Pop that Pimple! 2013

I could never paint a serious or nice portrait of myself. It just doesn't feel right or look right somehow. So here is a pimple popping portrait of myself.

It is just damn irritating to have tiny hills bulging out on your face which cant be removed by using a 'healing tool' or 'clone stamp'. If only life's like photoshop. Everyone would be blemish-free and flawless.

I got irritated with my pimple which grew bigger as my period was coming then. It's like whenever I look at my face in the mirror, the first thing that I see was my pimple. It's like a third eye! 

So then, I thought, why not just keep an account of my miseries as part of my portfolio?

Pop that Pimple!
Watercolour on Watercolour Paper
210 x 297 mm
2013

The splats around the portrait expresses the pain as I was squeezing the hell out of my pimple. It feels as if it has it's own heartbeat. This happens every month which explains the craters on my face.

Thanks for reading!

-kiki.

Faris 2013

So I started my love for watercolour as soon as I laid my hand on it. Practice makes perfect. During my free time, I would experiment on different techniques and explore the medium. 

So portrait is my favourite so I decided to paint my boyfriend's portrait and it was suppose to be an experiment painting based on my basic knowledge of watercolour which was shared by my boss while I was teaching in Studio Haroobee.

It was hard to keep the highlighted areas remain white and the dark areas to get any darker. The challenge about watercolour painting is that its irreversible in a way that you could not get back the lighter colour once you applied a heavy coat on it.

Faris
Watercolour on Watercolour Paper
297 x 420 mm
2013

One thing about the way I paint is, to really paint a good portrait is to really know the person. If Im unable to know the person in real life, it is quite challenging for me as I cant visualise that particular person to be painting them. It takes good observational skills to do portraiture. That's what I love most about portrait paintings. It challenges your eyes and the projection of the image through your brush strokes.

Though I was not to satisfied about this painting, I decided not to keep it but rather give it to him. I guess he have plenty of his portraits done that he'd be sick of it soon but knowing how vain he is, he'll probably keep it around his room.

Thanks for reading!

-kiki.

Late Dad Portrait 2013

Daddy had always been a wonderful support to my family. He was a humble, friendly, patient and knowledgable father who never fails to support my family through thick and thin.

From 1952 till his last breath on the 26th January 2009, he has never wasted any of his time. Everyday is a learning day for him. He was neither a Degree nor Master holder man but he sure was my walking encyclopedia. I would question him from History, Animals, Buildings, Plants, Human Behaviour, Religion or anything, he would answer them humbly. In short, he was a very experienced man who went through alot in life.

Losing a person you love, especially your parent, is a very hard experience one will never wish to go through. It is a fact that every man has to go through the life cycle but sometimes its just hard to accept. Only time will cure the pain.

An article about my father's death published in the Newpaper on the 3rd of February 2009.

His sudden death shocked us and that unfortunate event led us to multiple consecutive problems that my mum, brother and I had to face everyday but thank God, eventually we survived till today being a stronger person than we were yesterday even though we still had obstacles and life challenges that we still are going through even till today.

In Loving Memories
with Love from your daughter.
Pencil on Paper
210 x 297 mm
2013

Writing this post really made me sad and tear.

Wanting to talk to him so much when I have problems but I couldn't. 
Wanting to hug him for comfort but he's no longer physically here to give a hug.
Wanting to ask for forgiveness for all the wrongs but he's not around to hear my apologies.

Sometimes when I face problems it just hurts me so much to be bottling stuff inside of me. When you knew you had everything at first, it all narrows down when you start to lose family members one by one.

Thanks for reading.
-kiki.

Still Life 2006 / 2007

2006 was still an experimental year for me on various types of mediums. I started off struggling when it comes to painting using acrylic as it was a fast drying medium. With the help of Rashid my foundation lecturer, he shared some tips and tricks on painting. 

Therefore after some practices in school, I painted a small still life painting just to hang up on my kitchen wall. My late father loved it as he was impressed that I could paint somehow realistically. I miss how he bragged to his friends that his daughter is an artist. He has always supported me in arts since young.

Common Fruits
Acrylic on Canvas
210 x 297 mm
2006

The "Sliced" painting was one of my year 2 projects. I did an up close of an orange using both acrylic paint and oil paint to zoom into the minor details but it was unsuccessful due to insufficient time. I'm planning to touch up this painting soon when time allows me to.

Sliced
Acryli and Oil on Canvas
18" x 18"
2007

Thanks for reading!

-Kiki.

By Time 2007

By Time is a 2-piece artwork prepared for my year 2 assessment in 2007 during my intake in Lasalle.

What moved me to create this artwork was the movement of time. Time flew very fast that you might not know when is your turn to go. 

