Landscape Painting inspired by Wolf Kahn

Through this painting I learned chiefly how the variance of brush strokes can lead to a more interesting piece. As opposed to using the same technique throughout the work, changing how paint is laid down can create an interesting contrast between elements--such as the background, foreground, and objects--in the work; for example, using wide texture-filled brush strokes for a stump and then layering that with the dry brush technique.

Another thing I learned was how to truly work from background to foreground, not just with laying down large swaths of color for the literal background of the piece, but working also back to front with the elements (trees, clouds, a bush) within the painting. In my painting I put down the background, then worked on (what I think is) the sky, and finally added in trees (again going from back to front).

The final thing I learned was how to see not only color, but to see in tints as well. Although the assignment was to change the color of the original painting the tints were supposed to stay intact. This threw me off initially, as often my tints would be darker than demonstrated in the Wolf Khan paintings and I would need to reevaluate my piece.

The mood of Khan’s painting changed from peaceful to energetic and dark as the color scheme went from greens and yellows to reds and blues in my painting. The similarities between the two pieces are in the composition and in the brush strokes. Khan doesn't use many solid colors and neither does my rendition of his work. The works differ in their color schemes and mood. My work has slightly darker tints in it as well, and the mood is more energetic as a result of my colors being more intense than his.

LMC Unsung Hero Planning

The story which motivates me the most is the one of the "The Berlin Candy Bomber", Gail Halvorsen. His is a story of giving hope--in the form of candy--to children during the Soviet blockade of Western Berlin following World War Two. The population of West Berlin was cut off from supply routes; little food could travel within the border leaving many citizens starving, especially the children. But they weren't just starving for food, they were starving for hope.

Possible visuals for my LMC Unsung Hero:
- Chocolate
- Gum
- "Captain Wiggly Wings" (He would wiggle the wings of his plane as he landed)
- "Operation Little Vitties"
- "Without hope the soul dies" (Said by one of the children who received a chocolate bar)
- West Berlin

Imaginative Self-Portrait

• Nine mouths which represent my love of language and my goal to learn nine of them at a conversational level
• The binary code represents my love of computers
• The ‘ear’ is a symbol for a video game I play
• The heart represents my love of biology and that I was once able to draw an anatomically-correct heart from memory
• The brain--in a most straightforward way--represents my thoughts and is filled with the things that consume me (Travel, language, art, and my work)
• The flag represents Spain and the Spanish language and relates to me because I consider Spain (Madrid, specifically) to be my second home and I intend to live there when I am older
• The building blocks (within the brain) represent my work (at a daycare) and how much that work has impacted me personally
• The fountain pen nib (within the eye) with ink running down represents my love of writing and of fountain pens in general, of which I have two so far.
• The globe represents my love of travel and my future plans
• The DNA further represents my love of science and biology and is in my brain because I consider it to be an integral part of me
• The circular symbols are from a T.V show that I adore and which pushed me to begin drawing; without having watched that show I wouldn’t have discovered my passion for art

The white values and dark values complemented each other. If there is a light value towards the bottom right portion of the head there is also a light value towards the top left of the head. I used similar patterns of light and dark in particular areas to bring out certain objects (i.e the brain and the heart) and unify the piece as a whole, as the pattern would be throughout much of the drawing. Overall, I could have done a better job at this, as my final drawing has a lot of while and very little middle value.

My strength in this piece was drawing the symbols; the brain looks like a brain, the heart looks like a heart, the boat looks like a boat, and so on. A quick glance at any one of these objects would allow the viewer to discern what it is that has been drawn. A challenge I faced while drawing this was to make the whole thing flow. Although the brain connects with the heart and the boat and the ocean work well where they are, there is a lot of negative space which isn’t conducive to having things flow; if I were to do this piece over again I would fill the entirety of the head with objects instead of leaving vast swaths of nothing as I have it now.

Creating Depth in Landscape Paintings

Agonia de los verdaderos azules - 1995 - Tomás Sánchez

The objects in the foreground are much larger and the colors are more intense than the objects and colors in the background. Sánchez uses diagonal lines to lead us around the paper and further create a sense of depth. Although this piece is not depicting traditional mountains, the way it has been composed mimics a mountain landscape.

The Origin of Life - 2014 - YongSub Noh

In this painting, Noh uses warm colors in the foreground and less intense, cooler colors in the background to create depth. The eggs appear to get smaller and smaller as the background continues. The top of the cave in the foreground helps to convey even more depth by placing the viewer within the painting, and the shadows assist with that as well. The rocks on the floor of the cave in the foreground are much larger than the rocks in the background and even larger than some of the mountains which, due to the atmosphere, are tinted blue.

Landscape Painting: A Brief History

Beginning in ancient times, the practice of landscape declined sharply after the fall of Rome; landscapes were seen as purely depictions of scenes from the bible until the 16th century when the Renaissance sparked an interest in the natural world. Although it was not once popular everywhere, the Netherlands was one of the first regions in which landscape paintings were popular by on their own without a biblical or historical connotation otherwise. An example of a landscape painting from the netherlands comes from Jacob Van Ruisdael’s Bridge with a Sluice painted in 1648-1649.

Shortly after this was the birth of the Classical Landscape in the 17th century which “sought to illustrate an ideal landscape recalling Arcadia, a legendary place in ancient Greece known for its quiet pastoral beauty”. After this period, in which such works as Landscape with a Calm by Nicolas Poussin (1650–1651) were produced, came the acceptance of the art form in the academy. This acceptance was aided by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes who published a book on landscape painting and who attempted to convince the academy to accept landscapes as a legitimate art form.

