Painting |
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Title: The Edge of the World
Size: 60.96 cm x 60.96 cm (2ft x 2ft) Medium: Acrylic on canvas Completion: July 2018 The Edge of the World illustrates the border between two worlds; a pristine and orderly utopia next to the wild and thriving jungle. The theme behind this painting is mystery, security and the temptation of adventure into the unknown. There is symbolism with the flower and the overgrowth over the warning sign and fence welcoming the two students into the wilderness. Another theme is the two worlds, organic vs industrial, which world is intruding the other?
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Critical Investigation Research:
Eliste, 28 in x 38 in, Acrylic on watercolor board, 1991.
Chanur's Homecoming, 30 in x 18 in, Acrylic on watercolor board, 1986. Whelan, Michael. The Art of Michael Whelan. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. Print.
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I chose Michael Whelan to be the inspired style of my painting. Similar to his themes, I wanted my painting to emit a sense of mystery, wonder and adventure. Most of Whelan's artwork takes place in fantasy worlds with both natural landscapes and industrial structures.
Michael Whelan has been a working artist for over 40 years and is well known for his illustrations for book covers with science fiction and fantasy themes. He has also done gallery work and album art during his career. Whelan's style was extremely popular and iconic for illustrations during the 1980's. Gartenburg, Chaim. "Look what goes into making a Michael Whelan book cover." Theverge. Vox Media, 2018. Web. July 11th, 2018.
Whelan, Michael, R. "The Art of Michael Whelan." michaelwhelan. Belle Jackson Design, 2007-2018. Web. July 11th, 2018. |
Inspiration:
Princesse de Broglie, 121.3 cm x 90.8 cm, Oil on Canvas, 1851-1853. Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique. "Joséphine-Éléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn (1825–1860), Princesse de Broglie." metmuseum, 1975.1.186, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, https://metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1975.1.186/
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The painting technique I was inspired to use for this project which is also similar to Michael Whelan's paintings is the Neoclassicism style. The specific painting I drew an inspired technique from was the "Princesse de Broglie" by Ingres. The way he blended his colors so smoothly makes the painting so lifelike and realistic; for example, the highlighted, pale skin illuminated by a light source and the color's gradation into a darker shade as a shadow falls across the princess's neck and shoulders cast by her head. I pulled this blending technique to use in my painting; I wanted to blend my colors without any sign of paintbrush strokes as much as I could.
From the Michael Whelan paintings I chose to focus on, I had an idea of having a utopia-looking structure the students would be standing on against a dark and unknown wildlife and these paintings gave me an idea on how to achieve the look of my painting. The part of the utopia the kids are standing on is the edge of the city which is not well attended or maintained. From "Chanur's Homecoming", the walls around the characters are rusting with streaks to show age were there are nails. In "Eliste", the buildings seems to be aging by the chipping of the paint. I tried to imitate these by blending colors in an up and down motion and also dabbing the canvas to create chips in the stonework of the building. |
Planning:
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My first idea for this project was having the canvas separated into four panels like a comic book or graphic novel. In each panel would be the story of a bird who conquers it's struggle to fly after falling out of a tree. I pictured a tree standing in the middle of the canvas even though each panel would be in a different location than the last, the tree would still be there.
My second idea was to have a 2-D house in order to see each room as if it were cut in half kind of like the Mixed Media house I made earlier in the year. In the house, I was planning to draw a whole family of maybe six people sitting in different rooms on some sort of technology involving a screen. This theme would relate to the Negative Illustration I made in November 2017, but only in this style, it would show how a whole family could be wasting away spending time on their tablets and phones and TV's in multiple rooms. |
And lastly, my third idea. I thought of having a science fiction theme of a perfect city, clean and orderly, but the citizens are more and more forgetting about what is outside of their utopia, hence the name, "The Edge of the World"; The city is the world to them. I drew a small wall at the edge of the walkway were the students stand and behind them a bigger wall to symbolize the cutting off from the outside. The theme is of mystery and adventure and also industrial vs organic since the students seem to have climbed over the wall and now look out into the jungle. which long ago was contained by a safety fence. I chose this idea because the other ideas I imagined more of the style of inking rather than painting.
Process:
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Starting to paint:
At first my image of this painting was a bright, yellow sky indicating either sunset, sunrise or a whole new and mysterious environment. After looking at it again, I decided to paint the sky blue in the industrial area and keep the yellow background in the jungle environment. I started painting the background using a flat brush to fill in as much space as I could. I painted around my penciled drawings of the objects in the painting which later I realized I should have painted the background before drawing. The tree should have been one of the last objects to paint, but I started it early. I watered down a combination of brown and grey and applied it to the tree in downward, slightly curving strokes. I also made a mistake by starting on the tree closer to the foreground than the tree farther away. I painted the structure in a very, bright white and began on the girl's clothes. I was thinking of what colors her clothes should be exactly and the colors I thought of revolved around the colors of the painting so she wouldn't be the primary emphasis of the piece. The colors were brown, white, grey and maybe yellow, all colors already associated with the environment. I decided that white and brown be the primary colors of the uniform symbolizing the utopia city color the two students are from and the color of the trees in the jungle outside the city. |
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Re-doing the background + green vines:
At this point, I thought of having the sky behind the two students stay blue and keep the sky behind the foliage and trees yellow. Experimenting: I found it hard to paint around the students and the white structure, so I ended up painting over them and planning to redraw them after the background paint had dried. I used a wide, flat brush to blend the two colors together in a smooth gradation, with long strokes from my elbow. The curve of the stroke between the industrial environment and the natural was to create a sense of an environment compacted or retained. Doing so gave me the sense of a world with people completely in control of their environments. Now, as I reflect, I should have been blending the curve the other way towards the students and not the trees to make the utopia-like city look cut off from the rest of the world. |
Experimenting: At the same time, I began to work on the vines on the bottom-right of the painting. I didn't like the look of them at first; they were too green in color and also very curly. I wasn't taking much time to organize and make it look realistic. I would make a fast, thick line until the paint on my brush ran out for the idea of what I wanted the vines to look like. After that, I would go back in and fill in the areas I missed.