The arabic words ,"وَاُلْعَصْرِ" , means By Time. There is a verse in the Muslim Qur'an which goes in depth of the meaning.  The background is made up of the mechanisms of a watch. But it is ironic that I drew a human facial feature in this as it is actually prohibited to create or  make up human form but I couldn't help but love drawing portraits. Adding my grandma's face in it with this meaning is really sad but I needed a portrait of an elderly to blend well in this painting but she hated it coz I drew her portrait not wearing her hijab. Reason why is because I wanted to display the skin texture.

By Time
Oil on Canvas
24" x 48" x 2pcs
2007

This painting is one of my favourite portraits that I have ever painted. The thing about oil painting is that it takes time to dry for another layer to be painted over but it is definitely smoother in terms of blending.

One of the difficulties that I encountered was painting the mechanisms and not the portrait. Personally i hate drawing anything with machines like hard cold objects and straight lines. Just too stiff for me and there is no sense of "life" in it.

I  was actually surprised that I could tackle portraiture better than I previously did for my other paintings maybe on of the reasons is because of the medium used.

Thanks for reading!

- kiki.

Warm Orchids 2010

I had to discontinue my Diploma course in Lasalle in 2009, so I stopped my practice in Art for a year.

Since then this Warm Orchids painted in 2010 was my warm up.  

Warm Orchids

Oil paint on Canvas

2010

Since I was financially unstable at that point of time while struggling with the aftermath of my father's passing, my cousin helped to support me by ordering an art work from me to suit with her brand new red couch.

Me and my Warm Orchids but sadly picture was taken with flash.

2010

It took me a month to finish this slowly because of its size. But it finished quite well though. The feeling after a long time of not practicing, became an excitement to get the hang of it and it became a habit to keep on creating more artworks. The mood kept me going but if I stop, it will take me a long time to start again.

Thanks for reading!

-kiki.

Coffee Stains 2011

Many times after a consecutive series of unfortunate events which happened in 2009, Ive been crying and struggling throughout the days. Until one day in 2011, I realised that there's no use crying over spilled/spilt Coffee. 

An epiphany struck me and so from then I stood strong and learnt how to survive through pain, struggle and loss.

The coffee might stain your white and clean clothes,but that stain will remind you of your mistakes and that you will never do it again. It is impossible for humans to not have a single flaw in life. Mistakes that impacts on your life is a stepping stone in a confident journey to a strong life. Crying and regretting will never solve problems or even bring the dead back to life though it is somehow a therapy to let it out and not lose yourself for the time being. There is nothing you could do to reverse time but to learn how to deal with it and move on. I believe everyone has a story behind their coffee stains.

What's your story?

Don't Cry Over Spilt Coffee
Coffee on Watercolour Paper
210 x 297 mm
2011

So this is a simple interpretation through coffee painting.

 

Thanks for reading!

-kiki.

Bald Statement 2008

I was literally making everyone of my classmates bald back then in 2008. I mean not literally but in my series of paintings. The Bald Statement. Sounds pretty interesting but in actual fact, the reason to why they are bald is plainly because I dislike painting hair.

The thing about making them bald is that it exercises the brain to visualise their head shape. I loved how they actually cooperated with me to make faces so that they at least have creases on their face to create extra shadows.

Dawn
Oil Paint on Canvas
210 x 297 mm
2008

Hilmi
Oil Paint on Canvas
210 x 297 mm
2008

My experience with portrait paintings was with the help by many as they share their skills on portrait painting as well as doing some research.

A friend used to be my mentor in oil painting and shared some tips with me about oil painting and portrait painting. The trick to it is to NOT use Flesh Tint and to always start with the darkest skin tone color first. 

Chuck Close is my inspiration in portrait painting though I have not achieved the photo-realism skills yet. He is a great inspiration to me as he carries on painting despite his deterioration in health which paralysed him. 

Thanks for reading!

-kiki.

Pallet 2012

Studio Haroobee was where I was working from 2008 to teach and share my knowledge with kids who have interest in arts until before NAFA's 2013 diploma intake. 

Every school holiday, we would arrange a variety workshops for kids to enjoy and benefit during their break from school. One of the workshops consist of Pallet Knife painting which caters for the older students  only 11 years and above. It is suitable for this age group as we find that they are more independent on their own to be handling paint with pallet knives. 

I did a sample of a normal sunset river picture that can be found on the net and transformed it to a pallet knife version for myself to tryout the different techniques that can be taught to the kids.

Scenery Tryout
Acrylic on Canvas
14"x 17"
2012

 

Painting with pallet knives are fun in a way it give you the freedom for self-expression with paint.

Thanks for reading!

-kiki.

Flower Pallet 2011

Every Hari Raya season, mothers always wants to display their beautiful houses to their guests who visits them. In 2011, one of the interior walls of my house has been dusty with some old decoratives. So mum suggested that I paint something.

What choice do I have when it comes to homes. Mum loves flowers anyway but this time I painted it differently. Partly abstract and partly textured.

