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PAINTING

Final Exhibition

I chose to exhibit the three bed paintings and the two colour study self portraits for my exhibition.

Sylvia helped me arrange the work in a way which flowed. I chose to arrange my bed paintings in this order as I think there was an added narrative to the way they were placed.

I had the two self portrait paintings paired up higher with the paintings as I feel this visually flows better.

To hang up on the wall I just put tape on the back to I could move stuff around and make sure everything is neat before I stapled them to the wall

Then with one final chat with Sylvia I decided that I should add in my fruit colour study as it was a good representation of the work I did in the work shops

Overall I’m very happy with how the work all appear together and my vision of portrait was the way I had planned.

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Artist Statement

For this project on self portrait I began by considering different aspects of myself, I had many idea such as exploring the items I own which represent me to painting myself at different ages. I eventually settled on the idea of my daily routine, this stemmed from making my book with Eoin and filling the pages with snap shots of a day in my life, from this project I understood I spent a lot of my time in bed and so I decided to focus more specifically on me and my bed.

I explored different aspects of me and my bed in a variety of media, including charcoal, ink, gouache and acrylic paint. I found myself trying to tell a story of me getting into bed, so I created a series of three paintings which depict the moments before and after I get into bed.

Artists I researched:

Lucian Freud, Tracey Emin, Morag Caister, Jenny Savile, Vincent Van Gogh.

Where I think I did well:

I think I did well in creating a strong narrative and focusing the project onto a specific area which represents me.

I pushed my boundaries in terms of painting technique, such as palette knife painting and painting in a difficult colour palette .

I believe I have improved my life drawing skill from previous times where I have done it, it now feel more natural to me and I find it easier to understand more complex forms.

Where I Struggled:

Looking back I feel I probably could have expanded the ways I progressed my project, I would have liked to do move creative mind mapping for this project and used different surfaces to paint on. This is something I aim to improve upon in the future.

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Painting

As I was trying to develop my exploration of Portrait, I began to focus in on a particular part of my daily routine, which was the time I spent in bed. I had noticed this whilst drawing in the book I made, that a good lot of my day was the time I spent in my bed.

So decided I was going to do a series of paintings of me in bed. I took some reference photos of my bed in my accommodation and worked from that and my thumbnail sketch for this painting.

I began by sketching out my composition in charcoal, which I knew would slightly smudge into the paint.

I then began painting and quickly realised that I wanted to alter the colour of the bed sheets as they were all blending into each other and I didn't particularly enjoy the way it looked.

I decided I was going to change the colours to pink and green and I liked the way this ended up looking.

I was using this painting as a bit of a trial run to a series of three paintings I had planned on doing.

Once I was near the end of the painting I realised that the composition was a bit too closed in and didn't quite look right, I decided to leave it how it was and replan a new painting.

I was still happy with the painting and found it valuable to my process of understanding the over all goal of this project.

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ARTIST RESEARCH

Morag Caister

Whilst painting the bed paintings I wanted to look into artist with a similar technique to me. I had already looked into Lucian Freud and Jenny Saville, I then remembered and artist I had found Morag Caister, she was a former portrait artist of the year.

She uses a specific painting technique where she uses a paint brush with no water and light paint, this creates a kind of dry brushing effect. This style of painting leaves a few gaps in the paint and the paper. I definitely relate this to my work and I find I often leave gaps for the paper to shine out the canvas.

The painting above references the reclined posture which I had been looking into for this project.

I took particular note of the way she paints skin tone as I fine it interesting the way she layers pinks and blues into the overall skin tone.

I really liked this artist and for the bed paintings I found my self referencing a few of the techniques Caister uses particularly when I was getting into a bit of difficulty with the gauche.

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Painting

The Three Bed Paintings.

This is the second painting I did for the bed paintings I had planned. this painting was going to be just of the actual bedroom on its own, without my presence in it, I felt this was needed in the trio and it gave an idea of the space.

Here is the reference photo for the painting.

