Sec 3 Oil Painting

This is my sec 3 oil painting project. I was suppose to paint something about Nanyang in the post impressionism style. While, for post impressionism, the first artist that came to my mind was Van Gogh. I realized that in his painting, "Church of Auvres", the church seems to be a little similar to Nanyang's clock tower. So, I decided to change the tower into Nanyang's clock tower and the woman in the painting into a nanyang girl.

It is rather hard to copy Van Gogh's style of painting as when you are painting, you need to be emotional and confident at the same time. At that time, I also did not know exactly how much paint did he really applied on the canvas. That's why it was very hard for me to decide how thick I should apply me paint. The other challenge I faced was to make the nanyang clock tower look like the church. The structure of the 2 buildings are rather different, hence I had a hard time trying to fit the clock tower into my painting.

Applying thick layers of paint on the canvas is an important part too. I enjoyed applying thick layers of paint on my canvas and by doing so, it gave my painting a unique texture that only oil paint can give. I think I am more suitable painting oil paints in this style as I do not need to be too precise and accurate when I paint. I think I prefer working works in a faster pace.

This experience has also allowed me to be more confident in oil painting and has set a good foundation for me to continue oil painting this year.

Inspiration - Sec 3 EOY

I got my coursework inspiration partly from my sec 3 EOY paper. I choose the title "Natural Phenomenon" to paint last year.

The concept of this painting is kind of similar to the one for my coursework. This painting also explores the theme of aging and the cycle of life

However, in this painting, I used the chairs to represent the different stages of life. For example, I used the wheel chair to represent the elderly and the office chair to represent the adults. I was fascinated by the fact that at the different stages of life, we sit on different kinds of chairs. The different kinds of chairs also tell us a lot about that particular age group. For example, the wheel chair tells us that as people slowly ages, their body become weak and eventually they will depend on a wheel chair.

The office chair suggests working for the adults. The third chair, in the middle, is a student's chair, which suggests that studying is a important part of a teenager's life. The chair that shapes like an animal represents the children, where they often sit on these kind of chairs and have fun. The last one at the bottom of the painting is a baby stroller. This symbolizes the fact that babies are often taken good care by the parents.

It is interesting as at both the beginging and the end of life, people seem to be more dependent, where both the baby stroller and the wheel chair requires someone to push them. It shows that both the babies and the elderly should be given more attention as they are the weakest in the society. This shows the cycle of life, where we slowly become stronger and we then start to turn weak again and eventually we need someone to take care of us again.

The big clock at the background symbolizes the time that seems to fly past in our lives.

Overall, the concept in this painting and that of my coursework is rather similar. However, I chose a more direct way to express this theme in my coursework this time. I also added in more objects for each of the age group to better express my theme of aging and the cycle of life.

random works

Painted these some time ago during holidays when I was bored. I didn't really have any water colour paper, so I just painted water colour on normal paper. That's why the papers look a bit weird.

Course work FINAL!!!

THE FINAL COURSEWORK!!!

After spending around 2+ months on my final coursework, this is it! There are indeed some challenges faced. I guess the biggest challenge is to be to paint the faces of people of the different age groups. The tones of the faces are rather hard to depict as I spent a long time trying to make the faces seem to be more realistic and 3D. The facial expressions are really hard to capture with oil paintings. However, I an glad that I manage to do my best. :)

These paintings are all 50 by 50 cm. Although it is not very big, it took me a lot of time to finish it. I guess the other challenge I faced is time management. I spent too much time trying to paint the faces, and in the end, I have to finish the other parts of the paintings in a rush.

Prep Work

There suppose to be 8 boards. But I forgot to take the photo of the board for the baby (from 0 to 3 years old) . There are the other 7 boards.


The 1st board is an introduction to my artwork.

The 2nd one is about the children (from 4 - 12 years old).

The 3rd board is for the age group of the teenagers (from 13 - 29 years old).

The 4th board is for the age group of the adults (30 -60 years old).

The 5th board is for the age group of the elderly (60 years old and above).

The 6th board is for the final compositions.

The 7th board is for the other compositions I tried out.

Course work final composition

For or my coursework, I decided to do 5 paintings. These 5 paintings will represent the 5 different stages of life.

For the first painting, it will be for the baby. Firstly, for the baby, I choose to put the photo in the middle of the painting, and it a very straight position. This is to symbolize the baby will be always the centre of attention. Parents and family members will always take goo care of the baby and make sure everything will be perfect for him/her. The objects scattered around the photo are chosen specifically. The 2 photos will represent the love received by the baby from the parents, and the bond between them. The aphalbet cards represents the young age of babies. They are currently in the stage where they start to be exposed to the world and also starting the life long process of learning. The alphabet cards also shows the comparative mindset of the parents nowadays, and how kids as young as 2 years old will start learning.

The storybook represents the daily activities parents and babies experience, for example the storytelling, which shows the bonds between parents and children.This painting is colourful which symbolizes that his life is full of hope and positiveness.

