031213 Tues.
So here comes our very last assignment for Principles of Design: a group project based on colour theory (how time flies! >_<). We had chosen "Carnival" as our theme and our group, led by Jessy, formed by me, Yueh, Michelle, Assel, Pei Yan and the only boy Bryan eventually decided to go with ferris wheel. :)
This is the basic idea of our ferris wheel which contains 8 colours: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, violet and pink.
Since we would be having an exhibition for this final project, just like a real carnival, all items need to be BIG BIG BIG!! We were quite confused about the size, the height, the width of our ferris wheel at first @@ We eventually decided to make it 10 feet tall and we really hope that we could achieve it.
The height of our ferris wheel would be 10 feet and the width would be 7 feet in total. :)
We were all super excited and confident at first during the group discussion. :p However I'm afraid I have to say we were wrong, totally wrong. Building a 10 feet tall object was absolutely, NOT EASY. Our biggest challenge as well as fear was actually how to prevent it from falling. Since the year is ending the wind would be really really strong. We cannot use something too light like carboard nor something too heavy like iron. As this is an happy carnival none of us would like to see any accident happen. >_< After another brainstorming, we came out this idea:
We planned to use wood for the base, motor rim for the center and pvc for the wheel.
We bought 2 second-handed motor rims which costed us less than RM 20 for two. The diameter of one motor rim is almost 18 inches. The steel used to hold 2 motor rims together was recycled object, we took it from a factory. All the PVC were welded to the motor rim they were therefore super stable no worries ^_^ As welding need license, we found professionals to help us to do the welding part.
Although most of the materials were recycled items, we still needed to buy PVC pipe for the wheel. These are the receipts haha XD
Our leader Jessy (right) and Yueh (left) were cutting the PVC pipes. :D
This was the structure of our ferris wheel! We eventually used steel to replace wood for the base(also recycled). In order to make the pipes curved, we put them into boiled water. Since we were beginners and not that skillful, we failed quite some times and the wheel was not perfectly curved. >_<
Here comes the spraying part! We bought a pail of white paint to spray. :p
When the structure was done, it's time to do the "lanthern". We did them at Yueh's house. :)
We used cardboard to make the lantherns at first, but they looked very unstable and ugly. One day before the final presentation, we suddenly pop out this idea: change the cardboard by using mounting board. Mounting board was harder to cut compared to cardboard. But one of us cut one so we managed to finish them within one afternoon. Moreover, we added paper cutouts (which we learnt before from our previous assignment) to our lantherns. We put light bulb inside the lantherns so that the paper we cut could be shown beautifully when the lights were on. The paper cutouts were based on the theme Carnival as well, they are ferris wheel, balloons, merry-go-round, popcorn, clowns, bumper car, haunted house and roller coaster. ;)
This is the process of our ferris wheel. A round of applause to our new born baby!! :D and YEEEEESH, IT CAN TURN!! :D
The ferris wheel, and us. <3 :) (Photo credits to Danny.)
This assignment was really fun and awesome. Our teamwork was just beyond compared, what I can only say is EXCELLENT! Well done everyone, we can't do it without any of you guys. This assignment has shortened the distance between us and made us closer than ever. Thank you Ms. Lisa and my group members! For everything. :') See you all next semester! ;)
Our third assignment was playing with paper and knife: Paper Cutouts! :D
Assignment 3:
Create 2 different artworks (A4) using paper cutout and collage techniques.
It can be in any colour you wish.
1 artwork should represent balance & symmetry.
1 artwork should represent dominance, space & weight.
Dateline: 8th October 2013.
Before we started doing them, we needed to draw a mind map and brainstorm as many as ideas as possible. At first I did think of using architecture, animals, etc. but eventually I chose fairy tales as my final theme and Ms. Lisa also agreed that fairy tales do have a lot of elements for me to play with such as trees, forests, flora and fauna. She also gave me a great idea: put my artwork within a vintage frame. :)
Here comes my final works! :D
Asymmetry
The Six Swans
My inspiration was from The Six Swans, a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. The six brothers had been turned into swans by their hateful stepmother. In order to free them, their sister must make six shirts out of starwort for her brothers and neither speak nor laugh for six years. For me, the whole idea of this story can actually be summarized by three words: Waiting for you. The princess and the swans were sad but they couldn't tell, they are all waiting for the day they could reunion again.
