Special Edition #5: Squishy Stuff

It would be the first time here in this blog how we are going to touch "squishy stuff". In other words, we are going to be using clay. You could make anything with clay! Animals, humans, electronics, shapes, and anything you'd like to make are an option. Think about it for a second, and choose a thing that you want to make into.

You will need: clay (white would work best for later), a bucket with water, paintbrushes, paint, cutting/rolling tools, and a mat that you could put it on while working.

If you still haven't thought of an idea, look up in the Internet once more!

When you are finally ready to start, make the clay softer and flexible so that it is easier to make it later. It is easier if you add some water to it (it works best when the clay is dry). This is always the annoying part for me how I have to make it softer when it is so solid. Then, try to shape the basic part. Then, shape the basic part with a little bit of detail. Whenever that is done, make the details. For example: eyes, hair, nose, petals, programs on the computer, and etc. You need to stick it strongly to the basic part with water; it shouldn't fall off when it dries.

You need to dry it completely. When you've done that it's time for painting it. Paint it with a paintbrush. Put some more details that you couldn't put it through the clay. There would be different colors on your clay! Then, dry the painted artwork.

Put it on a shelf so that you could see it everyday!

Quote of the Day: "Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls." -Antoine Rivarol

This is what I've made with clay and
paint. 

This is called Kimbab (popular food
in South Korea) that I've made.

Special Edition #4: Two Little Hanboks

This is how a Hanbok looks like
for boys and girls (Internet)

It would've been repetitive how we mostly sketched and drew. This time, we are going to do origami. We are going to make Hanbok origami, which is a traditional dress code in South Korea especially worn in traditional holidays. Anyways, we are going to make a mini-sized version of Hanbok!

You will need: origami papers or hanji (a traditional paper that is very thin), scissors, and a ruler.

Let's make the shirt of Hanbok for both girls and boys. First of all, cut the paper by 6 x 6 cm. It should be pretty much accurate, forming a small square. Then, fold it into a triangle and fold it once more that it becomes a smaller triangle. Unfold the triangle into its original state, so that you could see two lines. Fold the four corners into a triangle towards the center of the paper. Flip it over, and then do the same. Flip once again, and do that once more. If you flip it for the last time, you need to unfold the diamond into a rectangle for four sides. Once it became a plus sign, fold it in half; it will form a shirt. Then, cut a narrow, small piece with the same color with the skirt/pants (we will get to it in a moment). Afterwards, stick it onto the shirt.

For girls, it will be a skirt. Grab 6 x 6 paper in a different color. Fold it into a small square, unfold the whole thing, and into a small triangle. Then make it like a mountain to fold it into a triangle. From the top of the triangle, fold it side by side towards the mid-line for two directions for only one side. Flip it over and fold the two left and right corners of the triangle. Also, put the two "small things" at the hypotenuse into the space inside. Flip it over then the skirt is done! The pointy part of the skirt should be stuck in the shirt to get glued.

The boys version is of course going to be pants. Make the shirt again for the pants. Yes, I know that it sounds unusual to make pants out of a shirt. But in here, it is part of the process. Turn the shirt upside down. Then unfold the two sleeves a little, so that it becomes pants. After you clean up a little, put the pants inside the shirt.

Hanbok with pencils.

Now you are finally done! If you want to make your pencils decorative a little, grab a couple of black colored pencils to attach two Hanboks for each. For both versions, stick it inside of the pencil so that it wouldn't fall out. Afterwards, you will definitely find pleasure while you write with the two!

Quote of the Day: "When you fold a piece of paper, your essentially changing the memory of that piece." -Eric Demaine

Check out this video that I've made: How to make Hanbok origami

Special Edition #3: Lettering Design

Letters. Each individual letter in the alphabets is unique over here. That's because we are going to design a word/phrase/sentence today. It's not going to be ordinary like we write on a white, boring paper with a dull pencil. Instead, we will be grabbing some colorful paper and design letters on it!

