Outdoor Sketching

In the afternoon following the figure drawing lesson, we headed to HASS to do some outdoor sketching and to understand the theories of perspective better. Prof demonstrated how he construct a sketch using one-point and two-point perspectives.

For one-point perspectives, there are two pairs of parallel lines, each pair established by joining the lines extended from the vanishing point; for two-point, there is one pair.

Accessed from http://kingslan.com/blog/?p=280

By determining the lines of building structures that are parallel, we can leverage on that foundation to draw the basic structures of the building.

Prof told us to always focus on the big picture first: draw out the general structure before filling in the details. Should we rush into the details and the details aren’t drawn accurately, this will subsequently affect all other structures.

Prof also mentioned that in the scenario where the perspective is particularly hard to construct (or if we are simply lazy or bad at perspective drawing), we can make use of space to cover up our weakness by placing smaller structures in front of bigger ones so that the edges of the buildings are obscured.

These are some sketches that I made that day:

I wasn’t overly rigid in my drawing in the sense that I was quite loose with plotting the construction lines. I merely got a general sense of the direction of the line and went ahead to draw it out. I guess judging by the conceptual (focus more on form) vs perceptual (focus more on what you see) distinction that Prof mentioned, I belong to the latter.

2D Project 1 My Line is Emo — Final

And it comes! The day of final submission! Three weeks of mark-making and it’s now over!

My work:

Top down: Amazement, exasperation, affection, melancholy, mortification, bliss

Infancy — Amazement
  • the marks, while representing amazement, have a touch of inquisitiveness in them
  • the bubble-like marks encapsulates the curiosity and wonder a child feels as he/she interacts with the world for the first time
  • questions and wonders pop up like bubbles in their minds spontaneously
  • every ink blot/circle is unique -> every child interprets our world differently, but their interpretations are all equally mesmerising and filled with precious innocence
Adolescence — Exasperation
  • The marks record our rebellious years where our fluctuating moods and identity confusion causes us to be dissatisfied with and exasperated at many things, be it towards our peers, our family or our parents
  • use of palette knife to slash paint onto the paper is just like how one feels like ‘killing’/’strangling’ a person when that person simply does not understand what you’re driving at
  • the thicker smears of paint is just like the huge SIGHs we make after each gradual build-up of exasperation
  • expresses the uninhibited aggression and frustration a teenager feels at that stage
  • It also portrays teenagers’ urgency to make an impression and assert their identity and importance in this world
Love — affection
  • As we move through our teenage years into adulthood, we start looking for our other ‘half’ (the symmetry in this mark alludes to this)
  • the dreamy and fantasy-like feeling suggests intimacy and sweetness —illustrates our hopes and ideals for our partner
  • the emergence of love-birds-like figures from hazy fumes shows how the search for our true love often begins without us knowing what we are looking for, but it eventually reveals itself to us
  • Notice how the images are similar but not identical -> what I am trying to convey here is that we will find flaws in even our perfect fit, but we must learn to embrace them and accept them for who they are

Mid-Life crisis — Melancholy
  • Looming spectres and the use of lines of different weights and intensity creates the illusion of depth — some of our troubles are further away while others are right in our face
  • Hazy background -> melancholy feelings do not usually have an identifiable source of sadness, yet the feeling is pervasive and omnipresent
  • Sparse marks help to convey the idea of hollowness and emptiness
  • Using the palette knife to slash the paper with ink exemplifies how pangs of grief strike a melancholic person
Illness/the approach to old age — Mortification
  • Paper marche effect created by using newspaper with glue and water
  • The marks were made by crumpling the paper, and then rolling the roller across the creases
  • memory fades, vision darkens, creases appear
  • the use of newspaper: words giving themselves up to the void, along with all the meaning they used to contain
  • fragmentation: highlights the dissonance/ confused state of mind one is in as you grow frail
  • Death looms, close enough to be weighing on your chest
Before the final end — bliss
  • This mark presents a strong juxtaposition to the ‘mortification’ strip
  • One learns to find peace with oneself and finally achieve a sense of serenity and solidarity
  • The cloudy/ dreamy mark prompts one to reminisce about one’s childhood and life experience
  • Death becomes a relief from suffering
  • the soft outlines represents how death is like a restful/gentle sleep

Presentation!

