Grandparents

 For this piece my art teachers where trying to tear me away from my normal style of organised and controlled painting, and make me explore a different style of painting – free hand. I also wanted to paint a picture of the most heart warming and sweetest love stories I have ever heard – and that may be because they are my grandparents so there is sentimental value.

Figure 1 Grandparents

My grandparents first met when they were young before World War II, and sadly my Grandad moved away. During the time they were separated, my Grandad went off to fight in World War II and did not marry, whereas my Grandma married and had my Auntie. Decades after they were separated, they met again and fell in love. In some ways, my Grandad waited for my Grandma, and from the photos and videos I have seen, they were one of the happiest couples I have ever seen and have ever known. So I wanted to tell their story and paint a piece that depicts them.

Figure 2 Photograph of my Grandparents

The background of the painting was sort of inspired by the artist Josef Kote. I tried to paint an abstract background, but I do not believe that it has been that successful. I feel that the most successful part of this painting is my Grandad’s hand. Here I have been able to create shape and depth, and although the colours are not completely accurate with the photo (his real hand is more orangey, whereas the painted hand is more purple / greeny). However, I feel that where I have tried to add the darker tones, it has ruined the painting. I did try to save it, but that just made it worse. The same happened when I was trying to add more purple tones to my Grandad’s forehead – I added it, it went wrong, I tried to save it, that failed. Thing part I found the most difficult was the painting the skin tone, whenever I tried to mix a colour, it looked right on the paintbrush, but wrong on the paper, so I actually ended up in some ways, mixing the colours on the piece of paper. This did start to work, as I decided to be fearless, but I then put on too much of one colour and then the wrong colour and it just failed. I then got frustrated with it and become stress about it. Furthermore, for this piece, I still gridded up the photo and scaled it up onto a bigger piece of paper. This allowed me to drawn an accurate portrait of my Grandparents.

This painting has influenced the direction of my project as I will try to paint like this again to try to improve my skill, and enable me to experiment with different styles of painting. It has also influenced me to try and paint another piece that is more about using the styles and techniques of the artist Josef Kote. 

Sophie Portrait

The intention of this piece was to push me even further than before. For the Easter holidays, I had to paint an A2 free hand portrait of my younger sister Sophie. I was not allowed to draw with a pencil, I had to drive in at the deep end and paint straight onto the piece – which for me is terrifying as it something I do not do.

Figure 1 Sophie Portrait

This piece pushed and stressed me out more than the previous painting did. It stressed me out because I feel that the colours I was painting were not the colours in the photo and so they were not the right colours to paint, and I seemed to not be able to mix the correct colour – this is in relation to the skin, the other parts of the painting did not stress me out at all I think because I enjoyed and have always enjoyed painting hair and clothes more than skin colour. When I could do no more, because it had pushed me to my limit, my art teacher showed me how to paint in the style that she wanted me to, onto the painting. However, when I tried to do it, I feel that I just made it worse and the colours I was painting were not the correct ones and this stressed me out even more and demotivated me and I just did not want to carry on with it. Also, this style of painting is not the style I normally paint in, it was not controlled and organised. I had to change my style of painting, I could no longer use long brush strokes, I had to use splodges and paint the same colour in different places. I absolutely hated painting in this style, I know that I needed to try out a different style of painting, but I found myself getting stressed out by the pieces, whereas with my normal style I do not get stressed out and demotivated by those pieces, in fact I find that painting in my normal style to be calming and DESTRESSING, unlike the new style of painting my art teachers are trying to persuade me to do. I will never paint like this again, or at least I will try to get myself out of painting like this again.

Figure 2 Photograph of Sophie

From the experience of this painting, I have learnt that I can draw accurately without a grid, but I have learnt that I absolutely HATE – JE DETESTE – this painting, and I will never paint like this again, partly because it stresses me out and I do not want to be even more stressed out than I already am – I use art to calm and distress myself, but with this painting I seem to be doing the opposite. But I did like painting the hair, as for the hair I found it easy to differentiate the different colours I needed and how to get the shape and depth of the hair.

