Dialogue with Kristen Mabie - UPDATE

As I assemble the final product of this project - I plan to mount the piece on blue paper - I'm looking back on the array of pictures I took of the process. I have never taken pictures of my progress on a piece before and I found it extremely helpful and great to have to look back on. Excluding the final product mounted on blue, this series of photos shows the progression of my most recent self portrait.

Transformation Update

My deadline (Wednesday) is approaching in two days, and I am surprisingly on schedule. Contrary to my original idea of creating both my metamorphosis and transformation as dark images, I decided on a heart/flower and an elephant (which is not surprising). This is the most recent image of my transformation piece, but there have been a few alterations since then.

Dialogue with Kristen Mabie - UPDATE

Originally, the project deadline was supposed to be this Friday. There is no way I am going to make that, even with the extra free blocks in the studio and lugging my drawing board home every night. Clearly, I have an efficiency issue - something to work on for the next project. However, I really want to finish this project (or at least close to) by the time year to date grades close (end of next week). Only a week off from the original deadline, pretty good for me.

In class today Smitty proposed the idea of taking pictures of your work as you go along. I've been doing that all along, so I felt pretty good about it. However, I had not thought about looking back at them for future ideas, I'm going to try that. Also, I've learned how to use a tool called a "pencil extender," which I now absolutely love!

So far I have accomplished: finishing my silhouette, finishing the "head and shoulders" version of the first twin and begun the face of my second twin. The first face I did was definitely easier, even though it took me an extremely long time to accomplish. Contrary to my usual result, I am pretty satisfied with it. However, I am struggling with the second face. Proportions and structural drawing, as well as reverting the absolute basics of "The Number 3," are guiding my work. My goal for the end of this week is to have finished the depictions of my twins.

Like I am told to do for sailing to reflect on my performance, I can break my update down into three things I've done well and three I need to improve.

Done Well:
1. learned how to use different kinds of pencils (especially range 4H-2B)
2. planned my ideas out well ahead of time (like Smitty said in class today, I've allowed my ideas to develop and change as the process continues, rather than forcing my original composition - which is now virtually non existent)
3. learned how to incorporate good contrast shading with pencil (whereas I have generally reverted to charcoal for high contrast pictures)

Need Improvement:
1. time management (need to work faster)
2. proportions (where features curve, use of negative space, and drawing on a diagonal axis)
3. look at the shapes that are there. draw what I see not what I think I see.

Dialogue with Kristen Mabie

reference image for distraught
"twin me" 

reference image for happy
"twin me" 

I took five plus pages of my sketchbook trying to come up with ideas, compositions, thumbnail sketches, and just discovering what "dialogue with myself" or just "dialogue" means. I finally decided on a composition, and started drawing the first lines on my final paper. So far, I have a silhouette but I'm optimistic!!

Coffee Shop Exhibit

 

Recently at one of my favorite coffee shops I saw a really cool art exhibit, done by all local artists, and I took a couple pictures of some of my favorites. They gave me some great ideas!

 

Dialogue Mentor(s)

Split Panel - Forrest Williams

Split Panel - Forrest Williams

A Dialogue With Myself:

 My Junior Year Self Portrait Attempt 

    Forrest Williams:


My first of three mentors, Forrest Williams, was specifically intriguing to me because of the multiple "split panel" portraits. Not only do these pictures use rather simplified ideas (one of my goals) and also I plan on doing a split panel portrait.  I love the emotion and clear relationship tension in these pictures. Even though there is a line separating the subjects, both are clearly interacting.

Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell:
I chose Norman Rockwell to be my second mentor partially because I have always loved his work. This picture has always been in my house, and when I was younger my mom would ask me if I understood what was going on in the picture and how the little girl felt. I figured it out; the girl was looking at her self, disappointed with her appearance, comparing herself to the photograph on her lap. A couple days ago, in my new house, after being assigned the "dialogue with myself" self portrait project, and looking for inspiration, I walked into my laundry room and saw this painting. My attitude towards the project changed - suddenly I seemed to understand what a "dialogue with myself" meant, they're everywhere! I love the piece and it served as a huge source of inspiration for my next project!! 





