Beauty
3ft x 4ft Oil Paint on Canvas May 2022 Utilizing similar techniques in composition, I exhibited a similar, yet modernized theme to Da Vinci’s Head of a Woman. Looking onward, this painting serves as a requested change in the future society. I find it important to revolt against the harmful expectations on young women. Exhibiting myself with a detailed face but wild hair that holds no form displays the revolt. Beauty can be seen in pristine and sculpted or wild and untamed. This painting is meant to express unconventional beauty. |
INSPIRATION
PLANNING
the first part of my planning process consisted of detailing key aspects of my reference picture. I started with finding the key details of the reference picture that I wanted to maintain in my own. I did this in red ink. included in this is the extra strands in the hair, having curly or messy hair. I wanted to keep the light coming from the top corner with the very distinct highlights on the face from this light, with also very dark shadows. I also appreciated the horizontal lines as the background and the U neckline of the woman's shirt.
the key details that I wanted to closely replicate in my own final product included dark areas on the corners, random hair strands, a lack of details in the background and in the hair and body. I wanted to replicate the dark strands of hair that held the darkest values of the entire painting. |
another aspect of planning my painting was taking reference pictures for my painting. Taking a video of my moving with different expressions, face tilting, lighting, and other aspects helped me find perfect reference pictures. These two were screenshots from said video. this consisted of my planning because it was apart of the steps that helped me create an idea for my final product. I liked the most left picture because of my head position and lip shape, however, I did not like how open my eyes were. Because of this I used every aspect of the first picture except for the eyes where I planned to try my best at to use the right picture's eyes.
From these two pictures I planned to make small adjustments for the final product. this included changing the neckline of my shirt, making a harder jaw line, and curling the straight strands of my hair |
printing out my reference pictures, i outlines the shadows and highlights to help me better determine where to make the marks on my final piece. i also outlines what strands of hair i wanted to detail on my final product. this planning sketch was a great help when actually painting. it allowed me to determine what the most important highlights and shadows were. while doing this step in my planning, i referenced my inspiration to see how Da Vinci highlighted and shadowed different aspects and well as looking at what strands he detailed. |
PROCESS
on the left are the reference picture that I planned to use for the eyes of my final product. this was the first step in my process, after finding my inspiration and reference pictures. taking my reference pictures I turned them monochromatic, turned up the contrast, highlights, and black point of my reference pictures. I then added a grid to help me produce my final painting. I made the grid one inch by one inch. this created 36x48 inch squares. after adding the grid I numbered the squared in red marks for the real reference.
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after adding a grid and numbering it over the wash, I began referencing my pictures and sketching them out on my canvas. this is seen on the right. I did my best to make it as accurate as I could, adding lines to help me later with blending the shadows and highlights. I also made the adjustments I detailed in my planning stage such as the collar of my shirt, my jaw line, the eyes, and my hair strands.
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after adding grids to my reference pictures, I started on my canvas. It was a 3 foot by 4 foot canvas. I added a wash to the canvas first, mixing brown and white acrylic paint. I watered this paint down to make it less opaque.
after the wash I added a grid over the brown paint, making 1 inch by 1 inch squares, 36 across and 48 down. I added the numbers on the edge squares to help me reference my picture much better. |
the next step in my process was mixing the paints. I used four different paints to achieve the perfect hues of brown. the four were titanium white, raw umber, raw sienna, and yellow ochre. the lighted values in the painting, the highlights, consisted of a small amount of raw sienna and yellow ochre and more majorly titanium white to achieve a very light brown hue. the darkest value that I created to use for the shadows and hair strands consisted of a majority of raw umber, a small amount of raw sienna, and titanium white. the medium value consisted of a majority of raw sienna and small amount of the other three colors combined.
