After reviewing my limited options, which are much the same as everyone else’s limited options at the moment, I decided on a self portrait. I had taken some photos the same day wearing a carnival mask and posted it to … Continue reading Part 3, assignment 3 – portrait or self portrait
I am a sucker for idiot’s guides to areas I have little or no grasp on, and while I’d read somewhere about cubism being derived from an attempt to represent many rather than just one perspective, having that idea visualised for me makes a big difference. Don’t make the mistake though of thinking this is a demonstration of how to copy one of Picasso’s pieces of work, it isn’t, it’s the equivalent of a singer/songwriter using Bob Marley’s riffs and rhythms in a new song, rather than someone you never heard of covering ‘No Woman, No Cry’. The art work … Continue reading How to paint like Picasso – video
Not for the first time, I find I’ve pre-empted an exercise with pieces of work that would qualify but were located elsewhere! I have a very hostile-looking self portrait in blue that would have served me well in the ‘character’ … Continue reading Part 3, project 3, exercise 2 – telling a story
Fitting the brief of paintings that appeal to me, I went first for Degas and his dancers in studio contexts. That led inevitably to his antithesis, Paula Rego and her dancing ostriches which are altogether less delicate. Stuck a little in ‘dancer’ mode, I spotted a painting by someone called Colin whose figures are very nearly symbolic (and which may or may not be in an interior setting), then I pursued the brief in more modern terms with a piece by Grayson Perry which is a crowded and cluttered interior which is recognisably a ‘today’ scene , and finally a … Continue reading Part 3, research point 3 – figures in interiors
This task points up some of the artists who have illustrated mood above likeness. Picasso’s blue paintings for instance; van Gogh’s early paintings of peasants, and the way Rembrandt used tonal contrast in a restricted palette to pull out a person’s mood and personality. After looking at these, the task then asks us to compare them with Fauvist painters and with German Expressionism. This requires some serious internet searching, but the artist who comes immediately to mind is Bisa Butler who, arguably, is as much about mood – in this case pride and the assertion of the right to be … Continue reading Part 3, research point 2 – portraits conveying mood or atmosphere + Fauvism & German Expressionism
There were several options for this exercise, from a self portrait in a known context, to a celebrity in one’s own home, through to a known person in a fictional background. My first step was to look through various photographs … Continue reading Part 3, project 3, exercise 1 – figure in an interior
My main takeaway from this was that my sense of developing a personal voice is not a delusion and that I’ve succeeded in upping my game with regard to the research elements. I think the latter is due to growing into the subject matter and I’m very glad I put this module on hold until I had finished the Drawing module because that was really the place some elements fell into place. I found a ‘buddy’ who was also struggling with this new vocabulary and had no background in any sort of historical or artistic canon and we have nudged … Continue reading Formative feedback for assignment 2
In the absence of available sitters, I turned to some sketches I made for my own interest during the Drawing module and chose a very characterful image I had found on the internet. I had drawn this person once in … Continue reading Part 3, project 2, exercise 4 – conveying character
The brief is to research self portraits by various artists over a broad time span and to focus on five or six that appeal. The notes are to include comments on whether or not the artist portrays themselves in the process of painting/as an artist along with thoughts about what the purpose of the portrait might be and the impression the artist may be trying to convey. This is very similar to a research point in the drawing module where I looked at Rembrandt, van Gogh, Frieda Kahlo, and Paula Rego. I decided to revisit that post to see if … Continue reading Part 3, research point 1 – self portraits
In the absence of any possibility of a live model, I looked through a number of art books with good colour plates to find a substitute. The one that drew my eye, largely because of the sullen expression of the … Continue reading Part 3, project 2, exercise 3 – mood and atmosphere
Strayfish Arts 