Title: Rags Size: _ x _ (cm) Medium: Acrylic Date of Completion: Oct. 22nd 2020
Exhibition Text
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This painting, called Raggs, was not really made to show anything. It was not made to prove a point, or bring attention to anything important. Unlike any of my previous work, weather for an art class, or personal work, this piece was not made for a specific reason. And I think that this makes it special in its own way. It is just a painting made by some girl who was fulfilling an assessment, and was slightly inspired by Seeker by Deepanshu Joshi, and Faces I by Monrüd W. Becker. Though, much like most of my previous work, it has elements of both abstract, and realism. |
Inspiration ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For my painting, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. All I knew was that I had to take a small part of a previous photography assessment, and paint that. But I could not find any part of the photo that I wanted to paint, that would look cool. So all I did was look up “black and white abstract paintings,” and that's when I saw Seeker by Deepanshu Joshi, and Faces I by Monrüd W. Becker. I took inspiration from them because I liked how Deepanshu Joshi’s painting looked chaotic. I could feel the movement of the paint. I liked how though chaotic and loud, when looking at the painting, I kind of felt warm, and calm. I also may be overthinking it, but I can see a heart in the middle of that painting, and I think that is what made me feel warm, and comfortable. The heart both looks like it is sinking into the artwork, and sticking out at the same time. It's confusing, but okay. It makes me look at the painting some more, and I think that is what art should do, make you want to keep looking, and thinking. I wanted that aspect in my painting, and I hope I have that. What inspiration I got from Faces I by Monrüd W. Becker, was the hard negative and positive space used in his maintaining. That hard difference between the whites and blacks. In my piece, I wanted both hard transitions like Faces I, as well as soft transitions like in Seeker. At this point, it should also go without say that I liked the hectic look of Faces I. I am pretty sure that pretty much every piece I think of making, I am going to be inspired my something that is pretty disorderly. |
Planing / Process
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first thing I did was try to figure out what part of my image I was going to paint. I had four different ideas, but I wasn't sure which one I would like best, so I dew every one, and decided from there. I liked each drawing in there own way, but I really liked how the first one had both smooth shading, and harsh lines. It was difficult to try to draw from the very pixelated cropped picture though. The reasoning for why it is so pixelated, is simple; I didn't have a good camera to take the picture with. I had to use my phone to take the original, and the original picture was somewhat blurry, so I had to edit it quite a lot to try to smooth it out, but by doing so, to made it kind of pixelated when zoomed in, and very pixelated when zoomed in as much as I did. Because of this though, I couldn't see as many details as I would have liked, so a lot of the image is a combination of what I thought it would look like, and looking at a rumpled up blanket to see what the folds in the rags would actually look like. Another problem I cam across was the color. When I started this project, the original photo was black and white, but while completing that project, I wanted to change the coloring of the image to look a little more like the inspiration. However, my skill set of mixing colors is not as good as I thought. I tried to get that dull orange gray color, but no matter how much mixing I did, I couldn't get it quite like the photo. So in a last attempt to get that color, I tried to see what it would look like if I did the painting in all black and white, and then maybe do light color of the orange tone. I tried watering down the paint, I tried to see what it would look like if I used a rag to smear the watered down mixtures, I tried a brush, and just nothing was working. the very last try I did probably turned out the best, (the one with the five color squares down in a row at the lower right) but the color was way too vibrant over the white. After much trial and error, I just made the decision to use the previous state of the photo, of black and white. After I did that, I moved on to the canvas. |
Planing / Process
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first thing I did when I got to the canvas, was sketch my image. I started with a pretty rough sketch, of just the basic shapes, so I could make sure I got the right proportions, then I did the finished sketch with more details. I thought that the baton would be the hardest to paint, so I started with that. Unfortunately, I don't have any process photos in between painting that, however I was very wrong about thinking that it would be the hardest, but it was probably the easiest to paint other than the black and white portion of the painting at the top left. All I had to do was put down the basic layers of paint of the black, white, and grey would be, then I did some in between shades and blended it out. What was slightly difficult, was the highlights of that part. I used both the brush, and my finger to try to blend it out as naturally as I could. After that, I moved on the the crumpled up rags. I did the same thing with the rest of the painting as I did with the baton. I did the first layer of the shadows, then did some rough blending. The second to last picture shows where I had stopped when I thought I was done. The painting looked like that for quite some time, but every time I looked at it, I wasn't happy with it. A few past past, and I finally sat back down to see what I could do. I knew I wanted to bled it out a lot more, but I also wanted to keep the harsh lines between the black and white. After starring at my blanket, examining the highlights and shadows for an embarrassing amount of time, I started mixing my colors. I excepted the fact that it wasn't going to look perfect, but I thought I could at the very least do better than what was there. It took me a few hours to try to get it to where it is not, but I am actually pretty happy with it. Again though, the most difficult part was that I didn't have a good reference photo to keep looking at, so despite that; I think I did well. I did what I set out to do, I was able to blend it out, and still keep the hard splits between the black and white. |
Reflection
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Over all, after I fixed it, although not my favorite thing I've ever done, I do really like this piece. I'm very happy I was able to go back to it and not completely mess it up. I'm really surprised I was wrong about would be the most difficult part of the painting. I'm honestly disappointed that I was unable to find a way to paint the reference photo in its finished edited form. I think my favorite part of the painting is the entire bottom right fourth of the painting. I think the shading that I was able to do, and the overall shapes that was put into that portion of the final piece. My least favorite part of the painting is the bottom left quadrant. I wish the coloring and shading was more like the lower right. With the lower right, the difference between the blacks and whites are harsher, where as on the left side, the blending is smother, and I used more sades of grey than I did black and white. And that is exactly what I would do differently, use more black and white, and less shades of grey.
