Canvas painting

Shikha was born into a Hindu family in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, now she is living in New Delhi and opened her studio. She said : Being as a PhD holder in Drawing and Paintings but I don’t know why I’m an artist, but i should say art is in my blood. I like to paint, so i am an artist. I am improving myself everyday. It is an endless journey. You keep on learning if you have dedication and eagerness to learn. I believe in God and he thinks positively for me. In my view right people get right opportunities. If an artist experiments it opens varied horizons for him/her and thus the best of the work comes out. Her themes—usually treated in series—include topics as devine figurative, abstract and Banaras Ghat.

Gravity defying

Artist and designer Gerry Judah has created a gravity-defying sculpture that holds three iconic Porsche sports cars 35 meters high in the sky. The sculpture was the centerpiece at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England. Judah was commissioned by Porsche GB to create the sculpture as a celebration of 50 years of the Porsche 911. The sculpture has three futuristic white, steel arrows that race upwards, each with an example of the 911 at its apex. The models incorporated in the sculpture are: the 1963 Original 911; the 1973 911 Carrera RS 2.7; and the 2013 911. Weighing over 22 tonnes, each leg of the sculpture is a monocoque made of steel plate welded together with no internal structure. It balances on points at the base that are extremely narrow. The sculpture is finished in a clean white coating, giving it an elegant simplicity. According to Judah, he had to create a sculpture that personifies the energy and excitement not only of these beautiful cars but also the Festival of Speed. The 911 is a fantastic shape that cannot be deconstructed or embellished, so in this context, the sculpture had to provide the right platform for the car to soar up and shine in the sky. The concept was that each car is shooting into the sky, supporting one another, racing each other, captured in a perfect moment. Like the cars it displays, the sculpture is superbly engineered, lightweight and reflective of the Porsche 911 itself: simple, pure and built for the job.

Working Comfortable

Having a great job isn’t just about the salary, perks and how well you get on with your colleagues, in today’s competitive market savvy  business owners know they have to create an environment that stimulates and nurtures their workers if they want to get the best out of them and to keep them happy in their jobs.Interior design is often seen as an afterthought and an indulgence when starting a business, but creating the right atmosphere is essential and will make employees work longer hours,  work harder and be happier.

It’s all about considering the human – all too often forgotten in a work environment, where people often exist in conditions akin to a battery farm. By giving employees decent lighting – either artificial or natural, fresh air, plants around the office to absorb the negative effects of computers and stimulating colours and textures employers soon realise that the payback in loyalty & dedication is enormous.

If employers then go to the next level & provide ‘break out Areas’ where employees can relax and truly have a break, providing comfortable seating combined with good quality kitchen facilities where employees can make themselves a proper snack the rewards for both parties goes off the scale.

Childhood reimagined

One would think that the “Disney Princesses Reimagined” collections have reached the end of their run, but artists like Tim Shumate continue to prove that there is still more to be done with the iconic characters in his Disney Princesses as Tattooed Pinup Girls. In his latest series, the talented artist digitally painted a handful of our favorite princesses from the world of Disney as tattooed pinup girls. They also happen to be done in a tattoo like format for those of you that want a little piece of Disney history permanently stamped on your body. The series includes the likes of Belle, Cinderella, Pocahontas, Tiana, Tinker Bell, and a few others. This may be appealing idea for girls who grew up watching disney's shows and would like to get disney related tattoo.

Unique design for products.

The helicopter pilot style Hi-Jack helmet is dedicated to fans of customized equipment and riders who love life on the road while wishing to remain in line with the unconventional diesel style. The attractive look, the range of chromatic variations in the graphics, and the unmistakable curve at the sides develop the aeronautic design that inspires the Hi-Jack helmet even further. The helmet is completed by the concealable visors in different tints that let the helmet be adapted to the needs and style of each and every rider. Not something you get to see everyday!

After the huge success of the "Meze 88 Classics Headphones", Meze are expanding their range with several models such as these mid sized "Meze 66 Classics Headphones", a smaller version of the Meze 88 also offering a warm and natural sound thanks to their stylish ebony wood ear cups. They are a visual work of art, and as with all Meze products, the 66 Classics are beautifully finished with great attention to detail. The ear cups are hand-carved from ebony wood, and are polished and varnished to make them more durable, and boy do they look stunning. 

