Joanne's Journal

Learning how to simplify and create an abstract form of reality is probably the hardest form of art. We tend to see the world as it is and rarely go beyond that. In this workshop, I learnt how to simplify and create abstract artwork from real-life photographs.  To be very honest, at the beginning of the workshop, I thought we would be doing still-life drawing. However, I was wrong. We started the class with a guest lecturer showing us how he translates reality to abstract forms and shapes. He started with roughly sketching the whole composition of the photograph taken from a newspaper, and then he redrew it about 5 times. Each time he redraws the image, he changes the angle of the previous image and copies it by drawing abstract shapes. Slowly as he reached the final drawing (see Figure 1), it looks completely different from the very first image that he drew. Figure 1. Compositions re-drawn 5 times (left image) and the final abstract image (right image) We then proce...

We were given a zine project to do at the beginning of our course. We were tasked to create a zine based on an object that has been with us for a long time. Creating a zine was something new to me and I have never made one before. Going into the project was a little bit nerve-wracking at first because I did not know what to expect and I had no clue what to do with my zine. The idea of being able to do whatever we want with our zine as long as we hit the brief was exciting but intimidating because I had to come up with content and make everything from scratch. I was a little clueless but after selecting my object, the ideas flowed naturally. Brief Create a zine based on an object that has been with you for a long time. A5-size, and we need to make use of 2 workshops. Choice of object Figure 1. My Pooh Bear that has been with me since I was 8. Firstly, I had to choose an object for the basis of my zine and the object that I thought of was a Pooh Bear that I had since I was e...