Project #4- Ink Drawing
Exhibition Text
This project is a ink and watercolor drawing that is 30.48 cm by 40.64 cm and was inspired by Albert Kallis and Bob Peak. I was inspired by the vivid colors and saturation in movie posters that I began researching familiar artists to Albert Kallis. I liked how Albert Kallis's use of color and use of space had made me use the same technique to create a similar style in a different context. However I was inspired by Bob Peak's use of line and value because in his pieces the characters are defined by use of line. The meaning of this piece is to try and make viewers understand how mental conditions can affect a persons life.
Artistic Inspiration
Albert Kallis
Theatrical Release poster by Albert Kallis
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Albert Kallis was a American illustrator and film producer. In 1955 he was commissioned by Roger Corman to be an art director for American International Pictures to produce all of their advertising posters for their low budget movies for about 17 years. His artwork had influenced the selling of exploitation films to a higher level. The film posters were designed to make people buy tickets for the movies. As the movie industry grew studio's began to produce film poster's more rapidly. His work for the movie had begun with his father being in the advertising department for Paramount and further graduating college at Los Angles Art Center College. Inspiring him to doing exploitable quickies with the film "The Monster from the Ocean Floor," (1954) and "Fast and Furious," (1954). The movie industry was using the advertising method of illustrations to get tickets sold. However, Kallis would not take offers unless he was making the decisions for the image of the movies. Because he felt it was important to be able to create without restrictions from the industry.
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Bob Peak
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Bob Peak's career as a commercial illustrator started in 1953 when he was campaigned to an Old Hickory Whiskey for an advertisement. His work then began to slowly expand to modern movie posters for the movie industry. He has done innovative solution-painting characters and scenes into a single montage, which had influenced over a hundred movie posters. His work consisted of mostly advertising and national magazines. Bob Peak was inspired while coming of age of the artistic skills he had grown and had took a job in a art department. Thus, grew confidence to choose an art career.
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Process
Brainstorming
Sketch #1
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While trying to come up with the illustrative style of the movie like poster I had first wanted to come up with the kind of layout and design of what I wanted to include because movie posters usually include main characters and major symbols of what would be important in the film. As I was brainstorming I thought it would be important to a short, but reasonable plot to understand how I wanted to include mental condition into this project.
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Sketch #2
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Fluctuating between styles of movie posters I wasn't sure on I wanted the character to be sitting or how relaxed her body would be. However, I didn't go with the sketches I had drawn and almost had her squatting and have her almost as if someone had walked upon her catching her doing something. and instead of having her in front of the sign of candy land, I had her in a pathway of grass and hay.
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Step-by-step Process
Step#1-
Before I rally put anything onto the board I put thought on the style of the banner and how it would affect the audience. So I made the banner distressed and added detail of shadowing and creases of the fabric. Step#2- I then focused on the organization of the piece and how the design would show what I would have wanted the poster reveal about the plot of the movie. If it were real. Step#3- After I recognized what would be don for the poster I knew I wanted the character to be a girl because as a woman it's easier to understand the women form. Although I was unsure of what she would look like. Culturally speaking the Asian community is not widely known for movie roles. So, I took into consideration of the culture of the character. Step #4- After having most of the objects drawn out I went in with ink pen with a smaller point first to have a general outline. And were seen fit for larger tip. Step #5- However I didn't want the whole board to be in black and white. So, I added color with marker to give a more childish feel with the bright yellow and blue tones, As if it was candy land. Step #6- Because the black marker I was using wasn't giving a dark enough shadow I took a small detail brush with black ink and put in where I wanted some definition. |
Throughout producing this artwork I considered color scheme to add to how people would react to the piece. So, when using my markers I tended to use different sizes of darker cooler shades instead of going in with another medium like colored pencil. I also tested would it have looked like with the colored pencil and I didn't like how shiny it made the marker look as I did not intend for it to be a very dramatic piece when it came to shadow and highlight.
