SUFFERING

The state of undergoing immense pain, distress or hardship.

If I were to visualise ‘suffering’ in my head, I’d picture sharp thin tangents intersecting and cutting through one other. Maybe there’d be splatters of blood too.

To get those ‘splatters’ in the middle of the strip, I used soap. From my experimenting, soap makes great dry brush texture.

The splatters also act as a ‘connecting’ medium that connects the two ends of the strip, so that the two masses of ink are not seen as separate.

To get the sharp tangents/lines, I use a pointed palette knife. I got some tears along the process.

Clumsy me accidentally ripped the right end of the paper off but I guess the effect pushed the definition of suffering even more HAHA.

So here are the close ups:

LONGING

Accumulated desire for someone or something.

Longing is a feeling that builds up over time, and with each passing day it grows stronger. Like flower petals, they grow and bud, only to be dispersed and face eternal disappointment in the end.  I used dried baby breaths to create this.

I used the bunch of petals to create wispy lines.

As I approach the end of the strip, I apply more pressure so that the marks gradually get visually ‘heavier’.

To create the ‘spots’, I shake the bouquet vigorously and allow small splatters of ink to drop.

Close-ups:

 

DISGUST

Strong disapproval aroused by something unpleasant.

It’s a strong repulsive emotion but one gets used to it- over time it just disappears or fades.  I used glue to get this effect.

Scooped glue onto paper and mixed ink with a palette knife.

 

Used the palette knife to even out the glue and create a ‘fade’ at the end. The glue dries glossy so the end product looks wet and ew  (yay, disgusting!)

Close-up:

 

OPTIMISM

Viewing things in a positive or calm light.

Circles, round and enclosed, are comforting and suggest completeness. I cut up aluminium foil into different sizes of circles and pasted them on white paper. I chose aluminium due to its sheen and I like the fact that the aluminium reflects light off. It’s just really calming to stare at.

Using an ‘open composition’ where some circles are cropped out of the frame. This creates a more fun and interesting composition.

Adding more circles to complete.

Close up:

 

SURPRISE

Unexpected and uncontrollable feeling, sudden without warning.

Nothing beats SURPRISE(!!!) like random splats of white against a black backdrop.  The splatters extend out of the frame, without boundary or control. Compared to the other works, this technique was left to chance (I had to re-do the splats a lot of times because they didn’t turn out nice). I used string dipped in white ink to create this.

I used two bundles of string- one long and one short.

Short strings don’t really create a SPLAT effect, but more of a elaborate pattern. So, for the most part of the work, I used the long strings.

All I really did was a lot of flinging, so there’s nothing much to explain….So let the pictures do the talking-

 

The final product^

Close-ups:

 

NERVOUSNESS

Growing anxiety, aggravated over time.

I picture nervousness like countless tiny organisms building up and attacking your gut. Sometimes they combine and grow into big blotches of monsters and gnaw you from the inside.

 

I used string and ink to create this work. I did not fling the string like I did for ‘Surprise’.

Using less ink at the start, then more ink as I work along the strip to ‘build up’:

Close-ups: