Still Life
Title: Still Life Styles
Mediums: Photography, Photoshop, Ink/Pencil/Charcoal/Acrylic/Oil/Colored Pencil on Paper
Size: 21.59 cm x 27.94-30.48 cm
August 2016
Exhibition Text: For my Summer Project I decided to do different types of Still Life by using photography, photoshop, painting, and drawing. I was inspired by the objects I had in my home, and used most of those objects for this project.
Artistic Inspiration:
For my artistic inspiration I was inspired by the work of Irving Penn and Georgia O'Keeffe. Irving Penn took Still Life photographs for himself and famous fashion magazine Vogue. Penn arranges the objects he uses in his photographs to look visually appealing, with no one object sticking out and grabbing the attention of the viewer. While Irving Penn creates Still Life photographs in both color and gray scale, I chose to focus on his gray scale photographs for this project like Blast and Construction With Nut. Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings are made with soft brushstrokes and vibrant colors, and I was inspired by her flower paintings like Jimson Weed and Abstraction White Rose. I tried my best to apply some of her techniques into my floral pieces like in my oil painting of the white flower I created.
"Irving Penn-Still Life." Hamiltons. The Irving Penn Foundation, n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2016. <http://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/artists/27-irving-penn/series/still-life/>.
"Gegorgia O'Keeffe/Paintings." Georgia O'Keeffe Paintings, Biography, and Quotes. N.p., 2011. Web. 24 Aug. 2016. <http://www.georgiaokeeffe.net/>. |
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Cultural Inspiration:
For my cultural inspiration, I was inspired by my everyday home life. I realized that many of the objects I took photos of or drew are not easily seen or first seen when I enter the room. I looked through my home to find objects to photograph or draw and came up with the ones I created for my Summer Project.
Process:
For the photographs, I either added a gray scale filter to them or left them in their original state. As for the drawings, I chose to to a gray scale as well, by using toned gray drawing paper and shading. I wanted to do the gray scale theme to demonstrate how I applied my artistic inspiration of Irving Penn into some of my pieces. All of my Photoshop images were made in gray scale as well. I also created two paintings, one in acrylic and the other in oil. I laid these two with multiple coats of paint to blend. I also created one drawing using colored pencils (this was created months ago), which was easy to blend. Another drawing (flower) was made by using a charcoal stick that I had found.
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Experimentation:
I didn't do much experimentation on this project, for most of my Still Life pieces were drawings and photos. However, I did some experimentation for the paintings I did. While I was inspired by the yellow flower for my Acrylic painting, I didn't want to make my flower all yellow, so I chose colors that I thought were similar to the flower's color. I originally had chosen the colors: lemon yellow, white, orange, and cadmium yellow medium. After a while I didn't like the colors for I thought the flower was too bright, so I thought about adding a little red and gray to make it darker, a then I added a light green for some reason and I ended up liking it. For my oil painting, I didn't intend on making the flower have green/yellow shading. While testing my oil paints to see if they still worked, I didn't clean off one my brushes that well, so when I began painting, some green/yellow paint got added onto the flower. While I could've painted over it with white, I decided to add more since I thought it worked well with the white, and continued to use that color on my flower.
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Reflection:
After completing the project, I was happy with what I accomplished. I liked the way I blended some of my drawings, the way I drew them, and just the overall finished piece. I did, however, encounter difficulties along the way while working on this project. I had some trouble with blending the paint in both the acrylic and oil paintings. While I painted with the oil paint, my hand would accidentally brush against the paint and smudge against the paper, and then I'd have to paint over it again. With the acrylic, the paint would dry quickly and I wasn't able to blend as well. This made me end up applying layer after layer to blend. There was also experimentation involved in my paintings, mostly accidental, that caused me to change some of my original ideas that I had for those pieces. I also struggled with focusing on one piece at a time, for I worked on one drawing then started to work on a painting, then go to Photoshop, etc. This caused me to forget about some pieces that I had started, leaving me to rush them. Lastly, I also struggled with time; during the summer I didn't really save time for working on the project, waiting until the last two months to complete it.
Connecting to the ACT:
1) The artistic inspirations for my work effected my artwork by me trying to use the techniques they had used in theirs. In my pieces I attempted to use the styles of work they had done, but make it my own or put a twist on it. For example for one of my pieces, I used the technique of adding gray scale in the photograph, but I made my piece Photoshop, not just a plain photograph.
2) The overall approach O'Keeffe has about her paintings is that she magnifies natural forms such as flowers, to emphasize their form. The overall approach Irving Penn is trying to convey is that his photographs are filled with grace and simplicity.
3) After researching my artistic inspirations, I've come to the generalizations and conclusions that O'Keeffe's main inspiration for her work is nature in life. While Penn tries to convey a specific message in his photographs.
4) The central theme around the research on my inspiration(s) is that nature can be found within our home. Many of the objects I was inspired by for my Still Life pieces were flowers,plants, and fruit; these were all found inside my home.
5) Some conclusions that I reached while reading my research was that while O'Keeffe isn't necessarily known as a Still Life artist, some of her works could be considered Still Life, which relates back to my other artist inspiration: Irving Penn. Penn uses multiple objects that he photographs, some being flowers. I concluded that in some way the two artists could relate with their work.
2) The overall approach O'Keeffe has about her paintings is that she magnifies natural forms such as flowers, to emphasize their form. The overall approach Irving Penn is trying to convey is that his photographs are filled with grace and simplicity.
3) After researching my artistic inspirations, I've come to the generalizations and conclusions that O'Keeffe's main inspiration for her work is nature in life. While Penn tries to convey a specific message in his photographs.
4) The central theme around the research on my inspiration(s) is that nature can be found within our home. Many of the objects I was inspired by for my Still Life pieces were flowers,plants, and fruit; these were all found inside my home.
5) Some conclusions that I reached while reading my research was that while O'Keeffe isn't necessarily known as a Still Life artist, some of her works could be considered Still Life, which relates back to my other artist inspiration: Irving Penn. Penn uses multiple objects that he photographs, some being flowers. I concluded that in some way the two artists could relate with their work.