This is a creative storytelling piece titled "Reach, from Beneath".
Materials:
Pastel Canson paper, pencil crayon, procreate
Creative Process:
This is a piece I created during the COVID19 stay at home quarantine period. During this difficult time I sat back and allowed a lot of deep thoughts to sink in; whether if it's about different issues around me or around the world. One of which reminded me of an old Chinese idiom that says, "The frog under the well who doesn't see the larger world around it.", "井底之蛙".
This folk story revolves around a stubborn frog that lives under a well and believes that the world is limited to the edges of the wall. Until one day, a bird stops by and describes the beauty of the world beyond the wall. The frog is embarrassed of his ignorance to the world upon realizing its own insignificance.
This story is used to teach children to be curious with an open mind in order to discover the world beyond what they perceive. This pandemic has brought out a lot of underlying societal matters in the world. Not only that people were further apart by distance, disparity in the society also grew further. I felt as if that the pandemic had sparked people to become more proactive and front facing towards fighting for rights and injustice in the community, as well as widening the awareness in globalization.
My first piece is done on canton paper using pencil crayons. I chose the background colour a mid-tone orange to complement the blue in the sky.
Colour pencil on Canson paper.
From here I've decided to take my art a step further and rendered it digitally using procreate.
A quick 30s of the digital render process.
The procreate render took me about 2 days in total. I believe that as I advance my skills in digital art, the process time could be greatly shortened.
This is my first rendition.
First render, procreate. 2 days.
Upon a closer look, I felt that the piece was missing a focal attention point. Hence, I created a second render, which is also my final render.
Final render, procreate. 2 days.
Conclusion:
I think that this is a piece that heavily communicates my style. I believe that the meaning behind an art piece can vary depending on the viewer's interpretation. While I intend to carry a message of 'Reach, see the world beyond the world you are given.', I want to trigger the viewers to think and reflect on themselves and the world around them. Artistically, I learned that I enjoy using a first person perspective. It's almost like I'm showing the viewers what I see, and most importantly, my vulnerability. All and all, I believe that art is a powerful way to relay a message and trigger thoughts of reflection.