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the next step in my process was adding the highlights to my canvas. I decided that it would be best to add the lightest values first so that my linseed oil paint thinner would not get dark and change the value of my highlights. I added the highlights to the sections that were the lightest on my reference picture, also referencing my inspiration picture to determine what lighting I would need to change to better achieve a similar painting. in the picture on the left you can see where the highlights are, the extremely light values. I also began adding the slightly darker values to bein blending the shadows and the highlights.
I decided that I the rest of the smaller highlights were not as light in value which helped me determine that they would be added at later time when I as adding slightly darker values. The picture on the left demonstrates an aspect of my process that is the unfinished piece with the first bit of oil paint. I used linseed oil to thin the oil paint out. I also used this paint thinner to slow down the drying of the paint. this helped me prolong my painting. this is why i chose oil paint over acrylic. I knew that I would not be able to finish the entire painting in one sitting so I used the pain thinner to keep the oil paint wet and adjustable for longer. |
after adding the majority of the highlights on the face, I went to detail different aspects of the face to begin producing shadows. I did my best to contour the nose and blend the shadows with the highlights. I struggled with the shadows and highlights above the left eye and around the nose mostly. i originally viewed that shadows on the cheek to be easiest to create (although the picture on the left does not provide an accurate representation of the actual color of the painting), however I realized after finishing that it was a little off.
connecting this stage of the process with my inspiration I do believe that the highlights contrasted with the shadows hold a much high difference in value compared to Da Vinci's, however, this is my own interpretation and how I wanted to produce my self portrait. The photo on the right is a close up the the right eye. it demonstrates that blending that was necessary for the eyelid and under eye, both areas that held little to no difficulties for me which I was grateful for. |
after completing the face to the best of my abilities, I went into detailing the background. over the acrylic wash, I added a thinned out layer of raw sienna mixed with a small amount of titanium white. after this, I created a mixture of mainly titanium white with a small amount of raw sienna to produce a much lighter valued brown hue. this hue was then used to produce similar stripes compared to my inspiration. Da Vinci's painting was done on wood and using a technique where i added thick horizontal lines to be blended and thinned out allowed me to closely achieve a similar background to my inspiration.
the picture on the right shows the lines before I blended them out. I added more as I saw needed to achieve random horizontal lines that varied in value. |
the next step in my process, after completing the background, was to add the sketchy looking hair. I added a few strands to outline the different curves of my bun on top of my head as well as the few messy strands below the bun. I also added my short baby hairs at my part shown in the bottom left picture.
the strands that I added below the face were much darker valued compared to the top of my head. I did this to accentuate the messy look and allow the viewer's eye to focus on the face first rather than the messy strands of hair to fully understand the message this is similar to how Da Vinci created the messy looking hair to his portrait. although the values in the face and the hair were much closer and slightly lighter, however, I wanted to create darker values contrasted with lighter values throughout the piece. overall, the hair and face was meant to contrast against the background as well. this was the last step in my process. other than going over the entire painting again to blend out places I missed or messed up. |
CRITIQUE
the comparison between these two pieces is clear in many ways. the face looks pristine and soft, blended highlights and shadows. the lines in the hair are thin and thick, messy, and curly/wavy. the color scheme is another similarity seen in the two pieces. different values of a yellowish brown are used.
the differences are also clear. the differences are due to the artistic style. while Da Vinci did use a high level of contrast in his painting, I wanted to created an extremely harsh contrast between the highlights and shadows. another difference is seen in the canvas size. Da Vinci's is much more square whereas my painting is a 3:4 ratio. my purpose of this change was to focus on my face which is longer rather than having my hair much farther away. |
REFLECTION
overall, I am very happy with this painting. I believe that it resembles myself very closely, achieving my goal to be a self portrait. I created this piece in my own style while using da Vinci's "head of a woman" as inspiration. my biggest struggle was shading the shadows and highlight. my least favorite portion of this piece is the left cheek. although it looks much better blended in person, there is a harsh contrast between the right and left side of the cheek. along with this, the shadow goes too far towards the nose. in the reference picture it was much more left, however, i messed up the proportions. other than this, I believe that my painting is well done. it granted me good experience with oil painting. for my first time every using oil paint, i am very happy with the final product.
