Exhibition Text
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Fire is a drawing created to show the craziness of the world and how the most simple of things can be seen as unusual, or messy if taken out of context. Everyone always wants a clear picture of what things are, but as seen in On Fire, even if you aren't quite sure what is there, things can still be beautiful. Inspiration was taken by modern artists seen on social media; @r.a.fredrickson, @willie_hsu_art, and George Seurat. |
Inspiration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Inspiration was drawn from modern day artists seen on social media and a well known artist from the post-Impressionist period; @r.a.fredrickson, @willie_hsu_art, and George Seurat. Rodney A. Frederickson is a modern day artist I found on the social media platform, Instagram. I got in contact with him, and we had a lovely chat. He said he was always interested in art and started really getting into it at 17. He said he didn't know what he was doing, and didn't know when the piece finished, until it was. He was self taught and painted on and off through the years, and still paints to this day, in his 40s. On this particular piece, On Fire, I pull the chaos and randomness from artist @r.a.fredrickson. The way he just goes all in with his work is inspiring, because to me, it really shows his love for what he does, and the commitment he puts into his work. Though because my piece is from charcoal alone, I could not take the beautiful colors he uses, which both works for On Fire, and is kind of disappointing, because he truly knows how to pick the right colors. With the online artist @willie_hsu_art, I used the messy shading from almost all his work. With his work it does seem a little messy, though I definitely made my art well more messy, to pull in the beauty of imperfection. As for Georges Seurat’s drawing, I love how you can see the insanity and intensity in the painting, giving it an uneasy feeling. Georges Seurat was a French post-Impressionist artist, best known for chromoluminarism, pointillism, and conté crayon drawings. I know many people may think that people on social media aren't "real," or entirely credible artists, whether they are talking about music, singing, drawing/painting, or makeup, I truly think it is. I do not really think that you absolutely have to go to a school for something to be considered professional, or “real”. After all, one of the most well known artists, Frida Kahlo, did not attend an art school. I believe, if you have a strong enough passion for an art form and you, in your own eyes, like what you are putting out there, then you qualify as an artist. It doesn't matter where you put out your art, or whether or not many other people see it, if you consider yourself to be an artist, then you are in my eyes. This is one of the reasons why I like drawing and painting in a realistic yet abstract look. Because everyone focuses too much into first looks, and what they know and are familiar with. So if I can make an art piece look realistic enough, yet “messy”, then maybe people can start to look at things in a new perspective, and that perfection and doing things the traditional way, is not important. |
Process
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the beginning, I was solely playing around with the arrangement of the candles. I have a blue wax candle, with a strange shaped jar, and this candle was the most difficult jar to draw. I tried drawing it so many times, but with all the bumps it had, it was too difficult to get the shape and shadows right. I also just wasn't sure about the arrangement of the candles, with having two of the large ones being the same size, and then just a random small one, so I played around with the different candles I had. At first, I wanted to draw the candles to look realistic, and then bring the chaos to the drawing, but that wasn't working. Trying to make something look realistic in the first place isn't my style. I tried doing different types of shading, with making them more or less harsh, but my methods just weren't working. |
When I was doing my final sketch of figuring out what I wanted to do, I started out with sketching out the basic shapes of the candles and instead of starting to shade normally, I used x marks, and coiled/wavy lines. I also did more practicing for how I was going to draw the wick of the candle. After I was satisfied with how I was going to draw the candles, I rearranged the candles a few more times until I got to the final decision of the layout.
My final decision for how the candles were going to be laid out was made by not wanting the two smallest candles to be directly next to each other. I thought it looked better if they were separated just to have some variety in the shapes. When I had my final positioning I took a picture from where I was sitting just in case I needed to blow out a candle or move my setup. When I started the actual drawing, I started out by getting the basic shapes of each Candle on the paper. After that I finalize the shapes by going a lot heavier on the paper with my charcoal. When I got to the shading I used the last method that I used by drawing x marks as well as wavy and coiled lines. The last thing I did after I had all of the candles drawn was the background. I didn't want to just have boring shadowing. I wanted it to be chaotic. From the picture that I took there weren't many harsh Shadows see, so I tried to really emphasize them and make them more harsh than what they really were. And then after getting the Baseline of where my Shadows were I just really went for it. wherever the charcoal was taking my hand I was just letting it happen. This was the most fun part of the entire drawing because I got to be the most chaotic with the charcoal and make the most mess. |
Reflection
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When I look at my drawing, there are some things I wish I was better at doing, like taking an object and getting the measurement down correctly, or just having the confidence to as wild as I want with the charcoal, but over all, I can say that I actually like this drawing. For me, and as I'v noticed with a lot of other people who take art seriously, I tend to find a lot of mistakes in my art, and am rarely pleased with the outcome. So when I thought to myself that I actually liked the piece, it was huge for me. especially since I was to share it with other people. When the rare time occurs when I really like an art piece that I have done, I don't want to share it with anyone, because I am scared someone will make one comment about it, and it will change how I look at the piece. So with this piece, not only did I shared it on my website, but I also put it on social media.
After figuring out what I liked, it was pretty easy to draw. I am so glad I did planing sketches before I did this drawing. when I was told to do at least three, I though it was going to just be a bunch of drawings that looked pretty much the same, but oh was I wrong.
One thing I did find difficult was the flame. I should have done a planing sketch of a few flames, but it just didn't come to mind, but I am still surprisingly happy with it anyway. I just know it would have been better if I would have done a few sketches before hand.
After all, I can personally really see where I pulled each piece from "inspiration" into this drawing, from stated in.
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When I look at my drawing, there are some things I wish I was better at doing, like taking an object and getting the measurement down correctly, or just having the confidence to as wild as I want with the charcoal, but over all, I can say that I actually like this drawing. For me, and as I'v noticed with a lot of other people who take art seriously, I tend to find a lot of mistakes in my art, and am rarely pleased with the outcome. So when I thought to myself that I actually liked the piece, it was huge for me. especially since I was to share it with other people. When the rare time occurs when I really like an art piece that I have done, I don't want to share it with anyone, because I am scared someone will make one comment about it, and it will change how I look at the piece. So with this piece, not only did I shared it on my website, but I also put it on social media.
After figuring out what I liked, it was pretty easy to draw. I am so glad I did planing sketches before I did this drawing. when I was told to do at least three, I though it was going to just be a bunch of drawings that looked pretty much the same, but oh was I wrong.
One thing I did find difficult was the flame. I should have done a planing sketch of a few flames, but it just didn't come to mind, but I am still surprisingly happy with it anyway. I just know it would have been better if I would have done a few sketches before hand.
After all, I can personally really see where I pulled each piece from "inspiration" into this drawing, from stated in.