Compare and Contrast- furniture

This post is about the furniture designs in the 18th century. In the 18th century, furniture were designed to be visually appealing. Furniture design in that era focused on simple, logical use of natural materials. Therefore, engravings and carvings were the methods used to accentuate the design of furniture. The furniture was not deisgned to be portable and thus weighed heavily as compared to our modern day light plastic chairs. The design and development of furniture over the centuries had been steady and predictable. It was largely influenced by the availability of materials, and the changing fashions of the eras. Dark or gilded carved wood and richly patterned fabrics gave way to the glittering simplicity and geometry of polished metal. The forms of furniture evolved from visually heavy to visually light.

 

Today contemporary furniture designers and manufacturers continue to evolve design. Still seeking new materials, with which to produce unique forms, still employing simplicity and lightness of form, in preference to heavy ornament. And most of all they are still endeavoring to step beyond what has gone before to create entirely new visual experiences for us.

Pay close attention

This picture is part of a setting for a fashion boutique. On the extreme left and right, we can observed that there are one shelf of merchandises each on both sides. This placement method helps to strike a balance in this setting. The colours used on both the wall and the floor are of similar colour. When the lights are switch on, highlights and shadows are cast in a way that the tonal change is very gradual and it creates colours harmony. The most interesting part of this picture is the background, because as you can see the choice of colour used is to create a strong contrast between the merchandises and the background. This allows the merchandises to stand out. As we can see from here the setting and placement plays an important part in affecting lookers. I feel that many retailers only focus on what is wore on the mannequin instead of the arrangement of individual shelf and rack.

Iconic structure- Singapore

This iconic resting tent is probably the most recognized structure in the Singapore Botanical Garden. Many Singaporean student would had been brought to the Singapore Botanical Garden during their school's excursion. The tent is not only well known to visitors, but many couples as well. Some of us may have seen couples taking their wedding photograph at this very spot. The architectue of this resting tent reminds me of structures in Europe, complemented by the gothic feel. Indeed if by looking at only this tent with little revelation of its surrounding, it looks foreign. This probably explains why couples choose to take their wedding photographs here and also the popularity of this tent. But nowadays even this tent seems to be a thing of the past, maybe it will be forgotten one day :(

Architecture-18/19th century vs now

19th century architecture was greatly influenced by the earlier architectural movement and foreign, exotic styles. Revivals of Greek, Gothic , Renaissance designs were combined with conteporary engineering method and materials. These are the main type of architectural styles in the 19th century. The act of revival and use of historical, architectural forms or details is known as historicization. Historicization stimulate national nostalgia. Contemporary archietecture emphasize more on the function than the visual aspects of the structure. This also resulted in the simplification of form and absense of applied decorations. Some characteristic of contemporary architecture are materials 90 degrees to each other, simplicity and elimination of unnecessary details. As you can see in the pictures reference, the gothic style building has alot more details and decorations added. While in comparison to a contemporary building, a contemporary will look more simple and rectangular. There is almost no similarity between this two structure, visually. Personally I would prefer the 19th century architectural styles because of the uniqueness of the shape and form of the structure and the detailed craftmanship of the decorations. By reducing and removing the ''unnecessary details'', contemporary architecture seems to be very restricted and may not differ much from other contemporary architecture structure.    

Types of painting styles

I am going to talk about the painting aspect of fine art. There many different styles of painting, some include realism, expressionism, pop art and abstract. I will be going into on realism , expressionism and abstract painting styles. Expressionism is a type of artform where the artist tries to covey his feeling through the painting. Edvard Munch is one of the pioneers in expressionism painting. Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is best known for his image of anxiety, isolation, rejection and other negative emotions which reflected his tragic life. Edvard Munch's most famous painting is known as ''The Scream''(1893), which he painted serveral versions. The paintings show an agonized figure against a tumultuous orange sky. Realism in painting means to exclude artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. In another words, to represent subject matter truthfully. In the 20th century different genres of realism emerged, one of which is known as hyperrealism. Hyperrealism is a term to describe the extreme form of realistic paintings. Gottfried Helnwein is well know for his hyper-realistic painting of human portraits. Although realism avoids the use of artistic conventions or supernatuural elements, it could also be expressive for portrait painting. Abstract painting, a total opposite style of panting from realism. Abstract paintings are painted without a recognisable subject. Similar to expressionism painting, there is abstract expressionism which is to paint something that are not visual such as sound, emotions and spiritual experience. Pablo Picasso is one of the founder of modern abstract art. His works are also expressive to a certain extent as well. A learning point is that all painting can be expressive, its not only expressionism is expressive. Ultimately it depends on your execution and art is not about your skill but your content.

