Carl's Portfolio by Carl Guo

Design 2007 Poster-Help Young People Who Committed Crimes - 6 Posters For Nokia N81 - 8 2008 Logo-Print Valet - 10 UI-Magic Book - 12 2009 Brochure Design-Academy of Art - Graphic Design - 14 2010 Poster For Graduation Design Exhibition - 16 Interdisciplinary Study-Study For Dormitoryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Environment And Furniture - 18 Web Site Design-Templates for page of special report and standard - 28 2013 City patterns - 30 Infographic design-Mobilephone Issues - 32 CD Cover-Pink - 34 Font Design-Blade Point - 36 Poster-Snowball - 38 -

Fine Art 2008 Installation-Art-Smile of youth - 40 Photography-Sea Gull - 42 2009 Sculpure-Mobius Strip - 44 2013 Oil Painting-Memory Series - 45

/ Design /

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This is a public poster and its topic is â&#x20AC;&#x153;Help Children Who Committed Crimes.â&#x20AC;? When I took poster class, I really care some social issue, such as juvenile crime. Since development in China, more and more young people got lost and committed crime. In this background, we mostly just sent them into jails or special schools. However, they are just kids, and, actually, their behavior is influenced by society, family, education and various reasons. Hence, I want to evoke people to care about these adolescents rather than just punish them under the law because they are so young and need love from the society.

Help Young People Who Committed Crimes Public Poster 2007 160*120 CM

When I designed the poster, first, I tried to look for elements. We found, jails, childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photos, and tried to combine them while my teacher told me thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not enough strong because graphic design is not only to use photo to convey information, but also can use graphics to emphasize a topic. Therefore, he recommend me to use some graphics in my topic, such as gun, handcuffs, or something which can represent crimes. Then, I found and used a handcuff and buds as elements; handcuff means crimes, and buds represent children. But, first, it was not smooth because I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how use these elements. I just used a white paper as background with a handcuff and a bud. I looked stiff. Then, I tried to understand the topic. I tried to make an atmosphere which is impersonal. Hence, I went out and found a crude cement floor because it looked like a floor of a jail which is hard and impersonal. Then, I tried to use the handcuff to form a heart shape because I realized that meant love, and that was what I want to express. In the end, I found a green chalk to help me make a perfect idea. Painting a bud, it complemented the heart shape and formed the atmosphere I wanted. In the end, I used computer to refine color and aid a slogan.

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This is a group of business poster, and the topic is Nokia N81, which is a smartphone. In this group poster, I tried to emphasize some function of the product, for example, I drew three illustrations to show how functions take us fun.

Posters For Nokia N81 Business Poster 2007 11*17 inches

This group has three posters. Because the N81 was a smartphone in which music was an important function so I designed two posters to emphasize the function. The first, I tried to use a tornado to show how strong feeling the phone will take with customers. Besides, I found some elements like musical notes and used them to form a tornado of music. In this way, I deciphered an abstract concept. When I designed the second one, I tried to use a different strategy. This time, I used a screaming people with a headphone illustration to directly convey how amazing the music function takes to customers. In addition, I let the slogan launch from the mouth. In this way, the poster showed more vitalities. The last poster, I tried to emphasize another important function about the phone, game. I thought gamepad was the best thing to represent game, so I drew cartoon one with smile. In this way, I wanted to explain that the game function was accessible and provided good user experiences. In the end, I uniformed the group posterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s color and layout. I used yellow and magenta as main color because the productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s target customer was young people. Light color can attract their attention.

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This is project I did at HP, Shanghai office as an intern. In this project, I was asked to design a logo for a new program named print valet which is a software and, it can help people trim digital photos and automatically layout them depending on color, data, catalogue and, in the end, form a photo album.

