Everything is going by so fast! Nevertheless, this was a challenging but fun project to do. I love colours but they almost killed me this time. Here I will be elaborating on how I got to the final work and also the descriptions behind each of the twelve compositions. For a summary, check out the final work post!

◊ PROCESS ◊

At first, I was excited and started thinking that I would play around with different techniques and craft methods for each of the twelves compositions. I thought of paper cutting, embroidery, crochet, pop up cards, op art, even animation using an optical film (like below).

I was exceptionally ambitious, and super excited. During the first consultation, Joy addressed the white elephant in the room: Will there be enough time? This knocked me out of my daydream and I had to be honest with myself, of course there wasn’t enough time to explore so many methods. Also, how was I going to make sure everything is coherent? I decided to cut down to two techniques I was already comfortable with: embroidery and paper cutting.  At this point of time, I haven’t thought of how I wanted to use colours, but I did research on colour theories and the such. Check this out on my colour theory research post!

Along the week, I started to develop my concept. I decided to use the idea of the equations illustrating my growth in Singapore, with each row representing a school I’ve been in. I also searched for artist inspirations and thought of how the compositions would look as a whole. The week passed by and it dawned upon me that at the rate I was going, I wasn’t going to make it. I forced myself to calm down and take a step back. I settled on ditching the embroidery and paper cut, and going back to watercolour/acrylic illustration: the medium I grew up with. I also chose to do my casual illustration style instead of my normal one. Not only is this style more known by my classmates, but it also helps to save time. (heheh) I sketched out the compositions, but was stuck at choosing the colours. Paintings can’t be undone like Photoshop, so I decided to consult my friends and Joy about it before starting on the colours.

Meanwhile, I searched around for inspiration on how the compositions would look like alone and together. These are some that I came across.

 

^Tytus Brzozowski’s dreamlike architectural watercolours

^Nicole Gustafson’s ethereal suspended worlds

^Marco Mazzoni’s meticulous pencil colour drawings

I knew I wanted to include a double exposure element in my work, for the last column especially. This is inspired by the beautiful tattoos done by Andrey Lukovnikov.

I still wanted to showcase my style and wanted everything to look like a whole. In the end, the main inspiration that gave my work its look is the publicity materials for We The Fest Indonesia.

I love the usage of circles in their collaterals! It is something very simple, clean, yet visually arresting and recognisable. I decided that I can base my compositions on a circle framing, and play around with it according to the different columns and different situations. In the end, the first column that represents me uses a simple circle frame, the second column, which represents the setting, includes the circles as “portals” to the world of the school, and the last column is a double exposure portrait bordered with a circle frame.

(Me at the start of the school duration) + (School experience) = (Me at the end of the school duration) 

After much deliberation, I was finally able to choose colour schemes for each row, keeping in mind to make use of appropriate colour theories that would communicate the mood for each situation. I also switched over to gouache, because I didn’t want the plasticky finish acrylic has, and wanted more opacity than watercolour. Since gouache is new to me, it took me a couple of tries to get used to it. After settling the colours, I went straight to production!

 

◊ EXECUTION ◊

Once I got the gouache, I did some swatches and made changes to the sketches I have previously completed. I outlined the sketches in a thin pen, painted them in, and added the black outline last. All the while I mixed paint around in order to get the right colours. In choosing the colours, I made use of the existing colours of the uniforms and chose the rest of the colours according to them.

 

◊ FINAL BREAKDOWN ◊

ONE ◊ CAREFREE ME + CAGED WORLD = NAIVE ME

  

This equation is about my life in Jakarta. For my whole life before I came to Singapore, I grew up in Pelangi Kasih School, all the way from kindergarten to Sec 3.

School was relatively easy and the system not so rigid, so I lived a carefree life while still being able to maintain good grades and getting involved in many projects and competitions in school. I was young, only a seedling. I used peach-pink as the dominant colour for the first piece as it symbolises innocence.

As a result of my parents, school, surroundings, and how I was generally brought up, I lived a sheltered life. There was a straight path drawn for me and blindfolded, I happily walk straight, not knowing that I was in a cage, protected from the world. This I illustrated with blue, to show the calmness of the life I lived. By doing this, the straight path, which is in yellow, is highlighted due to contrast.  

The result of this is still, a naive me. Still oblivious and very carefree, I live my life happily and without thinking of the future. The dominant colour yellow illustrates this very light, happy feeling that corresponds to my state at the point of time.  

Overall, I chose to use the primary, triadic colours as to illustrate the basic building blocks that I started with. I was young and life was simple. However, I chose to use a much lighter tint, and used pastels of the three colours as I feel it would fit the idea of youth and innocence better.

