Contemplation

This artwork was for the FEVA 100 x 100 exhibition held at Petersham Church to raise funds for the organisation. 100 artworks were made by 100 students across a range of disciplines where each work was sold for $100. The organisation is basically a ministry for students doing visual arts/design/creative courses across different campuses. Since I had been doing some bible study sessions to expand my spiritual knowledge I thought I might contribute and hopefully show my gratitude through this small gesture. I am really thankful to have the artwork sold during opening night ^_^ (to this day it's still a mystery on where it's currently residing!)

The artwork was inspired by 3 layers: it started with the doodles I drew during lectures (free form state of mind), the lacework of a crocheted doily I had and finally by 'mandalas' (in Sanskrit it means circle). I managed to get this done in one night (it was due the next day and I was buried in a sea of university work); it was really cleansing to do (breaking away from the heavy brain intensive workload). Initially I had directly drawn the pattern on the canvas but the ink was slow to dry thus smudging and becoming a huge mess! I ended up finishing the complete design on the canvas, scanned it, edited out the smudges, printed on cream textured paper then mounted it onto the canvas. Below is the edited version of the scanning.

While personally this artwork has a spiritual meaning, I want to leave it open for one to discover their own connection - if any (I hope). I'm really looking forward to doing more of these circled patterns :) I especially want to try something out with letterpress! That would be amazing!

Retrospect / VC Project: Symbols and Systems - Book Cover Series

The project brief was pretty simple: design a book cover series. I chose to do the science books since I wasn't bothered to go investigating into the other choice of travel novels. But I realised that even with the science range it could have benefited with further research into the distinction of each field of science. I think I got so caught up with finding a "style" that concept & communication was lacking.

At a glance it looks good as a series but when you stop to look at them there's too much going on and the rendering was certainly unrefined and underdeveloped (particularly chemistry and physics). Here I think my geology and astronomy one worked best but even so, the colour scheme is similar (so is the composition), so it would need more distinction between them. I struggled so much with chemistry and physics (funnily enough they were the sciences I did in highschool) namely because the concepts were more abstract than the rest. It probably would've been better to approach the series in a less literal manner - I certainly limited my conceptual creativity here! In terms of media here's where it really went wrong: initially I planned this to be a collage but because all image had to be our own I ended up pencil drawing most of the elements which altered the feel of the covers significantly but because time was running out I had reached a point of no return and had to go forth with it. Unfortunately I don't have my process work since I didn't manage to collect my folder in time.

Lessons Learning:

•  Thoroughly research the concept: Really understand and get to know the meat and bones of the subject
• Don't get caught up with "style": It's important to develop a visual language to communicate the subject rather than style. 
• Don't start late in the game: I only began gaining the momentum third of the way into the project which seriously hindered my progress. Mood boards really kick started me but this should have been done at the very beginning!
• Choose an appropriate medium: Not only in terms of communication but also timeframe wise - choose techniques which are appropriate to time frame. (I was so bogged down working on the renderings that it took away time to refine the composition, colour and printing)

Retrospect / Letterwork: Final Renderings

So these are the final hand rendered typographic compositions from first year typography subject "Visible Language":

Black cut paper on white.

Hand inked + coloured

In terms of rendering techniques, the cut paper technique is more successful as the edges are more sharp and smooth. The second was a killer because I had to carefully lightly mark out the letters in pencil, then carefully ink in the letters and of course filled some colour with the yellow. This caused some smudges and uneven application of yellow - so the end result looked less refine. For something like this cut paper all the way (as painstaking as it can be)!

Retrospect / VC Technology: Visible language - Letterwork

One of the very first projects we had to do for Typography was a project called "Letterwork". We were each given an A3 page with a specific font in which we had to (as far as memory serves me) identify its category and briefly analyse its features then using our page of letters to come up with a bunch of compositions using the design principle of "similarity" and "difference". Then we chose two and hand render it into a 20 cm x 20 cm final. I loved how this project was all about composition making, balance, and play - no conceptual brain squeezing yet.

Prologue

Why hello there :) I thought it would be appropriate that the first post should have a little introduction of what I'll be doing here. Now that I'm on my summer break, I decided that it was time I gathered everything on the story so far (2 years) into a 6 year journey (visual communications design + international studies) and beyond. I guess the beginning will be like a catch-up (about time too) about the things I've made, things I've learnt and general reflecting - a lot of learning and growing so far! It will be about the struggles, the downfalls, the learning,   the processes and experiences of my creative journey into the wild world of design/art/etc. I also hope to post up some valuable discoveries in the creative world and also document thoughts + adventures + happenings. While I have my tumblr to post up a texture of inspirations and things I like - I realised it's extremely saturated with posts, so much that valuable posts are drowned out making referencing back to them a killer.

I hope you'll enjoy your stay here :) Cheers!