Project #3- Oil Painting
Exhibition Text
For this project with my oil painting I had wanted to change my style to be more illustrative rather than my other paintings which have been mainly on the realism type of style. I took inspiration from illustrator Thomke Meyer who creates illustrations in comic format. As well as, Oskar Kokoschka who has inspired my use of style of brushstrokes. Both creators have helped me create my piece with Meyers style influence and Kokoschka's use of technique.
Artistic Inspiration
Thomke Meyer
"The Hunt", Digital Art, 2015
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Thomke Meyer is a German contemporary artist who creates illustrations and digital art. He has said that he creates sequential art because it allows him to open up new worlds and explore new ways of expression. He also tries to put himself into these illustrations, which enables him to be able to show a part of him that is not easy to show or tell as a person. Most of Meyer's work is sequential, which is described as an art form that use images deployed in a specific order for the purpose of graphic storytelling. However Meyer's art contains no actual words, but instead uses each transition and movement in images to tell the story. In "The Hunt," Meyer shows a woman exploring a forest and cacti bush connecting her self to the nature. And ends up in cacti bush looking at what's inside, which looks like a source for water. Thomke Meyer inspired me to provide emotion in my painting without showing too much to the viewer and that the viewer should be able to figure out without any context. To open up the viewers mind to connections and themes of artworks.
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"Lover with a Cat", Oskar Kokoschka, 1917
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Oskar Kokoschka was a expressionism artist who created drawings, paintings, and even has done literature. Most of his artwork is part of the expressionism movement because he had been one o the most important artists into developing the concept in art of exploring real emotion. Kokoschka specifically explored his growing anxiety and showed it in his paintings from 1917 and after. In "Lover with a Cat," Kokoschka shows him in military gear looking almost dead trying to cling on to a woman. Who is supposed to represent his girlfriend Alma who had left him for another man. After Kokoschka had admitted himself into war he had found that anxiety that he felt needed to be heard. Which resulted in his use of technique in his brushstrokes to change because of the feeling of anxiety felt how it looks on the skin. Swirling and almost moving. I was inspired by Kokoschka's use of brushstrokes and decided to incorporste it into my piece. So, I could show emotion in each shrunken head.
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Meaning
The meaning behind "Shrunken Heads," is about the history of shrunken heads and how I wanted to explore emotion in my artwork. Shrunken heads have been used for many centuries and the Jivaroans, were the people that transformed history with shrunken heads as trophies. Often when the indigenous people would make these heads was to kill their enemy during battle. The heads wouldn't resemble small and withered until they have been preserved. And any open entries were sewn shut to keep the spirit from escaping and attacking the person who killed them. I guess the physiological attributes of shrunken heads interests me and gave me the idea to paint shrunken heads. However it wasn't similar to the indigenous tribes for doing it, I wanted to create something that was known for it's mysterious and disturbing history and make it more beautiful with character.
Process
Brainstorming
Sketch #1
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When I was beginning this project I wanted to do a scenery of a film. I was interested in horror films from the 90's because they were aesthetically pleasing when it came to the shots and color choice for the film. I found the film the "Love Witch," and the shots I found were meant to be weird and pleasing t the same time. So, I wanted to have the same idea, but make it my own by changing the scenery and aspects of it. However I wasn't to convinced on how it would be apart of my theme.
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Step-by-step Process
As I was producing this piece I was worried on how the paint was going to dry so I took my time to do each section on it's own. Since, I didn't wan the colors to mix.
Step #1- I built my canvas and stretched my canvas onto a 121.92 cm by 60.96 cm frame.
Step #2- To prep for the oil paints I put two to three coats of Gesso on my canvas, to ensure that the paint wouldn't soak into the canvas.
Step #3- When the canvas was dry I sketched my drawing onto the canvas with a graphite pencil.
Step #4- Before putting layers of paint, I first mixed my colors for things such as highlight and shadow, and any other various colors on the face and hair.
Step #5- I started with each character on it's own as I had knew that the oil paints wouldn't dry as quickly as acrylics. So, I created a color palette for each woman on the canvas. The first girl was green, second was blue, and third was red.
Step #6- When I was putting in the small details I used a large round brush. And used the flat small brush often since the painting was larger than my other ones.
Step #7- For the background I used a black and orange wash to make the piece look as if it was in front of a wall to give the look of the heads being shown off.
Step #8- After I had felt that the piece was finished. I cleaned up the edges and painted the edges of the canvas white, to look more pleasing.
Step #9- After the whole piece was done I did one layer of gloss to make the piece more complete.
Step #1- I built my canvas and stretched my canvas onto a 121.92 cm by 60.96 cm frame.
Step #2- To prep for the oil paints I put two to three coats of Gesso on my canvas, to ensure that the paint wouldn't soak into the canvas.
Step #3- When the canvas was dry I sketched my drawing onto the canvas with a graphite pencil.
Step #4- Before putting layers of paint, I first mixed my colors for things such as highlight and shadow, and any other various colors on the face and hair.
Step #5- I started with each character on it's own as I had knew that the oil paints wouldn't dry as quickly as acrylics. So, I created a color palette for each woman on the canvas. The first girl was green, second was blue, and third was red.
