Yingruo Cao (Melanie) – Talking colors
Reflection
I always find Sea life astounding as inspiration, so I went to the London aquarium to look for colours. As imagined, the place was so rich with saturated colours that it presented a vivid but calm vibe. As a result, I started to think about the natural balance of the deep ocean.
Finding inspiring colours was successful; however, it was challenging to record quick observations due to the environment. The non-returned walking routine made me hard to stop by and draw. The lightings inside are either too dark or are the special elude light to illuminate fishes. As a solution, I would observe and draw whenever I encountered ample space. I mainly brought dry mediums and added wet materials after I got home to overcome the difficulties of bringing in various mediums. Additionally, adding more layers afterward enabled me to be open-minded and utilize unexpected materials, such as nail polish, to draw fluorescent colours.
On the other hand, I could draw more free-handed quick sketches instead of being too mindful of every mark I drew. Also, I could be more experimental and try more styles, such as Pointillism.
The experience of drawing dynamic creatures was challenging, but I improved my skills in doing quick sketches based on my instant observations and sensations. Furthermore, I can now quickly extract the features that inspired me; even if it is the pattern of a tiny tropical fish that I glanced at, my lens of eyes can capture and create sensations and ideas in my brain.
8th November 2022 @ 12:02 am
I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at your work for the creative blog tasks. Your drawings inspired by marine life are very colourful and lively. It made me feel as if I was at the aquarium with you, having a glimpse of what the aquarium had to offer.
For task 1, I like how detailed your drawings were. The fine lines in the midst of the water colours, the collage, the acrylic paint and nail polish layered on the drawings and different coloured paper all intrigued me. The dark background in some of the drawings very well demonstrated the deep sea vibe for me. It was very interesting to look and analyse the details in each drawing. It made me feel the calmness that you feel when you look at
For task 2, it was very interesting to see how you further developed the marine aquatic life theme into patterns. The continuous use of multimedia mediums captivates my attention, for example the colourful digital curves and creating 3-D textures with paint. I like how you didn’t just do drawings this time and also included a simple but interesting collage using coloured paper cut into shapes with black paint dotted around it. I especially loved the final 3 drawings for “talking pattern”, I just felt drawn towards your use of colours and the illustration of textures. I feel like the drawings can definitely be translated well into knit samples.
Overall, I love how diverse your choice of mediums were in producing the drawings for the tasks and it was also nice to see how task 1 and task 2 were related and coherent without being repetitive. It was very pleasing to the eyes to see how colourful and full of texture your drawings are.