David Hockney:

Smitty recommended I look at Hockney's works to see how he put figures in space, depicted his subjects with simplified ideas, and he did an entire series of two person pictures. One of the things about Hockney's work that fascinates me is the relationship between the background and his figures; it appears as if he paints his figures over the background, almost as if they are on a separate layer, rather than closely interacting with it. However strange this seemed at first look, I really like his work and I find his method of "cut and pasting" the figures very effective in his painting. In the picture at left on the top, the cat literally looks like it was cut out of separate painting and glued onto this one, but I love it. The other thing I noticed about both displayed Hockney paintings (and the others in this series) is that the figures are not directly interacting - they are either looking different places, sitting different places, or doing two completely different things. Both are always well anchored in the painting however, and a subtle relationship can always be detected; there is definitely emotion in all of his pieces. I've liked his work since last year, but never really took the time to look at it until this project, and I'm glad I did!

Landscapes (Part II)

The idea of "still life as landscape" is challenging... I've started drawing a composition of expo markers (which i can't help but look at and think -lamp posts), "do not touch sign" (shaped like a roof), and a flower. After the critique of last weeks' still life as landscape art it was definitely easier to see landscapes in still life, now it's just the actual drawing technique part that I need to work on... hopefully the trip to New York this weekend will be great practice and help give me ideas! So excited!

Last week's landscape location

My (unfinished) landscape piece from last week,

My Landscape.. Sorta.

My "landscape" painting assignment was definitely an experience. Not finding an interesting place on campus, Emma, Anne and I ventured to a new location that I had found which contained a more complicated landscape (in hindsight... not my best idea.)
I have never been a person to do art quickly, and this was no exception. Though one of my goals for the year is to be able to work quicker. I would love to be able to paint a landscape in less time. I have yet to finish my painting... that's been going on for a week... and I'm not even close.
The parts of my painting I did finish I worked on pretty hard and am proud of my effort, but the actual product is less impressive. I liked painting in watercolor, but I chose to paint with a small brush and paint very detailed, causing me not to finish. I clearly need to take a better approach next time, but overall: good learning experience.

Three Things I Did Well:
1. gained experience with watercolor
2. good composition
3. background wash of color - SO HELPFUL!

Three Things I Need to Improve:
1. speed
2. less detail originally
3. depth

Landscape Mentors

"The natural world is constant inspiration for me."

i'm trying to paint a stone wall right now - so hard!

As my first official post, since we're working on being able to paint landscapes, I decided to find a landscape painter to be my mentor. Like Smitty suggested, just googling "landscape painters" brought up some pretty good results; I was looking for someone whose work I really liked that I had never heard of before! My mentor this week is Joseph McGurl.
Joseph McGurl is a really talented landscape painter. His paintings use shadow and light so perfectly it looks like a photo, but his pictures still look artistic. The detail in his paintings is amazing, but it's the color, composition, lighting, and different areas of emphasis that make his works stand out to me. Also, I love the subjects he uses; his landscapes, though my favorites are the seascapes, range from European country to boats under sail.

love the contrast!

love the shadow in the background and light on the water!

I used to love realism, it's not my favorite type of work anymore. However, McGurl is definitely a realist. His use of realism is impressive, but by looking around his website, what I liked most was the page describing him as an artist. He loved art, and took classes in Boston, as a teenager. His artist's statement (linked above) was really interesting to read! Also, I loved how much he respected the skill, and drawing ability (my favorite!) of all artists and looked for inspiration everywhere around him, from people and nature. He also said that all his paintings were done from, often, sketches of the places before he painted them; I liked to read that professional artists like to sketch first, because that's what I like to do too!

Amazing lighting!

I like the perspective (and space!)

"These paintings are about the study of light, space, and color interpreted through paint." 

  three of my favorite elements and principles!

I can't handle directions

shouldn't be this confusing...

so i read the directions to create a blog and follow other blogs... but beyond that i'm pretty clueless. i'm not good enough at technology to make my blog "represent me," and i clearly have nothing important and artsy to say... so i'll just ask tomorrow. close enough.