Cambridge trip - corpus clock

Last year December I travelled to Cambridge alone and saw the Corpus Clock. I researched a little bit about the interesting beast on the clock and found out that it is a time eater (Choronophage in Greek). The loud and echoing 'tik-tok' sound serves to remind people the passing of time.

While being deeply fascinated, I drew this Choronophage while I was waiting for my food in a restaurant.

( I can't take a better picture without the reflections on the glass at that time of the day, so this is the best I can find :) )

Teacher's day gift cards

I drew these teacher's day cards for all of our class tutors in September. While everyone is terribly busy studying for the coming A levels in November, I tried to squeeze some of my time out to draw these cards. Two years in Junior College is faster than I thought. I have spent a very graceful time with my friends and teachers and I am very happy about it.

For all the female tutors, I chose to draw the girl KiKi in Studio Ghibli's movie "Kiki's delivery service"; for the male tutors, I drew animals and insects. Really hope that the teachers will like it :)

At the age of blooming flower

This is my first time trying to draw a picture using mainly a ball pen. It is quite hard controlling the ball pen as sometimes the ink will come out all in a second and sometimes it simply do not come out. However, it is still an interesting try as ball pen gives clear strokes that allows me to draw the details. Also, unlike ink pen, ball pen is able to show different strengths of each stroke. 

I was thinking of drawing the girl in a fun fair or theme park. After drawing the girl, I thought it will be better to leave her alone. 

I spent quite a time drawing the butterflies. In an attempt to draw it as real as I can, I found different pictures about the different motions of the butterflies. I use a mixture of colour pencil and ball pen for the dress but only ball pen for the butterflies and flower petals.

The head of the girl was drawn solely using ball pen. Only a few colours can be used from my ball pen so I tried to make the whole colour scheme of the girl a bit more purplish. The outcome is better than I expected as the purple colour gives the girl a romantic sense.

The dressing of the girl is intended to be keeping up with the latest fashion. For example, wearing heels with socks which is seem to be aesthetically unacceptable in the past turns out to be the fashion trend nowadays. Also, the use of scarf as a hairband is a popular trend within the girls.

First time making model

Trying to make a model using clay is my another attempt to explore the use of different materials. I spent three days after A levels to come out with this tiny teapot. After watching "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" as one our after A's activities with my friends, I am so inspired to make a magic teapot as the one in the movie.

Unlike the teapot in the movie which is more mature and classic, I want to make a teapot that is more vivid, brightly coloured and fairy tale liked, one that is more appealing to the children. Therefore, the purplish-pink flower petals and the sky blue berries serve to make the teapot more lively. The resting ladybird on the teapot just adds a bit more fun to the model.

The inside of the teapot I used dark blue and dotted with bright yellow to make it looks like another universe in the teapot ( just like the inside of Newt Scamander's suitcase).

The little beast in the teapot staring greedily at the red berry ( that someone might placed it there purposely to catch the beast! )

Process of making

The biggest challenge in the making of this model is that I have to race with time. When making small parts such as the ears of the beast and the leaves, the clay dry out very fast and make wrinkles and small cracks on them. I have to make the parts as fast as I can and paste it on the teapot before it gets dry. Nonetheless, it is a very interesting process making the model and trying new things always make me happy. :)

Sketches

I have done Art as a formal subject during O' Levels. The Junior College I am attempting now does not offer art as a subject, so I use my free time outside school to continue drawing. I drew tiny doodles and sketches when I am free and tried to make full drawings sometimes.

The followings are the drawings I drew based on what I like and what I want to try to do.

The small plant I kept in my room.                      Leaf ( Acrylic) (Dec 2016)

A Japanese celebrity (Aragaki Yui) that I like.   (Watercolour) (Oct 2015)
                                                                   
                                                                                   Picture taken from: NYLON JAPAN Oct 2015                                                                                                                                   http://chuansong.me/n/475555951667

Japanese temple (Dec 2016) (Watercolour)

Picture taken from: https://www.tripping.com/explore/10-japanese-architectural-masterpieces

"Friends" Monica's Appartment rough sketch (Pencil) (June 2015)

Picture taken from: http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/Monica's_Apartment

Practice drawing girl (Acrylic) (June 2015)

Acrylic

tiny doodles 4 - Cicada

Colour pencil drawing of Cicada inspiration from my secondary school Art teacher's Instagram.

tiny doodles 3 - cat

picture taken using phone

picture when scanned

tiny doodles 2 - lady and snow

 

tiny doodles 1 - girl

Last year December during my visit to United Kingdom, I went to the British library in London when it was having a "Alice in Wonderland" 150 years showcase. The showcase includes a wide range of illustrations of Alice by different artists in different times. Surprisingly, the most classical image of Alice, the girl with blue and white dress we known nowadays are not the same as what the others known during the past 150 years. The image of Alice changes as the fashion of the time changes, and alters between different artists.

Therefore, I tried to make my own version of Alice. The following is one of the image of Alice that I imagined while building a bigger picture of my own version of Alive in Wonderland ( currently under process). In this drawing, I imagine that Alice, as a teenage girl, is vivid (shown by her bright dressings), but weak (skinny), not mature but on the way to become a lady.

 picture taken using phone

picture when scanned

Fairy and the Beast

In this painting, I am trying to draw in Chinese style. By drawing simply a pine tree, a legendary beast and a fairy, I believe it is the best to illustrate the calming and, at the same time exciting atmosphere of the scenery. 

In the painting, the beast is leaping from the tree, grabbing a dead flying fish in his mouth. This part act as the active motion in the painting. In contrast, the calming atmosphere of the fairy, slowly smoking a pipe and drinking Sake, is the opposite of the tense and exciting atmosphere of the beast. A combination of dynamic and quiescent is what I want to achieve in this painting.

The mask on the beast is a modified version of the facial makeup in BeiJing Opera. The golden yellow colour symbolises Bravery, black symbolises Justice, red symbolises Loyalty and blue symbolises the unrestrained characteristic of the beast. The colour of the ribbon and the flying fish echoes with the dress of the fairy.

I used pencil to trace out the lines in the tail of the beast. With the smooth lines, I hope to illustrate the silk-like texture of the tail.

I chose to draw the Chinese pine tree to highlight the traditional Chineae culture and atmosphere in the painting.