Non-Western Summative

The Process

This project was a unique one. When we were first introduced, we started to do a lot of brainstorming. The vague outline of the project made us try and go in many different directions. We originally had our heart set upon building a sculpture. We found out that this project would not work due to the material of clay, and the scale. We also thought of doing a large-scale painting that included inspired drawings from various motifs. This idea we felt was largely based on last years project with the video, so we felt the final product wouldn’t have been as original. The three countries that we studied were Africa, China, and Japan. The motifs from each of these countries were extremely different.

When looking online the MET museum website we found that most of the motifs we were studying were in these large scrolls.  These scrolls appealed to us as something that would allow us to incorporate the motifs of Africa, China and Japan. We originally thought of using a thin light paper with black ink, all in one connected strip. We later decided to split the scroll up into 5 different sections. Also the weight of paper we used was a thicker yellow paper, a weight that we felt was necessary to withhold the Black India Ink. We brainstormed a lot about what motifs we were going to paint. After looking through many pictures we decided the first section to be a tree with leaves evoking styles of the Japanese and Chinese motifs.  The second section we decided to draw a vista view, relating towards the Japanese Motifs. We wanted to include animals in one of the Motifs, which ended up being a giraffe in the fourth section. We had to think long and hard about what to do with the African Motifs because it was the most different of the three. We decided for this African Motif the third one (in the middle of the scroll) to be our focal point. The symbol was Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest Summit. We incorporated the Chinese and Japanese techniques by using the Black ink with simple defined line. We used these techniques to paint our African inspired patterns. The fourth panel we decided to include our giraffe, and for the moment we had no idea what to do for the fifth panel.

The first thing we did was measure our scroll, and then broke the piece into the 5 sections using tape that we later painted black. This was typical in the 1500’s to create a vista view, but another medium besides tape would be used (usually paint). When starting the scroll we knew we wanted to include more than plain black ink. This is where we came up with the giraffe stencil, Mount Kilimanjaro Stencil, and the Large Bird, located on the tree. We also experimented with different mediums. We used sharpie, watercolour, acrylic paint, and even spray paint. These mediums helped with the overall effect of the piece as the black ink and sharpie contrasted greatly with the spray paint and warm acrylic colours. In the end we came to the fifth section and had awful ideas. We tried doing a black ink painting and decided it did not contribute the final product in a positive way so we decided not to use it.

The part about this project that was the most difficult was how permanent every mark was. Since we decided to do a large scroll if we were to mess up one of the motifs, the whole outcome would be damaged. The use of Black India Ink made it hard for us to cover our mistakes. In past projects such as the Self Portrait Painting where we used Acrylic where you could go over and over with different colours. As I earlier stated experimentation in this project due to our freedom is key. But the experimentation that we did for this project would have to be done before working so that when it came to the Art piece we knew exactly what to paint. This made the element of precision key in the Art piece and made the work for Dominic and I a lot harder

Now that we felt our painting and drawings were done, we started to brainstorm ideas about what we should do with the piece. Leave it as a long scroll, or cut it up into little strips and re arrange them, we had a few clever ideas. We first experimented with the strips by printing off photos of the motifs we painted and cutting them up. We really liked the effect of this but in the end decided it looked too messy and busy and didn’t show the potential that the paintings had.

Finally with help from Mrs. Cockburn we figured out that we would display these strips (strips now of actual piece) as a sort of blind installation where both sides would show art. The contrast between the spaces of each blind overall give the piece a very interesting effect.

         Overall this project took more time than it should of. We were given the freedom to go in whichever direction we wanted. The vague nature of this project made it hard for Dominic and I to know where to start. Our original vision changed many times, and is one of the main reasons why this project to take so long in the first place. This project was defiantly the toughest project that I have ever done in Visual Arts, as it made me stretch my imagination and go into a new experience. So many things were new about this project to me: Working with a partner, Studying Japanese, Chinese, and African motifs, and doing a project with such loose guidelines. Both Dominic and I tried extremely hard on this project but felt that we didn’t achieve the final outcome we had originally hoped for. The original scroll was supposed to have an eternal feel of unity with the three countries we studied. When we cut up the motifs into individual works we noticed that we liked the motifs better alone. This confirmed our suspicions on the lack of unity in the piece.