I knew this was going to be a difficult composition to paint as it had a lot of difficult perspective points in it.

To begin the painting I did a quick sketching of charcoal, which was wrong and out of proportion. I then put a quick wash of orange paint over the sketch and painted the sketch in purple, I was much happier with the sketch, and I then realised it might be harder to paint over the orange and purple paints with gouache.

I painted in the the floor and the desk, I definitely found it had to cover up the orange wash with the paint, so if I were to do this again with gouache I wouldn't put a wash underneath.

I had mentioned in one of the paintings before that I wanted to change the colour of the bedsheet for the colour they are in reality as I feel it makes for an uninteresting image. I decided I was going to use a green and pink colour scheme for the bedsheets.

once again painting the bedsheets I ran into the issue of opacity for the paints, I realised I would not be able to layer pink stripes over the green. to solve this issue I used oil pastel to get that extra detail included.

Overall it's not my favourite painting as I feel I made a few mistakes along the way which I could have avoided. I am proud of the way I portray the perspective.

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Painting

The Three Bed Paintings.

Outside the workshops, I've been working on a series of paintings where I explored my daily routine particularly the time I spent in bed.

I knew I wanted these paintings to be viewed as a triptych so I worked on them simultaneously.

the first painting I did was of the moment before I got into bed.

I began with a rough sketch in brown charcoal, which I knew wouldn't smudge too much with the paint. Which this drawing I wanted to emphasise the shadow behind me as I like the way it added to the composition.

For this painting, I wanted to experiment with using gouache paints, as I'd never used them before. this overall changed the way I usually paint and I found I didn't have as much colour accuracy as I usually would.

I began painting the background and the shadow first, as I knew painting myself would probably be the most difficult part.

I took time to paint the lights and shadows on my t-shirt.

When I started painting the face I realised I was going to have difficulty painting the way I usually do with acrylic paint. the colours weren't as bright and I found it difficult to create definitions. For this particular painting I was taking inspiration from Lucian Freud, who I had done my presentation on.

I was trying to use single brush strokes to create areas of definition.

When I had gotten used to the way the guache paints worked I started to improve the face, I got to a point where it felt done.

I really like how this painting came out and it made me look forward to the other two paintings I had planned for this project.

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Painting

The Three Bed Paintings

This is the last painting of the bed series, it was the last one I painted.

This was the one in which I did the test painting off so I felt a bit more confident going into the painting as I knew the mistakes I hade made previously.

I forgot to take a picture of the sketch for this painting but it was a fairly simple outline of the composition. This painting is painted on brown paper instead of white, as I wanted to experiment with the different surface texture. I found that the paint went onto this paper much smooth than the white paper I had been using for the previous two painting.

It’s probably my favourite of the three paintings as it’s the one that’s done in the style I’m most used to.

I like the bright colour the acrylic paint gave as opposed to gauche paint.

I painted all the paintings in a landscape format as I thought this would bring an added layer of uniformity to the work, which I’m happy I did because they all look apart of a series.

In the end I’m proud of these paintings as they fulfilled the aspect of portrait I was aiming to explore.

I would call these my most finished pieces as I feel it’s the pinnacle of what I was trying to convey whilst explore my daily routine.

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PAINTING Presentation

These are just a few slides for my PowerPoint presentation on Lucian Freud.

I found it interesting to look into the work of Lucian Freud, an artist that I was fond of before this presentation and take a good bit of influence.

I found out things I hadn’t previously know and felt I got to learn a lot more about his technique.

I feel the work I am currently doing is definitely influenced by Freud, especially in the way I am painting skin tone and the effects of gravity on the body.

From looking into Freud's paintings I discovered artist Jenny Savile who is openly inspired by Freud's work.

She also works in painting mostly feminine face faces and bodies lying down as she likes the way gravity affects the skin.

I found looking at both artist's work to be helpful in my paintings for the portraiture project and I will continue to use them for inspiration.

