FINAL PIECE: Inspired by the Collaboration Process
Posted: March 23, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: 4D, 4D work, animating loneliness, Animation, Art, Art Student, art work, black and white photography, city, city loneliness, city project, Drawing, field, film, final outcome, Fine Art, hidden loneliness of city life, lonely in the city, photo manipulation, Photographs, Stop motion, stop motion animation, tracing paper, youtube Leave a commentWithin this City project, I was asked to create two final pieces individually, one inspired by the fine art painting project and another that reflects the ideas, thoughts and new processes that I learnt during the collaborative process. As a collaborative we made drawings and stop motion animations. It seemed obvious to me that for this second piece I would like to create an animation that includes drawing to fit in with what I have learnt and worked on with my collaborative group and to portray the hidden loneliness of city life. The collaboration work we made as a group has already informed my individual work and I have started playing around with animations showing loneliness in the city.
I thought the experiment I made where all the people were cut out of a photo one by one apart from one individual was quite interesting and had a lot of scope for progression and so I have decided to make a stop motion animation incorporating the manipulation of my photographs to portray inner city loneliness as a final piece.
I have included two aspects of loneliness in the city within this piece. The imagery where all the people are cut out/scribbled over/painted in portrays the fact that you might as well be alone in the city when surrounded by others because you interact with no one. If the only people you see are the passers-by of the city then you are going to be highly lonely because you would never converse with anyone face to face. The imagery where only one person has been singled out conveys the fact that you are insignificant which heightens the feeling of loneliness and that to all the other people you might as well not exist. Also, singling one figure out portrays them as being alone within an urban environment.
Within this piece, I have experimented with manipulating photos in a variety of ways to show loneliness. I have also included drawing within the piece and the use of tracing paper and paint. I think this piece is very successful and consolidates all the photo manipulation work I have produced throughout the whole of the project. These photo alterations inspired my paintings and kicked off my ideas to create this body of work so it seems only fitting that they make up one of my final pieces. The track that is playing behind this animation is “The lullaby of Loneliness” by Aaron English, chosen for obvious reasons. I have uploaded my final piece to YouTube so it is shared with the public and I can gain feedback from the users of the site. I think this piece is successful in portraying the hidden loneliness of city life and demonstrates a skill that I have worked on from making animations with my collaborative group.
PAINTING: Working with Monochrome and Being More Gestural
Posted: March 15, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: Art, Art Student, artist, Black and White, Brush, city loneliness, colour, experiments, Fine Art, gestural, lonely, monochrome, monochrome paintings, painting, Paintings, palette knife, singled out, surrounded by others but alone, tones of grey, white silhouettes 6 CommentsAfter attending a tutorial on Monday, I was glad that the tutor gave me some direction and new ideas and techniques to work with. After looking at my work, she suggested that I work with Monochrome and use the tones of grey to enhance the feeling of loneliness and make the individual coloured figure appear even more singled out and alone.
She also felt that my work was not really gelling as a whole and that I was working with three different realities and had to express the relationship between the figures, the single figure and the architecture. She said she thought the detailed buildings that were included in my work detracted from the figures and from the message within the pieces. She suggested that I experiment with contrasting colours, monochrome and full colour as well as contrasting languages, the gestural and the more realistic. I was encouraged to make marks and shapes that represent the buildings and to make them more gestural rather than focusing on every detail, window or door etc. I have experimented with making less detailed marks to create the city landscape with both brush and palette knife.
I feel that working with a palette knife definitely helped me be less controlled and more gestural but doesn’t really gel with the figures painted with a brush and therefore is unsuccessful so I have experimented with more gestural brush work.
I think this is far more successful and the monochrome definitely heightens the feeling of loneliness and the colours of the lone figure. After producing this piece, I decided to experiment with how much of the surrounding is seen within the painting, because even though the technique is successful, I feel that the buildings still are overwhelming the figures here.
This definitely puts emphasis on the lone figure and draws the viewer to wonder why they are the only one not painted as a white silhouette and consider their loneliness rather than being distracted by the buildings in the piece. These are highly valid experiments and have inspired me to create a final piece working with monochrome rather than the sepia alternative I have worked with previously. I feel this colour palette and deeper contrast portrays a more negative vibe and adds to the feeling of loneliness within the work.