         The actual paintings that we created were all of a certain scene where there was a main focal point. Whether this focal point was the tree, the giraffe, the mountains, or Mount Kilimanjaro, it gave each motif structure, and the rest of the paintings were based around these focal points. We liked the overall effect of the different texture throughout the piece. With the use of the stencils and spray paint the paper grew a tougher look.

         Overall Japanese, Chinese, and African Motifs inspired our paintings.  We did not copy certain motifs but rather gained the techniques from these time periods and tried to incorporate these techniques into our own paintings. The project was very long, and I am glad it is done. The experience of working with a partner is a good one but it will test your ability to share ideas, and use time management skills. Overall through all of the tough brainstorming and painting, I can come out of this project with the greater understanding of the Chinese, Japanese, and African Motifs, and how express the techniques used in the years of 1400-1600 AD.

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Section 2 Final without spray paint

Section 2 Final with spray paint

Hut coloured

Seciton 2

Giraffe Motif

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Giraffe Stencil

Starting off with the Mount Kilimanjaro Stencil, and Basic African Patterns.

This is a picture of the First section. A tree with coloured leaves. The colour creates a nice contrast with the background reeds.

Charlie's Non Western Art Unit

The three countries that Dominic, and I will be researching will be Japan, China, and Africa. The art in these countries has been along for hundreds of years. We will be exploring the artistic patterns of the 1400-1600 time period and see what mediums they work with, how they use line etc. We started the process by looking at photos on the Metropolitan Museum website.

Throughout history Chinese art has majorly changed. The time periods we will be looking at include the Tang and Ming Dynasty. The techniques that were used in these days were far different to our modern day art. The mediums used in this time in China were mostly sculpture, and ink drawings/ painting, and pottery.

The Tang dynasty was before the Ming Dynasty. Through looking at works it is easy to notice patterns in the motifs. The main technique that was used was the use of thin simple lines to outline a shape or object. The lines were very simple, but extremely detailed in some cases. Many sculptures were made at this time. Many sculptures of Buddha’s would be made during this time. Sculptures of horses, and pottery sculptures were all a main part of Tang Dynasty Art. The motifs they created with their black ink was known as a masterpiece in some cases, so much that, we cannot replicate these drawings today, it is too tough. Through the Tang Dynasty there was a shift towards people drawing more figures, and leaving the background unnoticed. Instead of drawing the background the setting would be written in a poem (Chinese Script) to describe the setting of the figure. This helped to give more meaning to a painting, where it throws the viewers focus on a single object and let them imagine the setting.

The Ming Dynasty followed the Tang Dynasty some 300 years later. These years brought much change to Chinese Art. Through this time more landscape was starting to be used in drawing and paintings. The background would not be recited in a poem but drawn or painted. The main difference between the two periods was the use of colour. The Tang Dynasty consisted of plain black ink drawings or sculptures. The Ming Dynasty started to involve warmer colours in their drawings while maintaining those thin simple lines. Overall the Chinese motifs consisted of thin use of line to make detailed drawings, and the use of poems and colour involved in Chinese art works. Sculptures, and pottery were also made in this during these time periods.

Japanese Art I found to have many patterns. The periods I chose to discover were the Muromachi and the Momoyama time periods. The Momoyama i found to involve a heavy use of colour. The detail was extremely fine and the mediums were for the most part inks and paints. One pattern I found with these motifs was the use of screens, as if the painter were looking out over a vista from his/ her place. To do this they simply draw vertical lines across the page such as the ones below. The vista would be the painting and in most cases would be in very fine detail.

Both of these motifs show the use of the screen and also a heavy use of the colour white. This use of white was mostly starting to change as people would change their palettes from one consisting of just black and whites to a variety of colours. The mediums that were used in Chinese Art included pottery, and wood sculptures, along with painting on paper. Japan like China uses lots of black ink, and brushes to paint. Although there is more colour and detail put forth in these Japanese photos. The Muromachi period brought more focus on the figures in the painting rather than the background. The figures were more recognizable and detailed, as the background would be vague and rough. This was not as evident in the Momoyama period as it seemed that the artist did focus on more of the background, as they would paint vistas with not figurative piece in the artwork.

The last region we decided to look at were the African countries of Kenya and Ethiopia. Both two countries used many different techniques than that of the Chinese and Japanese painting and art works of the time. African Art in general consisted of many different mediums. These included the heavy use of sculpture, pottery, painting, and basket weaving. Sculptures were made out of many different materials such as wood and copper, to sculpt things from people to crosses. The motifs made in this time were very simple. Lots of colour would be used but the figures would be extremely simple and the rest of the painting might not be as detailed but would still get across the message. I found the African art to be more distorted compared to the precise works of the Chinese and Japanese. I felt that the African Motifs were less skillful focused more on simplicity, while using more line.

