the end...

In my coursework, suggest the girl is sitting on the debris which cause by the earthquake. The waves in front represent the natural forces which could easily destroy people’s property and cause loss of human lives. The girl is been trapped by the chains, which caused the girl to remain in sorrow and sadness. As the girl’s facial features could not be seen, it says that the girl is very lost. The butterfly wings behind her symbolizes her will of breaking free from the chains, but the broken wing (due to the suffering) does not allow her to do so. As she is alone in the drawing, and she is hugging herself, it shows that she is lonely and lack of security. The little green plants hiding near her in the debris suggest that hope is actually around her, but she must first have the courage to look up in order to discover the hope.

The top part of the drawing depicts the heavenly-like place. This represents a place where many people, who lived in the suffering, would like to go to. The butterfly, which symbolizes the hope, suggests that the hope could change the life of the girl.

journey towards completion

A quite view at how I finish my coursework :)

FINISH!!!!

choice of medium

For my coursework, I have chosen charcoal and pastel as the medium.

Firstly, I choose charcoal because it is very expressive. It can create various tone of black, which add gradient of depth to the drawings. It matches with my theme as well. As the black symbolizes negative emotions, it thus represents the sadness and sorrow people suffered from disaster and lose of hope. Also, charcoal can create different textures easily as well. If we want to create a softer tone and texture, just blend the lines and shading.

Then, I choose pastel of the similar reasons. The pastels can create a similar texture as the charcoal. It is expressive as well. It is also very coulourful. The vibrant coulours can thus symbolize hope, where people longing to have a brighter and better future ahead. The pastel can also blend nicely and create an obscure setting.

I want to use charcoal and pastel to create a contrast between coloured and black and white. The coloured objects will then symbolize hope, and the black objects will represent suffering and lose of hope. By doing so, I think the viewer could understand the work easier as well.

inspiration for new life

I've get inspiration from this digital art I found online. It is called A Plant New Life by ~dj-pynguin. (source: http://dj-pynguin.deviantart.com/art/A-Plant-New-Life-2020069)

I was inspired by its contrast between green and black. This contrast make the young green plant totally stand out from the rest of the objects. I think I would like to use this idea in my coursework. But instead of putting so much emphasis on the green plant, I would like it to be more subtle so as to suggest that the new life actually happen just next to us but it is difficult to notice.

Also, I would also like to use young green plant to represent a new life, a new beginning. I think this is what some of the people actually hope for when disaster strike. They would like to start their life again and make a better tomorrow.

messages that i want to convey

After all the gathering of information, there are some main messages that I want to convey for my coursework.

Firstly, we should not give up on hope. Hope it the essential force which drive us on when we are suffered from any disasters or unfortunate events. It allows us to view the life in a optimistic way. Without hope, we will be trapped by the sorrow and sadness, thus unable to stand up again.

Secondly, hope can come in different form. Some time hope can be just next to us. But as the sadness has covered our eyes, we were not able to discover it. Thus, when times are hard, we should always believe that there is a chance where everything will turn out to be fine again.

drawing of heavenly like places

I have made two drawings of heavenly-like place. For these two drawings, I used pastel as the medium. I like the colour combination of these two drawing. The bright colour makes the two places seem like a fantasy place. Also as the pastel can be blurred easily, it helps to create a unrealistic setting. I think I should have makes the colours blend more naturally to make it seem less awkward.

drawings of human figures related to hope

This is a sketch of a boy reaching for hope. Though the boy did not wear any nice branded shirt, but he still have the faith and hope for a better tomorrow. I think i have done well for the drawing of clothes by having the various tone for the shirt. However, i think that I have not done well for drawing of the boy's face. I think the varied in tone is not enough and more details of the face should be included.

This drawing shows a guardian angel. When we have hope, we would think that everything would turn out to be fine. Thus, I draw the guardian angel, who would protect us from all the sorrow and sufferings. We could not see or feel the guardian angel, but we could believe in its existence. By having the hope that someone is out there protecting us, this could provide strength for the people to stand up again to face the difficulties. I have smoothed the line of the figures to make it more unrealistic.

This shows a depressed angel. Normally, we have the images of angel should always remained positive and pure. Thus, by drawing that angel is in suffering, it suggests that even angel could have lose the hope and believe, and been hurt by the disasters. I think I could have paid more attention to the details of the wings, the hair and the clothes of the angel.

This shows a depressed girl begging for help. The girl did not wear any nice clothes and is bare-footed. This suggest that the girl is not living in a good environment. Her face is been blocked by the hair suggest that she is lost. I’m not very satisfied with this drawing as it is done quite roughly. A lot of details have been left out.

