Human vs Nature
24 x 48 in Acrylic paint on canvas December 2021 this painting was created to demonstrate the dualism between human and nature. this piece was a test to my painting skills, challenging me to be able to produce a diptych that had a meaning behind it. using my two different artist inspirations. i did a contrasting piece between the colorful background of the nature contrasting with the dark, colorless, human figure. one side of the canvas is pure untouched nature while the other is darkened by the human presence. |
INSPIRATION
Beginning this project I knew that a diptych would require two canvases to be connected and related to one another. After going through some ideas of what I could do for this painting, I began looking into some paintings. I knew that I wanted to have a landscape of something that would resemble happiness and joy. While looking through different impressionist artists I found Yeoun Lee's work. I viewed her "Meadow" to be a symbol of happiness and cheer seen in nature. Lee believes that our life contains happy joyful moments. She explains that she paints from her imagination; painting what she feels at the given time. This process is what I believe exhibits the positive emotions in this specific piece so well. She uses this process to "heal herself" by letting go of her worries. Her process is exactly what I wanted to demonstrate through my diptych. I liked how she showed her emotions and mood through nature with a bright blue sky shining down on the grass and flower meadow. Along with this, the striking colors in the front of the painting resemble the mood as well. The contrast of the light greens in the back to middle of the painting to the darker but more striking colors nearing the front and the |
darker greens in the grass in the front enhances the lighter aspects of the painting as well as the striking warm colors in the front. This amplifies the theme and mood in the piece holistically.
The key features in this specific piece of hers that I was inspired by were the bright colors representing the flowers in the field, demonstrating the happy, joyful, and optimistic mood. Along with this, the flowers and the grass were substantial aspects of the piece that I was inspired by, specifically the way in which Lee painted them. This was done in an impressionist style with her use of thin yet visible paint strokes. I appreciate the impressionist method for the reason that I wanted this diptych to be very obvious, in theme and mood and movements. I see impressionism to often show a very clear theme or mood especially Lee's impressionist work. as well as the theme or mood, the brushstrokes are visible which I believe simply adds to the idea of happiness or joy in this situation. small little brush strokes can represent joy in the form of energetic happiness. |
After looking into the impressionistic style of Yeoun Lee, I began searching for a realist artist that could inspire me to portray a dark figure on the left canvas. Similar to Claus Word's work, I want to simply shade a figure's body to portray the body language and key aspects that will help resemble the desired mood and contrast. The reason I used Clause Word as inspiration was that he paints an array of things with the same technique or style. his use of extreme realism and black and white monochromatic paintings hold so much details and depth they are inspiring and awe striking. he uses the monochromatic style to symbolize eternal dualism. I found this idea of eternal or natural dualism to be very interesting. this could be found in many different situations such as life and death, black and white, man and woman, human and nature, happy and sad, light and darkness. this list could go on and on and this idea interested me greatly. I looked throughout his collections and found many of them to be very inspirational. his fine and extreme detail shows to help move his theme and mood forward.
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His series ‘The Sound of Freedom’ is a set of diptychs that shows the dualism between men and women. This series was specifically inspirational for me for a number of reasons. The first being the way he paints the bodies in these diptychs; with extreme body language and details. Another inspirational aspect of this series was the amount of details in the human body form he was able to produce with only a gray scale. I used this sense of black and white detail in my human figure for my painting. I also used his idea of eternal dualism in my diptych as well, however, in a slightly different manner. Instead of doing a physical man or woman, life or death sort of dualism, I created dualism of emotions. I portrayed the dualism of joy and sorrow. This dualism concept was also seen through the human and nature as well as through impressionism and realism. Word's dualism, realistic style, and monochromatic paints all greatly inspired my Dark in Color.
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PLANNING
Immediately after learning what a diptych is, I began thinking of ideas on what I could create in a diptych style. knowing that it would be in two parts, i thought about how i could do one concept in different perspectives. I wondered if I could create two paintings of the same model but in different monochromatic colors. my main idea was creating two paintings with contrasting concepts such as rich and poor, life and death, happy and sad. I sketched out different ideas, thinking about themes such as mental health, reality vs imaginations. I even thought about doing contrasting styles or techniques of painting this early in my planning phase. During my planning phase I looked into some inspiration, settling on impressionism as my background with a person or figure as the focal point. This point of my planning phase is seen in the right most photo of my sketchbook. I came up with different ideas for the figure or person on top of the landscape. |
Once I figured out the general concept of my painting, I began sketching out a plan for the actual final product. I added little detail but gave explanations. I identified the separate layers as well as noted that the bottom layers would be darker hues of striking colors. I planned to have the darkest green in the first layers of grass with it getting lighter and lighter towards the middle of the painting, being the lightest at the horizon. In addition to the impressionist landscape for a background, I planned for there to be a dark, solemn, sadly emotive figure in the center of the left canvas. At this point, I planned to paint the figure with a gray scale ranging all the way from black to white. I added a gradient scale for two purposes. The first one was to demonstrate that the bottom of the painting would be darker hues than the horizon. This is why the gradient scale begins at the bottom of the painting and reaches up til the horizon. The second purpose was to demonstrate the scale of gray that the figure will be painted with. After completing each aspect of this page in my sketchbook, my planning phase was completed.