You will first sketch out your ideas on a random piece of paper. Afterwards you will need: some colored paper (if you want), scissors, any coloring material, and any materials that you want to attach to your paper. 

Choose an idea to make it into a design officially. Cut it if you need to, glue it if you need to, color it if you need to. There could be a picture along with your letters. This is all up to you. I shouldn't control it, but you should. You are the only one that could make your own decisions in art. 

Quote of the Day: "Personality is everything in art and poetry." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This is what I've designed yesterday! You probably can't
see the other words on here, but it should sound like:
"Loud on the inside, Quiet on the outside."
I quoted this myself, then put it into art.

Special Edition #2: Pastel Sunset

Acrylic, watercolor, pencils, and colored pencils are what you've used until now. Now let's add another material for our new project: pastels. It's not oil pastels; it happens to be two different materials. Pastels are substances in which it is made by colored powder. It's meant to use it when you want to color it lightly. It's also made to smudge the powder with a tissue. 

We are going to draw and color the sky/sunset. You will need: a set of pastels, pencil, eraser, tissues, a piece of paper and a spray for pastels. As we all know by now, you should print out a photo of a sunset. Then on a piece of paper, sketch it lightly that are the most important. After you've done it, take out the pastels, and gently color it. Don't press it on the paper; this material is not for you to color with 100% opacity. For another reason, it will leave many powders on your paper, which doesn't look pretty. After you've colored some parts, cover one finger with a tissue to smudge the powder. It would look like as if you've painted it. Then, do the other parts like that. While you are smudging it, blend with the other parts of the sky. And for the black colored parts, don't do it so much, because black appeals its color so much that we don't need more of it. 

It's what pastels look like (Internet).

Remember that you could mix with other colors by gently coloring it on paper. When you think that you are finally done, spray (use for pastels) it on your drawing, having some distances away from it. This spray is used, because you don't want the powder to smudge in different places by accident. Its job is to stop the smudging, but it doesn't completely do that, so still be careful. 

Quote of the Day: "Colors speak all languages." -Joseph Addison

These are my projects from pastels. 

Special Edition #1: City with Watercolor

You've worked on acrylic colors before, and now you are going to work on watercolor. Watercolor by itself is kind of delicate. Its colors are not thick like acrylic, but very clear (low opacity). One thing that watercolor is special for is that the paintbrush prints leave marks when it dries up. Since it's called watercolor, you need to mix lots of water to it. But for today, we are going to work on a night city.

For this project, you will need: a big piece of paper, palette, brushes (for watercolor only), watercolor paint, and a bucket with water. 

Before you start anything yet, you need to sketch first. Everything that involves art needs sketching. It's the same thing like in writing how you do your outline first, and then you write it. Imagine how a city looks like. Where I live, Seoul is a busy city, which I could see in my everyday life. But it's at night. Think about that and start sketching. Sketch for buildings that you might see. Sketch it very sloppy. Don't measure it with a ruler, and leave stupid marks on there since you are not going to release your pen. 

After you've sketched, mix (2-3) dark colored paint with water; it needs to flow, not stuck like solid. When you've mixed them, softly, paint the buildings. Don't paint the windows yet, but it's okay that the dark paint goes inside by accident. Since it is dark and cannot see well, you need to make as sloppy as you can. It's not going to look perfect, which would look very weird for this project. Don't put a lot of pressure into your wrist, and just make it free like your sketches. You need to know that tiny, rolled up papers come out when you put too much water onto your paper. When you are done, dry it well. 

There are a lot of places that leaves light in the buildings for late workers. And some aren't. So, grab a light color(s), like yellow and orange, to color sloppily in the windows. 

Dry it once again and you are all set! You could absolutely do another one if you'd like. 

Quote of the Day: "After a thousand watercolors you will find you have fallen in love with paper and paint." -Rex Brandt

What I've painted for a night city. The buildings
have their reflections in the water.

