By using PS techniques, I duplicated different parts of the man and measured the proportion of his body.

I started the experiment of soft gel transfer by covering words with soft gel. Then, I chose the color base which I want to transfer and press the text on to the base for three minutes. After that, I removed the paper from the base and the text is there.

It is hard for me to transfer text completely. There are some failed transfer.

After transferring text with soft gel, I started to create gesso base.

I covered some area on a piece of cloth with gesso for 15 minutes. Then, I used acrylic paint to paint lip and eye. I found gesso was not completely try yet, therefore, the colors were affected by the white base.

In the end, I did some experiments by covering gesso on different surfaces. For example, air bags and sponge.

Then, I also did soft gel transfer on the gesso base. However, the text was not transferred successfully on the air bag.

These are 12 photos of my partner, Alex.

I enlarged the face of my partner on the laptop and put a piece of paper on it. I used a pen to trace the outlines of his face.

He also traced a face of me.

Then, we mixed our drawings together to make a double portrait.

When I was taking photos of my partner, I feel a bit embraced at first because I’ve never taken so many photos of someone who I was not familiar with before. Also, I felt a little uncomfortable as I don’t really like people to take pictures of me. But this is the assignment we have to do.

Firstly, we decided to take photos beside the window because it was brighter there. Then, we thought of some poses to do and took photos from different angles and distance. Twelve photos were taken very soon. As I traced my partners’ photos, I found it was much easier than taking photos of him

My partner and I drew these two pictures together. We folded the paper into three parts. When we started to draw, we could only see one part of the paper and we couldn’t see what others were drawing. After both of us finished the first part, we exchanged our paper and continued to draw the second part. Therefore, we are uncertain about what it would be like in the end. Finally, when we unfolded the paper, it was quite surprising to see the final outcome.

At first, I was thinking how can I make a creative start. I strangled with what to draw because there were so many choices. Then, I decided to draw a head of cat as cats are my favorite animals. When I was drawing, two questions appeared in my mind: what was my partner going to draw? will his drawing match mine in the end? After a while, both of us finished the final part and we unfolded the paper. At that moment, we were all amused by the final work and laughed out loud. Before doing this activity, I always considered a complete drawing should have all parts related. Now, I realized an interesting and intriguing drawing can include different unrelated parts which doesn’t really make sense. Through the exquisite corpse, I also know more about my partner. I think he is a person who interested in shoes and likes to eat seafood.

I started this project by collecting primary sources like photos of my grandma and her old building. I also took photos of the stuff she often uses and her dog. These are all a part of my memory. 

I painted the old farm house in a bright yellow tone because this part of my memory is full of warmth and joy. The grassland in front of the house is painted in vibrant green as I want this memory to stay fresh in my mind.

When I touch it, rub it, feel its smooth surface and stare at its vibrant colors, the memory of all the moment with that girl just came up to my mind. I remember our first meet. She walked to the seat beside me, asked: “Hi! I’m Vivi. What about you? ”“…Yiqian.” I murmured. I was timid and introverted on the first day of high school, especially in a completely new environment. I was feeling kind of scared. Luckily, I got the opportunity to meet Vivi and I feel like a door of my life was opened by her.

The purse I’m holding now is a birthday gift from Vivi. I quite like its color combinations of bright blue and red. The vivid colors always remind me of her, who is the most extroverted and energetic friend in my life. I still remember the moment when I received this gift from her. It was on my 17th birthday party. She packed the purse with fancy paper bag along with a cute birthday card. She said: “open it!” When I took off the wrapping, I was amazed by the loveliness of this gift. I cheered: “ I love these red soldiers! The Nutcracker is my favorite story! Thank you! ” I thank her not only because she cared about me so much but also because she’s the one who drags me out of my limited space. I’ve always admired her personal independence. She persists on doing what she consider worth to do and seldom gives up. She is such a confident and brave girl that she doesn’t afraid of being judged. I wish I could become a person like her because I cares about others’ thinking too much.

Right now, when I’m facing the same situation as four years ago, I have different feelings and reactions. It is really a big challenge for me to live and study in a brand new circumstance with a wide range of strangers. I couldn’t believe what will happen before I left China to the U.S. But here I am, standing in the classroom surrounded by new classmates. I’m with my little precious in my hands and getting an incredible feeling of intimacy, like I’m with my old friend, Vivi. Then I can’t stop thinking if she were here, what would she do. “Go and talk to your classmates, make new friends.” She’ll definitely say that. 

As I got the courage from my old friend, I took a big step towards the new classmates.

“Hey, I’m Yiqian. I’m studying illustration here, what about you guys?”

“Oh! Welcome to our group. This is …”

At this moment, I feel like Vivi helps me again to become part of the new school. Although she and I are separated by thousands of miles now, some spirits of her seem to grow inside me.

Before I entered the Brooklyn Art Library, I thought it must be a building with large space. There should be rows of books about famous artworks and art history. Anything about Art can be found in there. When I arrived at this library, I was amazed by how small this book store are. It looks like a normal coffee shop with people sitting there, reading and chatting. However, after I spent 3 hours reading the sketchbooks there, I was surprised by the amount of sketchbooks stored in this limited space. It is about thousands and thousands of sketchbooks putting on the shelves. Also, each one of them has its own trait. I found every sketchbook I read was interesting and creative. I could read different people’s thought and ideas through varies art forms. One thing I realized deeply is an artwork doesn’t have to be a perfect final work, what makes it better is the process of making it. Letting people know the procedure of making an artwork is also interesting and worth to learn. When I finished my handout, I found it quite useful as it let us think about the works we viewed. The handout forced us to think deeper about the artwork and to utilize the its idea in our own work.  I wish I could stay in the library for longer time, because I spent a long time to finish my handout. If I could stay longer, I would read more sketchbooks and record my favorite ones with photograph.