Dumpster

Not too long ago, I got recommended a series of artworks through TikTok. Every single one of their pieces I saw looks so good I have to talk about them using this essay. This great artist goes by the name of Rinotuna. Rinotuna is a Korean illustrator. They are currently teaching Human body drawing and illustration classes at Arteum Academy, but they also freelance on the side, producing many of their creative character design arts (“Illustrator, Rinotuna | Coloso”). 

For all their character design pieces, it is safe to say that their art is metaphorical because the “people” in it are supposed to represent something else. Rinotuna has created many amazing designs but the one that I chose to talk about is one of their more recent pieces.

(The title and the reference will give away too fast on what the girl is supposed to represent so I will put it later.)

From the moment I laid my eyes on this piece, I could not take my eyes off it, no exaggeration. Because the color palette is similar to one another, it gives a sense of unity. At the same time, because of that, not much pops off to the eye right away, so I had to pay extra attention for each element to piece it together. Looking at it quickly, my brain was trying to process as to why the character is in an odd position. The girl is upside down and is supporting herself on a stick, just like a pole dancer. Then I understood why I couldn’t take my eyes off the girl. The skintight black leather, the semitransparent fishnet laced top, the pose that shows her curves and that captivating gaze- all that makes her look very sensual but dangerous. Anyway, what else comes to mind when it comes to alluring movements? For me, it’s snakes; like how they coil around things. 

There’s multiple evidence as to how the girl points to a snake character design, some obvious, some less. As I have mentioned earlier, she is hanging onto a stick. Though, not from just any stick but one with leaves and flowers, so it must be a tree or its branch. On the bottom (or tip of the branch), you see a black apple. A snake on the tree offering apple just like what happened in the bible with the snake and Eve. If that link wasn’t convincing enough, there are two more obvious and literal snake signs. First is the snake motif and pattern on her shoulder sleeves. If you zoom in and rotate upside down, you can see clearly on her left shoulder side that a snake is coiling around an apple with “SIN” engraved on it. The second and final clue that undoubtedly points toward the bible is the “Genesis 3:1”. That bible verse says, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God has made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?’” (Gen. 3.1). There is a definite mention of the animal serpent so that seals the deal with the girl being a personification of a snake. The girl being a snake, the forbidden apple, the grim background all gives the vibe of "danger"

To close, the girl is an obvious embodiment of a snake from every aspect of the composition but, specifically, what snake species is it? Well, it is a black mamba.

Now that you know the reference, I hope that you can agree that this character design is very well done in the sense that it gets the message across to the viewers. Even if the snake and the girl are completely different beings, people can see how much the girl feels like the dangerous black mamba. Honestly, I admire Rinotuna and find them a very creative and skillful illustrator. That goes to say that I will be looking forward to seeing their future creations. 

Citations: 

blackmamba. 2022, www.artstation.com/artwork/X165Xl. 

“Illustrator, Rinotuna | Coloso” Coloso https://coloso.us/illust_webtoon/illustrator-rinotuna-us. 

New International Version. Biblica, 1973, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203&version=NIV.  

Photojournalism is a great way to effectively capture a moment and share with others the intended news or message. In August of 2021, a big wildfire hit Greece amidst the severe heat waves it received in decades. This picture, “Evia Island Wildfire”, taken by Konstantinos Tsakalidis for the Bloomberg news who covered on the Greece wildfires in Athens and Evia Island. The picture has also won the 2022 World Press Photo Contest.  

Konstantinos Tsakalidis, born in 1986, is a photojournalist based in Thessaloniki, Greece. He is a graduate of the Department of Informatics of Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki and from the Photographic Center Stereosis (“World Press Photo”). Since 2013, he has been documenting issues in Greece to the Balkans countries. Right now, Tsakalidis is a co-founder member of the collective Greek photo agency SOOC Images and regularly contributes his work to Bloomberg News in social and political aspects of Greece, Eastern Europe and Turkey (“World Press Photo”). 

Looking at the photo, this work successfully captures the viewers' attention for two reasons. The first thing is the emphasis on the woman in front. Not only because she's the closest thing you see but humans also tend to look at others' faces as first thing. Furrowed brows, closed eyes, gaping mouth and a hand on her chest as if to support her heart, it doesn’t take a genius to see that she is distressed over something. This would then get the viewer to curiously view the rest of the picture. Because of the overall orange tone, it is not obvious right away but the scenery behind her is not just trees and clouds but rather trees caught in fire and clouds mixed with smoke. This brings me to my second point on how the color palette cleverly disguises what would usually be the intense fire color that will immediately pop in your eye. So once viewers realize the horror happening behind the woman, it leaves a strong impression as a whole piece overall. 

This photo has colors compared to many other monochromatic photographs at the exhibit, so it was one of the few that was stuck in my mind, and I decided to choose this because I have a soft spot for old people. I find that my impression of before and after reading the description are pretty much the same because of how the picture really captures the essence of the moment without needing texts to describe what's happening. 

