Here is the finished product of my final painting for Cubism! I am very happy with the results, its very different and unique compared to the rest of my work, and I will remember the experience from painting this piece.
Something I learned from painting this piece is to always use your reference when painting, it's always good to look back on images of your reference to guide you while your painting. Looking back on reference photos of cubism helped guide me with this painting, making it resemble cubism, and its elements that make the movement itself unique. Something that I could improved with this painting is my outlines, because I'm not used to outlining my work, some of the lines aren't really neat or straight. I think this painting would look alot cleaner if my outlines were straight, and even smaller. Something that could have helped with this issue is using a ruler, because I have a clear ruler, it allows my to see where I am drawing my lines. I could have used the ruler as a guide when I was outlining my work to make cleaner and straighter lines. Overall this was a great painting to end my project on, its something very different compared to the rest of my series, it will really contrast with my previous work. Even though this series was much shorter than expected, it was still a great experience getting to paint and experiment with different art styles.
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Once I was finished with the main subject of the painting, I started working on the background, and the main shapes and colours of it. I didn't really pay attention to the specific colours of the background, instead I allowed myself to freely mix and apply these basic colours of the background to the canvas.
Because I don't have to pay close attention to the colours resembling the reference photo, I am able to freely mix and apply colours to the canvas. In my last painting, getting the accurate colours were one of the most important parts of the painting, this time, shapes matter much more than colour. Allowing myself to freely mix and apply colours is the most enjoyable experience for me when painting. I usually lean towards bright and vibrant colours, so I added some bright colours that stand out into not only the face and body, but the background as well. I am proud of the look of this painting so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product of my final painting! This is my progression so far on my last painting of this series! The time period I decided to reference from is Cubism, something that is very far off from what I usually do in my art, there was definitely some trail and error but I worked through it, and I like how it looks.
When I first started this painting, I tried to use angular shapes while I was painting, I didn't create an outline for the face and body, and I didn't use a ruler to create angular shapes either. When I didn't use an outline at first, I wasn't sure what to do, I ended up blending just how I normally paint, and didn't really go over the guidelines of cubism. I got frustrated with this painting, and took a step back to look up cubism art again, there are many outlines and little blending, most importantly, there are only angular shapes in each work of art. After looking at references of cubism, I decided to restart, and draw an outline with a ruler, to make sure I have angular shapes for the face and body. I started to fill in each shape with different shades and colours, without the consideration of getting a realistic tone or shade. For this painting I had to get black paint to get the bold lines to outline all the sharp shapes of the face and body. The harsh outlines reveal the all the angular and sharp shapes of the face and body, it gave the painting a very different look compared to the rest of my paintings. This painting so far has allowed me to really think outside of the box, and step outside of my comfort zone and try something new. It reminded me to look back on your reference frequently, it's important to notice anything that could use improvement or needs to be changed in the painting. If I didn't look back at my reference photos of cubism, this painting wouldn't represent cubism as much as it does now. Here is the finished product of my realism painting. I am very happy with the results and I believe it looks very similar to the reference photo.