I really love the museum-style presentation — we lay out our works just like how they’ll look in a gallery and we are walked through the works one by one. It was really intriguing to learn about what my peers did and how they interpreted different emotions differently from me.

Thanks friends for the encouraging comments :D

Some Reflections

Overall I’m rather proud of my work but I feel that I could have explored even more with different mediums and materials. I initially thought that this project would be easy, but that was not true at all — it was only through tireless experimentation that I am able to generate my final pieces. But it was only through this process that I came to realise the importance of experimentation as an indispensable part of the creative process because there were so many inspirations that only revealed themselves to me along the way. All in all, mark-making is a highly therapeutic activity. I really had a lot of fun working on this project :)

2D Project 1 My Line is Emo — process

Here are some documentation of the process I’ve been through for mark-making. I realise I’m not a person who can multitask very well, and so I kept on forgetting to whip out my phone to record down my experimentation process.

Initial emotions research:

I wanted to get a clear idea of what each emotions represented. Hence I did several small mind-maps for each emotion category and researched on each specific emotion to ensure that my understanding of that emotion is correct.

Experimentation for melancholy:

The feeling of melancholy is something that I believe everyone can instinctively understand as the wrenching throb in the heart but troubles to eloquently put the emotion into words.  And so when I tried to express melancholy in my marks, I tried to keep the the marks to a minimum so that the empty space (the paper) gives a more pervasive feeling of hollowness and emptiness.

I made this by spreading glue around the paper first, and then sprinkling charcoal crumbs previously crushed. When the glue dries, only the charcoal is left behind, obediently following the trail of glue. I thought the idea was interesting, but I didn’t have any use for it in my final 6 emotions

To see more of my process, please refer to my visual journal :DD

This was what I had after a week of experimentation:

Consultation with Mimi

  • Mimi said that my works were too symmetrical (I agree!!!). I actually did try making some strips that were asymmetrical but I discarded them because they looked too bad. But I should really experiment more with having asymmetrical designs or having the idea of gradual up of emotions in order to make my works more exciting
  • Mimi also mentioned that I shouldn’t be working on newsprint alone. I took her advice and experimented with canvas, watercolour paper and newspaper later on :) I also tried to vary my medium by using acrylic and watercolour (wanted to use oil but it wouldn’t dry in time)
  • Can try collaging the works! See if anything interesting comes out of it!
  • There has to be an overarching theme that can hold the separate emotions together (can be in the form of songs, stories, phenomenon, or just anything)
  • Even though Mimi said that I have a wide variations of line work, she said to be careful when choosing my final 6 strips to prevent having the works looking too similar (especially since I seem to have the tendency to product mark-making that fills up the entire page)

Working on my learning points from the consult, I continued experimenting with more emotions, specifically working on points raised during the consultation.

Working with asymmetry

Working with different medium:

Initial idea was to simply roll a roller over crumpled paper

I decided to work on this idea by introducing newspaper as a medium to create a paper mache effect.

I brainstormed for a suitable theme to make my emotions cohesive and coherent when seen in a certain sequence. I had a few ideas off the top of my mind but they were somewhat random. At the end, since we are dealing with emotions in this project, I started to think about what emotions themselves signify. I felt that emotions are something very ‘raw’ and very ‘unique’ to humans. Yes, some animals can feel emotions as well, but they’re not as varied nor can they reach the same depth as human emotions can. Along this line of thought, I decided that I wanted to do something that ties in very closely to what makes a human human, which is how I arrived at my theme “life”.

