Month: September 2018

Project 1 – Mark Making

Here is my chosen 6 pieces and the story behind each

List of Mark Making equipments I used

Paint:

 

Mark Making Tools:

Process of Mark Making in the form of a Video

My thoughts behind the marks

Joy –
Bubbles makes people happy. I’ve already wanted to associate bubbles with happy emotion before I even began blowing the bubbles. The bubbles burst randomly and they mostly cluster around the bottom left.

It led me to remember about this body temperature chart based on mood. Happiness is a feeling which radiates throughout the body. Just like how the bubbles are of different degree of darkness and spreading outwards.

Paint used: Chinese Ink & Matte Acrylic Paint
Tool: Straw
Misc: Water & Soap

Relief –
When I was trying to figure out if this should be a sad or happy emotion, I chose to go with the latter because the longer I look at it, the more calming I feel it is. It gave me a feeling of letting go, letting all the cluttered darkness fade away into the gentle lightness. And that makes me feel very peaceful about it.

This piece plays on the color contrast and space. It is also in an upward movement which creates an optimistic tone.

Paint used: Chinese Ink & Poster Color
Tool: Hair Foam
Misc: Water

Euphoria –
I can’t find any words better to describe how I felt about this piece. I wanted a wavy mark to signify calmness and bliss. I used more strength to create volume and lesser strength on other parts, hopefully to depict a wave of various emotions.

It was impulsive and there was no plan. It was almost like I was riding the wave and seeing where it will take me. I spent more time thinking of ideas for other pieces. Thus it sparks an euphoric feeling just thinking that this piece was so impromptu yet came out as something I really liked.

The curvilinear of this piece makes it pleasant and positive.

Paint used: Chinese Ink & Matte Acrylic Paint
Tool: Sketchbook Paper

Frustration –
This is truly a piece of frustration. (Read on my fail attempt at using beyblade as a mark making tool below). I was running out of ideas for what marks I could create with the limited creativity I had, and an initial design I thought would be perfect, turn out to be a failure.

Out of desperation, I grabbed the ripcord from my beyblade, smeared some paint onto it and started slapping the ripcord onto my drawing block. It felt like it was speaking my true feelings. I added some finishing touch by using a toothbrush to splatter some texture to it.

The strokes run in all direction and it creates an idea of friction and tension in the piece.

Paint used: Poster Color
Tool: Ripcord

Torment –
Out of a few attempts at the hair dryer method, this was the first attempt and also the most successful attempt. My intention was to make dripping blood-like pattern to express the feeling of fear.

I decided to use the word torment instead of fear because torment felt like a stronger word. Also, its like reminding me of the traumatic feeling I get when I watch a gory film. (I hate horror shows with bloody scenes!)

Downward direction of the ink signifies a sinking and falling effect much like how torment draws you towards a sinking point.

Paint used: Chinese Ink & Poster Color
Tool: Hair Dryer, Hair Foam

Anxiety –
Fear, panic, nervousness, these are feelings that eats a person up. I crushed the piece to create a rough texture to signify fear. I then layered the pieces on top of each other to represent the feeling of getting “caged up”, caged by one’s own thoughts and fears.

A painting with very little white space and with erratic prints, it creates a mood of confusion, fear and everything that leads up to anxiety.

Paint used: Matte Acrylic Paint
Tool: Paper

 

Conclusion

It was very therapeutic to create marks using unconventional tools to represent emotions. It was a little tedious trying to think of happy emotions because something that is painted black is associated with darkness, fear and sadness. However, through this assignment, I also learnt that white spaces can complement black to express positive meanings too.

I tried to be creative with the tools I have around me, however I learn that random marks made by those tools were dull and could not express my thoughts behind the work.

Like I thought a spinning top (Beyblade) could give nice spiral patterns. But the result of it was paint splattering all over, including the furniture around me whoops.

I also tried to apply the pendulum effect by stringing a plastic  golf ball to a chair and swinging it, hoping to create some nice patterns. However, I could not find any meaning to the random patterns it created.

So I concluded that the paintings which involved my hands were the best at expressing the feelings I wish to portray in my work. Like they need some personal touch rather than full out randomness.

Credits:
Oral-B Toothbrush
http://www.redtomatoes.com.sg/Oral-B-Toothbrush-123-SOFT-X-2
Philips Hairdryer
https://www.ebay.com/p/Philips-Hairdryer-Hp8202-Salon-Shine-Care-Ion-Conditioning-Frizz-220v-1600w/1992046655
Sketchbook Paper
https://www.dickblick.com/products/strathmore-400-series-recycled-toned-sketch-wirebound-journals/
Music
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/Happy_Music/Happy_Ukulele_1026

 

Bonus:
Experimental pieces

Mark Making Research

For lesson 1 today, we learnt about the art of mark making and how mark making can express various meanings.  I learnt that I can create a mark making tool from anything around me. From simple disposable materials, I could make out various patterns.

Below are some of the marks I made using the materials that was provided to us in class. The materials I used includes styrofoam food packet and some plastic food packaging.

I went home to do my research and came across the website of artist, Edward A. Burke, and find his work very interesting. His work is made up of abstract shapes and prints which can be seen across his paintings and drawings. I like how he played with the spaces in the canvas and using shapes to form his masterpiece.Another artist that caught my attention is Julie Mehretu. She uses conventional mark making tools like pencil, ink and paint.

Her work is made up of densely layered abstract prints. I like how her work is composed. Messy-looking but so rich and full of dimension. If I were to do something like her, it surely will turn out like a piece of flat scribbles.

As most of the famous mark making artists I saw online uses conventional mark making tools, I decided to dive deeper into artists who uses unconventional mark making tools. It led me to the site of Vanessa Lemen. Her work is so beautiful and she uses tools like squeegees and baking spatulas.

Beautiful right?!

I went on find out what mark making tools I can utilize for the second lesson where we are required to bring two mark making objects.

i found it really amazing that a single tool can craft out so many different kind of marks.

I also did a bit of reading up on the shapes I could create with mark making.

Then I went on to research on marks and emotions. I found this article on zeven which was very helpful in my journey towards creating mark making with emotions.

Apart from the usual lines, circles and dots, this summarizes the effect different shapes and direction flow of the art work could create.

 

I decided to use materials from nature like flowers and leaves (which I dismantled a bouquet that was gifted from a friend). I also found an old crafting tool and some spare bubble wrap.

1. Mark making done with scratches and prints of leaves and flowers.

2. Bubble wrap, craft tool and a steel scourer

3. More marks using the above tools.

4. Smeared paint on the left side of the paper and folding it at different length to produce this effect.

But sadly, the rest of the flowers rotted and I didn’t preserve them, so I wasn’t able to use the beautiful flowers as mark makers for the assignment pieces.

I think one flaw I had was that most of my work was very scratchy. It makes the piece very noisy and I am not able to find a focus in the piece. I will need to practice more forms of marks like giving more color tones, density and maybe play with the strength I put on the object.