Filed under: 2D works
These are a few pencil sketches i did as research for my coursework in 2007.
Basically, my coursework for Sec3 EOYs was designing postcards of food! 
Yes the obvious reason was because i simply adore food. especially sweets and treats 
So yep the thought of doing something related to what i love!
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Title: Sketches of food – Media: Pencil – Size: A5 – Approx. date: September 2007
They aren’t very well-done because i was pressed for time so some of them are just really rough sketches.
Filed under: 2D works
This pieces were the first few works done in class in Sec 3.
Its pastel drawings of real life plants in front of us.
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Medium: Pastel colour – Size: ~A3 – Approx. date: 2007
hahahaha the title is just a disclaimer to say that imitation goods are really inferior in quality to the real deal. its true.
This piece of work was done as homework in Sec3 june holidays. It was fun but really tiring i spent 3 whole days painting from day to night (while watching Full House though). but still it was a really long time and i could only manage this quality.
So, salute to Lord Frederic Leighton, i really wonder how he makes Pavonia look SO real.
Pavonia 1858 by Lord Frederic Leighton , 100% hand painted
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and this is my version
Medium: Acrylic – Size: A3 – Approx. date: June 2007
It is totally no wonder why hes a famous painter and im not hahahaha.
just joking i know i’ll never ever be able to reach his standards. im not being pessimistic, its just reaaaaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyyyy difficult.
Anyway, im still quite proud of my pavonia anyway. block out her face and the feathers, it still looks quite nice right! hahahahah the whole left patch of feathers is so disgusting because i got fed up of mixing colours haha bad choice. But i like the details on her blouse and her headscarf.
Another thing i realised during painting this was that it was a real challenge to get the right skin colour, when i did, the acrylic didnt last long enough for me to paint her whole face, much less blend it.
Overall it was a good experience though results werent as ideal. It was a good experience to really finish a painting, and to understand how difficult it really is to paint something lifelike.
Sometime in January this year, all of the art students were brought to the National Museum of Singapore for an exhibition on Greek Masterpieces.
It was certainly a huge eye-opener for me and we are certainly very lucky to be able to view all these great sculptures right in front of us, flew in all the way from The Lourve to Singapore. Imagine all the work they went through, transporting the heavy marble sculptures, making sure they are well-protected, and displaying them in the museum for our viewing pleasure.
All the near 130 works displayed were beautiful and just fascinating.
It is so amazing how the sculptors are able to produce such intricate, detailed works. Whats more, they are sculptures are made of marbles, something so hard and difficult to break, whats more carve in perfect precision and smoothen it. They are truly amazing pieces of art.
It is also amazing how they could sculpt humans into such perfect beings, with such perfect proportions and details. Look at the hair of the veiled woman in the last photo, and the beards and wrinkles of Platos (second photo) and Aristotle (third photo). They are all so lifelike and amazing.
It is cool how the ancient Greek sculptors could observe the beauty of the human body, and create sculptures that were super-human. Some of the males had muscles that were just scientifically impossible to have in real life, and some of the athletes were in positions that were humanly not possible.
As we learnt in a lecture prior to the visit, some of the sculptures despite looking so amazingly pretty were not possible in actual fact. because their knees and shoulders and hips were just pointing in awkward positions that we are just not able to do if not we will fall flat on our faces.
While we were there, we were supposed to sketch a few of the sculptures, so i picked the backview of
Ares- Greek God of War
I didn’t get to finish my pencil sketch so hes missing an arm and head and feet. hahaha.
It was just a rough sketch i did in half an hour so im already quite please with the result, just that i think his body is a bit fat, while the sculpture it self is just lean. His body also too short and head too small, probably because i was sketching while sitting on the floor.
Anyway i chose to do his backview because i thought it the profile was simple but interesting and the lighting and shadows cast on the sculpture were interesting to observe. There were not many lines but contours and curves that were challenging to capture well.
The visit to NMS was fruitful and a sure eye-opener. I still find the sculptors very amazing. Firstly, how do they carve marble its so hard! Secondly, how do they do it so perfectly! in proportion and detail and make it look so perfect and aesthetically pleasing? Thirdly, dont they make mistakes? and it will be devastating if they do because they cant undo their mistakes. Lastly, still, how do they do it! know exactly which angle and where to carve! when theres absolutely no room for mistakes to happen.
Ancient Greek sculptors are truly amazing people.
