Final Painting

These two painting are the ones that I will be putting forth for summative evaluation, Along with my final piece located below this post.

I decided to use my cultural/ social issue on over working, and loosing the value of sleep. I originally had painted this as a head on landscape of a room, with 2 dimensional figures. This time I felt that more perspective was needed. The painting would still be similar but with small changes such as the angle of the room that you look at, and the man is sleeping on the desk instead of the couch. I had to brainstorm more ways to best get across my social issue through painting, and using the elements and principles of design. I decided to focus a lot on space in this painting. I have utilized the length of the board with the large blue wall, that has an almost streaky feel to it with the washes of water put on top. This large space of blue is large and overwhelming, which directly relates to the feelings of the man sleeping on his desk, overwhelmed. By having this large empty space on top with a very cluttered and disorganized bottom, it puts more emphasis on the busy part of the composition. for the curtains I used decided to use very abstract loose heavy lines to define the curtains. I tried to block in many objects that portrayed the overworked exhausted feelings of the man in the painting. This led me to add in a coffee mug, and keep the books and laptop in as well. I tried getting creative with the wall. I used a blue/ green mixture of paint with lots of water to create the streaky looking walls. Over top to give connect to the issue I put in a calendar, as well as a bulletin board, made out of newspaper filled with assignments. This turned out very interesting as the layers of paint from below seem to cripple the paper at bit. There were two parts of the painting that I had trouble with. The first one was the face. I started off with a photo of myself in a sleeping position, and as I painted this image on the board I noticed that the head didn't look as if it were on its side. To solve this problem I took another picture and then noticed i had to move the ear back and slant the eyes to give the impression that his head is resting on his arm. The second problem I had was one I did not fix. This was the legs. I had awful proportions in my legs and found them hard to paint. I would re paint them many times and still not be satisfied, even with pictures in my hand. I was also not to sure what the shading should be. I decided to go with a very dark shade, but as I earlier mentioned the legs are not proportionate to the body.

The first artist that I looked at was edward hopper, originally introduced to me by Mrs. Cockburn. After this I researched him in the library and found the way he set up his composition interesting. I decided to use his composition of looking at a room from an angle. Also through looking through his photos I found his use of space very interesting. This is what inspired me to use this large free space. It showed more emphasis on the other part of the composition. The first photo below showed me this way of painting a composition, with the room at a different angle than head on, as my original painting. I liked the extreme shading in this painting as the woman's face is pure white and the man in the back is almost unseen. I tried to utilize this technique in my painting with the shading on my shirt as the back was black and the shoulder was almost white. This photo helped me with the light coming out of the window and the shading on the bodies. After I set up my composition I took a photo of myself in the position I wanted to paint. I used a lamp to imitate the window light. I then based the bodies shape and shading on off of this photo. The second painting is another edward hopper photo that as before mentions utilizes the space of the board, another technique that I tried.

The second artist I used was Lucien Freud, an artist I am familiar with. I enjoyed his use of thick paint that was used to create texture. I tried doing this on the face and shoulder of my figure. I also used his in the curtains to create a wrinkle effect by using large amounts of paint. Although my face wasn't as detailed as the one below I still tried building up the shoulder and face a much as I could. I found that the colours were tough to control with all of this paint as colours would become murky very quickly. This led to me playing around with the face a lot. The curtains I was very pleased with as the thick heavy lines created a nice contrast to the smooth blue wall.

This was the photo I set up and took to help me through my painting process with the body and shirt shading

Starting of body

This is after I took the photo and used reference material. A step in the right direction

In this photo I changed the tilt of the head by positioning the ear back and angled the eyes

Was experimenting with the shading on the legs. something I had a lot of trouble with.

In this stage I added a calendar and a bulletin board made out of newspaper giving a busier effect to the painting. I also added window panes with snow on them to give a winter effect, along with the Jan on the calendar. A coffee mug was also added

In this stage the leg is more visible but still shaded out. I used some upward line work on red dry brush on the bottom giving the painting a cool effect.

In this stage I added tree branches by painting thin black lines, with snow on them.

This is the final product.

This is the final face. Last minute i changed the face up. I felt like i more defined the nose and made the eyes skinnier to give the sleeping effect. I also liked the shading put in at the back of the head.

