Art Gallery of New South Wales

Art Gallery of NSW had been one of the art galleries I have visited in Australia, and it was certainly one of my favourites there. On the outside, this early Greek-styled building with the names of great painters, sculptors and architects in the history lettered on the walls in bronze had already left me with an excellent impression (I love the early architectures). Upon entering, I fell in love with this art gallery even more, due to both the designs of the building, the use of gallery space, and of course, the art works. 

One thing I really liked about this gallery was that it was split into half. There were two main wings in the building, with one showcasing classical, traditional paintings and sculptures of the old masters, while the other one exhibited contemporary modern art pieces, so one can really look at how art has evolved through the ages, and it is a great place to go if you love both types of art!

Art Gallery of New South Wales

The Offering of Peace (1923)

The Lobby

A series of this type of statues were placed along the walls of the lobby

'The Classical Wing'

Don't you just love this??I could literally spend a whole day just wandering in a gallery like this

This piece reminded me of Raft of the Medusa by Gericault-- a much much calmer (and sleepy) version of that though.

Although the subject matters are definitely rocks, the brushstrokes brought movement into the work.

I love marble sculptures too!

'The Contemporary Wing'

 even the design of this wing is so different from the one above!

    I think this was kind of a native art from some tribes in Australia- I've seen it in several art museums there.

                                                Canvases do not have to be square/rectangle!
          

This is one of my favourites in the contemporary wing, I love how the artist made use of the colour of the panel for the base colour of this painting, and applying paint only where colours are needed.

Overall, this gallery walk had been a really enriching experience, the classical paintings made me learn to appreciate the old masters' works even more (I love their works!!), and several of the contemporary pieces had inspired me through their uniqueness.

Generally, I think visiting museum/galleries a great pleasure, and I love to walk through galleries with a beautiful exhibition hall (this is important too!) and great works, so I am looking forward to visiting more galleries abroad (through visiting them, I get to learn about the country and its art culture too!) and hope that Singapore will one day have our SAM as impressive as them.

Meanwhile, here's the gallery's website, do take a look if you have time:)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Still Life Drawings

 I had taken art classes since...kindergarten? It was too long ago.. Anyway, after coming to Singapore, I didn't have anymore art classes, and I really really missed them.
So in Sec 2, I begged my mum to let me join an art class to hone up my sketching skills, since I was really disappointed with the June assignment. Coincidentally, one of my mum's friends had started taking up art classes to learn Chinese painting and calligraphy, and she said that the teacher doesn't mind teacher pencil sketching too, so in the 2nd half of 2011, I joined the class under 陈老师 (Mr Tan Khim Ser).

(I didn't expect that I would be the only kid there though...><)
The class was really fun, and it was awesome talking to the adults as they would teach me a lot of things--we would exchange opinions on the works, and give each other tips..though most of the time it was them to me..and some of them were really good!~so inspired)

Here are some of the drawing from that class (my teacher always find random object lying around his house for me to draw..since he doesn't actually teach pencil drawings.)

This was the one my teacher made me do on the first lesson to see where I was, and helped to point put my main mistakes, such as the lack of contrast.

I had thought that drawing glass would.be very hard, but it was alright:)

Last pencil drawing at the class...my teacher had been convincing me to learn Chinese painting since almost when I first started class. So I finally decided that it was time to give in and start painting again!:)

Anyway, given the short period of time, I felt that I have actually improved since the start of the lessons. I was able to draw with more confidence, and one thing I've learnt from 陈老师 was that even when I'm drawing a real object, it should not be a total mindless replication, as that's what a photograph should do. A still life drawing should show both the appearance of the subject matters and be slightly expressive--it should be made alive by the pencils-such as by having lines that have varying thickness and so on. Also, a good pencil drawing should not be blended too smoothly (a good one should not be blended at all if there's no need for it!), because the shadings, the transitions between light and dark, the gradients should be smooth and controlled by itself, there should be no need to blend them.

