Studio Art III
11th Grade Semester 1
Radiance
For this piece, I was inspired by 20th century realism, which is an art movement that favors ordinary, everyday objects or people in a realistic light. In comparison to movements like surrealism or pop art, realism focuses on realistic and photographically accurate subjects. Artists strayed away from idealized or artificial images and reflected the lives they lived and the average experiences they carried. The artist I particularly took inspiration from was John Sloan, specifically his portrait paintings. I wanted to focus on a more realistic subject to contrast my other pieces from this semester, especially since the style I enjoy is more on the realistic side. I found Sloan’s balance of bright and neutral colors in his paintings most interesting. Most of the settings he depicts generally appear with darker shades among the background and brighter highlights on the subject.
For this digital painting, I also used Adobe Photoshop. I tried to research different techniques and develop my knowledge further with the program. In Radiance, I used softer, yet defined, brushes that imitated the look of watercolor and oil paint which turned out as a great experiment. In comparison to the more basic and harder brushes I usually used, the dynamics of the natural brushes allowed me to blend without difficulty and add as many layers of color without completely blocking out the color underneath. I tried to recreate the balance of brighter warmer tones and a darker neutral background, as well as the realistic aspect to painting the subject as closely to the reference as I could.
Like the rest of the realism movement’s downplayed energy, I searched for a simple subject, specifically a portrait. The photo reference I used had no complex positions or strange details, which is why I thought it worked best with the style I was using. However, I wanted to incorporate a little more color than the dull neutral tones I saw throughout the art movement. I recreated as many details as I could and did my best to make the proportions as accurate as possible to make the painting more lifelike. I genuinely enjoyed recreating realism and the techniques I learned along the way. I would definitely incorporate this art movement into my personal style in the future.
Reference Photo:
https://unsplash.com/photos/wO4gtmdlW5Y
For this digital painting, I also used Adobe Photoshop. I tried to research different techniques and develop my knowledge further with the program. In Radiance, I used softer, yet defined, brushes that imitated the look of watercolor and oil paint which turned out as a great experiment. In comparison to the more basic and harder brushes I usually used, the dynamics of the natural brushes allowed me to blend without difficulty and add as many layers of color without completely blocking out the color underneath. I tried to recreate the balance of brighter warmer tones and a darker neutral background, as well as the realistic aspect to painting the subject as closely to the reference as I could.
Like the rest of the realism movement’s downplayed energy, I searched for a simple subject, specifically a portrait. The photo reference I used had no complex positions or strange details, which is why I thought it worked best with the style I was using. However, I wanted to incorporate a little more color than the dull neutral tones I saw throughout the art movement. I recreated as many details as I could and did my best to make the proportions as accurate as possible to make the painting more lifelike. I genuinely enjoyed recreating realism and the techniques I learned along the way. I would definitely incorporate this art movement into my personal style in the future.
Reference Photo:
https://unsplash.com/photos/wO4gtmdlW5Y
(I am not responsible for original photography)
Fragile Glory
The art movement that inspired this piece is Surrealism. I chose surrealism because I found the movement interesting in that it created a mix between a realistic world and the dreamy state of the unconscious. My style always usually sways towards a more realistic interpretation, but surrealism provides a different approach to a seemingly tangible world. It defies the expected and the natural in a spontaneous style. The piece I based mine off of is We Inhabit the Corrosive Littoral of Habit (1940) by Australian artist James Gleeson. I felt like his style was somewhat unique in the realm of surrealism.
I drew this piece using Photoshop and I wanted to replicate a similar look to the oil paint in Gleeson’s piece. I noticed that all of his surrealist artworks lacked set defined lines and created a kind of dreamy, dark, and distorted perspective to each scene, an element that set his work apart from other surrealist artists. I wanted to incorporate that warped point of view in my piece so I added dark edges around the center to emphasize a sense of gloominess and loss. In Gleeson’s piece, his background appears completely natural, but his seemingly realistic characters look almost incomplete or even disintegrating. In turn, I decided to paint a natural landscape for the backdrop, but with a bright sky to draw attention to the focal point and juxtapose the strong shadows and dark values framing the piece. I drew the subject with the same incomplete puzzle-like look along with a white breezy cloth for contrast.
