Lee Shu Hui
Mixed Media
2012
To celebrate Nanyang's 95th birthday anniversary, we were tasked to produce some birthday cards for the school.
I thought that incorporating the school colours into my artwork would be pertinent, so here I included the school colours: blue and yellow (NY uses it in her school logo), and red and white (the colour of our hongzi uniform).
I did this work with colour pencils and poster paint. I was confident with colour pencils, as I'd spent countless hours working with them in Secondary 3 for my SIA - the kimono with the realistic pictures on one side and the abstraction on the other side, complete with Jackson Pollock-esque splatters against a black background. (It's one of the first few posts in this blog, so, to the reader- if you're interested, you can go search for it). So yes, I was quite in my element there. Although I could have improved it a lot better if I'd spent more time on it.
I first sketched out the slice of strawberry cake. Next I coloured over my pencil markings with colour pencils. I then diluted my poster paints in water to give the background that nice blue hue. However, I realised my birthday card looked too dull. I needed something more vibrant. So I turned to my poster paints, and surely enough the red of the strawberries turned out so much better. The sponginess of the cake was brought out so much more after I added some yellow ochre (by the way, prior to doing this artwork, I didn't know poster paints came in the same colour names (like Titanium White, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre) that oil paints do!).
I then did the watermark style NAN YANG 95 with diluted red poster paint. I think the font could have been improved on. The Nan Yang was written rather crudely and was rather squarish like it is on our uniform, so I think I could have had better planning and honed my calligraphy skills... Like at least practice before I did the actual thing, like what Beilin did. So yes. Learning points for the future.
I actually decorated the back of the card too, but because I suddenly had this burst of artistic passion, and started working like an Abstract Impressionist, somehow things didn't turn out quite so nice-looking. -sigh- Thankfully it got covered up because that uglier side of the card is the one being stuck to the white standup board. Some of my friends had quite a laugh out of it.
Here is my preparatory work.
HI SHUHUI :D
ReplyDeleteI think, the birthday cake looks realistic and the red strawberry makes it look much more vibrant. The blue bkacground looks great too, the brushstrokes are well-blended! The design looks simple, but the message is clearly conveyed to the viewers! Good job! :D
However, you mentioned in your write up that you wanted to use yellow and blue, the colours of our school logo, but perhaps the red colour ofthe strawberry is more outstanding, hence I didn't notice it when I first look at the work, perhaps you can add in more yellow colours somewhere? (:
I think if you can add something else, like a sketching of the nanyang campus at the back, it would be even better!
But still, this is an awesome work! Keep up the good work! (: