Strong, Sprout and Submissive
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Planning
Inspiration
The first piece that I was inspired by was “Brazilian Religion” a painting by Tarsila Do Amaral who was a central figure in the modernista movement of the 1920’s. The modernista movement could be classified into two phases, the main one being Pau Brasil which was about not being influenced by Europoean art and looking towards domestic styles and topics. In “Brazilian Religion” Tarsila utilizes a very warm color palette with many flowers, religious figures and religion innuendos. I wanted to try to capture the same color palette in my paintings and try to replicate the flowers in the middle panel of my tryptic.
I also used “Security” an illustration by Pruett Carter as another source of inspiration. Pruett was an American illustrator, who illustrated national magazines and was the art director for the Atlantic Journal. In “Security” a woman is depicted hugging a man with a look of despair and pleading towards the man. I wanted to try to emulate this look in the panel if my tryptic where I am shown as a way of expressing submission. I also wanted to take another aspect of this illustration which is the man, I wanted to put him somewhere in my tryptic. |
Planning sketches
For my first planning sketch I wanted to closely resembled the illustration done by Pruett with the woman hugging the man and her hands falling behind his neck and that is where the flowers would be put. I could not get the expression of despair on the woman's face as well as the mans face cut off in a weird manner so I decided against using this idea.
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For my second planning sketch I decided to leave the man and woman in the far right two panels and put a flower vase on the far left panel. The vase would resemble the one's seen Brazilian Religion. I was also able to capture the look of despair in the woman's face but ultimately again decided against this drawing.
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This was my final drawing in which the flowers are in the middle, the man is in the far left and the woman is on the far right. I was also able to capture the look of despair in the woman's face and really enjoyed the way that the flowers and hands were done.
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Process
1.) I started off my making my canvases and putting them together. I did this by first assembling the wood, then went on to stretch the canvas and laying my wood on top, then after the canvas was cut I stapled the canvas to the wood. Lastly to assemble my canvas I out gesso on it to make sure it was ready to be painted on.
2.) Then I went and took pictures in order to have a reference photo to project onto my canvas. 3.) After my canvas was ready and so were my photos, I projected my images onto the canvas in order to trace them and have a reference. 4.) Then I started painting one section of each of my canvases. 5.) Then i slowly did small sections of each panel at a time until all of them where done. 6.) After the first coat for each canvas was done then I put more layers in order to look full and until they were done. |
Experimentation
For my experiment i decided to do it on my far right canvas where I am showing the face of despair. I had decided to do a wash of paint before I started painting to see if it made any difference. It had made it a lot easier for paint to go over it.
I also experimented with doing skin color, I had totally forgotten how to do skin tones so I experimented by watching a tutorial on how to mix a skin tone and played around until I got the color I desired. I had mixed white, red, yellow, burnt sienna as well as small amounts of blue. For me it turned into a strenuous process because I kept adding to much of a color like red making the tone super pink which cause me to the add blue and brown to balance out the red. I also had to mix colors in order to make shadows and for those I mostly mixed brown, red, small amount of black white which gave me nice shadow tones. |
Reflection
Critique
This has probably been my favorite project all semester, I enjoyed the whole process and loved all of it. I really enjoyed doing the flowers and I think that, that is the strongest part of my project as well as the male silhouette. I wish I had done a better job on the hand holding the flowers because they are very weird looking and feel off. You can tell that they are hands but something does not look right about them, I should have blended them more. I also really like the background colors that I had chosen for each of the canvases, they are all very strong colors and really convey the meaning of what their respective canvas is trying to say. I also wish that I would have done a better job blending the neck on the far right canvas, it looks very dark in some patches and does not look blended correctly. The last thing that I feel like I could have done better was made the hands smaller because it looks as if the hands are coming from the woman in the far right canvas and they are not supposed to be connected in that sense. They are only supposed to connect with the flowers so the hands look way too big and very disproportional.
Compare and Contrast
Compare:
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Contrast:
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ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
Brazilian Religion strongly utilizes flowers all through out the piece which caused me to make one of the meanings in my canvases sprout and blooming like flowers. Pruett also depicted a woman in distressed in his illustration which caused me to want to make one of my canvases a woman looking despaired and hopeless.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Tarsila Do Amaral strongly used religious imagery in Brazilian Religion to depict the influence that her religion had on her.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to conclusion that Pruett thought less of women because in most of his illustrations women are depicted in very vulnerable situations looking hopeless.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my inspirational research was who I am, how situations affect me and how I affect situations.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Pruett did not have good relationships with women by the way he depicted them.
Brazilian Religion strongly utilizes flowers all through out the piece which caused me to make one of the meanings in my canvases sprout and blooming like flowers. Pruett also depicted a woman in distressed in his illustration which caused me to want to make one of my canvases a woman looking despaired and hopeless.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Tarsila Do Amaral strongly used religious imagery in Brazilian Religion to depict the influence that her religion had on her.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to conclusion that Pruett thought less of women because in most of his illustrations women are depicted in very vulnerable situations looking hopeless.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my inspirational research was who I am, how situations affect me and how I affect situations.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Pruett did not have good relationships with women by the way he depicted them.
Bibliography
Amaral. “Brazilian Religion, 1927 - Tarsila Do Amaral.” Www.wikiart.org, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.wikiart.org/en/tarsila-do-amaral/brazilian-religion-1927.
Pruett Carter, http://www.americanartarchives.com/carter,pruett.htm.
Pruett Carter, http://www.americanartarchives.com/carter,pruett.htm.