Week 4 – Art Nouveau

I went out to Punggol Waterway Park and found these patterns in nature.

This green leaves are connected together and look very lively, which reminds me of Singapore as a country that is united and also active. I picture the individual leaves as a little person, all connected together into a bigger bunch. The leaves are also healthy and un-damaged, which made me thought of them as young, which is also a reflection of how I view Singapore.

This tree bark patterns are very flowy and have a lot of action going on in there, which also supported by view of Singaporeans being active and constantly on the move. The upward direction of the wavy pattern also reminds me of the country’s growth as a young nation.

With the first image, I traced and took a part of the bunch and repeated them to form a symmetrical lion, depicting Singapore. I like how the leaves at the bottom created the teeth of the lion.

The next image, I traced over using pencil and then coloured it in with Illustrator to create this part of the tree bark. I then use it to form a tree that covers the front of the ‘lion’.

As I tried to make the image more dynamic, I realised I can use the branch to form the silhouette of Singapore in the negative space. Overall, this composition represents Singapore as an active and young nation that still growing. The arrangement also made it seems like the lion is looking directly onto the silhouette, which also represents how we are still watching ourselves and shaping ourselves. The colour I chose are closer to the natural colours, and I try to make it vibrant to reflect the youthfulness of our country.