Vision Evaluation

Using emotion as an adaptation of vision allowed me to use my specialist subject in a way to allow me to convey my work in the best way possible. As figurative painting is my specialist subject, emotion was a well goo choice, being able to portray certain emotions in a variety of ways, such as body language, facial expressions, shading and different imagery to express what is being felt in an image.

The work I have done, I had hoped would fit into a public art gallery environment, making my target audience the gallery visitors and other artists. I find my work to be on a contemporary border between expressionistic and impressionistic, using blocked corresponding colours to link together and form a whole in which they fit together to create a detailed image. I find the characteristics of my work fits in with those of many contemporary British artists.

Using artist such as Van Gogh, David Kassan and Jenny Saville, it allowed me to take reference to their work, and adapt my own work into a personal style, using a combination their technique. I get very involved in the technicality of my paintings, from the brush strokes and method of painting, to the way I portray colour and tonal qualities.

I tried to vary which media I used throughout the project, I experimented with a variety of different forms, from using dry media such as pencil, charcoal and conte crayons, to wet media such as paint and ink, and also using other methods of composing and image, such as collaging, and printmaking.

Although the majority of my work is acrylic, I also tried my luck with oils, as I have only used oils several times before hand in paintings which were unsuccessful it was difficult for me to create a successful image in a  media I was not used to. I also realised the benefits of print work, as an efficient way to demonstrate different colours, textures and backgrounds in a highly productive way.

Throughout my development I have almost categorised my work into different relevant subjects, from personal studies to ways emotions can be perceived, such as how singers and dancer show emotion whilst performing, and then collaborating the two to create my final outcome.

I believe my final outcome is a success; the detail is focused on the face rather than anything else, which is why I left the background plank, which also puts more of a structure and almost outlines the face and sharpens the image in general. I arranged the composition the piece as so the face was the majority of the image and took up most of the canvas space, which once again, took drew more attention to the emotion on the image. I have improved throughout the project in my understanding of shading and colour qualities, and how then can make the image.

I hope to see myself working as a studio based artist in the future, working on commissions and exhibiting my work in public spaces, but I also hope to achieve some form of business opportunity in the creative industry, I believe I have the creativity to succeed in different forms of product or fashion design either for myself or for a company.   

Final Piece

After experimenting with the different mediums on my progression to the final piece, I decided the best route for me would be to use acrylics for my final piece. I enjoy the way acrylics can be used to layer and create the effect of a multi tonal space, without losing the line qualities of the initial image.

My final piece was done using several layers, the original being just the original light and dark spaces of the image, then continued to add layers of detail and highlight, and continued to do so with a variety of colours until the image was finished. Although warm colours are typically associated with positive emotions, the use of warm colours almost added to the negativity of this piece.

The most difficult part of the piece was the lips, as I struggle with drawing and painting mouths, it made the piece all the more challenging.

I think the piece is a success; the detail is focused on the face rather than anything else, which is why I left the background plank, which also puts more of a structure and almost outlines the face and sharpens the image in general. I arranged the composition the piece as so the face was the majority of the image and took up most of the canvas space, which once again, took drew more attention to the emotion on the image.

Final Piece Progression

I started by testing the press and the image had printed properly, using black ink, after I was satisfied that the image would print correctly I began to experiment more.

After testing out different colours I used them on different types of materials and coloured paper and different materials.

My favourite print is the print I have done on a black piece of board with white ink. The combination and contrast between the colours bring out more definition. And although it was the same elements as the black ink on white paper, it has more of an appealing look to it.

The prints I had done on cardboard had a really nice effect, once the cardboard had gone through the press, it gave it a great texture as it had been flattened and the inner folds had extruded, also the colours of the ink had connected a contrasted with the colours of the ink.

I attempted to create a collage to add to my selection of prints by adding newspaper exerts to a piece of cardboard and the black and white coloured papers and items to create a nice connection between the twos' old looking qualities, after adding the black print, I realised that it was unsuccessful, the ink had almost blended with the colours of the newspaper and the detail of the print was hidden almost completely.

Printing

I wanted to experiment a bit more with my artwork and add a larger variety of mediums to my work, as I had used a selection of different dry and wet media such as paint and pencil, and I have also done a 3d piece, I had decided to do dry point prints, I chose dry point as I was able to get the effect  I wanted, through trying other forms of printing, like lino, I know that by doing dry point I would be able to give the images the definition I had wanted though tonal and line qualities you wouldn’t be able to get in other forms of printing.

By doing prints not only was I able to experiment easier, for example, being able to use the same image repeatedly rather than redoing the image, and it also gives a better effect then it would if I was to photocopy the image and work into it from there, and being able to choose a assortment of backgrounds and surfaces to work on, and by varying the colour selection, I could make the same image look almost completely different when they were next to one another, but I it was also possible to do it within a reasonably short space of time.

