Yummy

Red platter (2009)

polymer clay

Miniature food art!!!!! 

I did this really long ago, if I'm not wrong it was in sec 2. I had stumbled upon this blogshop of a girl in malaysia who sold handmade jewelry that was made with polymer clay! After stalking her blogshop for a really long time, my fingers were really itchy to just create some of my own, so after bugging my mum for a veryyyy long time, I FINALLY GOT MY OWN SET OF POLYMER CLAY (from spotlight). The initial excitement set in and my first mini masterpiece was created!!!

The red platter serves a strawberry cupcake with a cherry on top, chocolate chip cookie which is obviously too humongous (or maybe it's the subway cookie kind hahahah), a pretzel, and a donut with white cream and... yellow puffs of... lime... cream on top? Yes hahahahah that's what my sec 2 brain came up with. It was quite a long time a ago and what I can rmbr is that it was a rather tedious process to have to roll the 'choc bits' into such tiny balls and stick them on. but honestly, fun is the word to describe this.

I'm actually quite sad that I didn't think of doing something like this for coursework, although that would've been something like xueying's coursework. WHICH REMINDS ME, I thought of doing this post cos I saw xueying's post the other day! I srsly don't know how kim burke or any other polymer clay artist makes their product look so real. JUST LOOK AT THIS:

image from google

I tried to reason out and research on why mine just looked like a kiddy plate of coloured clay instead of realistic mini food, and realised what impt factor was that I didn't have the necessary tools and COLOURS. Yes the pack of polymer clay that I bought had only 4 colours, red yellow orange white beige brown! And of course, I need more practice and time to experiment how to create textures :)

Anyway, the pack has been resting in my shelf for quite some time. I'm definitely gonna spend some time after eoys to create a whole 8-course meal okk!!!!! *excited*

Dare to Dream

Coursework 2011:

Dare to Dream

by Chermaine Wong

Medium: colour pencil

Size: 4x A3 size

[The final work consists of printed versions that have been scanned, slightly editted in photoshop for colour enhancement and background-whitening. They have yet to be printed and put up, but they will eventually backed with foam boards.]

 

Learn more about my coursework here!

Coursework prep boards

Coursework 2011

Dare to Dream

Preparatory Boards x8

Ceramics

I can't believe this was my work!!!!! okay so this was a ceramic work I did last year during the ceramics module, and I remember how excited I was to be in this module with mrs tan :) Since coming into aep, I've always wanted to work with the potter's wheel or something, and this was one of the closest encounters I've had with clay! 

The requirement of this assignment was that it had to have something to do with NATURE. So I decided to incorporate both the human aspect and plant aspect into one! I'll edit this post again when I've gotten pics of my prep...

SAY NO TO DRUGS

This was one of the first few bigger paintings that we did back in 2009. I remember doing lots of good prep for this and I'll find a time to add them in asap!

This assignment was done in view of anti-drug campaign submissions and the medium we were expected to use was water colour or poster colour paint. And just a random thought, I realise in aep we've never really been taught how to use a certain medium, for example water colour. It kinda gets integrated into the curriculum when we do assignments like this >>> this is what I didn't expect when I first entered AEP in 2008! How we picked up new art skills so subtly is actually quite fascinating!!!

Back to the painting...

I'm happy with how the sense of depth was achieved in the final work! I tried very hard to achieve this by overlapping the different pills, capsules and tablets (aka drugs), and introducing jet black background in the spaces. The work is obviously not meant to be very realistic, but sadly in the process, the face became a little too distorted. Then again this was the very first time I painted a human face, so I guess the tones rendered are considered not bad?^^ the eyebrows are too bushy though, and the thick lips make the gender of the figure a little.... ambiguous. 

What I also realised was that sometimes, things that turn out good happen my chance. For explain if you look at the syringe, the prep work I did for it was actually must better and well-blended. but for the glue, I think the final painting of it was more realistic, with a very light shadow to it. Also, some of the drugs suffered a sad fate cos I applied too much water to it, causing the paper to start to flake off. 

