Colour play – Game over, start to finish

game over.

When the 3rd project of 2D was briefed to us, all i heard was ” you can do anything you want” and my mind immediately went on a mad rush to find ideas.

So this is my journey of how those ideas materialized, formed, changed and ultimately got stuck on a wall.

initial ideas.

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I knew from the start i wanted to do Japanese inspired art work. but the only question was how.

so i started sketching out random ideas

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i sketched out couple ideas and formed the first 3 equations, having an idea for my equations i moved on to the actual conceptualizing of each line

Backgrounds.

multi

i borrowed multiple books from the ADM library regarding Japanese art. i started forming my back grounds with the different colours and textures.

here’s a screen snap of all the backgrounds put into one huge canvas to allow me to play around with the compositions once the subjects come into play.

First equation: the tiger rabbit.

AjbAjVKhD7nD3HgAav3-yo_j3XrpAwtOsH-ituzqO31t AgIT6pC9qN6Cm_1zGpe6Nn0aRIbYuhVqPEdBN32Ey9hA AvQMGqGuKtxTBGOl2RY935EXr5gKM-4EA9Dkv7nBO0CQ


 

This was the first equation i worked on as i had the clearest idea for this line.

 

the hardest part for this equation was how to put these drawings on to the traditional back ground.

 

it took a lot of Photoshop editing , playing with contrasts, brightness and saturation to blend the two together.

 

Even though the print came out darker than i had intended, i was quite pleased with the end outcome.

 

1tiger 1rabbit 1rabibit tiger

 

Equation 1: i may be timid at times, but when i need to be, i will be confident and courageous.

Second equation: Me & my demons.

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The second equation was the one i had the most fun with. i got to transform my self into Japanese demons/spirits, namely the Tengu, Oni & Kitsune.

i wanted to play with transparencies to show a contrast between me and my inner demons.the difficult bit was to decide the orientation  and the usage for the finals product, After much discussion with Prof Ina, we decided to go for a mix where the demons were in transparencies.

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Perhaps given more time, we couldve worked out a better composition but im happy with how it turn out and looked on the wall.

2 demon 1 2 demon 2 2 demon 3

Equation 2: Child like playfulness without any evil intent.

Third equation: My hands & Me

3left hand 2 3right hand1 3joint 2

I wanted to include my love for doodling into one of my lines,  i doodled on my hand once before, so i worked onwards from there.

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i worked along the lines where my left and right hand serves and allows me to do different things in my life.

i doodled away on my hands and felt like i was doodling for my own fun.3left hand3right hand

3joint

Equation 3: When these two different things come together, they complement each other.

Fourth equation:   Guard up, Pangolin.

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The concept for this last line took the longest to conceptualize.

i only decided on this idea one night when i was heading back to ADM to finish up some assignments at 2am ,  i chanced upon a wild pangolin that was wandering around campus.  i googled pangolins and decide to use them as my subject for my last line.

My initial idea was to make a stencil as shown above. however it would block alot of the background so i decided to draw them instead.

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The individual scales are adorned with different Japanese patterns ,

4 pangolin 14 pangolin 3 4 pangolin 2

Equation 4: In front of my friends, i let my guard down. but when i have to, ill keep my guard up.

Text.

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I decide to use japanese words ad the text for my compositions,

i got assistance from my friend who’s friend’s mum has studied japanese calligraphy  for a long time.

Each equation has an accompanying Japanese short poem that corresponds to the English equivalent.

Assembly.

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i spent the night(and morning) before submission day to assemble everything together.

Everything came together and i was glad how it turned out on the wall.

Final.

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By far one of my favorite assignments given to me in ADM.

Rhymes Final play – end –

“Adam & Eve  x Humpty Dumpty

final.”

after playing around with the compositions and images, i came up with these 4 images.  for the respective ine of the rhymes humpty dumpty.

each composition would have an accompanying line from the bible verse portraying that scene in the story of adam & eve.

rounding up the whole installation as a whole.

 

1.5
Humpty dumpty sat on a wall
 “Forsooth ever either was naked, that is, Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed.”  Genesis 2:25


2.5

Humpty dumpty had a great fall
“… and she took of the fruit thereof, and ate, and gave to her husband, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6
3.5

All the king’s men and all the king’s horses
 “…for all thing that Adam called of living soul, that is the name thereof.” Genesis 2:19
4.5
Couldn’t put humpty dumpty back together again
“And the Lord God sent him out of paradise of liking, that he should work the earth, of which he was taken.” Genesis 3:24

 

 

rhymes play – 2 – exploration phase

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Humpty Dumpty  X  Adam & Eve.

I decided to explore adam and eve in the context of humpty dumpty, where the unity and innocence at the dawn of human kind is depicted as a hypothetical circle.

“humpty dumpty sat on a wall”

this “circle” would then be broken when adam and eve eats the forbidden fruit, thus introducing sin to the world, breaking the innocence that was once there. this would then be porayed as the second line of the rhyme

“humpty dumpty had a great fall”

When god created animals, he gave them to adam to name, thus it can be accepted that adam is then the KING of all the animals, horses included

“all the kings horse and all the kinds men”

after the fruit was eaten, adam and eve were cast out of the garden of eden and henceforth forever attempt to put back the innocence that once was. but never ever be able to pot it back together again.

