WEEK 10 EXPERIMENT
Layered Illustration /
Paper Art Sculpture
👁️🗨️ NOTES: This is an experiment from Week 10. I am trying to recover crafts experiments that I still haven't experiment with yet! And, hopefully, will get everything done before the deadline next Friday.
Vietnamese Mythology Animal:
👁️🗨️ When started this experiment, I was having a lot of ideas running around in my head about making 12 animals in the year chart but that would be too basic and I wanted to do something that more challenging. And, so instead of 12 animals in the year chart, I choose the 4 mythology animals which are: Dragon (Long, Rồng); Chinese Unicorn (Kirin/ Lân / Kỳ Lân); Gold Turtle (Quy/ Kim Quy); Phoenix (Phụng/ Phượng Hoàng).
👁️🗨️ And the more I think about Vietnam Mythology Animal, the more I think about our Vietnamese ancient patterns from the old days. There is an article that reminding me about this which is seriously related. The article is mostly about Vietnam's ancient culture, but I was looking at Part 3: "HOA VAN DAI VIET: Young people revive ancient patterns in contemporary life."
👁️🗨️ Part 3: "HOA VAN DAI VIET: Young people revive ancient patterns in contemporary life" gives me a lot of inspiration for my "What's next?" step for FMP.
👁️🗨️ Here are some inspiration artworks.
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👁️🗨️ You can go to each part by clicking here: (You can see which one is finish and which one is not before choosing what to see)
_ After experiments, I also took photographs at home studios!! 👉 You can see it here.
1/ Chinese Unicorn (Kirin / Lân / Kỳ Lân):
👁️🗨️ About Kirin:
_ The qilin or kirin is a mythical hooved chimerical creature known in Chinese and East Asian (including Vietnam) mythology said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a sage or illustrious ruler.
_ Kirin is a specific type of the lin mythological family of one-horned beasts.
An example of a Kirin in mythology history.
👁️🗨️ Kirin in Vietnam:
_ In Vietnam, Kirin has many meanings. Kirin is the symbol of happiness, health, and auspices.
👉 So that is why Kirin will show up at many Vietnamese special events and holidays (Tet, Mid-Autumn, etc).
An example of a Kirin in Mid-Autumn event.
👁️🗨️ Making Kirin Process:
_ So I start with the research process to see how I can make a layered Illustration of a Kirin that fit the best with a historical image. So I found out there are a lot of illustration that can help me with the Kirin sketch out.
👁️🗨️ 72 Kirin Illustration Project:
_ This is a really surprisingly project that I found on Behance!! Which is really helpful in this sketch out process!!!
👉 His work actually insprire me to sketch out my own Kirin!!!
👉 SO after this, you can see my sketches!!!
 Kirin 1 |  Kirin 2 |  Half Kirin 3 |
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👉 I choose Kirin number 1 to create my digital Kirin!! Because all of the lines and details are much softer and finer than the Kirin 2!!
👉 I sketch out the third one and only draw in half because I think symmetry is a good thing to try!!
👉 And, here is the process of making the Layered Illustration Kirin!!!!! I feel so good after making this one!!
👉 And, here is the process that I made my Kirin out of sketch and become a digital Kirin!!!
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👉 I also create a GIF showing the process of making the layered illustration Kirin!!! So satisfying!!
2/ Gold Turtle (Quy/ Kim Quy):
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👁️🗨️ About Gold Turtle (Quy/ Kim Quy):
_ Kim Quy (“Gold Turtle”, also spelled Kim Qui) is a mythical golden turtle god appearing in several Vietnamese legends.
👁️🗨️ Legend about Gold Turtle:
A 15th-century legend tells that Lê Lợi returned his sacred sword named Thuận Thiên (Heaven's Will) to Golden Turtle in Lục Thủy lake after he had defeated the Ming army. That is why Lục Thủy lake was renamed Sword Lake (Vietnamese: Hồ Gươm) or Returning Sword lake (Hoàn Kiếm Lake). This action symbolizes taking leave of weapons for peace.
👉 The image up here is a depiction of the legend of the Kim Qui and the Restored Sword (Hoan Kiem), on mural ceramics in the Hoan Kiem temple. (You can read about the legend next to the image)
👁️🗨️ Gold Turtle (Quy/ Kim Quy) Meaning:
✔️ Positive Meaning: Its positive connotation is that it has a cupped roof, symbolizing the sky, its flat belly representing the earth. In Vietnam, because the flat belly representing the earth and so it also represents means firm.
✔️ Negative Meaning: Follow the path of the old historical story, Turtle is considered as a water monster and it always raises water to create a flood.
👁️🗨️ Making Gold Turtle (Kim Quy) Process:
_ Because Gold Turtle always goes with the legend of the sword on its roof so I wanted to keep the same image to follow the exact path and sketch out.
_ And because I have that idea and the image can be the same as what you saw up here. I decided to keep everything the same:(((((( So that is why my digital is the same as the artwork.
Ly dynasty-style dragon
3/ Dragon (Long/ Rồng):
👁️🗨️ About Dragon (Long/ Rồng):
_ Throughout the timeline of history, Vietnamese people in each dynasty have different images of the Dragon. According to an ancient origin myth, the Vietnamese people are derived from a dragon and a fairy.
_We have different dragons represent different periods of Vietnamese fine art through the Ly, Tran, Le, and Nguyen and many more dynasties, on the background of the Ninh Binh river and mountain.
