random fun with photoshop/polariod

日本

hello, don’t think many people still check out this blog since we have all submitted our works but I will update it now and then anyway with some photos most of the time (:

Here are some photos from Kyushu, Japan trip from 22nd Dec to 29th Dec 2008. This is the second time I have been to Japan and I still want to keep on going Japan! The first time was when I lived in Japan from March 1999 to April 2000. Fond childhood memories (: anyway here are some photos taken on the trip! The camera had some display problem so if you happen to see this blue line at the right hand corner of every photo please do not be surprised. ): we have gone down to Best to have the camera changed after the trip though. Enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

USA gcp

heeeheee I must say that I am a very lucky soul to be able to go to Indonesia, Europe (France, Swiss, Vaticaan, Italy) and US this year! (: and there’s the upcoming Japan trip which I am enticipating. We all just simply just love travelling don’t we?

Hello Goodbye

Here’s just one simple scrapbook to end the e-portfolio with! (:

Of course I’d still come back here and update if I do come up with any other art works in the next few years! E-portfolio must be kept alive (:

Four Oh One

I will miss my class ♥

four more days to coursework due

comments and criticism VI–lucy’s prawns

Lucy has done these prawns in charcoal, a medium which I have only used once before in my whole entire life! Don’t you think these prawns are just so cool? I especially like the shading of the prawns, it has been done in great  contrast to the background so that the prawns look 3D and realistic. The details of the prawns, such as the head region and the scales have been painstakingly drawn too by the artistic so that every single detail of the prawn has been accurately captured. Also, what I think Lucy has done relatively well is in her clean use of the paper. Although charcoal is a medium that is quite hard to manage, I feel that Lucy has done well as her artwork looks relatively clean and tidy. I also like the way in which the drawing has been composition-ed. The drawing has a diagonal line across it from the bottom left hand corner to the top right hand corner, to instill a sense of liveliness into the painting so that it does not appear too boring nor dull. The small “bumps” on the paper has also been shaded with the right tone so that it appears to be folded up at some of the parts. Great job Lucy!(:

for more of lucy’s works, please go to http://lucycrx.wordpress.com/

United Kingdom

some photos taken during the UK trip 2006-2007 (:

They are taken at places like Badminton school in Bristol, London, Bath, Cliffton, Oxford, Cardiff, stonehenge and winchester!

coursework update

here is how the butterfly will look like as the end product, the process is super painstaking because I have to first print/colour photocopy out 240 butterflies, cut them up carefully, leaving out the antena areas because they are too thin. Then, I would have to paste two butterflies together and make sure that they fit and trim down the edges to make sure that no white parts would be seen. Then I would have to laminate the butterflies one by one and then I would have to cut them up again! O: Then I would have to paste the antena back together because some of then came off due to its super thin nature. However, I guess that everything’s worth it at the end of the day when you see your end product! I have made 60 of such butterflies in total, and I would be stringing 30 in one string and hanging them from the tree when they are done! The only problem is that the tree is way too tall and I would most probabaly have to make use of a ladder to hang them up!

teachers’ day souvenir

My classmate, Yinda, the president of the AV club, is in charge of the teachers’ day souvenirs. Thus, together with a few other classmates of mine, I have decided to help yingda out with making of the gifts. Here are some photos of it. It bascially consists of a wooden bsed sprayed with black spray paint and the using a glue gun, a heart shaped metal paper holder has been fixated on top. Then we used glitter glue work on the decorations. The red and yellow combination is for the female teachers and the blue and silver combination is for the male teachers. There are 150 such souvenirs made in total, for the school teachers, deans, principals, and the support stuff if I am not wrong. Hope all teachers out there liked this and made good use of it! 😀

P.S kudos to yingda/xinyun/liqin and those who stayed back after school during their own free time to finish everything up! (:

SMP poster

Here is the poster which my teammates (Fong Jia YI and Go Shi Yu) and I did. We did it for the upcoming presentation for the science mentorship programme oral poster presentation. Not very sure if this would be counted as an art design, but anyway here it goes. We have printed it out, it’s huge by the way (:

The beauty of Music

Medium: water colour on watercolour paper

Here is a violin done in water colour on water colour paper. I made a few first hand observations of real violins from a friend before drawing this out! It is supposed to be a violin on a wooden floor. I could have improved on many details on the violin such as the bottom part and the bow which one uses to play on the strings. It has not been done to full details, something which I could definitely improve on. The shadows, especially the darker regions, seem a little rigid. Perhaps I could have used complementary colours to the violin for the shadows so that it will appear three-dimensional, and at the same time, more lively. I think musical instruments are beautiful, and I love painting still life!

Comments are most welcomed, please feel free to criticize! Thank you (:

coursework 25/08

here are my progress so far! the deadline for coursework’s been extended to 12th September, I think I will be able to finish everything by then as long as it doesn’t rain (especially not on a daily basis)

Thank goodness for the great weather today, I feel so blessed (:

photo credit: anning

PAINTING DOTS 😀

rain rain go away, come another day

here’s to my tree! will post the after photos soon!

anyway it’s already 23rd of August and coursework’s only halfway done! I did not touch the tree the whole of the last week due to the rain! please, I pray that it stops raining ):

Olympics Fever

With the Olympics going on and me cathing up on the Olympic fever I decided to do something Olympics-related! Afterall it comes only once every 4 years! By the way I totally love gluing myself to the TV and watching events like swimming/gym/synchronized swimming/diving/marathon/triathlon/badminton/table tennis! Athletes are so great! Although I am exactly that interested in athletics events I still do catch bits and pieces of it here and there! So many world records have been broken up til now, and more to go! (:

Anyway here’s what I have done. I was researching online for some nice traditional chinese 剪纸 which are related to Olympics which all came out to be 福娃, I decided, however, since its my first try at paper-cutting I　should stick to something not so complicated, so I took out some red paper, which are thinner than the normal contruction paper but thicker than the 红纸 which we use to write the 对联 on during Chinese New Year celebration, and cut this!

