Lightbox v1.4: the Painting

Ma-mian qun (horse-face skirt; 馬面裙)

This was the digital painting I did for the lightbox, and part of the back-lit image. Initially I decided to add hand-drawn elements to the work to avoid potential copy right issues and plagiarism, because the original photo I had in mind came from a famous advertisement of a well-known merchant (in the hanfu sub-culture at least).
Guess what? I chose it because it was quite iconic in the development of modern hanfu.

Courtesy of Minghuatang

Besides, I thought adding personal touches to the work reinforced the aura of the piece, although some might argued that artistic aura was already lost in the new age of mechanical reproduction. Well! At least I had fun painting it, and I truly appreciated that there were maple-leaves pattern per-installed in Photoshop.

A historical relic (important: the skirt was displayed backward)

Lightbox v1.3: Thinking Inside and Outside the Box

As I have stated in the previous post, both light and box are the essential complements of a lightbox. They are as important as the back-lit image. Moreover, because the sensitive nature of light itself, and the reflective characteristic of the painted surface, all of the complements needed to be taken into account when constructing the object, in order to attain the desired result.

Communication between light and the image is crucial. The box serves as a medium for light to travel, and thus it has significant effects on the latter and then the image. When I was told that I could actually do something different to the box, my crazy mode was turned on, and thus I added a bit surprise to the work.  I really hope it will work!

 Eventually, I am actually excited for the lightbox now.

Lightbox v1.1: What to Do and What I Want to Do?

This post was supposed to be posted before Lightbox v1.2: Sketches. It is recommended to read this one first, although order does not really matter.

Note: the following came from my paper sketchbook. Even though I had already completed the image at this point, I wrote down the following based on my original brainstorming.

Key ideas:

1. First of all, this work will be a pain for someone like me who frequently moves, so it must be absolutely worthy to keep. 
2. Furthermore, because it is the final project, it is going to be a summary of what I had learned from the past projects. Particularly, there will be either direct or indirect reference on the Interior drawing, Flow, and Light and Movement.
3. It is going to form parts of the foundation and/or prologue for my future thesis.

In details: 

1. Generally speaking, it is going to be thematically connected to the Interior drawing, and aesthetically connected to Flow and Light and Movement.
2. It will directly comment on the Hanfu movement and reflect at least one of the central ideas.
3. It is going to be hybrid: contains both hand-drawn and photographic elements.
4. I am going to use either visual elements directly taken from the past projects, or those resemble the elements used in the past.
5. It is going to be a night scene which includes post modern architectures.

Lightbox V1.2: Sketches

This post was supposed to go after Lightbox v1.1: What to do and What I Want to Do? I had posted this one first because v1.1 was not finished at the time. 

Here were the quick sketches I did before I constructed the final image for the lightbox. At this point, I already had a vivid idea for what to do, so I only did two similar one.

Interestingly, the actual image turned out to be a combination of both.

Lightbox v1.0: Q & A

Why to construct a lightbox?

• Lightbox = light + box = both light and box are important elements to be taken into account. 
• Back-lighting creates a strong sense of luminosity and reinforces transparency.
• The box may represent the inversion of architecture

Some historical，ethnic，and contemporary precedents of lightbox:

• commercial billboard and advertisement such as the vending machine in the Sofa lounge
• cinema
• slides
• tracing on a light table
• lantern

Retrieved from Sina News Center <http://news.sina.com.cn/o/p/2012-02-07/072723892250.shtml>

•  Piying-xi play (皮影戲) or Shadow Puppetry

Retrived from <http://hb.sina.com.cn/news/g/2012-03-19/58241.html>

 I might use the last one as an aesthetic reference.

What does it mean to construct an image?

• creating an artificial representation of space
• if the image is fully based on photos, then it represents a man-made reality which is entirely based on fragments from the real world. How real can it be?
• if the form is hybrid, such image implies the integration of the real and the representational. As the creator, I can control the degree of integration, and use it for the symbolism and/or narration of the work.

Different Forms of "Light"

The following is a supporting document for the upcoming artist statement of Light and Movement. I list the variety of light I have been used in the video project.

• Light as a concrete man-made object
• Natural light illuminating object
• Florescent light illuminating water and pigments
• Man made light penetrating plastic and water
• Decomposition of natural light through camera lens
• Superimposition of sunlight and the reflection of florescent light
• Superimposition of direct streetlight and the reflection of florescent light at night
• Reflection created by light
• Shadows and light
• Digital alteration of light
• Light as a medium to display image and digital information

New Character: NPC

This is a minor non-playable character from the video game Chinese Paladin 5.

watercolour

The robe he is wearing is known as shenyi (lit. deep garment;深衣). This hanfu style is more than 3000 years old, and is a formal wear.
Generally there are two types of shenyi: zhi-ju (lit. vertical-wrapping front;直裾) and qu-ju (lit. diagonal-wrapping front；曲裾).  The one shown here is the former, because the front piece of the garment is straight and flat.

Zhiju-shenyhi might look similar to a Japanese kimono. However, they are very different in terms of making and wearing (this is a bit complicated, I might explain it in more details in the future).

Different parts of zhiju-shenyi. Retrieved from Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese_clothing>

Headwear

Light and Movement v1.0

As suggested by the title, my next project is going to be about light and movement. Although I haven't really fully developed the idea yet, I want to talk about it briefly and write down some important points.

• It's going to be a loose continuation of the hybrid media project. When I was worked on "Flow," I had discovered many things which I didn't actually use, and thus I would like to continue exploring them in this up-coming one.
• The visual style will be very different from "Flow." I am currently thinking of a much more decorative, expressive and culturally relevant approach for this one. In other words, it will be less realistic.
• The overall theme will be about the light, space, artificiality, and authenticity.
• Some of the footage and ideas were left out from "Flow."
• I am going to play with and use a lot of filters in Final Cut.
• There will be sound effect: either a musical piece or a contrasting sound from nature or both.
• Mirrors and glass are going to be extremely important.