Learn, See, and Develop

You might've heard these museums before: Tate Modern (United Kingdom), National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, US), National Museum of Korea (South Korea), and etc. Their common point is that they are well-known!

Some of you might be interested in art. Whether you enjoy it or not, try going to any museums/art exhibits and look at the art that artists created. It might be boring if you just stare at it and go to another. So, try to see what you would buy if you had millions and thousands of dollars (that's what my mum heard from her friend). I tried it, and it was quite interesting! If you have a chance to go to a museum, try that. Also, you should take photos if you are allowed. Pick your favorites and take photos of them. You get to look back at it and think of the day that you've been to the museum. If they don't allow taking photos, don't!

You get to learn so many things in art. Art is a mixture of other things that makes it beautiful!

Quote of the day: "A picture is worth a thousand words." -Napoleon Bonaparte

 (The video at the left is about Tate Modern)

This is a building of National Gallery of Art (Washington DC)
(Internet)

To See a Landmark [Effiel Tower]

Who visited to Paris before? What's the landmark of Paris? Of course it's the Effiel Tower! For this project, we are going to make a model of Effiel Tower with skewer sticks. This is a challenging and a tough project to do; but if you finish it and stare at it, I promise that you will be proud of yourself. Just to tell you, it will take weeks to do it, so give effort and patience to it.

Okay, before starting it, take a deep breath, and sit down in front of your computer. Search for a simple drawing of it. It's quite difficult to make one if your photo is looking complicated. Type in "Effiel Tower drawing" on Google to see one. Also, print out an Effiel Tower photo to see details in the designs. If you can't find a simplified one, look at the photo underneath to print it out since I've used that for my guide.

This is how I divided into parts to do it
separately (Internet).

When yours got printed out, take out a pen or pencil to separate it into parts. There are 3 basic parts: legs, body, and the tower. But we need to divide more than 3 to put together like a puzzle. At first, we are going to try the 5th part on the image. That's right, we are starting from the middle. Since the picture is too small and harder to make, let's scale it to a bigger size. It's your choice to scale it into any size that you want, but don't make it too small or too big. Only scale the 5th part for now (do one at a time). This is of course going to be 3D.

You will need (a bunch) packets of skewer sticks that are made out of wood. That is the main supply, and the rest of them are: pen, glue gun, cooking sheet, and a pair of scissors. There are warnings for you to know before starting: be careful of poking yourself with the sticks, be careful not to burn your skin, and be careful not to cut yourself with scissors. I've once cut my finger skin slightly to cut the hard skewer sticks, and it was painful. And burning yourself with a glue gun might happen quite a lot of times, so I suggest that you should wear a glove on (if you are a right hand user, wear it on your right hand, and left handers, do the opposite).

This is the 5th part that I did. 

So cut the long parts of the rim and glue it together to form a square. Afterwards, cut the small strips of the stick to have a design on it. Then, make the same square to stick it on top of that. The smaller things might fall out accidentally, but stick those again strongly. You need to make two in total. The 5th part is done! The 3rd part is similar to the 5th one, except it's a little smaller than the 5th one. You need to look at the size after you build the 4th one to compare.

This is the 4th part.

Let's do the 4th one now. Draw the scaled one onto a paper, having the same ratio with the 5th one. Make it reflective side by side. If you look at an Effiel Tower (photo), you would be able to see the designs. For this project, it's very hard to make it bend upwards like the photo looks like; instead, we are going to make it kind of stiff. So make a polygon that looks like a long trapezoid. Then, divide the polygon into four pieces across, and half vertically. It's better to divide it vertically first. After that, put the designs like your photo looks like. Flip the other side, so that there is less glue gun that is stuck to it. Since there are four of those poles, and has four sides, you need to make 16 of those. And if you want to clear up some of the glue gun on that just make the glue gun touch the frozen glue that is stuck to it; don't squeeze more of the glue, but just let the frozen glue melt and take it out. Afterwards, make it 3D by combining 4 of those together to form a shape. There would be 4 poles in total, then stick it onto the 5th one at each corner.

