing the design of the figures
Some points (the robot or human) raised by classmates. This is a mixture of my own thoughts and those of my classmates. PRIMARILY my own thoughts.
Trying out a 3 point method of talking about the design - 'what is the issue' 'how has the issue been created' 'how can we solve it'.

• Lights on side of face are a dominant focal point and draw attention away from the other more important parts of the face. Why do we need to look at the other detail? In the context of this design, it's a character - the eyes are typically (I think) a focal point of characters, as the shape and position, etc, of them expresses a lot about the character. Biological basis here with our social group and communication.
• How is this effect created: They are dominant focal points here because of contrast (bright, high value blue points on a dark red field: colour and tonal contrast) as well as their use as unique elements on the figure - we only see these lights on the cheek, therefore they stand out.
• How can we solve it: reduce the contrast in terms of tone and hue. Repeat the blue lights on other areas of the character to reduce the visual weight of them - water them down, make them less unique, therefore reduce their power. 
• Use visual devices (higher contrast, placement of detail, leading lines etc) to more clearly bring the front of the face into dominance.
• Other thoughts: I feel also like maybe having such a dominant focal point on the side of the face disrupts the reading of the face - confuses in the mind of the viewer where the center line of the face is.

• Robot or human? The arms give a robotic feel to the character, as though we're looking at a droid. The head, however looks human. A bit of an unclear non unified communication of the nature of the character through the design itself. That is, even if we took this character in isolation away from the environment and out of the pose it's in now, it might not be clear whether it's a robot or human just by looking at it.
• How is this effect created: the really skinny arms with robotic joints suggest a robotic structure underneath.  It just looks as though we wouldn't be able to fit whatever mechanics are connected to the joints AS WELL AS a human arm in that space, esp. when we look at the left elbow of the figure nearest us. The head on the other hand feels quite human - it's very helmet-like. Designed for containing a head - correctly placed eyes, a mouthpiece, etc.
• How can we solve it: define whether it's a robot or a human. If a robot, then the head would need some sort of redesign to make it less helmet-like and more robotic. If a human, then the arms would need reworking to be plausible and the joints would need rethinking. At the moment they look as though they look as though they facilitate robotic movement rather than underlying human movement. Look at other examples of how joints are managed in sci-fi suits.

• A feeling of a lack of visual unity between the different parts of the design, which results in a sense of mismatched parts and disjointed aesthetic. The communication implications of this? Unsure at the moment.
• How is this effect created? Shape language unclear. Face looks sinister due to bug-like eyes and small, unhuman mouth surrounded by angular forms. Inconsistent shape language too - the angular, plated shapes of the upper arms meet the rounded medieval/football shoulder pads in a way that clashes.  The idea of repeating forms to create an overall and unified aesthetic hasn't taken place enough. The sudden introduction of rounded shoulders also makes them appear smaller and less masculine in comparison to the rest of the form, highlighting this sudden lack of masculinity and giving them a smaller, feminine look.
• How can we solve this: refine the shoulders and other rounded forms (head, etc), look at more angular forms for these areas. 

Bear in mind that if we are required to shoot these characters or treat them as friends, they may subscribe to an already existing aesthetic that we've already been exposed to and that has already been constructed as good or bad. So in the overall scheme of design, as long as the character design subscribes to what's been set up as the 'uniform' of good or bad in the visual story then we might already consider it to successfully denote moral orientation