Muted Demolition at the Dinner Table

Concept Sketch:

Final Piece: 

Prompt: "Your Greatest Fear"


Because nothing scares me more than internalized self destruction.

Time:12-14 hours

Taiwan I Miss You

Another portfolio piece done during my senior year of high school! The prompt was "Childhood Memories".

What I remember the most from my trips back to my mother's hometown in Hualien, Taiwan were the open markets where my sister and I dawdled around while our relatives did their shopping.The vendors there were good humored enough to let us play around and try to catch rice eels with our hands even though we were obviously agitating the poor things (though I suspect this was because they knew this would prompt my grandma to buying some for dinner).

It's been 10 years since I last visited and since I was born in California, I've felt very distanced from my ethnic background. I don't want to just rely on bits and pieces of memories I had as a child to try to capture that feeling of "home" and I hate that I still have trouble familiarizing the way mandarin sounds in my mouth because I've spent so long avoiding that aspect of myself and never putting in the time and effort to learn more. That being said, I hope to revisit Taiwan soon, it's really been too long.

Changing the Light Is No Easy Task

I finished this painting (roughly 2 x 4.5 feet, Acrylic paint) a few months ago on my high school's ceiling tile before I graduated and without doubt, this was easily one of the largest pieces I've ever worked on. Luckily it was placed high enough on the ceiling that the people craning their necks up can't get close enough to notice the angry brush strokes inflicted on the canvas by a teenager on the brink of a internal tantrum. Which I suppose worked in my favor in the end.

Concept Sketches

Some concept sketches for my "Sister" sculpture series! When it comes to designing the overall structure of sculptures, I have this habit of ignoring the fact that gravity exists for the first design  before I start working backwards from there to create something more structurally sound. Though all things considering, the theme I was going with was "possibility" so if anything, the plan of approach was spot on.

Laundry machine tutorial

Hey guys, bringing another tutorial/walkthrough from a current project I'm in the process of working on right now. 

1) Using sculpey clay, make each part separately before putting it in the oven since the pieces are thin and prone to bending before they're completely baked

2) Bake for half the time recommended on the box (depending on size) so if the pieces don't match up perfectly when assembled, it's still soft enough that you can trim the edges if necessary. 

 

3) As per example, the sides didn't match up perfectly for me, but after trimming the edges with an exacto and ruler, I put it back in the oven and covered up any remaining small gaps with acrylic paint

 

4) The inside funnel was made out of aluminum foil folded repeatedly so it could hold its shape and poked some holes accordingly. Then I cut a circle with the remaining foil for the base.  

 

5) Assemble the fully baked pieces together and paint the desired color.  

 

6) Finished! Optional: I cut a piece of plastic to glue behind the small door as "glass" to give the piece a more finished look. 

What Comes After Rain

From sketch to final product:

The water in the buckets was done using Quick Water's Simulated Water that I bought in the floral section of my local art store. Admittedly I grew a bit power hungry after discovering this product and thus began a year long obsession where I would incorporate it in as many sculptures as I could, regardless of necessity. Case in point, I now have two boxes of the stuff crammed in my closet that have yet to be used. 

That being said, I recommend using the mixing package rather than the one that involves melting the gel over boiling water since it dries more firmly and it's easier to clean if dust begins to collect on the surface.

Time: 12 hours on sculpture plus an additional 2-3 hours spent editing and digitally painting. 

"Sister" Series

Finally posting up this sculpture series that I completed a couple of months ago for my AP portfolio!

The central idea for this series revolves around the existence of possibility and how it is especially present in early ages and each concept is inspired by certain childhood memories and games shared between my sister and I. 

Just to paraphrase the description I wrote for the submission requirements, "As you grow older, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find possibility in everyday life without questioning its validity. Though this sense of rationality and conclusive thinking is a natural part of self-growth, I wanted to further explore the mindset of adolescents who have the effortless ability of seeing things larger than life. Using a mixed medium of sculpture and digital painting, this series intends to imitate a feeling of adventure and unfiltered joy that is commonly expressed by those at a young age. The focus is not on the time that passes but the exploration of the world around them through their eyes. By making this sense of exuberance and creativity the primary focus, this series is not so much about a chronological growth as it is a celebration of the past."

Look who's back again

Hey guys, I'm really sorry for the lack of updates on my part these past few months but I will be getting back to regular updates with some new projects that I'm hoping to get finished during the summer. (including putting up some old sculpture pictures that I should I have gotten to posting a long time ago) Thanks for all your patience and I'll try my best not to disappoint.

Tiny Paper Umbrella Tutorial

Back as promised, with a little how-to guide for this cute little 100% not waterproof accessory.

I initially came by this cute tutorial by Lisa Snellings (whose sculptures are incredible, to no one's surprise) when I was trying to search up an easy umbrella design since making an umbrella with clay would be too heavy for my little sculpture figurine to hold. I only made a few small changes to the design to fit my own art style. Let's get to it. 

 1) Cut out a circle of desired size. A small one for mice. A life sized one to carry around with you and pretend you're a paper doll. The possibilities are endless.

 

 

2) Fold circle into eight sections by folding it in half again and again and again (this must be folded that exact amount of "agains" it's very important)

 3) To trim the edges neatly, I drew some guidelines from point to point but you can certainly eye-ball it.

 4) Admire your work and take a 5 hour lunch break

 

5) When you get back thoroughly stuffed,  cut along one of the folds until you reach the center

 

6) Overlap that sucker and glue it down strong.

 

7) OPTIONAL: At this stage I still felt that the umbrella was a little too flat so I lightly pressed some of the sections between my thumbs to create a fold (as shown above). Do this for all eight sections. There's no real precision for this step, just eye-ball it and see which fold works best. In this case I did two examples, with the first having folds closer the the center, and the second one a little farther.

8) Paint the desired color and stick the handle through the center. You can use a toothpick or a thick wire if you want a curved handle. To help make it easier to get the stick through, use a push pin to poke a hole in the center before pushing it through. Finally, use some gloss varnish on the top to give it that "wet" look. 

And you're done! 

In Lisa's tutorial she has a smaller circle on the underside of the umbrella for support but even though I skipped this step, I found that it still held up pretty well. Even so, I suggest that you add some glue for extra security.

Rain Snail Sculpture

Another addition to the sculpture series that I posted earlier this week! I'm resisting the urge to post them all in one go since a good majority of the sculptures still need to go through a final edit. This is a mixed media of sculpture and digital painting and took 12-13 hours to complete (in which the majority of that time was spent dyeing and drying the leaves and painting each individual snail).

For purely self-indulgent reasons, I'll be posting up a little tutorial later on how to make that tiny umbrella in the background so check back if you're interested.

Bird Cage Sculpture

One of the few sculptures I’ve been working on these past few months!

The central idea for this series revolves around the existence of possibility and how it is especially present in early ages.This is shown in concepts inspired by childhood games and memories between my sister and I in our younger years and it was crucial for me to keep that sense of vibrancy and creativity alive in each piece.

This is a mixed media of sculpture and digital painting (as seen in the detailing on the birds), and took a total of roughly 11-12 hours to make.

The rest of this series will be posted soon when I finish touching up things here and there.