Print Valet Logo 2008

Drafts

When I did the project I tried a lot of elements for designing the logo, such as book and dialog boxes. But, they didn’t work very well because they couldn’t represent the function of the software. Then, I tried to use the software again and discuss with engineer what the software was. They helped me to know the software deeply. Then, I realized this software was a good bridge to connect photos with other information. Hence, I got a logo idea, a jigsaw puzzle in which a lot of pieces with pictures connect to form a whole picture, and the software has the similar function because it also could connect pictures with pictures. So, I designed the logo with various matching colors. Although， My design didn't be used I still studied a lot of things from the project.

This is just an effect picture.

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In 2008, I got an internship position at a well-known computer company, HP. I participated in a program named â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Magic Bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. It was a software which could automatically lay out photos according to the color, date and location information and produce a digital photo album. Thus, users did not need to spend a lot of time cleaning up a mass of photos in their folders. My job in that program was to design UI for the product. I used a couple weeks to think how to design a user- friendly interface with which users could use the program without training. I learned something from IPhone UI and tried to use practical interface style, for example, pitting all original photos on a film. In that way, users got a hint that the photos on the film were photos because film is always considered as a raw material.

Magic Book UI 2008

On the contrary, I used a photo album logo as an entrance to get processed photos. In addition, I imitated page-turning of a book as UI when the program was showing processed photo albums. During the internship of UI design for real products, I realized how important UI was. Hence, I believe that a good software depends highly on a user-friendly UI system because UI is the only thing users can see.

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This was project in which students were asked to design a brochure for introducing graphic design departament. In my opinion, the graphic design departament is a department with passions, vitalities. Therefore, I defined orange as the main color tone. In addition, I tried to use element with vitalities like rhombus to lay out contents. In that way, the brochure would look like more varied and flexible. Furthemore, I put a lot of works from my classmates or mine in it and combined with various elements of design. In these ways, I made a brochure with art atmosphere and characteristic of graphic design department.

Academy of Art - Graphic Design Brochure Design 2009

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This was my class graduation design exhibition. In design department, there are four classes of graphic design and, I got the idea from number because number is a good visual identity system in which people can easily get information from the poster.

Graduation Design Exhibition Poster Poster 2010 120*80 CM

When I designed the poster I tried to use Chinese element to design. First, I introduced Chinese font and tried to reconstitute the font to form a number four. Then, I realized that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not enough powerful because we were very young and we needed more vitality in our exhibition. Then, I used couple days to look for elements which has Chinese elements and vitality. Finally, I got an idea when I passed a park and saw a lot of people was dancing with folding fans, which is a kind of Chinese fan. When people was dancing, I noticed movement of folding fans and, it showed a kind of vitality. Then, I tried to use the fan with my poster. It showed an interesting atmosphere because it both contained vitality and Chinese culture. In the end, I emphasized the movement of the number and finished the poster. In addition, the vice dean,Liang Min really liked the design. Hence, she delegated me to design other three posters for Environment Art department. Unfortunately, becasue every class had diffirent requirement I couldn't design for them by using the same strategy.

Elements

Posters Graduation Design Exhibition Poster For Environment Art Departnment Three Classes Poster 2010 120*80 CM

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This was an interdisciplinary project, and I began the project when I was a junior in college. I did so because my roommates and I didn’t like our current dormitory’s environment and furniture. We all wanted to improve our dormitory’s environment and furniture because it was our home when we studied at the university. The environment can influence our lives and studies. Besides, we did it because it was easy to survey and get data, and the school also offered free resources. We spent one year on the project.

Study For Dormitory’s Environment And Furniture Interdisciplinary Study 2009-2010

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First, we used a couple of months to collect information. We surveyed five universities and did questionnaires. In this way, we discovered a lot of issues about dormitories that students cared about or were dissatisfied with. Then, we summed up the issues and classified them into two categories: spiritual needs and functional needs. In China, most public universities can’t offer a good environment in the dormitory because of expenditure shortages. Hence, most students live in a narrow dormitory. For example, according to statistics which I collected, there are 60% of students who still live in a four-person dormitory, and people’s average space is just 2 square meters. In that condition, we tried to use our knowledge to improve students’ life quality.