北京奥运2008！

aep block test term 3

2. Liu Kang, Seated Model 1953, Oil on canvas

Hendra Gunawan, Bandung as a Sea of Fire 1972, Oil on canvas, 117x 197.5cm, Collection Ir Ciputra Foundation.

(a) Describe the subject matter of these paintings.

(b) Analyse and intepret the artists’ intentions.

(c) Describe the impact the two paintings have on you.

(a) “Seated Model” by Liu Kang is a portrait of a Balinese women seated in a chair. She is half naked and only wearing a pair of long trousers which is red and green in colour. There is a white belt at her waist covering up her belly button. The seated model is the main focus of the portrait. In her right hand she is holding a small bundle of white flowers and she is resting her chin on her left arm and her left hand clutches to that of her right shoulder. The model is not directly looking at the artist and her focus of attention seems to be on something at the bottom left hand corner of the painting. Her black, shiny, glossy hair is being bundled back in a neat bun with two pins of flower, one red and one purple on it. There are also two round earrings which she has put on her ears. The portrait is depicted in a scene with the natural , external environment as its background. There is a bush of small white flowers at the left hand side of the painting just in front of a brick wall. There are also some tall tress with their leaves dangling down in front of the brick wall. There are many rectangular shapes which we can see in the painting such as the chair, the model and the brick wall. The colours used are mainly naturalistic and harmonious. The paints and forms have been carefully modeled so that no visible brushstrokes can be seen. The lines in the painting are generally sinuous and flowing, except when it comes to objects such as the brick wall. Also, this is a well balanced and unified composition.

“Bandung as a sea of fire” is a painting done by Indonesian artist Hendra Gunawan. The painting has been divided into two by the diagonal path which leads from the right bottom to the top left hand of the painting. In the background, the figures and forms are merely suggested with blocks of paints, with no clear features, Some of them are armed with guns and are running up the hill, towards the left hand side of the painting. In front of them are the villagers running desperately for their lives. There are parents carrying their children on their backs. They are all going towards the uphill direction. Behind them as the background, there are buildings which have collapsed and are on a “sea of fire”, with smokes coming out of the ruins. In the foreground of the painting we see a dying man, he is lying on his back with his face turned towards the right, facing the viewers. His eyes are expressionless, only with agony and he seems to be in great pain. Both his legs are raised up with his feet resting against the ground. Next to him on the left hand side of the painting is a woman. She is crawling on her stomach. Her attention is focused on the dying man and she is raising one of her eyebrows. The colours used are vibrant., striking and warm such as the reds and oranges , with shades of tertiary and black colours as the background. The forms are done realistically in a painterly fashion, with visible brushstrokes and no careful modeling such as the hair of the dying man. The lines used are mainly jagged. The composition is quite well balanced with both activities going on in the foreground and at the background.

(b) Liu Kang is one of Singapore’s pioneer artists. He went to Bali for a period of time together with his fellow artist to source for inspiration for new subject matters for his artwork. The painting, “the seated model” has been done in a realistic way with harmonious and naturalistic colours. It brings out the simplicity of life of the Balinese people. The sitter is also in only simple, basic clothing which is a pair of trousers. The artists is most likely trying to get across the message that the Balinese people lead a simple, pure, naïve lifestyle away from the hustle and bustle of the city. As the painting is depicted in the external environment, Liu Kang is also probably trying to express his love for nature of Bali and that Bali has nice sceneries without much industries and city-like modern development.

“Bandung as a sea of fire”, as the title suggests, depict a scene of war and chaos. Hendra Gunawan usually painted subject matters related to the independence of Indonesia. The iconography in the painting all seem to be in great agony and pain, suggesting that the country is undergoing a period of uncertainly and political turmoil. Paints are applied in a painterly fashion with visible brushstrokes, thus conveying the artist’s emotional response to the subject matter. In fact, the emotional views of the artist has been so strongly conveyed that it seems to even overwhelm the subject matter of the painting. Vibrant, bright colours like reds, oranges and browns are used to bring across the agony of the subject matter. The artist is probably trying to say that the people of Bandung lead a hard life having to escape from the clutches of wars. The use of red also adds tension to the painting. He may also be trying to convey the cruelty of wars, as seen by people dying and being engulfed by the fires and flames. There are also people trying to escape, and are running for their life.

(c) Both paintings have left a deep impression on me. However, the feelings which they have conveyed vary greatly.

“Seated Model” gives me a sense of calm and harmony, as we are being presented with the simplicity of the life of the Balinese people. The use of harmonious and naturalistic colours suggest the purity of life of the Balinese. It also brings across the simplicity o f the naive and native population.

“Bandung as a sea of fire”, on the other hand, gives me a sense of urgency and makes me scared an d afraid. The use of bright, striking colours has added a sense of tension to the painting. From it I leant that the people of Bandung are living in a state of fear and uncertainty, and that there is no harmony in the country as people are running for their lives. It impacted on me as a more powerful painting as compared to the “Seated Model”. “Bandung as a sea of fire” is more striking in its use of colours and it has left a deeper impression on me with its bold use of colours. Hendra Gunawan is an Indonesian artist who, through the use of bright and vibrant colours, try to depict the landscape of Indonesia and its people. The themes of his work are also commonly based on the struggle of independence of Indonesia. “Bandung as a sea of fire” has left a deeper impression on me as the subject matters are depicted in a more gruesome way.