THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

For the final brief, Dorian Gray’s my client and explorations was done according to the mysterious mirror-like portrait and the locked room on the top of the building.

Experimentation started with test-ing smooth surface with the use of different materials such as air-dry clay, plaster in balloon, and jelly.

Several experimentations ended up not as expected, for example for plaster in balloon, there was not enough air for it to harden and the air-dry clay broke easily when removed from class surface. However, I was very much intrigued by the smooth surface of jelly and the special texture it cre-ates when it’s mashed and frozen. Additionally, experiments on wax was going well and balloon here became a good mould.

A big break through happened when I peeled down the balloon cover on wax and by carving and apply Gloss Varnish onto the surface, the texture of wax disap-peared and looked like rocks or marbles. And here, black and white pictures seemed to be more appropri-ate to highlight the ambience of mysterious old Eng-land.

A display of model testing

After the decisions on black and white photo and showing as dis-playing. Experiments carried on with wax, cotton strings, and other sorts of clays that may build up to elements in this scene.

Then, I went back to the book and the key concepts. The idea of portrait as soul reflection could be interpreted in the image that both side of the frame has similar shape but different texture.

For the photographing of model, different composition and lighting was tested the make the most of the texture and ambience.