Spoon Sketches. Final and Rough Copies

1st sketch, using difficult spoon. 

 At this point happy with the shaft of the spoon but not the 3-d effect of the bowl part of the spoon.

After final touches the 3-d effect looks better, with the use of the shadow. 

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.

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.

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