As for the story behind the work, I just hope to highlight that taking drugs is something that you can't back out of. The jail bars are supposed to symbolise both prison bars (which drug abuser will land themselves behind if they were to be caught), and metaphorically, a sort of entrapment --- once you start, you can't stop. The drugs were deliberately painted in a wide array of attractive colours to represent how they seem so harmless. Yet of course we all know what harm they can bring yes?

So in conclusion, the same message applies till today

SAY NO TO DRUGS EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!

Sec 3 OBS design

OBS T-shirt final design, 2010

This was a yearly assignment that we did since sec 1, for the lifeskills camp tee design! I admit that I never really put in my 100% effort into these assignments and I kinda regret now :( the lackluster ideas that I had a year ago are really quite saddening haha but I only have myself to blame!!!!

Anyway the main idea for this assignment was to explore varying lines - thickness, patterns (eg: dotted or bold). The main idea for this is that the girl who was lost, went through the maze (which I'm not sure whether the maze is solvable oops), and throughout the journey she experiences turbulence and new ventures such as rockclimbing and kayaking,... and at the end of the 5 days, finds herself!! okay, my idea is quite straightforward and kiddish, BUT SO TRUE :) OBS was a really fulfilling experience and even though my design wasn't chosen, it pretty much sums up my obs experience!

Painting Nanyang

"The (Nanyang) Green Stripe"

2010 Oil on Canvas assignment

Look around you

Got bored of doing math practices which explains the sudden spam of posts. I was thinking of what to blog about other than the 2 posts that I just did up (scroll down). So I took out the cam and started snapping things around my house that I don't usually notice. And I realised that there was actually so much to take notice of. I was quite fascinated by the "treasures" I found around my house!!! the nooks and crannies that seem so insignificant actually look really pretty when you look closely :-)

 1. I found a spider web near the window at the main door!!!! of course my first reaction was GROSSSS. but then I took a closer look, and I realised how beautiful the pattern of the web was! the web was so fine, so fragile, so delicate, and I really think the spider who spun it is a true artist. No human will ever be able to create something even close to that. Of course, I didn't destroy that fine piece of art. Maybe I'll see the artist crawling somewhere around my house later............

Doodle doodle

I love doing doodles with my trusty black-ink china pen. The tip is quite fine and the ink never seems to run out!!!! I think there's something very special about pen work, even with just squiggly imperfect outlines and lack of shading/ lack of 3D effect. I know chiawei likes to do this kind of thing too, just that her level of competency for penwork is like WOAHHHHH while mine is very b a s i c. But anyway, here are just some of the doodles I thought of sharing :) I usually doodle in my doodle-book before I start mugging, or when I get so sick of mugging and just need to release and doodle!!!

Meow

I'm not really a photography person like zhuhong, but here are a few shots I daringly tried to take of a little kitty I saw at my void deck, some time last month. I don't think it was a stray cat cos it had a collar, but the owner was no where in sight!!!! Honestly it was a really heart-pumping experience cos the cat looked like it was gonna come and pounce on me!!!! The photos are a little dark cos it was gonna rain and I'm not a pro at camera so I didn't know what settings to adjust it to :( 

Photos taken with Canon EOS 5D Mark II

It was so alert the moment it heard my footsteps

Then it started getting up on its feet and my heart was BOOOMMINGGG

Then it looked pissed off and ready to pounce

...

I ran up the stairs to safety 

HAHAHA

CCA tank top design

These are raw designs of the 2011 NYMD CCA t-shirt I envisioned a few months back.

Surprisingly, they were so well received by the CCA that all was needed to be done was digitalization, and we got it printed!!!!! The work was done with a basic black signo dx 0.38 pen and on plain A4 paper. I'm happy with how it turned out because it reflected something different from past years' CCA tees that usually made use of computer fonts. I'm also glad that this work demonstrates my understand of lines, how varying outlines (like in the front, bold lines for "driven by passion" and the back, sketchier lines for the WUdance) can make a difference. It also reflects my liking for the mandala zentangle "doodle" style, with the use of repeated shapes and lines! I'm proud to see the dancers in my CCA wear this design with pride! And that's one of the super plus points of being an art student--- the ability to contribute to my CCA.