This painting took me much longer than I expected, I thought I was going to finish this in a few weeks, but this painting instead took me months to complete, because of the frustration that went into this painting. At first I thought I couldn't finish this painting, and if I got the chance to complete it, I wouldn't be happy with it and wouldn't want to upload it to my blog. Things have changed! Sometimes, struggle and frustration is necessary to move forward and progress in your art, its what holds most artists back, but its something they need to improve not only their skill, but their work overall. Something that I could improve while working on this project is to not let frustration get in the way from me finishing my work. Because I didn't like the look of my painting before, I didn't have the motivation to work on this painting and get it finished in time. I didn't get the motivation to finally work on this painting again until early June, that being nearly two months since I last worked on this painting. I am most proud of this painting and its dry brushing technique, I think it makes this painting stand out compared to my previous work, and it allowed me to paint differently than how I would normally do my art. Not only was this new experience fun and enjoyable, it gives me the opportunity to try this technique in the future when needed, not only making my work more realistic, but also experimental, and new. I am looking forward to starting my final painting with something very different, cubism. I decided to pick my last painting with cubism because its very different compared to my art style, it will put me out of my comfort zone and allow me to try new things. The majority of my work has no visible lines, and everything is blended, I use bright colours but a very big variety to maintain shading and tone, most importantly, I draw from reference so all my shapes are very natural and just like the reference. Cubism uses bright and vibrant colours, but there are no natural shapes, and very little or no blending and shading. Cubism is well known for its odd and unnatural shapes, there being all angular with triangles and rectangles, there are very little curves. Everything is also out of proportion in Cubism, facial features are not where they usually are, and at different angles, and the body's form is very unnatural as well. Because of the major difference between cubism and my art style, I am planning to finish off this project by really experimenting and going out of my comfort zone. This is the same week for working on my realism painting. I added some basic shapes and colours in the background once I was finished painting the face, body, and subject I am painting with.
This week I decided to try something new, something that would give this painting a more realistic and airbrushed look to it, dry brushing! The process of dry brushing is using a thick, bristly brush and applying acrylic where the areas are dry, there is no water used in this process, the canvas and the brush has to be dry. For a long time I forgot about this process, and it isn't nessesarily my style to add dry brushing to any of my paintings, my paintbrush has always been wet, and all of my lines in my work have been smooth. Because this painting is revolved around realism, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and start dry brushing this painting. Adding this technique to this painting has created a more realistic look to the face and body. In a realistic sense, no face is perfectly smooth, there is also no visible or harsh lines on their face, and the shading in the reference I was using has very subtle shading. Adding dry brushing really added a realistic effect to this painting, there are no harsh or visible lines, and there is a visible and subtle gradient between light and dark. So far I am happy with the look of this painting! I am looking forward to see what the finished product looks like. This week I decided to start working on my reaslim painting again, because I got the motivation from finishing my last painting, I decided to finish this painting this week. After researchering and looking up a few things on painting with skin tone, I learned how to properly mix and apply skin tones to the canvas. First of all, I applied the a basic tone that will give me the guidelines to shading and highlighting the rest of the face. I made gradually darker colours with the light and dark brown acrylics I used, and added white to make the lightest shades of the face.
From this experience of trail and error, I learned how difficult it is to pain skin tones with only primary colours, its best to get other colours as well such as light brown, dark brown, and black. The brown acrylics I used for this painting allowed me to make neutral skin tones, I added some red and yellow colours to the skin but without adding brown shades and tones, the face would be too vibrant, and brown is great with creating neutral skin tones. For a long time, I thought all you need to paint is the primary colours, but sometimes than just three colours with white. Adding secondary colours and even tertiary colours will create shades that are difficult to create with just three colours. Overall, I am very proud with the results of this painting so far! This gives me the motivation to finish this painting this week, and for me to start working on my last painting, which is in the subject of cubism. I learned something new from this week and I'm hoping to learn more as I finish this painting, and when I'm working on my cubism painting. This is the finished project of my expression painting! I'm happy with the results, the painting looks bright and vivid, It really brings out my art style, and the bright colours added make the painting look unique.