Local Talent

Ivan Hoo,a local artist who lives and breathes art.Ivan has been constantly drawing since at young age.As an artist,his style focusing more on Photo-realism , portraiture and figurative drawings with dry mediums such as charcoal,graphite,pastel,pencil in his artwork.
Among his achievement ,Ivan had his first exhibition at the 50 x 50 Square Invasion Painting Show 2011 and sold one of the painting.The show which is held at the Intinc Artspace Singapore is a collaboration with other local and international Artists.Today,he has taught Drawings And Paintings at Art Speaks Studio a local art space located in Singapore.
Although some may argued that photorealism are not art because it is basically copying what you see, but it is no doubt that in the 21st century art revolves around mainly realism.

a true master of irezumi- Master Horiyoshi the third

At Horiyoshi's studio in Yokohama, Japan, tattoos are outlined freehand using an electric needle. He did the outlining by hand until the late 1990s. His friendship with Don Ed Hardy, started in the mid-1980s, lead to Horiyoshi's adoption of electric machines.Shading and color is added using the traditional tebori, or Japanese hand tattooing, technique. He restricts his motifs to the classical repertoire of the vast variety of traditional Japanese stories and designs: peonies, koi, dragons, tenyo (she-angels), etc. Horiyoshi feels responsible for keeping the classic repertoire alive, "one prick at a time."
Horiyoshi III's work can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and may require weekly hour-long visits over the course of several years to complete. His work is now limited to finishing existing clients' tattoos. According to Horiyoshi, he was inspired by a Yakuza (Japanese gangster) with a full-body tattoo in a public bathhouse when he was a young boy, "about eleven or twelve.

Game Design

Game design refers to the central theme or point, as well as the story and plot and the characters' back-stories. In smaller games and in games in which there are no significant characters or plot (for example, in a racing game), game design refers to how one plays the game. What are the rules? How is the game scored? How does the level of difficulty change with play? What makes the game fun or challenging? Many would have thought that if they like to play game, they will be a good designer. WRONG! A good game designer usually has unbridled enthusiasm for new ideas, which she will stand behind no matter who bats them down. Unlike producers, who must be highly practical and willing to negotiate at every turn, a game designer needs an ounce or two of what some would call tenacity and other would call stubbornness. Designing games is one of those jobs where it actually helps to have a little bit of an ego, as a big part of it is convincing others that your ideas are spot on. Different designers are responsible for different part of the game, from game dialogue to character design.

Hyperrealism

Diego Fazio, a 22-year-old artist in Italy who also goes by DiegoKoi online, is known for his “precise lines and Oriental techniques,” according to his DeviantArt page. But just how precise and technical his work can be is best exemplified by how realistic his drawings appear.

















One might be tempted to argue and say the above image is photograph, but Fazio created it entirely with pencil. Here’s the piece, which would be considered photorealistic, while still in the works.


According to DeviantArt, Diego was first a tattoo artist but eventually left to focus on drawing bodies. Instead of drawing on them, the artist uses hundreds of shades to create contrast and reproduce photo/hyper realistic work.

Furniture design

. South African designer Nic Kruger is turning flotsam and jetsam into tables and chairs. Years ago, he stumbled upon a wrecked boat, named the Kunene, and fell in love with the patinas of her siding. The moment provided the inspiration for his company, Shipwreck Furniture, which now produces one-of-a-kind furniture pieces out of wood scavenged from old boats. Whether a bench or a table or chair, each piece tells a story about an adventure at sea, and is truly unique.

Not only this is environment friendly, it also fits in almost all kind of interior setting. But even the story behind its origin is unique, I do not think that it will attract many buyers. Firstly, because it looks really simple and common. Secondly, there are too much competitions especially from designers who use other materials

Canvas and Mediums

Give a child a marker and he/she will start drawing on themselves. Skin is probably everyone's first canvas. As a person who loves drawing a lot, I have been working with different canvas and mediums. When you have experienced with almost all kind of mediums, you filter out the ones you like best and work with it. But after a while you get bored, so its time for you to be creative to create your own medium. Painting with blood and coffee has been done by many artists, but not many did their painting with such strong connection than Vincent Castiglia. He is internationally acclaimed for his figurative paintings with metaphysical and often nightmarish subject matters. Castiglia paints exclusively in human blood (iron oxide) on paper. Castiglia's paintings are monochromatic tableaux examining life, death, and the human condition. Dominant work themes include the symbiosis of birth and death, the transience of man, and the pitfalls of mortality. But now he is getting into tattooing, ultimately when you have tried all canvas you will want to try skin.

