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Planning
Inspiration
My main inspiration for this piece was the Vietnamese Ao dais, or can be translated into ¨long shirt¨, it is usually made out of silk and are worn with silk pants traditionally. The ¨Ao dai¨ was first created in the 1920s, but continue to develop into the now known ao dai through In Vietnam, color plays a big role in what the Ao Dais can mean and who can wear them. Colors of the ao dai worn vary from ages, young girls usually wear white to school as uniforms to symbolize purity and innocence. Older but unmarried girls wears either pastel colors or bright colors, while older married women wear darker and richer ao dais. Through the Vietnamese ao dai, I wanted to represent how my Vietnamese culture impacts me and vice versa through the color symbolism of the Ao dai. (Nguyen, 2017)
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Panel 1: How I influence my culture
Through the first panel, I want to communicate how the younger generation of Vietnam brings a change in its culture. Although traditions are still honored greatly by our generation but this generation know what to progress in and what to keep. I want to express that by using Rene Magritte´s iconic surrealism cloud background to symbolize the freedom and developing a consciousness in the new generation is slowly bring into the customs that we have. |
Panel 2: Me
For the second panel, I want to represent my current self struggling between identifying my modern self and traditional self and who I am. For the background, I decided to go with the classic dramatic background that is common in Baroque paintings such like Judith slaying Holofernes by Caravaggio. I picked this background as I want to use the dramatics of Baroque of a highly contrasted figure to the dark background. Which also creates the mood that I was going for with my struggle, which is isolation and emptiness. I went for the pose of my hands cover my face to represent the questioning of identity that I am feeling. |
Panel 3: How Culture influence me
The third panel represent how I am impacted by the traditional values of Vietnamese culture. How these values gave me the matureness and morals that I currently have. So for my background I want to relate it to something traditional in Asian art, which are bamboos. In Asian art, bamboo symbolize one´s character which needs to be resistance, integrity, modesty and elegance. |
Sketches and reference
My first sketch is an undersea landscape. Through this sketch I want to depict my journey between what I already know about myself (the top of the sea ) and discovering more about myself (bottom of the sea)
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This was the closest sketch that I had to what I actually did for the triptych, for this one I wanted to express how my culture impacts me as an individual and how I influence it myself too.
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I used the three regions of Vietnam as my main inspiration for this sketch, as my dad is from the North, my mom from the middle part and I´m born and raised in the South. So I wanted to show how Vietnam divided into three regions influence me as a whole.
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My chosen reference for my first panel. I wanted a pose that looks very carefree and youthful, and this one embodies the structure of youthfulness and freedom yet still very upright.
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This pose once again represents my struggle between my modern beliefs and my traditional values. The hands covering the face creates a partial lose of identity.
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For panel 3, I chose this pose as this is a classic Vietnamese posture for noble married women in our literature. In Vietnamese literature, noble married woman are depicted as sitting with one of their legs up while leaning on something. It is a very typical archetype posture.
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Process
1.) I started off my making my canvases and putting them together. I did this by first assembling the wood, then went on to stretch the canvas and laying my wood on top, then after the canvas was cut I stapled the canvas to the wood.
2) Lastly to assemble my canvas I out gesso on it to make sure it was ready to be painted on. 3.) Then I went and took pictures in order to have a reference photo to project onto my canvas. 4.) After my canvas was ready and so were my photos, I transfer my photos onto my canvas by grid drawing them on 5.) Then I started painting one section of each of my canvases. 6.) Then i slowly did small sections of each panel at a time until all of them where done. 7.) After the first coat for each canvas was done then I put more layers in order to look full and until they were done. |
Experimentation
My experimentation mainly include mixing color and blending separate color together to create a gradual transition from one color to another. I had the hardest time blending skin tones as I was not very smart and create only small batch of skin tones so my skin tones for each panels are different from the other, and I had to recreate the same color every time I run out of it. In addition, it was quite hard for me to blend as I didn´t have acrylic extender, but I was able to replace it with water. At first I struggled with it a bit before getting into the swing of it.
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Reflection
critique
I felt like I did an okay job overall with the painting and the thematic meaning behind the piece. I really like my first and third panels, as they turned out very nice and the blending was really well. I wished I could have done my middle panel better as the face proportions are off and it kind of looks like if a moose was in human form. I should have made the face shorter and a bit rounder. Another thing that I really like from the piece is the backgrounds and the ao dais of the three panels, they all clearly represent what I want to convey and still serve as aesthetically pleasing. I think that the inspiration for my backgrounds can be easily seen and that I have reference the original works really well. However, I could have worked harder in conveying the thematic statement of how I impact my culture through a change of posture or the color of the ao dai.
Compare and Contrast
Compare
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Contrast
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ACT Response
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
The Vietnamese ao dai is my main inspiration that inspired my subject of my artwork while ¨Cat in the Hat¨ uses Rene Maggritte´s iconic clouds inspired me to represent it on how I influence my culture and ¨Bamboo¨ by Li Kan urged me to express how my culture influence me through the symbolism of Bamboos.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Vietnamese ao dai highly represent the culture within Vietnam, and the color of each ao dai represent a different meaning and depict the women of Vietnam.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to conclusion that the Vietnamese ao dai is truly the thing that represent the womenfolk of Vietnam well and the spirit and mentality of Vietnamese people.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my inspirational research was about the history and art of Vietnamese ao dai and how can I tie the significance of such an iconic outfit with rich history into what I am trying to express.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred what I knew about Vietnamese ao dai were true.
The Vietnamese ao dai is my main inspiration that inspired my subject of my artwork while ¨Cat in the Hat¨ uses Rene Maggritte´s iconic clouds inspired me to represent it on how I influence my culture and ¨Bamboo¨ by Li Kan urged me to express how my culture influence me through the symbolism of Bamboos.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Vietnamese ao dai highly represent the culture within Vietnam, and the color of each ao dai represent a different meaning and depict the women of Vietnam.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to conclusion that the Vietnamese ao dai is truly the thing that represent the womenfolk of Vietnam well and the spirit and mentality of Vietnamese people.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my inspirational research was about the history and art of Vietnamese ao dai and how can I tie the significance of such an iconic outfit with rich history into what I am trying to express.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred what I knew about Vietnamese ao dai were true.
Bibliography
Camara, Esperança. “Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, 2014, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/baroque-art1/baroque-italy/a/gentileschi-judith-slaying-holofernes.
Editor China Daily. “Bamboo, a Symbol of Traditional Chinese Values.” Bamboo, a Symbol of Traditional Chinese Values, 19 Jan. 2011, www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-01/19/content_11882983.htm.
Nguyen, Thomas, and Alcott Baker. “Áo Dài - The Traditional Costume of Vietnam.” Global Storybook, 18 Dec. 2017, globalstorybook.org/ao-dai-pride-vietnamese-culture/.
Editor China Daily. “Bamboo, a Symbol of Traditional Chinese Values.” Bamboo, a Symbol of Traditional Chinese Values, 19 Jan. 2011, www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-01/19/content_11882983.htm.
Nguyen, Thomas, and Alcott Baker. “Áo Dài - The Traditional Costume of Vietnam.” Global Storybook, 18 Dec. 2017, globalstorybook.org/ao-dai-pride-vietnamese-culture/.