The Character

The character included in coursework painting, engaged in various activities during the "travel"

Inspiration: Rene Magritte

Magritte can be said to be my favorite surrealism artist of all time. I admire how he manages to create surrealism with such subtleness, yet not compromising the level of surrealism of the painting. 

Many a times in his works, it is the mere idea and concept behind that works that is exceptional, thought provoking such that it shocks, amazes, fascinates the viewers both at first sight and upon close looking upon. I like how he creates surrealism, not fantasy. In my opinion, surrealism and fantasy are very different ideas. Fantasy can be something out of this world, but it has much less depth and meaning in comparison to surrealism. Although surrealism is commonly explained as an artist engaging with their subconscious and creating works of art. In my opinion, it is far more than that. 

One of my favorites. Unpredicted correlation

 So unexpected yet so shocking. Feels surrealistic and peaceful at the same.

Mysterious although it seems peaceful on the outside, Quietly engaging

I think that these works have gone beyond visual tricks. Visual tricks is something easily achieved nowadays, through photoshop and other mediums. Essentially, the the idea behind the work and the way in which the artist painting style blends in perfectly well with the idea.

I would say that magritte is one of the first surrealism artist i came across which truly inspired me to try creating surrealism. Although i did not indicate explicitly that magritte was a source of inspiration of my coursework, it always existed. Sometimes, we are inspired by things even without us knowing it. 

Painting Style For Coursework

I was thinking hard about the style in which i would like to execute my painting. And, I decided to first return to my purpose: What would i want COLOUR to do for my painting?

Upon thinking, i felt that i wanted colour to enhance the black and white, to bring focus to the important parts of various scenes that truly convey the essence of the scene and to mesmerize the viewer in a world of surrealism, efficient and finely executed pen strokes, with a touch of colour about. 

But yet, i do not want colour to overwhelm the painting for i would like to keep the emphasize on the pen strokes. With too much colour, i am afraid that the pen work will dull down and viewers might get too distracted by the colours to truly see beyond the scenes depicted in the painting, thinking that these scenes only exist for visual appeal.

Therefore, i have decided to do a wash, a light wash of watercolour, over certain parts, just to enhance the painting. I will try to be selective and not paint all the parts of the painting. Hopefully, this will do the job.

Catch a Glimpse

Coursework progression

Basically done with the drawing, just need some finishing touches. Next step would be the painting. Before painting, I am planning to do some trials to experiment and decide on the right colour palette and painting style.

Inspirations for Coursework Final

1: Chinese Scroll Paintings

Inspired by Chinese scroll, i was fascinated by the idea of the Chinese scroll painting opening up before the viewer, allowing the viewers' eyes to travel through the landscape to pick up the unexpected and surrealistic details. 

 

I will probably combine my five painting linked into one, with there being some sort of connection between landscapes. The size of the paintings will be small so that the viewers can view the landscape at eye level and is able to take in the painting fully, as a whole.

There will be Inclusion of a character engaged in different activities throughout the landscapes. This adds interest to this painting, almost like a story-book. And it also brings across the idea of these landscapes being perceived through my character’s eyes.

Originally, i wanted to do the final as oil on canvas, yet now i have decided to keep the pen works and opt for watercolour and pen as a medium instead as this is more practical for the small scale which i am going for. Also, i feel that the pens works and slightly stylized forms helps to add sparks to the landscapes.  

 2: 

Inspiration: London and Paris trip

The AEP London and Paris was a great source of inspiration for the subject matter of my coursework.

The travel really opened up my eyes to the wonders of the world. More significantly, beyond the land marks and magical, charismatic scenes that were attractive and endearing, it opened my eye to the possibilities of art in our everyday surroundings.

The architecture, the greenery, the people, the food. Everything had potential, and possibilities.

The peoples' great appreciation of art, acceptance towards various forms of art and astonishing enthusiasm towards art motivated me. 

In my opinion, London and Paris were cities that spoke art to me, it embodies art.

After the trip, returning to Singapore, i pondered on the prevalence of art in our country.  In the hustle and bustle of London and Paris, people seem to be appreciative of art. However, within Singapore, there seems to be no signs of such. I think it is important, no matter what sort of life we lead, busy or quiet, we need to enjoy art and feel art in our surroundings. Therefore, an idea came across me to do something related to appreciating art in our everyday lives by learning to see the possibilities to create art in our surroundings. Art is highly prevalent in some societies, less so in some.

