Painting Progress

FINAL WORK WIP #1

This is a picture that I took when I was in Taiwan. I chose this picture mainly for its tight composition. However, the lighting in this picture is quite even out, so I think I might have some problems trying to emote the mood through lighting when I am painting.

Draft Sketches

Colour Tests 

I believe that I had better control with tonal difference in my second colour test but I think there is still a lack in my lighting control. I also feel like I need to have better control with my neutral colours.


This was a draft I did after considering the comments given. I think my colours are more cohesive now and the picture is really coming together. But I think I have to increase the chroma of 1 or 2 buildings to raise the contrast of the picture as a whole.

FINAL WORK #1Sights of Taiwan | 48 cm x 17 cm

FINAL WORK WIP #2

Draft Sketches

Colour Tests


Final Work #2
The Fishsoup Coffeeshop | 23 cm x 26 cm

PAST WORKS




Copy of Ivan Shishkin’s Work



 

 

3D: Rube Goldberg Machine

So my chosen movie scene was when Mulan makes her decision to go to war on behalf of his father. What I caught from the scene was her immense contemplation and the use of rain/thunder sounds to guide the entire scene. Hence, I thought that my machine will encapsulate these elements that were of significance to me.

Video of successful attempt below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qm9FTDp9XcLW6BP9hG7dD1N0c_Vp-TEE/view?usp=sharing

I realised that I have tendency to not express my thought processes accurately during critique sessions, so I guess this is the only platform left for me to explain the purpose behind some of my machine’s components.

So what I did to portray Mulan’s contemplation was to complicate the ramp downwards. I did not create a straight path for the marble to roll down. Instead I created triangular obstacles as well as  curved paths for the marble to roll.

And from the scene, it seems that every huge downpour or thunder heard signified the next course of action for Mulan. So I wanted to create that with the first see-saw which also act as a rain stick. However the force exerted on the rain stick was too quick, such that the raining sound was not captured fully.

The first see-saw (which also represents the downpour) triggers the next movement where the ball rolls down a straight and steeper path. The steeper ramp signifies how Mulan becomes more resolved and motivated to fight for his father. And I also made the marble hit some bells which represented the sounds of the thunder. This was an attempt to sort of fuse the effects of sound and Mulan’s behaviour together into one.

Like what Peter critiqued, it is true that my machine was lacking a key component of a dramatic move at the end. To be honest, I wanted to include the last act of the marble triggering a cutting act but couldn’t do it in the end. This is so because I went back to amend the 2nd tier of ramps to increase it’s level of complexity (where the sounds are heard). So I kinda lost stamina to create the last action which was indeed very crucial. So boo to me ):

As much as I get super uncomfortable with 3D briefs, I actually quite enjoyed the amount of problem solving this machine required of me. And it was quite a joy to have the opportunities to constantly resolve errors. But I guess I needed to put more thought into grounding my piece of work to the concept which was probably my biggest takeaway from the critique session.

2D Project: Research on Movie Quotes

I started with a range of movie quotes to choose from, wondering which one was I able to visualise it in my head.  I personally have a habit of writing down impressionable movie quotes but I realised most of them were too abstract. They mostly consist of words that didn’t have a literal representation to it.

Hence,  I concluded that I needed to find quotes that had words which could be portrayed literally yet give me enough space/potential to add meaning to it.

 

2D Project: Process

QUOTE #1

I honestly quite liked this version of my design because the symmetry of this composition was really pleasing to the eye. However, the mountain against the black backdrop made them look similar to some sort of cosmic stones which wouldn’t have been the right association.  Furthermore, I realised that have grey tones wouldn’t be possible for silkscreen so I had to re-evaluate my designs to find one which would still create a successful threshold effect. 

FINAL DESIGN 

The above was my final outcome for the quote “The mountain always has the last word”. I decided to use the threshold version of the final composition since it was 1) what I used for my tote bag 2) it had a more imposing vibe since it was only black and white.

Using this composition made the addition of the human being redundant because they could not been seen. Furthermore, personifying the mountain as a monster-like creature was already enough to reflect the concept of nature triumphing (in a bad way) behind my quote.

QUOTE #2

The scene where this quote took place is as follows:

Guy: What’s the tune that you just played?

Girl: That’s a secret

The tune was a secret and it’s actually called “Secret” because it is a tune that helped the girl travel through time. She traveled 20 years into the future and met the guy which she eventually fell in love with. Hence, the secret was more than just the piano tune but also how the girl is actually not real.