Step #6- When I was putting in the small details I used a large round brush. And used the flat small brush often since the painting was larger than my other ones.
Step #7- For the background I used a black and orange wash to make the piece look as if it was in front of a wall to give the look of the heads being shown off.
Step #8- After I had felt that the piece was finished. I cleaned up the edges and painted the edges of the canvas white, to look more pleasing.
Step #9- After the whole piece was done I did one layer of gloss to make the piece more complete.
Compare & Contrast
In "The Hunt," by Thomke Meyers I was inspired by his use of technique in his style. As he is an illustrator in digital art most of his work consists of working with color and focusing on lines. I liked the way Meyers created his pieces with the use of smaller lines and a wide range of color. However for my piece I preferred using thicker lines as it is a larger painting so I wanted all of the definitions to stand out. As well as, not keeping my colors in a neutral palette as I wanted give character to each woman in the painting. With Kokoschka's use of brushstrokes to add texture and movement in his piece "Lover with a Cat," I decided to take it towards my piece and use color variations with white to create more of an expressionism piece. In my piece I focused more on brush technique to be alike with Kokoschka. However I didn't want it to be my main focus, so I still made smoother lines and brush strokes to keep it towards my own style.
Skills & Technique
As I chose to use oil paint instead of acrylic I had to figure out on my own how to work with the paint and my piece because it was new to me. While working with the paint I had found that when i was working with one specific color it was hard to change the color. Such as, when i was working on the last girl with the red i couldn't start working on the second girl with the blue. I had to completely change the water and clean my brushes. Otherwise the color would mess with the palette of the other color. However I decided to take my time and start each color on its own then moving on to another section of the painting.
Experimentation
While I was painting I had experimented with the color choices with every add of white or darkening with black. Although I kept my colors to it's own when it came to each woman's head. Green for the first, blue for the second, and red for the third. But, when I was deciding what colors I wanted to do, aside the neutral tan I was undecided. At first I only used a black wash with a more dark tone around the heads. Although I wanted more color in the piece to keep the eyes moving in the piece and created a light source with yellow and orange tones on the top left side spreading towards the right. So the heads would look more as if it was positioned somewhere as a trophy like the indigenous tribe would show.
Reflection
After completing this project I have realized how much I prefer oil paints over acrylic because it does take me a while to get the color palette that I want. And with oil paints they don't dry as quickly as acrylic I have found that I was able to get the colors that I wanted more easy as I had more time to create them. Although oil paints take just as much effort to get used to because it was a little bit more new to me. But, I know I worked very well with them rather than acrylic. I also think the producing of the work overall was more entertaining than my other works as i put more enthusiasm to how I wanted to take a weird part of history an d tradition and make it more colorful to look at.
Connecting to the ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify cause and effect relationships between your inspiration and your artwork.
Because of the inspiration I had chosen the cause to how my style had represented had shown throughout my work. In my piece I was working towards the Expressionism movement and focused on the piece in an accurate fashion through out the work.
What is the overall approach ( point of view) the author has regard to the topic of your inspiration?
The approach the author made regarding the topic of my inspiration is to inform me on why they developed their form of style and their biography as a whole. To gain knowledge on their pieces and the artist.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc, while you researched your inspiration?
The kind of conclusions I had made when I had discovered the two people I had researched is that they both have the same theory upon developing a style of representing themselves in their work. Although they were from different backgrounds they had the idea of putting their own personality into their artworks.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research is trying to develop a new idea of culture within a modern society that is overlooked by others that I want to show towards my audience.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The inferences I had made while reading my research had been showing how to connect both of my artists as they worked within different periods, yet still had the same ideology about why you should be creating art in the first place.
Because of the inspiration I had chosen the cause to how my style had represented had shown throughout my work. In my piece I was working towards the Expressionism movement and focused on the piece in an accurate fashion through out the work.
What is the overall approach ( point of view) the author has regard to the topic of your inspiration?
The approach the author made regarding the topic of my inspiration is to inform me on why they developed their form of style and their biography as a whole. To gain knowledge on their pieces and the artist.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc, while you researched your inspiration?
The kind of conclusions I had made when I had discovered the two people I had researched is that they both have the same theory upon developing a style of representing themselves in their work. Although they were from different backgrounds they had the idea of putting their own personality into their artworks.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research is trying to develop a new idea of culture within a modern society that is overlooked by others that I want to show towards my audience.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The inferences I had made while reading my research had been showing how to connect both of my artists as they worked within different periods, yet still had the same ideology about why you should be creating art in the first place.
Bibliography
Behance. “The Hunt.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/26306709/the-hunt.
“‘Lovers with Cat’, 1917 by Oskar Kokoschka.” My Favorite Arts, theartstack.com/artist/oskar-kokoschka/lovers-cat-1917-1.
“Thomke Meyer - Hamburg, Germany.” IdN™, 22 Jan. 2018, www.idnworld.com/creators/ThomkeMeyer.
“‘Lovers with Cat’, 1917 by Oskar Kokoschka.” My Favorite Arts, theartstack.com/artist/oskar-kokoschka/lovers-cat-1917-1.
“Thomke Meyer - Hamburg, Germany.” IdN™, 22 Jan. 2018, www.idnworld.com/creators/ThomkeMeyer.