Artist Emulation: Edward Hopper

I chose Edward Hopper as my artist to emulate. Hopper's work revolved around painting iconic scenes and places during his lifetime. He also liked to incorporate subjects into his work that would connect the painting and unify it. One of his main subjects was his wife whom he often used for inspiration. Hopper enjoyed taking complex scenes and simplyfing them. He used this technique in many of his paintings, especially when attepting to capture something iconic from his generation. When capturing a scene, Hopper found his way to artistically communicate in the use of signs. The signs helped Hopper to establish what the feeling and the action were supposed to be in his work.
Hopper had a very specific process routines. He would start by drawing detailed sketches with pencil and pen. Then he would move on to etchings and working with color. Only then would he move on to his oil paintings. Though most of Hopper's work was realistic, he still managed to paint the world the way he saw it. Lastly, Hopper always worked dark to light. He would set the tone with the darker colors before he thought about moving on.

Here are some examples of Hopper's work:

Landscape Painting

My work shows original mark making through the layering and under painting. I used many different layers of paint, usually switching up the mark making from thick to thin or short to even shorter depending on the area of focus. Stylistically, i like to use certain areas of my piece to draw in a viewer. This technique shows up in my painting towards the front with the bush and the path leading into the piece. Color choices were another important aspect to this painting. I spent a lot of time mixing and creating color that matched my strip that I had to emulate. I used lots of patches of color, adding in strong colors to bring out certain parts of the painting.
I realized during this project that painting is much harder than it seems. Mixing colors and finding the right textures took lots of time and effort, but it really does help you in the end. Even mark making adds a lot to a piece. Depending on the stroke of your brush, you can create a flow to your painting.
I think that my canvas is pretty well unified. The separate marks at each of the "sections" of my painting actually attract each other and bring each other out. Having specific areas that break the normality of the piece is another helpful aspect. Especially the bush that creates a different point of view and perspective. I tried to put a much detail as I could where it was needed. I found that mixing colors on the tip of my brush and experimenting with that helped a lot.
I feel very comfortable as a painter. Now that I am more at ease with mixing colors, mark making and mistakes (because I can always go back over my work) I can fully experiment with the medium. I personally believe that there are no limitations to what I or even anyone can do because art is about experimenting with every aspect of your medium. Hopefully in the future I can continue to work on my paintings by switching up the style in which I paint and the style of that which I am painting.


My painting:

Original painting:

Final Blog Post

My last silhouette ink painting left more room for creativity. Unlike my previous drawings and paintings so far this year, I had no specific shape I had to follow or an object that I had to replicate exactly. For drawing my silhouettes, I used two trees. Because of these subjects I had more room to express and abstractly think and draw. Working with positive and negative space as well as light versus dark was a skill that I greatly improved upon in the painting. I tried to focus on the movement of the objects and use their "weight" to properly place them. My process and "craft" also improved in this painting. I found that taking my time and really exploring and expanding on my option for the painting helped a lot. I think that I am able to create shapes and figures that I find interesting, but my composition of them hasn't quite been where I would like. In future projects I plan on expanding in my view and perception of composition to fully enhance my paintings and drawings.

Interim Blog Post

My first two silhouette ink paintings were focused on a concrete, graspable subject. The car that I used created an interesting approach to size. I looked at these paintings through the lens of size and motion. Also in the second painting I worked in my use of space and more interesting composition. The first painting was more experimental to see what I resonated with me and to figure out how I wanted to move on. The second painting I worked on using more space. I thought that the one larger, separated car stood out nicely in contrast to the smaller, more bunched and gridlocked cars. When I was done and was able to observe the finished project, I realized that the bunched cars came out very symmetrical. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, I just personally didn't like it much.

For continuing on in this project, I would like to bring more of a sense of abstraction to my next painting(s). Also, keeping with the idea of movement and experimenting with that. Composition is another focus point of mine. I tend to take a short time with composition which I would like to change. I believe that composition is one of the most important ideas in any sort of art. Making a composition that I am happy with and demonstrates a good use of space with the movement of my drawings is my overall goal for the rest of this project.

Original Sketches

my crafting drastically improved during this project. At the beginning a didn't have a strong sense of what made a good composition, but by the end I was editing my own drawings and giving myself feedback. I still have to work on a lot but specifically using space whether is is placing my drawing or figuring out the relative size of it. Proportions are sometimes difficult for me to capture because I'm worried about simply making the drawing "look good". I can also work on drawing fluid lines. Sometimes I tend to make less smooth, choppy lines which could be eliminated when they aren't needed. Capturing the full object also proved to be difficult for me. I had some trouble figuring out how to represent the three dimensionality of my object. I tried to accomplish this using shading and shadow which helped but still weren't enough. The painting I made somewhat illustrates three dimensionality but that is the closest I got.
I think as an artists, my strength is in small more precise lines rather than larger fluid ones. This is because sometimes I get too caught up in making it "perfect".