Print Making

Today I want to talk about print making because I am still considering whether to opt for print making or western painting as my major. Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. The first print maker that I actually know of his work was Hokusai. ''The Great Wave Off Kanagawa'' is an internationally recognized woodblock print by Japanese painter/printmaker; Hokusai. Between the 17th-20th centuries, a genre of Japanese woodblock prints/paintings produced featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre and pleasure quarters was known as ukiyo-e. In my opinion printmaking is more interesting as compared to western painting, but painting is less tedious and more flexible than making prints.

Design- Making food looks appetizing

We humans tend to register our first impression on something based on its appearance. From choosing a partner to clothing to food. Have you ever order something to eat and then ended up saying it looks nicer than it taste? Knowing the human psychology to relate appearance to everything, the food industry takes advantage of this to make food with flawless finishing. Ranging from adding garnish to altering the appearance of the food, undoubtedly food design has proved to be lucrative for the food industry.


Cakes, especially wedding cakes have been relying on its design more than the taste to attract buyers. Personally I believe that the taste of the food should always be the first priority, just like a building with good foundation rather than appearance

Guitar Design

For most boys in their teenage years we all wanted to learn that one instrument, the guitar. Be it acoustic or electric guitar, we just want to know guitar. WHY? Because it translates as being ''cool'' or simply ''getting girls''.  I remembered when I was about to purchase my first guitar, I thought to myself  that I only wanted something that looks ''fierce''. I believe it is the same for most of us, we only want something that looks nice. When it comes to guitar design we look at the body, the neck and so much more. Some body shapes are more suitable for a particular type of music while some are not. The body shape also determines the centre of gravity which affects your mobility.

  

Grooming- Dog fashion

We humans learn the art of grooming as evolution takes place. Living in the 21st century, every individual is expected to present themselves pleasantly. But as time went by, the art of grooming was introduced to the animal kingdom. Dog grooming refers to both the hygienic care and cleaning of a dog, as well as a process by which a dog's physical appearance is enhanced. But what I am going to talk about is creative grooming, which has nothing to do with the health and cleanliness of the dog. Creative grooming include services such as colouring dogs' fur and painting dogs' nails.While traditional grooming achieves to conform with breed standards set by the official breed associations, creative grooming heads to the opposite direction, creating a unique, sometimes exquisite look.
The lighter version of creative grooming is known as pet tuning and is more owner-oriented, adjusting the pets' visual appearance to their owners' amusement or life style, while the creative grooming is more of an art form, therefore more artist (groomer) oriented.

Made In Singapore- Lee Rui Xiang

Deep down in everyone there is a small part of us that desire to be the best, just like how every boy wanted to be the red power ranger when they were young. Focusing on this part of the human being, artist Lee Rui Xiang came up with the work ''The King of Kings ''Kill Em All''. 

''The King of Kings ''Kill Em All''. 

In this artwork the artist portrays himself as a superhero destroying the other superhero around him to illustrate his hunger for success. For a man to be success, he must first know failure. I believe that the artist had gone through a hard time to be where he is now and is still striving to be better. By destroying other people around him he might had wanted to expressed the self centred side of human in today's society. The artist also make use of facial expressions of the characters in this artwork to illustrate a dog eats dog world. This can be seen in the Astro boy character where the expression strays away from the original cheerful expression. 

Visual Kei- Japanese outrageous style

Visual Kei is a movement among Japanese musicians which involves the use of heavy make-ups, elaborate hairstyle and flamboyant costumes. Usually associate with Japanese Rock music, Visual Kei was thought to be originated in the U.S. The 80's rock and roll band KISS is said to be the originator for Visual Kei. Strange enough most Visual Kei bands are all-male members, although heavy make-up and elaborate hairstyle would seem more appealing to female.  There are even some bands with members that cross dressed as females, looking better. Personally I feel that a band look is as important as the music they produce, or at least after the 1980s. But I  still have no idea why would a cross dressed male can look better than the girls I see everyday.

Breaking the rules- Mike Devries

You are remembered for the rules you break. On today's post I'll be talking about Mike Devries, a tattoo artist known for his colour realism works. Currently one of the world's top tattoo artist, Mike Devries started tattooing professionally in 2003. What is so special about his method of tattooing is that he does not outline the tattoo he is working on. Most artists outline their tattoo works before putting in the colours or shadings, for Mike Devries he go straight to the colours. This generated many criticism from other artists in the trade, they argued that tattoo without outline would not last. Mike Devries strongly believes that using contrasting colours for the subject it creates an invisible outline and also makes his subject more realistic. After proving himself to the trade by winning 130 awards for his work, people starts to acknowledge his style of tattooing. He tattooed many famous people and Slyvester Stallone is one of them. Sometimes breaking the rules is not that bad. 