I started by testing the press and the image had printed properly, using black ink, after I was satisfied that the image would print correctly I began to experiment more.

After testing out different colours I used them on different types of materials and coloured paper and different materials.

My favourite print is the print I have done on a black piece of board with white ink. The combination and contrast between the colours bring out more definition. And although it was the same elements as the black ink on white paper, it has more of an appealing look to it.

The prints I had done on cardboard had a really nice effect, once the cardboard had gone through the press, it gave it a great texture as it had been flattened and the inner folds had extruded, also the colours of the ink had connected a contrasted with the colours of the ink.

I attempted to create a collage to add to my selection of prints by adding newspaper exerts to a piece of cardboard and the black and white coloured papers and items to create a nice connection between the twos' old looking qualities, after adding the black print, I realised that it was unsuccessful, the ink had almost blended with the colours of the newspaper and the detail of the print was hidden almost completely.

Tango

Another way to show emotion in an artistic way, is dancing, and the most passionate of all dances hs to be the tango, a mixture between the music and the fluid motions, the feelings behind the dance are made apparent from start to finish.

As I could not find any live performances near me I could photograph as primary research, I instead watched videos of performances online and paused the video in certain places to show the poses of the dance and draw which one I thought had an appealing expression to them, and also shows the feelings behind the performances.

I used a water soluble pen to draw the image out and watered the image to give a contrast between the foreground and background an draw out the detail and focus on the features of the subjects and show the expression to help connect to the passion of the performance.

Singers

There are many ways that people can display emotion, but there is no more passionate, artistic or entertaining to singing. It can be very easy to connect to the meaning and emotions that a song can portray. I have chosen five artists which I believe have the ability to show emotions in their songs in such a way, as many artists perform in such an uninteresting way, or have no real emotion in their songs.

I have done a series of images in a varied medium, although the majority are paint based, I have varied the paint types.

James Brown

Amy Winehouse 

Pavarotti 

Louis Armstrong

Otis Redding

The image I am most pleased with and believe is the most successful is the Otis Redding piece. I originally painted the piece with acrylics on a tan envelope, but as the envelope is only A5, I decided to scan the image into a computer and re-size is it to allow it to fit into my sketchbook in a collage in a more appealing way.

The composition of the image in the collage, allows the viewer to keep attention on the main image, but still gives attention to the reference photographs to the side and below. Rather than cluttering the collage with the same image I had used as reference to paint from I decided to give more of a selection of photographs of the artist, not only to for visual reasons,  but to give a viewer more of an understanding of what he looks like. I also added the black lines to border the image and give it some structure but in a creative way as I was trying to reference the staff lines on music worksheets.

Although I like the Pavarotti oil painting, the way I had imagined the painting is different, as I don’t have the greatest experience in oils I wasn’t quit skilled enough to detail the image as I had liked to. The colour on the other hand I am pleased with, the tonal qualities and skill colours fit very well and the shading was almost perfect to the image I had been using as a reference, and I believe I made the right choice with the positioning of the subject and the choice of for the background colour, as both factors add to the images effects and brings out the highlights of the skin tone. 

Alex

 With the image of alex I had photocopied I had drawn in a life drawing class, I then changed them by adding colours, I wanted to see if by changing them slightly by adding cold and warm colours, I wanted to see if by changing the colours it would change the emotion displayed. The image has a relatively sad look about it. The image with warm colours doesn’t quite fit in with its cold emotions it shows.

Self Identity

 The saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul has its own truths, out of all of the human features, they by far show the most of an emotion expression, even just slightly altering them can dramatically change somebodies appearance. So focusing on the eyes it will be beneficial to showing the emotions throughout the project.

During the process of my, self-identity, and looking into my own emotions, I used a selection of different mediums, between dry and wet media such as paint, ink, charcoal and conte and used them to emphasize the emotions behind the image.

For instance, in the first piece, I used a print of a skeleton and a darker selection of colours, once again to emphasize the emotion, also by collaging extracts from books, newspapers and magazines, which I believed where dark or sad to correspond to the idea behind the skeleton, underlining the negative emotions.

By centralising the composition of the figure, o find it keeps the focus on the main image, bringing more of a focus to the eyes mainly, and the detail in the face and skull.

I had the same idea for the next image, collaging different excerpts from newspapers and magazines I thought would adapt to the focus of the subject such as smoke, fire, news extracts with negative stories and sad dogs.  I once again centralised the image to keep focus on the eyes.

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David John Kassan

Using a varied media David John Kassan creates stunning pieces of art, the same as the othe r artist I have researched, he manages to capture the feelings behind the faces and apprehends the things other artist cant, using his subjects as the key feature and blanking out the background allows the viewer to concentrate on the main focus of his subjects.
He also has a particular skill towards his colour mixture and contrast between light and dark, and the mixture between the soft and hared scratchy lines gives his pieces more interest.