 

TWO ◊ EAGER TO PLEASE + SCHOOL AND FRIENDS = SAD ME

  

The second equation is about my first two years in Singapore spent in Anderson Secondary School. While I learnt a lot and made lifelong friends, it was not a very pleasant journey at the start.

When I first came to Singapore, I was extremely eager to please. I was determined to be the perfect student and naively thought that it would be an easy journey. I grew from my experience in Jakarta, but I was a mere bud. My optimism and energy is shown through the use of a dominant bright orange, with blues from my uniform as an accompaniment.

Little did I know, school work was really tough. I was doing the worst I had ever done my whole life. Plus, my initial impression of my classmates was not very good, as the culture of welcoming new students was very different compared to what I was used to back in Jakarta. I closed up and did not want to face these problems head on, hence in the composition I am depicted as looking away from the setting (towards the viewers instead), unlike the rest of the compositions in the middle column. I used blues and a dull lavender to show the dark state that I was in, making use of the bright orange as accents in the glowing eyes.

As a result, I was a very unhappy girl. No matter how hard I tried to make friends, I knew that it was not a genuine effort. It made me feel very discontented, and I used a lavender with low chroma, almost grey, to highlight this dullness, along with the dark blue and the teardrop pattern at the back.

Overall, I chose to employ a split complementary colour scheme for this equation (orange, blue and purple) so that I will be able to show how my initial positivity (orange) was quickly drowned out , replaced with the analogous colours of blue and purple. 

THREE ◊ COME AT ME + ROLLER COASTER = STRONG ME

  

The third equation is about my years in Temasek Junior College.

I thought that going to JC, it would be easier for me to start anew as everyone is new to the school. I wanted to enjoy my days and do better, and was determined to do so. This want to start anew, I hope, is able to be communicated through my use of bright green. I took on a fresh perspective and got rid of my old ways of thinking, I became a young flower.

Of course, JC was a tough journey. Academically, everything became even more difficult and I struggled to keep up. I took Art for A Levels and it took up a lot of my time, and by the end of JC1 I lost my scholarship. JC years were some of the worst years of my life. However, they were also some of the best years of my life. I loved Art and I was close to my classmates and Art friends. I had fun in House Committee and in orientation, and generally had a much better time compared to secondary school. JC was really a roller coaster filled with ups and downs. These challenges and journey is illustrated with red, as the colour can symbolise both danger (negative) and excitement (positive).

At the end of the two years, I find myself much stronger, more resilient, than ever before.  The dominant red (more of a coral to fit the lighter tones) represents my strength and the complementary green also shows my contentedness. Overall, the colours I chose for this equation sets the mood for each composition, with coral and lime (tints of red and green) as the main colours, and blue to complement the two.

FOUR ◊ READY ME + GRADUATION IS A LONG WAY = ?

  

The last equation is about me in NTU. I am the most mature I have ever been (OK I’m still childish). I am transitioning into an adult and whether I like it or not, I will need to be responsible for my own future. I feel like I have become much calmer when facing challenges, so I tried to use minimalistic colours to create this equation.

I am still determined and eager to do my best in university, so I used three values of orange to illustrate this energy. Calm and filled with determination, I start my ADM journey.

The goal right now is to graduate, and it is still very far away. I illustrated this by creating a long walkway that ends with a mortarboard on a pedestal. I created an illusion of depth to show that it is far away, and my pose shows how I am ready to take on this challenge.

The last column is a reflection of how I am by the end of the years I spent in the particular institution, and since this is still in the future, it is a huge question mark, with black to show this void. However, I am positive of the outcome and hence use orange as the background to show this.

Overall, I used just slightly differing shades of orange, and black and white for contrast. The simple colour scheme is supposed to show a calmer, more mature side of me.

 

◊ REFLECTION ◊

I am glad that I was able to showcase my characteristic style in this project, and was able to make use of the circle framing well to make all the compositions look cohesive. I still need to improve in terms of time management, and there are also a couple of other things that I thought I could have done better on. I feel like I could have coordinated the colours across the rows better, and practiced more with the medium to achieve better saturated colours and a smoother brushwork.

All in all, I had fun in this semester and though I was literally dying through all the projects, I enjoyed myself and learnt quite a bit, not only in terms of skills and techniques, but also my way of thinking and developing my art processes. I want to thank my classmates for their inspiring works, and Joy for being a super nice and encouraging teacher. This class will be missed!

For a summary of everything, check out my final work post!