The aesthetic that I chose for my final project is the “Kawaii” aesthetic. And the two types of aesthetics I picked up as the opposite are “Horror” and the “Minimalism”.
Since I first pick up the two genres for the theme, I started to browse inspiration on Pinterest. However, I didn’t copy any design from what I was looking for inspiration. Instead of copying the shapes and sketching them out, I analyze something in common via my observation. That is, horror aesthetics can be colorful with the high-contrast, rigorous color combination (for example, red, green, and black), and the crucial thing to let an object fit minimalism is to decrease the colors and decorative outlines. Use simple line art to symbolize the things I want to portray.
Therefore I quickly sketch something in those aesthetics above. Skull is a common theme in horror aesthetics. Artists often focus on terrifying sharp teeth while expressing horror feelings. When it comes to Minimalism, simplicity should be the most important thing. Therefore I sketched the candles in simple shapes and lines.
The Kanji (Traditional Chinese Characters) I added for the sketches are the extra aesthetics I came up with through the assignment. I think simplicity and complexity are both shown in Chinese writing. I did the sketches for the words, which have the meaning of “quiet”, “night”, and “ocean” as a bonus aesthetic.
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These are great sketches! I have never thought of horror as its own aesthetic, so it is cool to see that in contrast to your planned aesthetic.
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I am very excited to see your final project. It is very cool how you applied the minimalistic and horror aesthetics to your candles! I love the detail in the skull candles.
Thank you for the comment! TBH browsing the horror images at night for the sketches is a little bit scary, I felt myself should do this assignment in the daytime then lol.
I love the direction you went with this. Excellent drawing skills and very cool aesthetic choices, I also like how you implemented Chinese characters as inspiration. Very cool!
Thanks for the comment! Characters in Chinese is very handy as a native speaker in Mandarin lol. We all had a hard time learning complicated Chinese characters when we were very little lol. I’m so glad that it’s considered as an aesthetic universally!!!!!