Meaning
The meaning behind this piece is having not only myself, but others to understand what people with mental conditions have. Especially when the mental conditions are consuming your consciousness of reality. I have discovered that my theme is relative to opening up to different cultures even if it means I am not considered to relate to the culture. Such as having a mental condition that distorts reality. However, I want to understand things that are not in my culture and get perspective on the things in life that I may never experience. What I have learned about mental conditions is that if they are distorting your concept of reality, you might not be able to recognize when these changes occur. And while some conditions are able to live life almost normal, sometimes it's hard to even to get through the day.
Compare & Contrast
In "Mornings at 7:45," by Bob Peak I was inspired by his use of line technique and organization skills. What I wanted to take from his piece is how he didn't choose to use skin color and kept the characters together to show collaboration of what kind of relationship they have. I also favored the small details in the posters. I included the choice of line and non- color choice of the characters. Although I did not choose to include any other characters because I felt that having a mental condition is more of a personal and self progression event. With Albert Kallis's movie poster for "the Brain Eaters," I was inspired his organization and how he choose to show the action of what the movie was about. Looking at the poster you have automatic sense of what the movie is about. So, I took that into consideration and made sure to try and incorporate how my character was connected to the title. Which was how the title and character became a more scary mood than what candy land would be expected as. However my illustration is different on how ironic it is for it's purpose.
Style & Technique
As I was drawing I started in graphite pencil just in case I wanted to change my mind about the organization of the poster. As well as, the girl's body position just because I was on the fence of how I wanted things to be set up. After I was confident about the choice of lines and detail I used a ink pen set that had different sizes of tips and made use of size to show real life detail that accentuate the form. With the pens I used smaller tips to include detail in the banner and the girl. I had also discovered how marker and ink marker work together as there is no specific difference when it comes to style. So, I had took advantage of how I would use size and brush type to show line variations to give a definition to each piece of the project. Such as for the girl in the piece I used the ink pens more often than the markers I had because the markers were to big for the kind of detail I wanted to include.
Experimentation
Towards the end of completing the piece I was experimenting with the ink and used a small round paint brush to go back into the piece with a darker black to define certain parts of the piece. Such as the banner, the grass, and the girl because I felt the shadowing should have been darker to show the difference between light and shadow. I also preferred to have a mix of colors and in the grass I used orange and yellow marker. Since, the markers tend to have a dark pigment and were more primary than expected I took into consideration of how high the hues would be in a game. Such as, the childhood board game Candy Land. Which made the decision to keep the hues as they were. However, if I were to fix anything I would either choose different marker colors or go over with color pencil for a toned down color of various shades used in the illustration.
Reflection
After completing this piece I have learned how to properly make body positions and the human form. I have struggled on being able to completely understand the human form. So, I sketched different body positions to be informed on it in the future. I also learned to us my choice of color without mixing because it is different than paint and I didn't have too much of an option to mix colors as I had only primary colors, that didn't mix together well. However, it was expected as I have used some of the markers before, but would have rather the colors a little bit nude. Just because if this movie poster would have come out in in the 1950's the colors were bright, but still included nude tones for things like skin and shadowing.
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 movement and focused on the piece in an a expressionist way 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. As well as, the history and how they had incorporated into it.
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 the movies. They were from the same era and contained almost the same amount of attention and reaction in their work.
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 an understatement of the mental condition that people deal with. Which 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 the same periods, yet had differences when it cam to style.
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 movement and focused on the piece in an a expressionist way 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. As well as, the history and how they had incorporated into it.
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 the movies. They were from the same era and contained almost the same amount of attention and reaction in their work.
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 an understatement of the mental condition that people deal with. Which 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 the same periods, yet had differences when it cam to style.
Bibliography
Solutions, Brighton Web. “The Film Poster Art of Albert Kallis.” Grindhouse Therapy, 16 Apr. 2015, www.grindhousetherapy.com/the-film-poster-art-of-albert-kallis/.
Bob Peak, www.americanartarchives.com/peak,b.htm.
Bob Peak, www.americanartarchives.com/peak,b.htm.