overall, I am very happy with this painting. I believe that it resembles myself very closely, achieving my goal to be a self portrait. I created this piece in my own style while using da Vinci's "head of a woman" as inspiration. my biggest struggle was shading the shadows and highlight. my least favorite portion of this piece is the left cheek. although it looks much better blended in person, there is a harsh contrast between the right and left side of the cheek. along with this, the shadow goes too far towards the nose. in the reference picture it was much more left, however, i messed up the proportions. other than this, I believe that my painting is well done. it granted me good experience with oil painting. for my first time every using oil paint, i am very happy with the final product.
CONNECTION TO THE ACT
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration upon your artwork
my own painting very closely resembles my inspiration. the same facial expression and placement along with a very similar monochromatic brown use connects the two. along with this, the theme/message behind the two paintings are connected as well. this is the idea of destructing and contrasting against the social norms and expectations of women in today's society as well as the social norms and expectations of women at Leonardo Da Vinci's time.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Leonardo Da Vinci created his painting to invoke change at the time. He wanted to change the gender stereotypes and norms. this was his overall approach to the painting I chose for my inspiration. I appreciated this idea and theme of this because I agree with the actions he attempted to portray through his painting
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration
I have concluded that more needs to be done to change social constructs of gender roles, dynamics, and stereotypes. Da Vinci had an very clear idea with his painting and my goal is continue this idea and spread it from his culture to my own.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspiration research?
the central idea and theme around Da Vinci's "Head of a Woman" was surrounded around changing gender norms and generalizations. he wanted to showcase that although women can be beautiful, perfect, soft, pristine, they can also be wild and messy. he wanted to contrast the two ideas.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the bases of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
i concluded my research with the inference that gender stereotypes, specifically around women, must be changed. i determined that art can showcase political and societal issues and promote change.
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration upon your artwork
my own painting very closely resembles my inspiration. the same facial expression and placement along with a very similar monochromatic brown use connects the two. along with this, the theme/message behind the two paintings are connected as well. this is the idea of destructing and contrasting against the social norms and expectations of women in today's society as well as the social norms and expectations of women at Leonardo Da Vinci's time.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Leonardo Da Vinci created his painting to invoke change at the time. He wanted to change the gender stereotypes and norms. this was his overall approach to the painting I chose for my inspiration. I appreciated this idea and theme of this because I agree with the actions he attempted to portray through his painting
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration
I have concluded that more needs to be done to change social constructs of gender roles, dynamics, and stereotypes. Da Vinci had an very clear idea with his painting and my goal is continue this idea and spread it from his culture to my own.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspiration research?
the central idea and theme around Da Vinci's "Head of a Woman" was surrounded around changing gender norms and generalizations. he wanted to showcase that although women can be beautiful, perfect, soft, pristine, they can also be wild and messy. he wanted to contrast the two ideas.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the bases of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
i concluded my research with the inference that gender stereotypes, specifically around women, must be changed. i determined that art can showcase political and societal issues and promote change.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GoogleArt&Cultures. “Leonardo Da Vinci - Google Arts & Culture.” Leonardo Da Vinci, Google, 2020, https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/leonardo-da-vinci
/m04lg6?categoryid=artist.
Nydam, Rebekah. “An Interpretation of 'La Scapigliata' by Leonardo Da Vinci.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 17 Apr. 2011, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Leonardo-Da-Vinci-La-Scapigliata.
GoogleArt&Cultures. “Leonardo Da Vinci - Google Arts & Culture.” Leonardo Da Vinci, Google, 2020, https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/leonardo-da-vinci
/m04lg6?categoryid=artist.
Nydam, Rebekah. “An Interpretation of 'La Scapigliata' by Leonardo Da Vinci.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 17 Apr. 2011, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Leonardo-Da-Vinci-La-Scapigliata.