Final Piece - Surfaces

My Final Piece idea was actually given to me by my best friend. The concept was to paint a Greek pot, but instead of it conveying a traditional mythological story, I would depict one of our favourites.

This relates to surfaces as, on a first glance it could be perceived as just another ancient  pot, but beneath it, there is that link to present day.

Tada!

This was my design idea. From this, I realised just how much I needed to work on the form and proportions of the pot. I've tried here to link as many sections of my studies and experiments as I could, from the History, to the silhouettes, the storytelling and the Greeks.

This is the double page spread that drawing belonged to, exploring the various different options of finishing for the foot and the lip.

Here, returning to my love of maths, I mapped out all of the precise details and proportions to ratios and measurements so that the image would fit the canvas that I had bought. I planned colours and the symmetry, all so that I could get the curvature and details correct.

This was essentially my 'final draft'. A quick experiment to see where I was going on,and what more I could do to improve it before starting on my canvas.

And here it is! It's only an A2 canvas, which is actually quite small now that I think about it. I spent hours layering for the orange mid section (which is less red in real life) on its own! I used acrylic paint, with a watercolour background, and overall it's quite stylistic.

At the time I remember being very proud of it, but now that I have grown as an artist, I'm not as pleased as I was. I see all of the mistakes, things that I could have done a lot better. It's a very personal piece, and wouldn't be to certain people's taste, and in a way, possibly childish.

But those are just my thoughts. What do you think?

Sgraffito, Silhouettes and Story-telling

I'm realising now that I started to flit around a lot at the end of this sketchbook... This post is a collection of me finishing up all of the ends of the book.

Sgraffito - isn't that a cool word?!
 These here are a selection of studies that I did experimenting in the sgraffito style. Here's how you do it:

1) Paint a block all over the paper. You then leave this to dry until you could essentially sandpaper with it and no paint would transfer (but I would not advise trying that). The best thing to do is to leave it overnight.

2) Then, very quickly, paint another layer of paint over the top,making sure that none of the bottom colour is visible.

3) While that top paint is still wet, use an implement to scratch and take away the top layer, leaving the base exposed.

There we go. Very simple,but a bit time consuming. The effect I created was very similar to the red figure Greek Pottery,and I became particularly fond of the bottom pattern...

Then, at this particular time, silhouette cameo's were in fashion, So I took a look at the history behind them, creating a few examples in different styles of my friends. I used traditional paper, then acrylic paint and oil pastel as well. The pastel one adds more texture, which is very nice, but is not keeping with the tradition of being a plain shape. The paint was the easiest of all,and also had a very good finish to it.


Storytelling was the final idea I took a spin at, inspired by the stories conveyed through the Greek pots. I looked at several more artists, and chose to create my own version, with a more modern story that will and has travelled through decades.

I started off by looking at storytelling in art, being directed to look at Tracy Emin. Once again though, I had extreme problems actually liking the work. I could see how it worked, but I didn't necessarily consider it nice or good. I did however, set up my own version and took photos of my revision.

I then started to look at stories being told through people, by emotions and their body language... taking inspiration from both Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings.

Here is a greater development on the study of the LotR photo, explaining its meanings and my attempts to draw them myself. I did a paper cut out, and a pencil drawing. Unfortunately,with the cut-out, I forgot that if you turn things round,everything will be backwards... so now the Fellowship is walking in the other direction....

Bent backs, faces pointed down; tired, dejected and scared. The body language of the Fellowship says it all. Also, their order shows the rolls of each of the group. Gandalf the Leader, Aragorn the loner to say but two.

These last page was focused on showing how colour can affect the mood of the painting. This is an oil painted study of one of Picasso's Sorrow Paintings. The image is done in various shades of cold, icy blue, depicting a man that the viewer can immediately see is sad.Those colours heighten this, making for a rather depressing picture. My study,however,I was particularly pleased with - I am very proud of the undulating waves of light and shadow on his cloak/blanket.

Well, nearly there! That is most of the prep done, now comes the final piece!