However, now looking at the photo and painting side by side and at roughly the same size, I can see that the painting I was doing was matching the skin of Sophie. But painting with colours that you cannot evidently see on the skin at a first glance confuses me and frustrates me because it makes me constantly question whether this colour is the right one. And as I was looking at it very closely whilst painting it, and the painting size was about four times as big as the photo, so I could not compare them side by side like I can now. Although I absolutely hate painting like this, I can see why this style of painting works and how it can easily create shape and depth in the painting. However, this style of painting is completely new to me, so if I had been taught to paint like this, or had more time to experiment with this style of painting, I could possibly become better at it and master the style. But, I have not and I do not. I know that I needed to try to get myself out of my comfort zone of drawing and painting by grid, and I do believe that as I have studied art I have tried to let go of the grid, or at least not use as many squares in a grid, and I try not to paint by square. By that, I mean that when I have drawn a piece by grid, I tend to ignore the grid whilst painting. I sometimes tend to ignore the grid when drawing and only use it as a reference to get the drawing as accurate as possible.

This piece has influenced the direction of my project as I will not paint in this style again, and I will continue to paint in the style I am comfortable with, but I will try to not grid up a photo as much as I have done in the past – not using a 1cm grid on the photo. But I do understand why I need to experiment with a new style of painting – but not just this one.

For this painting I painted a portrait of one of my younger sisters Sophie, scaled up onto an A2 piece of paper. I did not use a grid, instead I painted the entire piece with a deep red acrylic paint, and then I draw on the face, hair and clothing with paint. I then blocked out the hair, skin tone and clothes with a single colour for each. I then attempted to paint on the different colours and tones found in the photograph of Sophie. However, I tried and was successful with the hair and clothes, but not so much with the face. In fact, my art teacher had to help me with the skin because I did not know how to paint the skin the way I was meant to, and so she showed me how to do it. Nevertheless, I still found painting the skin hard, frustrating, and stress inducing.

Any Human Heart

William Boyd’s Any Human Heart tells the incredible life story of Logan Mountstuart and is one of my favourite books as it tells the story of a man who finds love again and again, but always remembers his one true love – Freya Deverell, who sadly dies with their daughter in a V-2 attack during the Second World War when Logan is being held in a Switzerland prisoner of war camp.

Figure 1 Any Human Heart

My intention for this piece was to paint a picture of the time Logan Mountstuart and Freya Deverell first met in William Boyd’s novel Any Human Heart. It shows the man already married and had son, into a rich family no less, ready to risk everything for that one woman who he thinks is her soul mate. And he in fact does practically lose everything. He goes from riches to rags, but his rags are a happier life with the woman he loves and daughter he treasures.

The research I have done into the artists Arthur Hughes, Josef Kote and Paul Hedley have influenced this piece, along with my own pieces like Sophie Portrait and Pride and Prejudice have influenced the way in which I have painted this piece. First, as I have said before, the artist Arthur Hughes has a huge influence on the whole of my project as he created paintings that were inspired by literature, and that is the direction I have taken in this project. Second, the artist Josef Kote and my painting Pride and Prejudice influenced the way in which I painted the skin, as by studying his work and trying out his techniques had a strong influence and gave me a technique that I could use to paint the skin of people successfully – using one base colour and then dramatic and bold colours to add some of the other skin tones that really stand out. Josef Kote has also influenced me in the way in which I paint the background in my pieces. Before this piece, I felt that if I were to paint a background that had buildings in, I would use a naïve art style like Helen Elliott (as in my Dancing In The Street At Night paintings), and if it were a landscape, I would use techniques like Josef Kote (as in my Pride and Prejudice painting). However, now having done this piece, I feel that I am going to use the techniques I have used here for the background in my final piece. Finally, the artist Paul Hedley has sort of influenced the way I paint the clothes and possibly the hair, however, the bigger influenced of this is from the experience of painting my Sophie Portrait where I found that I liked and preferred to paint the hair and clothes in that way compared to the other techniques I have used.

