Cracks around Drain Covers in the Sidewalk
--Lava
My design concept is the cracks around manhole covers in the sidewalk. I think the drain covers, although often ignored by people, are very important to a city. They are just an appearance on the sidewalk, hidden underneath is the huge public infrastructure.
In addition, I have a special feeling towards the manhole covers. In China, my hometown is very close to Manzhouli. Due to historical reasons, the city's sewer system and manhole covers are designed by the Japanese. Japanese are well designers in infrastructure construction and design and the city's manhole covers are with good-looking patterns. I have photographed more than 2,000 manhole covers along the Songhua River and did a research of them. This time I also carefully observed the manhole covers of Boston.
Third, when I started looking for cracks on the sidewalk, I found that cracks were more likely to grow around the covers. These are the reasons why I chose this theme.
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| 1 Prudencial 4*4 |
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| 2 Prudencial 4*4 |
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| 3 Public Library 3*5 |
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| 4 Back Bay 9*11.5 |
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| 5 Public Park 8*11.5 |
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| 6 Northeast University 24*26 |
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| 7 Leather District 8*11 |
I walked home from school every day and took pictures of the cracks around the manhole covers. I chose 7 interesting looking crack patterns for painting. The first picture can be seen as a lollipop. The second picture I see is a ferris wheel. The third picture is like a little rat. The fourth picture looks like two ears of an animals. The fifth picture, when I first saw it, looked like an octopus. The sixth picture is like a snail. The seventh picture is like a round-faced girl with two pigtails.
As I imagined all the cracks as different and interesting patterns, I observed the photos carefully before I started drawing. I had to consider what shape and size the cracks should be on the paper. And then lay out the picture. In the process of painting, I draw the manhole cover first as the central part, and then draw the details of the surrounding cracks.
In the use of mediums, I used more slightly rough paper and pencil. As cracks are more likely to have a lot of lines and details that need to be described with delicate strokes, a pencil can show these details well and can be changed in time. Rough paper can be combined with graphite under fingers to form a natural picture of shadow. As drain covers are wet, moss often grows in the cracks around. I use colour pencils to adjust the specific color after sketching with pencils.
I really love the motivation for your work! It's nice to connect with something that reminds you of home. All of your drawings were extremely detailed and visually engaging — they definitely made me want to know more about your process and experience.
ReplyDeleteHi Lava! I loved that you chose to draw something beyond just sidewalk cracks! I think it's so interesting that in your hometown the manhole covers were particularly designed by the Japanese, and that they have more decoration than manhole covers anywhere else. This reminded me of a company I had heard of that prints manhole cover patterns on t-shirts. It looks like they have only created shirts from European manholes, but maybe someday they will expand to your hometown!
ReplyDeletehttps://raubdruckerin.de/en/
I also really like the way you chose to exhibit your work on the poster. There's such a satisfying visual organization with the repetition of the circles and the similarly shaped pieces of paper. This is great!