Watercolor was a medium I was very used to using as I have used it multiple times before. However, my previous ways of using this medium contrasted with the proper way of using watercolor, as before, I used this medium like acrylic and painted it using the brush. The new way our professor taught us was to wash large amounts of pigment into a pool of water, and let the water guide the colors and use the brush to its minimal. It was hard to break out of using watercolor like I did previously, but eventually I was able to use the medium to its fullest potential.
Monthly Archives: October 2017
Simple Gradation 1 & 2
For one of the images I designed for the expression: Expansive in the previous project, I decided to draw in white holes with a black surrounding. I have trypophobia which is a phobia for patterns of holes i.e. lotus root, beehive, etc, and I thought it was interesting to create a bigger gradation image with my phobia.
Complex Figure Gradation
At first, I had difficulty understanding what complex gradation was. I didn’t understand exactly why one image would be complex and the other a regular gradation. However, upon viewing and researching complex gradation images, I was able to understand the term and apply it to my work. The second difficulty I faced was creating images of figures that conveyed emotion. I first did a charcoal drawing of a figure image I got from the web which obviously did not meet the criteria or the expectation of the work I was supposed to create. Then, I decided to incorporate ballet moves I saw during our visit to the Ballet performance, as not only were they interesting in form, but they were very emotionally expressive. I also merged drawings of branches and parts of trees in black to create a more interesting and expressive complex figure images.
Gradation
Emotions & Expressions
Emotions & Expressions was the first project I was faced with when I first joined this class during the third week. I was overwhelmed by the high qualities of work produced by my peers and was pressured to be good too. I remember the professor questioning my decision in joining the class the third week into the semester and warning me that the class would be tough especially with the extra workload I had to catch up with. The class as I warned was tough. However, it is undoubtedly true that I got so much more out of this class than any other classes, and improved more than I possibly could in such a short period of time.
Some of the images created for the emotions did had to be revised to better portray the indicated emotion (marked in green and red in the second image attached).
Written Portrait of Jackson
Serin Hwang
11th October 2017
Written Portrait of Jackson
“A small boy from a small seaside village in Maine.” That was how he first described himself. Covered by shadows of his older sister, who he idolized as a kid, Jackson’s childhood revolved around his older sister. He was like a moon hidden by the shadow cast by the sun. His first attempt to draw was also inspired by his sister who he described as being “very good at drawing”. He mentioned during his interview that he was heavily influenced by the fairytale stories and comic books he read during his early childhood. And as a child, he mostly drew fantasies, fairytale characters and stories which stem off his imaginations.
Although Jackson enjoyed drawing, he never thought of pursuing his studies in art until his mom told him otherwise. During his early adolescent years, Jackson was pushed by his mom to pursue art. His mother, an artist herself, wanted her daughter (Jackson’s older sister) to become an artist. However, when she refused, she started pushing Jackson to go to an art school instead. Jackson commented “I subliminally knew I was going to do art from a very young age”. Although his path was not chosen purely for his own sake, Jackson began to gain deeper interest in art, especially in fine arts, which is reflected on his portfolio works which mainly consists of drawings and paintings. He continues to be influenced by fantasies and stories, and is inspired by beautiful scenes from movies and most importantly, he is inspired by nostalgia which can easily be seen from his works.
He now defines himself by a single word “Honesty”. Jackson says he is trying his hardest to be him; “to be authentic”. He believes his life is less driven by his older sister, but by him.
the Moon
Like earth rotating around
the Sun
Like moon covered by shadows,
I remained hidden by
the Sun.
But as time goes by
the Sun begins to fade out.
And by night,
the Moon begins to shine
Ever so brightly.
the Moon, I
am no longer hidden by
the shadows cast
Now I know
the Moon
is not covered by the shadows,
but shines in another side.