darkness is simply the absence of light;;

credits to xuedi for the title :D koped it off her blog~

anyway I made a mini version of my final sculpture! :D But it's not big.. Probably a few cm higher than a hand? It was basically just to let me get a feel of making trees out of clay and how I would make the trunk, the branches or the leaves. It was then that I decided on making the base out of rocks to add to the earthly naturalistic effect :) Through this sculpture I also intended to experiment with how I was going to integrate the candle holder into the tree. I tried my idea of putting it on the top of the tree here! I didn't know what to do with the branches so I just improvised with the spaghetti making tool.. sort of reminds me of avatar now.. The general effect was quite nice :D Like a nest built on a tree top ^^ very.... hopeful. Unfortunately.................
..................this happened. The coils for the trunk were too weak to support the candle holder and the spaghetti were unbelievably fragile (even more so after they dried). I suppose this could have been better thought out as to how the trunk should have been thicker, or how i should have hollowed more out of the candle holder to make it lighter, or how the candle holder could have been of a different shape to minimise clay usage and weight. But oh well~ it will be remembered~~ and plus it gave me new ideas as to the composition of the final sculptures ^^

oils!

oil painting assignment in sec 3! ^^ seeing this just reminds me of the europe trip since we were doing this before and after it :D we were asked to pick an art movement and use techniques from that movement to paint something related to nanyang. i chose post-impressionism, and was inspired by georges seurat's painting style of pointillism to complete this painting ^^

If you can tell, I painted a scene that you would see if you stood at the midpoint of the 2nd floor classroom block corridor, looking out past the flags, to the admin block. i think the thing that stood out the most for me was the presence of the flags. The combination of a school flag and a national flag is like a trigger that immediately tells you its a school. Also, the first thing that has always caught my eye about ny's appearance was the light red bricks that make it. Also, this is a view from the classroom block, a view that most students will see of nanyang. I wanted to show that this scene was from a student's point of view instead of just another glamourous shot to advertise nanyang or something. Another thing I added to reinforce this point was a girl sitting on the floor, sketching. Since sketching or observational drawing usually requires some form of peacefulness, I added her in to create a sense of tranquility in the picture, and to show how she feels right at home in nanyang, as it would not have been possible to be so peaceful in uncomfortable surroundings. A human presence also seems to make the picture seem more "real", as opposed to just a shot of a building. It humanises the picture and shows that nanyang is not just a building, it is a home with living breathing people inside it.

For me, this work is important because I have never really been confident in my artistic skills and this assignment showed me that if i put my mind to it, something like an oil on canvas painting is actually possible of me. Through this painting, I realised that i really like painting, or more precisely, the tranquil feeling you get just sitting there and dabbing blots of paint on a canvas. As far as this painting is concerned I feel that I could have done a lot better with regards to the painting technique. Pointillism was supposed to be dots of pure colour placed next to each other such that the eye blends them together from afar. But i sort of mushed up the colours together instead of neatly dotting them next to each other thus not really capturing the point of pointillism.

dreams. what will we do with(out) them?

credits! this is valerie's coursework but i thought it was really cool and so i'm going to try and interpret it. (SORRY VAL IF I MISINTERPRETED SOME STUFF OR LEFT OUT SOME THINGS!)

the story starts when we're little. when we are small, and asked the question: "what are your dreams?", a thousand ideas burst into our heads. Although answers may vary with each ask of the question, we never fail to provide an answer. Practicalities or societal norms or economical problems don't plague our heads as we dream our dreams at that age. We are secure in our innocence, and peaceful in oblivion to the harsh realities of the world - as is clearly shown in the young girl's peaceful expression as she draws. This is the age where you don't think too much into things, and its okay to be different. The bright pink of her shirt shows her uniqueness and the brightness of her dreams, unclouded by fear or reality. The amount of colours in the colour pencils she securely holds show the vibrancy and diversity of her dreams. Her cup is upright, secure, and packed full of colour pencils - essentuating how secure she is at this age. The positioning of her in the smack center of the painting adds to the feeling of security in the painting. The blank paper shows her potential for dreaming. She is a blank slate, capable of being anything she wants to be. She is (for lack of a better phrase,) in her own world; a world full of bright colours, and innocent ideals, where black is black, white is white. The chair in front of the painting is carefully tailored to ensure the chair will not wobble, further emphasising her security in her world. It also has a drawer under the seat, which i feel is a nice touch because it adds to the air of innocence since little kids often have a secret compartment (like a drawer) where they stash their most precious things (or dreams). However, it is not painted; which could symbolise how incomplete her view of the world is, or the amount of life she has experienced thus far, or her state as a blank slate, her potential to dream and develop.

The cup is whole, and full.

the story continues as the girl grows up to become a teenager. we enter the stage of adolescence, a stage of maturity, a stage of growing up. this is the most unstable part of life, as we are exposed to the true face of the world with all its problems, norms and realities. as we go through this period of rapid growth and exposure, we face the struggle of finding ourselves, our insecurities, and continuing to hold on to our dreams. The girl is positioned at the side of the painting showing a rather unstable view of the painting. We see the vast difference between this picture and the previous picture, evident in the girl's expression and the colour of her shirt. In the first picture, her expression was one of peaceful security; now, she hosts a face of shock as she is faced with the world she is expected to accept and conform to. In the first picture, her shirt was a bright pink that contrasted starkly with the white background, showing her uniqueness and brightness of her world; now, the tones have cooled to blue with a white collar, as though showing how she is turning into the white background bit by bit, losing her some of her uniqueness and brightness. But the colour of her shirt is still a bright, vivid blue, showing the "bit by bit" part of growing up, instead of turning dull all of a sudden, thus giving the sense of transition into the paintings. In actual fact, the most eye-catching bit of this painting, is that everything is partial: The shirt is partially coloured (collar white), the cups are partially coloured cups, the chair in front in partially painted, and it has a partial leg, making the chair very unstable. All this serves to emphasise the girl being "neither here nor there", as she is in a stage of transition - neither a young naive girl, nor a mature adult woman. She struggles to keep hold of her dreams, and finds it very much harder than before due to the fact that she has left her sanctuary of innocence.

The cup stumbles, and falls.

this one is a bit harder to explain. so you've lived your share of life, seen lots of things, experienced lots of things - good, or bad. your dream cup is battered and cracked despite many attempts to repair it. The woman's expression is blank, her eyes staring, unfocused, into the distance as though reminiscing about her past, be it her successes, or her failures. Her shirt is now completely white, just a shade brighter than the background. The painting is rather devoid of colour, as the woman has now lost most of her innocence. Her dream cup seems to symbolise her state as of now - battered, but still able to hold some water. It seems to say that although she is not the blank slate she was years ago, she still has a chance to fulfill her dreams - if she takes the chance. Will she just abandon her cup because it leaks? Or still try to mend it and make it usable? This is further emphasized by the chair in front of the painting, which is narrow and with a low back rest. As you sit on it, you feel a sense of discomfort at the narrow seat, and if you lean back, you feel insecure immediately, not knowing if you will be supported by a back rest, or just tumble backwards to the ground. It symbolises that there is always a dream out there, even for this woman. All that is needed is a little faith, and a willingness to take the risk and try.

The cup is cracked. Not broken.

labyrinth-

"Labyrinth", (1987-8), Dede Eri Supria

I really like the amount of symbolism and meaning, as well as the significance of the message this painting conveys. The first thing that would strike people is the sheer size of the painting. At 200x250cm, this painting can dominate an entire wall, forcefully and deliberately attracting the attention of any who pass it. In addition to size, the artist has used bright colours to further enhance the eye-catching effect, as though to say "hey look here! the message i want to tell you can't wait any longer!"

Next to draw the eye would be the vast labyrinth of cardboard boxes, decorated with an array of well-known brands that we probably encounter in our everyday lives. The labyrinth stretches to the top of the painting, becoming increasingly packed and complicated as it goes up to create a sense of depth and perspective, making viewers wonder if there is even an end to this maze. The cardboard boxes seems almost sinister in this painting because of the way they are portrayed as the walls of this never-ending maze. They serve as the evidence of the rapid consumerism that has steadily increased throughout the passing years. On top of that, metal bars (not unlike those frequently seen in construction sites) weave through the cardboard boxes, strengthening their structure. The appearance of construction bars seems to draw a connection to the industrial revolution, as metal is mostly seen as an unnatural, man-made, industrial material. Viewers may also feel a twinge of unease at how familiar all the brands are to them, reminding them that they too are culprits, and the builders of this labyrinth. As if to make the picture even worse, right at the top of the painting is a cramped array of new cardboard boxes, impatiently wanting to squeeze themselves into the picture. It seems to spell the ominous question - Does the world know when to stop?

Also, this painting is almost devoid of life, except for two boys, lying in a loose fetal position, weak and helpless. The way in which they are arranged - limbs and all - practically scream out their helplessness, faced with the impossible task of getting out of this maze. As the only human figures in the painting, and in their weak state, they naturally evoke a feeling of sympathy in the viewers. In this aspect, the never-ending cardboard boxes seem even more sinister, as they are the cause of the childrens' suffering.

I think that the main point of the painting is how it portrays the relationship between poverty and industrialization. While there have been countless representations and documentaries and what not on poverty, this painting is a still a stand-out among the billions of other representations. This is primarily due to the fact that most of the other representations only show a picture of say a factory spewing smoke next to a village, or children walking barefooted to work in sweatshops etc. Only showing singular cases and examples. However, "Labyrinth" stands out due to its attempt to portray the entire situation of poverty and consumerism in its magnitude in one picture. Just using one picture to show this huge problem clearly reinforces the message and makes sure to deliver it with a huge impact. He also cleverly makes the boxes seem to carry on even off the canvas to show that this is still not the full picture.

the metamorphosis of stone.