I feel that this piece has been incredibly successful, and I probably the most successful painting I have done in this project so far, as I have been able to find different techniques of painting that work for me and are effective when I use them together. The blurriness of the background created by the harsh and loose brush strokes helps to not distract the viewer’s attention from the main part of the painting – the two people. Then contrasting this with some very different techniques of the defined controlled brush strokes in the hair and clothes, and sort of in the face creates definition and holds the viewer’s attention. I believe that these two contrasting techniques work very well together and I plan to use them for my final piece.  

Figure 2 Screen shot from the TV series Any Human Heart that
I based my painting on.

From this experience I have learnt that I can take two very different styles and use them together to create an even more effective piece than if I were to paint a piece using one technique – this painting is more effective and successful than any of my other paintings as I have taken what I have learnt from each and put all of that into one piece. And I will carry on painting like this when I use acrylic paint.

For this painting, I firstly gridded up a screen shot from the TV series of Any Human Heart into 2cm squares, scaled it up onto an A1 sheet of paper, and used this grid only as a guide to draw from. For the background, I chose one main colour – light blue – to paint the entire background and then painted the other colours to create the actual background on top using harsh and lose brush strokes. In fact, for each part of the painting, I painted a base colour and then added the different colours and tones on top to get the depth, shaped and colour of each part.

Margaret Thatcher Portrait

Margaret Thatcher Portrait

For my AS Exam project, I was creating portraits of women who defied the social convention of their time, and one of them was Margaret Thatcher.

The intention of my portrait of Margaret Thatcher was to use the techniques, ideas, and style of Sarah King to create an accurate portrait of Margaret Thatcher using the words of Margaret Thatcher.

The research I carried out into the work of Sarah King influenced my work, because after studying her work several times, with each time in more detail than the previous, I was able to work out how thick and what style of lettering I should use for each part / shade of my portrait of Margaret Thatcher, and where it was appropriate to use an image, instead of words.

I feel that my portrait of Margaret Thatcher was very successful, because I have been able to create an accurate portrait of Margaret Thatcher using the techniques and styles of Sarah King. However, for the portrait to look accurate and effective, you have to look at it from a distance, or look at it from a photo of my portrait. Otherwise, you cannot really see the whole portrait and how effective it is, instead you concentrate more on the words and try to figure out what the words are.

From this experience, I have learnt that I can create a successful and accurate portrait with words that either represent who they were / are, what they do, or what they believe / believed in.

This experience has influenced the direction of my project and ideas, because it has given me a technique of creating portraits that represent who the person was, what they did, what they believed in. 

For this portrait, I have used the technique of typography with the words from Margaret Thatcher’s remarks on becoming Prime Minister from May 4^th, 1979 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104078). To create this portrait I simply used a pencil to outline where each word would go, then I used a fineliner pen to create the words. I feel that the materials and techniques I used were very effective in creating a portrait of Margaret Thatcher, using her own words. 

The Different Faces of Emmeline Pankhurst - Purity, Dignity, Hope

The Different Faces of Emmeline Pankhurst - Purity, Dignity, Hope

I created these portraits of Emmeline Pankhurst as a part of my AS art exam project. which was on civil unrest - feminism in Britain. The intention of these studies was to use some of the techniques of the artist Andy Warhol, especially in his Marilyn Diptych, but in my own way. In Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych he used very bright and vivid colours to represent Marilyn Monroe when she was at the height of her career, whereas I have used the colours of white, purple and green to represent the colours of the Suffragettes. I used the colours because they were the colours used by the Suffragettes when the WSPU (Women's Political and Social Union) adopted these three colours in 1908. The white symbolised purity; the purple symbolised dignity; the green symbolised hope. These three colours were used to creates the WSPU's banners, flags, rosettes and badges.

