Field Trip to STPI

Our STPI field trip was a great learning experience. Zao Wou-Ki’s artworks were very inspiring, as we were able to see his growth as an artist and how his work evolved throughout his life.
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He utilised both Western and Chinese elements into his work both in terms of technique and media used. One of my favourite pieces of his, involves him painting landscapes in the form of mountains but utilising a lot of white space in his work. The media he used was oil paints of cool tones. I appreciate the cool and calm aura that this work gives out.

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We also proceeded downstairs to learn more about etching, screen printing, newspaper making and lithography. The great variety of printing amazes me and I look forward to our next art lesson where we will learn more 🙂

My First Post


Today I learnt colour theory. It was an interesting lesson. My main takeaways were that tint is adding white, shade is adding black, value is adding grey and hue is colour. Additionally various color schemes were learnt as well such as monochromatic, analogous, conplimentry, cool and warm. colour wheelThese technical jargon will serve me well in future art lessons. Can’t wait haha?

Final

 

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Sketch 1: Downwards view from centre of train

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Sketch 2: Frontal view of side of the train

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Final Work: Frontal view from centre of train

Subject & Elements

My piece is on the prevalence of technology in society. In this digital age, many of us have our faces plastered on luminescent screens, hands caressing the familiar metallic coolness of our gadgets and ears in tuned to the artificial melody of our ringtones. Technology is everywhere, and it is essentially something inescapable.

 

I decided to draw my daily commute on the train whereby, I, like many others, am using my phone. This is to reflect that society as a whole has a dependence of phones in their daily lives. The importance of this gadget is given prominence by the fact that everyone is using their phones on the train to pass time. Additionally, utilising tone in my piece, I darkened everyone’s phones to create an emphasis on technology.

 

Technology is highly important for our basic necessities such as communication and transport. These two elements are reflected in the foreground and background respectively. In the foreground, my phone is shown with all its various application readily available with the simple click of my thumb. I showcased the essential applications such as phone and messages to express the phone as a tool of communication. Moreover, more applications such as music and camera reflect the phone as a multi-purpose tool to any user. Therefore the simple foreground is able to convey the message of the benefits of technology that I, as well as others in society, am enjoying. In the background, I depicted the scenery of a train. The train itself is a tool of transportation, with its own aspects that makes commuting easier. Using two-point perspective, I wanted to train to appear long, as if its never ending to show viewers of my artwork that technology is efficiently used on the train so more commuters can travel. On the train is also a screen that displays the current station. I added this as I felt it created a more realistic feel in my piece of a train.

 

Lastly, I created more dimension in my piece with toning. Other than giving life to the people in my piece by shading their clothing, face and shadows, toning was also done to the foreground and background. I made the foreground more detailed and darker than in the background. This is to give the illusion of something closer and further. A frontal and symmetrical view is also used to illustrate the symmetry of the train because technology itself is exact and precise.

 

Hence, I wanted my piece to resonate our own dependence of technology and carry the message the technology is a prominent part in our lives and that it here to stay.

 

 

 

Bug’s Eye View

 

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Sketch 1

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Sketch 2

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Final

Story:

‘Wow dad! This is AMAZING!’ exclaimed my nymph son.

My son, Jeff, had decided to join my daily stroll along the streets of New York. He had insisted to go despite my refusals. However after the thousandth ‘please’, I relented. I sighed as I watched Jeff dart haphazardly on the busy roads of New York. After advising him to lay low, I continued on with my routine of spreading my wings and taking in the sights and smells of this bustling city. Out of the corner of my eye, my son made a beeline to the café nearby. Groaning, I whizzed onwards to catch up to him, making a mental note to never let him out of the sewer again.

‘Hey dad! Look at all the food here!’ Jeff enthusiastically proclaimed.

Just before he raced to the garbage, a red stiletto heel came down on him. I closed my eyes expecting the worst, as I heard the bone-chilling sound. CRUSH. Tears rolled down my face, making my feelers wet. He was so young, only a few days old and his life ended so fast. As I sobbed more, I realized a crumpled candy wrapper where I expected my son to be! What???

And there he was, just behind the wrapper, gnawing on a piece of garbage on the floor. Relief washed over me and I quickly flew over to my son. Unbeknownst to him that he was a centimeter away from death, I reprimanded him heavily and swore never to bring him with me every again. Jeff silently listened and together we went back to our sewer home. Thus bringing an end to my eventful day, but on the bright side, I managed to keep all 50 of my children!