Many of Gleeson’s pieces exemplified an almost apocalyptic vision. His style reached for the far ends of imagination and was often known for a dark and almost obscure approach to paintings. I included that concept into the piece’s tone into a deeper message in the character herself. My piece represents a consciousness of descending into failure and an inability to stop the fall. There is an inevitable downfall in personal self-awareness, but also a deeper connection in that our flaws and mistakes are what carry us to prosperity and true fulfillment.
Style inspired by James Gleeson's We Inhabit the Corrosive Littoral of Habit
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/we-inhabit-the-corrosive-littoral-of-habit/5gGZ19ahaWASMg?hl=en&ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.5%2C%22y%22%3A0.5%2C%22z%22%3A9.184741530876714%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A1.995651611444167%2C%22height%22%3A1.2375000000000003%7D%7D
I drew this piece using Photoshop and I wanted to replicate a similar look to the oil paint in Gleeson’s piece. I noticed that all of his surrealist artworks lacked set defined lines and created a kind of dreamy, dark, and distorted perspective to each scene, an element that set his work apart from other surrealist artists. I wanted to incorporate that warped point of view in my piece so I added dark edges around the center to emphasize a sense of gloominess and loss. In Gleeson’s piece, his background appears completely natural, but his seemingly realistic characters look almost incomplete or even disintegrating. In turn, I decided to paint a natural landscape for the backdrop, but with a bright sky to draw attention to the focal point and juxtapose the strong shadows and dark values framing the piece. I drew the subject with the same incomplete puzzle-like look along with a white breezy cloth for contrast.
Many of Gleeson’s pieces exemplified an almost apocalyptic vision. His style reached for the far ends of imagination and was often known for a dark and almost obscure approach to paintings. I included that concept into the piece’s tone into a deeper message in the character herself. My piece represents a consciousness of descending into failure and an inability to stop the fall. There is an inevitable downfall in personal self-awareness, but also a deeper connection in that our flaws and mistakes are what carry us to prosperity and true fulfillment.
Style inspired by James Gleeson's We Inhabit the Corrosive Littoral of Habit
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/we-inhabit-the-corrosive-littoral-of-habit/5gGZ19ahaWASMg?hl=en&ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.5%2C%22y%22%3A0.5%2C%22z%22%3A9.184741530876714%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A1.995651611444167%2C%22height%22%3A1.2375000000000003%7D%7D
Denial
Pop Art is an art movement from around the 1950s and 60s which was mainly consisted of art found in commonplace objects and pieces based on mainstream culture. Its popularity was characterized by its increase in publicity from its style seen in media like comic books, magazines, advertisements, television, and so on. What stood out to me the most is the art movement’s unique use of bright bold colors and simplistic designs made from defined lines and dotted patterns, so I chose to also emphasize those same elements in my piece. The artist I chose to look into was Roy Lichtenstein. Most of his pop art is based on a comic book style in which his subjects were centered on scenes of action and drama. I also found his artwork interesting because many criticized him for copying and unoriginality, but I saw that his style was a unique take on these subjects in his ability to create a dynamic illustration with a limited color range and basic composition.
