COFA Colour Colloquium 2009

The official title is actually
"1st COFA Colour Colloquium: New Perspectives to Teaching Colour - An Interdisciplinary Approach"

It's an event I attended today, which was most stimulating and in a way mentally exhausting. But it made my head swirl with ideas and my belly fill with emotions. So I had this idea, while taking down notes, to capture the essence of the speeches by using just phrases. I mean, really, who takes detailed notes these days, and more importantly, who actually re-reads them? I noticed that many ideas can be captured with just a few words, so here is my version.

Word clouds generated by brilliant Jonathan Feinberg from Wordle




Text aggregation of phrases
colour is completely subjective
colour classification is complex
lightness and darkness seem to be more important than hue
Ginger Riley
Ewald Namatjira
colour teleports us to a particular space in our consciousness
colour takes us to dreaming space
anthropology of colour
language of colour
detox from overstimulation
stop and observe
nature is the best teacher
colour detox
icons are windows to other dimensions
expand the way we deliver knowledge in the future through holograms
reduce information input and seek focus
David Bachelor
colour understanding is in observation, especially observation of nature
seeing reproduction is a very different experience from seeing the original work
go to a museum!
artwork aura
experimenting and altering perception
effect is dependent on your level of awareness
ability to perceive
walking in silence awakens heightened perception
relationship between intuition and knowledge
student needs to find a way to serve her/his individual needs
pink is the colour of the future
all the knowledge you need is out there
buy paints with single pigment
mix your own!
desire to seek
colours don't exist in vacuum
year-long cruise is best for learning

Crow & Fox: re-discover wisdom through poetry

The Brief
Pick a children's story and illustrate it with 4 spreads, and design the book cover for it. The goal is to make the illustrations interesting for children, colourful and fun. The medium for the work is line and wash.

Illustration Outcome
I selected to illustrate a Russian fable that I memorized when I was a kid. It's called "Crow & Fox," and it explores the cunning power of flattery. Of course, I needed to translate it as well, which I did during my morning runs by trying out different lines in my head over and over again. I've also brought the fable to Aussie context, cause I am in Sydney after all, and I've used Snowgum trees as the setting.

Well, here it is, my creation.

How many times the world was told,
That flattery is cunning art,
But all in vein, and to the person's heart,
The flattery is solid gold.

One day, God sent the Crow a slice of cheese.

The Crow flew up a snowgum and picked a comfy stick.
Preparing to eat the cheese with pleasure.
But clever Fox too smelled delicious treasure.
She tracked the snowgum, and then thought up a trick.

The Fox spoke sweetly to the Crow,
"What beauty! If only you could also sing,
We would select you forest King!
Please sing for us, give us a show.

The Crow lost his head with such intoxication.
To be a King, now that's a worthy goal!
With all his might he made a loud "Caaaww..."
And cheese fell right into the Fox's teeth.

And here is the original Russian version, just for a good measure :)

ВОРОНА И ЛИСИЦА
Уж сколько раз твердили миру,
Что лесть гнусна, вредна; но только все не впрок,
И в сердце льстец всегда отыщет уголок.
Вороне где-то бог послал кусочек сыру;
На ель Ворона взгромоздясь,
Позавтракать было совсем уж собралась,
Да позадумалась, а сыр во рту держала.
На ту беду, Лиса близехонько бежала;
Вдруг сырный дух Лису остановил:
Лисица видит сыр, -
Лисицу сыр пленил,
Плутовка к дереву на цыпочках подходит;
Вертит хвостом, с Вороны глаз не сводит
И говорит так сладко, чуть дыша:
"Голубушка, как хороша!
Ну что за шейка, что за глазки!
Рассказывать, так, право, сказки!
Какие перышки! какой носок!
И, верно, ангельский быть должен голосок!
Спой, светик, не стыдись!
Что ежели, сестрица,
При красоте такой и петь ты мастерица,
Ведь ты б у нас была царь-птица!"
Вещуньина с похвал вскружилась голова,
От радости в зобу дыханье сперло, -
И на приветливы Лисицыны слова
Ворона каркнула во все воронье горло:
Сыр выпал - с ним была плутовка такова.

Semester 2: Form and Object Studio with Gail Rogers Perazzo

Painting in the style of October Revolution

The brief requested us to pick a 20th century artist and act as if we were that artist. We had to create an art piece in the style of the chosen person, and then use this artwork in a Graphic Design treatement. Part of the task was to invent the project for which the artist was commissioned. Finally, we performed a play in a group of 4 people impersonating the artist, but we won't include it here ;).

I chose to be Natalia Goncharova, a Russian avant-darde painter. I was commissioned to do a wall piece for a revolutionary society "Donkey's Tail". This was the first part of my project. For the second part I designed 4 postal stamps using the painting.

