Artwork: Project Four
Title: 'U R LOVED'
Size: 60 cm x 60 cm Medium: Graphite #2 pencil and Faber Castell brush markers on drawing paper Completion: November 24th, 2019 "U R LOVED" is a series of portraits made with graphite #2 pencil on drawing paper This piece was inspired by Pablo Picasso's pieces Self-Portrait in Blue Période, Portrait du marchand d'art Pedro Manach, Arlequin assis sur un canapé rouge and Tête de jeune homme . "U R LOVED" is a series depicting people who are important to me and have had a large impact on me and my life during the time that I have known them during high school and the feelings that I associate with each of them.
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Inspiration
Picasso's color periods, blue and rose are what inspired me the most with my piece, although I took it to a much larger scale. I wanted to use color like Picasso to convey emotions within my work. With Picasso's Blue period, he may not have always used just the color blue but he used a less diverse palette of darker colors in order to create a feeling of sorrow and low spirits. Two paintings that I used as an inspiration from this period were Self-Portrait in Blue Période and Portrait du marchand d'art Pedro Manach. In these pieces I liked the sharp focus on color and the solid background that was colored in order to maintain a focus on the person in the center of the picture. I also liked how the people were not made dead center of the picture as well.
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The actual hues of the colors I used was inspired a lot by the bright colors used in Picasso's rose period. In this period he painted a variety of people all characterized in various ways and relied on space and color within his pieces. Although it was a short period, Picasso's pieces from this period of his work that inspired me the most were Arlequin assis sur un canapé rouge and Tête de jeune homme. I liked the bright colors used and the reliance on mainly the background color in the pieces.
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Planning
For this piece I wanted to focus on the people in my life who have made an impact on me during high school. My friends have helped me so much and in so many different ways. This is why I wanted to focus on them and the emotions that I associate with them. To the left is the overall page in my sketchbook that shows my planning process and the ideas that I had at first. To the top right is some of the colors and the feelings that I associate with each of them. I ended up not using all of the colors in order to increase the balance within my piece. To the bottom right is the mathematical approach I took to the piece and was me figuring out the way that I would set it up. I ended up going with a four pictures tall and six pictures wide setup instead of the opposite.
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Experimentation
When I had finished coloring the pieces, I had to figure out how to assemble them all into one cohesive piece. I struggled with trying to decide how I wanted to assemble them and tried to decide whether they should be in color order, a gradient, or if I should randomize it in the end. Eventually after rearranging it, as shown in the images above, I found that the randomized approach to arranging it made there be more focus on the people in the images themselves rather than focusing on the color. I liked this approach because the whole point of my piece was to show the people and then the emotions instead of the colors first. It also increased the feeling of unity within the piece as a whole, making up the whole group of friends that I know.
Process
For each of the portraits I started out by drawing the overall face shape and outlined the features on the face and hair. Then, I shaped the face and added highlights and shadows to the face. Lastly, I shaded in the hair and the clothing before I colored the background with whatever color reminded me the most of the emotions I associate with each person. I ended up doing 24 portraits total with these methods.
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For these five I colored the background with a cadmium yellow Faber Castell marker because they remind me of happiness, optimism, and laughter. Like the violet marker, the cadmium yellow ended up blending well enough that I only had to color one layer. It had the best blending out of all of the markers that I used for this project.
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For these four portraits I colored the background with a sanguine orange Faber Castell marker because they remind me of excitement and energy. I had to do a couple layers with this color, but then some of them ended up looking better than the rest because it blended differently for some of the pieces.
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Then, once I finished coloring, I worked on trying to figure out the way that I would assemble the pictures into one cohesive piece. It took a lot of rearranging in order to figure out how I was going to arrange the pieces, but eventually I decided to mix it up rather than organize it a specific way.
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Reflection
Compare & Contrast
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CritiqueI typically say that my pieces are my favorite once I make them, but this is definitely one of my favorite pieces so far. The amount of effort and time that I put into this project was a lot more than I have done before, but I am satisfied with the result so far. If I were to redo this project I would probably draw my friends or outline it with ink in order to make them pop out from the densely colored background . I would also try to find way to connect them all so that they do not have to be set up separately in my case.
But, overall, I am happy with how this piece turned out and feel close to it because it is of some of my closest friends. |
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
The use of bright colors and the balance created through the use of negative versus positive space were what I took from the inspiration pieces mainly. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration? The author has a generic, technical approach to Picasso's uses of color and the emotions that are connected to those colors. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration? I can generalize that color is one of the strongest ways that artists can convey their emotions and the emotions that are connected to the subjects for their art pieces. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?. The central idea and theme surrounding my research was emotions and color and the associations that people have between different colors and emotions. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research? I inferred the associations that are made between the colors and emotions based on ones that I thought represented it the most. |
Bibliography“Art Periods.” Pablo Picasso, https://www.pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/periods.php.
“Color Psychology: The Psychological Effects of Colors.” Art Therapy, 24 Dec. 2012, http://www.arttherapyblog.com/online/color-psychology-psychologica-effects-of-colors/#.XcTbtDNKjIU. “Pablo Picasso.” Pablo Picasso, https://www.pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/period-blue.php. Picasso, Pablo. “Self-Portrait in Blue Period, 1901.” Pablo Picasso, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/work-18.php. Picasso, Pablo. “Portrait of the Art Dealer Pedro Manach, 1901.” Pablo Picasso, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/work-19.php. Picasso, Pablo. “Head of Young Man, 1906.” Pablo Picasso, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/work-3372.php. Picasso, Pablo. “Harlequin Sitting on a Red Couch, 1905.” Pablo Picasso, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/work-36.php. |