This is the 3rd part.

Then, you need to do the 3rd part. The 3rd part is quite similar to the 5th part, but has more on top of it. It's smaller than the 5th one as well. Scale it once again, and topple it on top of each other.

This is the 2nd part.

You are going to do the 2nd part right now. This corresponds to the 4th part. But it's much longer and the two of the poles are stuck to each other, which narrows down at the top. Scale it once more like you did in the previous ones, and for this time, you only need to make four of those, since you can't see the inside visually.

This is the 1st part.

The 1st part would be the last thing to do at the
top. Look at the real photo of the Effiel Tower and scale it. This part is the easiest part of all. Make a square with lines inside, and combine it to make a 3D square. The triangle part would be stuck to it on top of it and then the pole (line) comes afterwards to finalize it.

Now, it's the most difficult part of all: the bottom part. It involves patience... It's the 6th part. We can't make it stretchy (once again). You need to make only 8 polygons that the bottom part gets broader than the top. The design is the same like the 4th and 2nd. Also, the rest of the 8 polygons need to be a rectangle with the same height. I made a mistake of only making the "trapezoid" part, which doesn't match up later. Be careful! For this, make it reflective side by side to make the "clean part" to be on the outside later.

These are 6th and 7th parts.

Then, the very last thing is to do the 7th part: the curve. You could only make 2 of those, since the other 2 sides are not the same as the other two views. With a knife, make small marks to curve it. Don't push on it so hard that it actually snaps. After making two of those, stick it on 2 sides (where the legs look stretched, not the rectangular parts).

You are finally done! This is the real project that you should be most proud of. Put it on a shelf to get presented (it would be quite tall). Good job for following instructions that made you this. Perhaps you could do the same thing on a different landmark!

Quote of the Day: "There is no must in art because art is free." -Wassily Kandinsky

Your Future Home

Let's face it; every one would want to live in a cool house in their futures. Their mouths would drop open when they see cool houses right in front of them. I think that buying a cool house would take years and years... so, how about you construct and design a house? We are not trying to learn architecture, but to design the inner house mostly than the house structure. Shall we design a future house right now?

Think of a house that would be cool to you. A house that's two stories high? A house with a garden? A tall apartment? Pick one category that you would want to construct. Afterwards, sketch the inner building, like a floor plan. It doesn't have to be detailed, but clear enough that you could follow it while you are doing it. If you want to edit during the process, you may!

First, you need to buy all the materials that you need. The basic skeleton of the house would be all made out of thin, or thick styrofoam sheets. The area of your house depends on the amount of styrofoam that is needed (there should be more styrofoam for furniture). Other than styrofoam, you need: acrylic paint, brushes, palette, scissors or knife, rulers, glue gun, and "clear", thin plastic.

Before starting it, I am warning you to be careful of knives and glue guns. It might burn your skin with the hot glue gun. I've experienced it before and it is definitely not good. If you burn it hard, it might become a blister. For knives, be careful not to cut yourself. Also, put something underneath, so that you are not leaving marks on your desk/floor. Happy building from now on!

Whenever you are finished organizing your materials, see how big your floor want it to be. Mark the places that you want to cut it. You need to measure it with a ruler; for this project, precision is the key. If one thing is crooked, everything might get crooked, and your house would look like a zombie's house. After you've done the measuring, cut out the styrofoam sheet with a knife. I honestly think that cutting big things with a knife is more comfortable than a pair of scissors.

Then, make the furniture. The reason why we are making the furniture right now is because it's hard to stick it on when there are walls blocking it. Again, make it precise with a ruler. You could make a bed, desk, books, television, and more! Just to make sure, this is 3-dimensional. After you've done the furniture, color them with acrylic paint. While you are coloring it, be careful not to leave your fingerprints before it dries up; or else, it will look messy. Dry the wet furniture.