Symmetry
Little Red Riding Hood
As for the symmetrical artwork, I chose Little Red Riding Hood as my topic. This time since I've earned some experiences already, I tried to deal with thinner lines and do a more detailed work. I only used two colours for my artwork as I wanted people to focus on the details and all those little little thingy. I was super duper touched when Ms. Lisa noticed the typography in this picture: Little Red Riding Hood :'D In fact she was the only one who noticed it :')
The objective of this assignment was actually wanted us to treat cutting knife like a pencil. I know this may sound arrogant but personally I think I really have achieved this aim and I feel so proud of my work. :) In fact, the cutting process isn't that hard as long as you have a good knife, but patience is what it counts, seriously. It takes time to produce a nice and smooth work so don't panic. :) Besides for me the sticking process is really tricky haha :p I should have bought a spraying glue, it would be much easier to stick compared to a gluestick >_<
Anyways, that's all for this assignment^_^ Another one down, still, looking forward to the next one! :D
When corridors didn't work, candies and desserts failed, I was really............really.......... lost....................until
Ms. Lisa posted some of our seniors' videos on our facebook page for us to get inspired.
STOP MOTION *blink* ya horr!! Why I never thought of making a stop motion video? O.O It would turn out really awesome if I succeeded! ;D I eventually decided to draw out all my pictures. So YESH, my final subject matter is a whiteboard marker. ^_^
In fact, I never make a video before, not to mention a stop motion animation. >_<
As this was my first time making video, I chose the installed software in my laptop that is Windows Movie Maker. Although the quality of the video was not very good, the resolution of image wasn't that high as well, it's extremely easy to use and the outcome was quite satisfied for me as a beginner. :)
I used ipad to take all the pictures. Overall I had taken more than 400 photos to make a 3-minute-long video lol. :p Well this is kind of 'Behind the Scene' haha :p
Behind the Scene
Photos that I had taken (1)
Photos that I had taken (2)
Photos that I had taken (3)
As I mentioned earlier that I missed the tutorial, I was really nervous and worried that is my subject matter out of topic..? Can it be accepted..? Will my audience like it..? Nonetheless whether others like it or not, in my opinion, the most important thing is: I myself really enjoyed doing this and I felt extremely proud of my work. :) I gained satisfaction even only a very simple and short action was created. (It took about 30 photos to write my name lol ;p)
Hello everybadeh, here comes my new born baby! :D
This time I couldn't forget what Ms. Lisa said as well: What you think is special, it is! :')
Share with you my favourite quotes:
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." --Winston Churchill
"When I fail, I try again, and again, and again." --Nick Vujicic
Basically our mission on that day was to capture at least 30 shots on any subject matter we like based on the rule of thirds. We were given 2 hours to go out from the class and take a picture on our subject matter using the 'view finder' (black frame). Honestly speaking, I really had no idea what to choose as my subject matter. I therefore ended up taking picture of corridors (which I had pretty much failed in it).
Seriously I could never forget the comment Ms. Lisa gave :'( Well actually I think the subject matter itself is quite interesting just my skill makes it looks boring. :( I felt disappointed and kind of frustrated after that day cuz I neither can think of a new subject matter nor make the old one looks any better. Few days later I went back to Pahang due to some personal reason so I missed the tutorial on the following week. After that, my friend suggested me: why don't you take pictures on candies? or sweet stuff? So.. I made another try.
At first I was quite satisfied with my masterpieces lol. HOWEVER, my friend Yueh who went to the tutorial told me that the biggest problem of these photos is: when you first look into the picture, your focus point is on other thing, but not the candies (or other desserts). Moreover, in some pictures the black frame is not straightly placed, it has totally lost its purpose as a view finder. Yeah, indeed. :(
Gosh what subject matter should I choose now?? >_<
Here comes our second assignment of Principles of Design. :D
Assignment 2:
Select a subject matter of your liking i.e. door/ window/ bottle/ cup/ bin/ shoes/ eye/ food etc.
You will need to hold/ stick your frame in every shot as your 'view finder', using it to compose/ crop your shots.
It is OK to take a photo with your hand or fingers in it.
Shoot at least 50 shots to select 30 photos and create a short movie clip using a software of your choice.
Give your work a nice title, and you may be creative and add subtitles or narration to make a story.
Be sure to add your name and ID number at the end credits.
Before this we were asked to bring a 12 by 9 inches mounting board (leaving 1/2 inch on each side) as our 'view finder'. The purpose of the 'view finder' is to help us to understand the composition of an image based on the RULE OF THIRDS.