Photography: Sunset

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining
Great Ocean Road, Australia
Dec 2012

Great Ocean Road, Australia
Dec 2012

These are two of the photos I took during my trip in Australia, when we (my parents and I) were driving along the Great Ocean Road. The sun was beginning to set, and its light could be seen shining though layers of clouds, forming a pool of light on the surface of the ocean. I was mesmorised by this scene from behind the car window. We stopped at a few lookout points along the way to take photos (even though we were kind of rushing to get to the next town on time), and one was when we had to leave the road and travel by foot to a point out by the cliff, and these two photos were taken there!

I was really glad that we had stopped to capture these fleeting moments of the beauty in nature. I had always been attracted to sunrises and sunsets, because in those short few minuets, they were always able to amaze me with how magical and unique they are everytime. One would never be able to predict how a sunset would look like, yet know that it will always be beautiful, and that is the magical thing about elements of nature.

As we continued on our way, watching the sun sink below the horizon, I felt a sense of nostalgia, but was also glad that I have captured its beauty in the camera. The sun has set, but in the short period of time where it had shone beautifully was captured, and appreciated.

School Camp Shirt Design

Graces
Ink

This is my final design for next years' Sec 4 school camp--Graces! (though I think it's not called Graces anymore):

I was inspired by a painting for a dancing girl, and I thought that she looked elegant, graceful and confident of herself, which is why I decided to incorporate her in this design. The pose of the girl in my design is very similar to that of the girl in the painting (I just simplified her into a line drawing and changed some details). However, as I felt that the solid lines of the design made it looked too heavy and solid, the lightness and liveliness of the dancing girl was missing, so I decided to add in some feathers, which was also symbolic in some ways (e.g. elegance and grace from swans, wisdom and knowledge from quils, girls with dreams from dreamcatchers and so on.)

I think perhaps I can still improve on the variation of the thickness of lines and try to make the design lighter, but overall, I thought that it was not too bad:)

2012 Class Tee Photos!

Yohooo! 2nd post today! I found the drawing I've done for last year's class tee, so I took some photos(the correction taped part started to show:( disgusting poop...ooops), anyway, enjoy!:

there's 35 A5 paper here! (and a 30 cm ruler:)

that's a 30 com ruler!

I used my dad's sports shoes for reference><

Shoot!

Fairy Tail Camera!

This was the iPod I wrote about

Mine!

He loves us better muhaha

say cheese!

No more bad dreams:)

Mini Book (Necklace)

Hey there! Recently I had came across a book that teaches how to make mini crafts such as tiny stuffed toys, and one of the mini crafts inside was a mini book! I was really happy since I've always wanted a mini book necklace. Anyway, the instructions were pretty easy and the materials were also easily acquired, and my eyes were aching from doing Maths the whole day. So I thought, why not make a mini book? Hehe.

Here's the materials I had used while making the book:

1. Office paper

2. Decorative papers (I used an old music score instead, but I had to find one where the notes are very condensed.)

3. Needle & Thread (I heard that nylon thread is easier for this since it doesn't tangle as much embroidery thread, but I couldn't really tell the difference, so I just used normal sewing thread, it worked fine too)

4. Ruler 

5. Pin/awl

6. Scrap paper

7. Card stock

8. Pencil

9. Scissors/ Pen knife

10. Glue

Optional: Metal chain, charms

Here are some photos I took during the making (they might not be very clear since they are taken with my phone):

Some of the materials

The 5 signatures I used (not sewn together yet)

The binder of the signatures and end paper after I had sewn them together, so proud of myself haha!

Done sewing!

Making the cover for the book.

Attached the cover

You should be able to read the words if you are awesome enough! (kidding>.<)

Here's the scale of it! It's 3.3 x 2.4 cm

End Product!

The end product turned out better than I expected, especially the sewing of the signatures. I had expected a lot of problems sewing at first, like tangling of threads(I hate those), sewing wrongly (this really happened, luckily I realised this at the 10 something step, there's 50+ in total), not enough thread (I had a lot left overs in the end), the thread coming out, tearing the paper when I pulled too hard.... Anyway, you get what I mean, but other than tangling the thread 2 or 3 times and accidentally missed out a few steps, I 'm good:)

So yeah, I'm really happy with this, I just need to buy some metal chains and charms to turn it into a necklace. Now I know how to make it, it's going to become great personalised birthday presents too!

Moral of the story: If you want something, try making it by yourself first! lol.