Here's the final product!

Mandala Zentagle

The Mandala Zentagle style :) 

 I found this user awhile back and was really inspired by his videos. I used to think that people who could come up with those intricate designs really had an amazing brain!!!!!! But after watching these vids, I realised that I could probably do it too, with some creativity and open-mindedness. After much practice (actually I wouldn't call it practice, but just some mindless doodling and experimentation), it eventually became a norm for me to do things from the MZ style, like line repetition and shape repetition, with a basic black pen or marker.

Here are some of the things I eventually incorporated this 'style' into:

This was back in March when my CCA NYMD received Gold with Honours for our SYF piece!

Used a uniball signo gold pen on a plain black A5 page for this 

It really is quite easy to do but when the simplicity came together, it became something really intricate.

Another similar piece that I did with the same medium. 

This time the MZ style was incorporated more subtly as you can see, like the crescent shape in the middle and the face at the left side that seems to be shouting "2009". Things like this have become a common sight in my recent doodles and even in my event book and teachers' day/bday cards for friends :) 

Sketching kills time

Recently (around Term 1 Week 6) I embarked on a quest to do sketches of my batchmates! I've 16 of them altogether, including me. I stopped at 6 as block test 1 was upcoming at that time, but will be continuing soon! I have been doing the portraits according to photos from facebook, and each portrait is around 7cm x 5cm, all done in pencil.

Click to enlarge!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Top row from left: Goh Xinyi, Joanne Ng, Joy Wong

Bottom row from left: Hao Qing, Rachel Gan, Ellen Zeng

It was really fun to do this in my free time, and it was really funny when I shared the final products with my friends. This is really one way art binds friendship :-) This "work" is meaningful to me as the subjects are of people who are very very close to my heart. I had difficulties with drawing realistic human faces in the past, but now I realise that it can be quite simple (although some look really disastrous). But whatever the case, it was a learning process that I really enjoyed!!! Looking forward to do up the other 10!

Pinhole Camera

We had our pinhole camera experience in Sec 2 for our SIA under Mr Lim Kok Boon (it was the last thing we did with him!) My experience wasn't exactly pleasant as I just kept picking up failed totally-black film from the dark room. It was really depressing!!!! We learnt the basics about aperture and lighting etc, and I'm glad to have had zhuhong (who's rly good at photography) throughout the experience! However through this, I've realised the importance of colours. The black and white, mesmerizing as it may seem, is really quite melancholic...

Final work for SIA project: Photography - More than meets the Eye

Click to enlarge

Write-up for photograph (that was submitted):

I took the magnificent infrastructure of NYGH as I wanted to capture not just a portion of Nanyang, but the whole NYGH, where Nanyang girls spend four years of their life in. The first time I saw NYGH, I was lost for words by the perfect design of the school building. I never want to forget this second home.

I could improve on this piece with more precision, with regards to angle and time. Also, not moving the pinhole camera by accident could make the photo sharper. Through this experience, I have learnt that patience is extremely essential in photography. I definitely appreciate colours so much more.

Ancient assignment

We did this in sec 2. If I remember correctly, this assignment was to train our right brain. We were given a picture of this man and we were tasked to see LINES and not FORMS, to make a replica UPSIDE DOWN. So basically as we did the replica, we had to constantly remind ourselves that "THIS IS A LINE" instead of registering it as a strand of hair; and that "THIS IS A CIRCLE" instead of seeing it as the spectacle lens. It was quite challenging but a really interesting task that really trained my eye for detail!

(Comments: A close replica. Lines are neat and orderly, shows sensitive observation)

Oil painting

Oil paint assignment

We tried out oil painting for the first time last year, and we were to paint a flower (image provided). Oil painting has been around since the 15th Century, with the renowned painting "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci as an example. My first encounter with it so far, and I feel that oil paint on canvas is a really great medium that allows very easy blending. In other words, it's a really forgiving medium :-) I really enjoyed the experience as I was given the freedom to experiment then go over my mistakes with just another stroke of my brush. What I think helped me alot was my patient nature hahaha. Blending requires alot of patience.

