Painting Sierra (2)
My painting is finally starting to progress. I’ve completely re painted the main planes of the face and have begun to build up the tonal values around the main contours. In addition, I have blocked in the background and coved the entire canvas in paint. This may not sound like much, but I think it has helped to bring the whole painting together.
Looking at the face relative to the black background has helped me to identify how light and dark my facial colours need to be. Up until this point I have been painting almost blind not knowing how light or dark any colours need to be. But seeing painting as a complete whole, I have started to get an idea of where they need to go.
All that being said am I happy with my painting?
In short I am never happy with my paintings. For one reason or another I always think I can do better than whatever it is I have produced- whatever ‘better’ may mean.
Although in this instance I think it met my objectives. However I doubt whether anyone else when looking at my painting will be able to tell what it’s about or what I was trying to portray. But the same could be said for any painting ever painted- except those illustrated in such a way that it’s obvious. So therefore whether anyone is able to tell or not is irrelevant- which is nice, It takes some of the pressure off.
Concept behind the Painting
Conceptually the painting deals with my friend’s bi polar disorder. Originally I wanted to paint the picture entirely in black and white to exemplify in colour (or tones) the bi polaryness i was trying to convey. However I then decided to use a myriad of bright vivid colours to contrast with the sadness in the photo. I think the colour serves the purpose of representing the manic high that is sometimes overlooked in bi polar disorder. With the image (figure) itself serving to represent the depressive, lethargical side of the illness. I think the dichotomy between the colours and the figure will serve well in realising my intension.
Looking at the image
During a critical review in the first week back one of my peers pointed out something quite interesting about the photograph. The photo itself has many different aspects that could be interpreted as metaphors for bi polar. Firstly the photo was taken in black and white and secondly there is a noticeable contrast between two half’s of the face. The left side of the face looks as if it is being pulled (or clawed- the left hand resembling a claw) resembling pain anger or grief. While the left side of the face remains ‘normal’- calm, content.
I thought these were very good points and offered an extra dimension to the way I thought about my painting.
The only problem is by adding all of the colour would I be over complicating the image?
And by doing so lose all of the bi polar connotations that the original picture contained or will it intensify it meaning through my use of bold conflicting colours?
I think at the moment the former is more true. However I do believe that once the painting is finished my use of colour will help to reinforce the issues I am trying to convey. To do this I think the features of the face need to be clearly defined, particularly the focal points such as the eyes, and cannot be blurred or distorted my an over or incorrect use of colour.
My intension is to build the colours up again starting with the darkest darks and working out. At least then I will have some sort of reference point to base the rest of my structure on.
Painting Sierra
My painting seems as though it is progressing well, although building facial values from abstract colours is more difficult than I anticipated. In theory when painting something in an abstract style implies that the colours used would be arranged in a way that is contrary to the norm, which in turn implies a sense of randomness when applying the colours. However using this method to construct my portrait has given me a painting without any clear structure to the facial features- resulting in a two dimensional, unconvincing messy mess.
In hindsight my problem lies in the tonal value of my colours, when they are abstract this value is not clear and is often contradictory to how ‘light or dark’ I think the colour is. To remedy this I decided to photograph my work and print it out in black and white. By doing this I am left only with the tonal values and it becomes much easier to see where I am going wrong.
I think it is very clear from the photos that that the colours I’ve used are far too dark, dense and monotone in their value. Even though the face is made up of different colours; they all appear to be the same tone. In fairness even looking at the colour photo it is easy to tell that something is very wrong. I think it is much easier to see defects through a photo (whether black and white or colour) due to the fact that you can see the painting as a whole and see how the colours are reacting to one another as a complete picture.
My plan is to repaint the Light values (I say light values- there are no light values- what I actually mean is repaint the ‘extremely dark but were meant to be light values’) and make them substantially lighter. Then I will gradually build up the face tone by tone until the values are correct.
A Chosen Topic
Since I wrote that back in October, a lot has changed in terms of my art- I have completed a dissertation based around the sublime, with particular reference to the size/ scale of an artwork, given a presentation on the work I’ll be producing this year and above all started to produce work based around my chosen topic.
The topic I have chosen to explore is Colour. I say ‘chose to explore’, what I really mean is after looking back at my previous work the topic more or less chose itself.
While it’s true that the artwork I have produced in my past two years has varied greatly aesthetically and conceptually, there has been one underlying constant throughout- my use of, and interset in, colour. Up until this point my use of colour has been secondary to whatever it was I was exploring with my art. It was a bi product of my paintings and not my sole subject. I think my dramatic use of colour was either out of aesthetic necessity (as in my John Frusciante painting) or a subconscious inclination as with my more abstract works.
Whatever it was it seems like the perfect topic to base my next five months of work on. The topic isn’t so broad that its overwhelming nor is it too limited so as to constrain my work to any one thing. I plan to explore all types of colour in as many instances as I can imagine. I want to begin with a large scale portrait of one of close friends. The original image is in black and white, and at first it seemed as if painting the image in black and white (with complementary colours used to create more convincing tones) would be conceptually more appropriate- due to my friends bi polar disorder.
However after thinking about the painting, and what i want to address, it seems more fitting to use as many bright and contrasting colours as possible.
