Initial brainstorming and rough sketches:

photo88399820501395421

At this stage, i was pretty much just doodling ideas that were in my head and identifying which ones worked and which didn’t.


TRAVELLER

travellersketch

The idea for this piece was to mimic contour lines. The first sketch I did above was a little too uniform and the letters were kinda hard to decipher. After consulting with Shirley, i figured that i needed to play around with the distances between the lines to create more tension and also add in little details such as the numbers to represent height. I also came up with 2 possible styles that i could do this piece in. The first one makes use of alternating red and blue pencil lines to give off a simple and clean sketchy feel. The second one uses black outlines and colours which would make the piece look more “cartoonish” and vibrant. The colours also helped to define the letters more.

photo88399820501395417

I tried out both styles but couldn’t decide which one to use as my final piece because i liked both. I went with the coloured one in the end because i felt that it was more exciting to look at.

photo88399820501395423

When i first started working on this piece, i didn’t quite like the unevenness of the copic markers and considered using watercolour instead. But Shirley suggested that the unevenness might be a good thing because it added texture to the piece. It was appropriate because resembled the texture of mountains and land. So, i went ahead and added more texture to it.


GUITARIST

sketch

For this piece, i morphed the body of a guitar to form the letters to my name. First, i drew out the basic shapes in illustrator and adjusted until i was happy with it. Then, i added the wood texture unto the shapes and varied the colour and gradient of each letter to give the composition more depth.

 Guitarist1 Guitarist


CAREFREE

carefreesketch

Here, I’m coming up with ways i could use butterfly wings to form the letters of my name.

photo88399820501395419

Here, is the final sketch that i decided to use. In terms of medium, i chose to use tracing paper for the wings because of its translucent quality that is similar to butterfly wings.

carefreetest

I tested out whether copic markers could work on tracing paper and fortunately, it did! I drew out each letter on tracing paper and carefully cut them out. For the background, i used watercolour and painted light washes of blue and purple to recreate the sky. I then stuck the wings on only partially for a fluttering effect.

photo88399820501395424


TART BAKER

sketch

My initial idea for this was to keep the circular crust of fruit tarts and use the fruits to form the letters. Later on, Shirley suggested that it would be better if the crust could form the letters.

photo88399820501395405

I’m going digital for this piece. So first, i painted some fruits in photoshop.

fruits

Then i duplicate and arranged them accordingly. I used a red checkered background to give the feeling of a picnic and used the shadows casted by the trees to frame the composition. Finally, i adjusted the contrast, saturation and colour balance.

Tart-Baker

★★★

 

While brainstorming for this project, i thought about what would best represent me. So i first looked into things that i enjoy doing, things that i like and personal traits. I came up with a list of possible professions and characteristics that i could use and chose four to develop further. The four i have chosen are:

  1. Traveller
    Traveller
    Definition: A person who travels or has travelled in distant places or foreign lands.
    When i think of travel, i think maps. It is a must have on a travel, especially in a place you have never been to before. I have always been fascinated with the amount of information that a map can contain. It is like a travel companion, guiding you through your journey.
    Associated words: travel, tour, trip, map, souvenir, bag pack, explore, voyage, pictures, destinations


  2. Guitarist
    guitarist
    Definition: A person who plays the guitar.
    Guitar is something i picked up when i was in primary 6. A skill i never got the time to improve on, but still something i really enjoy doing.
    Associated words: music, strings, wood, tune, strum, pluck, pick, notes, chords, tabs, classical, acoustic, song


  3. Tart Baker / Pâtissièr
    tartbaker
    Definition: A person who is skilled in making pastries (in this case, tarts)
    Tarts are one of my favourite desserts. The base is made of a crispy crust, then filled with custard and topped with a variety of fruits. This tempting dessert, how could anyone resist?
    Associated words: dessert, sweet, fruits, crust, pastry, YUM


  4. Carefree
    carefree
    Definition: without anxiety or worry
    I would say that being carefree is my biggest strength and my biggest weakness. My family often tell me that i don’t have any stress at all, because i could still be watching a movie a day before an exam. But because of my laid-back personality, i often do things last minute.
    Associated words: freedom, lighthearted, gleeful, flight, wings, butterflies, clouds

Since we were to come up with ‘portraits’, i thought the best approach to this was to be personal so that my final pieces would be able to reflect the kind of a person i am. I also decided to use my nickname ‘Bella‘, which is how many of my friends address me, for the pieces. (because Isabella is too long)

Other professions and traits that i considered:

  • Polyglot (a person who speaks multiple languages)
  • Farmer/Florist
  • Tech-savvy
  • Naive
  • Light sleeper
  • Scientist