This also shows a depressed girl. The girl is hugging tightly to herself which suggest a lack of security. The butterfly wings behind her suggest her longing to be free. The girl is not wearing anything shows that she want to return to the past and escape from the society. I like the posture of the girl. However, I think that I should have make the outline less obvious and add more tone to the drawing.

drawings of waves

Here are some drawings of waves i drawn in charcoal:)

Here are three drawing of turbulent waves. I want to draw the unrest ocean is because I think the turbulent waves symbolize the approaching danger. Also, due to the big waves, many ships could not reach their destination safely. The turbulent waves can also link to the tsunami, which are very disastrous and can destroy many properties and killed many lives.

The reason why I choose charcoal is because it is very expressive. It can depict the violent movement of the waves. I’m happy with these drawing as I’ve drawn out the turbulence of the waves. However, I think I could have add some small minor details to it as well to make the waves look more realistic and impactful.

This is a drawing of turbulent sky which I get inspire from the waves. It also symbolizes the approaching danger. However, I should have draw it with more details added and be more careful with the tones of the clouds.

drawings of butterflies

I have did some drawing of butterfly. Butterflies just like hopes, which are fragile yet can be found everywhere. I hope that butterfly would then depicts people's longing for the better tomorrow.

Firstly, I did drawings with pencils. I did various form of butterflies. However, I'm not very happy with the drawings as the tones are not properly managed. I should have also drawn with more details.

Then, I did drawings of butterflies with the use of charcoal. Here, though i have paid attention to the details, however, i should make use of charcoal's natural expressive tone to make the butterflies more expressive and less flat.

butterflies

For my coursework, I had some inspirations from butterfly!

We can see butterflies everywhere we go. There are times that we are amazed at the beauty of the butterfly, however, most of the time we just ignore it as it is just too common to us. I link this idea to my coursework theme: Hope. Just like butterfly, hope is actually everywhere around us, it’s just the matter of whether you can notice it or not.

There are some references that I get my inspiration.

In Willow Tree Angel collection, the “Angel of Freedom” shows an angel holds a butterfly in her hands. From this, I want to use butterfly as a symbol for the longing for hope and freedom in my course work.

There is a quote says “A butterfly lights beside us like a sunbeam. And for a brief moment its glory and beauty belong to our world. But them it flies on again, and though we wish it could have stayed, we feel so lucky to have seen it.”

In this painting, Jesus is holding a boy and pointing towards a butterfly. Thus, i would like to include butterfly in my coursework as an image that resembles beauty of life.

There is also a poem that I would like to share it here.

Message of Hope

A whispered wish of remembrance

Silent words of loss

A song of goodbye

An unspoken prayer for lasting peace

A message of hope

Rejoice for the spirit that has passed.

Release the sorrow and the sadness.

Rebuild a life again.

Emerging from your cocoon so gently placed

Sensing the freedom in the waiting sky

Wings open and quickly a flight

A drift in the air

Dancing with the wind

A glow in the sunlight.

The message of hope

Touching the spirit

Teaching to begin anew

Transforming the wish into hope

On the radiant wing of a butterfly.

~Kristy Dyer

Similarly, there is a saying goes,

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over

it became a butterfly!

inspiration from surreal and dark art

I have gotten inspiration from two different but very interesting mediums of art which are called as Surreal and Dark Art. These types of art are quite different from other conventional mediums of art. In these medium, artist conveys his thought and imagination in a very mysterious but somewhat fantastic or a bizarre style. As these arts are more like a fantasy, many abstract themes could be express in many possible ways. Also, in the Surreal and Dark art, I found out that there is a contrast between light v.s. dark, coloured v.s. black and white.

I would like to use this type of art style in my coursework. I would also like to adopt this surreal style to depicts my work as I think by adding in the surreal elements, it would make my artwork more impactful and different from normal photos. I would also like to explore the contrast of light v.s. dark, coloured v.s. black and white as I think it can make the artwork more impactful. Also I can make the coloured objects to have a symbolize meaning which can help to convey my message to the audience more easily.

Here are some of the Surreal and Dark Art I get my inspiration from:

Hope

Desperation

Lost fairy

Images taken from: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/20/30-beautiful-surreal-and-dark-art-pictures/

drawings of birds

This time, I have done some drawing of birds.

Birds’ presence makes the world much livelier. Same as flowers, the birds can be found everywhere – near the sea or even by the cliff. No matter how harsh the environment can be, they will always adapt to the changes and never give up. Similarly, hope allows people to keep a positive attitude towards the unpleasant things and events. Like the recent Japan earthquake, even though many people have lost their homes and face the threat of leaking nuclear power, they still try to adopt to the changes and keep a optimistic view of life

Dove is a symbol for peace, which the people always longing for in time of suffering. For this drawing I merely use charcoal to draw an outline of the dove. This is more like a logo. Maybe I should try to draw out the dove in detail instead.