“couldnt put humpty together again”

Initial Compositions:

the compositions below explore the ideas for the first two lines, playing around with the use of monoprints in the back ground.

 

 

 

 

 

compo 1

"humpty dumpty sat on a wall"

compo 2

"humpty dumpty had a great fall"

Rhymes play – 1 – Humpty Dumpty = unity

The circle: an ancient and universal symbol of unity, wholeness

I decided to work on the rhyme humpty dumpty, a few of the images i found are showcased below.

for humpty dumpty, i wanted to have a concept where i would base my compositions on. this are some of the ideas i have explored:

-humpty dumpty as the symbol of unity and, and when broken, anyone in the world, regardless of ethnicity cannot put him back tgth again.

-humpty dumpty representing the neutral equality of men, where the phrase comes in ” all men are created equal” once broken, people segregate into hierarchies,and even thought some peoplel try to fix the hierarchies, it will never ever go back to the beginning of time where everyone was truly equal. might go on to explore adam and eve, where at the start of time, adam and eve were equals.

-humpty dumpty symbolizing the unified korea. where broken as it is now, seems impossible to reunite given the social and political tension going on now within the 2 countries.

these are just some few ideas i have researched and explored on, with more research i would pick a concept to go for and work with it in my compositions.

toby-

UNCLUTTERED – 18 – FINAL

 

 

 

 

    “Done.”

After many hours in the print room, hours lying on the floor of ADM, I finally uncluttered my mind and finished my final submission for the first 2D assignemnt.

final 1
And boy did i have fun with this one.

 

 

Final pieces:

 

final3

 

From the top down:
SENSUAL [smooth wave Ragwork/Reduction]
FRAGILE [Crumpled paper collage]
INDECISIVE [Folded Paper]
AMBIGUOUS [diluted Ragwork/Reduction]

final 4

TURBULENT [wavey Ragwork/Reduction]
EMBARRASSED [self initiated paper collage]
LYRICAL [Modified folded paper mono print.]
PSYCHOTIC [Magazine face collage, without eyes]

 

 

final 5 
AGGRESSIVE [ Modified Shadow play]
EXHAUSTED [gradient roller method + Ragwork/reduction]
SPONTANEOUS [spontaneously placed foam pixels]
NONSENSICAL [Thread and roller work, mono printing]

final 5 (2)
BIZARRE [rectangular collage ink ooze]
AWKWARD [ single paint splatter]
SYSTEMATIC [plane collages, with red line skipping across]
ANXIOUS [squeezed paper collage.]

 

of course, all these wouldn’t be nearly as fruitful nor fun if not for my friends.

final 2

uncluttering – 5 – Geometric Collaging

“Albers is best remembered for his work as an abstract painter and theorist. He favored a very disciplined approach to composition.”

Josef Albers did a lot of his work revolving around geometric shapes, namely rectangles and squares.

Works:

The way he laid out the squares and rectangles had a certain composition and looseness to it. that i wanted to attempt to grasp.

I cut out strips of paper and laid them out on monoprint ink slabs and printed them, trying to emulate the looseness Josef Albers had in his compositions.

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initially i applied a little too much ink and the ink seeped through the pieces of rectangle paper, however the seeps led to quite an interesting composition.

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i laid out the pieces of paper and let them dry to resuse once again.
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The second time, the lines and shapes came out more cleanly, but instead the ink oozed through the cracks and formed weird wave-like shapes that eventually made it to me final ices as the feeling of BIZARRE.

Perhaps i did not manage to get the looseness and composition that Albers had in his works with my shapes, but i think through the process i gained even better works that have imperfections, and that i can call my own.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that what art is all about? finding your imperfect piece of perfect art.

Uncluttering – 4 – Reduction/Ragwork

“Koichi Yamamoto is an artist

who merges the traditional and contemporary by creating unique and innovative approaches to the language of printmaking.”

Yamamoto inspired me with his mono printing with his huge roller and his ability to create structured compositions based on just mono printing alone.

 

Works:

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His works made me delve deeper into the mono printing process and i found out that much like putting paint onto paper, we can just as easily remove it. I then experimented with his reduction techniques with a wet rag, removing paint as i cleaned or “painted” the ink slab.

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the water from the rag stayed on the ink slab, and created interesting water spreads and the monoprinting roller pushed against the slabDSCF4507
By tightening/lowering one side of the roller more than the other, i was able to achieve gradients from light to dark within the same mono print. 

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I attempted to form crashing waves as i swept the wet rag across the ink slab repeatedly. This later led on to be my TURBULENT line in my final piece.
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When things dont work out the way you want it to, it might be for the better, for instance in this case, where the water diluted the ink too much that it created blank splotches of negative space. those negative spaces, then moved on to add to the composition, and ultimately be come my AMBIGUOUS line for my final.