Fudan University

Tongji University

Shanghai Normal Univesity

Shanghai International Studies University

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

University of Shanghai for Science and Technology

30% 70%

60% students thought they didn't have enough storage spance.

70% students didn't think their Dormitory are comfortable.

Measurement And Statistics Data 2009

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60%

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40%

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Second, We tried to do something diffirent.In a questionnaire survey, we used a new way to collect information. We interviewed one hundred students who lived in a 4 person dormitory and asked them to give us ten adjectives to explain what feeling they want to have about where they are living and what feeling they now have. Then, we tried to extract key words from the survey, compared them and tried to find relationships. In the end, we found that these seven words were mentioned most frequently: broad, soft, fresh, bright, vigorous, colorful, and warm. Then, we tried to decipher this abstract information. I tried to use various pictures to decipher it; for example, many students wanted to live in a natural environment so I tried to find some furniture pictures with natural elements. Then, I tried to combine these picture and formed a keynote panel. In this way, I translated abstract elements to tangible elements for my study. Then, We tried to find funitures which suit the these words and classify them.

Emotional tone panel: Soft

Emotional tone panel: Fresh

Emotional tone panel: Vigorous

Emotional tone panel: Colorful

Emotional tone panel: Warm

Emotional Emotional tone tone panel: panel: Colorful Broad Emotional Tone Panel Research Technique 2010

Decipher Abstract Infomation Research Technique 2010

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After finishing two processes, my team tried to redesign or aid some new element or function for current dormitories. First, we focused on functional needs because this is the most important issue. In the survey, there were 60 students who complained that there was not enough storage space for their needs. We measured the volume of their goods, calculated average volume, and measured available storage space at their dormitories. Then, we compared two groupsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; data, and calculated how much space was needed. Depending on the data, we formulated three solutions. First, we introduced more storage space, and we tried to use spaces which would not disturb studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives; for instance, we set two wall cabinets over the bed. In this way, students can easily store and take out their quilts, blankets, or clothing. In addition, we introduced similar design as in the storage units of aircrafts. Doing so, it not only offered function, but also had a good usability. Second, we tried to introduce a flexible concept of storage because original design had a lot of limitation; for example, when we studied in university we had various size books, but the original bookshelf just offered a maximum size. This directly wasted a lot of storage space because we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have so many big size books. Hence, we tried to separate the space by using grids. It meant we introduced a standard sized grid and used it for various units which can separate space for needs. This strategy can really improve the usage rate of storage without needing to enlarge the space of storage.

In addition, we created some new functions for current dormitories, like folded assistant tables, mosquito net curtains, and so on.

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In the end, we built 3D model and raise some new layout concept. We made a practical model and a conceptual model. Using this way, we could compare each them and try to refine design because design is a process of weigh. In addition, I tried to find color which can suit for students because color has a lot of functions, such as releasing pressure, focusing on study.

In addition, my team also did some new concept design becasue it helped us tcompare current design and do it better. In conclusion, I have to say this was a tough project because my team didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t research experience like most student. We definitely made a lot of mistakes, but, finally, we found what we wanted and used knowledge to build a system and finished the project.

ShenGuo Cui

Binkun Liu

Graphic Design Student

Environment Art Student

Carl Guo

Ning Huan

Digital Art Student

Industrial Design Student

Yue Wang

Liang Chen

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Environment Art Instructor -

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Graphic Design Instructor -

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This is one of my work when I was working at Shanghai Media Group. once my manager let me design a systematized template for the page of special report. It was a difficult task for me because I didn’t know any IT standards and didn’t have any experience for designing a system in which editors could use visualization tools to make a web pages without code. Hence, I needed to design a lot of functional modules such as banner module which allowed editors to put News title, Photo module which let editors to put photos with sub-title, hyperlink module and so on. It was an overwhelmingly difficult project because it was hard to design a flexible, easy-to-use, stable, beautiful template of web site. Fortunately, my professor, Ming Liang, gave me a book called “Grid system” which told me how to use grid to build standards of web sites. After reading the book, I built a standard and used it to design various functional modules for the web site.

