Final Assignment

Topic: Food Wastage

Message to convey:

” Buy wisely and eat what you need. Before it spoils, share it & don’t trash it.”

 

“Singapore generates 788,600 tonnes of food waste.

This means each Singaporean contributes about 146kg of food waste yearly, based on figures released by the National Environment Agency in 2014.”

See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/food-wastage-rise-fb-companies-not-keen-donate#sthash.NBkDHCd8.dpuf

 

Food waste is generated every single day in Singapore and we all contribute to it.

People tend to purchase or cook more food than they can actually consume and eventually throwing away the excess. Apart from families, supermarkets and the food and beverage industry also plays a part in food wastage. They too dispose food in perfectly edible condition at the end of the business day, or food deemed too ugly to sell; instead of donating to charity organisations. We should not take food for granted and think before wasting food.

To depict this phenomenon, a pair of hands is shown pouring leftovers into a bin that is full of food that are in good condition. Thus all these wasted foods are coloured to show their freshness, stand out in this achromatic piece and catch the viewer’s attention at first glance.

Among all the food wasted, little is being recycled. The recycling rate has dropped throughout the years and little campaigns were organized to promote the awareness of reducing or recycling food waste. Minimal households and businesses have the habit of segregating their food waste for recycling. To highlight this, a cleaner is seen collecting bags of rubbish and throwing them into a garbage truck without thought and consideration.

All the food wasted could be used to help the poor and needy, such as feeding impoverished children who are growing and in need of these nutrients. In this piece, the size of the bin is drawn much bigger than the children. This is to illustrate the fact that the wasted food are beyond their reach.


Planning

The entire piece would be carved on lino block and printed in white on black paper. As the highlight of this piece is about food, all foods would be coloured to stand out and capture the viewers’ attention. Charcoal and chalk would also be used to show the road texture and dirt on the children’s clothes.

img_20161105_165946_740Added in cracked texture ground.

img_20161108_120438_436 img_20161108_120600_670

In an overview, Rule of Thirds is applied. The focus for the top part of the piece would be the pair of hands and garbage truck; centre part would be the bin; the bottom part the children.

Test Printing

The idea was to print white on black paper. As the piece has a size of A3, two pieces of A4 lino block were used. The plan was to print both lino together to have a consistent tone throughout and ensure details (e.g. the girl’s body and the lines on the bin) are properly aligned. However, it was a great challenge.

One key problem for printing two lino blocks at the same time is: speed. Ink has to applied on the second block quickly (and evenly) before ink on the first block dries out. Else, the print will appear patchy like the image attached below.

img_20161113_110623_611Other than speed, the right amount of ink has to be used.

When too little ink was used, the design can be hardly seen and all details are not visible.

img_20161110_141526_248On the other hand when too much ink is used, it is hard to apply the ink evenly on both blocks.

img_20161110_141754_369

After several tries of test printing, I have decided not to restrict myself to white and try out other colours.

Brown on white paper

img_20161110_141440_135

Blue on white paper

img_20161110_141635_375 Overall, the colours are nice and easily applied as compared to white ink. However the way the children are carved may not be suitable to be printed in other colours as it does not display the effect that I wish to have. For instance, the dirt on the poor children’s clothes would not be visible. Plus, the food does not stand out when coloured as shown in blue print above. Hence, the decision is to use white ink on black paper.

The two lino blocks are printed separately, aligned and pasted together afterwards. After many attempts of test printing, the best ones were chosen and used for the final piece.

Colouring

Different supplies such as oil pastels and chalk were sampled.

Chalk Version

img_20161112_185240aOil Pastel Version img_20161112_185336Oil pastel appears to be a better choice hence it will be used for my final piece.

Final Piece

img_20161112_215320

 

Colour harmonies applied in the piece include:

  • Achromatic
    • Different tone of black due the white ink
  • Monochromatic
    • Purple Yam – 2 shades of purple
    • Bananas and corn – 2 shades of yellow
    • Milk bottle cap – 2 shades of blue
    • Tomatoes – 2 shades of red
  • Analogous
    • Light and dark green – Vegetables e.g. lettuce and brussels sprouts
    • Yellow & Orange – Bananas & Corn
  • Complementary
    • Red & Green – Tomato & Vegetables
  • Triad harmony
    • Yellow, Blue & Red – Bananas, Milk bottle cap & Tomato
  • Tetrad harmony
    • Yellow, Blue, Purple & Red – Bananas, Milk bottle cap, Yam, Tomato