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PROCESS
Starting out with these paintings, I first wanted to make a plan for what I wanted to create. After finding Yeoun Lee and Claus Word, I was able to use aspects of their work to produce an idea for my own diptych. I wanted to contrast the impressionism with hyper realism to better contrast the themes in the painting. i was picturing that the dark figure would represent sadness or opposite emotions or moods to happy and joy. This would be done by painting this figure with no color in a very emotive stance. using the body language and color to represent the contrasting mood of the figure. After coming up with an idea I began planning how this would get done. I sketched out a plan for my painting as a whole as well as sketched out an outline of what the figure could look like, see to the right. This sketch was done after taking pictures of myself in different emotive poses. In this stage of my process, I tried to resemble sadness and sorrow to achieve my desired theme. I only took the posing pictures to give myself an idea of body language. I did not plan on using the shape of my body specifically because I did not intend on this to be a self reflective painting. In the end of this stage, I decided to base my figure off of the left stance more. |
The next step in my process was starting on my canvases. I added a layer of watered down green acrylic paint to both of my canvases. I did this to add a green undertone to my painting as well as to make sure that no white canvas showed through the paint in the final product. After adding a wash coat to both canvases, I then added a grid. This helped me later have a better idea as to how to have the layout of my painting. I did a 1 inch by 1 inch grid for the canvases, ending up with over 1 thousand squares across the two canvases. The next step in my process was to sketch out the layout of the meadow. I drew in the different layers, even marking what colors I wanted to go in each layer. The outline I sketched was a broad idea because I knew the impressionist style would take me away and I would end up with a more unplanned product.
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CRITIQUE
COMPARE: comparisons seen in the background of the piece as well as Yeoun Lee's work are vast. they include the similar color choice as well as the similar placing and layers. In both, the front layers are slightly darker and larger, going lighter and smaller throughout the painting. Along with the comparisons in the first aspect of the painting, the second aspect, being the figure, shows many similar qualities as well, such as the black and white hues used to paint the figures as well as the emotive body language. CONTRAST: differences seen in both aspects of the painting is the realistic quality. In my painting, the landscape and the figure are not painted with enough skill or detail to efficiently resemble a realistic landscape or figure. Along with this, the type of paint is different in Clause Word's paintings compared to mine. I used acrylic paint where she used oil. |
REFLECTION
being very inexperience in this medium, I was unfortunately unable to meet my standards. I hoped to resemble a landscape slightly more realistically than I was able to. along with this my "realistic" figure did not turn out looking realistic in the end. the piece over all does not match my inspiration. I believe that if I had done more experimentation I would have been able to reach my goals and standards for this project. The entire process was also not excellent. It took me a very long time to decide on an idea, and when I finally did, I had trouble finding inspiration. I changed my idea multiple times during my planning which I believe stunted my ability to create my desired product. I was able to acquire new techniques and skills with acrylic paints, however, I did not produce acceptable work in the end. I hope to do better in my next painting, using what I learned from this one.
being very inexperience in this medium, I was unfortunately unable to meet my standards. I hoped to resemble a landscape slightly more realistically than I was able to. along with this my "realistic" figure did not turn out looking realistic in the end. the piece over all does not match my inspiration. I believe that if I had done more experimentation I would have been able to reach my goals and standards for this project. The entire process was also not excellent. It took me a very long time to decide on an idea, and when I finally did, I had trouble finding inspiration. I changed my idea multiple times during my planning which I believe stunted my ability to create my desired product. I was able to acquire new techniques and skills with acrylic paints, however, I did not produce acceptable work in the end. I hope to do better in my next painting, using what I learned from this one.
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
The landscape background is very similar to Yeoun Lee's "Meadow". This is seen in the similar color choice as well as the similar placing and layers. along with the background, the use of black and white hues in the figure was a direct effect from Claus Word's work.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The way that I produced this piece was by using two different points of views and topics. The first one resembled the landscape, demonstrating the value of nature in expressing emotions. The colorful and bright landscape demonstrated happiness and joy. In comparison, the black figure demonstrated sorrow and sadness through the lack of color as well as through the body language. Both of these themes were topics of my inspiration.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration
The main generalization and conclusion I have discovered after completing this project, primarily the research portion, is that dualism is an everyday concept. Dualism is seen throughout everyone's lives every day. this is an aspect of life that everyone deals with, it can be difficult at times to understand but other times it can be quite simple
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspiration research?
dualism of emotions. the happiness and joy of nature in the background coexisting with the sorrow figure in a small portion of the painting.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the bases of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that both artists that I used as my inspiration were very experienced. I was not able to find any dates, however, based on their skill set and amount of work created, I can infer that they have been artists for a long while.
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration upon your artwork
The landscape background is very similar to Yeoun Lee's "Meadow". This is seen in the similar color choice as well as the similar placing and layers. along with the background, the use of black and white hues in the figure was a direct effect from Claus Word's work.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The way that I produced this piece was by using two different points of views and topics. The first one resembled the landscape, demonstrating the value of nature in expressing emotions. The colorful and bright landscape demonstrated happiness and joy. In comparison, the black figure demonstrated sorrow and sadness through the lack of color as well as through the body language. Both of these themes were topics of my inspiration.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration
The main generalization and conclusion I have discovered after completing this project, primarily the research portion, is that dualism is an everyday concept. Dualism is seen throughout everyone's lives every day. this is an aspect of life that everyone deals with, it can be difficult at times to understand but other times it can be quite simple
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspiration research?
dualism of emotions. the happiness and joy of nature in the background coexisting with the sorrow figure in a small portion of the painting.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the bases of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that both artists that I used as my inspiration were very experienced. I was not able to find any dates, however, based on their skill set and amount of work created, I can infer that they have been artists for a long while.
BIBLIOGRAPHY