What I visualised was that the textured part would be of a thicker volume to create thicker petals. 

Background was basically catered to match my cozy house settings. Using pallet knives, I started expressing myself through the thick paint using the tools mentioned. Additional Pollocks style has been added to give the feel of abstract and self-expression in my 4-piece painting.

Lily
Acrylic on Canvas
12"x12" x 4pcs
2011

The outcome was not how I envisioned it to be but surprisingly everyone who noticed it liked it alot. It was expressive using the pallet knife though control is still needed to form the subject matter.

Thanks for reading!

-Kiki.

StarGazer 2011

A year after the Warm Orchids painting, another cousin was impressed and decided that they should get a painting similar to the Warm Orchids. So an opportunity not to be missed.

Painting on a large scale canvas is quite fun when you get to express yourself through paint and brush. I love using dark coloured backgrounds for the flowers as it will bring out the contrast and highlight more on the flower.

Painting orders such as these kind of decoratives are good start ups in gaining back my skills in painting.

Stargazer
Oil paint on canvas
2011

The family who ordered this painting.
2011

Glad they loved the painting.
Thanks for reading!

-Kiki.

Wings Runway 2007

In pairs, the requirements for this 'Wings' project is that it has to be at least 2x2metres and it must be stable enough to be worn.

Designing it was not as hard as it is to execute the final product. 

                      

Materials  such as various sizes of crochet hooks to knit the yarn into strands of loops to make up the soft texture around the main metal wired body structure.

This is how we transformed the balls of yarn into knitted ones. Learning it from my partner, she thought me various ways to knit so we executed it together.

We decided that she wears the wings for the presentation on the Lasalle runway. Below are pictures of how we presented our wings.

There were various styles of wings created by other classmates.

Thanks for reading!

-kiki.

Pop Art Mural @ Fuchun Primary School 2007

Spammed with endless variations of projects during our 1st year in Fine Arts Foundation, mural projects was one of my favourite projects as it was an outdoor project where we were engaged by Fuchun Primary School to display our Work of Art.

this was the space given to us for mural.

Before we actually started our Mural painting, the measurement and dimensions of the section that we were supposed to paint on had to be taken down to sketch out our plan. 

We were divided into groups of fives and each group member was required to produce their own ideas with reference artists to combine into one. Using Andy Warhol and Keith Haring as our references, we manage to combine it with a smooth flow from the left to right of the walls to balancing these two artists as well as our own ideas.

Me and my group mate painting the background colour.

Filling in the 'Dancing Figures' with white.

Me outlining.

17 year old Me painting one of the dancing figures.

We took over a few weeks to finish the mural during and non-contact hours. I guess the only difficulty that i faced in the process of the mural was reaching the higher part of the wall. It was exciting to work together as a team with the background sounds of kids running around and screaming which brought a sense of nostalgic chilhood memories then in the early 90s.

These are the pictures of the finished work.

After we finished everything we were awarded with this certification for our contribution. I feel honored that Fuchun Primary School granted us the opportunity to paint on the walls designated in their school.

Thanks for reading!

-kiki.

Nocturnal 2005

"Colour pencil sketching is gonna be hard." I thought so to myself ehile trying to experiemnt on a different medium in preparation of my GCE 'O' level 2005 Art examination Paper 3 which is on the spot drawing.

Nocturnal was one of the 5 topics that i chose from for my paper 3 and preparatory work was required  for submission along with the final artwork. 

Why owl? Simply because that was the first thing that i think off upon the word Nocturnal.

Owl
Colourpencil on Paper
4" x 6"
2005

Night Scenery
Pencil on Paper
297mm x 210mm
2005

I did not expect my colourpencil sketches to be exceptionally ok. To me that is. that's when i discovered my strength which also moved me to create the final piece in my previous entry. 

These are the other experimental sketches before the final owl above. Using pencil was not as interesting as it was when using colour pencils. The outcome of coloured pencils really depends on the sensitivity and pressure of rendering.

Thanks for reading!

- kiki.

Passion 2005

Roses are one of the significant flowers to us which usually is a representation of love, passion or desire.

Its petals are soft and together as a whole it forms this unique pattern that grows outwards in a twirl which causes it to overlap each other.

Drawing and sketching out roses are quite challenging because of its unique structure and contours of the folds and the depth of the folds needed to be darkened and curves needed highlights to display a realistic drawing of a rose.

Completing an artwork with the use of only colour pencils was even tougher as u could not subtract mistakes and for highlighted portions needed to be uncoloured or coloured with extremely light or without much pressure as to allow blending in between.

The end product of it was a relief and satisfying though the message about my passion in guitar was not that strong because of the lack of concept at that point of time, I still got an A2 grade for my 'O' level Art in 2005.

Thanks for reading!

- kiki.