You would have the divisions between your rooms. If you want carpets in your house, color them with the color of your choice. This choice of coloring the floor needs to be made right now. It would look ugly if you color it later when all the furniture is already stuck onto it.

Now is the part where you put walls. Again, you have to cut out of a styrofoam sheet. Make walls that are on the inside that are between rooms. Then, attach those where you want it to be. It should be big enough that furniture could go in. Stick the dried up furniture in your house. At last, build the outer wall for your house. The outer walls should be the same height as your inner walls.

You are all set. Mostly. There's something missing when you see it. There are no windows at all! With an adult's help, cut the outer wall into a window. When you cut it, you are able to put your finger through it. We don't want that! So that's why the plastic sheet is needed. Cut a little bit bigger than your window, so that you could stick it from the inside. For the outside, you need windowsills that are four sided to make your windows stronger. Also, if you want to put curtains on, you could cut cloths and stick it on! Finally, you need a door. Cut only 3 sides of the door since you want it to make it half open.

Was this fun? I had fun when I collaborated the project with my little sister. This would be one of your masterpieces that you would keep for a long time! 

Quote of the Day: "Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life." -Oscar Wilde

(Check out the photos below! It's a two-story house that's made by my little sister and I.)

 

Paint (feat. Canvas and Acrylic)

Third project: paint! I think it's quite challenging for those who are trying it for the first time on a canvas. But don't worry at all (saying it once again). Your experiences would help you improve in art, for instance, painting skills.

There are two ways to do it from your choices: paint the same thing that was painted by an artist, or design it yourself then paint it with your own style. If you've chosen a choice, get ready to sketch. Your pencil should be out by now!

If you want to sketch it that was already done by an artist, search the Internet. Print that picture out and examine the important parts of the painting. Or if you want to design it yourself, sketch it out on paper and choose the best one.

After doing either one of the two, buy/bring a canvas of any size that you want. There are diverse sizes for canvases: tiny, small, medium, big, huge, etc. Choose one and start to sketch it there very lightly. If you do it roughly and thickly, it's very hard to erase it with an eraser. Or else, your process of the painting will get harder later. After soft sketching on canvas, prepare a small bucket with water, acrylic paint, a palette, several (acrylic use, not the water color ones) paintbrushes, and tissue.

Squeeze some paint out onto the palette. It's always important to control your ratio between water and paint. Mix the color with the other one to improve your color to make it richer. Don't always use the paint that was made from the company. Paint the medium sized things first, then the details, and finally the background. Use a small sized brush for the details, and a large brush for the background. The point in painting on the canvas is to have deep colors; you need to color the same thing over again for 2-3 times. It might not be the exact color that you used at first, but the first color is layered beneath the second time, which makes it overlapped. Your goal is to hide the pencil marks that you've made earlier; that's why lighter marks are better. After you've colored the basic parts, go on to the background.

For painting the background, choose if you like paint brush prints or non-paint brush prints. It quite matters how you want to paint it. If you want no prints, it's better to paint it in one certain direction. This again, you need to paint it 2-3 times. After you've done all that, just clear up the shapes. Then, sign it!

It's quite important to see your painting from far view since you've worked on it at a closer view. Now would be the time to do that (you could do that once in a while, while painting). Be proud!

Quote of the Day: "If you could say it in words, there'd be no reason to paint." -Edward Hopper

(Check out the photos out at the bottom!)

How it looks like when painted (Internet)

How canvas looks like (Internet)

Originated from an artist;
Painted it myself

Originated from an artist;
Painted it myself

Designed myself with acrylic paint and pen

Bottom - Originated from an artist
Top - Designed myself

Design Your Little Thing

Since you've got some sense of drawing, how about we do something interesting and fun? This is one of the most enjoyable parts: design your own characters. First you might get excited, but feel a little bit worried when you get to it. 