Templates for page of special report and standard Web site design 2010

Standard

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This is a project when I was studying at College of Marin in which I designed a group of pattern for San Francisco. First, I used SF which is abbreviation of San Francisco to design a pattern. In addition, San Francisco is a red city because there is Golden Gate bridge, San Francisco 49, Giants. Hence, we can see red or orange everywhere. Besides, San Francisco is a very important city in America, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a ruby in America. I tried to use a font which I designed. The font has a lot of vitality, and I think San Francisco is a city with a lot of vitality. Besides, I tried to use ruby as an important part. Ruby Pattern -

2013

This is another idea, and it's from San Francisco and Bay area. San Francisoco is a peninsula so water plays a very important role in this city. In addition, San Francisoco has a big urban are. Hence, I wanted to cobine these elements to create a intricate but simple pattern.

SF map Pattern 2013

San Franciso is a busy city, and it has a lot of streets and traffic lights. When I went to MOMA from the Union Sqare I passed 10 block and 12 traffic lights. These traffic lights drove me crazy. On the other hand, traffic lights are also a kind of image of San Francisoco so I tried to use them to make a group of pattern.

Traffic Lights Pattern 2013

In the end, I tried to use patterns on mobile phone cases and a coner of San Franciso. In this way, I can show if these pattern suit to use in the city or product which can apper in the city.

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This was an info-graphic project when I was studying in College of Marin. In this project, I wanted to use graphic design to discuss negative influence about mobile phone issues. First, I was looking for data about phone, and I got five important statistics which can represent most person habits while I also found reports which reveal consequences from these habits. Second, I need to decipher abstract data to graphic because it will be easy to read and be noticed. What I chose was pie graphic because it is most common graphic in our lives. Then, I tried to use pictures or graphic to decipher reports of information. For example, testing message when driving is extreme dangerous thing in our life, and over 90% people use a phone while driving. So, I used a crash picture to give audiences a hint; testing message could kill you if you are doing so when you are driving. Using the same way, I expounded five issues, safety issue, sleeping issue, relationship issue, eyesight issue and navigation issue. Then, I used a graphic of a mobile phone and tried to put data and graphics into. In addition, I designed five logos for issues in order to make issues more noticeable. In the end, I combined all of them and arranged them depending on statistics’ degree with a deeper background.

News：Texting while driving makes a driver 23x more likely to crash.

Statistics from http://www.statisticbrain.com

News:Error In Apple Maps Causes Motorists to Drive Across Active Airport Mobilephone Issues Info-Graphic Design 2013

News：Mobile phone radiation wrecks your sleep.

News: Mobile phone can harm your eyesight!

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This was an assailment in which I designed a CD cover for PINK. Before, I start the design I first did a lot of research for the singer like background, style and so on. I decided to redesign an album of her, “The Truth About Love” because I thought the original was to business-like, and it didn’t appear Pink’s style. Then, I listened to the album and MTV again and again while I wrote down what feeling I thought. For example, I thought Pink is an unusual girl because she has a cynical attitude toward tradition, and she is individual person. Then, I tried to decipher these words with words like power, cynic, movement, color, unstable, wild. In this process, I realized that the song ”Try” can really represent her style because there were a lot of special elements in this song’s MTV like dancing in a ruin, colorful pigment; therefore, I decided to focus the song, and used it as the CD cover. Then I tried to look for sources which suited for the song. First, I found some dancing pictures with strong movements because movement was a most important element for the song. But, I realized I didn’t really need realistic pictures because too much detail could weaken atmosphere; hence, I used a tool to make pictures to look like lithographs, with a little bit detail. Then, I tried to form a colorful atmosphere because in the MTV, Pink was dancing with pigment, and it formed an unusual atmosphere. Hence, I used pigments as background and chose various colors. After that, I still thought the cover needed something. I noticed a word, wild which was a also an important element to represent Pink’s style. Finally, I found a picture of ruin to combine with pigments as background. In the end, I combined everything and added a subtle rotary title. In these ways, I finished a CD cover.

