So I painted the background, but I'm really torn whether or not I preferred it with just the red. The issue was that it seemed unfinished, but I really liked the contrast. I'd love to hear opinions during critique. I also came up with the idea of how to continue the series with other food from childhood, nostalgia with faces (ex. there's another Friendly's ice cream with a face).
0 Comments
I picked Stanley Rayfield because I know him personally, and I wanted to look closer at his art which I believe could help me with my portraiture. His website is: http://stanleyrayfield.com/about.
Highlights of his CV:
My reactions: - "Dad" I think I may have seen this piece in person, but even online it really is a powerful piece. From a realism standpoint, it's pretty amazing, but I am even more impressed by the feelings the piece evokes. You can tell almost immediately that there is a story behind this piece, with the title being "Dad", the glimpse of a hospital bed on the corner, and even the figure itself with a cane, unbuttoned shirt, breathing tube, and eyepatch. I also think adding the shadow that obscures the lower half of the figure and bottom corner of the canvas adds a sense of mystery that surrounds who this is. It makes you think and that is definitely something I would like my art to do. - "Black Jesus" I just watched a short documentary about this piece so i have a bit of background in addition to my first impressions, but i am immediately interested in the background. He said that he used to use paper to give more texture, and I think that's an interesting idea. I also love the luminosity and use of color in the skin. He did not use one tone of brown but warmer burnt sienna and cooler blues for the shadows. I also noticed it was painted on panel, and I would like to research the difference between that and canvas on the paint texture. - Church Hat Series his website says that this is "A series birthed from an attention to the style and designs of church hats and the unspoken dignity, life experience, and wisdom emanating from these women. The hats symbolize a woman's crown and triumph throughout life." I think this is a great example of taking something that may not be spotlighted and bringing it out to a broader topic. Each portrait of these women like the portrait of his father tell a story and I think like many older adults, you have a feeling they have stories of their own to tell. Rayfield did multiple portraits with graphite that are incredibly smooth - I would love to find out how he accomplished this. The yellow painting in the slideshow stood out to me because he actually painted looser than he normally would, which I could definitely learn from (especially the lady's dress) and I appreciate the bold color he used in the background. Also, it's interesting that it was painted on aluminum panel. -Girls Next Door Series What stood out to me about these portraits are the texture in the back, the bright colors, and how he approached hair which could be very relevant to my peices. i made a lot of progress this past week. I finished laying down the main colors, went in with the chocolate chips, did the metal holder, and then the whipped cream. With the metal, I tried to not use black and instead used more ultramarine. Same with the whipped cream, I used cobalt blue to shade. I'm really happy with how it's looking! Coach suggested to finish it, that I should put a background so I did a practice painting (last picture on the slide) to see what that looks like. I think I'll do a gradient starting with white at the bottom.
I really enjoyed the lecture by Amanda Adams on Japanese Aesthetics. Here are some of my notes (commentary after):
Western very different - Kant, German, enlightenment, critique of judgement quantify beauty - Objective
Tanizaki - 1933,
Main takeaways: i really appreciated her comparison between Western and Japanese standards of beauty. I feel like I relate more or appreciate more the Japanese criteria as it is focused on the beauty in imperfection and seems much more of a deep understanding. I also really enjoyed learning about In Praise of Shadows and Tanizaki. I thought the shift between Japanese isolationism to favoring the West and then back to nationalistic and what makes Japan special is very interesting. I also thought her mention of the impact of religion was interesting. I studied Zen Buddhism in religions class last year, and I do feel like it could influence my work. I also thought it was kind of funny how important shadows are to Tanizaki and the beauty of impermanence as that's actually a theme I've thought to explore in my work regarding the impermanence of childhood and what's left or the shadows instead of the thing itself. So I decided for my painting that I was going to paint foods from my childhood so I thought about the Monster Mash sundae from Friendly's where I used to go with my grandparents. I started by applying a base red color on the canvas and then using burnt sienna to sketch the outlines. Then, I just started applying my oil paint, trying to do it somewhat loosely with saturated colors. I'm not sure about my paint application on the reese's cups, but I'm pretty happy with the cherry and obviously there's more to do on the ice cream. The metal cup will also be a challenge, but I'm glad it's going pretty quickly.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2021
Categories |