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The structure and the students:
Now that the background was complete, it was time to repaint the structures I painted over. I used tape to make the lines of the walls straights and clean-cut. I would lay two lines of tape parallel to each other and fill in the center. It was frustrating sometimes when paint would slip underneath the tape and smear so it was important when putting the tape on to make sure it was stuck to the canvas. |
After that, I re-drew the students using a slight grid I redrew for accuracy of their anatomy. When I painted them again, I used a different technique where I painted their entire outline in white before painting colors on. It helped make the colors more vibrant without slightly altering what color they're supposed to be if I hadn't done that. From there, I continued to paint in their clothes in dark brown and their hair and skin.
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.Bricks, trees and vines:
The last process of the painting was finishing the bricks and the jungle. To create the bottom bricks, I took a very long time painting tiny squares by first painting a very thin, dark grey line across the structure using a slanted brush for a smooth line. Then, as quickly as possible before the paint dried, I made grey lines going down from under that line all the way to the end of the structure, from left to right. After that, I used a little dab of white in every square on that grid and a little bit of water. From there I would swirl the colors around until it looked blended. Then, I'd define the edges a little bit if I painted over them. |
After I had done that, I extended the bigger bricks down three more layers. I painted them the same way I painted the first row of bricks, painting lines between bricks and adding a slight shadow using a dark grey between the lines and then adding shadows by blending the grey into the white in the bottom left corner of every brick to create form.
After that, it was onto the vines. I re-thought what color they should be to look more realistic and also match the colors of the students' clothes. Instead of making them curly, I re-painted them long and wavy, ending in points and bending in long curves. Before I colored the trees, I painted on a few vines and a little pool of green water in the bottom right corner. Then, I started on the tree to make it easier so I would not have to worry about getting paint on the tree when it was finished. I painted the tree using multiple shades of brown, using the thin side of the brush in an up and down blending motion, keeping the lighter colors towards the left side of the tree and the darker colors on the other side. Then came the vines that were in front of the tree along with the "Do Not Enter" sign and the orange safety fence.
After that, it was onto the vines. I re-thought what color they should be to look more realistic and also match the colors of the students' clothes. Instead of making them curly, I re-painted them long and wavy, ending in points and bending in long curves. Before I colored the trees, I painted on a few vines and a little pool of green water in the bottom right corner. Then, I started on the tree to make it easier so I would not have to worry about getting paint on the tree when it was finished. I painted the tree using multiple shades of brown, using the thin side of the brush in an up and down blending motion, keeping the lighter colors towards the left side of the tree and the darker colors on the other side. Then came the vines that were in front of the tree along with the "Do Not Enter" sign and the orange safety fence.
Reflection:
When finishing up the project, I really wished I had worked on a background and given the painting less of a 2-dimensional feel. This project has really increased my skill and patience in painting and my ability to freely be creative with what I want to do with my result; There are multiple things I changed from the drawing over to the painting. When I finished, my painting did not entirely look as smooth and realistic as I had hoped, but this helped me gain the skills to work towards my goal of creating realistic paintings and art pieces. With a little more patience, I could have worked on extremely small detail that would've went a far way.
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At first, I was planning for the painted to start off with soft, pale colors by watering down the paint for all of the objects, but after seeing how the tree looked I dropped that idea. When I re-painted the sky, I originally planned to have faint clouds in the background of both skies but ultimately that didn't work out. It was very difficult when I made a mistake painting the trees or the kids and so I painted the skies over and over in different shades of blue and yellow every time I made a mistake.
ACT Questions:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
The way the large bricks in my painting look and the smooth blending shows my inspiration from Michael Whelan.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of the websites I used for research was Michael Whelan himself on behalf of his artwork, his artist statement and books he's made and the other was explaining the process of creating a book cover.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've concluded how styles through out the generations change and how iconic styles can mark a time period.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme was a world of mystery and creativity.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred how people preferred a realistic style of Illustration.
The way the large bricks in my painting look and the smooth blending shows my inspiration from Michael Whelan.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of the websites I used for research was Michael Whelan himself on behalf of his artwork, his artist statement and books he's made and the other was explaining the process of creating a book cover.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've concluded how styles through out the generations change and how iconic styles can mark a time period.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme was a world of mystery and creativity.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred how people preferred a realistic style of Illustration.