Brainstorming:

With this as my starting point, I started to narrow down emotions that I want to deal with. I identified the different stages of life and the emotions one most probably would have felt at that point in time:

  • Infancy
  • Adolescence
  • Teenager – Adulthood
  • Mid-life Crisis
  • Illness/ approaching old age
  • Before the final end

(Check out the journal for the full description for each stage :> )

From my huge pile of emotions, I picked out 6 emotions most representative of what one would have felt at the six identified stages of life:

  • Infancy — Amazement
  • Adolescence — Exasperation
  • Teenager – Adulthood — Lust
  • Mid-life Crisis — Melancholy
  • Illness/ approaching old age — Mortification
  • Before the final end — Bliss

I went on making the final emotions used for submission. However, I realised that the same marks can never be replicated. Even subtle differences can make a big difference to the general mood the marks elicit.

In particular, I couldn’t get ‘Lust’ the way I wanted at all even after multiple, numerous, countless number of tries and kilos of paint wasted (just kidding). In a spurt of frustration, I folded a strip that I was doing halfway, intending to discard it. However, when I opened the strip, it dawned on me how perfect Warhol’s Rorscharch technique can be applied. I started experimenting more with this technique, constantly being pleasantly surprised whenever I open the folded paper.

And so, one day before submission, I changed “Lust” to “Affection”, an emotion I thought best described the ink blot I made.

In the end, my final six emotions were:

  • Infancy — Amazement
  • Adolescence — Exasperation
  • Teenager – Adulthood — Affection
  • Mid-life Crisis — Melancholy
  • Illness/ approaching old age — Mortification
  • Before the final end — Bliss

 

 

2D Project 1 My Line is Emo – first experimentaion

This week’s lesson was thoroughly enjoyable as I tried my hand at mark making. This was my first attempt at mono-printing and the printing machine, which were immensely interesting and fun!

Some mark making tools I brought to experiment:

  • leaves, tree bark, rocks, sea shells
  • aluminium foil, corrugated cardboard, cling wrap, non-slip mat
  • bottle cap, tissue, syringe
  • velcro, thick rubber band, buttons
  • my fingers

Mimi told us not to bother about the aesthetics of our prints and to explore freely — which was what I did. Here are some prints I made:

I managed to get the bold lines by using the handle of the roller. These lines feel very raw and strong — potential marks for the more intense emotions. Also, the mono-printing method is almost unpredictable because I’m just making the marks blindly without being able to see what I’m doing.

Printed a leaf! Can only vaguely see the shape and veins. And it’s too obvious that it’s a leaf — probably not very suitable here since we want to stay away from very literal/ representative marks.

Experimented with the use of combs here. The neat rows of lines produces a very nice effect. The thick rows of lines were created with corrugated cardboard.

Prints of crushed aluminium foil! The effect is really cool if enlarged, but since it’s very condensed and crammed, it doesn’t look very nice from far.

Marks made by dipping a rock into ink and rolling it around the paper. It’s quite beautiful, especially how the ink is concentrated and sparse in different areas.

Linocut! First time working around with the tools. It wasn’t hard to cut the linoleum, but getting the shape/line I wanted was hard. The lines I cut also looked rather similar — the edges are all rounded.

A linocut I made at the end of the class! I didn’t have anything in mind and was just cutting based on instincts. I’m very satisfied with this print :)  (though mildly annoyed that the print I rushed through with minimal thought turned out the nicest)

Some other prints:

With this round of exploration, I’m more familiar with the tools and materials and how we can create different kinds of marks. I have a better idea of what this project is about and I’m ready to experiment and explore a lot more. Excited for the weeks to come! :D

 

Figure drawing 2

Second figure drawing session!

Today we dealt with Chiaroscuro, learning to deal with light and shadows and knowing how to demarcate edges of a form just by playing around with tone.

Some quick sketches we did as warm up to try portraying the figure using different tones:

There isn’t quite enough tonal ranges in these sketches, but I did get a rough idea of what we are supposed to learn here.

1.5h sketch:Here, we first smeared the background with charcoal so that it is mid-tone black and then brought out the human form by using an eraser. This exercise helps us to identify the brightest and darkest parts of the human figure, and this aids us in elucidating the form accurately.