I created this piece called Denial on Photoshop based on one of Lichtenstein’s pieces, Girl with Hair Ribbon (1965) created from oil and magna. In order to create variety in color and balance, one of the methods I used that is also seen in his artwork and many other comic-book styles is the technique of Ben-Day dots, which was a pattern of small dots that created different shading and contrast based on the space between the dots and combination of different hues. It was often seen being used in comic books since it was usually an inexpensive method of printing for mass production. The subject is shifted to the right side of the screen and displays a more up-close view to the focus in order to balance out the asymmetry. I altered the brush to make a tool similar to a pen tip in order to create a more dynamic look in the lining instead of a rounded brush with a consistent width and thickness, which would make the piece more stiff and blocky. I lowered the levels of opacity within the shading to create a less drastic light and dark shading since the angle of the model was facing forward as opposed to looking up to direct light. Originally, I kept the same facial expression from the reference photo I used, but I altered some details to make a more dramatic look to create more emotion in the piece. I also added in a thought bubble to emphasize the theme of self-doubt and to contribute to the intensity of a dramatic tone.
During the pop art movement, Roy Lichtenstein based much of his art on subjects from cartoons in comic books and advertisements, which often resulted in the creation of these idealized images of people, what American popular culture in the media was essentially made up of. I wanted to emphasize this sense of dramatized or action-filled concept that consistently held a resemblance in all of Lichtenstein’s pop artworks in my graphic. I took this idea and used this piece to illustrate a juxtaposition between a seemingly beautiful, perfect woman with the expression of pain and internal conflict. This concept also correlates with the idea of the impact of media among the youth. People are expected to look and act up to certain societal expectations because of the images we see in the media, which is also commonly a problem many still struggle with in modern society. Especially with the recent popularization of the internet in the United States, social media has an increasing impact on everyone who has access to it and is not a subject we should deny.
Reference Photo
Photographer: Agata Serge
Model: Nikola Selezinko
https://www.agataserge.com/freckles
Style inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's Girl with Hair Ribbon
https://imgc.artprintimages.com/img/print/girl-with-hair-ribbon-c-1965_u-l-f4y1u80.jpg?h=900&w=900
I created this piece called Denial on Photoshop based on one of Lichtenstein’s pieces, Girl with Hair Ribbon (1965) created from oil and magna. In order to create variety in color and balance, one of the methods I used that is also seen in his artwork and many other comic-book styles is the technique of Ben-Day dots, which was a pattern of small dots that created different shading and contrast based on the space between the dots and combination of different hues. It was often seen being used in comic books since it was usually an inexpensive method of printing for mass production. The subject is shifted to the right side of the screen and displays a more up-close view to the focus in order to balance out the asymmetry. I altered the brush to make a tool similar to a pen tip in order to create a more dynamic look in the lining instead of a rounded brush with a consistent width and thickness, which would make the piece more stiff and blocky. I lowered the levels of opacity within the shading to create a less drastic light and dark shading since the angle of the model was facing forward as opposed to looking up to direct light. Originally, I kept the same facial expression from the reference photo I used, but I altered some details to make a more dramatic look to create more emotion in the piece. I also added in a thought bubble to emphasize the theme of self-doubt and to contribute to the intensity of a dramatic tone.
During the pop art movement, Roy Lichtenstein based much of his art on subjects from cartoons in comic books and advertisements, which often resulted in the creation of these idealized images of people, what American popular culture in the media was essentially made up of. I wanted to emphasize this sense of dramatized or action-filled concept that consistently held a resemblance in all of Lichtenstein’s pop artworks in my graphic. I took this idea and used this piece to illustrate a juxtaposition between a seemingly beautiful, perfect woman with the expression of pain and internal conflict. This concept also correlates with the idea of the impact of media among the youth. People are expected to look and act up to certain societal expectations because of the images we see in the media, which is also commonly a problem many still struggle with in modern society. Especially with the recent popularization of the internet in the United States, social media has an increasing impact on everyone who has access to it and is not a subject we should deny.
Reference Photo
Photographer: Agata Serge
Model: Nikola Selezinko
https://www.agataserge.com/freckles
Style inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's Girl with Hair Ribbon
https://imgc.artprintimages.com/img/print/girl-with-hair-ribbon-c-1965_u-l-f4y1u80.jpg?h=900&w=900