Below is the painting, acrylic on canvas, followed by the 4 stamp designs done in Photoshop CS3 and InDesign CS3.


Notice the texture on the stamps and the old-paper look. I created the "old paper" using a cotton ball dipped in coffee and smudged all around A4 piece of cartridge paper. After the paper dried I ironed it to get the ripples out and scanned it in. For the rough texture look I used the Texturizer filter in Photoshop.





Semester 1: Design Culture and Theory, taught by Annette Lodge

Atalanta and Hippomenes

Part 1: Myth Illustration

The brief asked us to pick a scene from one of the Greek Myths and create an illustration for that scene using at least 2 human figures in action poses, and employing principles of perspective.

I have selected a scene from the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes. The illustration portraits the race between Atalanta and Hipomenes, which decides whether Hipomenes lives or dies, and whether Atalanta gets to know the taste of intimacy. The viewer is positioned in front of the running figures with the road fading into the distance. I felt that this position makes the biggest impact on the viewer, and conveys the intensity and swiftness of the race.

pencil modello

When producing the illustration, my main challenges included deciding on the postures and composition, and then actually getting the figures on paper. Since my composition includes figures running forward, the drawing involved foreshortening and overlapping of masses, which seemed unnatural during sketching, but after stepping away looked realistic. It was also challenging to use the black pen, since the only mark you get from it is black or white, no grey.

Atalanta and Hippomenes illustration (black pen)

The biggest aid in producing the illustration was the use of reference photos. After creating a rough composition, I found numerous images of the items I wanted to depict. I have combined them one by one in the pencil modello, studying each portion in detail. When the time came to doing the final illustration, it was a relatively straightforward process of transferring the shapes and tone from modello to the pen illustration.

Part 2: Written assignment

Relevance Of Traditional Image Creation Techniques On Contemporary Multimedia And Graphic Design

Before an artist can fly, he or she needs to master the skill of walking. Learning the fundamental techniques of image creation is now more important than ever to the digital artists, since it allows them to apply this knowledge to the world of pixels.

The rise of modern technology had caused many young artists to explore the realms of digital image creation. Programs, such as Photoshop and Corel Painter, made it possible to produce dazzling on-screen artworks, with quickness and precision of the computer, yet with human touch of the creator. There are also many online communities, for example Deviant Art, where aspiring artists share their digital works with the world, and stand a chance at being noticed.

In order to shine among the many, these upcoming artists need to solidify their core drawing and image creations skills. They now realize that the best place to learn is from the people who have done this many times, before the computers entered the scene. All of a sudden, Andrew Loomis has become popular and necessary again, and the traditional knowledge base has mixed with the present.

Semester 1: Design Culture and Theory, taught by David Briggs

More hand-made gifts

Keeping up with the holiday spirit, I spent the last couple weeks of the year making gifts. This year I decided to make the gifts myself, so as to help the planet by not shopping, and to give something with meaning.

Here are four paintings I did using acrylic paints. They are based on Australian aboriginal Dreaming culture, with each piece representing a Dream journey.





There is also Molly, a gift for one of my very close friends.



And a little turtle Jacky.


Happy January :)!

Animusic Universe

Is this a new form of Art or is it just entertainment? You decide...

The guys at Animusic call themselves "content creation company focused exclusively on computer animation of music." When I saw their music clip on PBS, it made me stop and look again, my brain trying to comprehend what I was seeing. At first I thought it was a clever musical instrument, then I noticed all the arms and little hooks and finally the full picture emerged. I instantly thought of abstract Art and Picasso. See for yourself.

Resonant Chamber




Pipe Dream




Aqua Harp




Harmonic Voltage




Frets on fire



You can literally see the music. Every instrument can be tracked down to an animation, and as the ear hears a new sound enter the scene, the curious eye searches for the corresponding motion.

The creative world around us is transformed by the unlimited visualization power of the digital media. When does an animation become something significant enough to be called Art?

Kandinsky's Transformation

Brief
Write an essay exploring the influence of indigenous symbols on the work of modern artists.

Essay: Transformation of Artistic Style

Creation is a process. Every artist has a personal ritual that he or she partakes in, prior to beginning a new masterpiece. This preparation can be in the form of conscious research and observation, or it can be inner transformations and feelings that lead the artist to produce a certain form of expression. Many artists in their quest for inspiration draw upon the creations of those before them, the indigenous artists who worked with mediums traditional to their style of life and surroundings. The works of the indigenous artists have greatly influenced the style and flavour of many visual creators of the 20th century. These works from ancient times demonstrate masterful applications of colour, reflection of profound ideas, and viewer’s involvement and participation in the story.

