The 8 boards

This is the only documentation of the completion of my coursework... sadly. I actually thought of video taping the process of drawing and shading my final work, but I thought it was pointless then, but I sort of regret it now. Anyway, here are my 8 boards! Click 'ctrl  shift  = ' to enlarge the whole webpage if you need to have a closer look at the fine words on the boards. Pardon me for the poor photo quality. I'll be uploading the clearer ones when Miss Yap sends them to me, which is sadly, not anytime soon.

Featuring Preparatory boards!

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8.

Dry brush oil painting tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6QVX2BcLAE
I am trying to learn how to do dry brush oil painting. So this is how she used her brush and oil paint... (last twenty seconds of the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=UjzmBtXgOfc&NR=1

Really a good start for this atist! It's her first try at dry brush oil painting! I bet it took her a day to finish that (notice that she switched on the lights after sometime in the video). It is quite similar to pencil drawing as 1) It can be erased 2) the toning method is the same, start off with the light tones then the dark 3) no water is used AT ALL!!

Dry brush oil painting

I have acquainted myself with this form of art making while searching for pencil art tutorials/demonstrations. And I was stunned by how oil paints actually can work without water. Guess my exposure to art making techniques is uber limited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgkS2j2d82k&feature=related

Wow, this guy's insane! He is so good at his oil painting! Some day I should really try the "dry brush" technique this artist used to do this portrait. Maybe in the December holidays. I love realistic paintings/pencil/..., anything that looks realistic is sure to catch my eyeballs.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=yWgIaLjPdMs

Another great artist! Currently I am truly fascinated with dry brush oil painting! Should really try it out!!

Realistic eye (pencil)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avO4YmBN8SU&feature=related

A really good pencil artist at work here! Really wish to get to know her... I realise that my technique of drawing is similar to hers, just that she has professional materials (and I sadly lack of the tools) and also, she is more meticulous when it comes to light spots. Notice that the pupil is really realistic and the texture can almost be felt. Pencil art requires a great deal of patience to do well in it and of course, the skills are important as well. This video is to help me understand how to do realistic pencil drawings as it was my chosen medium for my coursework.

Architecture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLzVNjED2yg

A short video on how to be an architect, which I found quite useful. I am interested in architecture and thus in other words, buildings. After watching the video, I thought being an architect needs patience and sustained interest and creativity. However, currently, I am only good at copying other people's work... But well, just a reference so that I can have a better idea of my aspiration. I have included the element of buildings in my coursework, and I thought maybe buildings have a strong correlation to architecture and the job of an architect, so voila, here's the video for my personal reference.

I am also a fan of Escher

Artist: MC Escher
Title: Sky and Water
Type: Woodcut

I really love his compositions, especially this woodcut work. Escher's works were full of philosophy, like this piece, which shows the connection between the sky and water, like how the horizon of the sky meets with that of the water when we look out into the sea. Also, Escher portrayed the predator-prey relationship between the bird which exists in the sky and the fish which exists in water. Also, I like how he experimented with tesselations. He had the patience to slowly discover which portions of say a drawing of a bird he should cut and paste to form a fish. He really put in a lot of effort to succeed in tesselating.

Kudos to him!

"He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder."-- MC Escher

I am a fan of Rene Magritte

Artist: Rene Magritte
Title: Clairvoyance, 1936
Type: Oil on canvas

I think Magritte was trying to portray his perception of an egg by showing a self portrait of himself painting an egg, but actually he was painting what the egg would become. He was really highly intellectual as he could think of such a creative idea, going one step further than his fellow artists of that era, depicting mystery in its raw form. He could really draw interest of viewers as I was tempted to ask "why?" whenever I see his paintings. I think it is very important that viewers are inquisitive of one's artwork. Only that could ensure that the artist has succeeded in creating art. Art is created with a purpose and the purpose is to intrigue viewers, giving them a penny of the artist's thoughts. I hope I can be like him too.

Magritte was a great artist!

"Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist."-- Rene Magritte

Sketchbook p.1

2012


Artist: Me
Title: Untitled
Type: Pencil, pen, watercolour

I think it's a good practice and experience for me to do a sketchbook page. I have seen other people's sketchbook pages online and was really impressed. I actually tried to fill up the whole page. I penned down the ideas I had for coursework on this page.

Sketchbook p.2

2012


Artist: Me
Title: Untitled
Type: Pencil, pen

An architecture drawing I did earlier this year. Pretty satisfied with it, just that the building seems slanted. I did this in my sketchbook which I have used to record my ideas for coursework.

Raffles Hotel

2011


Artist: Me
Title: Untitled
Type: Dry point print

I did this last year and it was my first try at dry point printing. The process was tedious. First, we had to draw out our composition using cross hatching on paper (mine is in pen, which can be seen on the 1st board under the post The 8 boards in Others), then repeat the process on a plastic and then use a cork to apply a thin layer of black acrylic paint on the engraved plastic, before I could print it out on a piece of moist newspaper. The plastic survived only a few prints before it cracked.