In conclusion, this photograph is a great piece because it captures the attention of the viewers due to principles like emphasis and the usage of color values that amplify the atmosphere of this moment of tragedy. Honestly, in the exhibition, I was surprised over the fact that so many other things are happening in places we don’t see, it's just really depressing that most of them are concerning news like “Evia Island Wildfire”. To close, I want to remind everyone that climate change is still a big issue and that everyone should strive to make a sustainable future to avoid losing the only planet we can live on. 

Citation:  

“About Konstantinos Tsakalidis.” World Press Photo https://www.worldpressphoto.org/konstantinos-tsakalidis. 

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Additional comments: 

I personally don’t know if the picture has been edited for it to have such an orange-monochrome colors. However, I would believe it if the photographer says it's unedited because I saw a video (link just below) from an evacuee in a boat fleeing from the fire and the far scenery of the island locals could once call home only looks like a scenery from hell. The fire is such a striking red within the dark night silhouettes. Just seeing the colors from far is already vivid enough, what would it be like within the island? The atmosphere must be similarly tinted to the color of fires and smoke like the “Evia Island Wildfire” picture. 

Video of Evia burning: 

https://twitter.com/dinosofos/status/1423916668116418560

“No Child For Sale” is published by Kbs+ for the organization World Vision which is an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy nonprofit organization. The one who came up with the concept of this ad is Alyssa Greffen and Braeden Laverty.

It's quite easy to tell at first glance what message the ad is trying to tell the audience. You see a young girl on her bed reading a picture book and beyond her bedroom, there leads to another space where you see another young girl sewing loads of fabric. One is fitting the image of what a kid usually does while the other, not so much. With the bottom left corner, you see the phrase “Not every child gets a childhood” so at this point, we can connect the dots and say that the girl sewing is most likely not helping out with chores but rather is working compared to the girl at the front relaxed in her room reading a book like a typical kid. Of course, the fact that viewers are able to easily receive the message is thanks to the well done concept of how elements are used with each other.

Going back to taking a quick glance of the overall piece, the first thing that pops up would be the contrast between the light foreground and the dark background. The effect would then make the eye go back and forth, trying to catch further details in order to comprehend why the contrast is there. Personally, my eyes decide to observe the dark first. In the dark, there is a room illuminated with only a desk lamp which emphasizes on the elements near it which is a kid sewing piles and piles of fabrics. From that room, the only other thing that stands out is the bright pink fabric because of how out of place it looks compared to the rest of the room’s muted palette. Visually wise, the usage of dull color can make things look boring or depressing and the color usage fits well with the concept of the young girl doing menial tasks instead of playing around. Afterwards, this pink fabric led my eyes to the foreground by using the ribbon lines as a way to guide the viewer to see another part of the piece. At the other end of the line, your eyes are brought to a typical kid room with pastel color and toys on the ground. Not much to mention about the reading kid’s room until you realize that the blanket she is using is connected back to where the sewing girl is. This is as if to insinuate that the product the reading girl (and perhaps even for most of us) is using is made by other young kids that should've been able to enjoy childhood but can’t because they must work to earn money. Anyway, all these techniques to point out the disparities between one kid to another due to poverty in certain countries.

Woman Yelling at Cat made is a redesign of the meme where Smudge the cat is getting yelled by a lady from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and the context used is usually for some silly argument. There isn't any personal info regarding the person who drew this so I will use their online name, Ukiyomemes, instead. Originally, the source image is a photograph, but Ukiyomemes made it into a painting to aesthetically fit memes into your home walls. As the artist's name suggests, the drawing style that this art uses are called an ukiyo-e which is a genre of Japanese art popular from the 17th to the 19th centuries. 

A pleasing thing about this art is the colors used. Taking a quick glance at the entire color palette of this work, there is a solid black, a vivid red, blue, yellow and green which is quite common with an ukiyo-e. Also, ukiyo-e tends to have flat colors and by that, I mean you see solid colors for most part of the drawing with no blending for shading, capturing colors at its minimalistic form. Looking at the women on the left, she is wearing a red kimono in contrast to the friend behind her wearing a dark blue kimono. Red is usually associated with intense emotions like passion, love and anger while blue is for sadness, relaxation and calming. So, it is quite fitting that the unhappy pointing woman is wearing red while the blue kimono lady is holding her friend back as to calm her down. 

Lines in this piece are really important. It defines the shapes of a design like the autumn leaves on the left woman’s kimono that otherwise would be a simple color on her sleeves. Lines divide the solid red so that patterns of leaves are formed. Another use of lines here is the texture and forms they create. Smudge got squiggly black lines to show his fluffy fur, the line inside the hand is to show creases and the women has white lines on their hair to show the direction where the hair is folded or styled into. The choice of kimono design also plays similarly to the colors used. The red one has spiky autumn leaves, and the blue has a round flower motif. Sharp lines can be seen as aggressive while rounded lines seem mellow, which again, reflects the 2 ladies' current emotion well.