Try-Pink CD Cover 2013

Sketch

Elementďź&#x161; Pegment

Color Variations

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This is a type graphic design when I took graphic design class at College of Marin. What my motif is that I want to make a cool, unique type graphic which can be used on T-shits, advertisings or some cool stuff. Hence, I tried to use a triangle as basic element to make a set-off font. First, I used triangles to make a grid which was a standard for the set-off font. Then, I tried to start to build letters like A, D, X, S because these letters have most characteristics in 26 letters. So, it means if I can build these words I would be easy to build rest of them. After building couple samples, I tried to change these samples to become other letters. In this process, I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care if letters were systematic. I just tried to catch a big picture because it could help me save lot of time. When I finished the first draft rough, I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t refine it in a short time because visual fatigue could influence my judgment; therefore, I just forgot it. Next day, I started to refine the font. First, I adjusted the size of letters because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important that letters have similar size, and if not, it could influence its readability. Next, I tried to unify characteristics between letters with letters because a set-off font is a system; hence, they should have unity characteristics. In this way, it will look like more carefully and neatly done. Then, what I did was to refine it again and again. If I had time, I would open AI to observe every letter and thought what relationship they had. In addition, I tried to use the original font to evolve a new style font. Then, I realized that I can build a very different font, even if I just changed the original one a little bit. In the end, I tried to use the font in my design like pattern, poster and so on. It really appeared special temperament.

Variation Blade Point Font 2013

Variation

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This is the poster I designed for my portfolio, and I want to use it to explain my motif for continuing to study graphic. We know that a snowball is epitome of accumulation because it can accumulate enormous snow by rolling itself since a small snowball. In that process it accumulates more and more energies and influences. For the same reason, a designer also needs accumulation to improve his or her energy or ability. In China, I was a graphic designer and a news editor. After doing my job a while, I realized I don’t have enough ability to handle my job; for example, when I was a designer for a big news website namedWWW.KANKANEWS. COM I was asked to designed a system for a part of pages. It was mass because I didn’t know any standard such as CSS, HTML. Hence, I was hard to make my design tangible with engineer because they told me that my designs didn’t not follow these standard. Under the circumstance, I was hard in charge the project, although, I had perfect logic for the project. Therefore, I realized I had to improve myself just like snowball because I didn’t have enough ability. Then, I made a decision quitting my job and studying in America. So, I really believe the spirit of the snowball, I designed the poser for my portfolio.

The Spirit Of The Snowball Poster 2013 160*120 CM

/ Fine Art /

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This is a installation art named smile of youth. I designed this work becasue I thought smile is most important thing in our lives. As a young people, I want to influence other people with positive energy. Smile is a kind of positive energy. I collected a lot of pictures of smile from my classmates or frineds and combined them to make the installation because when a lot of positive energy was combined it would form a strong atmosphere. The atmosphere can really evoke people to become positive.

Smile of youth Installation Art 2008 80*120 CM -

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I always get surprise when I do something without motive. This photo is the best evidence. Fine Art is diffirent from design. It is a language which can decipher person's soul. When I went to Finland in 2008 I felt very comfortable becasue Hilsinki 's breeze refreshed my spirit. Hence, I tried to took pictures without motive, and that really gave me a big surprise. After returning home, I realized I took a lot nice photos, and they were unexpected amazing.