My figure is too small again….. Somehow I cannot visualise how the figure will translate on the paper, and so I couldn’t estimate the size of the drawing. Here I think I managed to mark out the form of the body quite clearly (other than the hands which I casually skipped). Some shadows are too sharp (like the one at the model’s right shadow) and some edges are rather weird (e.g. the left arm). I am very happy with the model’s left leg though!! I thought it turned out quite well :>

However, I wasn’t very successful with capturing the mood. Even though the background shades vary in tone, they don’t really give you the idea that there is some sort of air flow or movement at the back. They literally just look like different blocks of different shades in the background. I should work on this more in the future.

 

Figure Drawing 1

In the third week of school, we are already working on nude figure drawing! I was quite surprised as I thought we would be working more on still-life setups as well as learn the human anatomy before actual moving on to real life models.

I thought that Prof’s method of teaching was quite effective. For basics, he instructed us to focus on the torso and taught us to construct its shape by using two boxes — one representing the upper body while the other representing the pelvis.

For the upper body box, the upper edge is to be extended from the hollow located along the clavicles (collarbone) at the top of the shoulder while the bottom edge is to be aligned with the ends of the ribcage.

For the pelvis box, three points are to be first identified: two points at the ends of the iliac crest and one at the pubic bone.

Iliac crest:

Accessed from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iliac_crest_03_-_posterior_view.png

Interestingly, when a human is standing, the upper box will be tilting backwards instead of being upright or inclining forward. This is often overlooked, even when I tried to sketch later on.

Easier said than done! Even though the theory sounds extremely simple, when I tried applying it I found that just getting the proportions of the boxes right is a big enough headache. It is difficult to pinpoint from the nude model where the boxes starts and ends and what their orientation in space is.

Quick sketches I did:

Proportions feel rather off here. Also, I did not know that the boxes should be rectangular instead of taking a trapezium shape. In the bottom right sketch, I was confused by the twisted torso of the model and thought that my boxes should be distorted as well. However, Prof told us later that we should be thinking of the boxes themselves as representing immovable blocks (we can’t twist our ribcage or pelvis after all). What gives rise to the idea of the ‘twist’ is by displacing the alignment of the top and bottom box.

We sketched for longer periods after:

  

I realise I have this very bad habit of sketching the model too small…

I hope there’s a lot more figure drawing sessions to come because it feels like it is very hard to master and will require loads of practice. Hopefully, through better understanding of the human anatomy and techniques to figure drawing, I will get better and faster and more confident at it :)

Foundation drawing: tones and textures

This week, we worked with charcoal to learn about textures and tones in a drawing.

Texture:

Since drawings are 2d, we can only create the illusion of texture by manipulating light. For smooth surfaces, there will be a smooth graduation from light to dark; for rough surfaces, there will be sharp contrasts of light.

Tone:

Varying tones is crucial feature to have in order to bring life to a drawing. Objects have no outline in reality – hence for realistic drawing, it does not make sense to have clearly delineated outlines. Hence, without outlines, the only way to portray an object will be to describe it based on its tones and how it behaves under light.

Takeaways from Prof’s demonstration of a rainy day:

  • The importance of creating a delusion, and acquiring the know-how. In a rainy day, there are no sharp shadows due the diffusion of light from the rain droplets, the ground, the walls, etc. As sunlight is still the main source of light (other sources including street lights/ lights in buildings), the ground (horizontal surfaces) will reflect the most light among all surfaces. Additionally, due to the reflection of light among rain droplets, the further the distance, the brighter it will appear. Hence, in a rainy scene, furthest objects will appear the brightest. 
  • Prof barely drew any details, yet we could tell that it is a rainy day. We could make out the forms of the cars, the people, the umbrellas….. with minimal strokes. This goes to show the importance of light and dark in a drawing – they make all the differences

We had a chance to draw a still life set up. Here is my from the session:

I am not foreign to the use of charcoal, however I had some troubles adapting to the paper I was using which was somehow quite different from what I’ve used in the past. For examples, I found that it was more difficult to erase and get a sharp edge. Also, the charcoal does not seem to adhere to the paper – when I rub on the charcoal with my fingers, the tone lightens immensely more than I intend.

