REFLECTION: Painting onto a variety of grounds
Posted: February 25, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: Acrylic Paint, alone, Art, art grounds, art reflection, Art Student, artist, Arts, Artwork, city, dark, dark mood, documentation, field, Fine Art, ground, hidden loneliness, isolation, loneliness, lonely, lonely in the city, paint, painting, reflection, sepia, surface, Texture, visual art, Visual Arts, working with grounds Leave a commentOn reflection, painting on a variety of grounds has definitely aided my learning and expanded my knowledge as an artist. Below I have highlighted the successes and failures of working with six different grounds. I have also noted my thoughts and potential uses for the grounds that haven’t been successful for this project work.
Burnt Umber – Dark Brown
Dark Brown is definitely the one of the most successful grounds for this kind of painting. It was incredibly effortless to create shadows because I didn’t have to paint the dark areas, I just used the ground to guide me. It was easier to paint and focusing on the highlights allowed me to create a far more successful image than if I was simply working on white.
Mid Tone Ground
A mid-tone ground worked quite well, but it didn’t allow for a dark feeling painting. It is quite unsuccessful really and does not heighten the feeling of loneliness as much as a darker tone ground. Also, I found myself using the ground to guide the highlights in the image which I feel made the image look quite flat and I don’t feel there is enough contrast between the figures and the surrounding here. I am incredibly surprised by how much a ground beneath a painting actually affects the outcome in the end.
Red Textured Ground
This textured ground made it very difficult to paint the straight edges of the buildings and figures within the outcome. However, I feel quite an interesting effect has been created here. To me the red ground made the scene look almost apocalyptic which isn’t exactly the feeling I was trying to create, so in that respect it is unsuccessful, but using a textured ground was a valuable insight into effects that can be created with grounds and demonstrated to me what my tutor meant by making more work for yourself when painting on an uneven ground.
Cadmium Yellow Ground
The cadmium yellow ground did weird and wonderful things to my painting. I like the effect it created and the yellow highlights peaking through as if the sun is shining, but it does produce a positive feeling so is unsuccessful in aiding the portrayal of loneliness in the city. In the future, if I am thinking about light or painting sun light, I will consider using a cadmium yellow ground.
Dark Brown Textured Ground
Textured grounds could definitely be interesting to explore and would undoubtedly benefit an abstract piece of work, but in this painting, even though I like the effect created, it was difficult to paint any straight edges because of all the lumps and bumps. I kind of feel that the attention is detracted from the subject a little bit by the interesting textures and palette knife work highlighting the surface.
Black Emulsion Ground
The black emulsion ground is also incredibly successful. It is between this ground and the dark brown as to which one has worked best. Again, It was effortless to create shadows because I didn’t have to paint the dark areas, I just used the ground to guide me. I would say this is so successful because the highlights and white figures really stand out and the darkest areas are black so there is a lot of contrast within the work.
On reflection, painting on a variety of grounds has undoubtedly been a valuable exercise. I have learnt first hand, how the colour or texture of a ground can affect that final outcome. I have also learnt the importance of choosing the correct ground to work with and how some grounds can make the painting you are producing easier to paint or vice versa. It is important to consider how the ground that you choose could affect the mood of the piece as here some of the grounds have helped heighten a dark mood and loneliness and others haven’t. The textures grounds definitely made it more difficult to paint figuratively but could be incredibly useful and valid for abstract works. Now that I have experimented with grounds, I will produce a large piece on a dark ground to add to its success and highlight my findings from these explorations.
A Walk in Cardiff: Photographs of People in the City
Posted: February 23, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: alone, Art, Art Student, artist, city, documentation, field, Fine Art, hidden loneliness, isolation, loneliness, Photograph, Photography, visual art Leave a commentI took some more photographs of people in the City, again there was minimal interaction and I noticed many lonely beings. I will use these images to produce some more photo manipulation experiments and to explore ways of showing loneliness in the city by editing my images by hand.
I had a tutorial today and the tutor seemed to like my photo cut outs and tracing paper experiments so I plan on using these images to work with those ideas and develop ways of portraying urban loneliness through photo manipulation further.
Artist Inspiration – Nesta
Posted: February 22, 2014 Filed under: Contextualisation, Field | Tags: alone, alone in the city, Art, Art Student, artist, artist inspiration, city, City Art, digital art, digital collage, hidden loneliness, inspired by artist, isolation, loneliness, loneliness in art, loneliness in the city, lonely, nesta, photo manipulation, urban loneliness, white, white silhouette Leave a commentThe work of Nesta is highly relevant to my project. She portrays the loneliness of living in a city within her work and as I have done in my work portrays the figure as a white silhouette. However, she focuses on the fact that she may as well be invisible in the city and how she feels alone and I have looked at this subject from a different perspective.
“Alone in the City is a digital collage series based on my experiences living alone in London, I hoped to capture the day-to-day happenings of living in a big city by yourself.” -NESTA
I am focusing on everyone else around you in the city and the fact that they may as well not exist because of the loneliness and the zero conversation that occurs. I had already thought about making the figures silhouettes and white in colour to create a ghostly image, but her work confirms to me that it makes for a successful outcome.
Influential Artist: L S LOWRY
Posted: February 17, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: Art, Art Student, artist, artist influence, artist research, city, confidence, crowds, drawing people, figurative, figurative art, Fine Art, hidden loneliness, isolation, Lowry, LS Lowry, matchstick men, painting crowds Leave a commentAs my work is developing, I have been considering crowds of people and their relationship. Within the Hidden Loneliness work I have been producing, I have drawn and painted crowds of people and created ways of showing that even though they are within a crowd, they may as well be alone. All I had to do was draw a crowd of people walking through the city accurately, to see that there is no interaction between them and that essentially they are lonely. As I am working with these concepts, I thought about the work of well renowned artist LS LOWRY.
