Eclectia – Newton Lam

Client
Personal Project

Role
Art Direction, Digital Design

Year
2016

Eclectia is a daily exploration project where I would experiment with new methods and mediums.

While none of my works involve illustrations or lettering, it was inspired by the movement. I wanted to keep my artistic juices flowing, so I challenged myself to creating art every day. It was incredibly challenging, juggling a busy schedule with unpredictable events happening - but it was fun. I was able to improve my Photoshop skills, and even play around with photography and Cinema 4D.

Origin

The first three pieces were unrelated as I was just starting this project with no real vision in mind. I wanted to try something different every time, so I went from working with flat graphics, to photo manipulation, and then modelling in Cinema 4D.

Eye of the Beholder

Using eye related diseases as a model for my visuals, I wanted to create something beautiful from what is otherwise, quite terrible. Achromatopsia, for example, is a disorder that leaves the victim with absence of colour vision and partial blindness. Try squinting your eyes and look at the middle image - does the background look like small eye floaters?

404

Working overseas, I had missed my home set up. I missed working on my laptop, while watching Netflix on my external monitor, playing Hearthstone on my iPad and scrolling through my Instagram feed. This got me thinking of working in VR, which then sparked hundreds of ideas that ultimately overloaded my mind.

Fear

After my work with eye diseases, I became interested in working with fear. I decided to work with sleep related disorders and came across some interesting material to work with. Nocturnal Enuresis, or bed-wetting, is something that everyone goes through. "Tell no one" peaks through the skull, as emotional and psychological injury comes with the shame that parents inflict on their children - even throughout adulthood.

Monolith

Some of the monuments and statues in Macau were interesting, but I felt like the surrounding environment and overall impact wasn't as strong as it could have been. I decided to reimagine these great statues in a world I had created in my mind. Could you imagine stepping on lotus petals into the middle of the sea to stare up at one of these giant monuments?

Gods

Aesthetic, poetic, powerful. Michelangelo's David is a biblical hero that slayed traditional views of his victory through serenity and good looks. Homer, the author of the Illiad and The Odyssey, challenges intellectuals to this very day. Heracles...well, you know.

Places and Faces

Throughout this journey, I had realized that most of my works followed a similar theme. Dark and moody, or vibrant and erratic. For this series, I wanted to display a more subdued aesthetic: think, pastel & editorial. I decided to create the feel using high-end fashion models, representing their native land of birth. The symbols and colours of each respective flag would be used as the theme/visuals of my pieces. Can you guess the flags?

Shapes

For this series, I wanted to explore the relationship between hard edges and fluid shapes.

Wander & Wonder

You ever enter a huge store and just get lost? I have. Multiple times. While exploring the hidden areas of Macau I thought it could be interesting to visualize those feelings. The stores chosen are: Target, IKEA and Costco.

Drift

For my final 3 pieces, I wanted to create something with a bit of atmosphere. Often times, my mind will wander and sometimes it lands in some artisticly inspired places. Jellyfish are both mindless and majestic. They just float around, and people are absorbed by their beauty for hours. I wanted to to push the boundaries and recreate these creatures by giving them glass bodies, floating in what could be space, or the sea. I created the jellyfish in Cinema 4D, then brought them to life in Photoshop.