Perception drawing

Imagine the usual drawing action. The artist look at the subject/object, and the space on the canvas, control the pencil with their hand. Eyes move back and forth on the subject and the canvas.

But if when we are in the state of form where there is joy in perceiving the subject (in this case the flower). Our eyes don’t really move away from the subject.

In this case, that is the methodology used to document the lotus at this stage.

With that method, drawing is just an action of moving our arm. If we put the drawing action into the context of Buddhism in the World of form, we then do not desire to draw perfectly, nor hoping to place part of the flower logically on the paper. Immersed in the world of form, this perception of drawing can explain as an documentation of joy… probably.

Rebirth of your inner self

In this fast pace life, we are often exposed to endless stimulations that require our attention. This continuous external stimulation has resulted in neglecting our meta-cognitive processes that is vital to one’s sustainability. The objective of the project is to push the boundary of visual communication using lotus flower as the source of inspiration and reflect on the metaphysical world through Buddhist philosophy. The solution aims to respond to our current pace of life by delivering an interactive book addressing on the topic of rebirth. The readers are encouraged take a step back to reflect on self, in relation to everyday life and nature.

With the incorporation between the mediums of communication and the concept behind the Rebirth, the book brings through detailed emotions and respond towards the views on life in relation to the flower.

(20% vitality, 0% mana left…)

Coexistence

Awaiting the rebirth of lotus, the outer petals of the lotus sound like paper. It reminded me of some weird thrill when I get from stepping on dried leaves. The crisp sound. A sense of satisfaction.

The petals are a little brown and its core with spots of oxidation. The lotus seeds giving off a layer of oil when my fingers rub on it. The flower smell a little green.
At first I thought I could split the process of recording into equal parts. Yet I realized in nature and law of Buddhism, there isn’t a clear line of separation. Everything undergo transformation and changes. There are overlaps and recurrence. If I were to split the process into world of forms and desire or into mindset of suffering and impermanence like how I read on theory books, nothing will work. Like how all objects and living things live, they rely on each other, they exist upon the existence of one another. For example, vases exist because flowers exist. Flowers can have their value extended because a vase held them high up. This interrelationship can never be broken.
So the idea in the world of form teaches us that form and materials co-exist.

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Aftermath:
Initially I thought this concept can be included into the final outcome of the whole rebirth process. Sadly, in the end it didn’t quite fit in.

Doodling lotus’ form

Been quite some time since I last doodled.
very zen and meditative like I said earlier on.

In denial

Flowers are like us. They are expressive and often show emotions if we look closely enough.

Besides the cross section of the stem that really turn the project into a whole new direction, this denial petal was also quite remarkable (I think…) I have this weird habit of viewing objects or things with faces or expressions, and smile to myself when I saw it. And with that perception, I accidentally spotted a denial face on the petal.

(btw, wordpress love to disfigure my photos. the petal suppose to be longer like the above sketch. Not fat like the photograph you see up there =( )

Below are some writing during that day of recording:

It laid flat on my table. Disfigured. As if gasping for air. I could barely make out things at the core of the flower. It is in total darkness. The top portion of the stem is charcoal black. I plucked down a piece of dried petal and rub the texture onto paper, hoping to record traces of the lotus, but failed.

But wait a second. This piece of crumpled dried petal has a facial expression. Pouting with wide lips and closed eyes, slightly showing an expression of denial. I photographed it and shall use detail pencil sketch to record.

Repetitive

Investigation of the lotus’ form by using lines. In fact, its a meditative doodling activity. Will post the final outcome once they are scanned.
It’s like a complete one hour course of meditation, a retreat from the outside world. And finding that calmness in the late night.

Realism

Documentation of the pencil sketch

Drawing with stem

Experimented drawing the lotus using the lotus itself.
I felt it was much easier to control the stem than to use a brush.

Perception methodology from Picasso

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso

I remembered from my advance drawing module that mention about the drawing method by Picasso. The idea is to not stay put at a place to draw a still life but to move around it, without a fixed perception on the object we are viewing and drawing them down on paper. With similar methodology drawn from Picasso, I experimented with what I actually perceive in front of me and recording the flower with and without a conscious attention on how accurate the flower will look.

Here I am addressing one of the concept under the world of desire, suffering, where human always hold a perception on other people, objects, situations etc. But with this method, it challenges our perception on the object (in this case the flower) and moving up to the world of form and impermanence where our perception is only a sensual experience. The adapted Picasso method detach us from the perception norm and at the same time being aware of the true perception we hold normally. It is also to express the meaning behind the Buddhism concept that perception is always changing and thus we should not rely so much on what we perceive but concentrate on your inner self. So this is the method I am adopting to represent detachment from form and perception.

Brief background of the painting:

Pablo Picasso painted the “Female Nude”, in 1910-11. The art style is “analytical Cubism”, where natural objects found in nature are subjected to a systematic distortion that rejects space and depth. Objects are recorded picturing two views at the same time on the same plane, a frontal view and a side view. Following this line of thought, a profile view of a head can meld into a frontal view of the same head, and be seen together as only a frontal view of a head. This is called the fourth dimension of painting.

source

lotus blossom

Most probably it will not appear in my final book, but it will just get posted up here as part of documentation.