5 Cultural Paintings

When first approaching this project I was puzzled by where to start. I started brainstorming but with little success. I was thinking of ideas and then immediately shutting them down. I was being to specific and to start had to think in a broader sense. Mrs. Cockburn really helped me with the brainstorming part of the project as she sat down with me and forced the thoughts out of me. Once my mind starting thinking more broadly the topics started to come to me. The toughest part was trying to transfer the social/ cultural issue onto the wood panel. Also to make sure that the message is getting across. The 5 different social/cultural issues that I decided to base my works on were:

• Oil Spills, and their effects of animals
• Over Packaging
• People letting work consume their lives, and losing touch of the importance of sleep
• Airplane bombing and war
• Deforestation and Newspaper

Through these paintings I re did two of the works completely and constantly played around with the others. This project let me explore into using different mediums (Multi Media) which I tok advantage of in two of my pieces.

My First Painting I started was the Airplane bombing and war theme. I started with this one and got stuck, and so I put it down and came back to it after I did another one. This was one thing I enjoyed about this project using small panels and many of them. This gave me the opportunity to start a different piece and come back to the original with new ideas and a fresh mind. This painting turned out completly different than I originally envisioned. It turned into a large bomb exploding in the foreground with a WW2 Bomber in the top of the piece. I tried using many different colours in the bomb trying to show the strength of it. The sky is very dark and gloomy indicating to the viewer that bombing creates sadness and death. This background creates a nice contrast with the powerful colour of the bomb. The overall effect of the upper half of the piece is dark and sad, and with the roughly painted plane, I think it helps the viewer picture a war like scene. Overall I was pleased with the turn out of this painting but felt that it could be further developed, as the bomb and airplane may be to vague to get the full idea of "bombing is bad" across.

The second piece I created was based on deforestation and how millions of trees are killed for the newspapers around the world, when people can view newspapers just as easily online. For this painting I tried using other materials rather than plain acrylic paint. The top half of the piece depicts a winter forest, with a dark gloomy ground where it turns into black. This black part acting as the ground and also a large scale shredder, with newspaper and shredded paper on the bottom half of the piece. This painting is a metaphor for the trees literally being shredded. The trees I originally had trouble with. Once collecting source material I could better paint the trees. Looking into not a picture but into the forest from the art room helped me as well.

The third piece that I created was based off of oil spills and the negative externalities they have on animals. In this painting I used strictly acrylic paint, and focused on oil spills affect on a bird. The bird I used was the dove, the bird that is the international symbol of peace. I originally started this piece covering the whole bird in black without using any reference material. With the help of Mrs. Cockburn I noticed that the bird had started to look like a crow as t was all black, and was mis shaped. I restarted a new piece using a landscape view of a stormy oil infested ocean, with a water oil rig in the distance surrounded by birds. In the foreground was this dove half covered in oil, as oil drips off the doves feathers into the ocean. The contrast of white and black on the top and bottom half of the bird created a great contrast in this piece. Another interesting part about this painting is the light background I created. Using yellow and red and very watered down acrylic I made a sunset background so that the lines in the wood would come through creating an interesting effect to the piece. Overall I was extremely happy with this piece as I originally was frustrated with the first attempt and re tried I and succeeded in my mind, which is a good feeling.

This was my first attempt gone wrong after frustration I painted it over in yellow. Opps

The New piece using light watered down acrylic paint and lick paint for the oil filled sea.

Final Piece with the bird and oil rig addition.

The fourth piece I constructed was like the third piece in the fact that I re made a new piece completely. This piece focused on people letting work consume them, and how people are losing touch with the importance of sleep. Originally I wanted to portray a man sleeping on-top a high pile of books. This failed in my mind as the face didn't look great. I grabbed a new panel and started with a new approach of a man sleeping with work laid out all over his desk in the background. Many books stacked on-top of each other, the light still on and the laptop open. This piece took me the longest, and was the one I felt most connected to, as this feeling and issue I am painting I one that I have to deal with on a daily basis. I used many different colours in this piece, which I enjoyed experimenting with. The body used a lot of different layers of paint that ended up creating contours of the body. Overall very pleased with the outcome of this painting.
                                                          My first attempt. Gone Wrong.

Second attempt, early stages. Very dark and murky.

                                                

 Final Product...

The last painting I created was based upon over packaging. For this I wanted to experiment with materials but at the same time keep this piece very simple. This is exactly what I did. Creating a layered background of three different colours, and on-top card board in box shape, with bubble wrap, wrapping paper, newspaper and more. These different layers all bring forth the idea of unnecessary use of materials in packaging. I was not to connected to this piece compared to others as I did it quicker than others, but I did have fun experimenting with different materials and exploring boundaries outside my comfort zone.