FINAL DESIGN

This was my final piece for the quote “It’s a secret”. One key change was the create multiple layers of the female character. They layers changed from clear facial features to faded off distortions to just a white fill layer and lastly to just an outline.  It’s as though the female character is gradually fading off to the background, reinforcing how her presence is not realistic at all.

Another very obvious visual addition was the Art Deco inspired frame which might not have been the best decision. However, the intention behind adding the frame actually sprang from my insecurity that the piece wasn’t retro/ vintage enough. Hence, I decided to link the Art Deco period to show that it was also the jazz age, hinting the strong musical presence in the movie.

QUOTE #3

A very important and key process for this quote was actually physically sketching out different compositions on paper. I was never quite someone who dived straight into stringing different visual elements online so sketching out my thoughts was important.

Honestly, the sketching stage was already sufficient for me to decide what kind of composition would have worked and which wouldn’t. Some of the above thumbnails involved blatantly comparing the 2 responses to the chose quotes which I thought wasn’t sophisticated enough.

Hence, I decided to play with the thumbnail that had the zip take up most of the paper which led to the composition below.

FINAL DESIGN

This was the final design where I decided to do without the jeans texture and changed the male character. The previous male character was simply too jovial and was even in an working attire which wasn’t resonant to the context of the movie. Furthermore, I had to choose a male character which exude a vibe that belonged to the olden days.

I chanced upon this character which had an almost nonchalant expression which pretty much encapsulated the character in the movie. He exude a certain confidence and lack of care. It resonated with how the main character in the movie could not care less for strict book definitions.

I honestly loved this composition and would have liked to print this on my tote bag instead hahaha. It would have been a nice “optical illusion” to have an opening zip on the cover of the bag.

QUOTE #4

This movie was about how a father who lost his daughter due to an accident started writing letters to 3 abstractions – Time, Love & Death. So the quote “I am a gift and you are wasting it” is actually said by time.

FINAL DESIGN

This was my final design where I used the border to further contextualise the movie. The border is actually the border of the postage stamp which further reinforced the act of the main character writing letter to time.

Some comments was that the roman numerals on the gift box did not successfully portray an image of a clock. And I personally thought that there could be a smoother transition of the gift box disintegrating into sand (like an hourglass). This could probably be achieved with more exaggerated distortions on the left side of the gift box.

 

 

4D: Sequential Thinking Final

OLD IS GOLD

Please excuse the watermark on the video because I’m not a mac user.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7l2YbtokjhQRmNJTjVVUUJUUUk

The concept of my work sprang from my desire to use old Singapore toys in the video.  The story talks about a girl who dozes off while doing work and dreams about a world of fun and play created by those toys. She then wakes up with an idea on how to proceed on her work because of the dream she had.

In the dream world, the girl descends from a hot air balloon and lands on a snake & ladder piece. She plays the game of snake and ladder and reaches the end of it. With that, a celebratory dance happens (the image with pink background) and the girl wakes up from her dream.

Really enjoyed this project because I could play with old Singapore toys and I had fun shopping for them too heh. I wished I could be more precise with this stringing of the images and even put in sound but oh wellz (sleep is more important).

Hope you guys enjoyed it.

4D Project 2: Image & Sound

A Love Story

(disclaimer: some conversations  spoken in Cantonese)

 

 

 

It is not only a love story of my Ah Gong and Nai Nai, it’s also a love story of Nai Nai and I. She was my caregiver since birth, hence a special bond has been formed till today.

I ever heard somewhere that parents become love the moment their child was born, so on the other hand, Nai Nai actually becomes death for me. She being the oldest person I am closest with, I sometimes just can’t help and wonder what life might be like without her…

 

 

 

3D: Thread Exercise

Since I have no end in mind for this project, I decided to start really small and simple. I simply drew 2 lines and connected them with a thread to see what happens. Definitely looked too simple as a plan but it did provide me with a better idea as to how the final work might look like. There’s also a subtle difference in the way the plane was created when connecting 2 curved lines and 2 straight lines.

Even as I developed a better understanding of how the planes could be created, I could not conceptualise a sculpture in mind. But I also remembered realising how the size of each pitch mattered. Hence, I decided to experiment with an even smaller pitch with my next study model.

So I moved on with my second piece after doing more research on the net. Found Dame Barbara’s String sculpture and tried to emulate it. I completed the model with a 2mm pitch and played with  two ways of intersections for the threads. Upon completion, I realised that one key area of improved was the degree of curve as it will hid the complexity of the strings if too gentle. And with that, I moved on to my final model!