Emmeline Pankhurst - Purity

The research I carried out into the work of Andy Warhol, especially his Marilyn Diptych,  influenced me to create a screen print, only creating the dark shadows of the photo of Emmeline Pankhurst, and leaving the light greys and whites completely white. In addition, in Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych, he used bright and vivid colours to represent Marilun Monroe when she was at the height of her career. this influenced me to use the three colours associated with the Suffragettes to add colour to three of my four screen prints. 

Emmeline Pankhurst - Dignity

Emmeline Pankhurst - Hope

I feel that these have been very successful, because I have been able to create a portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst, representing three of the things the Suffragettes believed in and symbolised: purity, dignity, hope. This is because in my first screen print I have left the white space of Emmeline Pankhurst's portrait  white to represent the purity of the Suffragettes. In my second print I have filled in the white space of Emmeline Pankhurst's portrait with different shades of purple (inspired by Andy Warhol when he used about six different shades of yellow to create Marilyn Monroe's hair) to represent the dignity of the Suffragettes. In my third print, I have filled in the white space of Emmeline Pankhurst's portrait with different shades of green (again inspired by Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych) to represent the hope the Suffragettes had. Finally, in my fourth print, I have used all three colours (with different shades of each) to fill in the white space in Emmeline Pankhurst's portrait. My fourth print represents all of the three things the Suffragettes colours symbolised: purity, dignity, hope. However, it also represents the pride and bravery the Suffragettes had whenever they were taking part in a demonstration to persuade the government to pass a new piece of legislation to allow women to vote.

From the experience of creating these four portraits of Emmeline Pankhurst, I have learnt that I can create a portrait of someone, but then also use certain colours, that are either related to them that represent something when they were associated with them, or use colours to represent the different sides of a person, or what they were / are perceived to be. 

Emmeline Pankurst - Dignity, Hope, Purity

I have used the techniques of silkscreen printing and painting to create four different portraits of Emmeline Pankhurst. The materials I used was an aceotate of Emmeline Pankhurst (made from a portrait I did of her using a black sharpie pen), black ink, and different shades of white, purple, green acrylic paint to create the symbolisation and representation of what the three colours associated with the Suffragettes represented. I feel that these materials have helped to create effective portraits of Emmeline Pankhurst. 

Self Portrait No. 1

Self Portrait No. 1

This self-portrait is another one of my AS Art & Design: Fine Art homework's. We were asked to create a portrait or self-portrait in the style of Kathe Kollwitz and Frank Miller. I really enjoyed creating this study, and the end result was very successful. 

In my artwork, I have used the colours of black and white to produce a self portrait only highlighting the dark and light parts of my face and part of my hair (hair was too long to fit in the picture). I have also used line and tone to create my self-portrait. To create my image I got my Dad to use his photography equipment to take a photo of my head in front of the window, emphasising the shadows created on my face and hair. He then helped me use photo shop, so I could enhance the contrasts between the black and white on my face and hair. When I drew it, I only drew the outlines of the shadows on my face. I then coloured in the shadows on my face and hair using a black market pen. I have found this technique to be very effective, and very successful. I have using this technique to create my self-portrait. And I am very happy with the result of my work.

The photo on the left, is the photo I drew from. 

Now for the analysis of colour, line, texture, light ad tones, and level of realism.

I have not used much colour in this self-portrait, I have only used the colours of black and white to help create my self-portrait. The use of the colours black and white has been very effective, because it has created the lines, tones, and features of my face and hair.

In my self-portrait, the use of line has been created by the use of the contrasting colours black and white to create the outlines of the features, which were not in the dark shadow and tones of my face and hair. For example, I have created my left eye by having my pupil and eyelid coloured in black, showing the contrast between the light and dark tones/shadows in my eye. This then creates the definition of my left eye.

The use of texture in my self-portrait is very flat. However, when the black and white are adjacent to each other, the black space makes the white space seem be on a different level to the black space. Therefore, it seems as if it is higher than the black space. This creates a sense of life in the self-portrait.