Ly dynasty-style dragon, ceramic art at Chuong Duong bridge
👁️🗨️ Dragon (Long/ Rồng) Meaning:
_ The dragon was symbolic of bringing rain, needed for agriculture. It symbolizes the emperor, the nation's riches, and its might. The yang symbol is the Vietnamese dragon, which represents the universe, life, existence, and growth.
_ Like Gold Turtle, Dragon has a legend to be told throughout our long history: "Lạc Long Quân, king of the dragon kind living near the Đông sea, married a goddess, Âu Cơ who was the daughter of the birdkind king Đế Lai. Âu Cơ bore 100 eggs, which hatched into 100 sons. The first-born son became the king of Lạc Việt, the first dynasty of Vietnam, and proclaimed himself Emperor Hùng Vương. The First was followed by Hùng Vương The Second, Hùng Vương The Third and so on, through 18 reigns. This is the origin of the Vietnamese proverb: "Con Rồng, cháu Tiên" ("Children of Dragon, Grandchildren of Immortal Sages")."
👁️🗨️ Making Dragon (Long/ Rồng) Process:
_ We have different dragons for each dynasty so I have to be really careful in choose the dragon that I want to show because each dragon has different details and characteristics. So that is why I will have to research really carefully to sketch out the right features from the Dragon!!
👁️🗨️ Research:
_So I found a collection of paintings of five dragons of Vietnam's periods in history by an artist from Vietnam! Here is the article link but it is in Vietnamese so I could just show you his artworks: ARTICLE
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👁️🗨️ Research from the Museum:
_ From the project in Year 2 Semester 1, I remembered that I have contact with the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long Museum to have the details of the antiques in their museum. And here are what I found since then!! There are also a lot of Photographs taken in the Vietnam National Museum of History too (Year 2 Semester 2)!!
_ After researching for serveral dragons in each dynasty and its types, I decided to choose the Ly dynasty dragon. As you can see in the start of this page, I already found a really good example of Ly Dynasty Dragon!! So because of that reason so I wanted to choose it too.
Ly Dynasty Dragon by Dai Viet Co Phong
_ And to keep everything simple!! I decided to only make the layered illustration with the Ly dynasty dragon head!!! And here is what I take out in order to create my layered illustration dragon!
👉 Down here is my experiment!!
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👉 And, here is my GIF for my Dragon!!
_Notes: I actually think the dragon I made is kinda like a thief... :)))) because of its eyes...
4/ Phoenix (Phụng/ Phượng Hoàng):
👁️🗨️ About Phoenix (Phụng/ Phượng Hoàng):
_ Originally, Phoenix is the mythical bird of the people of East Asia influenced by Chinese civilization.
_ According to, Fenghuang or Phoenix (in English) are mythological birds found in Sinospheric mythology that reign over all other birds. It is known under similar names from various languages (Vietnamese: Phượng hoàng or Phụng hoàng; Japanese: Hō-ō or Hou-ou or Ho-Oh; Korean: Bonghwang). The males were originally called Feng and the females Huang but such a distinction of gender is often no longer made and they are blurred into a single feminine entity so that the bird can be paired with the Chinese dragon, which is traditionally deemed, male.
_ For Vietnamese culture, the phoenix is a special symbolic image. Phoenix is one of the four mythology animals. In general, Oriental people think that the phoenix is the lord of 360 species of birds. It crystallizes the beauty and softness of the graceful elegance of birds and especially the combination of the peacock and the millet.
Terracotta phoenix leaf in the Ly Dynasty, 11th-13th centuries, Vietnam National Museum of History
👁️🗨️ Phoenix (Phụng/ Phượng Hoàng) Meaning:
_ Phoenix has 5 colors representing the five virtues: uprightness, honesty, justice, faithfulness, and generosity.
✔️ Like Dragon, the appearance of the phoenix is a good omen, that is when a peaceful society has saints or sages, or there is a wise king, a fair regime, ruling the people with virtue, and the people are tamed. phoenix will fly down from the sky to congratulate and control mankind.
Phoenix Leaf, Vietnam National Museum of History. Taken by Me. 👉
👁️🗨️ Research from the Museum:
_ From the project in Year 2 Semester 1, I remembered that I have contact with the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long Museum to have the details of the antiques in their museum. And here are what I found since then!! There are also a lot of Photographs taken in the Vietnam National Museum of History too (Year 2 Semester 2)!!
_ Here are my sketch and my digital file:
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👉 Phoenix Experiment 1:
_ Here is my video transforming my phoenix sketch into digital.
👉 And, here is the process of making the Layered Illustration Phoenix!!!!! I have had to make 2 phoenix :((( because of my clumsy thought when putting everything together.
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👁️🗨️ My Thoughts:
_ When doing this first project, there are a lot of things happen and I think I did not have think clearly about the positions for each part. And, I actually forgot that I did not used the symmetry technique anymore so that means the pencil lines will stay on the front of each detail (if I not clean it carefully).
_ Another thing I realise that starting with black is better than starting with white piece of paper. When doing this (because I done this as my second experiment after the Kirin experiment) I feel like I had put to much thoughts on this experiment :((( So that is why I had to do this experiment with the Phoenix all over again.
✔️ Anyway, you still can see what I have done with experiment 1.
👉 Phoenix Experiment 2:
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_ As this is my second experiment, it is also the final experiment for Phoenix. Compare to the first experiment, I feel better with second experiment for my details and what I've done!!
👉 And, here is my GIF for my final Phoenix!!
Photographs:
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