For the second painting, it depicts a photo of a young boy around the age of 7. The photo of him is still situated at the middle of the painting, which shows that children are still parents' center of attention. The drawings around the photo symbolizes the purity and innocence of children. They will often draw pictures of th eir superhero, as they are very ambitious at this stage. They want to be just like th eir superhero and make positive changes to the world when they grow up. The writing "I love mommy" shows the close relationship and the love between the child and the mother. The splashed orange juice shows the carelessness of the child and the hand print symbolizes the innovation and the fun-seeking characteristics of the child.This painting is rather colourful and vibrant which shows that the child's life full of energy and cheerful.

The third painting depicts the teenager. The painting is mainly made up of websites, mostly websites that are often visited by teenagers and youth, such as youtube and facebook. The picture of the teenager (the display picture of facebook) is covered covered by the y outube website, this shows that teenagers spent a relative huge amount of time on internet. The "its complicated with" symbolises the relationships teenagers are going through in this stage of life. The "friends (1026)" shows us that friends is a very important part of teenagers' life and that most of them have a huge group of friends. The blogspot shows what teenagers are going through on a daily basis, which is school stress and examination. This painting shows that even through teenagers are still enjoying life, occupying their lives with friends and internet, they start to experience stress and pressure. The painting is still rather colourful to show that overall, teenagers' lives are still enjoyable and happy.

The fourth one depicts the adults. The photo of the adult is no longer palced in the center, however it has moved to the corn er of the painting. This shows that adults are no longer center of attention. In this age groups, that are the ones taking care of others, and instead of the others taking care and paying attention on them. I purposely made the painting rather messy, with papers and files partly covering the photo. The untidiness gives a sense of panic and stress, and it also symbolizes the fact that often adults are overwhelmed by things such as the loans and salary. The painting shows several things that adults are worried and constantly stressed about, such as the house and car loans, the GST and debt. The calculator with negative numbers on them expresses the fact that most adults faces the problem of debt and insufficient money. The notes scattered around shows that earning money is a important part of the adult's lives. The colour scheme of this painting is slightly dull and less vibrant, as the adult life is not as cheerful and enjoying as the past. Adults constantly meet prob lems and it is their responsibility to resolve them.

The last paintings depicts th e l if e of an elderly. The picture of the elderly is shown on the obituary section of the newspa per. T his symbolizes the fact that each elderly faces the stress and fear of death and it is a part of the lif e cycle to die. I choose the newspaper as it has a dull colour, with gives the painting a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, which is constantly felt by the elderly. The medical bills around the picture shows us that they too experiences financial stress as they need huge sums of money to pay for the medical bills. The pills and medicine show that the elderly do also experiences physical burner as their health deteriorate day by day, and that is why they may be grumpy at times, they do not feel as energetic as before. The old photo of the family shows that although the elderly may be grumpy to their families at times, they do still love their family and treasure their happy memories in the past. The entire painting is dull in colour, to show that this stage of life is not particularly that happy and hopeful.

Overall, these 5 paintings together will show the cycle of life most of the people face today.

Marina Barrage

We went to Marina Barrage during the Sabbaticals Week. We went there to learn about the water system, however it is also a place with great scenery. Took a few photos of marina barrage.
Tried to capture both the Singapore and the nature scenery seen from there.

And the sun that day was really beautiful too, so I captured it.

Can see many of the distinct Singapore features, like the Singapore flyer and the marina sands hotel.



The beautiful blue sky and white clouds. :)





At the grass carpeted green roof of marina barrage. Really nice scenery, blue sky with green fields. :)



The sunny sun :)





Inside the marina barrage exhibition.

Painting at the Void Deck

During the June Holiday, I went to a void deck at Tampiness to help paint the walls there. :)
It was a very fun, however I only painted the bottom parts cos the adults there refuse to let me use the ladder. :(
I did not designed the pictures. When I got there, the outlines were already done, all I need to do was to fill in the shapes with colour (also decided by the person in charge). It was kind of like colouring that I did when I was a child. :)



(the man helped us painted the top of the wall.)

Course Work Progress!!!

Research Studies:

What the babies see: family, parents, happiness and care

What the children see: toys, eg: rubber ducky and colourful toys :)
Little children's drawings (reminded me of my childhood when doing these drawings :D )

The chair is what the old people see. Symbolizes loneliness and sadness.
The youtube, twitter and facebook represent where the teenagers are spending their time nowadays. Friends are important part of their lives too :).

The teddy bear is for the children and the car is meant to represent what the adults see.

What the adults see as important: house, car, money and properties.
The room is what the seniors see, the emptiness and loneliness.

Compositions :)

Using papers, photos or anything 2D and laying them on the table - represent the things and issues (happy or sad) that each age group is surrounded with.

Using mirrors to reflect the surroundings of the people of different ages.

Drawing out the eyes and pupils of the people of different age groups. Using the reflection of the pupils to represent the things different people are seeing from their own worlds through their perspective. :)

Sec 4 LSC design

For this year's LSC design, the main theme is Respected Members of the Society. So I included many buildings, people and the world/globe into my design. :)

Final work :)

Prep Works:


These are the other compositions for the design. :) But I guess I used the same idea of people and buildings for too many of my compositions:(
Should have tried and come up with other types of ideas...