Lowry captures the movement of volumes of people incredibly well. Much like the city, his images look busy and everyone seems to be hurrying to get somewhere. In terms of the relation of his work to mine, his drawings of crowds are highly influential.
I am really challenging myself creating a project that includes people as I’m not typically a figurative artist at all. I have been worrying a little bit that my drawings of people were a bit weak and that they don’t convey a sense of realism, Lowry’s work has made me realise that they don’t have to. It is nice to see Lowry’s figures that aren’t realistic and that even though the proportions of them may not be correct, he is still incredibly famous and his pieces are highly successful works of art. He gives me a lot of confidence within this project and I will undoubtedly refer to his art work for guidance.
City Loneliness: Sketchbook Experiments with Ink, Charcoal and White paint
Posted: February 11, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: Acrylic Paint, alone, Art, Art Student, artist, Arts, charcoal, city, colour, documentation, Drawing, field, Fine Art, Ink, inspiration, isolation, loneliness, Mixed media, urban loneliness, Visual Arts Leave a commentAfter being heavily influenced by the colour palette and technique in the work of an artist I saw in the urban spree gallery and the work of the user shoe18 on deviantart online (previous blog post), I decided to experiment with their inspiration. Here I have used Black and Brown drawing inks, charcoal and white paint to produce these quick explorations.
These quick art works definitely highlight loneliness in the city. I used my photo manipulation work as a reference for these pieces. The white silhouettes of all the people around you in the city who may as well not be there, came from the cut outs I produced.
I think the colour palette here is highly successful, I definitely want to produce mixed media paintings using these colour schemes to show the hidden loneliness of the city and how dull and dark it can be and feel. There is a differentiation between the person concerned and the people around them but I don’t feel it’s very successful. To improve it, when I produce paintings, I will take a lot more time making them and paint one person in colour and everyone else white silhouettes. I may even give the other people more definition and detail and give the colour figure no features to show that you are lonely in the city and when wandering it, you may as well not have an identity. People don’t notice anything distinguishing about you. I am keen to progress and move forward with these ideas.
Experimenting with Tracing Paper
Posted: February 10, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: alone, Art, Art Student, art with tracing paper, artist, Artwork, Black and White, black and white photography, documentation, Drawing, field, Fine Art, foggy, Ink, isolation, loneliness, lonely, masking tape, Pen, Photograph, Photography, tracing paper, transparency, urban loneliness, Visual Arts Leave a commentI have been experimenting with tracing paper within my hidden loneliness project. I wanted to highlight that when you are walking around the city, all the other people may as well not be there. I also thought about the fact that they are not important to you, they are just silhouettes passing you by that you may catch a glance with every now and then.
The existence of the other people around you is very transparent with not much significance or importance in your day. I thought the use of tracing paper highlighted this transparency. I started thinking about people being in a rush to do things or get to places in the city and how the world around them is foggy and muffled and not really taken note of. I experimented with placing tracing paper over my black and white photographs and drawing one person only in bold black fine line on top to highlight this observation.
I think these explorations are successful, they definitely convey an immediate feeling of loneliness and look artistically interesting. There is something highly charming about them. However, I’m not sure I will be incorporating the use of tracing paper into my art work or final pieces for this project. Experimenting with it has been valuable and made me consider more ideas and think about not noticing other people or the city around you when you are in a hurry. I may incorporate its use into the collaborative drawings I am working on in my field group.
Laura Lina: Photo manipulation Influence
Posted: February 1, 2014 Filed under: Contextualisation, Documentation, Field | Tags: Art, Artists, city, concept, cutting out images, field, Fine Art, hidden loneliness of the city, isolation, laura lina, loneliness, painting, Pen, photo manipulation Leave a commentI came across the work of Laura Lina whilst browsing around “the circle walked casually exhibition” situated at the Kunsthalle in Berlin. Her work inspired me to think about how I could use my photos to their full potential and how I could start manipulating them and drawing on top of them as a quick way to get my ideas flowing and display something visually interesting at the same time.
Above is an image of her work that I took in Berlin, The colour palette of these images is interesting to me, they look very grand and renaissance. She has drawn on top of existing imagery using gold pen and framed them simply as stand alone art pieces. The shapes and lines are very geometric and contrast with the curvature of the women within the underlay nicely, however interestingly at the same time they seem to complement one another.
Laura Lina’s work was the initial inspiration to my own photo manipulation related to my project on hidden loneliness in cities. I started thinking of ways to show to show this idea using my photos as a medium of their own. I have started experimenting with cutting people out the pictures, scribbling over them and painting on top of them. I have eradicated all the other people apart from one in different ways to show that when in the city, even though you are surrounded by people you are still lonely. There is no interaction and you may converse with no one all day.
The images in the previous post were black and white. I thought that I would do some colour experiments too to fit in with the inspiration of Laura’s work. This process has allowed me to think about how I can portray my ideas in paintings and final pieces etc without having to spend ages producing trial and error experiments that may be unsuccessful. It has shown me I can use existing imagery as a starting point to fuel my investigation into a project.
I think these images are highly successful. They definitely portray being alone in the city and accurately convey the idea that the other people around you may as well not be. It may be interesting to explore the idea of the fact that the people around you don’t even notice you really. You are just a body that they are passing by with no identity. I could portray this by not showing any facial features or things that would identify them.
I believe that collage, photo manipulation etc is a brilliant way to start making work and can show you ways of portraying an idea that you hadn’t thought of before. I will now use this research and experimentation to influence paintings/mixed media pieces that I will produce.
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