Although it did seem that they stressed simplicity, but as I looked at more motifs I started to notice the very skillful use of pattern of line in some of the African Arts. This is a technique that has stuck with African Art to this day the line work and patterns created by line. There was use of a thicker line compared to the Japanese and Chinese motifs. Overall the African art consists of many sculptures and colourful motifs that portray a very simple figure of the human form.

This picture shows the heavy use of patterned line in some pieces from Ethiopia.

1. The motifs that I found in these three different countries in these time periods were all very different. The Chinese Motifs consisted of a lot of black and heavy use of thin simple lines to get across detail. These drawing mostly focused on the figure and left the background either undrawn or written in a poem. The Japanese motifs used more colour and instead of mostly black and whites it used more paintbrush. The motifs I found to focus on more of the vistas during the Momoyama period but during the Muromachi period the motifs would focus on single or a group of figures, taking away from the background. The African motifs were focused on simplicity. The line they used was thicker. The motifs would focus less on the figure but more heavily on the patterned line work.

2. I found that the motifs in Africa to stay more similar as the Chinese and Japanese motifs changed. The biggest change as I stated in the first question was the change between the Momoyama and Muromachi period motifs. The change from a background oriented motif to one that focuses on the figure. The Chinese motifs changed by using more colour as time went on.

3. The figure in Non-Western art has played a huge role. Whether it is detailed or not, to stand out or to be hidden in the background were all choices these cultures made when producing these art works. All of these cultures have sculpted, painted, or drawn the human figure in ways some thought impossible. The human form for the most part is proportional in these countries except in African Art figures may be distorted to help get a feeling or emotion across.

4. In the motifs I found I noticed many different designs. The last two motifs are African from Ethiopia and I feel that the general design of the motif is designed around the figure and is decorated with patterns and colour. The Japanese Art (the screen motifs + one below) show many unique designs. The vista view showing the background through "screen doors" shows lots of simple and light lines. The use of colour is more developed but still softer than African line. The Chinese motif is the first of all the pictures on this blog, and it shows all the focus on the figure. This is a way of showing praise towards this man who is immortal. One can notice the simple line and use of colour, mixed with a faint background. Overall lots of the same ideas in each of these motifs but each culture has their own way of displaying these ideas.

Rubric

For this final project of the year I wanted to try and portray all that I had learned into one piece. I had a lot of familiarity with acrylic paint from our self portrait earlier in the year. At the start of this process I had no clue of where to start. I chose the project which would make us to paint an image that stuck with us from a story. Recently I have read two books, The Book of Negroes and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. My first idea was to paint the main character Aminita behind bars portraying the slavery in The Book of Negroes. The next class we worked on our ideas and I noticed that I would rather draw a scene from Huckleberry Finn, of Huck on his raft on the Mississippi River with his tobacco pipe. As I started to paint this I noticed that the painting did not hold much emotional value to me, do I really want to paint this for my final project of the year? I then asked Mrs. Cockburn if a movie would suffice as a book replacement, and the answer was yes. The idea of Notorious BIG hit me. He is my favourite artist who worked really hard to get to the top of the rap world. He lived in a struggle in Brooklyn selling drugs for money until his rap career exploded. In my painting I wanted to portray the rap-star with his top-hat and in a suit showing his young wealth. When first thinking about the painting I wanted to think of ways that I could make this painting not just a painting of Notorious BIG, but a painting of the rap-star that actually held value, and was connected to what he was like in real life. I searched the web and found a photo of Notorious painted in very vibrant colours to show the highlights on his face. This really stood out to me as a very interesting concept, one which I wanted to experiment with. I figured that these warm colours would portray Notorious’ warm talent and vibrant personality, as he was very well liked. The paint that I would be using would be applied very thick and rough to show that he is a rough and tough guy. This rough texture would hopefully show the viewer his struggle and how he had to hustle and fight to get to where he got to, where is at the top of the rap world.This leads me to my point in how important the planning of the painting was. I almost used process of elimination as I had two ideas at the start, The Book of Negroes, and Huckleberry Finn, and tried them both out, and both failed. But as I have learned throughout the whole year one learns from their mistakes. I was really stuck at this point as everyone had already started painting and I was yet to have a concrete idea. Once I thought of my Notorious BIG idea, I was really inspired. I found a lot of reference material on him and started painting right away. The planning was very important. I originally sketched a photo outside of class but then soon realized that this was not aloud. Since time was of the essence and I had the sketch of mine planted in my head I proceeded with that. If I had thought of this idea earlier I could have sketched another sketch in class, but since time was of the essence I trucked along through with no sketch. This is where I turned to my source material. I used these three pictures for the man part of the painting, the nose, the lips, and the colour, respectively.