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Over all, after I fixed it, although not my favorite thing I've ever done, I do really like this piece. I'm very happy I was able to go back to it and not completely mess it up. I'm really surprised I was wrong about would be the most difficult part of the painting. I'm honestly disappointed that I was unable to find a way to paint the reference photo in its finished edited form. I think my favorite part of the painting is the entire bottom right fourth of the painting. I think the shading that I was able to do, and the overall shapes that was put into that portion of the final piece. My least favorite part of the painting is the bottom left quadrant. I wish the coloring and shading was more like the lower right. With the lower right, the difference between the blacks and whites are harsher, where as on the left side, the blending is smother, and I used more sades of grey than I did black and white. And that is exactly what I would do differently, use more black and white, and less shades of grey.
similarities and differences
Similarities-
- shades of grey. - seeming random shapes. - small spacing between colors. - somewhat abstract Differences- - my painting has a figure one can guess what it is, while Joshi's piece has no intentional figures in it. - my piece is not quite as chaotic as my inspiration piece. - Joshi used ink on paper, while I use acrylic on canvas. |
similarities and differences
Similarities-
- harsh lines between the black and white. - has a figure in the painting. - somewhat abstract. Differences- - my piece has shades of grey. - my painting has seemingly random shapes in it, while Becker's painting is of just a face. - Becker used charcoal and wax on paper. |
ACT Questions
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Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause and effect relationship between your inspiration and it's effect on your artwork.
The active movement of Joshi's painting, and clear cut black and white tones of Becker's painting inspired me to make a black and white painting with random shapes.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I was unable to get much information about Becker, but Joshi has been to schools specifically for art, and has been doing art, professionally, since 1991. He usually uses many colors in his work, but in his series of faces, he only used black and white, and had those pieces of work had the harsh lines of black and white.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Becker stated, charcoal figure drawing allows him to move across a surface with his entire body, in a rhythmic, fluid motion that is incorporated in the visual expression. What I got from that, was that all he wants to do is be able to express emotion for the world to see.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I feel like the theme of both pieces of inspiration is emotion. Although my art doesn't seem to have a well thought out theme, it does have some emotion behind it. Because I know exactly why I took the photo from my reference photo, it has that emotion behind it. The part of the reference photo that i painted, is of the baton and trashy rags from my photography assignment. A real baton that was used by a real cop, and the trash to symbolize the piles of polluted garbage in not just our country, but the entire world. Both have a lot of emotion behind them.
What inferences did you make while reading your research?
I can see that Becker is a very determined man, and is really in touch with his emotions. He worked really hard to get where he is, going to many schools just to better educate himself for his art.
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Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause and effect relationship between your inspiration and it's effect on your artwork.
The active movement of Joshi's painting, and clear cut black and white tones of Becker's painting inspired me to make a black and white painting with random shapes.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I was unable to get much information about Becker, but Joshi has been to schools specifically for art, and has been doing art, professionally, since 1991. He usually uses many colors in his work, but in his series of faces, he only used black and white, and had those pieces of work had the harsh lines of black and white.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Becker stated, charcoal figure drawing allows him to move across a surface with his entire body, in a rhythmic, fluid motion that is incorporated in the visual expression. What I got from that, was that all he wants to do is be able to express emotion for the world to see.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I feel like the theme of both pieces of inspiration is emotion. Although my art doesn't seem to have a well thought out theme, it does have some emotion behind it. Because I know exactly why I took the photo from my reference photo, it has that emotion behind it. The part of the reference photo that i painted, is of the baton and trashy rags from my photography assignment. A real baton that was used by a real cop, and the trash to symbolize the piles of polluted garbage in not just our country, but the entire world. Both have a lot of emotion behind them.
What inferences did you make while reading your research?
I can see that Becker is a very determined man, and is really in touch with his emotions. He worked really hard to get where he is, going to many schools just to better educate himself for his art.
Bibliography
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“MOJARTO.” Mojarto NDTV, www.mojarto.com/artworks/deepanshu-joshi-32665/seeker-242999.
monrud. “Monrüd the Artist – Galleries, Abstract, Faces, Nature, Flags, Male, Female, Hands - Monrüd The Artist.” Monrd The Artist RSS, 2020, monrud.com/galleries/faces-black-white/faces-i/.
Monrud. “Biography.” Monrd The Artist RSS, 2020, monrud.com/biography/.
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“MOJARTO.” Mojarto NDTV, www.mojarto.com/artworks/deepanshu-joshi-32665/seeker-242999.
monrud. “Monrüd the Artist – Galleries, Abstract, Faces, Nature, Flags, Male, Female, Hands - Monrüd The Artist.” Monrd The Artist RSS, 2020, monrud.com/galleries/faces-black-white/faces-i/.
Monrud. “Biography.” Monrd The Artist RSS, 2020, monrud.com/biography/.