 

The final outcome was basically a slight refinement of my 2nd study model. I thought that the pitch size needs to be even smaller if I was blowing up the size of the model. Hence from 2mm, I reduced to 1mm for my pitch and I guess it did enhance the intended visual effect.

I thought the choice of colours for my threads mattered too, especially when the plastic sheet was translucent. I decided to use my favourite colours of blue and white, with a gradual change in tone to enhance the intertwining of the threads. BUT BUT…discovered that the white thread was probably too harsh against the blue so it might not have been the best choice of colour (but too late to change).

So yes, I guess my model wasn’t very complicated and the process used to create the plan was just a tedious repetitive process.  But this simple model did produce a pretty decent visual effect (in my opinion) so yay (: Goodbye to sewing for now.

2D Project: Process Work for My Line is Emo

Most of my documentation have been done offline so my post here will just be a brief coverage of some key process works that I have taken while completing this project.

I remember my instinctive approach towards mark making was to create marks with natural objects – leaves, twigs, branches etc. The process actually left me with pretty nice stamp-like marks but they were obviously too representational. Hence, I needed to find a more abstract use of different mediums to convey my intended emotion.

With that, I kick started a brand new exploration with mediums that I had easy access too and had experience using it. However, I needed to consciously push boundaries and use them in unconventional manners.

One of the fun yet surprisingly tedious experiment was the acrylic flow technique. As my virgin try on such a technique and when acrylic paint is definitely more costly relative to other inks, I decided to play with it on a small canvas first.

Quite loved how it turned out as a first attempt due to the marbling effect that was created. Since my approach for the first round of experiments were to put an emotion to a visual effect, this was meant for satisfaction. But I guess it didn’t quite match the emotion since it turned out quite random.

To make my  acrylic flow more purposeful, I went ahead with my 2nd round of experiment (after consult). I did it on an A3 acrylic canvas and above are the crops that I made to choose my final strip. Instead of satisfaction, I decided to use this method to signify passion. Leveraging on the energy created by the acrylic flow, I thought it represented how my passion for art will bring me unexpected possibilities.

Another interesting experiment that I did was to paint Chinese ink on tissue paper. I tried different tones as the darkest tone could not highlight the creases on the tissue. Eventually,  I decided to apply a collage approach to achieve the visual  effect  to represent disappointment/sadness.

The last approach that left an impact on me is the burning effect. The varied effects that burning paper has provided really interest me. The variation comes from the type of paper used to what we use to burn, there’s really so much possibilities this approach has given me.

Burning paper to signify BURNT OUT

My first try was to burn with the fire lighter. Since it was my first time using this technique, I find that I have a lack of control over how much and where the fire was burning at. But I did learn about how the soot will look like on paper. I also discovered that using candle to burn created nicer and smoother visual effect. Hence, my final strip incorporated both burning techniques.

The burning, acrylic flow and tissue paper paint left the deepest impressions on me amongst all the other experiments that I did. I also felt that the acrylic flow and burning technique can be pushed further by mastering better control over a seemingly uncontrollable medium. But yes, this pretty much sums up the key creative processes that I enjoyed the most and will love to play with them even more.

4D: Seminar Questions

  1. What is sound?
  2. How has it been used in culture and society?
  3. What makes it art?
  4. How does advancement in technology affect our sense?

Sound fundamentally encompasses any activity or object that comprises of an aural component, and that as Max Neuhas says, comprises of almost everything in the world. Sound could be created from the smoothing melodies of classical music to the jarring noises created by the jackhammer. As long as vibrations are transmitted through the air, sound is present.

The purposeful use of sound probably dated way back as a communication tool or signalling tool and evolved to have embody an aesthetic beauty in musical compositions (some assumptions made).  However, fast forward to the time where phonographs were invented, it held the ability to record channel noise and surface noise. Hence, what was previously perceived as “silence” has since been brought to the foreground in sound making processes.

What constitutes sound as art, as Max Neuhas, has been pretty ambiguous a category due to the endless possibilities of sounds that go under this umbrella. However, it is these endless possibilities that sound entails which allows a constant deconstructing of different sound layers. In manipulating the different layers of sound (from purposefully composed pieces to noises to even silence), it surfaces new ideas that makes sound a piece of art.

The invention of phonographs allowed the new discovery of the ability to record sounds of the environment and also the sound made by the recording apparatus. This ability to record channel noises or surface noises shed new light as to how noises that were previously seen as artificial silence could be brought to the foreground.  Such a discovery also caused an inherent necessity or desire to fill up every void of silence available.