The use of light and tones in my self-portrait is created by the different thickness, and quantities of black and white space. For example, on the right hand side of my hair, I have used a large quantity of black space to create the dark shadows / tones. Then where the light tones on my hair were, I have left white. The use of having the contrasting colours of black and white next to each other creates the different tones and shadows of my face and hair, without any drawn lines being shown.

There is a level of realism in my self-portrait, because it does look like the photograph. However, some of my features are not defined, which decreases the level of realism. 

I really enjoyed creating this self-portrait, and I would happily use this technique again. xxx

Gabrielle Aplin

Gabrielle Aplin

For one of my college art homework's, I was asked to create a portrait of someone, in the style of Sarah King. So I decided to do mine on Gabrielle Aplin, because I admire the way that she has got to where she is today in the music industry. she did not enter any music contest, she uploaded videos of covers and original songs to Youtube, she released 3 EPs on her music label 'Never Fade'. She performed on her local BBC radio as part of the BBC Introducing scheme. In addition, she is now signed to Parlophone records. Furthermore, she writes all of her own music, and plays everything live. She is an amazing musician, and I love her music.

I have created this portrait of the musician Gabrielle Aplin, using the style and techniques of the artist Sarah King. I have used the lyrics from Gabrielle Aplin's songs to create my portrait: Home, Keep on Walking, Please Don't Say You Love Me, Panic Chord, How Do You Feel Today. To create the lettering I used a black fine liner, black paint and a black fountain pen. I have used two illustrations within my portrait: piano keys to create part of her hair, and a stave of music of the F major scale on, to create part of her frindge.

This Photo of Gabrielle Aplin, on the left, is the photo of her I decided to create my piece of artwork on.

The intention of this study, was to try and create a portrait of someone using the style and technique of Sarah King. I feel that this study has been a great success, because I have been able to successfully create a portrait of Gabrielle Aplin using different fonts, sizes, and thicknesses of words from her lyrics.

Now on to the analysis of colour, line, texture, light and tones, and level of realism.

I have not used much colour in this portrait, I have only used the colours of black and white to help create the portrait of Gabrielle Aplin. The use of the colours black and white has been very effective, because it has created the lines and tones of Gabrielle Aplin’s features.

In my portrait of the musician Gabrielle Aplin, the use of line has been created by the use and position of words and the two illustrations within my portrait. I have used this technique to create the lines and features in Gabrielle Aplin’s face and chest. For example, for her lips, I have used the words ‘last a year’ curved to create the shape of the top and bottom of her lips.

The use of texture in this portrait is flat when there is white space. However, when the lettering curves and twists it creates the shapes and levels within her face, neck, and chest. In addition, the lettering has been placed and the way it moves creates the features and makes them look slightly real when you look at the portrait from a far.

The use of light and tones in my portrait of Gabrielle Aplin is created by the different thicknesses, styles, and sizes of lettering. For example, I have used different thickness, fonts, and sizes of lettering to create the definition of her face and neck. The bottom of her face is made up of joined up, smooth writing. This creates the effect of the smoothness of the shadow on her skin. Then the edged of her face, where the shadow is at its darkest, I have used thicker, smaller, printed writing to create the dark shadow, which also creates the definition for her face and her neck. Then for the dark shadow on her neck, I have also used larger, thicker, printed lettering to create the difference between her neck and face, but also to create the dark shadow on her neck. This use of having very different lettering next to each other, creates the different tones of her face and neck, without using any drawn lines.

There is a large level of realism in this portrait of Gabrielle Aplin, when you look at it from a far. However, when you look at it closer up, the level of realism decreases. This is because as you look closer, you are not looking at the whole image; you are looking at only parts of the portrait. Furthermore, when you take a closer look, you see all of the words that I have used to create the portrait of Gabrielle Aplin.

I really enjoyed creating this portrait in the style of Sarah King, because i got to try out a different technique, and I got to create a portrait of a person who is one of my role models. xxx