As time progressed landscapes began to become less realistic and more stylized, just as in Irises by Vincent van Gogh (1889). Around this time period also photography was beginning to be introduced which gave artists another realm of options for the composition of their pieces. The acceptance of photography as a legitimate art form only strengthened its use to take landscape shots and, as the 20th century progressed, more and more artists turned towards the lense to capture not only natural landscapes, but city-scapes and cultural-scapes as well.



Source: https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/landscapes/background1.html

Realistic Self-Portrait

 


I was given feedback primarily on the proportions and features of my face; I revised my nose which was too long, my ears which were too long, my eyes which didn’t look like mine, my hair, my neck, and my mouth--essentially the entire face. These are all evidenced in my final drawing, as these changes are what made my final drawing.

My shading has improved immensely; no longer are there large swaths of single-toned areas but areas which sweep into each other and mimic how light actually works. Everything has so much more detail from my eyes, to my hair, to my nose especially -- these forms are much more developed in my final drawing than they were initially. Finally, the proportions of the face are much more accurate in the final drawing than in my pre-instructional drawing.

Sketchbook, Half-Portrait

Purpose:

To look closely at half of a portrait and complete the portrait by drawing similar features;

To practice drawing facial features: eyes, nose, and mouth

Sketchbook, Portrait Replication

• Purpose:

To become familiar with past and contemporary portrait artists;To use critical thinking skills to analyze artwork;

To understand how and why artists create portraits.

Sketchbook, Realism Replication

• Purpose:

To gain a basic understanding about the Realism Art Movement and to identify Artists who work(ed) in this style;

To practice drawing in the realist style by “imitating” a professional, realistic work of art.

Eyes, Nose, and Mouth Exercise

Purpose: 
• To demonstrate understanding of the structure for each feature: eyes, nose, & mouth;
• To practice using black & white charcoal to render a drawing, using brown paper as the middle value

The primary which works well in my drawings is the shading. It’s clear to see where there is darkness and where there is light for the most part, although at times there is less definition in some areas and more in others. One thing that needs more work is how I capture my own likeness. For instance, one can tell the eye I have drawn is an eye, and that the nose I drew is a nose, but for the most part they don’t look like my own nose. This is an important thing to accomplish when doing a self portrait, otherwise it will look just like a portrait. 

Still Life Drawing

Purpose:

• To create a still-life drawing that demonstrates understanding of drawing in perspective, along with using a variety of mark-making techniques to describe form;
• To understand value by creating a good range of values between black & white to help make the objects appear 3D;
• To demonstrate quality craftsmanship and good composition skills in a drawing.

         Before value, one challenge I faced was with the proportion of the pieces. This is something with which I always have trouble--when I draw people, my favorite subject, the legs are always too short or too long. Overcoming this took many attempts.

The biggest challenge I faced was how to represent the value of what I was seeing accurately in a 

two-dimensional way. The arrangement of my area facilitated not one, but two light sources, and to depict this was my first challenge within value: picking which values or which light source to ‘listen’ to. If I were to ‘listen’ to both light sources equally, my piece would have been a convoluted smattering of dark alongside light, so picking was important. 

After deciding which lights and darks to push, my next challenge was how to represent them. I had never worked on a piece so concerned with value, and as such my hand was at a lower skill level than my eye. When I began, I did so with a trepidation that each mark by itself would be important, yet as I continued to work the piece, it slowly came to be that it was the culmination of marks which stood out. By using a kind of swirling technique the gradients came easier, I found, and employing this allowed for a less stressful mark-making experience.

         In the end, I am most proud of the way my objects are defined from one another without the use of line. The ability to do that using value seemed like such a far-off, high-skill technique, but I feel as though I conquered at least the basics of it and came away with a better understanding of not only how other artists work, but with a comprehension of where my hand is really at skill-wise. 

Art Movement, Realism

The realism movement was the first modern movement of art; beginning in France in the 1840s, it lasted until the 1880s. This movement is characterized by the portrayal of structure socially, politically, economically, as well as culturally. Artists contributing to the movement were mainly doing so to defy the social values of the bourgeoisie and the monarchy, the members of which patronized artists and set rigorous standards for art; historical painting was considered the zenith of art and as such only the best, most qualified artists were allowed to produce work in that genre. Artists soon began to host independent exhibitions to display their work, and this led to the normalization of artists as self-publicists that we see still today.

Symphony in White, No.1: The White Girl (1862) by James Abbott Whistler 

Tina by Aleksander Balos

This portrait is a contemporary painting in the style of realism done by Aleksander Balos. Balos' work is similar to the Whistler's, pictured above, because both portray a visually accurate representation of human being. They both use the 'real' proportions of the human body and do not exaggerate shadow or light; these artists have both been meticulous in presenting to the viewer a real snapshot of their subject. Although these two pieces are similar, I find I am drawn to the work by Balos more; there is much more contrast in his piece than in the one by Whistler, and also more emotion. In Whistler's, I find it's rather bland. 

Goals for the Semester

My first goal for the semester is to get better versed in skills essential to producing art, especially perspective. I've dabbled in perspective before, but never truly committed myself to it; thus, my pieces are often flat and lack a sense of place. Additionally, I would like to get more mileage using tools other than just pencil and pen (or fineliners) which is what I use most. Expanding my range of media could allow me to produce a broader variety of work, or make other pieces more interesting. Finally, I would like to learn how to suggest instead of show by using lines, or the lack of lines, such as suggesting a highlight or suggesting the details of a face.