I made two bookmarks with my fav. bible verses for Laura and a mouse card (only the mouse, the cheese is from yingda! note: it’s purely coincidental that they fit)
And I love doodling in books so laura’s organizer has plenty of sketches by me haha.
by the way, the first bookmark has got our animal farm portait on it:
mouse: laura, puppy: yiyi, swan: shihui, guppy: yingda, two giraffes combine-into-one: trix and me 
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http://cxytrixie.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/nine-blogskin/
i love this blogskin!
firstly, the colours are bright, giving the entire layout an edgy yet swet feel. I love the composition, especially with the lolly in the middle, and the candy dispenser and ice-cream on both sides of it.
The background enhances the sugary feel. I love how the strokes of watercolour are pastel hues, making the entire blogskin feel really innocent! The only room for improvement, I guess is the hello panda it is a little out of place, but overall, great job!
From Top: Unknown, Scarlett Johanssohn, Penelope Cruz
I guess these will be the last 3 blends that I upload on the portfolio. the rest are just Bleaugh ><. I like the range of colours I use here, but I feel that I should use some other interesting stock images rather than just the sunflower and the daisy hahax (if you notice I always add flowers cos it’s the nicest i can find and it fits the blend). So my portfolio is about to be completed, yay except for the coursework bit *screams silently*
It’s come a long way, the designs for the grad. mag 2008. it really kept me occupied throughout this term. but i actually enjoyed doing some parts of it, like conceptualizing the layouts, adding brushes to beautify the pages, etc. but i just can’t enjoy the rushed bits. like when the deadline is in 2 to 3 days or something, and when the authorities suddenly cancel this cancel that and my effort’s wasted >< but I guess this is how designers feel, isn’t it? it’s just a process of learning (haha, im optimistic, i hope.)
here’s the first part: the miscalleaneous pages
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1. Describe one of Han Sai Por’s sculptures.
“Seeds” is site-specific in a novel way. It is located outside the National Museum of Singapore, which probably reflects the transformation of the museum. This transformation and concept of growth is shown through the highly contoured surfaces of the two seeds that seem to reveal the anatomy of seeds in the process of germination. There are different carved layers to the seed and these layers are abstracted to form highly sinuous and organic shapes. The flowing arabesque contours are most obvious in the small seed, which appears to be wrinkles of the seed coat, like the texture of a walnut.
The seeds are also placed n a green field, which leaves it in a natural state, suggesting the beauty of nature and reminding people to appreciate nature – even the small seeds that we might so often ignore and deem trivial.
Lastly, the reddish-brown colour of the seeds seems dull and earthy in the shadows yet radiant and well-polished in the sun. The texture of the seeds is rough on the outside and smooth on the exposed inside, presenting a semi-abstract form of a seed.
2. Describe one of Antony Gormley’s installations in relation to the concept of land art.
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“Land art” started out as a protest against the artificiality and ruthless commercialization of art. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, but rather the landscape is the very means of their creation. The works frequently exist in the open, located well away from civilization, left to change and erosion under natural conditions.
Anthony Gormley’s “Another Place” has effectively integrated the use of the natural environment and the open landscape to convey his message of emigration. Although this work does not directly show the protest against the commercialization of art, it is still considered land art due to its extensive relation to the landscape.
“Another Place” is an installation of a hundred solid cast iron bodyforms along the coast to the west and south of the Kugelbake. It occupies 1.75 square kilometres, with the pieces placed between 50 and 250 metres apart along the tideline and one kilometre out towards the horizon, to which they are facing. This installation is strongly connected to the phenomena of nature. Firstly, it depends on the fall of the land, state of the tide and the weather conditions. Furthermore, the work’s visibility also changes with the time of the day. Next, the depth of the sea affects the visibility of the bodies where the ones closest to the horizon will stand on the sand while those nearer to the shore are being progressively buried. Thirdly, it test time and tide, stillness and movement and engages the daily life of the beach. Another point that Gormley has taken note of is the modernity that encompasses the natural beach. The fact that the calm sea is dotted with container ships from time to time shows the industrialization of society, and the people walking towards these ships seems to be a poetic response to the individual and universal sentiments associated with emigration – the sadness of leaving, but the hope of a new future in another place.
Lastly, “Another Place” is a form of land art as it is site-specific. The careful choice of location illustrates that no landscape is innocent, and that no landscape is uncontrolled. Every landscape has a hidden social dimension to do with both its natural usage and politics of territory.
3. Compare and contrast the works by the artist, paying attention to their concerns in art.
“Seeds” by Han Sai Por and “Another Place” by Anthony Gormley are both similar and different in a variety of ways.
Firstly, both works utilize space. While “Seeds” is located on a field outside the National Museum of Singapore, suggesting growth and hope for the building, “Another place” is located on a coast, adding a sense of solitude to the work.
Secondly, both works relate to nature and interacts with the chosen site. “Seeds” depicts the growth and transformation of seeds in its natural location, which is a field, and “Another Place” interacts with the elements of the ocean such as tide and wind and elements of light.
Thirdly, the two works present contrasts in texture. In “Seeds”, a rough seed coat with a smooth exposed inside is carved while in “Another Place”, the fluidity of the sea and the lapping waves is contrasted with the rigid, iron-cast bodies. This shows that no landscape is innocent as there is a high level of human intervention. Furthermore, the ships at the horizon suggest modernity and technological advancement and this is contrasted with the undisturbed and serene form of nature.