What is rule of thirds?
The Rule of Thirds is a guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images. It works like this: imaginary lines are drawn dividing the image into thirds both vertically and horizontally. Important elements of the composition are placed where these lines intersect. For example:
[Well well in order to achieve so called FUN YET EDUCATIONAL, I shall start making my post not that SERIOUS as possible lol. :b]
This was our first OFFICIAL presentation for Principles of Design. The previous one was just an "appetizer" so that we could be more familiar to each other. :x Well seriously there is one thing that makes us design student PROUD, that is: we don't need to wear formal attire for presentation (well except for English). I know you're envy. 8D
Alright back to the topic. Among all my 5 sketches, Ms. Lisa has chosen the 4th one for me. The simple reason she gave was she could see me in that particular sketch. [Please refer to Surrealism: Sketching for further information. ;) ] To be honest, this is my favourite sketch among all as well. :)
So this is me, faking a smile, doing the work that I supposed to do, QUIETLY.
I used poster colour for most of the painting, except the curtains were made of paper. I wanted to find some pretty nice maroon-coloured fabrics but somehow I ended up using colour paper. I spent two nights colouring the background. It wasn't as easy as it looked like because of all those tiny tiny little things, such as the gears, octopus's legs and the ballerina's skirt. The whole picture was painted in high contrast in order to emphasize the strange and uncommon atmosphere in the circus: the colours of the background were extremely dull, the characters were very brightly painted instead.
The theme of this painting is "Hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil". I'm not a cute girl. I don't like to please others. But there is one thing I like about myself: my work speaks louder than words, I don't boast. This world is nonetheless too materialistic, sometimes we just can't do whatever we want. In order to survive, we mask ourselves. We cover our ears like we are deaf, cover our mouth like we can't talk, cover our eyes pretending the world is still lovely and beautiful.
Our very first assignment of Principles of Design is to:
Research on an art movement that you feel represents you the best. √
Design a self-portrait based on that particular art movement.
You must be able to understand and capture the essence of the genre selected.
The first part is done and I've blogged about it on my previous post. Well as for reason, why among all the 15 art movements given I chose Surrealism, it's simply because Surrealism is ONE OF A KIND. Unlike other art movements for instance Realism, Rococo and Renaissance Art, Surrealism is not object-fixed, it defies all LOGIC. In other words, Surrealism is INFINITE ∞ .
So here comes the second part. These are the sketches I did to represent the art movement. :)
"Grown ups are complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets." -Roald Dahl
This is a picture of a girl in her dreamland. Although I'm not a kid anymore, I miss and I really enjoy playing all the games in amusement park, especially the roller coaster. The girl's hair is lengthened to form a cliff, and the circus and roller coaster are built on the cliff. This symbolizes my hesitation and struggle as adults who like children's games are normally seen as pathetic and weird. But there's nothing wrong playing in fun fair, is there? Since life is full of reminders that can remind us of almost most of our unsolved problems which cause our mood swings often, fun fair usually reminds me of my good childhood days, it helps me to temporarily escape to my sweet past. Admit it, you just don't wanna grow up.
"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin." -Andre Berthiaume
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical MASK. We all behave fake because this is part of being human. We long to be a part of a community. We therefore modify our behaviour to conform with different social situations. Part of the deal we make with society is that in order to get the benefits of society. We act differently because certain people or situations make us have to act that way, you don't always get to do what you want to do.
"Paris is the city of love, even for birds." -Samantha Schutz
Trust me, every girl longs to go to Paris, the city of love and lights, the most romantic place on earth. Paris is indeed the perfect setting for a romantic moment because its beauty strikes you at every corner, with its elegant yet impressive architecture as well as the subtle combination of art, history and nature. This is my portrait with the background of Paris's scenery. What girl actually wants is absolutely simple: having a great time with her beloved looking at the Eiffel Tower, drinking coffee at sidewalk cafes and perhaps just walking hand in hand.
"Hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil." -Japanese proverb
Is hypocrisy the canker of our society? Unfortunately it is a yes. This picture symbolizes our hypocritical society. The background is set as the circus, an originally pure and innocent world for kids. However, instead of bringing happiness for people, the whole area is now penetrated with terror, sadness, fear, discomfort and great curiosity. A sweet-looking ballerina is cracking her whip on the poor deer. Beneath her cute exterior, she's very cruel and evil. On the other hand, the cute little bunny, trying to smile innocently but holding weapons on both hands, underneath its kindhearted manner, it's very dangerous as well. These are person who mask themselves enmity under an appearance of friendliness. The baby-faced monkey, looks extremely frightened while wirewalking on the tightrope represents young people who just stepped into the world, feeling helpless and afraid. The bird, which supposed to be a monkey as well, has fully displayed the meaning of this proverb. It closes its eyes, pretending the world is still lovely yet peaceful. And me, as a freshman, trying my best to enjoy myself in this dramatic world.
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." -Anais Nin
This is ONE portrait seen in TWO angles. What I'm trying to tell is: things are often not as they first seem, and there's almost always a different perspective. We tend to view things not as they truly are, but in the context of our own personal preconceived notions and prejudices. We look at situations and interpret what others say and do according to our own set of past experiences. The meaning we give events, the way we make sense of our world, is based on our set of core beliefs. In fact, not only this portrait, sometimes you need to look at life from a different perspective. :)
SURREALISM(1924-1945)is a 20th century style and movement in art and literature in which images and events that are not connected, are put together in a strange or impossible way, like a DREAM, to try to express what is happening deep in the mind.
The surrealist movement flourished in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which thrived before World War I (Dadaism: an early 20th century movement in art, literature, music and film which made fun of social and artistic conventions). If Dadaism produced a committed socio-critical style of painting in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, artists in France transformed the Dadaist principle of the illogical, the irrational and the random in their painting, in order to reunite the conscious and unconscious realms of experience completely. They too no longer believed in visible reality, and were in search of an all-encompassing reality, a 'super-reality' ('sur', Fr. 'over, super'). Surrealism did not remain restricted to visual art, but found literary form as an 'attitude towards reality', that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in an absolute reality, a 'SURREALITY'.
The conviction that alongside the visible world there exist repressed areas of experience which can be called forth in dream images or hallucinatory phenomena and pictorial suggestions, linked an international movement of artists - visual artists and writers - in spirit. Their outstanding painter-figures were the Spaniards Salvador Dali and Joan Miro, the German Max Ernst, the Belgian Rene Magritte, the Greek-born Italian Giorgio de Chirico and the Mexican Frida Kahlo, to name but a few. In very different ways, they explored the realms of the Surreal artistically, but they were always concerned with 'replacing the real outside world with the reality of the mind'.
Giogio de Chirico, The Great Metaphysicist, 1916. Giorgio de Chirico tried to break through the consciousness-governed thought processes with a tension-laden, irritating world of imagery, painting highly unreal pictorial situations in a realistic manner. De Chirico named his works, in which supernatural forces seem to prevail, 'pittura metafisica' - 'metaphysical painting'. The Surrealists received crucial stimulation from the enigmatic magic-realist paintings that de Chirico painted as early as the first decade of the century.
Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. For Dali, clocks, normalised instruments of measurement, represented the reality principle, while soft, 'edible' objects belonged to the pleasure principle. Dali's paintings show a connection between the perception of time and the perception of space. The clocks, flowing through space and time, prompt thoughts of the 'flow' of time, and give the impression of a time and space of memory dissolving into the distance, a zone invaded by the inexplicable, and one which unconsciously influences the experience of the present.
Rene Magritte, This is not a pipe, 1928-29. This is Magritte's famous depiction of a pipe beneath which he wrote 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe - This is not a pipe' (but only the picture of a pipe), he wanted to prompt a thought process in the viewer, at the end of which his understanding of the world would have changed. For Magritte, painting was primarily an 'art of thinking'. With his confusing pictures, the painter called the relationship between appearance and reality, between painting and depiction, into the consciousness.
Rene Magritte, The Realm of Light, 1954. Magritte questioned and shook the foundations of the order of things in his art. Dead objects have eyes, reflections disappear, nocturnal streets are spanned by bright day-time skies. The world seems to develop holes; the safety of orientation and the reliability of the familiar disappear. In many pictures Magritte achieved this effect by means of surprising combinations of objects whose materiality or scale has been transformed. Between these objects flashes a 'poetic spark', as the Surrealists put it, which means that the accidental, the sudden and absurd inspiration is invested with inexplicable meaning. A similar thing happens with Magritte's titles: they are Surrealist in that they have nothing whatsoever to do with the images. But associations sometimes help to span fleeting bridges over the emerging chasm.
References: Anna C. Krausse, The Story of Painting From The Renaissance To The Present, 2005