Anyway, my little canvas was put up for exhibition! 

Sketches from London and Paris 2010

Since it's a holiday and I'm feeling super free, decided to take out my past sketches and stuff to scan!! Lots of memories of the 10 days in london and paris just came flooding back as I scanned the images. So thankful for the experience even now, almost a year later!!! Here are some simple stuff I did when we were on our London/Paris 2010 trip from my sketchbook. Click Read More>>!

What dance means to me

It's been such a loooong time!!! I've been very very caught up with dance lately, with syf. But I'm back!
The last aep lesson on the wednesday after my syf, Mrs Tan asked the question, "What does art mean to you?". It wasn't only directed to visual art/what we did in aep, but also other art forms like music, and for me, dance. I managed to write a whole chunk effortlessly about dance, and I filled the whole post-it up in a matter of seconds; and I think I know why.

Dance to me is the most beautiful form of expression. You don't even need a pen, nor paper, nor an eraser, nor any form of colour. You don't need an instrument, or music scores. Sometimes you don't even need music. You just need your body. You need your soul. You need your passion. So when we were given that little task, it was really easy to unleash my thoughts!!! I think that having passion for any of the arts really changes a person. Though I might not be as "on" when it comes to visual art as compared to some of my peers, we all definitely have 2 things in common: the artistic eye and undoubted passion.

So with a few clicks of the keypad, and with the help of photoshop, came up with some inspirational images of my dance memories! This has been over quite a period of time.
Photos aren't taken by me, some quotes aren't mine! Photo credit: Justin Koh and my friends :-)

The rest are at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=332359&id=722773487
Enjoy and I hope some might be of inspiration to you!

Ceramics

Since AEP in 2008, I think I have experienced 2 ceramics modules, one with Mr Lim KB in 2009 and another in 2010 with Mrs Tan. I for one am very interested in ceramics and really want to experience using the Potter's Wheel (yet to....) but something close to it would be the smaller wheel we used in 2010. 

My attempt at creating texture with key imprints in the clay. If I remember correctly, this was created using flat slabs of clay joined together with the help of slip (watery clay, works like glue). Then we oxidised it IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY (this was last last year btw), that's why it has this rusty colour. After which we left it to Mr Lim to put into the kiln for firing! I'm quite happy with my first attempt at ceramics and I really did enjoy the messy experience.

This was in 2010. We used the mini turntables this time! We learnt new skills as well ---- coiling to be precise. Though this ^ might look really simple, it wasn't!!!!!! I had to coil layer after layer and work around it to create the bar-looking parts of it. If you notice, I didn't blend in the coils very well and you can still make out the layers... But I remember spending alot of effort blending the insides (which I sadly do not have a picture of). This was not the final work though! Shall search for a picture and upload it in another post :-) GOOD NIGHT.

EOY (Drawing & Painting) 2010

Hi here's my 2nd post, and it shall be on my eoy 2010 drawing + painting! Basically there were 6 themes to choose from, and I chose "Play" (like many other people). I interpreted this theme with regards to how play changes with time. As you can see from ^ there are 3 main subjects: the PSP, playground, and tyre swing. Just go think for awhile and you will get my message!!!!!!!!! 

(If you still don't get it, literally it's about how the era of tyre swings and sandpits was overridden by the era of playgrounds which is now being won over by technology. And it's not just PSPs, now there's the iPad, iPhones, PS3 and,.,.,........................) 

Yeah and technique wise I think many things could be improved on. I'm definitely not the best painter in class esp in terms of watercolor!!! For one, the background was really gross cos I didn't know how to control the strokes and choose the colours. Just look at the clash *_* And because it was quite untidy it made the whole work look quite "piak" and flat. The sky,... didn't put much effort into it and just painted it blue. I'm quite pleased with how I did the psp, with suggestions from mrs tan with regards to dimension and the screen's gloss. 

Didn't take much pics of my prep work but will upload when I get the time to! Spent srsly alot of time on them.