Alchemy-ism

According to Wikipedia, alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose practitioners have, from antiquity, claimed it to be the precursor to profound powers. Did that just go over your head? Mine too.
Well, the exhibition in our college is not really related to that (I guess not). The articles put up for display vary a great deal. We have prints in one corner and furniture in the other. The best part is that it is not the work of some well-known artist or designer but the work of our very own award-winning college graduates who have an outstanding reputation.
If anyone of you reading this are in Singapore then you should definitely drop by because I believe that this isn't a show that you ought to miss. 
:D

A step closer.

All my WIPs. I started on some of these even before school commenced. I started drawing somewhere around this time of the month in 2012, back then all I could do was to get the outlines right. Without prior knowledge in art I did not have any clue on how and what to draw. I started drawing because I wanted to be a tattoo artist (I still do), thus I started drawing tattoo related art. It started in 2011 where I got my very first tattoo done, like most people I was very intrigued by the whole process of  tattooing. Although it ignited something in me, I never really thought much about it. In 2012, I got my second tattoo. It was then when I knew that I am really into the whole thing about tattoo. I then did some research on how do I go about becoming an artist, I must be able to draw. Honestly I never really know whether I am good in art or not, but I was offered an apprenticeship by the person who tattooed me and it was only after a month of endless practice. Along the way comes other studios/shops that also offered me apprenticeship, I had to declined due to some reasons. But I never stop drawing, now that it has become a part of me. I still find time to draw despite the school work, it is me and this is what I do.

Wires, 3D and much more.

My first time working with wires. our 3D fundamentals module requires us to make a 3D template with wire. The wire may look easy to work with, but in actual case it is one of the hardest thing I ever did. Thick wire provides support but lacks malleability, while soft wire possesses excellent malleability but lack strength. At first it would seems that going with thick wire is a better option since it provides support, stability and looks easy to bend. Needless to say, I only bought the hard wire. Everything seems to worked out perfectly until when I need to bend the wire for tying, all that qualities of the hard wire are used against me! In the end I had to buy a coil of soft wire to compensate for the lack of malleability of the hard wire. Due to the shortage of time my sculpture of a pre-historic shark did not turned out the way it should, sadly. I am pretty sure that with ample time I would have gotten A+ for the grading.

As creative individuals we are always encouraged to be creative and I did. With the amount of wire left unused, I thought it would be cool to restring my guitar with the wire. It does not look possible at first but you never know until you try. Although it is not playable, I am still surprised that it is able to produce sound. After 2 years of not touching my guitar, I gave it a new look.

Forgotten things

 

When was the last time you looked up? Ever since being introduced to smartphones, we have been constantly looking down to the phone screen. Yes, even I am guilty of it. With the advanced features and up to date technology, it is hard to resist using it. This photo was taken on a Sunday evening, using a smartphone of course. I had no idea as to why did I looked up, but I am glad now that I did. This photo made me feel that people have indeed been so obsessed with technology. It seems that we have all forgotten that smartphones are also equipped with high quality camera. Only a very few of us would explore the phone's camera function when we got our phone. I took this photo because I feel that it is totally in sync with my emotion at that moment.

I believe that behind every photo there is something to it, be it memory or story. But first, feel and experience before you rush to take a photo. Do not take a photo for the sake of  taking it, that would defeats the whole purpose. We should pay more attention to our surrounding environment. If we do, we are bound to find beauty in almost everywhere. It is surprising that that we are always surrounded by beautiful things. 

      

Down the memory lane

I have been walking along on the pathway by this stretch of road for as long as I could remember. This pathway contains memories from my secondary school days. During my secondary school days I would have to pass by here everyday to get to school, be it rain or shine. The noisy traffic accompanied by the birds chirping and of course the music playing on my mp3 were the only thing I hear everyday. I am almost certain that friendships and bonds were strengthened mostly before or after curriculum time. Thus,this pathway also serves as a bonding place for me and many others. I think that not only me but every queenswayans( term used for Queensway Secondary School student) would have developed a special kind of attachment to this pathway. I had witnessed traffic accidents as well as school couples arguing while I was walking on the pathway. Footsteps, sweat and eventually cigarette ashes were left behind by students. They said that as you get older you become more sentimental. I believe so, sometime I find myself coming back here to reminisce about the past. Not to forget about the Mcdonalds down the road, the only place to eat other than the school canteen.