First year IDEA student Terence Zhu’s love of robots, gas masks, cyberpunk, creepiness and Japanese tokusatsu shines through in his self-portrait
Terence Zhu, IDEA School of Design student (Grad 2023), is amazed at how much his art has improved just by being around his classmates and instructors. Terence’s personality shines through in his ‘cyberpunk’ self-portrait for IDES 133 - Visual Studio (shown above). Instructor: Jay Bassan.
Read Terence’s story and check out some of his other work including an oil painting of his grandfather and an illustration of a “Plague Doctor” for a glimpse into student life at IDEA School of Design at Capilano University.
by Terence Zhu (IDEA Grad 2023)
The first year of the 4-year Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication degree program has pushed us to experiment with new mediums, some that were enjoyable and some that were less than favorable in all honesty. But it’s amazing how much my art has improved just by being around the class and instructors. There is a breakneck pace to first year as IDEA School of Design is trying to get us industry-ready by year 4, and this has taught us to make efficient use of our time which is unimaginably important. All I can say is, I can’t wait to see how time in this program will play out!
Brand Self Portrait (shown above)
The photography class that assigned this self portrait was IDES 133 - Visual Studio with instructor Jay Bassan. I wanted to stick to what I was most comfortable with and what the class of IDEA 2023 had come to know me as. A guy who enjoys sleep with a love of robots, has some white hairs, and enjoys working with his hands. There are also some aspects that I put in for the aesthetics and mood, like my music taste, tattoos, gas masks, cyberpunk, creepiness, practical effects like rolled back whited eyes, and the tokusatsu genre from Japan.
I was able to pull off the makeup and the general aesthetic I wanted by talking and asking some of the friends I had made through this program.
Moodboard by Terence Zhu (IDEA Grad 2023)
With this being my first ever mood board I had bundles of trouble trying to put one together that didn't feel awkward to me, but after endless nights and multiple scrapped tries, I was able to reach this which I felt satisfied my aesthetic.
“The assignment: Create a mood board visualizing your Passion, Super Power, Values, Purpose and differentiation (students can use any medium for this).
The goal: To have students think clearly about how to imagine themselves as a brand and use their final self-portrait as an expression of that. This becomes one of the more interesting projects, since it happens near the end of class and students are now comfortable enough with the camera. I get some very interesting work.”
Oil Painting Portrait — My Grandfather
For our two oil painting projects, I decided to paint my grandfather. I was most satisfied with how this one turned out. Doing an oil painting was enjoyable for me as it was going back to a medium I was very comfortable working with. I also learned a few new things to work and improve on thanks to the critiques we go through in class.
‘My Grandfather’ oil painting by Terence Zhu (IDEA Grad 2023)
This is the oil painting I did of my grandfather. He was very pleased with it.
Ink Illustration — Plague Doctor
For this illustration I wanted to feature a more supernatural theme that seemed somewhat believable, and so it had led me to a modern medieval ritual. This project had us take reference photos and made us cobble them together to get a good idea of what we were going to illustrate. This assignment was also our first one back after winter break and was one of the best in showing us how far we’ve improved from the beginning of the program.
‘Plague Doctor’ illustration by Terence Zhu (IDEA Grad 2023)
The illustration I did shows a modern clothed plague doctor with mystical elements over a corpse. Coincidentally, before this whole pandemic began, I was really drawn to the aesthetics of plague doctors and decided that it would be really fun to bring it to the modern day with a twist in my illustration. Taking a step back, I can say this is a very awkward and ironic situation I have put my art in, oops.
