Good bye, Yehyeh ;_;

My paternal grandfather passed away last week on Tuesday, August 24. He was 96 years old, and it was a peaceful death, and at least my dad was with him in his final hour.

I drew a card to put in his coffin to burn along with him when it is time for him to be cremated. It's a really simple card, and grandpa has always preferred simplicity.

The card is in Chinese, since my grandfather is from China, and was born there in 1914. After fleeing to Taiwan when the Communists were taking over China, I don't think he ever returned to China. The cover is of me crying, with the words "Goodbye Grandpa." Inside the card, it says:

 "Grandpa, I'm sorry I didn't speak much to you when you were alive. However, we all hope you're now in a happier place. We all miss you.

--Wu Chengyu"

That's my Chinese name, in case if you're wondering. Then I drew chibis of me, my brother, my dad, and my mom, and I had all of us sign our Chinese names by the little drawings I drew of each respective person. Then I took photos of this card and scanned it. And then I felt really sad if it was just going to be jpg files that were just going to sit on my flashdrive, so I decided to make a little blog post to show off the card in memory of my grandpa.

His funeral and cremation is tomorrow. I haven't seen him for one week. What a way to spend my last day of summer. ;_; RIP, Yehyeh. I'll give you your card tomorrow.

Finished my 2nd Innerspark/CSSSA Sketchbook!

I finished it a while ago. I should have done this post a while ago. But here are some of my doodles on the final pages of my CSSSA sketchbook, drawn after I got back to the Bay Area.

AP Art Project #5, Part II: Working

Yes, the final image has Halloween blood dripped over it, fitting part of the title. Oh, the piece is titled after the Stillste Stund song I mentioned in the last post. If you can decipher my notes I wrote on the sketchbook page I planned my work upon, you'll get the metaphors behind the piece.

Well, the painting stage is completed (unless if future critiques object). There's something else I want to do with this piece, but it's craftier than what I've already done, and currently top secret! :D I don't know when Part 3: FINAL will be posted, but stay tuned! ^^ ;)

AP Art Project #5, Part I: Planning

I just finished my 5th AP Art piece this afternoon! Planning started last weekend, and I thought I would show images of my planning process. First, I look at little kid photos of me for reference.

I decided to use the red dress that I wore for Christmas when I was in kindergarten, with my hair all iron-curled. I also like the expression in the picture of me with the Winnie the Pooh shirt, so I'll probably use her face as a model. I also consider the subject matter of the piece, and doodle.

I was inspired by Stillste Stund's song Ebenholz, Schnee & Blut (Ebony, Snow and Blood in German), based on the Snow White fairy tale, and I decided to incorporate that kind of mood into the piece, since I could be a little Snow White Princess as a kid. :) I also decided to kind of stylize the girl's appearance, rather than strive for a realistic look.


Now let's move on to Part II: Working!

AP Art Piece #4: I Want It

Here is my 4th Concentration piece, titled, I Want It.

(for some reason, my WIP's disappeared on me o.O)

AP Art Piece #2 AND #3

I'm posting my second and third AP Art pieces, because I did not document any WIP's for my second piece, Hide Away in Fragile Refuge. But here they are. :)

This is titled Hide Away in Fragile Refuge, and was my 2nd concentration piece.

The third piece, titled He is Not Real.

AP Art Piece #1: Beginning the Journey

Even though I finished 4 AP Art piece prior to making a blogspot, I feel so weird not including them on here.  I put the finished works on my Deviantart, but I feel that I should give my WIP's some attention.

For those of you who don't know, an AP Art Concentration consists of 12 pieces that follow a certain theme (such as exploring color, diversity, moods, fantasy, nature, textures, etc.). Mine explores my childhood and use of metaphors to represent the fear of growing up.
 The first piece is Beginning the Journey, which I completed back in May.

THIS IS THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can you interpret the messages behind this piece? :D
I dare you to ^^

3rd and Final Posting of Sketchbook Pages

More Select Pages from Sketchbook

As much as I miss Innerspark, it sure does feel good to be back in my own bed and not worry about a breakfast curfew. :) And it's nice not to have to worry about scorching weather, etiher.

Back Home from Innerspark/CSSSA

Oh man, I came back a couple of hours ago. Before leaving the CalArts campus, I thought to myself, "I'm going to make a blogspot to get home, so that I can (hopefully) make cool updates about my works!"

Innerspark/CSSSA felt like a dream. I felt as though I was wandering through another dimension, like those fantasy novels in which the protagonists gets transported into a world of faeries and magic. I am almost fooled into believing that everyone I met, and everything I have done, were just figments of my imagination. That's partly why I created a blogspot, so that I can keep in contacts with all of those wonderful individuals I have met in the past month! Such great friends, and wonderful teachers! This had better not be the last I'll see of them.

Here are 2 pages of my Innerspark/CSSSA sketchbook. I'll upload more of some of my favorite pages in later posts. Perhaps I'll post more tomorrow.

Also, here is my approximately a minute-long final film titled "No Eternity," about a doll who gets ripped from the arms of her owner and gets buried. While the little girl leads a miserable life of believing that her childhood is ruined, the doll climbs her way out of the grave with the hopes of reuniting with her owner.