Surrealism : Representation of the Mind Artwork

Last week we were given a task - to complete a surrealism piece of art, a representation of the mind.

These are the few steps and the final art piece at the end.

The sky background was chosen from an online source.

The wood texture was chosen and dragged to show depth in the picture.

A small part of the top of the head was removed to insert pictures/ objects in the later parts.

The head of the girl was taken from a given website and the Lasso Tool was used to removed the desired part of the head.

The "empty part" was clone stamped and coloured to make it look realistic.

The grandfather clock was also taken from the given website. It was removed from the original picture using several tools, re-sized and rotated.

The boat was also taken from another website. All the steps were repeated using the steps of the grandfather clock.

The box / suitcase was added all using the same website and steps as the former 2 objects.

The book's insertion steps are a repetition of all the 3 objects above.

Next, the 2 gauges were added. The pictures were taken also from the given website and re-sized  Dark circles were added below the eyes as shadow. 

Lighting, contrast, and all the other effects were added and adjusted to the picture to gain the desired artwork.

Last but not least, the completed art work.

Surrealism art, A Representation of The Mind.

Samantha, 2012.

P/s : Steps to creating this artwork can be obtained from http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-manipulation/create-this-surreal-representation-of-the-mind-artwork-in-photoshop/?singlepage=1

Burst Away!

Burst away in the land of ideas!
This is what we learnt during tutorials - to create a light burst effect with our own choice of words.

I chose "Idea Burst" as i feel designing helps and allows me to express myself together also with allowing me to expand my ideas and allowing them to grow and of course burst!

I chose a guitar also because it symbolizes that ideas can generate best from music as everyone's life is represented by lyrics and symphony of their own lives. Thus, different people create different melodies and together a song is written and ides are formed.

National Art Gallery : A Journey into the Unknown

The Intro to Design class made a visit to the National Art Gallery last Tuesday.
Personally for me, it was a journey into the unknown world of art where paintings really do look and come alive, 3D models aren't really just pots and scrap metals and it felt like I was journeying through time, at least through my eyes.

There among hundreds of art pieces, I found 10 that took my breath away. Just with a glance it caught my attention to go closer and study it. These are the 10 and the story I see they tell.

1. "Menanam Padi" by Hamidah Suhaimi
Women planting paddy in a row. No men were in sight. Depicts the hard work woman endured back in those days. The vastly stretched paddy fields showed how much women had to do and what they depended on for an income.

2. A drawing by Mat Dollah
A drawing with only the many shades of green. Although only green, every detail was painted with precision and detail.

3. A painting by Yuan Chia
Pure rocks, yet despite all a small shoot of greenery sprouts signifying life. Hope.

4. "Emergency III" by Hoe Say Yong
A peaceful crystal blue painting supposedly signifying peace and serenity and yet it opposites its title.

5. "Perseverance Over Time" by Lau Kim Tho
It gives a Gothic feel. Curiosity creeps in when you are wondering what lies beyond that road and this dark town.

6. "Once A Time In A Far Away Land of Mexico There Were The Rich and The Poor" by Zakaria Ali
The rich were proud and looked down on the lowly. Even the poor are forgotten eaten by the dogs while the rich grow fat and ignorant. This casts a sense of nothingness to the poor.

7. "Hijau Mata Hitamku" by M. Amunuddin Osman
The entire portrait captures my attention towards the essence of old age, highlighting the wrinkles on the lady's face. Growing old gracefully in this modern era despite the presence of modern technology.

8. "Tower of Shame" by Ilham Fadly Mohd Shaimy   (My Favourite one of all)
This speaks out and out-stands the other 9 because I feel it being so real.
A tower so majestic fails to raise above all and falls into a dark hole under, leaving all those involved- the builders, architects, families stuck in the memories it carried, jobless and in a constant finding of a way out despite everything around. Building a home around this time that stands still. Others from outside (ground level) looks on casting shame and judgement upon them.

9. "Syaitan Bersepuluh" by Khairul Azuwan Ishak
The title itself suggests allowing others around you to manipulate you from being you. Letting one in leads to the next and so forth. Confusing you with all that is around, with all they want, with all they hate from who you really are and what you really want.

10. "Fatamorgana #5 flying lessons" by Fuad Osman
A mother holding her baby son's top by the teeth suggest that she is teaching him to learn to fly and stand on his own 2 feet. A mother can only so far as encourage you to fly. Finding your own wings and taking flight is up to your own effort.

Street art : Telling their story, Pasar Seni

Graffiti on a wall along the Klang River.
Art being expressed in the form of drawings and the bright colours used suggest that artist of this graffiti was a teenager. The words formed saying "Taste For  Beet" could probably suggest that the artist was getting in rhyme with his art at that time.

More graffiti art along the walls of the Klang River.
The many colours used, the creative wordings and drawings shows the imagination of the people especially teenagers living in that are.
Entitled "Wall of Fame" could suggest that these were the best among the whole streak of graffiti art that stretched for about 1-2 km long.

             This graffiti of the city life shows how one living in the Pasar Seni area sees the development of it.
Billboards, more street art, mini stores along the streets and even modern cars like the Mini Cooper in the graffiti depicts a story of how much the town has grown since.

Graffiti art being drawn also on the floor only comes to show that art graffiti aren't just art on walls but anywhere that has big enough a space for you to express yourself!

   Art on the other side of the wall (opposite) shows graffiti art more towards surrealism
- monkey pirates
- witch craft
- magic
- evil puppeteer

more graffiti art with a graffiti expressing the artist's  sense of pride of being a Malaysian, a country living independently for 57 years now and a touch of surrealism in the last picture.            A government building seen from across the river.
This building taken from this angle gives it a sense of being majestic, standing tall and powerful. This building also shows that there are some influence of the art nouveau movement in its architecture.