These three drawing are also drawn by charcoal. However, they are drawn with more detailed. For these drawings, I must be careful of the tone and textures of the birds. I think that I have observed the different colour tone of the birds, but I should have drawn with more details of the texture of the feathers.

drawing of plants

This time round, I have made some drawings of flowers.

This is because I think flowers resemble hope. Flowers are fragile yet tenacious, just like hope. It symbolizes life, a new beginning. Its life might be short, but there are always new flower blossoms when the right time arrived.

Hopes are like flowers, it seems like they can be found everywhere are long as the environment is peaceful and calm. They are thus often been neglected by human beings. However, in tough situation, like harsh climate, we can hardly find one. Nevertheless, if we don’t give up, there is always hope. Like there is always some flowers been able to adopt to the harsh environment and bloom. Similarly, flower comes in different sizes, shapes and colours. Like hope, which can appear in different form. Thus, sometimes we might not realize hope is actually just next to us.

The following are some pencil drawings of various flowers and plants. I have take note of the different shape and tone of the flowers. However, I think I should have pay more attention to the textures of the different flowers.

After that, i did some experimentation of flowers drawn by pastle instead. This is the first time i used pastel in drawing. The pastel create a vibrant colours and it can be blend very well. Though it can be messy at time, but i like the how expressive the colours can be. However, I should still add in more details to the drawings.

drawings of candles

I have made some drawings of lighted candles.

The reasons I want to draw lighted candles is because I think the light gives off by candle can light up the dark, which makes the people, who are suffered from living, feel warmer and not so depressed. Though the flames might be small, but it can makes the people not so scare of the “dark”. It also makes the people feel less lonely in the dark as warmth the candle gives out would make the people think they are not alone in the world. The lights also allows the people in the dark to be able to see their surroundings and then discover the fact that hope is actually just next to them.

I used charcoal as the medium for these two drawings. I must take note of the gradual change of tones of the light gives off by the candle. I was happy with my drawings as I have manage the change of tones well, which really makes the candle look as if glowing in the dark.

I used pen as the medium for this drawing. Similarly to other drawings done in pen, I must take note of the small details. However for this drawing, I must also take note of the textures of the melting candle as well. The line must be neat and tidy. I think I should still work on the different size of the lines to create depth in the drawing.

drawings for religious figures

This time, I did drawings on religious figures.

This depicts Jesus comforting a new born baby. This creates a heartwarming, lovingly atmosphere which the people who live in sorrow would like to lived in. I rarely draw human figures as I found it hard to depict the expression of the people. This time, using the pencil, I must make the shadings looks more natural. Thus, I blend the shadings to make the lines seem less harsh. This also allows me to have a softer tone so as to create a more peaceful atmosphere. Also, I must take note of the proportion of the figures so that the human figures would not look distorted.

This is a pair of hands which are praying. It is draw by pen. This is the first time I used pen to draw the hands. For this, I must pay attention to the details of the hands. As compare to pencil drawings, there is no much shading to bring out the different tone of the hands, thus all the details are been enlarge. Hence, even the little small details need to be drawn out carefully. However, for the next time I can use different size of lines of the pen to suggest the depth of the objects.

drawings for disasters

I did some drawings base on the inspiration i get from the natural disasters.

I did drawings on disasters is because I want to show that people are suffered because of disasters. The disasters have taken away people’s home, family and friends. Many of their precious memory are also been buried under the debris. In just a few minutes, years of people’s work are gone, leaving behind sorrow and sadness.

Firstly, i did the drawings on the collapsed building resulted by earthquakes.

As I did the sketches for the debris after the earthquake, I need to take note of the different tone of the debris. Previously I only did pencil sketches on a single object, thus I only have to take note the tone changes of that single object. However, as this is a drawing with many objects on it, I must note down the different changes in tone between all the subjects in the drawings. Also, I must also take note of the different textures of the debris, such as some are wood while some are cement. Thus, while drawings I must add different textures to the objects so as to distinguish the different materials. By doing so, I can add different lines and dots to the objects to suggest whether the objects are smooth or rough.

Then, i did drawings on volcano eruptions.

For the drawings on volcano eruption, I used charcoal as the medium. As I rarely use charcoal in my normal drawings, it’s hard for me to control the strength of shading. Apart from must take note of different tone in the drawing as I mention earlier, this time I must pay extra attention to the gas emitted from the volcano eruption. As the gases have a totally different form, texture and shape from the normal objects that we can touch and feel, it’s very hard for me to use charcoal to depict the characteristics of gas. In order to do so, i use very soft line to draw the gases by smoothed the charcoal line. This helps to create a softer tone of the gas and thus makes it have the shapeless form.