Thursday, November 04, 2010

A rose by any other name smells as sweet

** "BIAS" is a special feature in my blog where I get to say whatever I want with scant regards for your feelings. I'm not politically correct in this feature, so go ahead, judge me."


During my wedding, I put up a portrait of a rose à la beauty and the beast instead of the usual picture of me and my wife. It had attracted quite a fair bit of attention and even the banquet manager asked me about it. Actually we wanted to bring it up to the stage to talk about it but I thought it's just too troublesome, so here I am to blog about the origins of this mysterious portrait, haha! I can't remember exactly the date but I did remember the year in which it all happened. It was in 2006 when I first decided to do up this project.  We loved beauty and the beast and the ideal behind the whole story and I promised my wife that on the day of our wedding, we would have this picture of beauty and the beast out there for everyone to see.


4 years had passed and I didn't do much about it until the start of this year 2010. I started conceptualizing the idea in 2007 and had a good idea of what to do. I wanted to re-create the glass stain effect but using cut pieces of coloured paper and pasted onto a black cardboard.  The end result should look somewhat like the picture below. However, I can foresee the difficulties involved and decided to do a scale down version of this, so I just took out the key and central idea of the picture, which is the rose, beauty and the beast.



The original idea is like that, but I realised it's too difficult to pull it off


I bought the piece of black cardboard in 2007 (I kept the receipt!) and bought the materials needed, but it wasn't till earlier this year before I actually started doing it. All the while I was procrastinating because I'm not confident that I can pull it off. That was before I even had the idea of marriage so I think it's understandable. But as I'm more sure of our eventual marriage, I can't delay it further. I sketched out the general outline of how the whole project should look like:


Sketched out onto the cardboard. Decided to just focus on the central idea of the picture.


I decided to do up the rose part first. It's quite screwed up, on hindsight because I was experimenting with how to actually cut pieces of paper and paste onto the outline sketched onto the cardboard. I finally decided on using tracing paper to trace out the outline again, then transferring the lines onto the coloured pieces of paper, cut it out and paste it. In a way, I'm creating my own carbonated paper by using tracing paper. Here's a few pics of the rose part. I loved the brilliant colours!







Thereafter I went to reservist... it took me quite a few more months to get my ass back to work on the project again. I think having done the rose part is itself a motivation for me to continue. I've no idea on how the overall project would look like because I'm doing section by section and deciding what colours to use based on the overall feel of the colours combination. As I continued to the beauty and beast section, I screwed up again. This part of the project requires a different skill set from what I did for the rose part. The cut pieces of paper are so tiny that it's very difficult to cut properly (I can't even hold it using 2 fingers). I don't even want to think about how to paste it since I can't hold it properly. In the end, I've to make do with a toothpick to position the cut coloured pieces of paper onto their proper places on the cardboard.











Having done the hardest part of the project, the rest is smooth sailing. I agonized over the choice of colours to be used for the backdrop on the rose section to give overall compatibility in colours, and eventually I settled on this particular olive green colour. Quite pleased with myself :)




The final look of the project looks like this:





My mum helped me to select the colours for the frames and the margin around the picture. This is what is seen on the wedding night itself, displayed on an easel.





How's that for a 4 years project? haha :)

11 comments :

Jeremy said...

Dear LP,
That's a great one. You have great artistic talent. It is even touching having come out with your very own hand-made gift for your wife. I think she must be quite touched that you still remember and fulfil what you told her years back about doing up this project for both your wedding day. :-)

Crystal said...

Hey LP,

WOW! WOW! This is so artistically done. I really have to compliment you on this! Besides nicely done up, i feel that it's filled lotsa love that you have shown towards your wife.

Marriage is the start of the new journey, you showed her the way how you fulfilled the promises you made despite years ago and how serious you are about it. So sweet!

Every little things make a big difference and thanks for blogging this little part of your life. I felt touched even just by reading it!

Also, congratulations to you and your wife. Wishing you a wonderful journey as you build your new life together.

Regards
Crystal

la papillion said...

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for your compliments :) She's quite touched. Before I gave it to her, she was still nagging me about not fulfilling my promise. So, I gamely played along by brushing it off :)

When I presented it to her, let's just say that we had a touching moment :)

la papillion said...

Hi Crystal,

Hey thanks for your compliments :) Haha, these days I only fill my blog with the little stuff, and less on the financial and serious bits :)

Looking at your blog, I learned a few things about some of the liquid potions that girls use, haha! Keep it up!

AK71 said...

Hi LP,

You are soooo romantic. :)

Although you secretly told me about this before (by email) and told me not to reveal it in the cbox, it is still amazing to read about it.

Jade is a lucky lady. :)

mark said...

AK - why u paoto the secret that u had to keep a secret?

AK71 said...

Hey Mark,

LP openly blogs about it now and it was already revealed during his wedding. So, the secret is no longer a secret mah. ;)

la papillion said...

Hi Mark n AK,

Nah, it's okay :) AK is right, it's no longer a secret :)

Crystal said...

Hey LP,

I suppose I could understand as much - you just completed one of your major step which can be quite draining at times especially comes to preparation and 'suiting every one needs'. take a break and get recharge :) u well-deserved it!

Separately, I never thought my blog could 'teach' the man in understanding the girls' stuffs! LOL! Glad to hear that! :)

Cheers
Crystal

mark said...

AK and LP

I am not referring to the artwork. I am referring to AK paoto that u told him a secret. LOL.

What if suddenly I also say I had the secret. And the entire population discovers the secret was no secret cuz everyone knew. LOL

Kidding la people! I wanna raise one point to AK. Maybe I will comment at his blog :P

Anonymous said...

A rose by any other name smells as sweet, but a red rose bear is even sweeter! This cuddly little toy is perfect for anyone who loves roses and wants to show their affection with a heartfelt gift.

What makes the red rose bear so special? It’s not just the soft, plush fabric or the cute button eyes. It’s the fact that this adorable toy comes with its very own red rose! The rose can be removed from the bear and worn as a boutonniere or given to someone special.

The red rose bear is sure to make anyone smile, whether they’re a romantic partner, a close friend, or even yourself. So go ahead and indulge in a little sweetness—you deserve it!