 
 

Arthur Hacker

Arthur hacker uses a very traditional method of painting for his work, with perfect lines tones and colours, contrasting his foreground and background and allowing the audience to distinguish between the main feature and the decorative elements.

The pieces of art he produced are stunning creations of visual beauty.

Jenny Saville

Rosetta 2
oil on paper, mounted on board
1970

reverse
oil on canvas
2003

Jenny Saville has the ability to create a piece of art that gets a message across and tells a story, although her work is somewhat disturbing, and quite hostile, she can still portray the emotion of her subjects. She may focus on the negative image of an emotion but the negative work expressions of the human face are much more interesting than those of a more positive nature.

The use of colour in her portraits shows the works true nature of the silent image, the feeling behind the work, although she ranges between hot and cold colours, no matter how she uses colours, the tones, textures and use of shading of gesture helps to create the emotion. She also focusses on the main subject of her image and avoids cluttering the background with unneeded distractions, all these factors together corresponds perfectly to create a perfect piece of work.

 

 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park Visit

Brain Fell

The visit to Yorkshire sculpture park for me personally was a disappointment, although I like the idea behind the park, letting you roam around looking at art work in a greater context than a gallery, being more open and free, the follow up in practice didn't quite work for me personally, the sculptures used where scattered in odd place, some in more ideal places to contrast with the work, but most seamed to be quite random placed and the actual work in majority was unsatisfying, and quite boring, but not all there were a select few that I enjoyed.

HaHa Bridge
Brian Fell
2006

In contrast to is surroundings ‘The HaHa Bridge’ adapts around it scenic background and fits in well, serving as both a piece of art, and a bridge, the sign post around the piece had no referral to its materials but stated it was created by Brian Fell in 2006, I quite enjoyed the bridge, although a simple idea, it made it interesting to walk over. 

James Turrel

Deer Shelter Sky Space
James Turrel
2006

James Turrel was established for being an artist of light, and is spoken very highly of, but to visit the deer shelter skyspace was unsatisfactory, although the design of it was interesting, the use or it was not, it was a large room with a foggy window in the roof and was very disappointing, the contrast between the interior and the exterior gave it some interest, the exterior fits in with its surroundings, like an old red brick building in a field but as you walk in the interior has quite a sinister appearance, the cold, narrow concrete corridors almost like a bomb shelter, or an entrance to a torture chamber, change the viewers mood in seconds

Barbara Hepworth 

One of the main exhibits on show at the park is the collection of sculptures by Barbara Hepworth, called ‘The Family of Man’, the sculptures each show a structure using several metallic contours moulded together to create a certain form, there are many of her sculptures placed throughout the park, and although the sculptures may enhance the mind to visualise the three dimensional form of the objects, and the sculptures where cleverly designed, they had me once again, uninteresting. I find them to be very monotonous and have no real stimulating value to them, they looked more like a decoration, rather than an artwork

Hans Josephsohn

The series of sculpture by Josephson on show in the open air of the park have caught the eye of many viewers, the pieces are made out of brass but have a look of organic matter, with the way this contrasts to the field and its surroundings it makes the experience of viewing are unrestricted, rather than being in a gallery as you have to keep noise to a minimum. However this does not make up for the poor aesthetic quality of his work, he attempted to create a series of abstract sculptures on the human form, but there a difference between abstract and idle appearances, although the sculptures may have had a lot of time put into them they still have the quality of clay which has been tightly gripped and placed on a concrete slab.

Jon Edgar

The highlight of the visit to the sculpture park, for me, was the exhibition by Jon Edgar, using terracotta to create series of portraits, and adding wire to those with glasses. The texture of his work creates an effect in which adds to the tone and quality. I'm disappointed that he was only given a small room for his work and other artist less interesting works where scattered around for miles throughout the park. Although it doesn't matter what way the art is presented, if the art work is good enough there is no need for the background to contribute to it.

Context:
 The way something is placed or located and effects the meaning.
The situation within which something exists or happens, and that can help explain it.

Immediate Environment:
 The location of the artwork what is surrounding the work when it is explored close up.



Although my opinions of the sculptures have been quite harsh, I mean no disrespect to anyone, my taste is quite old fashioned and doesn't fit in with contemporary, modern and abstract art.



source:
http://www.ysp.co.uk/whats-on/open-air/brian-fell
http://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/james-turrell-deer-shelter-skyspace
http://www.ysp.co.uk/whats-on/open-air/barbara-hepworth
http://barbarahepworth.org.uk/exhibitions/
http://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/josephsohn
http://www.ysp.co.uk/events/jon-edgar-a-live-portrait-sitting