The relationship between the past and the present is evident in the works of abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky, who gave birth to many captivating works during 20th century. He was highly inspired by the ancient Slavic icons abundant in churches around his beloved Moscow. It is common to associate iconic paintings with Christianity, however the idea of capturing images of significant people came long before Christian religion. This tradition originated in Egypt, where portraits of the dead were placed on the covers of the sarcophagi. At first these were in the form of three-dimensional masks made from plaster, but later they transformed into two-dimensional stylized portraits painted on wood. These funeral masks were extremely powerful in capturing attention of the onlookers by using exaggerated forms and startling colours. Richard Temple describes these creations as “a gaze that speaks directly to us from a world beyond time and the earthly plane.” (Temple 2004, p.16). The purpose was for the viewer to connect with those who were dead, and to share their human feelings of loneliness and hope.

One of techniques employed by the ancient Slavs was the use of brilliant and pure colour tones. The images were generally very large, more than 2 meters high, and they covered the entire area of the wall, drawing the viewer in. This combination of enveloping surrounding with vivid clear colours created an atmosphere of timelessness spiritual reflection and participation. While at university, Kandinsky visited the town of Vologda, where he came in close contact with decorative houses and furniture, traditional folk costumes and numerous churches. After this trip, Kandinsky entered countless Baroque churches and chapels in Bavaria seeking to feed his artistic thirst. He was deeply influenced by this experience, and later he always aimed to recreate this feeling of being in the picture through the bold use of colour in his own works. Figure 1 demonstrates the influence of the traditional Slavic icons on the use of vibrant colours in Kandinsky’s work.

Another striving of ancient Slavs, as well as of Kandinsky, was to bring the observer into the picture, make the person take part in the creation of the masterpiece. The wide-open eyes on the traditional iconic paintings grip the soul of the onlooker and make one stop to consider the questions of life and death. In the words of Kandinsky himself, his motivation was “to let the viewer stroll around within the picture, to force him to forget himself, and so to become part of the picture.” (Kandinsky, Duchting 1991, p 9). Figure 2 shows one of Kandinsky’s earlier works, which displays his arrangement of shapes and colours not as objects would be found in the natural world, but more as characteristics of our human thoughts, swirling and overlapping each other, of intangible and impermanent nature. Just as the aboriginal artists, Kandinsky wanted to express the essence beyond the visible. He felt the colours, felt the world through his mind’s eye, and he expressed his vision through increasingly more abstract style of painting.

Kandinsky’s late works demonstrate complete separation from realistic images, and full exploration of expression of the outside world using symbolic representations. Figure 3 illustrates this transition to pure abstraction. Ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphs to record the local laws, religious belief systems, and military achievements. Egyptian pictographs have become almost synonymous with the stylized representation of the surroundings and events. In one of his last works, “Composition X” (Figure 3), Kandinsky used this powerful metaphor to eliminate any doubt in the mind of the viewer of his intention of displaying abstract form.

“Every revolution has its historical causes and its inner necessity” (Anselm 1993, p3). The abstract art movement is the personification of these words. From the burial traditions of the early Egyptians, to the iconic works of ancient Slavs, to the pure abstract arrangement of shapes and colors in Kandinsky’s late works, the influence and the transformation are evident. Kandinsky is thought to be one of the first to break the ties with Realism and move into the world we now call “Modern Art.” To him, as to his colleagues from centuries ago, art was about expressing emotions and mystical inner processes, rather than portraying anatomical and biological accuracy of objects. He said so himself: “When you create a work of art, you create a world.” (Anselm 1993, p5.)

Figure 1: Influence of Colour

Figure 2: Images As Thoughts

Figure 3: Pure Abstraction

References
Anselm R., P. 1993. Kandinsky, Park Lane, London.

Duchting, H. 1991. Wassily Kandinsky, 1866 – 1944, A Revolution In Painting, Benedikt Taschen, Berlin.

Russia The Great: Where We Came From
Available: http://russia.rin.ru/guides_e/10667.html

Temple, R. 2004. Icon: Devine Beauty, Saqi Books, London.

The "left" and "right" of our brain

I was reading Betty Edwards's book today "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", and it got me thinking. It talks about how the left side of the brain and the right side are responsible for different kinds of perceptions. Left side is the logical and analytical. Right side is spacial, "in the now." Right side is the one we use when "seeing" for drawing.

Now, what if I did more things with my left hand? What if I purposefully sought out activities that develop the right side of my brain? Would my life and world perception change?

These are the questions I am pondering on, as I am motivating myself to pick up a pencil and start drawing. It's a "love and hate" relationship I have with drawing. I posses a burning desire to learn how to draw (beyond the childish doodles I produce now), and yet almost every time I am with a pencil I just want to stop. Perhaps it's the struggle of the left and the right sides of my brain... Which will I lead to victory?

This idea of the different roles of our brain was also explored by Jill Taylor in her Ted speech in February 2008. Here is the video of her presentation:



Hope it is as inspiring to you as it is to me.