SHAPED PAINTING: Working on Green Under-Painting
Posted: March 4, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: Acrylic Paint, Art, Art Student, artist, city loneliness, city scape, experimentation, Fine Art, green, green ground, green underpainting, highlights, loneliness, paint, painting, shadows, tonal variation, tone, tones of green, underpainting, workshop work Leave a commentI have started working on the green under-painting of my shaped piece that I started in Mondays paint workshop. When I previously produced a green under-painting of a still life, I found that the tones I had worked with in the green underlay really informed the shadows and highlights that I painted when rendering the top coat. I found that I produced a far more three-dimensional and tonal outcome and that it was easier and quicker to do as I had already thought about tonal variation in the under-painting.
In this shaped piece, I am taking more time on the under-painting and focusing on achieving dimension and tone within it. Also, I was really surprised by how well the green showed through my work when applying the top layer with a method of dry brushing and so this is something I will be working with again. I will document the progress of this painting and work hard to create a highly successful outcome portraying the hidden loneliness of the city. I will incorporate the white silhouette imagery I have been working with into this piece and work at creating a visually successful piece. I have never made a shaped painting, but I can see how it is going to make for an interesting outcome already. I am really enjoying the paint sessions and have already learnt many valuable skills that I have already started applying in my project work.
INSPIRATION: Artists that influence my ideas to create artwork highlighting the loneliness of city life
Posted: February 5, 2014 Filed under: Contextualisation, Field | Tags: alone in the city, Art, artist, city, city loneliness, digital art, Drawing, dripping ink, Fine Art, influence, Ink, inspirational art, loneliness, loneliness art, Mixed media, monochrome, overwhelming, painting, sepia tones, visual art Leave a commentThis artists work grabbed me as soon as I saw it. I love the scratchy line work and limited dull colour palette. I am highly influenced by how the use of dark line and monochrome and sepia tones are heightening the loneliness of the single figure in the foreground of the piece. The figure looks overwhelmed by the city and alone, emotions I would like to capture within my work.
The piece below “Alone in the City” is a combination of hands on drawing and digital editing. Unfortunately I am unsure of the name of the talent that produced this piece, but they show their work under the username shoe18.
http://shoe18.deviantart.com/art/Alone-in-the-City-170647391
This colour palette and the idea of mixing media’s is something I am keen to start working with. The varied tone within each colour gives the piece a lot of mood and draws me to think about the use of black and brown drawing inks to capture similar effects. Maybe I could use the ink as a ground and then paint and draw into it. This style really jumps out at me and reminds me of a piece I saw in Berlin in the Urban Spree Gallery shown below.
Again in this piece, even though there is a hint of blue coming through, the colour palette is based around blacks browns and white. I am definitely going to be heavily inspired by the works of both these artists and experiment with showing how you can be lonely even when you are around many people whilst employing inspirations from their style and limited colours. Unfortunately, again I’m not sure of the name of this artist’s work, it was tucked away on the floor in the gallery in Berlin but instantly grabbed me as a useful influence to my art work. The uncontrolled drips within this work are something that I would like to experiment with too. Already cannot wait to get stuck in.
JANICE JONG – Lonely Metropolis
Posted: January 27, 2014 Filed under: Contextualisation, Field | Tags: Art, artist, city, City Art, city loneliness, Contextualisation, field, Fine Art, isolation, Janice jong, loneliness, urban loneliness Leave a commentI have started looking at artists that have explored the loneliness of being in the city. It surprised me to find quite a few artists that were interested in this subject. For me it is absolutely fascinating that there are so many people and the city is so busy but it is such a lonely existence for many. Especially being from a rural area and smaller community where even if the person next to you on the bus is a stranger you would still say hello to them or acknowledge their existence, whereas in cities that just is not how life is.
JANICE JONG
Lonely Metropolis by Janice Jong shows the loneliness one can feel in a city where there are a million things vying for your attention but none of it is actually real. Looking through Janice’s work, you see both the beautiful and the lonely sides of a city. To me, this image shows how city life really is. In this typical city scene, there should be loads of people bustling around you and walking past, but they never acknowledge you or interact with you in anyway so they may as well not be there. This is a highly interesting concept to me and one that I want to investigate within my city project. This work also highlights how many people feel in the city, alone. It is fascinating to think that somewhere with such a massive population can have loneliness but it is coming the norm.
I read an article stating that stated city loneliness was now a health problem up there with high blood pressure, lack of exercise and obesity. Urban loneliness can significantly shorten your life expectancy it is said. Janice Jongs piece also makes me think about how overwhelming the city can be for someone. For me, being a student moving to the city was quite a lonely for a while and I definitely felt slightly overwhelmed by the large buildings etc. I think Janice’s work is a success, it highlights the loneliness of city life and shows exactly what she as trying to state incredibly accurately.
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