Think of something funny. Think of things that make you laugh endlessly. If that is quite funny and makes you laugh again, that could be unique in your style. If you forgot or don't know what is funny, create a funny scenario. Then, think how this character would look like in that situation. Or just think of something that is related to you in a certain way. Maybe play around with your nickname and draw one! Also, doodling random things helps you as well. 

I am assuming that you have a lot of ideas for your own character. There might be tons that you've just thought of. Don't panic, but just draw every single thing that you stored in your head. Don't draw it beautifully on a beautiful piece of paper. It doesn't matter how and where you draw it for now. But it would fill the whole paper perhaps! For the first try, pick one that you have the most confidence in and the one that you like it the most. Then, grab a nice piece of paper to sketch it with effort. After you've done the sketching, decorate it with advanced skills of yours. When you are done with it, you could perhaps make it in diverse, different versions of it with your first character. For example, you have a character that looks like a normal beaver, but you could draw it that looks like a grandma beaver with the same format of yours; you could add white hair and wrinkles and stuff. This thing is for you to have fun! If you want to have more fun, design more from your list!

Quote of the Day: "Design is like gravity - the force that holds it all together." -E A Whitney

These series of characters are famous: Mr/Little Miss (Internet)

This is what I've designed before.
For me, I used my first letter of
my name to create a character. 

Simple, Small Sketches

Okay, from now on, this is the fun part: you get to experience art! The introduction of art is ended for now, but to try out yourself. Again, don't fear, but practice a lot to get professional; and importantly, enjoy! Let's start with something small. "Something small" would be a few sketches for now. So prepare a 4B pencil, an eraser, and pieces of white paper.

First of all, without going into complicatedness, think of something that you want to draw about. If this is hard for you, look at "Ideas Opened" once again. If you have a list of things, pick one thing or combine other topics. Combining similar topics might improve your art, although it's not necessary at all times. Or look up on the Internet to draw the same thing, but in your style of art. Then, sketch it out lightly with a rounded-tip pencil. When you are sketching at rough, it's important to do it lightly so that you could erase it later when you go into details. If the pencil is sharp, it's easy to leave hard marks onto the paper; the sharp pencil is mostly used when you are into the stage where details are drawn into. For sketching, don't draw it detailed, but to shape it with circles. You need to look at where you are going to put the object. Then, draw the outline of the object. It's still quite not clear of what you've drawn, but it's a little recognizable. 

After you've drawn the outline of the object, draw the details to it. For this, sharpen up your pencil, so that your details aren't looking thick and heavy. If it is an animal, draw some thin fur. If it is a building, draw windows and doorknobs. It's those types of details. Details make your drawings look high-leveled. If you've made all the lines and shapes that you need, make those clearer. Your drawing might look as if you didn't wear glasses. 

After clarifications, decide if you want to color it with pencil or other colorful materials. For "pencil colorers", get a round-tip pencil and think about where your object is dark or bright. In other words, add contrast of light. With a tissue or an eraser, blend the lead powders on your paper. It would become more natural, without having line divisions of contrast. Sometimes, the blending might've gone out of the boundary of your object, which would be gray instead of white. Erase those to make it clear white again! Trim it, and then you're done with it. 

If you want color into your drawing, pick what materials you want to have: watercolor, acrylic, crayons, markers, colored-pencils, pastels, oil pastels, or other things that you have. It's quite similar to pencil coloring of how you add the contrast of light. Color the object with the best color that you think fits with your drawing. Trim it once more, and then you're all set!

Sketches are quite important in art, which is mainly the first step. Perhaps, you draw it on a piece of paper and leave it for later on the big canvas!

Quote of the Day: "Like emotions, colours are a reflection of life." -Janice Glennaway

 (Watch the video for sketching tips!)