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PAINTING

Book making pt.3

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PAINTING

Book making

I spent today making a book, this is when my project for portraiture began. I had chosen to explore portraiture through my daily routine. When I was talking to Eoin about this idea he suggested making a book to get me started. I agreed and he showed us the process of making a simple glue bound book. He got me an assortment of square sheets of paper that I could spend the morning drawing my daily routine on.

I used a green pen to do these drawings as this would be quick and Eoin advised that paint or watercolour may warp the paper.

These are a few of the pages of the book.

I started with drawing myself in bed then the book gradually progresses into me going to college and then back home.

The quality of drawing was the best but I was only spending about 30 seconds on each page.

After an hour Eoin checked in and said he’d show us how to bind the books and we could finish the drawings once the book was done.

The processed seemed simple enough, as it was just using a machine in the publication room. The machine holds the pages together and then dots glue on the spine of the pages, after that you can add a cover, I chose a purple cover as I felt this would compliment the green pen.

Once this was done Eoin used the electric guillotine to cut the excess and give the book a good finish.

I then completed a few more drawings, as I was getting to the end of my day I found that I was just going to do one of my days,instead of a couple as my pen began to run out and I didn’t want to change colours in the middle so I just decided to end the book for now. I felt it was fitting to leave so many pages blank to represent the days I’ve yet to have.

Through this book I kinda realised that I spend a lot of my day in bed so this became my focus for the paintings I was going to do. These bed drawings are going to be used as my thumbnail sketches.

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PAINTING 18th April

Colour theory workshop

Today I decided I was going to join Sylvia’s workshop in colour theory, I decided I needed to take a step back from the work I was doing on portrait and work on something else for a couple days.

When I went in Sylvia set me up with a 3D space made of coloured paper and cardboard. I put two fruit in the space, these were a banana and an apple.

Sylvia then explained some colour theory such as how the green paper bouncing up onto the banana would create a lime reflection and the blue paper would create a deep purple reflection on the apple. I found this very interesting to look at as it’s not something I was aware of before.

I then used a viewfinder to decide what would be an appropriate composition. With this I prepped my palette and my piece of paper.

I first sketched a very light drawing of the scene, then I began painting the three planes as I knew the shadows would be a bit difficult for me to paint.

I found this painting to be very enjoyable, and something I would like to attempt again. I found it to be a good exercise in colour mixing and painting shadows.

This painting took me more time that most paintings I’ve been doing so far but I really wanted to test myself and get something I was happy with.

Once I was done I took the masking tape off and hung it up on the wall with other peoples.

I found comparing mine to the rest of the wall helpful as I appreciated how other people approached the task.

Overall I really like this exercise as it was something I’m more comfortable doing in general, as I prefer object drawing.

I’m am very happy with how my painting came out in the end.

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PAINTING

This is a painting I originally forgot to post, as I think it’s a failed painting, I really struggled with proportion on this painting.

I used this as a learning block as it’s clear I would eventually keep working towards this kind of theme and composition.

I used this painting as the basis of what way I would like to paint the skin tone so I think that aspect of the painting was probably successful.

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PAINTING 9th of April

Palette knife painting

Today I joined Sylvia’s class for colour theory and palette knife painting. We started with Sylvia drawing the colour wheel and explaining warm and cold colours aswell as complimentary colours.

After this talk, which I found quite informative we were tasked with doing two paintings one with warm and cold colours and the second with complimentary colours.

I set up my easel with a mirror on it and began prepping my area. I then did some thumbnail sketches which gave me a greater idea of my composition

Once I was happy to start I taped a piece of card to the wall and began painting with a palette knife and a blue and red colour.

I found this difficult to get the right detail and to work the colours together without them getting muddy, I feel I could have done better but I was struggling with the knife quite a bit.

I feel there is not much likeness to me or to my thumbnails but I think I did well with the way I handled the paint.

After I finished this painting I moved onto my complimentary colour painting. I decided to use red and green for this. As I struggled with the palette knife on the previous painting I decided to use a paintbrush for this painting.