Sea Gull Photography 2008 Hilsinki Nikon D200

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This was a fine art work, and I got inspiration from a modern of mathematic named Mobius strip. In my opinion, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an interesting graphic because it symbolized eternity. First, as usual, I used paper to make various model. In the process, I realized how interesting to make a sculpture fine art with my subconscious. In addition, I tried to compare various model and observed every subtle difference. Then, I picked a couple of model that I really liked and used PVC to make a formal model. In this process, I studied how to refine a work with subtle changing and sometimes. I just stopped and left couple hours. When I came back, I would observe it again and again and tried to find anything which I felt uncomfortable. In this process, I realized a lot of concepts studying from abstract lecture or book knowledge. In the end, I used glue to fix the sculpture on a black acrylic panel. In this way, it will be easy to exhibit.

Element: Mobius Strip

Mobius Strip Sculpture 2009 40*40*38 CM

This group of oil painting that I did this semester, and everything is from my memory. This is a painting named hang lamp. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an old, cheap plastic hang lamp in my old apartment. When I was a kid I really liked to stand on high place. I liked to stand on my table and observed the hang lamp because doing so I could see a very different angle. Now, when I recall it I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an interesting angle to represent it differently. This is small piece painting, and I did it very fast.

Hang Lamp Oil Painting 2013 15*15 CM Board Ca rl's

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This is one named windows, and it was a corner of my old apartment. I chose the corner because that made me dream a lot after I moved on. I guess there must have something deeper in my mind. Hence, I decided to do it. When I did the painting I recalled a lot scenes such as sun shine, summer holidays. I can recall that when I was a kid. I had a lot of good time in this apartment. I remember the windows had a lot of sunshine everyday morning. In summer holidays, I could always wake up late, and sunshine told me: hey! Kid, no more homework, enjoy your day. In addition, when I didn’t have any pressure and just enjoyed pure happiness. So, in this painting, I really emphasized light, sunshine. I tried to use as colorful as I can because it was very simple way of life, and I will never come back in my life. In addition, my instructor at College of Marin, Chester Arnold, is master in bay area, and he gave me a lot of advice for my painting. He was not only teaching me technics but also provoking me to think a lot. He said: “painting is a kind language for explaining everything. What is painting’s ultimate motif is happiness.” Therefore, I tried to make this group works because, after studying Art I had never created any work for my life. This one really refresh my motif for Art.

Skech Windows Oil Painting 2013 14*11 Inchs Canvas Ca rl's

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This is the third painting named nest. This was a class work in which the professor Chester did a demo while we tried to follow his. When I was painting it I asked myself if I needed to follow everything or detail. The answer was it doesn’t, and I should do what I wanted. So, I tried to image that my grandmother’s old apartment. It’s very old apartment with red brick. So, I tried to combine both in the painting. Then, I tried to recall more detail, yellow light, dim night and chicken soup. I could feel how warm it was. In addition, I added an egg in the nest because it’s nice to wait mom home.

Nest and egg Painting 2013 9*12 Inchs Board

Stillďź&#x152; I didn't finish the whole series but I tried to skech and combime them to form a grid. In this way, I will know what next I should do. In addition, I can use these skechs to make postcard by using PCs.

Skech

Post Cards

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Shanghai is my coutryside, and it is a biggest city in China. I painted it becasue I want to define what Shanghai is in my mind. In my opinion, Shanghai is a multiculture city because it was a colony and absorded a lot of western culture. Its cucoloris looks like NewYork or San Franciso. But, if you compare it with NewYork you would find a lot of difference. Hence, I didn't portray what exact Shanghai was. I tried to blur the city and used color to show what city's charecters are. I used cold color becasue I think Shanghai is a impersonal city becasue everyone is busy and doesn't care other persons. In addition, I used a lot color, and it means that Shanghai is also a multicultural city in which you can get evrything you want. There was one professor working at Dominican University, He told me that he went to Shanghai for a couple times and could get anything he want in the city ,even Sonoma wines.

Shanghai Painting 2013 11*14 Inchs Canvas

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/ Thank You! /