 Architecture of the bus terminal at Pasar Seni.    

         The 'fan' like roof depicts creativity, length and is different from a normal bus stop. 

                                                                                                                                                         

   A simple angle shot of the railings along the walkway at the bus terminal.

 A beggar on the streets taking a rest under the shade while his coin box was left exposed for coin /change collection from passers by. One other side that the Pasar Seni area has besides creativity and development is also a pinch of poverty among the locals. 

1.

2.

The 1st picture shows elderly men waiting for their ride to arrive. Some of them even get so comfortable that they take naps while waiting for the time to pass.

The 2nd picture expresses the life of the public transport employees like bus drivers and taxi drivers catching short breaks in between trips to catch up on recent headlines and personal stories.

This is the story Pasar Seni told me.

They are artistic, creative, developed but not forgetting also the locals who would need some extra help to escape poverty in this unique part of town.

Orange up my world!

During tutorials a few weeks back, we were introduced to colours!

We were flashed with the colours on screen and were asked what emotions or feelings that particular colour elicited in us.

Personally my favourite colour is ORANGE!

OR to be more specific florescent  orange!



Orange for me signifies freshness and liveliness. It is not dull nor boring but instead it stands out from the crowd, the norm. To shows that one is daring and different.
Orange for one certainly gets someone to notice you almost instantly.

Art Movements along the years

In a recent tutorial class we were introduced to some of the many art movements present up till today. It was really interesting as it showed me and widened my views on art and the many ways of expressing it. We were introduced to 14 art movements as listed below :)

1. Abstract Art
- form, colour and line make up this visual language creating a compositiona
- a non figurative, nonobjective and nonrepresentational
- an imaginary art that showed a distant view from reality
- associated with geometric abstraction and lyrical abstraction

         On White 2, 1923 by Wassily Kandinsky



2. Art Deco
- characteristics of art deco are that art pieces is lavished with ornaments, distinct geometric shapes and rich         
    colours
- has an influence on many public works and buildings like automobiles(cars), architecture, in railway stations or  
    even in amusement parks!
- created with many geometric forms like polygons, rectangles, zigzags and many other shapes

  
Master, Sarhe and Bhuta, with N.G. Parsare, 1936, New India Assurance Building, Mumbai, India.


3. Art Nouveau

- combination of architecture and applied art 
- an important transition between the historicism of Neoclassicism and modernism
- illustrates a time transition between the 19th to the 20th century through art, thought and the   
  society

 
 An advertisement for the Art Nouveau gallery "La Maison Moderne" by Manuel Orazi.


4. Baroque

-  dance, music, painting architecture, produced drama, tension and grandeur through artistic  
    styles that took into account exaggeration of motion and and clear detail
- encouraged by the Roman Catholic church
- to express triumph and power besides impressing those who visit
   found in places like court entrance, staircases in grand places and reception rooms
  

   Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Baroccii, 1598


5.  Bauhaus
- fine arts and crafts were combined by a school back in Germany to approach the design it taught  and  
  publicized
- idea of creating a complete artwork including architecture be combined 
- a building was the ultimate claim of creative activity

    Bauhaus building in Chemnitz


6. Constructivism Art
 - a rejection of the idea autonomous art forms this art movement of architectural and artistic philosophy
- created for social purpose
- influenced Bauhaus and De Stijl art movements
- impacted interior designing, film, dance and many others
- used also as a propaganda plaques

  Agitprop poster by Mayakovsk

7. Cubism
- revolutionized European painting and sculpture and inspired architecture, music and literature
- objects are broken up after being analyzed and reassembled in an abstract form and depicted in multiple  
   viewpoints


Jean Metzinger, La Femme au Cheval, The Rider, Woman with a horse, 1911-1912,   
 Statens Museum for Kunst, National Gallery of Denmark. Exhibited at the 1912 Salon  
 des Indépendants, and published in Apollinaire's 1913 Les Peintres Cubistes. 
 Provenance: Jacques Nayral, Neils Bohr.

8. Dada
- formed out of the negative horrors of World War I (WWI)
- appreciated nonsense and intuition and rejected reason and logic
- da da brings meaning yes yes
- initially involved literature, visual arts , art theories and many others
- also was an anti war  besides having political affinities and with the radical left and being anti bougeois


 
Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in  
 Germany, 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90x144 cm, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche 
 Museen zu Berlin, Hannah Hoch.


9. Expressionism
- radically distorting images for effects of emotion to evoke certain moods or ideas to represent 
  the world from a subjective perspective solely
- rather than physical reality, it expresses meaning or emotional experience

  The Scream by Edvard Munch


10. Impressionism
-  emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities
- common, ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and   
  experience, and unusual visual angles.


  Paris Street, Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte

11. Futurism
- artistic and social movement
- contemporary concepts of the future together with glorified themes
- expression in much of modern commercial cinema and culture

  Cyclist by Natalia Goncharova

12. Naive art (my personal favourite)
- technique and subject matter are childlike, simplicity
- erroneous geometry perspective
- no enfeeblement in the background, use of patterns are very strong and plans of the composition have unrefined   
  colours
- background which are shaded brings about equal accuracy brought to details

   Landscape, Anonymous

13. Renaissance
- increased reliance on observation in science and the development of conventions of diplomacy in politics
- Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in 
  art


  Portrait of Sir Thomas More

14.  Surrealism
- writings and visual art work
- developed out of DADA movement
- social theory, politics, music and languages, literature and film and visual arts were affected

  L'Ange du Foyer ou le Triomphe du Surréalisme (1937), Max Ernst


These are the 14 art movements and an image/ drawing each to elicit examples all together. Naive art is my favourite of all and followed by surrealism and abstract art.