it's fired! hurrah~ see the difference between painted and unpainted ^^ the painted one seriously look like rocks - therefore i am HAPPY. :D i haven't really touched oxides at all since the box thing in sec 1, and before that i've never ever used oxides before so using them now felt like trying to rediscover old territory ehehe. I'm really proud of this picture ^^ though the significance is actually in the memories that it bring up~ Glazing my finals gave me a totally new look on oxides since my impression of them in sec 1 was just that they were really monotonous and didn't give me many colours to play with - which is probably true if you used them on smooth pieces with not much texture.. But the oxides really impressed me with the way they just neatly flowed into all the nooks and crannies of the clay, darkening some areas and lightening in others. it's ability to be sponged off also helped greatly in adding tonal value to my sculptures :D

Below is a picture of how i turn a white, fired, irregular lump of clay (bottom left) into a rock :D adding grey oxide first (top left) gets the glaze into all the little cracks and dents in the clay while it just slops thinly over smoother surfaces, and this effect works even better if you just slop the oxide on with the brush and let it kinda roll down the sides. oxide = tonal magic<3 i originally had all my rocks look like just step 2, but i decided to try and experiment on a rock and slop some diluted red+grey oxide (top right) and the effect was so good. red+grey somehow equals a really nice rustic brown that made the rocks look more organic and natural, as though the rock had been sitting in soil for years and the colour of the earth sort of diffused into it :D but then it became a bit too dark and there was not enough contrast between the lighter and darker parts for my liking so i sponged it, letting the sponge just clean away any part of the rock it could reach, getting a nice natural highlight for the final rock (bottom right) ^^ the lighter parts of the rock became a light red cause of the oxide but its fine. it adds to the rustic feel ^^

@hope_neverends

title inspired by my mortal's twitter dn c:

Anyway this post is about how i got inspired to have my central idea as hope owo

BIRDS. <3 i love birds :D so chirpy and chipper and full of life ^^ i love watching sparrows and mynahs hop around in my garden pecking around at the ground. the same way a scenic painting of grasslands and trees or a park is never complete without some birds in the background. they just add so much liveliness to everything :D they also aptly symbolise hope, a concept i have always loved due to the pure, positive nature of it ^^
the moment i got inspired by birds, i started thinking of how to integrate them in and the first thing i thought of was a bird house :D it's relatively easy to make and it can house a candle AND has holes for the light to shine through! (fine there's only one hole but i can carve more :D) my concept for the bird house is that since "home is where the heart always is", and birds symbolise hope, the home of birds would symbolise that "where there is hope, there will your heart be, also". (partially koped from harry potter ^^)
this is a snowdrop flower (: i stumbled upon it when researching on what flowers symbolise hope, and found this - a small pure white flower with three petals and a heart shaped center. i drew this out of a picture on google where it was night time and the whiteness of the snowdrop shone in the darkness like a bright light, similar to a candle in the darkness. at first i wanted to make a snowdrop shaped candle holder, but i scrapped the idea in the end :/
and now, *drumroll* the central (ish) object in my sculptures! the candle. i drew this from a picture from google and in the picture the candle was in complete darkness so the candle was the only source of light in the entire picture. candles generally symbolise hope. people light them in sky lanterns, people light them and set them to float on rivers, people light them to illuminate their surroundings, and people light them for warmth in the cold. And where in other places, fire is a dangerous, unstoppable, life-destroying force, when lighted on a candle, it transforms into a source of light, warmth, and hope.

TREES.

A tree of life :) I really liked how knobbly everything looked. it gave the feeling that this tree is very old, wise, and all-knowing~~ plus the apple is so cute :D Anyway, this work was more of helping me explore with the texture and form of a tree, the bumps and knobbles and twists and turns. Sketching (and shading) this tree helped me better understand the natural form of a tree, and thus helped me get closer to my goal of making a realistic looking tree. ^^
This tree was more of prep for my summer tree. Although the drawing looks rather simple, it was of great significance to me, as it was after i finished it and looked at it that i realised that the best way to capture the essence of summer was to make a tree with a thick crown full of leaves. Summer is the only time trees are at their prime of leaves and this thus led to the design of my summer tree, to make the candle holder out of the crown of leaves (it being the main representational point of summer) C:

this winter tree serves the same purpose as the summer tree above, providing me with inspiration for my winter tree. The whole image of a tree like that sprouting out of snow also got me imagining a forest of leafless trees, perched on fluffy white snow, and got me thinking - what else is there in winter?
this is a composition for a sculpture i originally planned to make before the seasons idea popped into my head. I was playing around with the idea of life without hope and faced a problem of how best to depict a dead tree. I could simply make the tree leafless, with its branches dry and devoid of life, but it seemed too similar to winter trees. So I decided on fallen logs.
oh this has to be one of my favourite and most successful sketches ever :D I used an eraser (heh.) for the hanging leaves (?) to try and mimic the glowing effect and it worked quite well ^^ It's the tree of souls from avatar, and I found it fitting for my coursework as the movie depicts it as the closest thing to a tree of life. But more than its use in my coursework, this drawing is significant to me because I have never really drawn something so realistic before. It gave me confidence and showed me that I can draw well if I set my mind to it ^^