This picture was extremly useful in helping me with my nose. I was not sure whether of not to paint a septum, but from most of the pictures I have seen when Notorious has his head back like in my painting his nostrils are all shaded out. To some the nostrils might look like a bear or pig, but when painting it is extremly tough to have a good balance between shading and looking like an animals nose. Overall my nose turned out fine, with many thanks to this photo.

This photo was one of my origianl peices of reference, and was where I thought of doing the different colours. This painting filled with colour set with me more than all of the others I had seen.

This picture was extremly helful with the lips. and especially the shading. It was tough to make the lips look that big and plump.

The biggest part of the process was my criticism. Throughout the whole process I found myself very attached to my painting and wanting to keep working on it. This gave me a lot of emotional attachment that if I messed up I would be very mad at myself. I felt that I could approach this criticism in two ways. One, let it get to my head and keep on with a grudge, or two, stand back and use this criticism to be extra sharp and find the finest mistakes to make the painting perfect (well maybe not perfect) One of the first things taught to me in this art class was that if one takes the time to stand back and look at their painting, the good things and the bad. Things are completely different 10 feet away rather than 1. By standing back and taking a deep breath in times of frustration, seemed to really help my progress. These times of frustration were prevalent throughout my painting process as I was fighting time and my high expectations that at many points were not met. Another big thing was the photo documentation. Usually these photos would be taken on the school camera but for this project I took them on my phone which had many advantages in the end. Since these images were on my phone I was constantly looking at them. I saw the stages from day to day, and I really helped me pick out the good and the bad things of the painting. It was extremely fun because I could pick certain things out, so when I next entered the art studio I knew exactly where to start and exactly what to do.


What stages did my first drawings play in the final product? As I already said I had previous drawings that were done outside of class. Since I was not aloud to use these I completed the rest of my painting off of reference material. For example, if I needed help with the lips I would find a photo of him with big lips and try to incorporate them. The rest of the painting was easy to go off of memory as I know his face so well. With the combination of reference material and the image that I had planted in my brain I was set. So to answer that question what role did my first drawings play in the final product, not too much.

Daily Journal Final Summative

Friday May 14th

• This was the last part of my painting process which include me taking the white outline on the hat out as it looked very amateur and making his face not as round
• I did this by adding more red and white at the sides of his face around he neck
• This worked out very well and made him look more realistic
• Extremely excited about the outcome as it look amazing
• The highlights in the face did not turn out in the end the way I originally envisioned but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like it.
• Overall very happy with this peice!

Friday May 14th

• This was my last day of painting
• Changed a lot
• For one I put a white outline around the black hat
• Worked on the background
• Took green tape and using a circular container outlined 12 circles, and then placed them on the painting, and then taped everything else such as the hat and the sides of the face
• I mixed red and black ad white to create a bloody red to surround these circles
• I then proceed to put red dots in the middle of the circles to make these circles into CD’s
• Perhaps the biggest change of all is the brightening up of the face
• Before today his face colour was dark and murky
• Using a light brown I made his face brighter and added in new highlights throughout the face
• This did an amazing job in creating depth as before it looked like he had an extremely wide face
• Completely changed the lips, adding shading on the top lip and highlights on the bottom one
• Last change was the chin by making a more subtle highlight, and worked heavily on the dark areas below the lips and around the chin

For my backgorund I wanted to create something that connected to Notorious BIG and represented a part of what he was. I decided to create a red backgorund with CDs all accross the back. This would represent the CD's that he produced in his short lived career, and the red, a bloddy red, would represent the blood that he sacfriced to make it to the top, which ended up taking his life, when he was killed in a drive by shooting.I used the below materials to make the CD's. The picture below on the right is a container found in the art studio used to create a consistant circle. I traced this circle onto the green tape with I made wider. I then placed these circular peices of tape and placed them randomly accross that background of my painting