Coursework - Composition 3 (Europe (Nature))

 This is a surrealistic composition of different elements in nature. I was intrigued by the underwater life thus i tried to combine it with the land and houses. Also, i added in certain surrealistic elements that i have been working on for a while. I would say i am not too please with the watercolour results for i used normal printing paper instead or watercolour paper and the paint just could not be blended properly when i used this type of paper.


                         Zooming into the surrealistic details

 

A mermaid on land 

 

The horse and the child. 

 

1) Feathers of swan turning into waves . 2) Birds vs. boat.  3)Night vs. Day.

  

Girl feeding mermaid with water. I thought this was a interesting yet hilarious idea since mermaids live in a environment filled with water yet the water is too salty to be suitable for drinking.

Working on Elements

Making Elements surreal. Will probably integrate some of these elements into painting~

Composition 2

Experimenting with surrealistic perspective.

Firstly, i constructed a realistic europe cityscape including various landmarks ( the lourve and effiel tower). Secondly, i cut up the landscape into small square and tried to fit them together where they seem to fit while filling up the parts that cannot be joined. Surprisingly, amongst the irrational combination of the parts, i found a shape the seemingly looks like the side profile of a woman. Thus, i worked on that i managed to integrate a figure of a flying angel in the painting, making it surrealistic.

Composition 1

 My new surrealistic composition for the Europe cityscape painting for coursework. I am not going for those extremely "fantasy" sort of surrealism, but rather, a more subtle, "dream-like" kind. What i did here was to combine element and scenes with unexpected details.

Inspiration: M.C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world's most famous graphic artists.
He played with architecture, perspective and impossible spaces. His art continues to amaze and wonder millions of people all over the world. In his work we recognize his keen observation of the world around us and the expressions of his own fantasies. M.C. Escher shows us that reality is wondrous, comprehensible and fascinating. 

Balcony 1945 Lithograph

 Waterfall 1961 Lithograph

Sitll Life and Street 1937 woodcut

Print Gallery 1956 Lithograph



















The sense of perspective in these paintings are strong and they do make the painting look ingeniously surreal. Also, there are some paintings, like "Waterfall" where you have to take a closer look to realize the paradox in the painting.  When the artist combine two contrasting yet similar objects together, they really bewilder the viewer and makes the viewer wonder whether what he is seeing is the right thing. For example, the unique combination of a table top and the streets in "Still life and Street". I also fascinated by the "pop-out" effect shown in the painting "balcony", it illustrates how we can bring elements in a painting into focus with a simple effect. Without the effect, it is impossible that anyone would be noticing the balcony amongst the many housing units. I interpret this as a "pun" on the subject, since the balcony is an extended of part the unit in reality, and the artist further emphasizes it by making it pop-out.

While I truly fascinated by these works, but I feel that they are really difficult to create, for I would not have thought of such great ideas to make a painting surreal. However, these works do expand my perspective of surrealistic art and probe me into thinking of ways in which an ordinary landscape or subject can be transformed into a magnificent surreal piece.

Coursework Prep sketches

 Have been looking at the possible elements I may integrate into my paintings.


Architecture

 Nature

People

Inspiration - Ben Heine

Thanks to Xindi for introducing me to this artist/photographer. Upon viewing his works, it really gave me a better idea on how to go about creating surrealistic art pieces, which would be an aspect of my coursework that I have long been wondering how to fulfill.

Scenic landmarks like the Eiffel tower on the left is made surrealistic simply by adding a hand that seems to be lift the Eiffel tower.

 Some kind of contrast and irony exist in this photograph, with the impossible and ridiculous sight of a rhino serous in front of a concrete building. The serious feel that the architecture exudes is largely contrasted by the cartoonist feel from the rhino serous. Also, the "glowing effect" around the building makes the photograph surrealistic. 

 I am perhaps doing a street scene for one of my coursework paintings.
 Dramatic skies can also make a painting surreal.

 This photo is surreal because of the oversize tea cup placed on the streets. I find this method of creating a surreal feel rather familiar. It reminds me of the painting below, done by Rene Magritte, and a photo taken by Rachel when we were in London last May.

Personal Values
Rene Magritte

Photograph taken by Rachel.

The dark ominous sky and dark waters add a mysterious and surrealistic feel to the photo.

Colours, Clouds and the rays of light makes the painting magical and surrealistic.