Chenfei Cao

During the first week, I finished 10 paintings around the theme of “Talking Colour”. In the process of creation, I tried different kinds of tools, including watercolor, acrylic paint, acrylic markers, pencils and ink pens; I also used not common painting materials, such as paper towels for wiping the table, plastic film of the paint, and even medicine boxes. The content had specific things (house plants, homemade toast, pinecones) and abstract expressions (abstract paintings based on flowers, the color feelings that autumn brings to me). Among them, there were the most abstract paintings because I thought they could better show my own understanding of colors in a subjective way.

During making these works, I had a lot of feelings. From the time I picked up the pen to the moment I put it down after finishing the painting, my heart was changing all the time. Some paintings took more than half an hour, even nearly an hour; but others could be done in just a few minutes. Different paintings and different ways of making them really brought me very different feelings.

When I draw concrete objects, I feel very steady. Especially when I look at the textures of plants and the texture of toast carefully, I can clearly feel how color and form are connected. But when I draw abstract flowers and the colors of autumn, I feel very worried. I always fear that the color combinations can’t pass the feeling I want to show, and I’m afraid that if it’s too abstract, the people who see the paintings will not understand what I’m drawing. I also worry that the colors may turn black when mixed together. The feelings I have after seeing the finished paintings are all kinds of and complex. For example, I really like some paintings, like those using thick layers of acrylic to show the feeling of a flower bed. I’m especially happy about the cracks that come out when the paint dries. But for some paintings that want to show the atmosphere of autumn, I always think the color combinations are very messy and not like what I planned. As a result, the picture looks a little dirty. I feel a bit sad, thinking that I haven’t been able to show the natural harmony and beauty of colors.

So I started to think: What have I really learned? What still need to be improved?

I think the good thing I got from these ten paintings is that I tried many tools and subjects. For example, I used a brush that wasn’t moistened to poke on the paper to make texture, and even put different colors on top of each other to make the visual effect richer. The toast painting made with watercolor and acrylic marker pen has a better sense of thickness than I thought before. But I also thought about my weak point: I don’t have a clear direction when creating abstract works. I choose colors just by how I feel and don’t make a plan first, which makes some works look messy.

Realistic paintings are easier for me to handle than abstract ones. I wonder if there is a deeper reason behind this? Because abstract art often doesn’t need much thinking, but realistic art needs more advanced skills.

After thinking, I got the following analysis: I succeeded in specific painting because I can look at the subject directly and have clear references for colors; I failed in abstract creation because I didn’t hold the core of “color expression” in “Talking Colour”—though I know abstract paintings pass emotions through colors, I don’t have a systematic way and don’t know much about color psychology, and I haven’t put theory and practice together.

Now I understand that creation can’t only depend on “intuition”. No matter it’s a concrete or abstract theme, I need to make clear the message that the colors want to pass first. At the same time, though trying many tools is good, I should choose the right tool according to the theme to avoid using them without a clear reason.

Before the next creation, I will spend 2 to 3 minutes in my mind to think of a “color scheme”, making clear what each painting wants to express through colors; if I will paint an abstract work again, I will first go over the theories of color psychology, like using warm tones to show vitality, cool tones to show tranquility, and whether to use contrasting colors and other skills.

Through this project, I learned to observe objects and summarize them through drawing. I observed a bunch of flowers as a whole and drew the overall shape of the entire bunch. Not only that, I also observed the bunch of flowers from a local perspective: for instance, the different varieties of flowers in the bunch, each with its own unique appearance. I summarized the shape of each type of flower. Among them, I particularly liked the roses, so I drew a rose and observed its positive and negative shapes. I kept the shadowed parts and hollowed out the rest with a knife. I found that the shadow it cast under light was also very beautiful. Finally, I used red paint for printing and discovered that different amounts of paint produced different effects. I also tried the same method on thin leaves and obtained different results from the flowers. Perhaps this is due to the different textures of leaves and flowers. I learned a lot. I also used the 3D observation method, randomly arranging these flowers together and converting the 3D into 2D through drawing. Simple and abstract lines on black cardstock had a stronger visual impact. Finally, I selected some of the parts I liked from all the results and replicated and collaged them on Procreate, enhancing the visual effect through deformation and positive and negative shape effects. In summary, from this project, I learned to draw from the whole to the part and became more sensitive to shapes and colors.