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Artist Comparison - George Barbier & Aubrey Beardsley

Firstly, the two artists were born in different eras and of the time of different art movements. Aubrey Beardsley was born in the Victorian era and George Barbier was born a few decades later when the Art Deco scene was huge. Styles and techniques had also progressed quite a bit as well which allowed Barbier the use of subtle colour. The first noticeable difference with Beardsley’s artwork is that it’s all monochrome. I personally think this gives the artwork an early gothic vibe caused by the majoritively solid black areas on borders, clothing, hair and the ground. Whereas, at the initial glance of Barbier’s work, you notice the pastel and pale colour schemes with the contrast of dainty black narrow line detailing. These elements together create a feminine, elegant and luxurious vibe. 

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My Aubrey Beardsley response piece was hand drawn using a black ink fine liner pen. 

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I created my Georges Barbier response using pastel colour schemed marker pens, water colour and a range of thickness black ink pens for different areas of the piece.

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Observational Drawing - Illustrating objects to portray their old-fashioned aesthetic as well as maintaining my unique Illustration style.

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I created this photocopier manipulated photo-set inspired by a Victorian picture book for popular advertising. I used the dot-work method to Illustrate iconic old-world style top-hats, umbrellas and pearls on cushions.

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After researching Victorian advertising emblems, I noticed there was a theme of negative white detail on black background. Therefore, to achieve this aesthetic myself, I manipulated and reversed the colour using a photocopier. 

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This is my original free-hand drawn Illustration inspired by these intricate Illustrations from a Victorian advertisement book, as referenced. Amalgamating contrasting objects from house items, architecture, symbols and logos, I created an Illustrated collage.

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Georges Barbier - French Illustrator - 1800′s Pochoir printing technique

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Aubrey Beardsley - English Illustrator and Author - Black Ink drawings 1800′s.

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UAL ED Art and Design Year 2 Unit 10: Characteristics and contexts in Art and Design Social Action Evaluation I based my social action project around transgender issues, as there is still a lot of stigma around acceptance. 41% of trans Americans have attempted suicide in their lifetimes due to rejection from friends, family members and bullying by random passers by. I think this is shocking and shows how badly educated the majority of the population still are about transgenderism. I also noticed how many transgender YouTuber’s there are that have videos about facing discrimination. However, I think the most shocking aspect is when individuals feel dysphoric and as if they’re in the wrong gender body - which can lead to mental health issues and they’re surrounded by people who wouldn’t accept them. The research I conducted was firstly looking into the history of transgenderism. I found there to be a very vast history of cross-dressers, especially in WWII where soldiers would be away from home. The first gender reassignment surgery in the UK was by April Ashley in the 60’s - A model and restaurant hostess. The main source of my research came from watching hours of YouTuber content of Transgender individuals. The subjects of the videos often included: Their journeys on hormone therapy, problems they face with dysphoria, pre and post surgery discussion (facial and reproductive) and also ‘Question and Answer’ videos, where sensitive questions are asked. This research enabled me to develop ideas because I felt like I’d been educated thoroughly and could relate to how these transgender people are feeling. I felt like I could now express feelings and thoughts that the transgender community would like to be portrayed. In response to my research, I experimented with different media such as: Digital, Ink, Watercolour, Textiles, life drawing. For my digital experimentation, I selected a photograph of a transgender Youtuber ‘Gigi Gorgeous’ before her Male-to-Female transition and created a mixed media piece using the colours of the Transgender flag (pale pink, baby blue and white). I added a mixed media element (ink) to add the finer details - psychedelic wavy illustrations added to represent dysphoric thoughts. Another experiment was a textile piece where I used ‘Craftivism’ to convey a social action message. The concept I used was that although outsiders may view you as your birth given gender, deep inside yourself you may feel completely misgendered and that’s where transgender dysphoria plays a part. I feel as if this issue needed to be raised because some transgender individuals that feel this way can relate to this and do what they need to do to alleviate the feeling of dysphoria. The piece also has a secondary benefit as it raises awareness for those who know someone who is transgender to respect their decisions and the pronouns they’d like to be referred to by. The piece was made with stained pieces of scrap fabric and stitched together in the arrangement of the transgender flag. Then I embellished the surface with a transgender gender symbol and imagery of underwear stating: “I am a man” and “I am a woman”. I also created collage of mixed media elements to portray the chaos happening in the mind of a person with gender dysphoria. The imagery included vast barren landscapes to portray isolation and images of brains and closets to represent trapped thoughts. There are also very abstract depictions of the face - this was the represent the haziness and unfamiliarity that transgender individuals experience when looking at themselves in the mirror because it doesn’t reflect how they feel on the inside. I developed my final creative solution by amalgamating all these ideas, processes and use of colour into a final concept. I found it quite easy to come up with a creative solution as I could just take certain elements from each experimentation as they all visually linked together well. The central image of the piece was focused on a visual similarity to ‘Stef Sanjati’ - a Male-to-Female YouTuber. This is because I had followed the journey of Stef the most and when thinking of dysphoria as a transgender individual, I immediately think of Stef and her discussing the insecurities that make her the most dysphoric and depressed. These are features such as: Facial hair, Adam's’ apple, lack of breast tissue and up to recently, the masculinity of certain facial features such as the jawline and brow bone. I used ink and water colour in my final outcome. The reason why I chose this medium was because relating back to Egon Schiele artists study, Schiele’s use of water colours really helped to create a murky and dull look. The finish of the water colours are matte and unsaturated. This is important for my subject matter as it's a portrayal of mental health and abnormality. I used the black ink for detail as it allowed me to use a variation of line. The line consists of very fragile, faint lines whereas some parts are more defined. This helps to give the composition some contrast. The colour scheme is black, white, pale pink and light blue which is what my experimental pieces consisted of. This choice of colour combination was significantly important because when shown to the public, they're aware that it's a transgender activism piece of artwork. The consistency of the art style and use of colour and media combination was the successful factor about my practical work. However, to develop it further I could have joined together different media combinations or created a series of final pieces as a montage. My creative outcomes were successful because the pieces I created were all quite diverse and experimental and each experiment significantly different from the last. The work was directly relevant to my characteristics and context of my project as I promised in my proposal to research into transgender vloggers to educate myself and influence my experiments. In the Social Action project I've learned to become more aware of problems that are happening in the world today and stand up for something I feel strongly about. For me these are: Animal testing and hatred towards LGBTQ+ individuals. This work has affected my personal development because the project required me to be open minded by researching into a variety of current worldly issues. This information has educated me significantly and broadened my view on a lot of topics.

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Final piece:

Using inspiration from Egon Schiele and transgender women, I created a composition using fine line ink and Water colour to express Gender Dysphoria

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Continuous line drawing and observing local surroundings