I think this print is too dark (too much paint), and could be lighter so that the details can be seen. However, it still has some good qualities like it having a nostalgic look, like those kind of black and white pictures seen in old photos.

Acquaintance with the element Water (part 4)

2010


Artist: Me
Title: Still life with green and red apples and cherry tomatoes
Type: Poster colour
Size: A3

As I have mentioned in Part 3, I fared better in this art assignment. The green apple was quite well painted, especially when it was my first time using poster colour to paint still life. However, i think the yellow cherry tomatoes were painted too small. If only they were bigger... And only if I could move the fruits more towards the centre of the paper...

Acquaintance with the element Water (part 3)

2010


Artist: Me
Title: Leaves in the garden
Type: Poster colour
Size: A3

I think the leaves lack the realistic look as they all seem quite 2-D to me. It should be due to the lack of dark tones to contrast with the light ones. I think I fared better in the fruit painting.

Just another photo...

2010


Artist: Me
Title: Stairway
Type: Photography

This is one of the rare photography art I have done. It was for the Sec 2 AEP SIA project. It was taken when i was descending a flight of stairs on a ferry. I thought the angle and perspective was quite interesting so I just took a snap. The photo's definition is not very high, but rather, it was slightly blur, which sort of reminded me of the type of camera used in film photography.

Acquaintance with the element Water (part 2)

2010


Artist: Me
Title: Ancient's Edge
Type: Watercolour
Dimension: A3

Again, I used the colour pencil waterclour paint and a little poster colour for this artwork. I suppose it does not really have the watercolour quality as watercolour emphasises 'white areas', areas without being coloured.

Acquaintance with the element Water (part 1)

 2010


Artist: Me
Title: Secondary 2 AEP SIA (comic strip)
Type: Water colour
Dimension: A2

This was my first time doing watercolour and I must say it was pretty successful. However, I used the colour pencil type of watercolour, so it was not exactly successful because I have the skills. Anyway, I am satisfied with the end product as each cell in the comic strip was planned meticulously by myself. We were supposed to do a comic strip based on the traits of Singaporeans.  I used my own ideas to link my perception of the topic to the topic. For example, under the topic of 'Being No. 1' (first cell), I chose to depict Singaporeans queuing overnight just so to be the first to buy a popular product.

I feel that comic strips are supposed to have vibrant and vivid colours, so I tried to achieve that quality in my comic strip, which I think was pretty successful!

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Preparatory work in the lead up to the final comic strip


Nerdy character


Vain character

Some 'Peace' flag design competition

We had to participate in this competition when we were in Sec 2. The theme was Peace and we could depict anything under the sky under the given theme.

So, I had chosen to show my wish for peace between Man's technology and Mother Nature. This was the final design, which depicts a round flask containing some unidentified chemical which has the word 'peace' in it. There's a plant that sprouts from the chemical, which has some sort of a wire to support the stem. According to the caption found under the flask, the chemical was supposed to represent the 'chemistry' between nature and technology, which I think was quite innovative. The wire structure that seems to support the stem of the plant was symbolic of technology and the plant, nature. And there's the bombastic looking fumes that was evolved from the chemical, with many peace signs (the one used during the Cold War period, which again, has the chemistry element, tying in nicely with my focus).

Tribute to Piet Mondrian

Artists: Jing Lin, Xin Ge, Yi Yuan, Me
Size: A3


Zoomed in version


This was supposed to be a tribute to Piet Mondrian, but it looked like we have overdone it. What we did was to slap think blobs of paint on the paper. But before that, we pasted black tape to form some branches. We created some sort of angular shapes in the trunk, reminiscent of Mondrian's Grey Tree and Composition II, Red, Blue and Yellow. That's why we have painted the trunk specifically in primary colours. But basically, we painted the whole paper according to our feelings at that moment (which apparently weren't that good).

Hope Odessey T-shirt design

This is a T- shirt design for the overseas CIP trip to Beijing's Hope School. The course is called Hope Odyssey and aims to teach the young kids at Hope School various physical activities. As the school lacks a physical education component, we will be there to supplement their curriculum to provide the kids a more holistic education. We will be going there during the December holidays!

I have decided to use the sun as a symbol of optimism and hope, just like what we will be when we go there. Also, I have illustrated a portion of the rainbow and placed a star next to it. These are symbols of happiness and luck, which we hope to bring to the kids there. I have been to the school last year; the kids were really happy and carefree, ot just that, they were very energetic as well. Hence, I drew the strokes outside the contours of the letterings so that they look dynamic. They actually seem to be moving! Finally, we aim to bring love to the kids as well, hence I included 2 hearts at the end of 'e'!
However, I was not notified on the design selection results, so I am not sure if my design was chosen.

Hsi Chien-To Hsi Chien, from Hui Sze
Xin Ying- To Xin Ying, from Hui Sze
Ooi Shu Hui- To Shu Hui, from Hui Sze
Lee Shu Hui- To Lee Shu Hui, from Hui Sze
Pang Xin- To Pang Xin, from Hui Sze
Xin Yu- To Xin Yu, from Hui Sze