GCSE Art Coursework: Buddhist Symbols

My second coursework topic was Buddhist symbols.
This came from my interest in the Buddhist religion.
I decided to do a modern version of the more traditionl asian Buddhist art.
I put together a composition of Buddhist symbols:
The Three Jewels (bottom right) : represent the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
The Endless knot (top left) is a symbolic knot, of the intertwining of wisdom compassion. It can used to represent the cycle of rebirth.
The Dharma wheel (top right): represents the noble eightfold path. The overall shape of a circle represents perfection of the Dharma teaching. The rim which holds the spokes represents the mindfullness.
Pink lotus (bottom left): It's the lotus of the historical Buddha.

The chinease writing influences the culture of my piece and shows the connection through language, even though our languages are different.


My Coursework piece.




I was quite pleased with my final piece, as I felt id had produced an interesting composition that represented the Buddhist traditional art.

For my prep I looked at different symbols I could use and traditional Buddhist and Indian art like the traditional mandalas to design a composition for my art work, I used the idea of everything being link into a shape.
I used batik for my piece because I felt the symbols on material would best fit the traditional Indian art.

Madagascar

A cartoon image of the film madgascar, done in watercolour pencils.

GCSE Art Coursework: Portraits

My first coursework topic was portraits.

This was to portray self identity.

Here I experimented with different colours so that I could find a colour to mainly paint my main piece in. The different colours are used to display the different emotions I go through at any one time. The blue is almost depressing, whilst the yellow is hopeful and the pinks self content and happiness. The way I enhanced my face with light is similar the Andy Warhols' work.

I wasn't to pleased with my final outcome as I felt portraits wasn't my strong point and that the artwork didn't represent me.

GCSE Art Coursework: Spirit in the Woods

For my third coursework project my topic was Spirit in the Woods.

The idea came from the widlife by the canals during late summer with a mix of narnia.

 

Pencil sketch of toadstools.

Here I took some art history from the national art galley which I felt connected with my topic and did a pencil sketch of it.
I used it because I felt it represented unusual land, i.e narnia, like my the theme of my coursework.

Left: Carbon pencil, right, watercolour pencil

Pencil sketch of toadstools.

Etchings.

Looking back at my coursework etchings, they aren't are clear an my recent etchings for my exam.

My first main piece was a brusho and ink painting of a fairy sat on steps, with a godess like fairy in the sky looking over her. This was because I decided to explore religion within the unknown magical world. I used purple as this is quite a magical colour.

GCSE Art Exam

My original idea of Buddhist temples was an extension from a topic in my coursework I did about Buddhist symbols.

As the Buddhist religion is based around peace, in some of my work I tried to show disruption combined with symbols of peace, for example I used Buddhist symbols to represent peace and colour to represent disruption.

As I started to produce pieces around this theme I felt the project needed to expad to more than just Buddhist temples and so it progressed to a mix of Egyptian art and Buddhist temples.

Etchings of a buddhist prayer wheel changed to represent a buddhist temple, based on my original idea of purely buddhist temples.

 I decided to do etechings so i could experiment with different colours:



Buddhist prayer wheel etching. The temple representing peace. The red behind the temple represents the disruption hidden behind the peace.

Buddhist prayer wheel etching.

The temple representing peace.

The red behind the temple represents the disruption hidden behind the peace.



Buddhist prayer wheel/temple etching with an earthy background.



Buddhist prayer wheel/temple etching with a misty background.

 

A black and white pencil drawing of a Buddhist prayer wheel. I tried to use shading to create a more 3D effect to the drawing.

A black and white pencil drawing of a Buddhist prayer wheel. I tried to use shading to create a more 3D effect to the drawing.  

I started to look at different types of Buddhist buildings:



Buddhist temples: done in charcoal.

A carbon drawing of a chinease building.

Photos

A composition of Asian and African art.

In this photo i tried to produce a photo more with interesting shadows.

From these photos of mixed culture I decided I wanted to use this idea in my art exam..

I decided to use Egyptian symbols to mix with my Buddhist temples.

 My art then developed into a mixture of Buddhist temples, symbols and Egyptian symbols.

So I looked at the Egyptian symbols to see what  I could use:

A postcard of an Egyptian cat statue.

Art History

For my art history I looked at Egyptian hieroglyphics which I used to designed the background of my main piece - with the hieroglyphic styled alphabet. I also looked at different Egyptian symbols which I could possibly use in my exam.

Following on from this decision I decided to look at Egyptian hieroglyphics, here I have copied a photo of hieroglyphics with some sepia ink.

Louise Hibbert
I looked at louise Hibbert because the shapes she uses in here work can be compared to the symbols of Buddhism. This marine art for example is a similar shape to the Buddhist dharma wheel I have used in some of my work.

Louise Hibbert
This piece could represent a Buddhist prayer item.



I experimented with differnt material so I could see which materials and colours worked best:

The Bodhi Tree: although I feel green worked for this picture I decided not to use green in my exam as it didn't represent either of the cultures in my exam well enough.

Here I have used layering to start planning the composition of my main piece



You only lose what you cling to.





A pencil sketch of an Buddhist prayer item.

A carbon drawing of Egyptian gods.



In this picture, the lotus flower represents peace, but the colour shows disruption behind the peace.
Although I liked the composition of this, I wasn't too pleased with the outcome of the picture.

 

I also looked at images of pharoahs as an idea to use in the background of my work.

A copy of an Egyptian symbol in my exam piece.

A copy of an Egyptian symbol in my exam piece.

A pencil sketch of the Buddha & Lotus flower with original picture.



I decided to use a colour scheme of blue (as I felt this represented the egyptian side to my work well), red (as this is quite an oriental colour, like the Buddhist religion) and purple as this is quite a nice medium colour)

Due to decideing to using egpytian symbols in my work I practiced with wax on material in egyptian symbols.



I did  a practice painting on the prayer wheel I decided to use in my exam, to see if my colour scheme of blue, purple and red would work.

I decided to use the idea of the prayer wheel representing a temple with an Egyptian scarab beetle merged on top, in my main piece, and therefore had a go at painting this idea out on paper.

I kept the idea of using the Buddhist prayer wheel merged with the Egpytian scarab beetle. I also used to idea of Egyptian styled writing in the background.  

A merge of a Buddhist prayer wheel, in place on a temple, with Egyptian symbols and a hieroglyphic styled alphabet.

For my exam I used wax and brusho on material, this was because I thought it would be a good material to use for bold symbols and it would bring out the colours used. 

When colouring with brusho ink I encountered the problem of the darker colours running into the lighter ones previously painted, I overcame this by using it to my advantage and used it to create shadows in my work.

  I was quite pleased as I felt I used the all the best aspects from my preparation to create a interesting composition of Buddhist and Egyptian symbols. Although if  I were to change anything, I would use a richer orange and create a spectrum of shades moving up the piece from dark to light, I could perhaps of spent more time doing more delicate detail in the main body of the piece.