As I was finishing the painting, and adding details to the background, I thought the painting lacked elements of expressionism, the painting was interesting, but I felt as if the it lacked emotion or a great sense of creativity to it. I added bright and vivid colours to the painting, they were primary colours straight from the tube without mixing to make the colour really stand out with the rest of the tones of the painting. Once I added these bright primary colours to the canvas, the painting came to life and really stood out to me, I felt as if the primary colours added a personal touch to the painting that wasn't there before. Because I mix all of my colours and always use primary colours in my paintings, the primary colours added in the painting add a secret message within about how I paint and make my artwork! It reveals my appreciation for primary colours and their importance when it comes to painting. Because this painting is meant to be in the form of expressionism, I felt as if the adding of primary colours was necessary to add personal touch and originality to the painting. Overall, Im proud of the results of this painting and how it turned out! I think this painting reveals expressionism through emotion and originality, and if I didn't add the primary colours to the painting, there will be something missing or lacking in the painting. Something that can be improved is the skin tone, its still something I need to work on and improve upon, as its very difficult for me to mix and apply properly apply these shades for natural skin. This week I'm going to attempt to finish the realism painting, the first painting I worked on for the VAM 30 project, but got to frustrated to carry on. Because I got the motivation to finish the expressionism painting, I believe I'll have the ability to confidently work through the realism painting and finish it with satisfaction. This is the same week, because I painted this on the same day as the last post. I added more to the painting and added some basic figures to the background. Painting the hand took the longest, skin stone is still something I need to work on, mixing natural colours such as skin can be difficult especially with acrylic paint. I added more colours to the painting, and the background has very basic tones and colours in contrast to the person in the painting. In the original photo, there were people in it, I thought adding more people in the painting would ruin the focus to the main subject, and make the painting much longer to complete, so I decided to focus on the objects of the background instead of people.
I think the hand in the painting could be improved, as the skin tone looks slightly unnatural, however, the colours used for the background are very pleasing to the eye, because the colours are neutral, it draws more attention to the person and its bright and brilliant colours. It has been awhile since I've started working on my project for VAM 30, it's been nearly a month since I've last painted! This week I got the motivation to start painting again, so I decided to work on the expression painting. I wasn't too happy with my previous work on this painting, so I decided to add more to the face, and the body, I'm happy with how it looks! I think the face has interesting colors, but it's not so unnatural, and the sweater has unique shades of blue and purple to them. I'm planning to finish this painting today, and finish my realism painting tomorrow, it may be frustrating to try and paint with a different style, but its a great learning experience that can improve my skills!
Something I definitely need to work on is getting back on track and having a good work ethic, it's important to consistently do work and prevent yourself from falling behind. This week I am planning to really begin painting and working on my project this week, for VAM 30, and to start working on my Art 30 projects. Something that has been a very big struggle during quarantine is getting the motivation to do schoolwork, instead of having a teacher telling you when to work, it's entirely up to you when to do your work. Unfortunately I took this to an advantage and allowed myself to fall behind in class! When you start falling behind in class, it becomes very difficult to catch up on work that you've missed, and I'm starting to realize this now! My goals for the rest of the semester is to develop a good work ethic, and consistently do my work throughout the week to make sure I'm not falling behind in any of my classes. April is almost over, and we just started VAM 3o again after weeks off due to Covid 19. I still can't believe I've been home for nearly 5 weeks now, its been more than a month since I last went to school but I sure do miss it, especially the class of VAM 30. Since I've gotten some time off I did some painting for my VAM 30 project, some things made me frustrated with my work so I put it off for awhile and decided to get back to it this week, it could use some improvement but it's not nearly as bad as it was before!
This week I tried to paint something new because I got so frustrated with the other painting I was trying to finish. I originally wanted to repaint the face of the realism painting, but when I got the time to do it, it just turned out differently than what I would have liked. I tried to do some reaserch on how to paint skin tone correctly and I tried a few things out but seemed to go the way I planned it to be. Because I got so annoyed with this painting I put if off for awhile and started to paint something new to try and get me motivated again. I decided to paint something related to expressionism and so far I'm pleased with the way it looks! It looks different because I had to free draw this instead of tracing the original photo, but so far I think I'm starting to get better at using skin tones than I did before. I am planning to do some more work on the first painting this weekend, and paint until I'm pleased but I'm glad I started something new to motivate myself to do more painting! This week has definitely been a challenge but people always improve their art through their struggles, its just a part of being an artist. Covid 19 has definitely affected all of us and kept us inside, we can still keep creating art while staying hopefull and inspired |
I do not have a general schedule on when I update my blog, I only do when I have projects or as an update or work-in progress.
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