Tidewater Exhibit - Meg Roberts ArsenovicThis exhibition took place at Quirk Gallery, and I was immediately drawn to it. The bright knot shaped pieces and rings are made with faux fur and it looks like Arsenovic added texture to the pieces. Her other pieces were different maps of the world and Virginia with rings radiating out of the Tidewater area. Those did not interest me that much, until I read her content. Her pieces are about the meteor that crashed into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay 35 million years ago, one of the most significant events in the history of the Earth. She uses this as a metaphor to how she is re-examining the places in her life, specifically Virginia's colonial history. Seeing the work with this added content, really brings the pieces to life, and helps me to understand them more. Her work is not like anything I've done, but it does make me want to experiment more with new materials and its just another example of how having content does not mean it needs to be a picture of something, and her work seems to be really driven by the content. Overall, I loved the exhibit and it was something I've never really seen before. I also really loved the bright colors, something I want to look to do in my work as well.
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Over this past week, I completed the fourth and final portrait. I think it really helped that I increased the contrast of the photo and therefore had more value difference to add to the face's dimensions. I'm overall really happy with this piece. I think it looks like Annie, and expresses what I was hoping to achieve. I definitely now am much more comfortable using charcoal and powdered charcoal to create a portrait. Now, I just need to determine how to hang these pieces.
Earlier this week, I went back into the background and added a few more brushstrokes to further define the greenery. Then, I painted the hay bale which I am pretty happy with, I was really trying to add in other values. It’s definitely difficult to get the yellow orange hay shade right. I think I might still need to go back and add something to it just to make it pop, but I think it looks okay. I also really need to get in the main foreground piece (flowers at the bottom) because it should even out the composition a lot.
This week, Monday, I finished the 2nd portrait! Definitely think the first one looks better, but I'm getting more used to the powdered charcoal. Then, started the 3rd, made grid and outline. Once again, I had a lot of trouble with the mouth, but I think my efforts to try to fix it might have made it worse this time. The nose was also a problem area, but I think I did fix it by the end. I went back in to try to use the normal charcoal to get the lines in the hair and I think that looks good. One major area for improvement is composition because it seems awkwardly positioned. Overall, I think it looks more realistic than the last one, but there are definitely some parts that seem slightly off. Also starting to think of how to install them, as I definitely can only do 2 people- 4 portraits instead of 3-6.
I chose to look at Stuart Pearson Wright, an English artist known for his portraits. I felt that this related to my current focus on portraiture and could serve as inspiration. His website is: https://stuartpearsonwright.com/home Wright's work is mainly portraits, but also includes short films. He got a BA degree in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London. Exhibitions:
Highlights of CV:
Thoughts on pieces:
Anthony Higgins: I really like this piece and I think it most closely relates to the work I'm doing now. I'm really trying to figure out how to use the charcoal in the most effective way, and I think he does a good job of this. He successfully shows the textures of the skin, which is something I've been struggling with. Based on the reference photo, the drawing is expressive, which is one of my goals. I also like how you can see the pencil lines on the clothing. Zade: This painting I like, but I don't love it. I think it's really realistic, but seems really dark, which isn't something I love, but as I'm trying to show emotion in my portraits, maybe I should look at this as an example? I like the detail in the clothing, but I feel like the face is kind of flat? It seems well painted though. I am interested in exploring painting portraits so this is a good example. John Hurt: I really like this painting. While Zade felt a little flat in the face, this painting has all of the details, without painting every line in the skin. I know it is super hard to paint all the details like this, but it really appeals to me. I also really like the layering of colors, and the overall expression and emotion achieved. If I end up painting, this is a good example of what I want to do. Last week, I finished my first portrait, so this week I focused on working through my second drawing. I was having some difficulty getting the proportions right. I used a grid like before, but the mouth was specifically difficult and it felt like things were not in the right place. The original outlines looked okay, but the value did not seem to help round out the face. I've gone back to redraw the mouth a few times, but can't seem to get it right. I think next class I'll add some finishing touches and then move on to the third.
Ok I had just finished writing this and it all deleted so it's going to be more concise. I made a lot of progress this week. I realized I needed to add more brushstrokes if I wanted to achieve the impressionist style I was going for and also add in additional colors that are not just blue for the sky or green for the trees. However, I started experimenting with this for the sky, and therefore it does not look very cohesive. I was experimenting with different ways of applying the paint like a palette knife or certain brushes and therefore it looks like it was done three different ways. I think I'll revisit this later but I was just focused on getting more paint on the canvas. Then, I looked towards the trees. I found it difficult to determine where the trees are placed as most of my sketch was covered by the underpainting or the first layer of the sky. I also really struggled with where to start because I was drawn to the cyprus trees and put down their shape, but then realized that there is a line of other trees right behind them so I had to redo that area multiple times to get the cypruses to look like they are in front of the other trees. I also went back in with the sky color to fix where I had painted the trees in the wrong place. I think I really started to get a handle on the brushstrokes when doing the cypruses because I started to bring in other colors and relax my brushstroke to suggest values in the trees rather than doing details. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545} I’m pretty happy with the treelike. Next I need to work on fixing the sky and then the grass area.
Over the past few weeks I've finally completed the first portrait! This was my first time making a portrait with charcoal after doing an outline in pencil and it definitely was a learning experience. I've learned some new techniques - including using a q-tip to actually apply the charcoal for a smooth look - thanks Shreya! and I've been experimenting with adding lines after for expression and emphasis. Seeing how long this took me, I'm hoping that the next time will be faster, and I might reduce the number of the portraits I'm doing to 4 (2 of each person) rather than 6 - 3 ppl. I am overall happy with the likeness I've gotten and despite a couple of issues, it looks pretty accurate.
So far, I chose my photo and divided it up into sections. Then I drew the grid and outline after doing an underpainting. I'm not sure right now if the outline was worth it as they all got pretty much covered. I'm currently trying to block in the colors. I didn't like the first blue color I used so I went back again and then tried to get the ground color, which was really difficult and I'm still not sure it fits. My plan is to do this and then go back and add more impressionist style brushstrokes.
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June 2021
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