Experimenting: Loneliness: Wearing Headphones in the City
Posted: March 16, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: alone surrounded by people wearing headphones, Art, art experimentation, Art Student, art work, earphones, Experiment, Fine Art, headphone beings, headphones, lonely, lonely in the city, Mixed media, monochrome, music in your ears, One person in colour, painting, using headphones in a painting Leave a commentAfter undertaking the still life painting workshop, I was forced to think about an object that linked to my theme of the city. It took me a while, but I suddenly thought about how many people wear headphones when walking through the city. I started thinking about how if everyone around you in the city was wearing headphones to avoid its loneliness and to avoid facing the fact that you will interact with no one, then the people who don’t wear them must feel even more isolated.
I wanted to portray these ideas and experiment with firstly showing how common it is to see people wearing headphones in the city, and secondly how alone someone would feel in a city surrounded by “headphone beings”. I started sketching.
I was really happy with these quick sketches and felt as if they accurately portrayed a body wearing headphones that you do not interact with and just passes you by in the city. I wanted to work these beings into a piece and decided that using actual headphones within the work could be interesting
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As an experiment, I think I have successfully explored the idea of being surrounded by people wearing headphones in the city. However, I think the concept of being surrounded by others but never conversing with them and the thought that they may as well just be silhouettes is more successful. I do not think this is a particularly successful piece and to me it looks quite amateur. I feel this might be too literal and is not an area that I am going to continue to experiment with. I am glad I experimented here however, I learnt that thinking about how people avoid loneliness makes others lonely is not a route that I want to take my project down. I will now start thinking about finalising final pieces and consolidating my project as a whole.
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.
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.
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.
Combining Drawing with my Photography: Sketchbook Work
Posted: February 21, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: alone in the city, Art, Art Student, artist, Arts, city, city outlines, Collage, documentation, draw, Drawing, drawing combined with photography, field, Fine Art, hidden loneliness, Ink, lonely, lonely art, Pencil, Photography, sketch, sketchbook, sketchbook work, skyline, urban loneliness Leave a commentHere I have attempted to illustrate being alone in the city, and feeling overwhelmed by its mass structure and buildings through combining the drawing of simple city outlines and my photography of people in the city.
I have experimented with a few different medias when creating these kind of collages including pencil, fine liner, black indian ink, nut-brown ink and ball point pen.
I think the outcomes show the figure to be isolated and I like the contrast in detail and complexity between the drawing and the photography. I am enjoying exploring displaying urban loneliness artistically and even though these are simple images, they do portray being alone in the city.
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.
Loneliness in the City: Observational Charcoal Drawings
Posted: February 8, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: Acrylic Paint, Art, Art Student, artist, brown paper, charcoal, charcoal drawing, documentation, Drawing, field, Fine Art, Fine Art Student, hidden city, loneliness in the city, lonely, Observational Drawing, people, quick drawings, sketches, Sketching, urban loneiness, visual art, walking in the city, white paint 2 CommentsHere are a few drawings I have produced in relation to the topic of loneliness in the city. I have been thinking a lot about different ways to portray the loneliness of day-to-day life and routine in the city and realised that simply drawing people wandering the streets shows it accurately. It is clearly seen within my sketches that there are lots of people around but none of them are conversing or interacting with each other. All of the people within my sketches may as well be by themselves. They may not realise it but apart from there being no queue in shops and not getting stuck behind people walking slowly and holding them up, their time spent in the city would be no different if they were completely by themselves.
I was conscious that the media used and colour palette I chose here would either add to or detract from the loneliness of the people within the images. I have used Charcoal and white acrylic paint on brown parcel paper to create these drawings. The dull and darker colours provoke the feeling of being miserable or alone. It fascinates me here, that I have done nothing more than draw what I have observed and the product captures the loneliness of city life perfectly. It just goes to show how relevant my project ideas are to today’s cities. I am very happy that I have managed to capture this isolation and look forward to moving forward and experimenting further.
Experimenting with ways of Portraying a Hidden Loneliness among other people in the City
Posted: January 31, 2014 Filed under: Documentation, Field | Tags: Acrylic Paint, alone, Art, artist, Black and White, documentation, field, Fine Art, isolation, loneliness, lonely, paint, painting, Photography, visual art Leave a comment
Here are some examples of initial photo manipulation that I have been experimenting with. After coming across the work of Laura Lima, an artist that draws on top of and manipulates imagery, I was inspired to experiment with showing the hidden loneliness of city life using my photographs.
Within these works, I wanted to highlight the fact that in the City, you can be around hundreds of thousands of people but lonely. I wanted to show that you may as well be on your own because you won’t speak to or may not even make eye contact with anyone. I started cutting out all of the people apart from one to highlight this point. I thought that if I cut out all of the other people then they would only exist as shadows or silhouettes. You don’t notice any detail about other people in the city, they just pass you by and I am confident that these silhouette like shapes convey that.
I have started experimenting with other ways of blocking out the people like using paint or scribbling them out. In the images above, I have pulled paint down the people in the photographs using a palette knife. This creates quite an uncomfortable ghostly image and definitely conveys being alone. I think these experiments are definitely successful in showing the loneliness you can experience in the city even though you are surrounded by other people. I also feel that the images look aesthetically interesting to the eye. I will continue my experimenting and maybe produce a piece of different scenes with people cut out, painted over and scribbled on top of.
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