Qin Theory: STUDY OF ART

Earth Hour 2012

One Earth,

One hour,

Our future.

It is just awesome to see people ALL AROUND THE WORLD turn off their lights on this day for one purpose:

To save our planet.

This is my third year participating in the Earth Hour.

Every year I was amazed and touched by the images taken in different parts of all the world during the hour. They make me feel so proud and feel like we are one big FAMILY.

Earth Hour tells us that saving the planet requires the cooperation of the entire world.

Exactly, keeping the light or all electronics off for a few hours is not a hard task, however, to do it every day is not a easy thing.

Let's bring the spirit of Earth Hour to our daily life. Little by little every day.

Take this challenge, will you?

I made a poster for my Facebook profile picture. It's not professionally done cause i'm not a photoshop expert. Oh well, hope you think it's a good perspective.

I just went on a field trip for my earth and space science class to the University of Toronto yesterday.

That's where my inspiration comes from haha.

A movement that ties us as a family.

How to Make a Sister

The greatest challenge in my life is when 3 years ago, moving to Canada, and learning English.

The second greatest challenge is this painting.

That was in my grade 12 painting class last semester. Our culminating assignment was a typical high school art project, self-portrait. I've done many self-portraits in various styles, but I had never painted a full-body portrait. In fact, I almost had no experience on drawing human body.

I got my canvas a week before Christmas. It was 30 by 60 in, almost my height and almost $50.

$50 for a plain canvas for a school project is pretty expensive.

I told myself it was a Christmas treat for me in order to make myself feel less guilty, haha.

So before I started my painting, on my sketch book, I explored many compositions and poses.

Like I said, I never really drew much full-body figures before. Everything just come naturally from daily observation.

We also did a few quick practice paintings on self-portraits in class.

It was for practising using complimentary and analogous colours.

I did it in front of a mirror for maybe half an hour each. It doesn't look like me that much, but the face always reminds me of another friend haha.

After Christmas break, I started on my painting.

It was a lot of work to do. I started to realize 30 by 60 is a really big size.

I spent nights and weekends on it because I just couldn't concentrate fast and well enough in a 20-people class during 40 min only session.

I changed the background from purple to green and then to yellow.

After a few plastic surgeries on my "face"....

Yeah, it really looked like myself!!

haha, she became my best friend and came to annoy me every day....

In the end, I change my background to blue and it looked so different.

The figure just feels pop out more and the colour matches the colour i used for the figure; and the nice blue really represent my personality.

The sweater is my favourite part of my painting.

It really brings me lots of tears and joy.

Just like having sibling or childhood friend, lots of fights and good time. LOL

Sisters

Hey there!

I want to introduce my twin sister. Her name is ChaoChao.

Left: My twin sister ChaoChao

Right: Me ChaoYing HAHA

I had trouble getting a good picture of her because this "girl" is 60 by 30 just by sitting there.

My parents didn't give me a sister so, fine, I created my own.
Haha joking... This is a self-portrait assignment I did in visual art class.

This is my first full-body portrait and it's my human-sized!

More information about my "sister" and the creating progress will be posted this weekend.

I really enjoy her company. :)

Still-Life Romance

This is a still-life project done in a high school painting class at York Mills.

After I finished this painting, I was told that there somehow seem to be a romantic story between the two mannequins. Ha, I guess that is mainly because of the powerfully used colours in this painting. And then somebody suggested names for my painting, "Romance of Mannequins" and "Star-cross'd Dummies". That's cute, isn't it ;).

Happy Valentine's Day. <3

This assignment was started after a long long lesson on colour theory, and it gave me the opportunity to carry out my understanding of colour theory and put it into practice. I explored various colour combinations, light effects and brush strokes. Lots of fun playing!

Original Size: 40* 28

Time: Nov 2011

For more fun, I'm posting my creating process again:

Figure 1. Practice still-life paintings on stone-paper:

I actually love the angle on the right, however, that spot had been taken over--- that is a really popular spot in the studio.

Figure 2. The "Palette"

In my class, students are asked to do a "palette" which includes colours they plan to use for the painting before starting on the actual canvas. This palette thing allows students to plan out their paintings before hand, just like an essay outline!

HOWEVER, it didn't work for me at all because I don't make plans before hands for what I am creating; I paint bravely, fearless about making mistakes, and then I discover my colours in the process. My "REAL palette" was built up gradually throughout the painting process.

Figure 3: Processing ■■■■□□□

So this is what happens to me most of the time when I do paintings:

Although I had a big picture in mind before hand such as the composition and a general palette, still, the painting I am working on is always a mystery to me. Every new discovery of colour and light effect is like a surprise and it delights my process of creating. That's an advantage of not using a "palette", not an excuse for my laziness XD.

If you are interested in my classmates' work, welcome to visit the blog of York Mills Art Council (http://ymartcouncil.blogspot.com/)

York Mills Art Council: This is How We See The World

I am the co-head of York Mills Art Council since last September.
Here I want to introduce the Art Council in York Mills Collegiate Institute(YMCI) and its blog : YMArtCouncil.blogspot.com.

Art council is a group of art lovers who are actively involved in the art programs at YMCI. This club is great opportunity for us, the art students in YMCI, to meet other artists in this school.

The Art Council blog is written by multiple authors from the council. Through this art blog, we make connections with students outside the club by sharing our artistic thoughts and art work. The blog is also a site for communication as we use it to keep track of our club events and activities.

A logo design for York Mills Art Council (YMAC) by ChaoYing Qin (me:)

Shared via

YMAC (http://ymartcouncil.blogspot.com/)

York Mills Art Council: This is How We See The World:

This is an still-life acrylic painting assignment students from Visual Art - Painting class did last November and December.

Taking a look at these paintings, isn't it amazing to see paintings on the same subjects done by artists from different perspectives and with various styles?

Yes, York Mills' got many art talents. ;)

Artist: ChaoYing....(CONTINUE TO READ)

Happy Lantern Festival

Today is Lantern Festival, the end of Chinese New Year (Spring Festival).

A rice ball for you :)

Yum yum, enjoy it!

Hands (Photography)

These wrinkled hands used to hold my tiny hands inside and protect me from the outer world.
These debilitated hands are expert ones that made me beautiful summer dresses and stuffed animals.
These shaky hands embrace me tight, every time when I have to say goodbye....

Hands-- my great-grandmother's hands in mine.

Today I can hold your hands the way you did when I was eight.
I had not looked at it this carefully since then.
I see the trace of time.
I see the sign of a great-grandmother's pride.
And I see the peace that lives in you when you wait for me to come home.

I miss you, great-grand mother.

Taken on 31 Dec, 2011.
With my 91-year-old great grandmother.