The two works are also different in two ways.
Firstly, “Seeds” does not change throughout the day and it probably suggests the firm and steady growth of the museum. However, “Another Place” varies throughout the day as it depends on light (which affects the visibility of sculptures), tide (which affects the visibility in terms of the height of the bodies) and wind (which affects the tranquility of the landscape that in turn evokes different feelings).
Lastly, while “Seeds” does not appeal much to emotion as it is mainly for visual pleasure and made as a well wish and blessing to the museum, “Another Place” appeals greatly to human emotion. It is a blend of feelings of fear, depression and solitude yet with some hope of going to another place for a better future. Hope is also represented during sunsets or sunrises at the horizon and the work, overall, shows the sentiments of emigrants, stirs sympathy in the viewers and presents a slight confusion that we never know what is ahead.
These 3 colourizations are pretty old, so I guess they’re not as well done as the ones posted previously. you can tell I was still at the “experimenting” stage…so the skin colour, hair colour has gone a little awry haha i like the second feat. ashley tisdale, it looks more cheerful 
comments are very welcome!!
Trixie and I designed the flyer cum poster for our church’s youth evangelistic event on 12th July. The title is “Relationships and the Meaning of Life”.
Our poster attempts to show the contents of the speech. There are three arrows on the signboard, two pointing uphill towards the cross and one pointing down towards hell. The choice of the path that we will take is in our hands. Here is an overview written by pastor Biqing:
“No man is an island”, says the old adage. None of us leave our lives alone. From babies to children to teenage and yound adulthood, our lives are always centred around relationships with people that meant alot to us. Parents, siblings, friends and of course that special someone in your life – each of them holds a special place in your heart. Don’t we all long for such beautiful relationships to last forever? And so we build the meaning of our life upon these people whom we hold so dear. Yet all around us, we see human relationships that are broken and shipwrecked by the storms of life. Some of us may still be recovering from a hurtful and disillusioned past of loss, betrayal or abandonment. Is this all there is to life? Are there such things as “Friends Forever”? Can we find real meaning in real relationships that really last forever? Or is our search for meaning in relationships ultimately a futile one that will end in despair? Join us as we contemplate together, “Relationships and the Meaning of Life”.
During the June Holidays, Trix and I went out with our aunt to Sungei Buloh for a miniature field trip! Got bitten by a great lot of mosquitoes, but I enjoyed the walk and snapping away with my aunt’s very pro camera. We saw many squirrels, butterflies and birds and the great find was a monitor lizard. *shudders* We also caught a glimpse of a beaver diving into a pond! but too bad, we couldn’t go nearer cos the pond area was under construction. So here are some of the best shots:
*the 5th pic is actually a pond infested with water plants!
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Image Source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7397806@N08/
Beary Ambitious is a collection of oil paintings by emerging Sichuan artist Song Wei. His paintings depict teddy bears with highly intricate Chinese motifs and details which resemble porcelain carrying out different everyday actions, of which include sitting on a toilet bowl, posing for a photo, etc.
The bears are monochrome, either blue, yellow or green decorated meticulously white or blue Chinese motifs ranging from peonies and leaves to dragons and Chinese window patterns. Although the bears are monochromatic, vibrant colour is added to the paintings via objects such as colourful building blocks, a fuchsia pink horse of a merry-go-round, and other elements of childhood. Altogether, the series of bears are a harmonious combination of colours. What intrigued me were the eyes of the bears. Some bears had winks represented by a pair of scissors, while the others had cross eyes. Some were given the conventional highly arched smiley eyes. This was probably a clever tool that Song Wei used to convey different facial expressions in the bears yet at the same time, retain the simplicity of his art. Each and every bear and object is highly modeled, showing the shiny reflected surface of the bears. The bears are carefully constructed of shapes – a spherical head with two circular teddy bear ears, a pear-shaped body and polygonal limbs. Surprisingly, this geometrical ensemble was not rigid and stiff at all. The various body positions of the bears injected an emotion in them which far exceeds the robotic quality of the representation of the bears. For example, “First Love” shows two bears with arms on each others’ shoulders who seem to be smiling gleefully at a camera and saying ‘cheese’.
Next, his portrayals of the bears seem to convey a sense of warmth, friendship and love. The innocence of the bears also creates a jubilant atmosphere in his paintings. These youthful and joyful scenes are further hinted by the whimsical titles such as “Little C”, “Teasing” and “In the arms of Uncle M” and also the little heart and star symbols on the bears’ chests. While Song Wei’s paintings bring out a sense of cheekiness and playfulness, it also seems to exude a youthful vibe and a sense of national identity. In the first painting entitled “An Unforgettable Youth”, many bears carry a red flag, and one of them is pointing in a direction straight on. Another painting “Growing up under the Red Flag” also seems to suggest patriotism, as a father bear carries the son bear on his shoulders under a red flag.
I am very impressed by the works of Song Wei. Through simple yet impactful depictions of teddy bears, he has successfully created a vibrant yet warm atmosphere. Furthermore, the details are rendered with great detail and every bear is carefully modeled so as to hide the brush strokes with its evenly applied colour. In all, Beary Ambitious is a delightful collection of paintings that reflect the innocence of childhood and the vibrancy of youth and definitely exhibits the wit and talent of Song Wei.