I think it can be quite distinctly observed that the quality of drawing drops from the right towards the left (excluding the crumpled paper texture). This is because I am a rather slow worker. Thus I was drawing at a more comfortable pace at the start and spent a lot of time on the glass bottle. However as more and more time passed, I was pressurised to work quicker, and the rushed drawings do not fare so well.

Tones

For the ceramics, it was very difficult to capture their tones because the change in tone is very subtle under the diffused studio lighting. Prof mentioned that it was very important to ensure that the darkest parts of the ceramics are lighter than the darkest parts of the darker objects.

For the kettle, I think that my tones are changing too abruptly and the contrast is too large. Also, each band of tone (which I drew as a flat solid colour) should have a gradual change in tone within itself.

For the crumpled paper (in the background), while I did not have enough time to work on them, the portion that I did draw is too dark and the tones too flat.

Texture

Again, I found it more difficult to work with the ceramics – their textures are so hard to capture! Reflections on the kettle and glass bottle are a lot more straightforward because each change of tone is very clean and distinct. Since their surfaces are smooth, all I had to focus on was the reflection.

Drawing

Even though this lesson did not focus on the drawing itself, I find that my proportions and perspectives are rather poorly done – especially the eclipses.

Personally, I love drawing. I would love to attend more drawing sessions and improve as much as possible.

My Line is Emo — Research on Artists

I am rather fascinated by how non-representational mark making is able to express so many varied emotions. This means that the marks must contain some form of inner significance – one that is able to trigger our thoughts, transport us back to a memory, and resonate with us.

On second thought, however, it makes sense that non-representational marks are able to express our feelings. Emotions are not thoughts after all. They are not literal, not tangible, and not exactly rational. It follows that expressive mark making is indeed an apt medium to portray them.

To learn more about mark making as well as to source for inspirations, here are some artists whom I have researched on:

Ed Moses

Accessed from http://www.laweekly.com/arts/ed-moses-on-new-work-the-poet-and-the-jabberwocky-painting-in-four-dimensions-alice-in-wonderland-and-marilyn-monroes-butt-2372658

Ed Moses is an American abstract artist. To him, art is about “exploring the phenomenal world”. Since the phenomenal world is so diverse and impermanent, it comes as no surprise that Ed Moses’ approach to art is highly experimental. It is quite obvious from his works that he refrains from being limited to a certain style.

Ed Moses does not consciously dictate what to do in front of a canvas and is happy to accept whatever ‘accidents’ and mistakes as part of his artistic process.

Some of his works:

Accessed from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-ed-moses-at-90-20160501-story.html

Love the subtle use of red!

Accessed from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-ed-moses-at-90-20160501-story.html
Accessed from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-ed-moses-at-90-20160501-story.html
Accessed from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-ed-moses-at-90-20160501-story.html

The bright red stripe is so bold and striking!

Accessed from https://newamericanpaintings.com/blog/ed-moses-greenbronze

Personally, Ed Moses’ paintings are really enchanting. He varies the transparency of paint, fracture lines abruptly, and smears paints across the canvas liberally, allowing the elements to emerge from and sink in the canvas –  just like the ebb and flow of waves

Andy Warhol

http://www.askthemonsters.com/facts-about-andy-warhol-every-girl-should-know/

Andy Warhol was an American artist and a leading figure of the Pop Art movement who played an influential role in contemporary art and culture.

Accessed from https://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/september-21-1996–andy-warhol

Rorschach is a series of paintings that Warhol made in 1984. These paintings are essentially ‘ink blots’, with inspiration drawn from “The Ink Blot test” created by Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach. Patients had to interpret ink blots presented to them, while psychologist would help to decipher their mental and emotional states based on what they perceive.

Interestingly, Warhol misunderstood the clinical process and thought that the patients were supposed to create their own ink blots for the psychologist to decipher – which led to the creation of the Rorschach paintings.

Warhol used the pour-and-fold technique, which helped him to achieve symmetry.

Accessed from http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/andy-warhol-1928-1987-rorschach-5621967-details.aspx
Accessed from http://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/pghinsidersguide/ae/hidden-gems/
Accessed from http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/2009/10/andy-warhol-the-last-decade-at-milwaukee-art-museum/warhol_10/

The paintings are huge!!