Unfortunately I also struggled with this painting. I think I took the wrong approach Initially and this impacted the rest of the painting.

I probably didn’t spend as much time as I should have with this painting but I felt there wasn’t much I could do to improve them.

Overall I feel it was a valuable experience and from afar the couloirs standout and work well together. I might try to redo this exercise sometime soon as I think with a different approach I can get an outcome that I am happy with

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PAINTING MINDMAP

This is the mind map I made for the brief of Portrait.

I wanted to flesh out some ideas I had for portraits, I didn’t want to just do different portraits of myself. Through doing my mind map I like certain ideas like using the effects of gravity on my face or painting rooms in my house, I believe these would be portraits of me.

I decided I like the idea of painting my daily routine the best. I have this marked with an x on the mind map.

For this idea I began researching artist who’s style I am inspired by and who paint in a storytelling way, such artists include, Lycian Freud, Frida Kahlo and Mary Cassatt.

I will do further research into this theme and the artists while I progress through this project.

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PAINTING 8th of April

Life drawing workshop

Today I attending the life drawing workshop with Eoin. I set up my easel with a drawing board and newsprint. Jeff the life model began in a standing pose, this is the pose I found most difficult to draw, I feel it was probably my time management that made it so hard for me to draw this pose.

The next pose I found much easier and I employed techniques I had learned in previous life drawing classes to help me solve issues I had with perspective and proportion. On this pose I started paying more attention to details such as his pace and getting specific features right.

At this point I began getting tired of the charcoal and decided to use water soluble crayons to explore different materials. So on the last pose I did three overlapping drawings in different colours to see a progression in my drawings. I felt this was very helpful and I felt more confident going into a charcoal drawing after.

I like how some of the drawings came out and how I was pushed out of my comfort zone with the poses. After the last post I began to get physically tired from standing so I decided it was best to leave it for today. I think next time I will try do more 1 minute drawings to get a bigger bulk of drawings.

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PAINTING 11th of March

This is a portrait I painted with a palette knife. I started the morning in Sylvia’s workshop, we started by prepping and easel with a mirror on it that would frame our faces.

Sylvia then asked us to do about 6 thumbnail drawings of what the paintings composition could be. I struggled with this as I could find a composition that I found interesting. I decided then to use a cardboard view finder to try and identify a good composition. This help me discover that including the mirror and easel would make for a more interesting painting. I decided it would be too complicated to include the viewfinder in the painting and decided that the thumbnail I have marked with an x would be the best one.

After this I began setting up, I mixed my paints in a light dark and mid tone shade, these were all slightly pink in tone.

I taped my paper to the wall and prepped my area for the painting.

I began the painting by filling in my background with my mid tone colour, I noticed how the paint went on with the palette knife.

I then began painting the mirror portion and realised how difficult it was to use the knife, it offered no accuracy. Holding the knife in different positions and angles helped me shape my face however I still feel looking back I didn’t get an accurate depiction of my own face. I like the texture that this was giving the painting.

I went back to paint in the easel to ensure a neatness to the lines. It took me some time but I was was happy with the outcome and I would like to explore this brief further with the use of a palette knife.

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Artist Research

Tracey Emins Bed

Although this piece is not a painting I felt it was important to include it in my research as it relates quite strongly to the way I’m exploring portraiture.

Tracey Emins bed in an installation art work in which Emin quite literally took her bed from her room and placed it in the the Tate. It was a very controversial artwork for its time, with people calling it lazy and gross, but this begs a different question of what is art? People have very different opinions on this question.

The bed has dirty bed sheets, alcohol bottles and cigarette buts placed around the bed.

Emin used this piece as a representation of a particularly tough time in her life where she struggled to get out of bed. She struggled to eat or drink anything that was not alcohol during this period.

This art work for her shortlisted for the turner prize.

I found researching this to be so interesting, it inspired me to look more in depth at the time I spend in my bed.

Near the end of my research I began looking into her paintings and found some works that inspired me as they again depicted that curled up sleeping posture.