LARGE PAINTING
It Helps?
60.96cm x 121.9cm
Oil Paint on Canvas
November, 2017
60.96cm x 121.9cm
Oil Paint on Canvas
November, 2017
With the obvious connection to Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, you can see one hand reaching out to another hand holding a syringe. The syringe is a largely recognized for drug use, so I decided to use the syringe and bloody/bruised up hands show the results of drug abuse and shared needles. The similarity with the hands in Creation of Adam in terms of the laziness aspect show that the drug abuse was most likely in an attempt of coping, coping with personal struggles. You see the bruises and cuts on BOTH hands to see how the people who abuse drugs share similar pains and scars that lead them to the unhealthy coping method.
Inspirational Artist/Work
--- Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni ---
Besides being a sculptor, architect and poet, Michelangelo was also an extremely gifted and influential painter. His work consisted of revolutionary images with physical realism and for his time a lot of intensity in the subjects actions. The subjects in his paintings are almost always in an action pose and are seen in an active state and this plays into the intensity of his paintings. This intensity is what I planned to use in my paintins, to capture the subjects in a state of action along with the physical realism.
Brainstorming
I first had an idea in my head similar to the image on the left and I began to draw it out. I tried to draw the image as accurately as possible without leaving the key ideas out like the needle, the bruises and the "limp" aspect to the hands.
After I drew out the original idea, I decided that I was set and ready to begin the process in actually making the piece, except I felt I needed to change one thing and that was the position of the hands and the needle details.
|
Process/Experimentation
- Adding the Canvas to the Pre-Made Frame- Luckily for me I found a frame that was for anyone to use and happened to be the size I was looking for. This made it really easy for me in the canvas making stage, I just needed to cut out and staple the canvas cloth on the frame in this step.
- Stapling the Corners- to help tighten the canvas and make it more presentable, I folded the cloth on the corners and stapled them to the frame.
- Trimming the Edges- After that I realized that there was way too much left over canvas just hanging off the edges, so I then simply used a scissors to trim the edges of the canvas.
- Applying Geso- To tighten the canvas and provide a nice base to the paints before I paint, I added an even two layers of geso.
- Drawing the Grid- At this point I did not take the pictures or even edit them with the grid on yet, but i already knew that I wanted squares of 3in by 3in. So I measured out the grid on the canvas and drew it on.
- Taking the Pictures- Once I had the canvas related steps complete, I moved on to the digital portion of the piece and took the pictures for future reference and editing.
- Editing the Picture- After a couple cutting and pasting steps and adding filters and resizing images, I finally made the image that I planned to use for reference.
- Editing the Grid- Now at this point I had to make sure I followed the grid I previously drew so I wouldn't have any problems occurring in the drawing portion of the piece.
- Drawing the Image- I then followed along the grid on the image and the canvas and accurately drew out the image onto the canvas using pencil.
- Getting the Colors Ready- Before I started painting, I mixed the colors I was going to use to have readily available for transitioning through and moving back and forth between colors.
- Painting the Darker Shades- I found much easier to paint the darker shades and move into the lights than it would be to go from the lights to the dark.
- Transitioning to the Highlights- After the darker shades were placed down it was very easier to use a lighter color and smoothly blend the two when necessary.
- Editing the Syringe- To get and accurate representation of where and how the syringe would look in the hand, I quickly and sloppily edited a syringe into the hand as if it were actually being held.
- Painting the Syringe- Painting the syringe was fairly simple, I struggled with the straight lines because I forgot to previously sketch it on the canvas.
- Painting the Blood, Cuts and Bruises- I used a mixture of blue and red to get a nice purplish color with hints of red to get physically realistic injuries. I used red to paint the cuts with the purple to add depth. The blood I had dripping down from the nails and finger tips is only red and no other color and I made sure to have the streams follow along the structure of the finger to create a sense of realism and form.
- Painting the Edges- I used tape to create an edge along the sides of the paintings so I would have an even line and not risk getting black paint on the background of the piece. After I painted it completely black along the edges I removed the tape and repeated the process for all four sides.
- Applying the Varnish- I finally used a gloss varnish spray to add a protective layer to the paint.
Reflection
I feel the piece successfully displays the story of people who have gone through a struggle and pain. The part that did not turn out successfully is the colors of the hands, they have a look of being way too saturated. I made an attempt to exaggerate the colors to add emphasis to the bruises and cuts and made the skin tones and shadows too saturated. The edges of the syringe could have definitely been improved and planned out more strategically.
ACT Connections
- Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
- What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
- What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?