submission

1. Little India Week 1

28th Aug

This is the chosen image I picked from the many pictures taken at Little India. It is a wooden horse puppet. I thought it was a good way to start my works based on horses, as these creatures are dominant animals throughout the history of man and also has an attractive value for children, as I intend to focus on kids wear.

This was the first drawing I did right after our field trip. I tried drawing the horse in proportion and varied the thick and thin lines with ink in light to dark shades.

The immediate critique received from the class after this drawing session was that I had drawn the horse well, and that I should try different colours and add more texture to the drawing.

I went home, and was unsure of how I should develop the horse. I tried tracing the horse above, in black calligraphy ink because it is one of my favourite medium, on baking paper.

I tried adding some colours after I had traced it out, by dripping and blowing silk paints across the drawings. It messed with the wet black ink, and I thought it was ruined so I put it way immediately.

Tang said, the drawing has "kinda lost" in the center.. I wasn't sure what it meant, but i know she doesn't like it either.

While I did this <- drawing, I was thinking about skeletons and skulls in the desert, the breakdown of bones, and therefore I used brown and orange paint to represent the dry, tribal aesthetic of the Mongolian deserts, cave art or something.

Emma and Tang said they liked this, but I wasn't so sure I liked it myself. It's a bit too 'tribal' for me?

I did this random sketch of a horse within a minute on a scalloped piece of paper. It was pretty amusing when I was done with it. On one hand, it looks like a really good piece of work for children's clothing, but on the other hand, I disliked it because I felt like it reminded me of Geoffrey the giraffe of Toys 'R' Us. I don't like combining yellow and black because I feel like there is a kind of message the colour combinations brings about to people, whether they are aware or not, to stay away from anything black and yellow because it represents danger, like a wasp.

Tang said this was a good picture I did, because the scalloped edges add character to the horse and that I would never be able to replicate it again since it was my state of mind that allowed to to come up with this. I AGREE!!! I still think it sucks. I want to try to make a horse print that is acceptable to both boys' and girls' clothing, and this is definitely not going to make it on a girl's tee shirt since the horse has a very strong boyish character to it.

I combined the elements of the wooden puppet with the skeletal lines of this picture I found, to create a sort of creepy horse? My idea was to have a sinister piece of art work that would appeal to both older boys and girls who like strange cartoons, in the likes of Edward Gorey or Tim Burton. I was also thinking of how to make this horse more surrealistic..

2. Botanic Gardens Week 2

29th Aug

These are the images I took at the Botanic Gardens, without a very clear idea of what i was looking for, but i tried to capture some textures, and I was particularly drawn to semi-aquatic plants, the co-dependency of tiny plants and huge trees, plants and water.

I did some random paintings, line drawings. I tried very hard thinking about how I could change the plants in my drawing to make them look different and more contemporary.

I didn't like what I was doing, and Tang later commented that they are mere 'floaters'. Indeed.. I had to work out what I wanted to do when I get home.

This is my chosen image. I liked the fact that both actual plants are floating on water and the reflection of land plants on water.

I tried doing pointillism, but it turned out so disgusting... Tang said, it sucks. I didn't think I was any good with this, so I threw it aside.

Here, I tried type. I used lots of 'o's, 'O's and '0's(zeros) in random order to achieve some textures. I thought it turned out quite well, but I knew I had to add something to it..

My classmate Mira said, that it resembled knit in some way. I thought it could be true.

I did this drawing of the lotus flower. As I did it, I thought it was childish.. and I still think it is.

Tang said I am trying too hard.

Paper-cutting is one of my favourite types of art. I find satisfaction in keeping the entire piece of paper as one even after cutting out the shapes.

I cut the shapes carefully, and tried to vary each element.

Tang said this was a good piece of work, and that it already is a print, and that I should focus on doing paper-cutting. I totally agreed!

3. Reworking on 'Botanic Gardens' Week 3

29th Aug

This week, I tried to pick up on the fact that the "o, O & 0" makes great texture. I introduced it on a crumpled piece of paper I had dyed and washed thoroughly, but it seems pretty messed up, so I might try it on something else.

This was last week's paper cutting and typewriter-type combined using photoshop.

I made a series of possible combinations of the painting I did with the textured card stock cutting.

I think this week's work was pretty good. Need to experiment with more textures and define the form of the water lily plant

4. Peranakan Museum Week 3

30th AugIn Week 3, we went to the Peranakan Museum. The museum tries to reflect the vibrancy of this group of mixed bloods. There was an emphasis on the strict rules the Peranakans set for themselves and their future generations. Elaborate practices and traditions to keep their culture on going and also to flaunt their wealth.

There are lots of influences that gave rise to 'Peranakan culture'. Mainly Chinese elements, but also Malay, European and Indonesian, if I may name a few to define them.

My storyboard

Paper cuttings I did at the Museum

I returned to the museum again and decided to pick the Door Gods as inspiration.

Because the voluntary tour guide made the point that the Door Gods had something to do with the Tang emperor and how the came to being murals on doors for all the houses of the common men.

