Process Portfolio

Thy Le
 Frida Kahlo
For this project, I wanted to imitate Frida Kahlo’s
style of painting, as she’s able to realistically capture
symbolism through her use of colors and self
portraits. Each tone of color represents a different
idea/mood, such as yellow symbolising
unhappiness, and navy blue/green tones portraying
the idea of peace and solitude.
● Uses vibrant colors inspired by European and
Mexican cultures.
● Mix between surrealism, symbolism and realism
● Earthy tone colors : Blue, navy blue, greens, yellow,
magenta, mahogany
 Matisse

Along with Frida, I chose Matisse as another artist

that I wanted to imitate. His style greatly contrastes ● Uses pure/bright colors to contrast each other.
Frida’s style of painting, as his is a lot less realistic
and more focused on using bold, vibrant colors. By ● Inspired by multiple cultures
mixing both of their unique styles together, I thought ● Slight symbolism, but uses less surrealism
that i would be able to create an interesting piece,
both with an efficient use of earthy tone and vibrant compared to Frida Kahlo
colors.
 Trials
Matisse
I wanted to imitate Matisse's idea of using
primary colors to make a bold piece.
However, as the pencil lines from my
original sketch smudged, I lost the natural
form of the primary color as it became
dirty. I will improve this piece next time by
making my colors brighter.
Frida Kahlo
I was actually very satisfied with my original
sketch to imitate Frida Kahlo’s style, however,
as the pencil lines smudged, I was not able to
capture the surrealism in her self potraits.Next
time, I will be more careful of not letting my
sketch smudge, and incorporating more earthy
tone colors into my final piece.
 Image Development Strategies
During class, we were required to develop different
image strategies onto some of our chosen objects.
These skills/styles included: melting, scale,
hydroxide, crumbling...etc. In order to accomplish
these sketches, we first needed to draw a simple
gesture drawing of our object. Then, we proceed to
apply these strategies onto them.
Media Experiment

Before working on our draft, we were

required to experiment and try out
different techniques with knife painting
beforehand. I tried to do a variation of
smearing, splattering and thickening
using two tones of paint. While doing this
experiment, I struggled with coming up
different styles and ideas to try out,
however, I think that it gave me a better
idea of what i wanted to portray onto our
first work.
Image Development
Cropped Black & White Posterized Grid
Work in Progress
As we are working on applying knife painting techniques
onto our self portraits, I struggled with being able to
accurately draw proportions. My face was too big and
wide compared to the original photo, and my eyes and
nose were not centered correctly. However, I was able to
achieve a good colour scheme on a few parts (except for
the face). I wish I would’ve blended the colors on parts of
my face, so it wouldn’t have looked as rigid and more
professional. My color scheme came together at the end,
as the light/dark areas contrasted each other pretty well.
Overall, I’m satisfied with my use of colors within this
piece, however, I wish that my proportions would’ve been
more accurate.
Unit Reflection
I had a lot of fun during this unit while experimenting with different knife painting techniques. I
learned how to create a cohesive color scheme as well as developing my skills on drawing scales
and proportions. With the upcoming final project, I’m planning to do a better job with centering
proportions, as well as handling time management. In the process of creating our draft, I missed a
class and was unable to catch up with everyone afterwards. Overall, I’m satisfied with my ability to
create a cohesive color scheme, as well as being able to contrast them against one another.
However, I messed up my proportions, which in terms also made my piece less professional and
more rigid.
Unconventional angles + photos
Chosen Photo
This is my final chosen photo for the self portrait
project. I’ve chosen to do this photo as I will be able
to play around a lot with shapes and colors. I
wanted to make the dragon prominent in order to
capture surrealism while adding in a few abstract
elements. Since a lot of Matisse's work consist of
bright, primary colors, I wanted to incorporate in
many primary tones of red/blue and yellow. As
Frida’s style greatly contrast Matisse’s through
realism, I wanted to also capture that through
drawing detailed flowers. Overall, my project was
planned to show a clear contrast between
surrealism and abstract, as well as adding in many
bright pop of colors.
Realistic Application of Fruits
Initially for this project, I chose cherries to be my
fruit. However, overtime, I grew a dislike to the
color and decided to change it up. I’m somewhat
pleased with the project, but I wish that it could
have looked more realistic with the shading and
contrast in color. The stems from the cherries could
have looked more realistic as well - it felt quite
clumsy and unfinished. I think that it was okay for
me to play around with colors, but next time, I’ll
make sure to make it more realistic with shading in
light areas.
Creative Application of Fruits
After our project of applying realism to fruits, we were
required to do another creative application of it, which
greatly differed from the initial. For the creative
application, I made a sketch for my character. I wanted
to add in many primary colors of a cherry, like: red,
green and various tones of them.
 Community Project

For the initial sketch of my project, I had three ideas. One was to do a creative application of a traditional vietnamese hat,
another was to draw it on a canvas, and another was to build a traditional boat consisting of Vietnamese snacks. Then, I
decided to go with my first idea, of doing a creative application on my hat. For the hat, I used various photos that I’ve
taken in Saigon to capture my community. I wish that I could’ve add in more realism, through changing the background
using paint instead of markers. Overall, I’m not quite satisfied with this project, as I could have definitely put in more
effort.
 Constructivism

Meaning/Expression: Ideas of Constructivism:

Instead of expressing Constructed ideas of

the artist’s outlook on constructivism through
life or capturing wanting to adapt to the
beauty, constructivism modern society of Russia
focuses more on and its democratic society.
Materials: Portrays the experience of
projecting the
Wood, glass and metal modern life as well as
authenticity and qualities between space and
(mainly base objects).
rawness of materials. time.
Chicken cage project (based on art movement)
For this project, we were required to decorate a chicken cage as
to fit with our art movement. Since my given art movement was
constructivism, I wanted to do something fun and creative, yet
play around with space and time using lines and contrast in color.
Since constructivism often involve modern ideas of politics and
social, I decided to create paper mache cats tearing out trump’s
propaganda.