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DARREN VERGARA.art
Covid Zine.
This Zine Project was a group effort, but to keep things simple I have only included my Artwork. A Zine is a booklet of images created however the creator or creators of the book sees fit. It can include small trinkets such as stickers, or badges which all relate and are based on a theme, hobby or interest. The Covid Zine was developed when the pandemic struck the hardest, so as a group we wanted to create a Zine which reflected how difficult times were, highlighting issues and problems the world was facing together. We especially wanted to relate more to our age group, seeing as we aimed it at audience members from the ages of 16-21.
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Each member of the group has designated a theme to illustrate originating from a list of potential topics we noted down at the start of the project. My chosen topics were 'The Covid Vaccine being released' and 'Disregarded masks irresponsibly disposed of'. One scenario has to represent something good during the pandemic, while the other highlighted a more serious tone.
For the 'The Covid Vaccine being released' I wanted to depict in my sketches how needed it was for the public to obtain it. I wanted to represent it as if it were a missing puzzle piece, and when complete it will finally allow us to go back to normal. The other sketch also puts emphasis on how the vaccine was the only topic everyone focused on, exaggerated by the focused stage lighting and the hands holding it up.
The first sketch for the negative scenes depicts how the mass-produced disregarded masks have an effect on wildlife, seeing how most of our waste ends up in oceans. The sketch was also inspired by the well-known photos of the turtles being tangled up by plastic straws and the plastic packaging from cans/bottles. The second I wanted to emphasize more on the drastic change in the environment, replacing the leaves which blew by in autumn, with an infinite amount of masks taking over the streets.
When creating the stickers and badges for the zine, it was just the case of tracing over the reference photo, experimenting with the line work on how thick and thin the line gets to exaggerate folds and darker parts of the body, and finally selecting the most prominent block colours to paint it in. The only problem I faced was choosing the correct block colours so it doesn't look awkward.
The final developments were also a challenge, as the two scenarios had to be done in green and red to represent the situations, the good and the bad. Blending and choosing the right shades were the main challenges as essentially I was just working with one main colour representing the light tones, mid-tones and dark tones. Its also a minor detail, but I slightly blurred the surroundings so the viewers are focused on just the subjects.
The cover and back are essentially the same. The front is the one with the mask, and the back is without, both slightly in different tones to reflect the atmosphere and mood of the general public. The zine is resembling a journey starting with a mask, then going through all the scenarios, later at the end of the zine no longer needing the use of a mask hopefully reflecting our future.
FINAL DESIGN.
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