1st try

I tried again to cut the Door Gods, and consciously tried to modify it so it wouldn't look very Chinese. As I was doing it, I thought it looked a bit like the Kings of playing cards, and slightly medieval. I didn't think it was bad. I quite liked it but I needed some kind of assurance that this wasn't too Chinese looking.

The idea was to have this placed on the back of a dress, with a zip between the gods, so it protects the wearer from malicious men.

Tang said it looked too Chinese. I thought it was perhaps because I was putting Chinese influenced characters on paper through paper cutting which is a traditional art form in China, and I was worried that people who do not readily accept cultural things may not buy it, and "you will lose a 1/3 of the world who are Christians and Muslims" as Tang declared.

Emma said she wouldn't wear characters on the back of her dress. She pointed out that people don't usually wear characters on their clothes unless they are some kinda musician, idols that the wearer is into.

I did my research by going out to Holland Village on Saturday night (and also consciously everyday) and I was looking for any one who wore a character on their clothes. But few people do that. Those who did had some kinda cartoon on it. Sesame street, cute Japanese cartoons and the like. Other types of print like florals or stripes are definitely more readily accepted by the everday folks.

Perhaps that's just the way it is. I never really liked characters myself. I sometimes thought if I wore a huge silly cartoon characters, people would be looking at my shirt and not my face.

I think I shall ignore the fact most people don't wear characters and move on.

I thought of introducing some other culture's distinctive fashion into the door gods..

or giving the gods a cool Chris Martin face because Coldplay is a good and for sure and he has a pleasing face.

I was thinking a lot about clothes that have details on the back. I am certain that most designers/apparel makers and consumers like details on the front so that the wearer can see himself and feel good about the clothes he's in. Any piece of clothing that has focus on the back tends to be a detail that the wearer can physically feel. They include any kind of top or dress that bares the back's skin whether it be a spaghetti strap or a plunging low detail. This is my analysis for now. I might be wrong.

5. Designer Research Week 4

30th Aug

This week, I presented Eley Kishimoto as the fashion designers that I find use textiles in an inspirational way, and tried to make a connection between its works and mine.



"Eley Kishimoto is the brand of designers Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto. Mark is from Wales and Wakako is from Japan. They are based in London, and have been showing at LFW since 2001. I have chosen three collections to describe their design output based on speculation.



AW 0405 collection
Imagery: Hunters, blood and innocent fawns.
Pattern: English florals, stripes, animal silhoettes. They range from tiny to oversized prints.
Placement: Experimenting the effect of semi circles on the side seams and at the waist. Exaggerated deer head. on bodice.
Texture: Knits, twee, heavy and semi-heavy fabrics.
Colour: Camouflage army colours. leading to crimson blood and primary reds and blues. Light pastels accented with black.
Silhoette: Simple shapes- trenchcoats, turtlenecks, knee-length dresses.



SS 06
Imagery: Astrology, stars and clouds. Pop art.
Pattern: Large phantasmagoric prints, and teeny regularly repeated prints.
Placement:Large print garments made from one single piece of design, while small repeated patterned garments have bits of solid colour accent.
Texture: No physical texture in most collections. Lightweight fabrics- cotton and polyester used in this collection. Green dress seems to have an embossed jacquard texture.
Colour: Primary and neon colours.
Silhoette: Fitted clothing, some structured pieces. A-line dresses, boxy jackets, high-waisted skirts.



SS 08
Imagery: Tropics? Hawaiian flowers, African zig-zag motif, grass, clouds and chains- sailor influences?
Pattern:Irregularly and diagonally-repeated prints. Some non-repetitive prints.
Placement: Garments entirely made of a single printed fabric.
Texture: Lightweight cotton, jersey.
Colour:Some colour ways, bright orange, yellow, parrot green, with hints of black and purple.
Silhoette: Loose-fit garments, straight-cut dresses, flared dresses with an underlayer of ruffles.


From these three EK collections, I think there is an obvious fusion of a bit of Japanese art with Western aesthetics. Some influences of Art deco involved, and they are definitely inspired by everything they come to contact with every day, nothing philosophical.
Their approach is eccentric and simple, there is an emphasis on the use of colour and shapes.
Some outfits have clashing fabrics on the details such as pockets or when layered.


I like EK's cartoon-like use of colour and imagery, as well as the kind of girlish clothes they create. The pictures above show use of trompe loeil which is humourous and use of colours and imagery which i really admire.


I dislike these grandma-like silhoettes. They are stiff coats in patterns and colours I wouldn't immediately recognise as EK's work.


The picture on the left is from an EK-Ellese collaboration. It's got lots of penguins on it, and I think there is probably a parallel between the imagery I have created- the selection fo an animal to work on and repeating it.


I recently tried paper-cutting. The solid shapes and colours are definitely similar to some of EK's work.


This EK dress is printed to look as if its got lots of ruffles. I am interested in creating 3D textures on 2D surfaces.

In all, my work has some parallels to EK's but it isn't clearly evident since I am stilll unsure of my direction. I am going to try and experiment with more textures and shapes as well as placement.

sources: style.com, eleykishimoto.com, V&A museum.