For my first project about self-image and perception, I finished the pen and ink drawing which will be displayed under the layer of glasses. I chose this style because I think the lines, especially straight lines, will make the distortion of the glasses more emphatic and visible. Each mini-portrait is based off of a picture I took of myself doing a step of my makeup because it is one of the daily rituals I experience where I am directly faced with my image, where I must confront myself in order to be able to alter myself. I guess so was this process of drawing myself four times. On my painting I've bought the canvas and toned it an almost cyan blue. The image I've selected to paint is a plate of typical Costa Rican food. I found it compelling because of its simplicity and the idea that many people's first impression of a culture is their cuisine. I'm on vacation in Europe now though, so everything will have to be put on pause until I return.
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I toned my canvas a red-orange because of the blue of the duck and I really like how it's visible where the grisaille is more translucent and where I've left the orange around the edges. I didn't like the brunaille because of how hard it was to work with. It was very thin and rough, so I don't know how much more helpful it was than the sketch. I like the grisaille a lot more because of how much more precise I can be in details and in values. Overall, I really like how smooth oil paint can be because it's blendable for so long compared to acrylic, and I took home my supplies to try and finish the grisaille so at least I'd have a black and white painting.
After he came out of the kiln, I began painting him. First, I spray-painted it gold (spray-paint fumes :(), and then I began adding the brown translucent coats to tone the gold and make it look like metal. Then, I used the rub and buff to add little highlights throughout the bust. The mushrooms didn't end up working out because of time constraints but I liked that I was able to keep the "flowing out" feeling by having a vine lead out of the main cavity.
This past week has just been hours and hours of carving. The face is complete and so are the ears. I'm carving the back of the head and shoulder-region of the bust now. It's a tedious and time-consuming process but I've gotten the hang of it and know how to work now. My concern now is the thickness of the clay throughout the piece. I accidentally carved to the armature along the collar of the bust and put the clay back, but it has me wondering how thick the clay is throughout the lower half. I'm worried it won't support the weight of the rest of the bust, especially the heavy head. Once I finish carving I'll remove it from the armature.
I shaped the head more in adding clay to the cheekbones and brow-bone and added ears which were really helpful in shaping the jawline and chin. I'm beginning to add more specific features and carving out the geometric appearance of features like the lips and ears. Everything still looks strange because I've purposely added too much clay in areas so I have enough to carve off from, but hopefully that will resolve. From here I only need to add the eyes and carve. I don't think it'll be difficult to remove the clay from the armature but my main concern is time.
I finished the armature. Most of the work was rounding out the head and taping down sharp corners of newspaper. I then covered it with a plastic wrap so I could begin applying the clay. So far I've covered the base with a thin layer of clay. I think my process will be to first apply a thick layer of clay on the entire armature, and then carve away to make the sharp, smooth surfaces.
The bust or "pot" part of the sculpture is going to be made of clay, so I started building an armature. At the end of the week it's the right size but the shape of the head is off. I'll continue building the armature. Meanwhile, I've been researching how to grow mushrooms, how long it takes, and how much material I'd need. I'm comfortable with my final idea so it's just a matter of working on it now.
My final painting ended up being a combination of, in my opinion, the best parts of my two practice paintings. Unintentionally one of my practice paintings was very linear and geometric while the other was more natural and flowing. I liked the zips and intersections from one but I liked the acrylic pour and matte medium layer from the other. My color palette was pretty easy to figure out. For the first layer of the final painting I used the same red housepaint as I did in my first practice painting and applied black paint directly using a large bristly brush while the red was still wet. I liked how it began to establish the diagonal divide of the painting and how the brushstrokes were still visible. When this dries I added the white and gray rectangles with tape. Using a fan brush I first applied the gray layer of housepaint, purposely leaving some chunky texture. Then, I went over parts of it with white paint on a fan brush. The result was an almost scalloped pattern and I liked how the breaks between the rectangles were somewhat natural and rough. I didn’t like how the fan brush splattered little flecks of white and gray everywhere though. When this dried I set the tape boundaries on the painting in preparation for the acrylic pour. I mixed a couple of cups each of the white and dark red color. The acrylic was much harder to control because I was working on such a large canvas and on the ground. It ended up spreading farther than I ended when it dried but I did like how it added to the rough diagonal through the painting. When the acrylic was fully dry and hardened, after about three days, I took the painters tape again and continued the rectangles from the white into the acrylic. I mixed black with matte medium and applied it with the palette knife like i did in my second practice painting. I chose to do this to continue the geometric forms of the painting underneath and to provide a contrast between the glossy acrylic and matte medium. I didn’t know where to end the matte medium though and experimented with just letting it flow, but it left drips that looked bad combined with the acrylic, so I just ended it where the acrylic did. I’m glad the matte medium dried how I intended it to and how it left the texture of the palette knife with it. From here I didn’t really know what to add because the bottom left felt empty so I brought back the dots from the first practice painting. Then, to break up the swirls in the acrylic I gouged out two curves and filled them with the matte medium. They’re not extremely visible when looking at the picture but they’re noticeable in real life. I think I’m satisfied with the outcome of the painting and how the fluid forms interact with the geometric. The edges I painted with a rough coat of the red housepaint and I don’t think I’ll do more. I don’t know what to title it.
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