Before the summer holidays in 2008, my art teacher gave us an assignment… I might be too academic, but as far as drawing/painting is concerned, I have always enjoyed assignments. That’s probably why I find it so difficult to get motivated to paint when I am on my own. I do have a lot of imagination, but when it comes to translate this imagination on a canvas or piece of paper… I can’t. So having an assignment somehow forces me to get started.
The assignment was to pick a haiku and illustrate it.
Hmmm… what’s a haiku? Well, I didn’t know at the time. A haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 syllables.
And a haiga is basically an illustration of a haiku. Or, more precisely, according to Wikipedia: a haiga is a style of Japanese painting based on the aesthetics of haikai, from which haiku poetry derives, which often accompanied such poems in a single piece.
So here I was, flicking through a haiku book, searching for inspiration. I finally found one, which was something like
‘Having cut the peony that evening, I felt distressed’
And here is what I came up with – it might not be great, but I love it because this exercise forced me to be creative rather than just trying my best to copy something.
The calligraphy and the seal are still missing. I am working on it!
No comments:
Post a Comment