Sol LeWitt

Accessed from http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-artist-sol-lewitt-in-his-studio-late-1960s-or-news-photo/532614795#portrait-of-artist-sol-lewitt-in-his-studio-late-1960s-or-early-1970s-picture-id532614795

Sol LeWitt was an American artist who played a leading role in the Conceptual Movement. He placed great emphasis on the concept or idea of his work, rendering inherent narrative and descriptive imagery to be unimportant. As seen from his works, they are all non-representational.

His artistic explorations were systematic: they generally dealt with geometric elements and patterns – visually appealing nevertheless. Interestingly, as he stresses on the importance of ‘concept’, for large part of his wall drawings, LeWitt only conceive and plan them –  the actual works are usually executed by draftsman.

 

Accessed from http://www.centrepompidou-metz.fr/en/sol-lewitt-wall-drawings-1968-2007
Accessed from https://jewishcurrents.org/september-9-sol-lewitt/

LeWitt believes “each person draws a line differently and each person understands words differently”. This is one of the reason he chose to let draftsmen carry out his plan:

Draftsman inject their own interpretation of the plan into the actual work, allowing the final work to morph into something elusively different from the original plan, yet it is still the same artwork. Any misinterpretation or error made by the draftsman are accepted as part of the work.

Accessed from http://ex-chamber-memo5.up.n.seesaa.net/ex-chamber-memo5/image/1sol-lewitt.jpeg?d=a0
Accessed from http://urania-josegalisifilho.blogspot.sg/2012/01/sol-lewitt-paragraphs-on-conceptual-art.html

 

I have a curious observation, that is – although these three artists differ greatly in style, all three embrace mistakes and ‘accidents’ as part of the artistic process. They do not eliminate them, but rather generously and happily incorporate them into the final work. This is something I should learn from them and not be fearful of committing errors. I should always keep an open mind and be willing to continuously experiment with new ideas.

Foundation Drawing lesson 1

Hello, I’m Yu Qing :) I graduated from Hwa Chong Junior College and was from the science stream. I do not have any formal art background, but I like to draw and doodle since young, so it’s really great that ADM has a foundation drawing class to help me get my basics right. As I plan to major in animation, I feel that acquiring strong drawing skills will be very beneficial. I hope to make the very best out of this class in this semester!

For our first Foundation Drawing class, our prof introduced a style of sketching that he would like us to have a go at. It is rather charming – instead of drawing objects in isolation and being obsessed with bringing out its form, his way of sketching is a lot looser.

  • Scenes are to be looked at in the overall perspective.
  • The sketch is primarily concerned with the interplay of positive and negative spaces.
  • There need not be any clear boundary of whatever we were drawing, we can simply allow one object flow to the next.

I feel that our prof’s demonstration drawing is very ‘fluid’, natural, and somehow visually comfortable. One table can morph into another table in the back, yet the front is represented by positive space while the latter negative.

Shortly after, we went down to Canteen 2 to do some sketching! Prof suggested we apply quick strokes when we are confident and slow down when we are not.

This was the very first sketch I made. I feel like I didn’t understand what Prof was trying to tell us. My sketch remains too clean and I was shading into spaces quite arbitrarily.

Some other sketches I’d made:

I wonder if I am thinking too much while drawing, or not thinking enough at all. As my mind is usually blank when I draw, I do not consciously decide which object to be represented with negative space and which positive. Perhaps this is why my sketches are still rather isolated and traditional.

This is a sketch that I was rather happy with. I feel that there is more fluidity between different objects, but the use of positive/negative space is still rather ambiguous.

After comparing my own sketches with my prof’s, I also notice that he varies the tone of shading a lot more – which may be why he is able to create more depth. Also his lines are way looser than mine – I will feel compelled to finish drawing the leg of a chair yet he can very freely leave it as nothing more than a line with a small suggestion of a cuboid structure.

Hope that with a lot more practices, I will be able to manoeuvre comfortably around positive and negative spaces!