Thursday May 13th

• In this class I worked heavily on the highlights
• I completely changed the nose, the lips and the check highlights
• I also worked on the area above the nose in-between the eyes, using lots of thick black paint with a bright green highlight surrounded by white
• The lips and the nose where the best advancements at the end of this class
• The goes with the chin as well which looked better
• Very happy with the way the nose look and the shading around the lips that help pop them out
• Overall pretty much done, one more time needed to complete the background and the lips

Wednesday May 12th

•  After a disaster last time in the art studio I went back the next day after school to really work on my painting. I had two hours to kill
• Tuesday night allowed me to give a lot of reflection on ,my painting as a flipped through photos from the first and second day
• I looked online to find pictures of the rapper and felt inspired, and thought of certain things that I could do to improve my piece
• I first worked hard on the lips to extenuate them to look large and puffy
• I worked hard on popping the checks out using vibrant colours. Painted white over the collar to give the clean white look
• Got rid of the white outline of the top hat, but notices that the dark skin and the black hat have poor contrast and it makes it difficult to notice where one ends and the other begins
• I worked on the nose and trying to make it look like the nostrils are all shaded out with the highlight on the tip of the nose- still some work to do on it
• The black blazer I filled in using extremely thick amounts of black paint which gave the foreground of my painting some texture, and helped show one of the aspects to Notorious’ life, which is how rough it was
• I felt that the thick rough paint was a way of portraying this
• Overall steps on the right direction- a couple more painting sessions and it will be finished

Tuesday May 11th

• For the second painting session I tried applying the paint in a thick way. I tried blocking in the collar with rd striped but figured that it didn’t suit Notorious’ personality
• I distinctively remember this day as being the most frustrating and harmful towards my painting
• I remember leaving the art studio very mad as my painting was veering off its path from what I had previously envisioned
• The paint I made very thick and almost murky, and it made it look very amateur
• I made the common mistake of focusing on shading and specifics of the face, when I am in the early stages of my painting
• By doing this I felt I hindered rather than helped my painting
• My vision of having the different vibrant colours for the highlights was not evident on this day as the highlights looked dark and murky
• At least there is the rest of the week to work the painting back to where I want it to be

 Monday May 10th

• First day that I actually started to paint
• First took out the white conte and started to outline the basic figure of what I wanted to paint.
• Very roughly filled in the certain main areas of painting such as the black hat, the white background, and the features in the face 
• This was coming in early so after the white conte was filled in I was rushed to lay down some paint as I at this point was way behind everyone else
• This is because I switched my idea numerous times 
• Below is what my piece looked like at the end of day 1 in terms of painting

May 7th, 2010

• Started painting Huck Finn on the river
• Very rough painting
• Found myself not compelled to paint Huck, so started to think of other options before it became to late
• Though outside of books to movies
• Asked Mrs. Cockburn about movies and she said it was alright
• I decided to paint the Notorious BIG, a rapper from the movie Notorious
• He is known as the worlds greatest rapper of all time, and the movie talks of his life 'hustle' and stages to stardom
• Looked at a lot of pictures and figured I would paint a picture with him in his Top-hat a classic Notorious BIG look
• By looking at one of my freinds pictures, posted below uses a lot of colour in the face to show shading
• I felt i could possibly use this to show the light hitting his face

The picture below is one sort of in cluding this aspect. I want to do something like this using colour for highlights, and I want to base my painting off of the below painting. I decided that I will use his Top Hat instead of the one he is wearing below. Also will change the angle of his face so he is looing right at the viewer.

• I have drawn a sketch of what i want my final copy to look like (coming soon)

May 5th, 2010

• Away for school golf tournament

May 3rd, 2010

• Today was the first day I started to really think of ideas
• I decided to do project I which was the single book character aposed to the group scene
• At first thought of potraying the women from a book i recently read, The Book of Negroes
• I then changed my mind from The Book of Negroes, to drawing Huckleberry Finn, the famous character
• I wanted to potray him on the river, on his raft, with a tabaco pipe in mouth
• He would be enjoying the river and calmness
• Felt it would be a good idea to prime the wood canvas
• I painted it all with cesco except for the bottom half of the wood canvas, as I thought I could in the future leave the wood canvas represent Huck's raft and give some texture to my piece
• I then used the mannican to try and sketch the figure that I wanted Huck do be in
• PICTURE of Sketches

Camera made from cardboard

Outside of book

 The Story